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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed-time and Harvest, by Fritz Reuter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Seed-time and Harvest
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Fritz Reuter
+
+Release Date: April 16, 2011 [EBook #35889]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED-TIME AND HARVEST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/seedtimeandharv00reutgoog
+
+   2. Compare the "Authorized Edition" issued in Leipzig (1878) under
+      the title "An Old Story of My Farming Days (_Ut Mine Stromtid_)".
+
+   3. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+                         SEED-TIME AND HARVEST
+
+
+
+
+                               _A NOVEL_.
+
+
+
+
+               TRANSLATED FROM THE "UT MINE STROMTID" OF
+
+
+                             FRITZ REUTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             PHILADELPHIA:
+
+                         J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
+
+                                 1878.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+       Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
+
+                             LITTELL & GAY,
+
+        In the Office of the Library of Congress at Washington.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+
+
+       *   *   *
+
+  Lippincott's Press.
+    _Philadelphia_.
+
+       *   *   *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Seed-Time and Harvest;
+
+                                  OR,
+
+                      "DURING MY APPRENTICESHIP."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+In the year 1829, on St. John's day, a man sat in the deepest
+melancholy, under an ash-tree arbor, in a neglected garden. The estate,
+to which the garden belonged, was a lease-hold estate, and lay on the
+river Peene, between Anclam and Demmin, and the man, who sat in the
+cool shade of the arbor, was the lease-holder,--that is to say, he had
+been until now; for now he was ejected, and there was an auction to-day
+in his homestead, and all his goods and possessions were going to the
+four winds.
+
+He was a large, broad-shouldered; light-haired man, of four and forty
+years; and nowhere could you find a better specimen of what labor could
+make of a man than she had carved from this block. "Labor," said his
+honest face,--"Labor," said his firm hands which lay quiet in his lap,
+folded one upon another as if for praying.
+
+Yes, for praying! And in the whole broad country of Pomerania, there
+might well have been no one with greater need and reason to speak with
+his Lord God, than this man. 'Tis a hard thing for any one to see his
+household goods, which he has gathered with labor and pains, piece by
+piece, go wandering out into the world. 'Tis a hard thing for a farmer
+to leave the cattle, which he has fed and cared for, through want and
+trouble, to other hands that know nothing of the difficulties which
+have oppressed him all his life. But it was not this which lay so heavy
+on his heart; it was a still deeper grief which caused the weary hands
+to lie folded together, and the weary eyes to droop so heavily.
+
+Since yesterday he was a widower, his wife lay upon her last couch. His
+wife! Ten years had he striven for her, ten years had he worked and
+toiled, and done what human strength could do that they might come
+together, that he might make room for the deep, powerful love which
+sung through his whole being, like Pentecost bells over green fields
+and blossoming fruit-trees.
+
+Four years ago he had made it possible: he had scraped together
+everything that he had; an acquaintance who had inherited from his
+parents two estates had leased one of them to him,--at a high rent,
+very high--no one knew that better than himself,--but love gives
+courage, cheerful courage, to sustain one through everything. Oh, it
+would have gone well, quite well, if misfortunes had not come upon
+them, if his dear little wife had not risen before the daylight and ere
+the dew was risen, and got such feverish red spots on her cheeks. Oh,
+all would have gone well, quite well, if his landlord had been not
+merely an acquaintance but a friend--he was not the latter; to-day he
+allowed his agent to hold the auction.
+
+Friends? Such a man as the one who sat under the ashen arbor, has he no
+friends? Ah, he had friends, and their friendship was true; but they
+could not help him, they had nothing either to give or to lend.
+Wherever he looked, there seemed a gloomy wall before his eyes, which
+narrowed around him, and pressed him in, until he must needs call upon
+the Lord to deliver him out of his distresses. And over him in the
+ashen twigs sang the finches, and their gay plumage glittered in the
+sun, and the flowers in the neglected garden gave out their fragrance,
+all in vain,--and the fairest bridal pair in the world might have sat
+there, and never have forgotten either the place or the day.
+
+And had he not often sat under these shade trees with a soft hand in
+his hard one? Had not the birds sung, had not the flowers been
+fragrant? Had he not under the ash-trees dreamed of their cool shade
+for his old age? And who was it that had brought to him here a
+refreshing drink after a hot day's labor? Who was it that had shared in
+and consoled all his cares and sorrows?
+
+It was gone--all gone!--Here was care and trouble about the auction,
+and the soft, warm hand was cold and stiff. And so it is much the same
+to a man as if the birds sang no longer, and the flowers had lost their
+fragrance, and the blessed sun shone for him no more; and if the poor
+heart keeps on beating it reaches out, beyond birds and flowers and
+beyond the golden sun, higher up after a Comforter, in whose presence
+these earthly joys shall fade and fall, but before whom the human soul
+shall stand forever.
+
+So sat Habermann before his God, and his hands were folded, and his
+honest blue eyes bent to the ground, and yet there shone in them a
+clear light, as from God's sun. Then came a little maiden running to
+him, and laid a marigold blossom on his lap, and the two hands unfolded
+themselves and clasped the child,--it was his child,--and he rose up
+from the bench, and took her on his arm, and from his eyes fell tear
+after tear, and he kept the marigold flower in his hand, and went with
+the child along the path through the garden.
+
+He came to a young tree which he had planted himself; the straw-rope
+with which it was bound to its prop had loosened, and the tree was
+sagging downwards. He reached up and bound it fast, without thinking
+what he was doing, for his thoughts were far away, but care and helping
+were part of his nature.
+
+But when a man's thoughts are in the clouds, were it even in the blue
+heavens, if his daily duties come before his eyes,--the old accustomed
+handiwork,--and he does them, he helps himself in so doing, for they
+call him back from the distance and show him what is near by, and what
+is in need of help. And it is one of our Lord's mercies that this is
+so.
+
+He walked up and down the garden, and his eyes saw what was around him,
+and his thoughts came back to earth; and though the black, gloomy
+clouds still overspread the heaven of his future, they could not
+conceal one little patch of blue sky,--that, was the little girl whom
+he bore on his arm, and whose baby hand played with his hair. He had
+thought over his situation, steadily and earnestly he had looked the
+black clouds in the face; he must take care that he and his little one
+were not overpowered by the storm.
+
+He went from the garden toward the house. Good Heavens, how his courage
+sank! Indifferent to him, and absorbed in their petty affairs, a crowd
+of men pressed around the table where the actuary was holding the
+auction. Piece by piece the furniture acquired by his years of industry
+was knocked down to the highest bidder; piece by piece his household
+gear had come into the house, with trouble and anxiety; piece by piece
+it went out to the world, amid jokes and laughter. This sideboard had
+been his old mother's, this chest of drawers his wife had brought with
+her, that little work-table he had given her while she was yet a bride.
+Near by stood his cattle, tied to a rack, and lowing after their
+pasture; the brown yearling which his poor wife herself had brought up,
+her special pet, stood among them; he went round to her, and stroked
+her with his hand.
+
+"Herr," said the bailiff Niemann, "'tis a sad pity"
+
+"Yes, Niemann, 'tis a pity; but there's no help for it," said he, and
+turned away, and went toward the men who were crowding around the
+auctioneer's table.
+
+As the people noticed him, they made room for him in a courteous and
+friendly manner, and he turned to the auctioneer as if he would speak a
+few words to him.
+
+"Directly, Herr Habermann," said the man, "in a moment. I am just
+through with the house-inventory, then-- A chest of drawers! Two
+thalers, four shillings! Six shillings! Two thalers eight shillings!
+Once! Twice! Two thalers twelve shillings! No more? Once! Twice!
+and--thrice! Who has it?"
+
+"Brandt, the tailor," was the answer.
+
+Just at this moment, a company of country people came riding up the
+yard, who apparently wished to look at the cattle, which came next in
+order in the sale. Foremost rode a stout, red-faced man, upon whose
+broad features arrogance had plenty of room to display itself. This
+quality was very strongly marked; but an unusual accompaniment was
+indicated by the little, crafty eyes, which peered out over the coarse
+cheeks, as if to say, "You are pretty well off, but we have something
+to do to look after your interests." The owner of these eyes was the
+owner also of the estate of which Habermann had held the lease; he rode
+close up to the cluster of men, and, as he saw his unhappy tenant
+standing among them, the possibility occurred to him that he might fail
+of receiving his full rent, and the crafty eyes, which understood so
+well how to look after their own interests, said to the arrogance which
+sat upon mouth and mien, "Brother, now is a good time to spread
+yourself; it will cost you nothing;" and pressing his horse nearer to
+Habermann he called, so that all the people must hear, "Yes, here is
+your prudent Mecklenburger, who will teach us how to manage a farm!
+What has he taught us? To drink wine and shuffle cards he might teach
+us, but farming--_Bankruptcy_, he can teach us!"
+
+All were silent at these hard words, and looked first at him who had
+uttered them, and then at him against whom they were directed.
+Habermann was at first struck, by voice and words together, as if a
+knife had been plunged into his heart; now he stood still and looked
+silently before him, letting all go over his head; but among the people
+broke out a murmuring--"Fie! Fie! For shame! The man is no drinker nor
+card-player. He has worked his farm like a good fellow!"
+
+"What great donkey is this, who can talk like that?" asked old Farmer
+Drenkhahn, from Liepen, and pressed nearer with his buckthorn staff.
+
+"That's the fellow, father," called out Stolper the smith, "who lets
+his people go begging about, for miles around."
+
+"They haven't a coat to their backs," said tailor Brandt, of Jarmen,
+"and by all their labour they can only earn victuals."
+
+"Yes," laughed the smith, "that's the fellow who is so kind to his
+people that they all have nice dress-coats to work in, while he does
+not keep enough to buy himself a smock-frock."
+
+The auctioneer had sprung up and ran towards the landlord, who had
+heard these remarks with unabashed thick-headedness. "In God's name,
+Herr Pomuchelskopp, how can you talk so?"
+
+"Yes," said one of his own company, who rode up with him, "these folks
+are right. You should be ashamed of yourself! The poor man has given up
+everything that he had a right to keep, and goes out into the world
+to-morrow, empty-handed, and you go on abusing him."
+
+"Ah, indeed," said the auctioneer, "if that were all! But his wife died
+only yesterday, and lies on her last couch, and there he is with his
+poor little child, and what prospect has the poor man for the future?"
+
+The murmur went round among the people of the landlord's company, and
+it was not long before he had the place to himself; those who came with
+him had ridden aside. "Did I know that?" said he peevishly, and rode
+out of the yard; and the little, crafty eyes said to the broad
+arrogance, "Brother, this time we went rather too far."
+
+The auctioneer turned to Habermann. "Herr Habermann, you had something
+to say to me?"
+
+"Yes--yes--" replied the farmer, like a man who has been under torture,
+coming again to his senses. "Yes, I was going to ask you to put up to
+auction the few things I have a right to keep back,--the bed and the
+other things."
+
+"Willingly; but the household furniture has sold badly, the people have
+no money, and if you wish to dispose of anything you would do better at
+private sale."
+
+"I have not time for that, and I need the money."
+
+"Then if you wish it, I will offer the goods at auction," and the man
+went back to his business.
+
+"Habermann," said Farmer Grot, who came with the company on horseback,
+"you are so lonely here, in your misfortunes; come home with me, you
+and your little girl, and stay awhile with us, my wife will be right
+glad----"
+
+"I thank you much for the good will; but I cannot go, I have still
+something to do here."
+
+"Habermann," said farmer Hartmann, "you mean the funeral of your good
+wife. When do you bury her? We will all come together, to do her this
+last honor."
+
+"For that I thank you too; but I cannot receive you as would be proper,
+and by this time I have learned that one must cut his coat according to
+his cloth."
+
+"Old friend, my dear old neighbor and countryman," said Inspector
+Wienk, and clapped him on the shoulder, "do not yield to
+discouragement! things will go better with you yet."
+
+"Discouragement, Wienk?" said Habermann, earnestly, pressing his child
+closer to himself, and looking steadily at the inspector, with his
+honest blue eyes. "Is that discouragement, to look one's future
+steadily in the face, and do one's utmost to avert misfortune? But I
+cannot stay here; a man avoids the place where he has once made
+shipwreck. I must go to some house at a distance, and begin again at
+the beginning. I must work for my bread again, and stretch my feet
+under a stranger's table. And now good-bye to you all! You have always
+been good neighbors and friends to me. Adieu! Adieu! Give me your hand.
+Wienk,--Adieu! and greet them all kindly at your house; my wife----' He
+had still something to say, but he seemed to be overcome, and turned
+almost quickly and went his way.
+
+"Niemann," said he to his bailiff, as he came to the other end of the
+farm-yard, "Tell the other people, to-morrow morning early, at four
+o'clock, I will bury my wife." With that, he went into the house, into
+his sleeping-room. It was all cleaned out, his bed and all the
+furniture which had been left to him; nothing remained but four bare
+walls. Only in a dark corner stood an old chest, and on it sat a young
+woman, the wife of a day-laborer, her eyes red with weeping; and in the
+middle of the room stood a black coffin in which lay a white, still,
+solemn face, and the woman had a green branch in her hand, and brushed
+the flies from the still face.
+
+"Stina," said Habermann, "go home now; I will stay here."
+
+"Oh, Herr, let me stay!"
+
+"No, Stina, I shall stay here all night."
+
+"Shall I not take the little one with me?"
+
+"No, leave her, she will sleep well."
+
+The young woman went out: the auctioneer came and handed him the money
+which he had received for his goods, the people went away from the
+court-yard; it became as quiet out of doors as in. He put the child
+down, and reckoned the money on the window-seat. "That pays the
+cabinet-maker for the coffin; that for the cross at the grave; that for
+the funeral. Stina shall have this, and with the rest I can go to my
+sister." The evening came, the young wife of the laborer brought in a
+lighted candle, and set it on the coffin, and gazed long at the white
+face, then dried her eyes and said "Goodnight," and Habermann was,
+again alone with his child.
+
+He raised the window, and looked out into the night. It was dark for
+that time of year, no stars shone in the sky, all was obscured with
+black clouds, and a warm, damp air breathed on his face, and sighed in
+the distance. From over the fields came the note of the quail, and the
+land-rail uttered its rain-call, and softly fell the first drops on the
+dusty ground, and his heart rose in thanks for the gift of sweetest
+savor known to the husbandman, the earth-vapor in which hover all
+blessings for his cares and labor. How often had it refreshed his soul,
+chased away his anxieties, and renewed his hope of a good year! Now he
+was set loose from care, but also from joy; a great joy had gone from
+him, and had taken with it all lesser ones.
+
+He closed the window, and, as he turned round, there stood his little
+daughter by the coffin, reaching vainly toward the still face, as if
+she would stroke it. He raised the child higher so that she could
+reach, and the little girl stroked and kissed the cold, dead cheek of
+her silent mother, and looked then at her father with her great eyes,
+as if she would ask something unspeakable, and said "Mother! Oh!"
