They watching the number of weights Frau Balek had to throw on the scale befor the swinging pointer came to the rest exactly over the black line, that thin line of justice which had to be redrawn every year.
When my grandfather's parents had gone out as small children to gather mushrooms and sell them in order that they might season the meat of the rich people of Prague or be backed into game pies, it had never occurred to anyone to break this law.
what they had spun could be measured by the yard.