“Well, what of it?” said Mylio. “He is only a little peasant.”
“Alas!” replied Tonyk, “when I think that you might have been born in his place, my brother, my heart bleeds and I cannot see him suffer so.”
With these words he drew rein, called the little boy, and asked him what he was doing there.
“I am looking for the winged needles[[138]] that sleep in the crannies of the trees,” answered the child.
“And what wouldst thou do with these winged needles?” said Mylio.
“When I have enough of them I will sell them in the city and buy a coat which will keep me warm as if it was always sunshine.”
“Hast thou found any yet?” went on the young noble.
“But one,” replied the child, showing a little cage of rushes within which he had shut the blue fly.
“Very good, I will take it,” broke in Tonyk, throwing him his cloak. “Wrap thyself up in that precious cloth, little one, and add every evening in thy prayers a Hail Mary for Mylio and another for her who bore us both.”
The two brothers went on their way, and Tonyk at first suffered much from the wind for want of the cloak he had given away; but when they had got through the wood the wind fell, the air grew milder, the fog lifted, and a vein of the sun[[139]] shone along the clouds.