d it would be best to say
nothing about it, but to remove the body by night a little further on,
to the so-called Kvaka Wood, which was in the Travnik district, and let
_them_ find the body. Mravucsan was undecided which of the two
propositions to accept. He hummed and hawed and shook his head, and then
complained it was hot enough to stifle one, that he had gout in his
hand, and that one leg of the Senators' table was shorter than the
others. This latter was soon remedied by putting some old deeds under
the short leg. Then they waited to see which side would have the
majority, and as it turned out it was on Galba's side. But the Galba
party was again subdivided into two factions. The strict Galba faction
wanted the dead man's body transported to the Travnik district. The
moderated Galba faction, headed by Andras Kozsehuba, would have been
contented with merely taking down the body, and burying it under the
tree; they wanted, at all costs, to prevent its being carried through
the village to the cemetery, which would certainly be the case if the
magistrate were informed of the circumstances. For if a suicide were
carried through a place, that place was threatened with damage by hail!

"Superstitious rubbish!" burst out Konopka.

"Of course, of course, Mr. Konopka, but who is to help it if the people
are so superstitious?" asked Senator Fajka, of the Kozsehuba faction.

Konopka wildly banged the table with his fat, be-ringed hand, upon which
every one was quiet.

"It is sad enough to hear a Senator say such a thing! I can assure you,
gentlemen, that the Lord will not send His thunder-clouds in our
direction just on account of that poor dead body. He will not punish a
thousand just men because one unfortunate man has given himself to the
devil, especially as the dead man himself would be the only one not hurt
by the hail!"

Mravucsan breathed freely again at these wise words, which certainly
raised one's opinion of the magistrates; he hastened to make use of the
opportunity, and as once the tiny wren, sitting on the eagle's wings,
tried to soar higher than the eagle, so did Mravucsan try to rise above
the Senators.

"What is true is true," he said, "and I herewith beg to call your
attention to the fact that there is nothing to be feared from hail if we
bring the body through the town."

Up sprang Mr. Fajka at these words.

"That is all the same to us," he said; "if matters stand so, let us have
hail by all means,