Death suddenly rose. 'I must be going,' said he. 'I am wasting my time in talk, and there is much to be done. Good-bye, Johannes!—We shall meet again. But you must not be afraid of me.'
'I am not afraid of you; I wish you would take me with you.'
But Death gently pushed him away; he was used to such entreaties.
'No, Johannes.—Go now to your work in life; seek and see! Ask me no more. I will ask you some day, and that will be quite soon enough.'
When he had disappeared Pluizer again began to behave in the wildest fashion. He leaped over the seats, turned somersaults, climbed up the cupboard and chimney-shelf, and played break-neck tricks at the open window.
'Well, that was Hein, my good friend Hein!' said he. 'Did you not like him greatly? A little unattractive and bony-looking, perhaps. But he can be very jolly too, when he takes pleasure in his work. Sometimes it bores him; it is rather monotonous.'
'Pluizer, who tells him where he is to go next?'
Pluizer stared at Johannes with a look of cunning inquiry.
'What makes you ask?—He goes where he pleases—He takes those he can catch.'
Later, Johannes came to see that it was not so. But as yet he knew no better, and thought that Pluizer was always right.