ow not whither--or,
nay, I do know whither." And now the peasant related how discontented
and unhappy in mind he had been, and how the words in the lay had all
at once raised his spirits and accompanied him upon the journey, like a
good fellow who talks to one cheerfully.

At this part of the peasant's tale Gellert folded his hands in silence,
and the peasant concluded: "How I always envied others, I cannot now
think why; but you I do envy, sir: I should like to be as you."

And Gellert answered: "I thank God, and rejoice greatly that my writings
have been of service to you. Think not so well of me. Would God I were
really the good man I appear in your eyes! I am far from being such as I
should, such as I would fain be. I write my books for my own improvement
also, to show myself as well as others what manner of men we should be."

Laughing, the peasant replied: "You put me in mind of the story my poor
mother used to tell of the old minister; he stood up once in the pulpit
and said: 'My dear friends, I speak not only for you, but for myself
also; I, too, have need of it.'"

Christopher laughed outrageously when he had finished, and Gellert
smiled, and said: "Yes, whoever in the darkness lighteth another with a
lamp, lighteth himself also; and the light is not part of ourselves,--it
is put into our hands by Him who hath appointed the suns their courses."

The peasant stood speechless, and looked upon the ground: there was
something within him which took away the power of looking up; he was
only conscious that it ill became him to laugh so loudly just now, when
he told the story of the old minister.

A longer pause ensued, and Gellert seemed to be lost in reflection upon
this reference to a minister's work, for he said half to himself: "Oh!
how would it fulfil my dearest wish to be a village-pastor! To move
about among my people, and really be one with them; the friend of their
souls my whole life long, never to lose them out of my sight! Yonder
goes one whom I have led into the right way; there another, with whom
I still wrestle, but whom I shall assuredly save; and in them all the
teaching lives which God proclaims by me. Did I not think that I should
be acting against my duty, I would this moment choose a country life for
the remnant of my days. When I look from my window over the country, I
have before me the broad sky, of which we citizens know but little, a
scene entirely new; there I stand and lose myself for