+
+"Yes," said Habermann, "mother is cold," and the tears started in his
+eyes, and he sat down on the chest, took his daughter on his lap, and
+wept bitterly. The little one began to weep also, and cried herself
+quietly to sleep. He laid her softly against his breast, and wrapped
+his coat warmly about her, and so sat he the night through, and held
+true lyke-wake over his wife and his happiness.
+
+Next morning, punctually, at four o'clock, came the bailiff with the
+other laborers. The coffin was screwed up; the procession moved slowly
+toward the church-yard; the only mourners himself and his little girl.
+The coffin was lowered into the grave. A silent Pater Noster,--a
+handful of earth,--and the image of her who had for years refreshed and
+comforted him, rejoiced and enlivened, was concealed from his eyes, and
+if he would see it again he must turn over his heart like a book, leaf
+by leaf, until he comes to the closing page, and then,--yes, there will
+the dear image stand, fair and lovely before his eyes once more.
+
+He went among his people, shook hands with every one, and thanked them
+for this last service which they had rendered him, and then said
+"Good-bye" to them, gave to the bailiff the money for the coffin, cross
+and funeral, and then, absorbed in thought, started on his lonely way
+out into the gloomy future.
+
+As he came to the last house in the little hamlet, the young laborer's
+wife stood with a child on her arm before the door. He stepped up to
+her.
+
+"Stina, you took faithful care of my poor wife in her last
+sickness,--here, Stina," and would press a couple of dollars into her
+hand.
+
+"Herr, Herr," cried the young wife, "don't do me that injury! What have
+you not done for us in good days? Why should we not in hard times make
+some little return? Ah, Herr, I have one favor to ask; leave the child
+here with me! I will cherish it as if it were my own. And is it not
+like my own? I have nursed it at my breast, when your poor wife was so
+weak. Leave me the child!"
+
+Habermann stood in deep thought. "Herr," said the woman, "you will have
+to separate from the poor little thing, sooner or later. See, here
+comes Jochen, he will speak for himself."
+
+The laborer came up, and, as he heard of what they were speaking, said,
+"Yes, Herr, she shall be cared for like a princess, and we are healthy,
+and well to do, and what you have done for us, we will richly repay to
+her."
+
+"No," said Habermann, lifting himself from his thoughts, "that won't
+go, I can't do it. I may be wrong to take the child with me upon an
+uncertainty; but I have left so much here, this last thing I cannot
+give up. No, no! I can't do it," cried he hastily and turned himself to
+go, "my child must be where I am. Adieu, Stina! Adieu, Rassow!"
+
+"If you will not leave us the child, Herr," said the laborer, "let me
+at least go with you a little way, and carry her for you."
+
+"No, No!" said Habermann, "she is no burden for me;" but he could not
+hinder the young woman from stroking and kissing his little daughter,
+and ever again kissing her, nor that both these honest souls, as he
+went on his way, should stand long looking after him. She, with tears
+in her eyes, thought more of the child, he, in serious reflection, more
+of the man.
+
+"Stina," said he, "we shall never again have such a master."
+
+"The Lord knows that," said she, and both went sadly back to their
+daily labor.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+About eight miles from the place where Habermann had left his wife in
+her quiet grave, lay in Mecklenburg a farm of less than medium size,
+which was tenanted by his brother-in-law, Jochen Nuessler. The
+farm-buildings had never been very substantial, and were now much in
+need of repair, and moreover things were very disorderly; here a little
+refuse heap, and there another, and the wagon and farm implements stood
+here and there, and mingled together, like the people at a fair, and
+the cart said to the wagon, "Brother, how came you here?" and the rake
+laid hold of the harrow and said, "Come, dear, we will have a dance."
+But the music was lacking, for it was all still in the farm-yard, quite
+still. This lovely weather, all were in the meadow, haying, and even
+from the little open windows of the long, low, straw-roofed farm-house
+came no sound, for it was afternoon; the cook had finished her baking,
+and the housemaid her cleaning, and both had gone together to the
+meadow; and even the farmer's wife, who usually had something to say
+for herself, was nowhere visible, for she also had gone from the
+farm-yard with a rake in her hand; the hay must all be gathered into
+great stacks before night-fall.
+
+But there was yet life in the house, though of a little, quiet kind. In
+the room at the right of the porch, in the living-room, where the
+blue-painted corner-cupboard stood,--the _schenk_, they called it, and
+the sofa covered with black glazed linen, which was freshly polished up
+with boot-blacking every Saturday and the oaken chest of drawers with
+gilt ornaments, sat two little maidens of three years, with round
+flaxen heads, and round rosy cheeks, playing in a heap of sand, making
+cheeses with mother's thimble, and filling the damp sand into two
+little shilling pots, which they turned upside down, laughing and
+rejoicing if the lump stood firm.
+
+These were Lining and Mining Nuessler, and they looked, for all the
+world, like a pair of little twin apples, growing on one stem; and they
+were so indeed, for they were twins, and one who did not know that
+Lining was not Mining, and Mining was not Lining, would be puzzled from
+morning to night, for their names were not written in their faces, and
+if their mother had not marked them with a colored band on the arm,
+there would have been grave doubts in the matter, and their father,
+Jochen Nuessler, was even yet in some uncertainty; Lining was properly
+Mining, and Mining Lining, they had been as it were shaken up together
+at the outset of their little lives. At present, there was no occasion
+for such perplexity, for the mother had tied a blue ribbon in Lining's
+little flaxen curls, and a red one in Mining's; and if one kept that in
+mind, and observed them carefully, one would see plainly that Jochen
+Nuessler was wrong, for Lining was half an hour older than Mining, and,
+slight as the difference was, the seniority made itself quite evident,
+for Lining took the lead in everything; but she comforted her little
+sister also, when she was in trouble.
+
+Besides this little, unmistakable pair of twins, there was yet another
+pair of twins in the room; but an old, experienced, circumspect couple,
+who looked down from the chest of drawers on the children, and shook
+their heads hither and thither, in the light breeze which came in at
+the open window; these were grandfather's peruke, and grandmother's
+state-cap, which were paraded on a pair of cap-stocks, and which
+to-morrow,--Sunday,--would play their part.
+
+"Look, Lining," said Mining, "there is grandfather's puk." She could
+not get the "r" quite right yet.
+
+"You always say 'puk;' you must say 'p-u-k,'" said Lining, for she also
+was not quite up to the "r;" but being the eldest she must needs direct
+her little sister in the right way.
+
+With that the little pair of twins got up and stood before the chest of
+drawers, and looked at the old pair of twins on the cap-stocks, and
+Mining, who was still very thoughtless, reached after the peruke stock,
+and took down grandfather's peruke, turned it over on her head as
+seemed well to her, and, placing herself before the glass, performed
+just as grandfather did on Sundays. Now was the time for Lining to
+exercise her authority, but Lining began to laugh, and catching the
+joke took down grandmother's cap from the other stock, and imitated
+grandmother's Sunday performances, and then Mining laughed, and then
+both laughed, and then took hold of hands and danced "Kringelkranz,
+Rosendanz," and let go, and laughed again and joined hands again and
+danced.
+
+But Mining was quite too thoughtless, she had the little pot still in
+her hand, and as they were in the midst of their fun--crash! she let it
+fall on the floor, and there was an end of the pot, and an end of the
+sport also. Now began Mining to cry and lament over her pot, and Lining
+cried with her, like a little echo; but when that had lasted a while,
+Lining began to console:--
+
+"See here, Mining, the wheelwright can mend it."
+
+"Yes," said Mining, crying more quietly, "the wheelwright can mend it;"
+and upon that the two little mourners started out of the door, quite
+forgetting that they had grandfather's and grandmother's sacred Sunday
+gear upon their heads.
+
+One may wonder that Lining should go to the wheelwright with such an
+affair, but anybody who has known a regular wheelwright in that region,
+will understand that such a man can do everything. If a sheep is sick,
+they say, "Call the wheelwright!" If a window-pane is broken, the
+wheelwright must nail on a board to keep out wind and weather; has an
+old chair dislocated its leg, he is the doctor; if one wishes a plaster
+spread for a sick cow, he is the apothecary; in short, he can mend
+everything, and so Lining showed herself a little maiden of good sense
+in going with her pot to the wheelwright.
+
+As the little girls went through the yard, in at the gate came a little
+man, with a red face and a right stately red nose, which he carried in
+the air; on his head he had a three-cornered cap, with a tassel in
+front of no particular color; he wore a grey linen coat with long
+skirts, and his short legs, which turned outward as if they had been
+screwed into his long body the wrong way, were stuck into short
+blue-striped trowsers, and long boots with yellow tops. He was not
+exactly stout, but certainly not lean, and one might see that he was
+beginning to grow a little pot-bellied.
+
+The little girls must meet him on their way, and as they came near
+enough for the Herr Inspector--for the man with the little legs held
+such a post--to perceive their approach, he stood still, and raised his
+yellow bushy eyebrows so high that they went quite up under the visor
+of his cap, as if these eyebrows, being the finest of his features,
+must first of all, under such dangerous circumstances, be placed in
+security. "God bless us!" cried he, "Where are you going? What sort of
+doings are these? What! you have the entire Sunday finery of the two
+old people upon your heads!" The two little girls quite patiently
+allowed themselves to be despoiled of their finery, and showed the
+broken pieces of the pot, saying that the wheelwright would mend it.
+"What!" said the Herr Inspector Braesig, for that was his name, "Who in
+the world would have believed in such stupidity? Lining, you are the
+oldest, I thought you had more sense; and Mining, don't cry any more,
+you are my little god-child, I will give you a new pot at the next
+fair. But now, along with you! into the house!"
+
+As he entered the living-room, and found no one there, he said to
+himself, "To be sure! All are gone after the hay. Yes, I ought to be
+looking after my hay; but the little madcaps have left these things in
+such a state, that they would be in sad disgrace if the two old
+grannies should see them as they are now; I must try to repair damages
+a little." With that he drew out a little pocket-comb,--which he kept
+by him because he was growing bald, and must needs comb forward his
+back hair,--and began to labour at the peruke. That did very well; but
+now came the cap. "How the mischief, Lining, have you contrived to do
+it? To make it look decently again is not a possible thing! No, I must
+try to recollect how the old lady looks of a Sunday afternoon. In front
+she has a comely bunch of silken curls, and the front part of the old
+toggery hangs over about three inches, so the thing must be set forward
+more. On top she has nothing in particular, her bald head always shines
+through; but behind she always has a puff, which she staffs out with a
+bunch of tow; that the little girl has quite disarranged; that must be
+pulled out better;" and with that he stuck his fist in the cap, and
+widened out the puff.
+
+But in the back part of the puff there was a drawing-string, and as he
+was doing his work thoroughly the cord broke, and the whole puff flew
+out. "Now there, stupid!" cried he, and his eyebrows went up again.
+"How? This isn't fastened worth a snap! With yarn! And one can't tie
+knots in it. God bless my soul! What do I know about millinery? But
+hold on! We will fix you yet." And with that he pulled from his pocket
+a handful of strings--every good inspector must have such on hand--and
+began to disentangle them. "Pack thread is too coarse; but this here,
+this will do well enough." and he began to put a nice stiff cord
+through the hem. But the job was a slow one, and before he was half
+through, somebody knocked at the door. He threw his handiwork down on
+the nearest chair, as if ashamed of it, and cried, "Come in!"
+
+The door opened, and Habermann, with his little daughter on his arm,
+stepped in. Inspector Braesig started up. "May you--keep the nose on
+your face," he was going to say, but when anything serious happened to
+him he had an unfortunate habit of falling into Platt-Deutsch,--"Karl
+Habermann, where do you come from?"
+
+"Good day, Braesig," said Habermann, and put the child down.
+
+"Karl Habermann," cried Braesig again, "where do you come from?"
+
+"From a place, Braesig, where I have now nothing more to look for," said
+his friend. "Is my sister not at home?"
+
+"They are all in the hay; but how shall I understand you?"
+
+"That it is all over with me; day before yesterday all my goods were
+sold at auction; and yesterday morning"--here he turned to the
+window--"yesterday morning I buried my wife."
+
+"What? what? Oh, dear Lord!" cried the kind-hearted inspector.
+"Your wife? your dear, good wife?"--and the tears ran over his red
+face--"Friend, old friend, say, how did that happen?"
+
+"Yes, how did it happen?" said Habermann, and seated himself, and
+related his misfortunes in few words.
+
+Meanwhile, Lining and Mining went slowly and shyly toward the strange
+child, saying nothing, but ever drawing a little nearer, till Lining
+mustered courage, and took hold of the sleeve of her dress, and Mining
+showed the fragments of her pot: "Look my pot is broken." The little
+new-comer however looked around shyly with her large eyes, and fixed
+them at last closely upon her father.
+
+"Yes," Habermann closed his short story, "it has gone hard with me,
+Braesig, and you still hold my note for two hundred thalers; but don't
+press me, if God spares my life, you shall be honourably paid."
+"Karl Habermann,--Karl Habermann," said Braesig, and wiped his eyes, and
+blew his stately nose, "You are--you are a sheep's-head! Yes," said he,
+and stuffed his handkerchief fiercely into his pocket, and elevated his
+nose again, "You are just the sheep's-head you always were!" And as if
+it occurred to him that his old friend should be diverted to other
+thoughts, he picked up Lining and Mining like a couple of dolls, and
+set them on Habermann's knee,--"There, you little rogues, that is your
+uncle!"--exactly as if Lining and Mining were playthings, and Habermann
+a little child, who might be comforted by them in his trouble; and he
+himself took Habermann's little Louise on his arm, and danced with her
+about the room, and all this time the tears were running down his
+cheeks, and for a happy ending he put the child down in a chair,
+and, as it happened, exactly the chair on which he had deposited his
+half-finished millinery.
+
+By this time the house-people were coming back from the hay-field, and
+a loud, clear, female voice was heard without, urging the maids to
+hasten. "Hurry, hurry, come out with your milk-pails, the sun is going
+down, and this year the pasture is so far off; we shall have to milk to
+night in the twilight. Girl, where are your trenchers? Quick, run in
+and fetch them. Go right along; I must look after my little ones
+first." And into the room came a tall young woman, of seven and twenty
+years, full of life and energy in face and figure, her cheeks red with
+health and labor and the heat of the summer day, hair and eyes light,
+and forehead white as snow, so far as the chip hat had sheltered it
+from the sun. At the first glance one saw the likeness between her and
+Habermann, but his features and demeanor seemed reserved, and hers
+quite fresh and open; her whole appearance showed that she was as
+active a worker from temperament as he was from honor and duty.
