Page:Sologub Sweet Scented Name.djvu/169



HERE was in the town a cobbled roadway. A wheel of a passing cart loosened one of the stones. The stone said to himself, "Why should I lie here close packed with others of my kind? I will live separately."

A boy came along and picked up the cobble-stone.

Thought the stone to himself: "I wanted to travel and I travel. I only had to wish sufficiently strongly."

The boy threw the stone at a house. Thought the stone: "I wish to fly and I fly. It's quite simple—I just willed it."

Bang went the stone against the window-glass. The glass broke and in doing so cried out:

"Oh, you scoundrel! What are you doing?"

But the stone replied:

"You'd have done better to get out of the way. I don't like people getting in my