Stories

such subjects. We were taught only exordia introductions, expositions, and perorations concluding arguments—to write about lofty subjects.

The vacation time passed; it was time for me to return. When my father harnessed the piebald horse to the cart to take me away, Levka came again to the wattle fence; he did not push himself forward, but leaning against the gatepost, he would occasionally wipe tears away with the dirty, hanging sleeve of his shirt. I was very sad to leave him; I gave him all sorts of trinkets, but he looked at everything sadly. When I began to get into the cart, Levka came up to me and said to me so sadly, so mournfully: "Senka, farewell!" and then he handed me a small ball and said: "take it, Senka, the ball is for you." Levka had no possession more precious, yet he was giving it away! I had a hard time convincing him to keep the ball, saying that it would be mine, but that it should stay with him. We set off. Levka ran through the forest and emerged onto a hill past which the road led; I saw him and began to wave my handkerchief. He stood motionless on the hill, leaning on his stick.

The thought of Levka, and of the cause of his strange development, would not leave my head. It hindered me from giving myself fully to my studies, it gave me no peace. Although I firmly knew the worthlessness of all things corporeal and the vanity of all things physical, little by little, an insurmountable desire to study medicine developed within me. When I first hinted at this to my father, he fell into an indescribable rage: "Oh, you insolent, spoiled child!" he shouted at me: "if I grab