“But was that really so?
The Mother of God was born long after the flood.”
It was now grandmother’s turn to be surprised.
“Who told you that?’
“It was written in the books at school.”
This reassured her, and she gave me the advice:
“Put all that aside; forget it. It is only out of books; they are lies, those books.”
And laughing softly, gayly,
“Think for a moment, silly!
God was; and His Mother was not?
Then of whom was He born?”
“I don’t know.”
“Good!
You have learned enough to be able to say 1 don’t know.’ ”
“The priest said that the Mother of God was bom of Joachim and Anna.”
Then grandmother was angry. She faced about, and looked sternly into my eyes.
“If that is what you think, I will slap you.”
But in the course of a few minutes she explained to me.
“The Blessed Virgin always existed before any one and anything.
Of Her was God born, and then — ”
“And Christ, what about Him?”
Grandmother was silent, shutting her eyes in her confusion.
“And what about Christ? Eh? thV
I saw that I was victor, that I had caused the divine mysteries to be a snare to her, and it was not a pleasant thought.
We went farther and farther into the forest, into the dark-blue haze pierced by the golden rays of the sun.
There was a peculiar murmur, dreamy, and arousing dreams.
The crossbill chirped, the titmouses uttered their bell-like notes, . the goldfinch piped, the cuckoo laughed, the jealous song of the chaffinch was heard unceasingly, and that strange bird, the hawfinch, sang pensively.
Emerald-green frogs hopped around our feet; among the roots, guarding them, lay an adder, with his golden head raised; the squirrel cracked nuts, his furry tail peeping out among the fir-trees. The deeper one went into the forest, the more one saw.
Among the trunks of the fir-trees appeared transparent, aerial figures of gigantic people, which dis appeared into the green mass through which the blue and silver sky shone.
Under one’s feet there was a splendid carpet of moss, sown with red bilberries, and moor-berries shone in the grass like drops of blood. Mushrooms tantalized one with their strong smell.
“Holy Virgin, bright earthly light,” prayed grandmother, drawing a deep breath.
In the forest she was like the mistress of a house with all her family round her. She ambled along like a bear, seeing and praising everything and giving thanks.
It seemed as if a certain warmth flowed from her through the forest, and when the moss, crushed by her feet, raised itself and stood up in her wake, it was peculiarly pleasing to me to see it.
As I walked along I thought how nice it would be to be a brigand; to rob the greedy and give the spoil to the poor; to make them all happy and satisfied, neither envying nor scolding one another, like bad-tempered curs.
It was good to go thus to grand — mother’s God, to her Holy Virgin, and tell them all the truth about the bad lives people led, and how clumsily and offensively they buried one another in rubbishy sand.
And there was so much that was un necessarily repulsive and torturing on earth!
If the Holy Virgin believed what I said, let her give me such an intelligence as would enable me to construct everything differently and improve the condition of things.
It did not matter about my not being grown-up. Christ had been only a year older than I was when the wise men listened to Him.
Once in my preoccupation I fell into a deep pit, hurting my side and grazing the back of my neck.
Sitting at the bottom of this pit in the cold mud, which was as sticky as resin, I realized with a feeling of intense humiliation that I should not be able to get out by myself, and I did not like the idea of frightening grandmother by calling out.
However, I had to call her in the end.
She soon dragged me out, and, crossing herself, said:
“The Lord be praised!
It is a lucky thing that the bear’s pit was empty. What would have happened to you if the master of the house had been lying there?”
And she cried through her laughter.
Then she took me to the brook, washed my wounds and tied them up with strips of her chemise, after laying some healing leaves upon them, and took me into the railway signal-box, for I had not the strength to get all the way home.
And so it happened that almost every day I said to grandmother:
“Let us go into the forest.”
She used to agree willingly, and thus we lived all the summer and far into the autumn, gathering herbs, berries, mushrooms, and nuts.
Grandmother sold what we gathered, and by this means we were able to keep ourselves.