Vena, gazing in the same direction as Loyka, said “Pantata, that tiresome little moon tickles me too under the nose with its rays; for my part I can hold out no longer, but laugh I must.” And he laughed too.
“Nay, ’tis not that lad,” said Loyka. “But I am so glad that I have found a comrade. Look at him, he hath no home either, and never in all my life had I observed it until to-day. To-day a holy spirit has quite illumined me; to-day I know it, just as if I had walked the sky with him. Look! look! every night he must hie up yonder through agues and nipping blights, and that pleases me. Only I should like to know whether he also had an estate, whether he gave it to some Joseph, and so now is pensioned off! Look at him! look at him It pleases me to think that we are two, I here on earth, and he yonder in the sky—and as it seems to me they are no better off yonder in the sky than we here on earth.”
And he laughed on. Then he stood up, and looking towards the pilgrim moon, said “Stop and let us take note how fast he gets the round, to see if he is good on his feet. And here he looked up at the moon, just as though he were reckoning its footsteps, and laughed aloud. From this laughter went forth a greater horror than from the clanging Christus or from the clattering branches of those crosses which spread around.