+
+To see her brother, and to fly toward him was all one. "Karl, my
+brother Karl, my other father!" cried she, and hung about his neck;
+but, as she looked more closely into his eyes, she held him back from
+herself: "Tell me what has happened, tell me what dreadful thing has
+happened! what is it?"
+
+Before he could answer, her husband entered the door, and going up to
+Habermann gave him his hand, and said slowly, as if with an effort;
+"Good day, brother-in-law; take a seat."
+
+"Let him tell what has happened to him," cried his wife, impatiently.
+
+"Yes," said Jochen, "sit down, and then tell. Good day to you also,
+Braesig; sit down too, Braesig," and with that Jochen Nuessler, or as he
+was generally called young Jochen, sat down himself in a corner by the
+stove, which piece of furniture he had bought with his own separate
+money. He was a long lean man, who carried himself with stooping
+shoulders, and it seemed as if all his limbs had particular objections
+to being put to the ordinary use. He was well on toward forty, his face
+was pale, and as dull as his speech, and his soft sandy hair hung in
+front and behind of equal length, over his forehead and the collar of
+his coat, and never had known any fashions of parting or curling; his
+mother had from his childhood up combed the hair over his face, and so
+it had stayed, and when it looked rather tangled his mother would say:
+"Never mind, Joching, the rough foal makes the smartest horse." Whether
+it was because his eyes must always peer through this long hair, or
+from his nature, his glance had something shy, as if he could not see
+things clearly or make up his mind positively, and though he was
+right-handed, his mouth was askew. This came from tobacco-smoking, for
+that was the one business which he followed with perseverance, and as
+he kept the pipe hanging in the left corner of his mouth, it had drawn
+it down in that direction, and, while looking at him from the right it
+seemed as if he could not say "zipp," from the left he appeared like an
+ogre who would devour children.
+
+Now he sat there in his own especial chimney-corner, and smoked out of
+his peculiar mouth-corner, and while his impulsive wife for sorrow and
+compassion lamented over Habermann's story as if it had all happened to
+herself that very day, and now it was her brother, and now his little
+daughter that she kissed and comforted, he sat and looked over at the
+chief actors, from the side next Braesig, and with the tobacco smoke
+came now and then a couple of broken words from the left side of his
+mouth: "Yes, it is all so, as you say. It is all as true as leather.
+What shall we do about it?"
+
+The Herr Inspector Braesig was the exact opposite of young Jochen; now
+he ran about the room, now he sat down on a chair, and now on a
+table, and worked his little legs with jumping up and down, like a
+linen-weaver, and when Frau Nuessler kissed and stroked her brother, he
+kissed and stroked him also, and when Frau Nuessler took the little
+child in her arms and patted her, then he took her up afterward, and
+carried her about the room, and sat her down again in a chair, but
+always on grandmother's cap.
+
+"God bless me!" cried the house wife suddenly, "have I clean forgotten
+everything? Braesig, you should have thought of it. All this time you
+have had nothing to eat and drink!" and with that she ran to the
+cup-board, and brought fair, white, country bread, and fresh butter,
+and went out and brought in sausages and ham and cheese, and a couple
+of bottles of the strong beer brewed especially for grandfather, and a
+pitcher of milk for the little ones; and when all was neatly arranged
+on the white table-cloth, she drew her brother to the table, and taking
+up the little girl, chair and all, sat her down to the table also, and
+cut bread, and served them, and all so nimble with hand and foot, and
+as nimble with mouth and speech. And so bright were knife and fork, and
+as bright mien and eye; and so pure and white apron and table-cloth,
+and as pure and white her good heart!
+
+"You shall have something next," said she to her little twin-apples,
+and stroked the little flaxen heads. "Little cousin comes first.
+Braesig, sit up to the table. Jochen, you come too."
+
+"Yes, I may as well," said Jochen, took a long, last pull at his
+pipe, and brought his chair and himself to the table.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, "I can recommend these sausages, your sister has
+an uncommon knack at them, and I have many a time told my housekeeper
+she should get the recipe, for the old woman messes all sorts of
+unnatural things together, which don't harmonize at all; in short there
+is no suitability or connection, although the ingredients are as good
+as a swine fed exclusively on peas can furnish."
+
+"Mother, help Braesig," said Jochen.
+
+"Thank you, Frau Nuessler; but with your leave I will take my drop of
+Kuemmel. Karl, since the time when you and I and that rascal
+Pomuchelskopp were serving our apprenticeship under old Knirkstaedt, I
+have accustomed myself to take a little Kuemmel with my breakfast, or
+with my bit of supper, and it suits me well, thank God! But, Karl, how
+came you to get in with that rascal Pomuchelskopp? I told you long ago
+the beggar was not to be trusted; he is such an old snake, he is a
+crafty hound, in short, he is a Jesuit."
+
+"Ah, Braesig," said Habermann, "we won't talk about it. It is true he
+might have treated me differently, but still I was to blame; why did I
+fall in with his proposal? Something else is in my head now. If I could
+only have a place again!"
+
+"Of course, you must have a place again. My gracious Herr Count is
+looking out for a competent inspector for his principal estate; but,
+Karl, don't take it ill of me, that wouldn't suit you. Do you see,
+you must be rigged every morning with freshly blacked boots and a
+tight-fitting coat, and you must talk High-German to him, for he
+regards Platt-Deutsch as uncultivated, and then you have all the women
+about your neck, for they rule everything there. And if you could get
+along with the boots and the dress-coat, and the High-German,--for you
+used to know it well enough, though you may be a little out of practice
+now,--yet the women would be too much for you. The gracious Countess
+looks after you in the cow-stable and in the pig-pen. In short it is a
+service like--what shall I say? like Sodom and Gomorrah!"
+
+"Look here!" cried the mistress of the house, "it just occurs to me
+that the Pumpelhagen inspector is going to leave on St. John's day;
+that will be the place for you, Karl."
+
+"Frau Nuessler is always right," said Braesig. "What the Herr
+Kammer_rath_ von Pumpelhagen is,"--for he laid the emphasis in the man's
+title always upon _rath_, so that it seemed as if he and the Kammerrath
+had served in the army together, or at least had eaten out of the same
+spoon and platter,--"what the Herr Kammerrath von Pumpelhagen is,
+nobody knows better than I. A man who thinks much of his people, and
+gives a good salary, and is quite a gentleman of the old school. He
+knew you too, in old times, Karl. That is the right place for you, and
+to-morrow I will go over there with you. What do yow say to it, young
+Jochen?"
+
+"Yes," said Herr Nuessler, "it is all as true as leather."
+
+"Bless me!" cried the young wife, and an anxious look overspread her
+handsome face, "how I forget everything to-day! If grandfather and
+grandmother knew that we were sitting down to supper with company, and
+they not called, they would never forgive me. Sit a little closer
+together, children. Jochen, you might have thought of it."
+
+"Yes, what shall I do about it now?" said Jochen, as she was already
+out of the room.
+
+It was not long before the two old people came back with her, shuffling
+in with their leathern slippers. Upon both their faces lay that lurking
+expectation and that vague curiosity which comes from very dull
+hearing, and which quite too easily passes into an expression of
+obstinacy and distrust. It has justly been said that married people,
+who have lived long together, and have thought and cared and worked for
+the same objects, come at last to look like each other; and even if
+that is not true of the cut of the features, it holds good for the
+expression. Both looked like people who never had allowed themselves
+any pleasure or satisfaction which would be in the least expensive;
+both looked shabby and dingy in their clothing, as if they must still
+be sparing and tug at the wheel, and as if even water cost money. No
+look of comfort in their old age, no pleasure sparkled in their eyes,
+for they had had but one pleasure in their whole lives,--that was their
+Jochen and his good success; now they were laid aside and heaviness lay
+on their natures, and on their only joy, for Jochen was quite too
+heavy; but for his success they still cared and toiled,--it was the
+last goal of their lives.
+
+The old man was almost imbecile, but the old woman still kept her
+faculties, and her eyes glanced furtively into all the corners, like a
+pair of sharpers watching their opportunity.
+
+Habermann rose and gave his hand to the two old people, and his sister
+stood by, looking anxiously in their faces to see what they thought of
+the visit. She had already told them the occasion of her brother's
+coming, and that might have been the reason why their faces looked
+sourer than usual; or it might have been on account of the luxurious
+supper with which the table was spread.
+
+The old folks sat down to the table. The old woman looked sharply at
+Habermann's little girl. "Is that his?" she asked.
+
+The young woman nodded.
+
+"Going to stay here?" she asked further.
+
+The young woman nodded again.
+
+"So!" said the old woman, and prolonged the word, as if to indicate all
+the damage which she expected her Jochen to suffer on that account.
+"Yes, times are hard," she began, as if she must have a fling at the
+times, "and one has enough to do to carry oneself through the world."
+
+The old man all the time was looking at the beer bottles and Braesig's
+glass. "Is that my beer?" asked he.
+
+"Yes," shouted Braesig into his ear, "and it is fine beer, which Frau
+Nuessler has brewed, a good cordial for a thin, weak person."
+
+"Too extravagant! Too extravagant!" muttered the old man to himself.
+The old woman ate, but kept looking away, over the table, toward the
+chest of drawers.
+
+The young wife, who must have studied attentively the old woman's
+behavior, looked in the same direction, and perceived with horror that
+the cap was missing from the stand. "Good heavens! what had become of
+the cap?" She had herself that very morning plaited it and hung it up
+on the stand.
+
+"Where is my cap for to-morrow?" asked the old woman, at last.
+
+"Never mind now, mother," said the young woman, bending toward her, "I
+will get it for you by and by."
+
+"Is it all plaited?"
+
+The young woman nodded, and thought surely now grandmother would be
+satisfied; but the old woman glanced her eyes sideways about the room,
+as, fifty years ago, she had been used to look at young men. The Herr
+Inspector Braesig called his sins to mind, as they began to talk about
+the cap, and tried, in a couple of hasty glances, to ascertain what had
+become of the affair; but he had not much time, for there shot over the
+old woman's face such a bitter-sweet, venomous grin, that she reminded
+one of the dry bread steeped in poisonous syrup with which one catches
+flies.
+
+"Are you sure you plaited it?" said she, and pointed to Habermann's
+little Louise.
+
+"Good heavens, what is that!" cried the young woman, and sprang up and
+perceived an end of the cap-string hanging out under the child's little
+dress. She lifted the child, and would have taken the head-gear, but
+the old woman was quicker. Hastily she seized her disordered finery,
+and, as she perceived the burst-out puff and Braesig's half-inserted
+drawing-string, the venom broke out, and, holding up the cap,
+"Mischievous child!" cried she, and made a motion as if she would box
+the child's ears with it.
+
+But Braesig caught her arm, and cried, "The child knows nothing about
+it;" and to himself he muttered, "The old dragon!" And behind
+grandmother's chair began a great crying, and Mining sobbed, "Won't do
+it again! Won't do it again!" and Lining sobbed also, "Won't do it
+again! Won't do it again!"
+
+"Bless my soul!" cried the young woman, "our own children have done the
+mischief. Mother, it was our own children!" But the old woman had all
+her life understood too well what was for her own advantage, not to
+know in her old age how to profit by her grievances; what she would not
+hear, she did not hear, and she would not hear this. She called and
+beckoned to the old man: "Come!"
+
+"Mother, mother," begged the young woman, "give me the cap, I will make
+it all right again."
+
+"Who is up in the pasture?" asked the old woman, and went with old
+Jochen out of the door.
+
+Young Jochen lighted his pipe. "God bless me!" said the young woman,
+"she is right, I must go to the pasture. Grandmother will not think
+well of me for the next four weeks."
+
+"Gruff was an old dog," said Braesig, "but Gruff had to give in at
+last."
+
+"Don't cry any longer, you poor little things," said the mother, drying
+her children's tears. "You didn't mean any harm, but you are too
+heedless. And now behave well, and play with little cousin. I must go.
+Jochen, look after the children a little," and with that she put on her
+chip hat and went to the pasture.
+
+"Mothers-in-law are the devil's claw!" said Braesig. "But you, young
+Jochen," turning to the man, who sat there as if his mother and his
+wife were no concern of his, "you should be ashamed of yourself to let
+your wife be so abused by the old woman."
+
+"Yes? what shall I do about it, being her son?" said young Jochen.
+
+"You cannot beat her, to be sure, since they are unfortunately your
+parents; but you might give a filial admonition, now and then, like a
+dutiful son, that the devil in her must be cast out, if she will not
+keep peace in the family. And you, Karl Habermann, don't take this
+little quarrel too much to heart; for your dear sister has a good
+temper and a joyous heart. She soon gets over it, and the old termagant
+must give in at last, for they can do nothing without her. The young
+woman is the mainspring of the house. But"--here he drew out from his
+pocket an immense double-cased watch, such a thing as one calls a
+warming-pan--"really, it is close upon seven! I must hurry, for my
+people need looking after."
+
+"Hold on," said Habermann, "I will go part way with you. Good-bye for
+so long, Jochen."
+
+"Good-bye, also, brother-in-law," said Jochen, and remained sitting in
+his corner.
+
+As they came out of doors, Habermann said, "But, Braesig, how can you
+speak so of the old people, in their son's presence?"
+
+"He is used to it, Karl. No devil could endure those two old
+dogs-in-the-manger. They have embroiled themselves with the whole
+neighborhood, and as for the servants, they run miles to get out of
+their way."
+
+"Good heavens," said Habermann, "my poor sister! She was such a joyous
+child, and now in such a house, and with such a lout of a man!"
+
+"There you are right, Karl, he is an old lout (Nuess), and Nuessler is
+his name; but he does not treat your sister badly, and, although he is
+an old blockhead and has no sort of smartness about him, he is not yet
+so dull that he cannot see how your sister manages the whole concern."
+
+"The poor girl! On my account, that she might not be a burden on me, as
+she said, and that our old mother might see one of her children settled
+before her death, she took the man.
+
+"I know all about it, Karl, I know it from my own experience. Don't you
+remember? It was in rye-harvest, and you said to me, 'Zachary,' said
+you, 'your activity is a disadvantage to you, you are carrying in your
+rye still damp.' And I said, 'How so?' For on Sunday we had already had
+Streichelbier, and your sister was there also, and with such weather
+why shouldn't I get in my rye? And then I told you, unless I am
+mistaken, that of my three partners I would marry no other than your
+sister. Then you laughed again, so mischievously, and said, she was
+still too young. 'What has her youth to do with it?' said I. Then you
+said again my other two partners had the first chance, and laughed, not
+believing I was in earnest; and so the matter dawdled along for awhile,
+for my gracious Herr Count would not give his consent, and allowed no
+married inspectors. And next thing it was too late, for young Jochen
+had spoken for her, and your mother was on his side. No, it was not to
+be," said the honest old fellow, looking pensively along his nose, "but
+when I see her little rogues of twins, and think to myself that they
+ought rightly to be mine, listen to me, Karl, then I feel as if I could
+trample the old woman and old Jochen and young Jochen into the ground
+together. But it is a real blessing to the old Jesuits that your sister
+has came into the house, with her kind heart and cheerful disposition;
+for if they had had a daughter-in-law of a different sort, they would
+long since have been dead and buried."
