Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/265

 “Well, then, you may see about the funeral as well, good gossip, the mayor”, said the peasant woman, and burst into tears. They were tears of anger, of impotence, and of little-mindedness.

“I will see about it, my good gossip, I will see about it”, said the mayor; went to the corpse, took its measure, then took Frank by the hand, gave him his measure, and said, “Go, little son of mine, to the grave-digger, that he may delve a grave for thy grandfather according to this measure.”

Frank took the measure, and sped like the foam, and the mayor and his witnesses discharged their duties with respect to Loyka’s personalty.

N Frishets they had a chapel, near which lay the old burial-ground, but they had long ceased to bury the dead in it. The burial-ground for the present defunct was distant about a quarter of an hour’s journey from the village, and almost in a deserted spot.

From Frishets to the west trended a low hill for a distance of two miles; it was tillage-land on both its slopes and divided into fields, while along the ridge of the hill itself ran a carriage road. Half-way along the hill and near the carriage-road was the burial-ground of the union—that is to say, Frishets and several other villages.

Four lofty walls, built in a quadrangle and whitewashed, proclaimed from a distance that they were the walls of a cemetery. High aloft and stretching to heaven in the centre of these four walls a ruddy-painted cross on which hung a white-metal figure of the Christus confirmed it, while several lesser crosses which only just managed to peer into the neighbouring district with their summits ranged along the wall, equally bore witness to the fact. If a dead man could have risen from the grave, he would only have needed to sit astride the cemetery wall and he would have seen his native village and the very house in which he was born, from whatever parish he had been brought hither. Contrariwise, the villagers of any parish could see at a glance the dwelling-place of their dead, and visit them in memory.

Moreover, in the cemetery were two modest buildings placed side by side. One with three grated windows; and in that dwelt the grave-digger. One with a single small window without any