Jake paid his fine with a ten-dollar bill grandfather had given him for that purpose. But when the Shimerdas found that Jake sold his pig in town that day, Ambrosch worked it out in his shrewd head that Jake had to sell his pig to pay his fine. This theory afforded the Shimerdas great satisfaction, apparently. For weeks afterward, whenever Jake and I met Antonia on her way to the post-office, or going along the road with her work-team, she would clap her hands and call to us in a spiteful, crowing voice:
‘Jake-y, Jake-y, sell the pig and pay the slap!’
Otto pretended not to be surprised at Antonia’s behaviour. He only lifted his brows and said, ‘You can’t tell me anything new about a Czech; I’m an Austrian.’
Grandfather was never a party to what Jake called our feud with the Shimerdas.