+
+With these words, they had come out of the hamlet, and as they turned
+by the farm-garden Habermann exclaimed, "Good heavens, can it be that
+the two old people are standing on that hill?"
+
+"Yes," said Braesig, with a scornful laugh, "there is the old pack of
+Jesuits again at their place of retirement."
+
+"Retirement!" exclaimed Habermann. "On a hill-top!"
+
+"It is even so, Karl. The old reptile trusts nobody, not her own
+children, and if she has something to say which her ordinary gestures
+and pantomime will not suffice for, then they always come here to this
+steep hill, where they can see all around if any one is within hearing,
+and then they shout their secrets in each other's ears. Yes, now they
+are in full conclave, the old woman has laid a dragon's egg, and they
+are setting on it together."
+
+"She is so hasty and passionate," said Habermann. "Just see how the old
+woman gesticulates! What would she have?"
+
+"I know right well what they are deliberating and ruminating upon. I
+can understand a hundred paces off, for I know her of old. And Karl,"
+he added, after a little thought, raising his eyebrows, "it is best you
+should know all, that you may hold yourself ready; they are talking of
+you and your little one."
+
+"Of me, and my little girl?" asked Habermann, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, Karl. You see if you had come with a great bag of money, they
+would have welcomed you with open arms, for money is the one thing
+which they hold in respect; but in your temporary embarrassment they
+look upon you and your little girl as nothing better than a couple of
+intruders, who will take the bread from their mouths, and from their
+old blockhead of a Jochen."
+
+"God bless me!" cried Habermann, "why didn't I leave the child with the
+Rassows? What shall I do with the poor little thing? Do you know any
+expedient? I cannot leave her here, not even with my own sister can I
+leave her here."
+
+"But naturally, you wish to have her near you. Now I will tell you,
+Karl, tonight you must stay with the Nuessler's; tomorrow we will go to
+the Herr Kammerrath at Pumpelhagen. If that goes well, then we can find
+a place for the child here in the neighbourhood; if not, we will ride
+to the city, and there we must find some opening,--if not otherwise,
+with the merchant Kurz. And now good-bye, Karl! Don't take the matter
+too much to heart,--things will improve, Karl!" whereupon he departed.
+
+"Yes, if all were like you," said Habermann, as he went back to his
+sister's house, "then I should get over the steep mountain; but get
+over it I must, and will," and the cheerful courage, which had been
+nurtured by labor and his feeling of duty, broke through the gloom,
+like the sun through a mist. "My sister shall suffer no inconvenience
+on my account, and I will take care of my child myself."
+
+In the evening, when the milk had been cared for, Habermann walked with
+his sister along the garden-path, and she spoke of his, and he of her,
+troubles.
+
+"Eh, Karl," said she, "don't fret about me! I am used to it all now.
+Yes, it is true, the old folks are very selfish and irritable; but if
+they sulk at me for a week, I forget it all the next hour, and as for
+Jochen, I must own that he lays nothing in my way, and has never given
+me a hard word. If he were only a little more active and ready,--but
+that is not to be looked for in him. I have enough to do in my
+house-keeping, but I have to concern myself with the out-of-door work,
+too, which is not a woman's business, and there Braesig is a real
+comfort to me, for he has an eye to the fields and the farm-yard, and
+starts Jochen up a little."
+
+"Does the farming go well on the whole, and do you come out right at
+the year's end?" asked the brother.
+
+"It does not go as well as it ought. We are too sparing for that, and
+the old folks will not allow us to make any changes or improvements. We
+come out right, and the rent is always paid promptly, but there are
+Jochen's two old brothers-in-law, the merchant Kurz, and the Rector
+Baldrian--they made quite a stir about it, and set the old people and
+us by the ears because they wanted their share of the property. The
+Rector doesn't really need it, but he is such an old miser; but Kurz
+could use his money, for he is a merchant, and will yet have a large
+business. But the two old people wish to give almost everything to
+Jochen, and with that which they have kept back for themselves they
+cannot part, and the old woman has an old rhyme, which she always
+quotes, if one touches on the subject:--
+
+
+           'Who to his children gives his bread,
+            Himself shall suffer need instead,
+            And with a club be stricken dead.'
+
+
+But it is wrong, all wrong, and no blessing can come of it, for one
+child is as good as another, and at first I said that right out to the
+old people. Oh, what an uproar there was! They had earned it, and what
+had I brought into the family? Upon my knees I ought to thank God and
+them, that they would make a man of Jochen. But I have persuaded
+Jochen, so that to Kurz at least he has from time to time given upwards
+of fifteen hundred thalers. The old woman has noticed it, to be sure,
+and has reckoned it all up, but she does not know yet the truth of the
+matter; because, since Jochen is rather slow, and is not used to
+reckoning, I keep the purse myself, and there I positively will not
+allow grandmother to interfere. No, grandmother, I am not so stupid as
+that! If I have a house of my own, I will have my own purse. And that
+is their great grievance, that they can no longer play the guardian
+over Jochen; but Jochen is almost forty, and if he will not rule
+himself, then I will rule him, for I am his wife, and the nearest to
+him, as our Frau Pastorin says. Now, tell me, Karl, am I right or am I
+wrong?"
+
+"You are right, Duerten," said Habermann.
+
+With that they said good-night, and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The next morning came Braesig in good season, to go with Habermann to
+Pumpelhagen. The young wife sat in the living-room, and was paying off
+the work-people; Jochen sat close by her, and smoked tobacco,--he
+attended to that business. The old people were not yet visible, for
+grandmother had said to her daughter-in-law, she at least could not go
+out to-day, since she had nothing to put on her head; and grandfather
+had said that merry-making would go on better without him.
+
+"It is really considerate of the old people," said Braesig, "not to
+spoil our dinner; for, Madam Nuessler, I am going to stay here to dinner
+to-day, with Karl. But, Karl, we must go. Good-bye, little rogues!"
+
+As they went through the farm-yard, Braesig all of a sudden stood still.
+"Just see, Karl, doesn't it look like the desert of Sahara? Here a
+dung-heap and there a dung-heap! And yet, see, old Jochen has had these
+ditches opened, so that all the dirty water can run off, in a body, to
+the village pond. And then the roofs!" said he, walking on. "They have
+straw enough for new roofs,--it is merely that the old folks grudge
+the expense of repairing them. I come here properly only from two
+motives,--one relates to my health, the other to my heart; for I find
+that it agrees with me, when I have eaten too hearty a dinner, to get
+comfortably angry, and, on account of my heart, I go for the sake of
+your sister and the little rogues, since I can be of some assistance to
+her. For young Jochen behaves usually quite too much like a wheel on a
+baggage-wagon, in the winter, between here and Rostock. If I could but
+once have him before a cart, with three or four on top of the load, and
+then lay on the whip!"
+
+"See," said Habermann, as they went through a field, "they have some
+fine-looking wheat there."
+
+"Oh, yes, it has a good color; but what do you think they sow here?
+Rye! And why so? Because old Jochen, for twenty-five years, has always
+had rye in the winter field."
+
+"Does this field extend over the hill yonder?"
+
+"No, Karl, the old lynx is not so fat as that; fry lard in butter, and
+eat it with a spoon! No, Karl, that field over the hill happens to be
+mine."
+
+"Eh, how one can forget, in a couple of years! So your land comes thus
+far?"
+
+"Yes, Karl, for Warnitz stretches out finely in length; on this side it
+comes to this point, and on the other it turns round toward Haunerwiem.
+But see here, from this rising-ground I can show you the whole region.
+Where we stand belongs to your brother-in-law, and his land goes on the
+right up to my wheat, and on the left to that little clump of firs, for
+Rexow is quite small. He has also a small field on the other side of
+the hamlet. The land to the right, behind my wheat field, also belongs
+to Warnitz, and before us, where the ploughed ground begins, lies
+Pumpelhagen; and here on the left, behind the fir-trees, is Gurlitz."
+
+"Warnitz is then the largest?"
+
+"No, Karl, not so either. Pumpelhagen has eight lasts more, and is a
+first-class estate also in value,--two-and-forty lasts natural wheat
+land. Yes, if the rest were all of a piece! No, the Kammerrath is a
+good man, and a good countryman; but you see, there he sits in
+Schwerin, and cannot trouble himself about Pumpelhagen, where he has
+often had _such_ inspectors! And he bought the property in dear times,
+and a crowd of leeches stand ready to drain the last drop from his
+veins; and then his lady, the Kammerraethin, rides grandly in her
+carriage visiting and entertaining. But he is the right sort of man,
+and is good to his people, and although the von Rambows are of old
+descent,--for my gracious Herr Count often invites him to dinner, and
+he thinks a great deal of ancestry,--yet he carries himself quite
+pleasantly and without any formality."
+
+Habermann had listened attentively to this information, for these
+things might by a fortunate chance have some connection with his
+future; but, interested as he was, his thoughts still recurred to his
+present difficulty. "Braesig," said he, "have you any idea in your head
+about my little girl?"
+
+"What wouldn't I do for her, Karl! But--the devil knows! I believe we
+must after all go to the city to Kurz, the merchant. She, Frau Kurz, is
+a good sort of woman, and he--well, he is in the vocative, like all
+shop-keepers. Just think, last summer the rascal sold me a piece of
+stuff for breeches, for Sunday wear; it was a kind of chocolate-colour.
+And, think, when I went one morning in the dew, through my clover, they
+turned up to the knee, like a mess of crabs, pure scarlet! And he sent
+me some Kuemmel, the Prussian kind, the old sweet-meats, tinkered up
+with all sorts of drops. But I sent it back to him again, with a good
+scolding; the breeches, however, he would not take back, and sent me
+word he didn't wear breeches. No, did the rascal think I was going to
+wear red ones! And Karl, see, here at the left is Gurlitz.
+
+"Is that the Gurlitz church-tower?" asked Habermann.
+
+"Yes, Karl,"--and Braesig stood still, turned up his nose, sent
+his eyebrows up under his cocked hat,--for he wore a hat on
+Sundays,--opened his mouth wide, and stared at Habermann with a pair of
+eyes which seemed to look him through and through, and then lose
+themselves in the distance.
+
+"Karl!" he cried finally, "since you speak of the church-tower,--God
+bless you! the Gurlitz pastor must take your little girl."
+
+"Pastor Behrens?" asked Habermann.
+
+"Yes, Pastor Behrens, who was our private instructor at old
+Knirkstaedt's."
+
+"Ah, Braesig, I will confess I have thought of it almost the whole
+night, whether that would be possible, if I should remain in the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"Possible? He must! He would like nothing better than to have a little
+child growing up near him, since he himself has no children; and he has
+rented his farm, and now has nothing to do but to read and study his
+books, which it would make another man turn green and yellow merely to
+look at from a distance. That is what he enjoys! And she, the Frau
+Pastorin, is so fond of children, that all the girls in the village tag
+after her; and she is an excellent, kind-hearted woman, and always
+cheerful, and the best of friends with your sister."
+
+"Ah, if that might be!" exclaimed Habermann. "You and I owe everything
+to that man, Zachary! Do you remember, when he was still a candidate,
+at old Knirkstaedt's, how he gave us private lessons in the winter
+evenings, and taught us writing and arithmetic, and what a friend he
+was to us two stupid youngsters?"
+
+"Yes, Karl, and how Zamel Pomuchelskopp used to lie and snore of an
+evening, till the beams shook, while we were in the pursuit of
+learning. Do you remember, in the arithmetic, when we came to the Rule
+of Three,--you seek the fourth unknown quantity, and first get the
+ratio, and then it goes! In quickness I was your superior, but you were
+mine in accuracy, and also in orthography. But in letter-writing and in
+High-German, then I was better again; and these last I have ever since
+studied diligently, for every man has his favorite pursuit. And when I
+go to see the Pastor, I always thank him for his assistance in my
+education; and then he laughs, and says he is more indebted to me,
+because I have rented his farm for him, and he is now sure of a good
+contract. He thinks something of me, and if you stay here, we will go
+over to him, and you shall see he will do it."
+
+By this time they had arrived at Pumpelhagen, and Braesig quite
+impressed Habermann by his distinguished manners, as he sailed up to
+the old servant, and inquired if the Herr Kammerrath was at home, and
+could be spoken with.
+
+He would announce the gentlemen the man said; wasn't it the Herr
+Inspector, Braesig?
+
+"Yes," said Braesig. "Do you see, Karl he knows me, and the Herr
+Kammerrath knows me too. And, did you notice? regularly announcing us!
+The nobility don't do things meanly. My gracious Herr Count always has
+people announced to him by three servants; that is, one announces to
+the other, until the valet finally announces to him, and by this custom
+we sometimes have amusing occurrences,--as, the other day, with the
+kammerjaeger. The first announced to the second, instead of kammerjaeger,
+oberjaeger, and the second added a meister, and the third announced to
+the Herr Count an oberjaegermeister; and, as my gracious Herr Count
+prepared to receive the strange gentleman with proper ceremony, it was
+the old rat-catcher Tibaul."
+
+The servant came back, and led them into a spacious room, which was
+very comfortably but not splendidly furnished. In the centre stood a
+large, plain table, covered with papers and accounts. Behind the table
+stood, as they entered, a rather tall, thin man, who had on his face a
+thoughtful expression, and in his whole appearance an air of quiet
+reflection; and in his dress, although it was quite suited to his
+circumstances, there was the same simplicity as in the furnishing of
+the room. He might have been about fifty, and his sandy hair was
+thickly sprinkled with gray; also he was evidently quite shortsighted,
+for, as he came around the table to receive the two guests, he reached
+after an eye-glass, which, however, he did not use, but went up close
+to his visitors. "Ah, Herr Inspector Braesig," said he quietly. "What
+can I do for you?"
+
+Uncle Braesig was so put out in his elaborate address, that he could not
+collect himself of a sudden; not to hurry him, the Herr Kammerrath
+looked quite closely at Habermann. "You want---- But," he interrupted
+himself, "I ought to know you. Wait a moment,--were you not for ten or
+twelve years in service with my brother?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Kammerrath, and my name is Habermann."
+
+"Right, right! And to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here?"
+
+"I have understood that the Herr Kammerrath was looking for an
+inspector; and as I am in search of such a place----"
+
+"But you have a farm in Pomerania, as I think I have heard,"
+interrupted the proprietor.
