The Weird and the Wonderful CLXXXIII: Grim Horizons by Josef Karel Šlejhar

Today we return to my homeland to bring you the work of Chemist, ceramics plant manager and life long pessimist, Josef Karel Šlejhar, whose life in the country only cemented his belief the countryside is quite literally hell incarnate and that there is nothing pleasant about it, beyond drudgery, death, hate, envy, greed, pettiness, ungratefulness and spite.
The first story concerns what occured when two beggars met beneath a tottering old cross representing the Calvary, the second is a tale of greed, sadism, regret and hopeless desire for absolution and the last story concerns age, loss and hopeless longing.
Images are courtesy of Wikipedia, commons.wikimedia.org and www.databazeknih.cz and are used under the principles of fair use.