Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/253

 After this, the very next time Bartos delved a new grave, she laid herself in it and slept there as she said “Like Maminka.” From that time she slept in every grave as soon as it was delved, if it was not winter time and if it did not rain. When any one died she consoled herself with the idea that she and Bartos would dig a new grave, and then that she could once more sleep in one. On the whole a funeral was a considerable source of pleasure to her. She saw plenty of people, she saw the priests, then she heard them sing and weep and pray. These funeral prayers became her own morning and evening prayers, these hymns were her hymns, and from the people whom she saw there she formed her notions about human beings, and about the great world. And so she always looked forward to a new funeral, because it was something novel.

She looked forward to it also because she heard new hymn tunes, and when the burial service was over she sang what she had heard until the next funeral, which perhaps brought her a fresh supply of hymns. However as she heard at every funeral “odpocinte v pokoijipokoji [sic] verne dusicky,” (Rest in peace ye faithful spirits), this hymn became her favourite. She did not know what these “verne dusicky” (faithful spirits) were, but putting two and two together in her head she had a notion that they were those who slept in the graves. Whenever she laid herself down to sleep, she said to herself