+
+But now it was high time for Braesig, if he had anything of importance
+to say, to charge into the midst. "That he had, Herr Kammerrath von
+Rambow, he _had_ it, but the Jews will give nothing for it now. He,
+like many another farmer, got into difficulties, and the pitiful
+meanness and baseness of his landlord have ruined him. What do you say
+to that, Herr Kammerrath?"
+
+Behind the old fellow's back at these words sounded a hearty laugh, and
+as he looked around he saw the bright face of a ten or twelve years'
+old boy, which seemed to say, "Wait a bit, there is more coming." The
+Kammerrath also turned his face away to laugh a little; but happily for
+uncle Braesig, it never occurred to him that the laughing was from any
+other cause than natural pleasure at his well-chosen language. He
+concluded therefore, quite seriously. "And so he has gone head over
+heels."
+
+"I am heartily sorry," said the Kammerrath; "Yes," he added with a
+sigh, "these are hard times for the countrymen; but we must hope that
+they will improve. As regards your wish,--Axel, go out and see if
+breakfast is ready,--your supposition is correct. I have just dismissed
+my late inspector,--I will tell you, because of carelessness in his
+accounts,--and I am looking for a suitable man to fill his place. But,"
+said he, as his son appeared at the door, and announced that breakfast
+was ready, "if you have not yet breakfasted, we can arrange the matter
+best at the breakfast-table."
+
+With that, he went to the door, but stood there, and made a motion with
+his hand for them to pass out first. "Karl," whispered Braesig, "didn't
+I tell you? Just like one of us!" But as Habermann quietly passed on,
+accepting the invitation, he threw up his eyebrows, and stretched out
+his hand as if he would draw his friend back by the coat-tails, then
+stood with his little twisted legs turned out, and bowed like a
+clasp-knife.
+
+"Eh, how could I! I beseech you! Herr Kammerrath should always have
+precedence!" And his waiting was not of a bad order, for he had a long
+body and short legs, and they belong properly to waiters.
+
+The Herr Kammerrath had to take himself out of the way of his
+compliments, that the old fellow might not dislocate his spine. At the
+breakfast-table the business was discussed and decided; Habermann was
+engaged on a good, sufficient salary, which was to be increased every
+five years; and the only condition which the Kammerrath insisted upon
+was that he should occupy the place at once.
+
+The new inspector agreed to this, and the day was set for his entering
+on his duties, so that the Kammerrath before his departure could go
+with him about the place and tell him what he wanted done; and Braesig
+having concluded a brief sketch of the troubled life-career of the
+fifteen years' old full-blooded Wallach, which he had cared for in his
+business at the farm,--how he had "had the honor to know the old
+carrion ever since it was born;" how the creature in its younger
+years had been "such a colt as you read of in books," but afterward
+"with shying and spavin and all manner of devilish tricks had so
+disgraced himself that he was now punished by being harnessed to the
+dung-cart,"--the two inspectors took their leave.
+
+"Braesig," said Habermann, when they were outside, "a stone, has been
+taken from my heart. Thank God, I shall be employed again! And that
+brings me to other thoughts. Now for Gurlitz! Ah, if we may only be as
+fortunate there!"
+
+"Yes, Karl, you may well say fortunate; for--don't take it ill of
+me--you don't understand the way of life and the fine etiquette of
+noble society. How could you do such a thing! How could you go through
+the door before the Herr Kammerrath?"
+
+"Braesig, when he invited me I was his guest, and he was not yet my
+master; now, I should not do it, and, rely upon it, he would not do it
+either."
+
+"No, Karl, so I think; but at the Pastor's leave the business to me;
+there some finesse will be needed."
+
+"Yes, Zachary, gladly. Were, it not for my poor little girl, I should
+not have the courage to ask so great a favor of any man. If you will
+undertake it for me, I shall consider it a real piece of friendship."
+
+As they came toward the Gurlitz church, they knew by the singing that
+the service was not yet over; and, as they went into the Pastor's
+house, and into the living-room, they were met by a little, quick,
+round woman, upwards of forty years of age. Everything about her was
+round,--arms and hands and fingers, head and cheeks and lips; and the
+eyes looked so round and bright out of her soft round face, as if the
+eyelids had never been pressed down with trouble and sorrow, and such a
+cheery life over flowed from her mien and motions, that one believed he
+could almost see how the fresh, red blood throbbed through the warm
+heart.
+
+"Good-day, Herr Braesig, sit down! Sit down, also! Yes, that is right,
+my Pastor is still in church; he would scold well if you had gone away.
+Pray sit down, Herr--what shall I call you? Yes, I would gladly have
+gone to church to-day, but just think, last Sunday the Pastor's pew was
+broken in halves. Bless me, how every body crowded around, and we
+couldn't say 'No.' And our old cabinetmaker Pruesshawer was going to
+mend it, and he is sick with a fever."
+
+The round little mouth rolled out the words as if they were round,
+smooth, white billiard balls, which a playful child shoots here and
+there over the green cloth.
+
+Braesig now introduced Habermann as the brother of Frau Nuessler.
+
+"You are her brother? Her brother Karl? Now sit down, sit down! How
+glad my Pastor will be! When Frau Nuessler is here, we always talk about
+you; something good you may be sure,--the Herr Inspector knows. Bless
+you, Braesig, what are you doing with my hymn-book? Let me put the book
+away! you don't want to read it, you are an old heathen. Those are
+funeral-hymns, and what have you to do with funeral-hymns? You will
+live forever! You are no better than the Wandering Jew! But, dear
+heart! one must think sometimes about dying, and so, since our
+church-pew is broken, and the old cabinet-maker has a fever, I have
+been reading a couple of hymns 'On preparation for death.'" And with
+that she flew round like quicksilver, and laid the books on one side,
+and whisked off a little dust here and there, where none was visible,
+and rubbed and polished about in the room, which was as neat as a
+dressing-box. All at once she stood still, listened toward the kitchen
+and cried, "Just so, I must go and look after the soup!" and was gone.
+
+"Didn't I tell you, Karl?" said Braesig. "There's a temperament for you!
+And what splendid health! Now leave me alone; I will manage it all,"
+and he went out after the Frau Pastorin.
+
+Habermann looked around him in the room. How neat and comfortable every
+thing was, so homelike and so full of peace. There hung, above the
+sofa, a beautiful head of Christ, and around and beneath it were the
+portraits of the parents of the Herr Pastor and the Frau Pastorin, and
+their relations, some in colors, some in crayon, some large, others
+small; and the Lord Jesus had his hands raised in blessing, and the
+Frau Pastorin had arranged under their shadow all her relations,
+putting them the nearest, that they might have the best of the
+blessing.
+
+Her own picture, painted in early years, and that of her Pastor, she
+had in humility hung by the window, a little further off; but the sun,
+which looked in through the snow-white curtains, and gilded the
+other portraits, touched these two pictures first. There was a small
+book-case full of religious and secular books, a little mixed together,
+but still making a fine appearance, for they were arranged more with
+reference to their bindings than their contents. And if any one
+supposed, because she talked Platt-Deutsch, that she had no
+appreciation or enjoyment of High-German literature, he needed merely
+to open a book, where a mark lay, and he would find that the marked
+places had been read with heart and feeling,--that is to say, if he had
+as much heart and feeling as the Frau Pastorin; and, had he opened the
+cookbook, he would have seen that the Frau Pastorin was as good a
+student as the Herr Pastor, for she had just like him her notes written
+on the margin, and where nothing was written one might understand that
+those were the Herr Pastor's favorite recipes,--"And by those," said
+she, "I don't need to make any marks, for I know them by heart."
+
+And here in this peaceful abode, in this pretty, comfortable nest,
+shall Habermann, if God in mercy grant it, leave his child to pass her
+early years. These hands of the Saviour shall be stretched out in
+blessing over her, this blessed sun shall shine upon her, and the noble
+thoughts, which great and good men have written in books for the world,
+shall awaken her young soul out of childhood's dreams, and give it life
+and joy.
+
+He was getting very soft-hearted. But, as he still sat between hope and
+fear, the Frau Pastorin came in at the door, her eyes red with weeping.
+"Don't say a word, Herr Habermann, don't say a word! Braesig has told me
+everything, and Braesig is an old heathen, but he is a good man, and a
+true friend of yours,--and my Pastor thinks just as I do, that I know,
+for we are always one,--and that dear little thing! God bless you, yes!
+The old Nuesslers are a hard-hearted set," and she tapped the floor
+briskly with her foot.
+
+"The old woman," said Braesig, who was by this time close beside them,
+"the old woman is a real horse-leech."
+
+"Right, Braesig, she is that, but my Pastor shall talk the old people
+into reason; not on account of the little girl, she shall come here, or
+I don't know my old Pastor!"
+
+While Habermann was expressing his heart-felt thanks, her Pastor came
+in,--she always called him "her" Pastor, because he was truly hers,
+body and soul, and her "Pastor," on account of his own dignity, and
+because the title belonged to him from his office. He came bare-headed
+across the church-yard and parsonage-yard, for these high soft-hats,
+which make our good Protestant ministers look like Russian priests,
+were not then in fashion, at least not in the country; and, instead of
+the great ruff, as broad as the white china platter on Which the
+daughter of Herodias presents the head of John-Baptist to her
+step-father, he had a pair of little innocent bands, which his dear
+wife Regina had, with all Christian reverence, stitched, stiffened,
+pressed and tied around his neck with her own hands. She held correctly
+that these little simple things were the distinctive ministerial
+uniform, and not the little four-cornered cape which was worn over the
+coat-collar. "For," said she, "my dear Frau Nuessler, our sexton wears
+just such a little cape, but he dare not wear bands; and when I see my
+Pastor, with the ornaments of his office, standing in the chancel, I
+don't know, they seem to me, the two little things, as they rise
+and fall with his words, now one, now the other, like a pair of
+angel-wings, on which one might rise directly to Heaven,--only my
+Pastor has his wings in front, and the angels have theirs behind."
+
+No, he wasn't an angel, this good Pastor of hers, and he was the last
+person to set himself up for one. But with all the sincerity that shone
+from his face, and seemed to know no dissimulation, there was such a
+friendly forbearance, such a quiet, kindly expression, that one must
+hold him at the first glance for a brave man, and although his whole
+life had been given up to self-denying labor, yet he could--naturally
+after the Frau Pastorin had taken off his cape and bands--show in his
+eyes his joyous heart, and utter innocent jests with his lips; and,
+when he put off the ecclesiastic, he stood forth as a man who, in
+worldly matters also, could give sensible counsel, and reach forth a
+helping hand.
+
+As he stepped into the room, he recognized Habermann immediately, and
+went right up to him. "My dear friend, do I see you once more! How are
+you? Good-day, Herr Inspector!" And as Habermann returned the greeting,
+and Braesig began to tell the reason of their visit, the Frau Pastorin
+sprang between them, and seized her Pastor by his ministerial gown, and
+cried, "Not a word, Herr Habermann; Braesig, will you be so good? You
+shall know it all from me," said she to her husband, "for, though the
+story is a sad one,--yes, Herr Habermann, quite too sad,--yet there
+will be a pleasure for you. Come, come!" and with that she drew him
+into his study. "For I am the nearest to him," she called back from the
+door, in apology.
+
+After a while the Pastor came back with his wife into the room, and
+went, with a determined step and resolved expression on his face, up to
+Habermann. "Yes, dear Habermann, yes! We will do it, and, so far as in
+us lies, do it gladly,"--and he pressed his hand--"but," he added, "we
+have no experience in the care of children, yet we can learn. Isn't it
+so, Regina, we can learn?" as if with this little joke he would help
+Habermann over the deep emotion which struggled in his face and in his
+whole being.
+
+"Herr Pastor," he broke out, finally, "You have long ago done a great
+deal for me, but this--" And the little Frau Pastorin reached after her
+means of consolation and implement of all work, which she took in hand
+at every surprise of joy or sorrow,--after her duster,--and dusted here
+and there, and would have wiped away Habermann's tears with it, if he
+had not turned aside, and she called out at the door after Frederica:
+"Now, Rika, run quickly over to the weaver's wife, and ask her to lend
+me her cradle,--she doesn't use it," she added, to Braesig.
+
+And Braesig, as if it devolved on him to sustain the honor of the
+Habermann family, said to her impressively: "Frau Pastorin, what are
+you thinking of? The little girl is quite hearty!"
+
+And the Frau Pastorin ran again to the door, and called back the
+maiden. "Rika, Rika, not the cradle,--ask her to lend me a little crib,
+and then go to the sexton's daughter, and see if she can come this
+afternoon,--God bless me, to-day is Sunday! But if your ass has fallen
+into a pit, and so forth,--yes, ask her whether she can help me stuff a
+couple of little beds. For it is not heathenish, Braesig, it is a work
+of necessity, and quite another thing from your Herr Count having his
+wheat brought in Sunday afternoon. And, my dear Herr Habermann, the
+little girl must come to us to-day, for Franz," said she to her
+husband, "the old Nuesslers would not give the poor little thing even
+her dinner if they could help it, and, Braesig, bread which is not
+freely given----" here she was a little out of breath and Braesig went
+on: "Yes, Frau Pastorin, one may grow fat on grudged bread, but the
+devil take such fatness!"
+
+"You old heathen, how can you swear so, in a Christian Pastor's house?"
+cried the Frau Pastorin. "But the long and the short of the matter is,
+the little girl must come here to-day."
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin," said Habermann, only too happy, "I will bring her
+to-day. My poor sister will be sorry, but it is better for her, and for
+the peace of her family, and also for my child."
+
+He went up to the two worthy people, and thanked them so warmly, from
+the depths of his grateful heart; and when they had taken leave, and
+were outside, he drew a long breath, and said to Braesig, "How gloomy
+the world looked this morning, but now the sun shines in my heart
+again! I have yet a disagreeable business to attend to; but it is a
+lucky day, and that may go well also."
+
+"What have you got to do now?" asked Braesig.
+
+"I must go to Rahnstadt, to old Moses. I gave him, six months ago, my
+note for six hundred dollars; I have not heard from him since my
+bankruptcy, and I must try to make some arrangement with him."
+
+"That you must, Karl; and I would do it at once, for old Moses isn't
+the worst man in the world, by a long way. Now I will tell you what
+shall be our order of battle for to-day: we will both go back to Rexow,
+and eat our dinner; after dinner young Jochen must lend you his horses,
+and you can take your little one to Gurlitz; go from there to the city,
+and come back in the evening to me, at Warnitz, and stay over night;
+and to-morrow you can go over to Pumpelhagen, since the Herr Kammerrath
+depends on your speedy coming.
+
+"Right," said Habermann, "it shall be so."
+
+They arrived, the dinner was eaten, and Braesig asked of young
+Jochen the loan of his wagon and horses. "Of course," cried Frau
+Nuessler,--"Yes, of course," said Jochen, and went out himself
+immediately, to order the horses harnessed.
