The Lipce sawmill is both a working site on the river and a point where economic necessity and personal conflict meet. In winter, the Miller hires Antek to work among the log piles, with Mateusz directing the crew. When a quarrel between the two men turns violent, the mill’s riverbank becomes the scene of an assault; the next morning, the need to keep the sawmill running gives Antek a new position of authority.

Setting and Machinery

The sawmill stands beside the mill and draws power from the river. Its machinery is described through sound and motion: the mill clatters, water churns beneath the wheels, and the saws rasp steadily through the work. Ice mats the water below in green, tangled-looking clumps, making the river an active part of the industrial scene rather than a distant backdrop.

The sawmill itself is raised above the river on four stout pillars. It has no side walls, so light passes directly through the structure, while the reed roof rests on posts that sometimes jiggle under the force of the water. The open construction places workers, timber, machinery, and river in close proximity. A yard crowded with logs and a snow-covered forecourt strewn with shavings extend the work beyond the saw deck.

Work and Supervision

The Miller hires Antek and leaves him among the logs while he goes to find Mateusz, who is arranging wood and setting the saws in motion. Before departing, the Miller assigns Mateusz responsibility for directing the work in his place. Mateusz’s duties range across the whole operation: he prepares logs, adjusts the water flow, opens sluices, clamps timber to sawhorses, measures, calls out instructions, and urges the workers onward.

The work is physically demanding and continuous. A short break does not spare Antek from returning to the crew, and the cold helps drive the workers to move briskly. Mateusz, meanwhile, is shown repeatedly crossing between the saw deck, the mill, and the workers in the yard. His visible energy and command of the tasks establish him as the person actually coordinating the operation while the Miller is away.

The sawmill also figures in the household economy beyond the yard. Hanka says she is taking Mateusz some supper, and the conversation identifies his workplace as the sawmill beside the mill, where work has already extended into the evenings. The detail connects the mill’s labor schedule to the care and provision carried out outside the workplace.

The Riverbank Assault

The sawmill’s working space becomes the setting for a sudden personal confrontation. After a dispute involving Mateusz’s claim to have been in Jagna’s storeroom and his account of her complaints about Boryna, Antek crosses the threshold and attacks him. Antek seizes Mateusz by the collar and throat, carries him behind the mill to the fenced edge of the river, and throws him into the water with such force that four pickets break.

The river is fast and deep at that point. People rush to pull Mateusz out; he is unconscious, struggles to recover, and continues fainting and vomiting blood at the Miller’s house. The severity of his condition leads the villagers to send for the priest, and they fear he may not survive the night. The assault makes the geography of the sawmill consequential: the river that powers the machinery is also the immediate danger into which Antek casts his rival.

Antek, by contrast, remains by the fire after Mateusz is carried away, warming his hands and talking with Franek. He then announces that anyone else who attacks or offends him will meet the same or worse. The calmness of this gesture contrasts with the violence outside and makes the mill yard a public setting for his threat as well as a workplace.

Work Resumes

Antek expects to be dismissed and does not go to work the next morning. Instead, the Miller comes to him after breakfast and says that the dispute with Mateusz is his own affair, while the mill cannot remain idle until Mateusz recovers. He offers Antek four zlotys and dinner to direct the work. Antek refuses that rate and demands the same as Mateusz, insisting that he can run the operation just as well. The Miller haggles, then agrees and takes him back to the sawmill.

The episode thus turns violence into a change in the workplace’s chain of command. Mateusz’s injury leaves a gap in supervision; the Miller’s need to keep production going gives Antek leverage, and Antek converts that leverage into equal pay with the man he attacked. The Lipce sawmill is not merely where the quarrel occurs: its machinery and continuing work shape the consequences, allowing labor’s immediate demands to override the expectation that the assault will end Antek’s employment.