Tonyk took the walnut with thanks, and proceeded on his way with Mylio.
Ere long they came upon the borders of a forest, and saw a little child, half naked, seeking somewhat in the hollows of the trees, whilst he sung a strange and melancholy air, more mournful than the music of a requiem. He often stopped to clap his little frozen hands, saying in his song, “I am cold,—oh, so cold!” and the boys could hear his teeth chatter in his head.
Tonyk was ready to weep at this spectacle, and said to his brother,
“Mylio, only see how this poor child suffers from the piercing wind.”
“Then he must be a chilly subject,” returned Mylio; “the wind does not strike me as so piercing.”
“That may well be, when you have on a plush doublet, a warm cloth coat, and over all your violet mantle, whilst he is wrapped round by little but the air of heaven.”
“Well, and what then?” observed Mylio; “after all, he is but a peasant-boy.”
“Alas,” said Tonyk, “when I think that you, my brother, might have been born to the same hard fate, it goes to my very heart; and I cannot bear to see him suffering. For Jesus’ sake let us relieve him.”
So saying he reined in his horse, and calling to him the little boy, asked what he was about.
“I am trying,” said the child, “if I can find any dragon-flies[2] asleep in the hollows of the trees.”