+
+"Karl," said the sister, "my dear brother, how glad, how heartily glad,
+I should be, if---- But you know the reason; Braesig has told you. But,
+dear heart, if one could only keep peace in the family! Don't believe
+that Jochen thinks differently from me, only he hasn't the energy to
+stand up for his rights. But I will look after your child as if she
+were my own, though it will not be needful at the Parsonage."
+
+The wagon drove up. "What the devil!" cried Braesig, "young Jochen, you
+have got out your state-equipage, the old yellow coach!"
+
+"Yes, Herr," said Christian, who sat up in front. "May we only get safe
+home again with the old thing, for it is fearfully crazy in the box,
+and the wheels clatter as if one were spinning flax."
+
+"Christian," said Braesig, "you must first drive a little way through
+the village pond, and then through the Gurlitz brook; and then, before
+you get to Rahnstadt, though the frog-pond. That will tighten the
+wheels."
+
+"Eh!" said Christian; "one might as well go a sea-voyage!"
+
+As Habermann had taken leave, and put his little girl in the wagon,
+young Jochen pressed out through the company in such haste that all
+made way for him, and his wife cried out, "What is the matter now?"
+"There," said he and placed in the hand of the little Louise a pound of
+Fleigen Markur, for he smoked no other tobacco; but it was only in
+outward appearance, for, as Habermann looked closer, he found a great
+piece of white bread, which young Jochen had merely wrapped up in
+tobacco-paper, because he had nothing else at hand.
+
+The equipage started. Christian took the pond and the brook on his way,
+as Braesig had recommended; the little one was given up at Gurlitz, and
+I will not try to describe how the pretty little dear was handed from
+one to the other, with kisses and petting, and seemed in her
+uncomprehending innocence to find herself at home with the good people.
+Habermann drove on Rahnstadt, to see Moses.
+
+Moses was a man of about fifty. He had large, wise-looking eyes, under
+strong, black eyebrows, although his head was nearly white; heavy
+eyelids and dark lashes gave him an aspect of mildness; he was of
+middle size and of comfortable fulness; his left shoulder was a little
+higher than his right, and that was in consequence of his grip. When he
+got up from his stool, he stuck his left hand in his left coat pocket,
+and took hold of his breeches on the left side, which was always
+slipping down; for he wore but one suspender, and that was on the right
+side. "What's the use?" said he to his Bluemchen, when she would
+persuade him to wear a second suspender. "When I was young and poor and
+had no money, I managed my business with one suspender, and courted my
+Bluemchen with one suspender; and now that I am old and rich, and have
+money, and have Bluemchen, why do I need two suspenders?" And then he
+would pat his Bluemchen, give a grip at the left coat-pocket, and go
+back to his business.
+
+As Habermann entered he sprang up. "O heavens! it is Habermann. Haven't
+I always told you," turning to his son, "Habermann is good, Habermann
+is an honest man?"
+
+"Yes, Moses," said Habermann, "honest truly,--but----"
+
+"Stand up, David, give the seat to Herr Habermann; sit here by me. Herr
+Habermann has something to say to me, and I have something to say to
+Herr Habermann. Do you see?" he added to his son, "David, what did you
+say? 'I should declare myself before the Prussian Justice.' What did I
+say? 'I will not declare myself before the Prussian Justice; Herr
+Habermann is an honorable man.' I declared myself once, it was in a
+business with a Prussian candidate. I had reminded the fellow of his
+debt, and he wrote me a letter, saying I should read a verse out of the
+Christian hymn-book,--David, what was it?"
+
+"It was an infamous verse," said David.
+
+
+          "'Moses cannot accuse me.
+              My conscience knows no fears,
+            For He who has pronounced me free
+              Will pay all my arrears.'"
+
+
+"Yes," cried Moses, "that was what he said. And when I showed the
+letter, the Prussian Justice laughed, and when I showed my note, he
+shrugged his shoulders and laughed again. 'Ha, Ha! I said, you mean the
+paper is good, but the fellow is good for nothing.' Then they said I
+had the right on my side. I could have him locked up, but it would cost
+something. 'Do you take me for a fool? should I pay the fees and costs
+and summons, and the whole lawsuit, merely to give that swine his
+fodder? Let him run!' said I. No, Herr Habermann is better for me than
+the Prussian Justice."
+
+"Yes, that is all very good, Moses," said Habermann, anxiously, "but I
+can't pay you, at least not at present."
+
+"No?" said Moses, and looked at him in a questioning way. "You must
+have kept something over?"
+
+"Not a red shilling," said the farmer with emotion.
+
+"Thou just Heaven!" cried Moses, "not a red shilling!" and he sprang up
+and began ordering his son about. "David, what are you standing there
+for? What are you looking at? Why are you listening? Go and bring my
+book!" With that he began to walk restlessly up and down the room.
+
+"Moses," said Habermann, "only give me time, and you shall have
+principal and interest to the last farthing."
+
+Moses stood still, and listened with deep attention. "Habermann,"
+said he at last, in Platt-Deutsch,--for these old-fashioned Jews,
+when anything goes to the heart, talk Platt-Deutsch, just like
+Christians,--"Habermann, you are an honorable man." And as David came
+back with the book, the old man said, "David, what do we want of the
+book? Take the book away. Now, what is it?" turning to Habermann. "I
+began with nothing, you also began with nothing, I had my business, you
+had yours, I had good luck, you had bad luck. I was industrious, you
+were industrious too, and you understood your business. What we can't
+do to-day may be done to-morrow; to-morrow you may again have a
+situation, and then you can pay me, for you are an honest man."
+
+"A situation?" said Habermann, with a much lighter heart, "I have that
+already, and a good one, too."
+
+"Where?" asked Moses.
+
+"With the Kammerrath, at Pumpelhagen."
+
+"Good, Habermann, good! He is a good man. Though he has had some
+experience of the hard times, he is yet a good man; he does no business
+with me, but he is a good man, for all that. Bluemchen!" he cried at the
+door, "Herr Habermann is here. Bring in two cups of coffee!" and as
+Habermann would have declined the coffee, he added, "Allow me, Herr
+Habermann, allow me! When I was young, and went about the country with
+my pack, and it was cold weather, your mother has often given me a hot
+cup of coffee; when you were inspector you have given me many a ride
+for nothing. No, we are all human beings. Drink! Herr Habermann,
+drink!"
+
+So this business also came out right, and as Habermann went back to
+Braesig that evening his heart was lighter, much lighter; and, as he
+that evening in bed thought over the events of the day, the thought
+came to him whether a beloved voice had not prayed for him, up above,
+and whether a beloved hand had not smoothed out the tangled skein of
+his future, that it might run henceforth with a clear thread.
+
+The next morning he reported himself at Pumpelhagen; and when the
+Kammerrath and his little son rode away, two days after, he found
+himself already acquainted with his new duties, and in full activity.
+And so he remained in quiet content for many years. Grief had
+withdrawn, and the joy he had was of the kind that a man does not enjoy
+alone, which he must share with his fellow-men.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+In the field by the mill there was wheat again this year, as in the
+year in which Habermann took charge of the estate. The property was
+divided into eleven fields; and eleven years had passed since that
+time. The inspector came out of the church, for it was Sunday, and he
+had been to hear the Pastor's sermon, and to visit his little daughter.
+He went on foot along the path from the church, for the way was short,
+and the day was fine, the finest of midsummer weather; he went through
+his wheat-field, and one of the purest joys came over him, this, that
+one sees the visible blessing of God on what in human hope, but also in
+human uncertainty, his hands have sown. He was not enriched by the
+blessing,--that belonged to his master; but the joy was his, and it
+made his heart light and his mind clear, and in the clear mind, joyous
+thoughts darted, like fish in a limpid brook. He whistled a merry tune
+to himself, and almost laughed when he heard his own whistling, for
+such an outburst of mirth rarely happened to him.
+
+"So," said he, "this is the eleventh year I have been over that field,
+and the worst is over; yet once more! then the overseeing shall be done
+by other eyes."
+
+He took the way through the garden, which lay on high ground, and
+joined a little grove of oaks and beeches, where the drive and
+foot-path had been freshly cleared and raked out, for the Kammerrath
+and his family were coming to-day, and had sent word that they might be
+expected by the middle of the afternoon. As he came up the ascent he
+stood still and looked back over the wheat-field, and laughed to
+himself. "Yes, it doesn't look much as it did eleven years ago, when I
+let them mow it. This is something like! This time we have had a better
+year. What will the old Herr say? Between now and harvest, there is
+some time yet, but the rape is now as good as sure. If he only hasn't
+sold it all beforehand, again!" sighed he. "The cuckoo knows!" and he
+recalled the sums which had been borrowed during these eleven long
+years. "The old Herr will go no farther, and will go no farther; but,
+God bless him, there are his five daughters, and two sons-in-law who
+drain him, and then the gracious lady, who believes because money is
+round that it must run away, and then the son--it must be very
+expensive in the Prussian cuirassiers! Yes, the times are better than
+they were in my day; but if a man once gets into a tight place--it is
+hard, and he looks too old altogether."
+
+He had time to spare. To-day they were waiting dinner for the Herr
+Kammerrath, although he had not given orders to that effect. "It was
+proper to do so," Habermann had said. "Yes," said he once more, and
+seated himself in the cool shade, "he will rejoice over the wheat, and
+it will be a help to him, for it is worth something, and times are
+better than they were."
+
+Yes, the times were tight again, for what are "the times," for the
+North German people, and for all mankind, but long, long threads
+stretched far out over England and America and all the world, and
+knotted at the ends, and so managed that they lie sometimes quite
+slack, and whatever is fastened to them--and that is for our people
+almost the whole country--cannot move itself; and then again they are
+stretched tight, so that everything dances merrily back and forth, and
+all are shifted about, even in the remotest corners.
+
+In this little corner of the world also, the thread was stretched
+tight, and young Jochen's porcelain pipe-bowl, and leaden tinder box,
+and his blue-painted corner-cupboard, and the waxed sofa, were all
+cleared out of the house, and the old crazy yellow coach out of the
+carriage-house; and in their place he had a meerschaum pipe adorned
+with silver, and a mahogany secretary, and an immense creature of a
+divan, in the living-room, and in the carriage-house there was a
+vehicle which Braesig always called the "phantom," because in looking at
+the bill he had taken an "e" for an "n," and an "n" for an "m:" and he
+was not far wrong, for the thing was almost of the kind one sees in a
+dream.
+
+And the same thread had also guided the hand of Braesig's Herr Count, so
+that finally, after almost twenty years, he had given him in writing
+the desired permission to marry, and also a bond promising "a suitable
+pension for his old age."
+
+And upon this thread, when it was slack, the little Frau Pastorin had
+caught herself, like a top which the boys rig up, and now that it was
+stretched she buzzed about her Pastor, and hummed daily in his ears;
+when the minister's meadow should be rented again, it would bring as
+good as double. And as Moses, at the close of the last year, added up
+his sum-total, and wrote underneath a little one and four great
+ciphers, the thread caught him by the arm, and the four ciphers changed
+to six. "David, lay the book away," said he, "it balances."
+
+But while these threads, as to how far apart the knots are, and how
+lightly they are stretched, are governed a good deal by human
+instrumentality,--even although the Lord is above, and superintends the
+whole, so that the slack-lying and the tight-stretching happen in
+moderation, and mankind are not left to lie still on a hillock and
+stick there, or get tangled and run wildly together, as when a sack
+full of peas is shaken about,--a single human being has as much
+volition on these threads as the chafer has on his, when the children
+play with it; it can buzz about, here and there. Another thread,
+however, governs the world: it reaches from the highest to the lowest,
+and God himself has fastened the ends; no chafers buzz on it, nor is it
+in any sense a game. This thread was twisted a little, and Zachary
+Braesig got a touch of the gout. It was stretched a little tighter, and
+the two old Nuesslers lay on their last couch; and then the knots at
+their end of the thread were cut, and they were buried.
+
+Zachary Braesig, indeed, scolded and fretted terribly when he felt the
+twitching, and in his ignorance did not understand, but blamed the new
+fashion of sewed dress-boots, and the damp, cold spring, for what he
+should have laid to the account of his hearty dinners and his usual
+little drop of Kuemmel. He was snappish as a horse-fly, and Habermann
+would rally him, whenever he visited him in such a temper, about the
+writing in his possession which he had received from the Herr Count,
+granting him permission to marry and a pension, and then Braesig would
+be angry, terribly angry, and would say, "Now just think, brother, in
+what an outrageous dilemma that paper of the gracious Count places me!
+If I want to marry, then says my gracious Count I am too young to need
+a pension, and if I ask for the pension, then I must say to myself, I
+am too old to marry! Oh! my gracious Count is not much better after all
+than a regular Jesuit; he says the words and you see them under your
+eyes, but virtually he has put all sorts of mocking paragraphs in the
+paper, that a man who for eight and twenty years has worn out his bones
+in his service cannot request a pension without depreciating himself
+personally, or that a man who could have had three brides twenty years
+ago, now that he is fifty years old cannot marry one. Oh, I laugh at
+the gracious paragraphs and at the gracious Count!"
+
+One man's owl is another man's nightingale. Braesig was spiteful over
+the twitching of the thread; but in young Jochen's house, after the
+knots were cut a guest entered, whom the young wife indeed had many
+times invited at the door, but who had never before crossed the
+threshold, and that was Peace. Now he had established himself
+comfortably on the new divan, and ruled over the whole establishment.
+The young woman cared for him, as if her nearest relative had come to
+the house, and the two little twin-apples did everything to please him,
+and young Jochen himself invited the guest in, and said it was all as
+true as leather, and did his duty as the head of the family. He
+continued to be monosyllabic, to be sure, and desired no other tobacco
+than Fleigen Markur, and did not trouble himself about the oversight of
+the farm. For, after the death of the old people, Habermann and Braesig
+had taken the charge of out-door affairs quite out of his hands, and
+had changed the crops, and had introduced improvements, and because the
+old people had stowed away under the pillows, and in the stocking-box,
+and about the stove, and here and there in other places, many a bag of
+gold which they had forgotten to take with them, the business went very
+quickly and without much ceremony; and as it was all dispatched young
+Jochen said, "Yes, what shall I do about it?" and let things take their
+course.
+
+But the comfort and prosperity which surrounded him roused him up a
+good deal, and his natural kind-heartedness, which had so long been
+repressed by the avarice of the old people, became evident; and, if he
+was a little rough about the head, it was no matter,--as the
+schoolmaster with the red vest said at the funeral: "It is no matter,
+Herr Pastor, since the heart is not bad!"
