Maximilien answered nothing.
—"Fau prié Bon-Dié" (We must pray to the Bon-Dié), repeated Stéphane.
—"Pa lapeine, li pas pè ouè nou atò!" (It is not worth while: He cannot see us now) answered the little black.
... In the immense darkness even the loom of the island was no longer visible.
—"O Maximilien!—Bon-Dié ka ouè toutt, ha connaitt toutt" (He sees all; He knows all), cried Stéphane.
—"Y pa pè ouè non pièss atouèlement, moin ben sur!" (He cannot see us at all now,—I am quite sure) irreverently responded Maximilien....
—"Thou thinkest the Bon-Dié like thyself!—He has not eyes like thou," protested Stéphane. "Li pas ka tiny coulé; li pas ka tini zié" (He has not color; He has not eyes), continued the boy, repeating the text of his catechism,—the curious creole catechism of old Perè Goux, of Carbet. [Quaint priest and quaint catechism have both passed away.]
—"Moin pa save si li pa ka tini coulè" (I know not if He has not color), answered Maximilien. "But what I well know is that if He has not eyes. He cannot see.... Fouinq!—how idiot!"
—"Why, it is in the Catechism," cried Stéphane.... "'Bon-Dié, li conm vent: vent tout-patout, et nou pa save ouè li;—li ka touché nou,—li ka boulvésé lamnè." (The Good-God is like the Wind: the Wind is everywhere, and we cannot see It;—It touches us,—It tosses the sea.)
—"If the Bon-Dié is the Wind," responded Maximilien, "then pray thou the Wind to stay quiet."