Excerpt from The Irony of Life: The Polanetzki Family At last his cabriolet entered the village which began at the cross on the hillock. The old cross was bent down and threatened to crumble away. Polanetzki remembered the existence of this cross for its connection with a popu lar superstition. The cross marked the grave of an un known suicide found hanging in the neighboring forest, and was carefully avoided by the peasants. Beyond this cross there came the first rows of huts. All the inmates were asleep, not a light was seen in the small square windows. In the light of the moon with a background of clear blue skies, the roofs of the low moss-covered 'thatched huts looked now silver gray, then pale blue. Some huts were whitewashed, and appeared a bright green. Others half hidden in cherry orchards, or in forests of sun flowers, were scarcely discernible in the shadow. Dogs barked in the yards, but'half-heartedly, lazily, as if echoing the languid croaking of the frogs, the hoarse whistling of the rail-birds, the cries of the bittern, and all other sounds so plentiful on a summer night, which yet strengthen the impression of absolute quiet and stillness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.