+
+And how was it now with the Frau Pastorin and her Pastor? There the
+Lord had touched the thread very lightly; he had done like young
+Jochen, he had said: "What shall I do about it; let things take their
+course!" And if the Pastor now and then perceived a little light touch
+on his arm, and looked around, it was only his little friendly wife who
+stood behind him, always with her dusting cloth, and polished away at
+his arm-chair, and asked whether he would have the perch fried or
+boiled; and if his sermon happened to be about Peter's wonderful
+draught of fishes, or the evangelist's story of the meal of fish on the
+shore, then all sorts of foolish, unchristian thoughts would dart
+across his mind, of fried fish, and horse-radish, and butter to eat on
+it, so that he had some trouble in going on with his sermon, and
+sustaining the dignity of his office. But what were these little
+troubles, to which his Regina had accustomed him from the first, in
+comparison with his great joy?
+
+God bless me! I have just received from my friend the gardener, Juhlke,
+of Erfurt, a beautiful lily-bulb; and now in the March sun the first
+leaves are sprouting, and my first thought in the morning is to see how
+much the leaves have sprouted during the night; and I give it a little
+pull to find out how the roots are striking, and I move it away from
+the cool window to the warm stove, and back from the dark stove to the
+light window, in the blessed sunshine, and it is as yet only a green
+shoot springing out of the earth, with no sign of a flower-bud, and it
+is but a plant, and not a human life, and yet how I rejoice over its
+sprouting and growth and greenness! And the pastor had received also a
+beautiful lily-bulb from his friend the Gardener, the Lord in heaven,
+and he and his little wife had tended and watched it, and now a
+flower-bud was growing, a human flower-bud, and the warm May sun shone
+upon it, and the Frau Pastorin ran to her darling the first thing in
+the morning, and buzzed about her at noon, and rejoiced over her
+healthy appetite, and heaped another spoonful on her plate; "For," said
+she, "life must have something to live on." And at evening, under the
+lindens before the door, she wrapped the little maiden under the same
+sheltering mantle with herself, on the side toward the warmth; and when
+it was bedtime, then she gave her a good-night kiss: "God bless you, my
+daughter; to-morrow morning early, at five o'clock, you must be up
+again!"
+
+And the Pastor's first thought was also of her; and he watched and
+waited as leaf after leaf was growing green, and gave her a prop at her
+side, and bound her to it that she might grow right up toward heaven,
+and kept away all weeds and noxious insects. And when he went to bed at
+night he would say, as full of hope as a child, "Regina, she must
+blossom soon."
+
+And so it came about, without the consciousness of the dear old people,
+or of the child herself, that she became the angel of the household,
+about whom everything turned, turned joyfully, without grumbling or
+snarling, without clashing or force. As she in her simple dress, with a
+little silk handkerchief tied around her neck, her fresh cheeks, and
+unbound, floating hair, went dancing up and down in her glee, she was a
+living spring of joy to the whole house; and when she sat still beside
+her foster-father, and learned, and looked at him with her great eyes,
+as if there must be something still more beautiful to come, and at last
+with a deep sigh closed the book, as if it were a pity that it was all
+done, and yet at the same time good that it was all done, because the
+little heart could hold no more,--then the Frau Pastorin stole up
+behind her, in stocking feet, with her dusting-cloth under her apron,
+and her slippers lying at the door. "For," said she, "teaching children
+is a different thing from making sermons; the old people are only
+affected now and then when one hits them right hard with hell-torments;
+but a child's soul,--one must touch that merely with a tulip-stalk, and
+not with a fence-pole!"
+
+Habermann's little daughter was always fair, but she looked the fairest
+when, a step in advance, she held her father by the hand, and brought
+him into the parsonage yard, where the good people sat under the great
+linden; then shone out all the virtues which usually sleep quietly in
+the human heart, and only now and then come to the light of day,--love
+and gratitude, joy and pride,--from her sprightly face; and, if
+Habermann walked beside her silent and half-sad that he could do so
+little for his child, one could read in her eyes a sort of festal joy,
+as if she thought to discharge all the debt of gratitude which she owed
+her good foster-parents, by bringing to them her father. She was just
+entering her thirteenth year and her young heart took no reckoning of
+her feelings and actions, never in her life had she asked herself why
+her father was so dear to her. It was otherwise with the Pastor and his
+wife, there she was daily conscious how kind and good were their
+intentions toward her, and she had daily opportunities of repaying
+their love by little acts of duty and friendliness. But here--she knew
+merely it was her father; he spoke often to her words that must come
+from his heart, and he looked at her with such quiet, sad looks, that
+must go to her heart. Reckoning up all they had done, these good people
+had deserved more from her; but yet--the Lord must have knit these
+human threads very closely together, up above, they run into each other
+so, and cannot be separated.
+
+To-day, as Habermann sat in the cool shade, it had been again a
+festival day for his child, and it was one for him also. He overlooked
+the whole region. The spring was over, the summer sun shone warm
+through the light, fleecy clouds; a light breeze cooled the air, and
+lifted the green corn into the sunlight, as if the earth were waving a
+green, silken banner before her commander, the sun. The regimental
+music, from the band of a thousand birds, had ceased with the spring,
+and only the cuckoo's cry and the call of the quail still echoed, as if
+a puff of wind bore with it out of the distance the sound of drums and
+cymbals. But instead of music and singing the wind brought over the
+fields a sweet odor which came indeed from a field of slaughter, where
+thousands and thousands of slain lay in rows and heaps, who knew
+nothing of bloody misery, however, and were a pleasure to mankind: the
+hay-harvest had begun, and Habermann sat on the hill in the cool arbor,
+and overlooked the fields, far and near. How beautiful is such a
+region, where the fields in a thousand green and yellow stripes and
+bands stretch to the summits of the hills, and shine far around like a
+many-colored garment which industry has woven for the earth! But it
+seems restless and anxious, when we tear the turf and the soil with
+digging and scratching, and every one has his own task, and troubles
+himself solely about the miserable profits he is to dig from his own
+little piece of earth,--and all these green and yellow bands and
+stripes only bear witness to our poverty. I know well it is not so, but
+it seems so. Here it is otherwise: far out to the blue forest extend
+the fields of one kind of grain; the rape fields stretch themselves out
+like a great sea in the golden morning sunlight; broad pastures and
+slopes harbor the bright-colored cattle, and over the green meadows
+stretch in an oblique direction the long rows of mowers in white
+shirt-sleeves; everything is of a piece, all works together; and
+wherever one casts his eyes, he sees rest and security as the result of
+riches. I know right well it is not so, but yet it seems so. But that
+is an afterthought. The eye sees merely the riches and the rest, and
+these, in the cool shade, with the humming of bees and the playing of
+butterflies, sink softly into the heart.
+
+So was it to-day with Habermann; he was in such a quiet, happy mood,
+and thankfully he thought over the last eleven years. All was good and
+growing better. He had paid his debts to Braesig and Moses, with his
+employer he stood on the best footing. His intercourse with him was
+almost confidential, for, although the Kammerrath was not at all in the
+habit of discussing his private affairs with every body, Habermann's
+behavior was so perfectly sure, he knew so exactly how to keep himself
+in his place, that the Kammerrath often talked over matters with him,
+which pertained more to himself than to the farm; of his family
+affairs, however, he had never spoken. It was to happen otherwise
+to-day.
+
+When the inspector had been sitting a little while, he heard a couple
+of carriages drive up before the door. "Good heavens, they are coming!"
+he cried, and sprang up to go and receive the company.
+
+The Kammerrath came with his wife and three daughters and his son; they
+were to stay six weeks on the estate, and enjoy the country air. "Dear
+Herr Habermann," said he, "we have come upon you a little sooner than
+you expected, but my business at Rostock was dispatched more quickly
+than I believed possible. How is it here? Is everything prepared for
+the ladies?"
+
+"All is in readiness," said Habermann, "but I fear the dinner may be a
+little late."
+
+"No misfortune! The ladies can be making their toilet meantime, and you
+can show me our wheat. And," turning to his son who stood at his side,
+a stately young man, in handsome uniform, "you can take your mother and
+sisters into the garden, by and by, for in matters of domestic
+economy," here he made a sickly attempt to laugh a little, "you take no
+interest."
+
+"Dear father, I----" said the son, rather uneasily.
+
+"No, let it go, my son," said the father, in a friendly tone. "Come,
+Herr Habermann, the wheat stands close behind the garden."
+
+Habermann went with him. How old the man had become in so short a time!
+And it was not age merely which seemed to weigh upon him, he seemed
+oppressed by some other burden. As he caught sight of his wheat, he
+became a little enlivened, and cried, "Beautiful, beautiful! I never
+thought to have seen such wheat in Pumpelhagen."
+
+That pleased Habermann, but, as is the way with these old inspectors,
+he did not let it be noticed, and because he was laughing inwardly, he
+scratched his head and said, "If we can make sure of this on the hill,
+and it will be worth a good deal, and that down there by the meadow,
+the devil may have his game with the rest."
+
+"We cannot prevent what may still happen," said the Kammerrath. "It is
+a real pleasure that you have given me to-day, dear Herr Inspector.
+Ah," added he, after a little while, "why didn't we know each other
+twenty years ago? It would have been better for you and for me!"
+
+Habermann no longer scratched his head; the trace of humor, which
+sometimes lightened his serious disposition, was gone, and he looked
+anxiously at his master. They had come to the boundary of Gurlitz. "The
+wheat over there doesn't look so well as ours," said the Kammerrath.
+
+"No," said Habermann. "The soil is quite as good as ours, however; that
+is the Gurlitz Pastor's field, but he has not received his due for it."
+
+"Apropos," went on the Kammerrath, "do you know that Gurlitz is sold? A
+few days ago it was sold in Rostock for 173,000 thalers. Farms are
+rising, isn't it so, Habermann, farms are rising considerably. If
+Gurlitz is worth 173,000 thalers, Pumpelhagen would be a good bargain
+at 240,000 thalers;" and with that, he looked impressively at
+Habermann.
+
+"That it would, Herr Kammerrath; but the sale of Gurlitz means
+something else for you; by contract, the Pastor's field falls out of
+the estate, upon its sale, and it runs like a wedge into our land,--you
+must rent the Pastor's field!"
+
+"Ah, dear Habermann, don't talk of my renting!" cried the Kammerrath,
+and turned about, and went slowly back, as if he might not look at the
+beautiful piece of land, "I have already too much on my shoulders. I
+have no desire for new trouble."
+
+"You should have no trouble about it. If you will give me authority, I
+will arrange the matter with the Herr Pastor."
+
+"No, no, Habermann, it won't do! The expenditure, the advance of rent,
+the increased inventory! I have besides so many expenditures, my hair
+stands on end!" and with that the man moved so wearily up the ascent,
+and stumbled so at every stone, that Habermann sprang toward him,
+and offered him his arm; close by the garden the Kammerrath had an
+attack of dizziness, so that Habermann was obliged to hold him up, and
+could scarcely get him into the arbor. Here, in the cool shade, he soon
+recovered from his attack; but his appearance was so altered that the
+inspector in this weak-spirited, broken man could hardly recognize his
+tranquil, decided friend of former years. The man became talkative, it
+seemed as if he must unburden his heart. "Dear Habermann," said he, and
+grasped his hand, "I have a favor to ask; my nephew Franz,--you used to
+know him,--has finished his studies, and is going to undertake the care
+of his two estates. He will follow my advice,--my deceased brother
+appointed me his guardian,--he means to become a practical farmer, and
+I have recommended you to him as his instructor. You must take the
+young man here, he is an intelligent youth,--he is a good fellow."
+
+"Yes," said Habermann. That he would do gladly, and so far as in him
+lay it should not fail; he had known the young man from a child, he was
+always a dutiful boy.
+
+"Ah," cried the Kammerrath, "if my own boy had gone the same way! Why
+was I weak enough to yield to my wife against my better judgment?
+Nothing would do but he must be a soldier. But now it comes, now it
+comes, my old friend, we have got into debt, deeper than I can tell,
+for I see by his oppressed and shy manner, that he has not confessed
+all to me. If he would only do so, then I could know where I stood, and
+I could save him out of the hands of usurers. And if I myself should
+fall into those hands!" he added gloomily, after a little, in a weak
+voice.
+
+Habermann was frightened by the words and the tone, but still more by
+the appearance of his master. "It will not be so bad as that," he said,
+for he must say something, "and then the Herr will yet have the
+receipts from about fifteen hundred bushels of rape; for so I reckon
+the crop."
+
+"And for seventeen hundred bushels, which I have sold, I have already
+received the money, and it is already paid out; but that is not the
+worst, we could get over that. Ah, what a torment!" cried he, as if he
+must shoulder his burden again. "My business at Rostock is not all
+wound up, as I said to you before my family; I have taken a debt for
+one of my sons-in-law, of seven thousand thalers, and cannot raise the
+money in Rostock, and in three days it must be paid. The money is
+promised to the purchaser of Gurlitz, and he is to pay the purchase
+money day after to-morrow. Give me your advice, old friend! You have
+been in similar circumstances, you know how you helped yourself--don't
+take it ill of me! you were always an honest man. But I cannot bear not
+to feel sure in my possessions or in my honourable name."
+
+Yes, Habermann had been in such a condition, and he had failed for a
+couple of hundred thalers; and this was seven thousand.
+
+"Have you spoken with the purchaser of Gurlitz?" he asked, after some
+thought.
+
+"Yes," was the reply, "and I told him the plain truth about my
+difficulties."
+
+"And what was the answer?" said Habermann. "But I can imagine, he was
+in pressing need of money himself."
+
+"It was not that, as it seemed to me; but the man seemed to have a
+spite against me, he was too short and abrupt, and when he noticed my
+embarrassment his offers were too crafty, so that I broke off the
+negotiation, because I still hoped to procure the money elsewhere. But
+that is at an end, and I find myself more embarrassed than ever."
+
+"I know of but one immediate resource," said Habermann, "you must go
+and see Moses, at Rahnstadt."
+
+"The Jew money-lender?" asked the Kammerrath. "Never in the world!"
+cried he. "I could not bear to feel myself in such hands. No, I will
+rather bear the insolence of Herr Pomuchelskopp."
+
+"Who?" shouted Habermann, as if a wasp had stung him.
+
+"Why, the purchaser of Gurlitz, of whom we were speaking," said the
+Kammerrath, and stared at him as if he could not interpret his
+behavior.
+
+"And he is a Pomeranian, from the region on the Peene, short and stout,
+with a full face?"
+
+"Yes," said the Kammerrath.
+
+"And he is going to be our neighbor? And you would enter into business
+relations with him? No, no, Herr Kammerrath, I beg, I implore you,
+don't allow yourself to get involved with that man! you most bear me
+witness that I have never made mention, for good or for evil, of the
+man who has ruined me; but now that you are in danger, now I hold it my
+duty,--this man is the cause of my misfortunes," and with that he had
+sprung up, and from his usually tranquil, friendly eyes shot such a
+flash of hatred, that even the Kammerrath, absorbed as he was in his
+own affairs, was terrified.
