Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/172

 He cried: “To that rock power has been given above me! I wish I were that rock!”

And there came an angel from heaven and said: “Be it unto thee as thou hast said!”

And he a rock, and moved not when the sun shone, nor when it rained.

And there came a man with a mattock and a pickaxe and a heavy hammer, and he hewed stones out of the rock.

And the rock said: “What is this, that the man has power over me, and can hew stones out of my bosom?” And he was not contented.

He cried: “I am weaker than this one I wish I were this man!”

And there came an angel from heaven, and said: “Be it unto thee as thou hast said!”

And he was a stone-cutter. And he hewed stones from the rock, with hard labour, and he laboured very heavily for slender wages, and he was contented.

“Most charming,” exclaimed Duclari, “but now you still owe us the proof that little Oopi ought to have been imponderable.”

“No, I never promised you that proof! I have only wished to tell you how I made her acquaintance. When my story was finished, I asked:

And you, Oopi, what would you choose, if an angel from heaven came to ask you what you most wished?’

Surely, Sir, I should pray that he might take me to heaven.

“Isn’t that beautifully sweet?” asked Tine, turning to her guests, who perhaps thought it very absurd

Havelaar rose, and wiped something from his forehead.