Chapter 23
The Dumb BookIN the high-road which led through a wood stood a solitary
farm-house; the road, in fact, ran right through its yard. The sun
was shining and all the windows were open; within the house people
were very busy. In the yard, in an arbour formed by lilac bushes in
full bloom, stood an open coffin; thither they had carried a dead
man, who was to be buried that very afternoon. Nobody shed a tear
over him; his face was covered over with a white cloth, under his
head they had placed a large thick book, the leaves of which
consisted of folded sheets of blotting-paper, and withered flowers
lay between them; it was the herbarium which he had gathered in
various places and was to be buried with him, according to his own
wish. Every one of the flowers in it was conne
