Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/346

 Once Staza said to Frank “Now that you lead me into the fields and woodlands, I sing but seldom among the graves at home. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I am thinking how I may be with thee. Often and often I have begun to sing, but then it has occurred to me that I would far sooner be with thee, and that it would be better than singing. Once I wished to sing at maminka’s grave, and just then I heard thy call at the wicket gate, and I went just as though thou had’st been maminka.” Then said Frank “and do you know why I so continually run from place to place?”

“I do not know.”

“I am seeking at all times where thou would’st like to be, and when I have found a place I show it thee, and then I cease to rove abroad. But I know that thou would’st not be happy at our house, and therefore I do not lead thee thither.”

“And where hitherto hast thou been happiest,” enquired Staza.

“With you in the cemetery.”

“Then I shall be happy there also,” said Staza.

“And also I like to be at our house, but in the pension house where grandfather lived,” said Frank. “And so my parents stay there now.”

“I should like to be there also,” said Staza, “only that thy brother ought not to live there.”