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Hreczecha had an ear very sensitive to silence; he himself was a

great talker, and he was inordinately fond of chatterers. It was

no wonder! He had passed all his life with the gentry at

banquets, hunts, assemblies, and district consultations; he was

accustomed to having something always drumming in his ears, even

when he himself was silent, or was stealing with a flapper after

a fly, or sat musing with closed eyes; by day he sought

conversation, by night they had to repeat to him the rosary

prayers, or tell him stories. Hence also he was a staunch enemy

of the tobacco pipe, which he thought invented by the Germans in

order to denationalise us. He used to say, "To make Poland dumb

is to Germanise Poland."92 The old man, who had prattled all

through his life, now wished to repose amid prattle; silence

awoke him from sleep: thus millers, lulled by the clatter of the

wheels, as soon as the axles stop, awake crying in fright: "The

Lord be with us!"93