+
+"Yes," cried the inspector, "yes! that man has driven me out of house
+and home, that man has heaped all sorts of tormenting anxieties upon me
+and my poor wife, and she has gone to her grave in consequence! No, no!
+Have nothing to do with that man!"
+
+The warning was too impressive to be disregarded by the Kammerrath.
+"But who will help me?" asked he.
+
+"Moses," said Habermann, quickly and decidedly. The Kammerrath would
+make objections, but Habermann placed himself before him, and said
+still more impressively, "Herr Kammerrath, Moses. After dinner we will
+ride over there, and if I know him, you will have no reason to repent."
+
+The Kammerrath stood up, and took Habermann's arm; he leaned not merely
+upon that--no, evidently he was also sustained by the resolute advice
+of the inspector. For a quiet man, when he is once aroused from his
+repose, exercises a great influence upon another human being, even if
+he be not so ill and in such perplexity as the Kammerrath; and
+difference in rank goes down at the double-quick, in such an emergency,
+before personal merit.
+
+The conversation at dinner was but feebly sustained,--every one was
+occupied with his own affairs; Habermann thought of his new, suspicious
+neighbor, the Kammerrath of his money affairs, and the lieutenant of
+cuirassiers looked as if he had lost himself in a calculation of
+compound interest, and could not find the way out; and if the gracious
+mama had not mounted her high horse a little, and talked of the visits
+she must make to people of rank in the neighborhood, and the young
+ladies had not revelled in the prospect of country delights and
+unlimited grass and flowers, it would have been as silent as a funeral.
+
+After dinner the Kammerrath drove with his inspector to Rahnstadt. As
+they stopped at the door of Moses' house, the Kammerrath felt in much
+the same mood as if he had dropped a louis-d'or in the filth, and must
+stoop to pick it out with his clean hands. A musty odor met them, at
+the entrance, for a "produce business" does not smell like otto of
+roses, and the wool, when it has just left the mother-sheep's back, has
+quite a different smell from that which it has after it has been about
+the world a little, and got aired, and lies as a bright-colored carpet
+on a fine lady's parlor, sprinkled with perfume.
+
+And how disorderly it was in the passage and in the room! For Bluemchen
+was a very good wife, to be sure, but she did not understand how to
+ornament an entry and a counter with a cow's head and a heap of
+mutton-bones; for Moses said shortly, that belonged to the business,
+and David was constantly bringing in new treasures and turned the house
+into a real rat's paradise, for those pleasant little beasts run after
+the smell of a regular produce business, like doves after anise-seed
+oil.
+
+In the room, the Kammerrath did not find himself more agreeably
+disposed, for Moses was orthodox, and on the Christian Sabbath, unless
+his business demanded the contrary, he wore his greasiest coat, in
+order to keep himself quite opposed to the customs of the dressed-up
+Gentiles; and as he now, with his grip at his left coat-pocket, sprang
+up and ran toward the Kammerrath,--"O heavens! the Herr Kammerrath! the
+honor!" and shouted to David, who was improving the Sunday-afternoon
+quiet in the "produce business" by napping a little on the sofa,
+"David, where are you sitting? Where are you lying? What are you
+lounging there for? Stand up! Let the Herr Kammerrath sit down," and as
+he now endeavoured to force the Kammerrath into the place already
+warmed by David, then would the Kammerrath gladly have left the
+louis-d'or lying in the dirt; but--he needed it quite too pressingly.
+
+Habermann threw himself into the breach, and set a chair for the
+Kammerrath by the open window, and undertook the first introduction of
+the business; and as Moses observed what the talk was to be about, he
+hunted David about till he got him out of the room,--for although he
+let him do a good deal in the produce business, he did not consider him
+quite ripe, at six and thirty years, for the money business,--and when
+the air was free,--that is to say, of David,--he exclaimed once and
+again, what a great honor it was for him to have dealings with the Herr
+Kammerrath. "What have I always said, Herr Habermann? 'The Herr
+Kammerrath is a good man, the Herr Kammerrath is good.' What have I
+always said, Herr Kammerrath? 'The Herr Habermann is an honest man; he
+has toiled and moiled to pay me the last penny.'"
+
+But as he perceived of what a sum they were speaking, he was startled,
+and held back, and made objections, and if he had not held Habermann in
+such high esteem, and read plainly in his looks that he seriously
+advised him to the business, then indeed nothing might have come of it.
+And who knows but the matter might still have fallen through, if it had
+not been mentioned casually that the money was to go for the purchase
+of Gurlitz, and that otherwise the Kammerrath must enter into
+negotiations with Pomuchelskopp. But as this name was uttered, Moses
+made a face, as if one had laid a piece of tainted meat on his plate,
+and he cried out, "With Pomuffelskopp!" for he pronounced the name in
+that way, "Do you know what sort of fellow he is? He is like that!" and
+with that he made a motion as if he would throw the bit of tainted meat
+over his shoulder. "'David,' said I, 'don't have anything to do with
+Pomuffelskopp!' But these young people,--David bought some wool of him.
+'Well!' said I; 'you will see,' I told him. And what had he done? There
+he had smuggled in with the washed wool the tangles, the wool from dead
+animals, he had smuggled in dirty wool from slaughtered sheep, he had
+smuggled in two great field-stones. _Two great field-stones_ had he
+smuggled in for me! When he came to get his money--'Good!' said I--I
+paid him in Prussian treasury notes, and I made little packets of a
+hundred thalers, and in the middle of each packet I smuggled in some
+that were no longer in circulation, or counterfeit, and in the last
+packet I laid in two played-out lottery-tickets--'Those are the two
+great field-stones,' said I. Oh, but didn't he make an uproar? When he
+came with the Notary Slusuhr,--he is such an one to look at,"--here he
+again threw the bit of tainted meat over his shoulder,--"like one of
+David's rats,--his ears stand out, and he lives so well, he lives just
+like the rats, feeds on rubbish and filth, and gnaws open other
+people's honest leather. Oh, but they made a disturbance, they would
+bring a lawsuit against me! 'What is a lawsuit?' said I; 'I don't have
+lawsuits. As the ware is, so is the money.' And do you know, gentlemen,
+what else I said? 'The Herr Notary, and the Herr Pomuffelskopp and I
+are three Jews, but four might be made of us if the two gentlemen could
+count for three.' Oh, they made an uproar! They abused me all over the
+city. But the Herr Burgomeister said to me, 'Moses, you do a great
+business, but you have never yet had a law-suit, let them work!' Herr
+Kammerrath, you shall have the money to-day, at your offer, of
+commission and interest, for you are a good man, and you treat your
+people well, and you have a good name in the land, and you shall not
+have to deal with Pomuffelskopp."
+
+To borrow money is a hard piece of work, and he who writes this knows
+it by many years' experience, and can speak of it accordingly; but it
+makes a difference whether one appeals to the kindness of an old
+friend, or turns to a man who makes a business of this business. The
+Kammerrath had debts on his estate, quite a number of debts; but they
+were not significant bills of exchange, and his money affairs had
+usually been arranged by writing, or through the medium of lawyers or
+merchants; he was now for the first time not in a situation to raise
+money easily, in the old way, he had been obliged to go himself to a
+money-Jew--for so he called this sort of people; the repulsion which he
+felt for this course, the very different place, and manner, and
+disposition which he found here, the anxiety caused by the objections
+of Moses at the outset, and now at last the speedy help which relieved
+him from his pressing emergency, had overpowered the sick man; he
+turned pale and sank back in his chair, and Habermann called for a
+glass of water.
+
+"Herr Kammerrath," cried Moses, "perhaps a little drop of wine, I can
+have half a pint brought from the merchant, in a moment."
+
+"No, water! water!" cried Habermann, and Moses ran out of the door, and
+nearly upset David,--for David had been listening a little to the money
+business, in order that he might finally become ripe,--"David what are
+you doing, why don't you bring some water?"
+
+And David came, and the Kammerrath drank water, and recovered himself,
+and Moses told out the louis-d'ors on the table, and the Kammerrath
+picked them out of the dirt, and looked at his hands, and they seemed
+quite as clean as before; and as he got into the carriage, and looked
+back from it into Moses' entry, it seemed to him as if among Moses'
+pelts and mutton bones, there was a great bundle, and that was his own
+trouble. And Moses stood in the door, and bowed and bowed, and looked
+round at his neighbors to find whether they saw that the Herr
+Kammerrath had been to him.
+
+But for all the great honor, he did not sink under it. He held up his
+head, and got Habermann aside, and said, "Herr Inspector, you are an
+honest man; when I agreed to this business, I did not know the man was
+so sick. You must promise me that the money shall be secured on the
+estate. It is a matter of life and death. What am I doing with a sick
+man and a note!"
+
+The Kammerrath was relieved from his embarrassment; his agitation
+subsided, his health improved, he looked at the world with quite
+different eyes; and as Habermann, a few days later, again mentioned the
+renting of the Pastor's field, he listened, and gave Habermann
+permission to talk with Pastor Behrens. He did so, and during the
+interview the little Frau Pastorin bustled about in the room, and it
+sounded in the ears of the Pastor and Habermann continually,--"A higher
+sum! A higher sum!"
+
+"Yes," said Habermann, "that is understood. Frau Pastorin, the rent
+must be raised; times are better, but there will be no difficulty in
+the matter,--the advantage lies on both sides."
+
+"Regina," said her Pastor, "it occurs to me that the flowers at the end
+of the garden have not been watered."
+
+"Ah, my dear life!" cried the Pastorin, and bustled out of the door,
+"the flowers!"
+
+"So," said the Pastor, "now we can soon settle it. I must confess to
+you, that I prefer to have a renter from outside, rather than one
+belonging to the place; there are so many little differences which
+spring from such immediate neighborhood, and make such a relation so
+doubtful and annoying, as it ought not to be between landlords and
+ministers. And the Kammerrath is personally much dearer to me than the
+new owner,--I have known him so many years. And you think I may demand
+a higher rent?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Herr Pastor, and I am authorized to offer you the half
+more. If I wished to rent the land myself, I could offer you still
+more; but----"
+
+"We understand each other, dear Habermann," said the Pastor, "we are
+agreed in the matter."
+
+And when the Frau Pastorin again bustled in with the little Louise, and
+cried out, "It was not necessary! Louise had already attended to the
+matter!" then was her Pastor's business all settled, and the dear
+little Louise hung around her father's neck: "Ah, father, father, that
+is so good!" Why should she hang about her father's neck? What had she
+to do with rent-contracts? Much, much! Her father would now be a little
+nearer to the Pastor's garden, ploughing and harvesting, and she should
+see him the oftener.
+
+As Habermann went back through the church-yard, he met Zachary Braesig,
+who had passed happily, out of his dreadfully unphilosophical stage of
+the gout, into the philosophical, as generally happened when his
+troubles were over. "Good-day, Karl," said he, "I have been in your
+quarters a while waiting for you. But the time seemed long, so I made
+my compliments, meanwhile, to the Herr Kammerrath. He was very glad to
+see me, and treated me with the greatest kindness; but how the man
+looks!"
+
+Yes, said Habermann, his master had--God bless him--grown very old and
+weak, and he for his part feared he was soon to lose the friend he
+esteemed so highly.
+
+"Yes," nodded Braesig, "but what is life, Karl? What is human life? See
+here, Karl, turn it over and over, like a leather money-bag, and not a
+shilling falls out."
+
+"Braesig," said Habermann, "I don't know what other people think about
+it, but it seems to me as if life and labor were one and the same."
+
+"Ho, ho, Karl! now I hear you run on; you got that sentence from Pastor
+Behrens. He has sometimes talked with me on this subject, and he has
+given me a description of human life, as if here below it was merely
+the manuring time, and the Christian belief was the sun and the rain,
+which made the seed grow, and there above, in the upper regions, came
+the harvest; but man must work, and take pains and do his part. But
+Karl, it don't agree, it goes against the Bible. The Bible tells about
+the lilies of the field; they toil not, and they spin not, and yet our
+Heavenly Father cares for them. And if our Lord takes care of them,
+then they live, and they don't labor, and when I have this infamous
+gout and do nothing,--nothing at all but hunt away the cursed,
+tormenting flies from my face,--is that labor? and yet I live under the
+good-for-nothing torture. And Karl," said he, and pointed to the right
+across the field, "see those two lilies, that are picking their way
+over here, your gracious Herr Lieutenant, and the youngest Fraeulein,
+have you ever heard that the lieutenant of cuirassiers troubled himself
+with labor, or that the gracious Fraeulein did any spinning? And yet
+they are both coming, with living bodies, over your rape-stubble."
+
+"Will you wait a moment, Zachary?" said Habermann; "they are coming in
+this direction, possibly they wish to speak to us."
+
+"For all me!" said Braesig. "But just look at the Fraeulein, how she
+wades through the rape-stubble with her long skirts and her thin shoes!
+No, Karl, life is trouble! And it begins always with the extremities,
+with the legs, and you may observe that with me from my confounded
+gout, and in the case of the Fraeulein by the rape-stubble and her thin
+shoes. But what I was going to say, Karl--you have had your best time
+here, for when the Herr Kammerrath is dead, there look out! You will be
+astonished at the gracious lady, and the three unmarried daughters, and
+the Herr Lieutenant. Karl," he began again, after a little thought, "I
+would hold to the crown-prince."
+
+"Eh, what! Braesig, what are you talking about?" said Habermann,
+hastily, "I shall go right on my way."
+
+"Yes, Karl, so should I, and so would every body who was not a Jesuit.
+But look at the gracious Fraeulein once more! She goes right on her way
+too, but through the rape-stubble. Karl----" But the young people were
+too near, he could say no more; only in an aside he added, "A Jesuit?
+No! But he is a vocative."
+
+"I thank you, Herr Habermann, that you have waited here for me," said
+Axel von Rambow, as they came up. "My sister and I are bound on two
+different expeditions; she is seeking corn-flowers, and I colts; she
+has found no corn-flowers, and I no colts."
+
+"Gracious lady," said Braesig, "if you mean by corn-flowers our common
+field blossoms,--but," he interrupted himself, "how this infamous
+stubble has ruined your pretty dress, all the flounces torn off!" and
+with that he bent down as if he would render the young lady the service
+of a maid.
+
+"No matter!" cried the Fraeulein, drawing back a little, "it is an old
+dress. But where are the corn-flowers?"
+
+"I will show you,--it is a real pleasure,--here close by, near
+Gurlitz, corn-flowers, and scarlet-runners, and white-thorn, and
+thistle-blows,--in short, a whole plantation."
+
+"That will do nicely, dear Fidelia," said the lieutenant. "You go with
+the Herr Inspector Braesig for the corn-flowers, and I beg Herr
+Habermann to accompany me to see the colts. For, do you know," said he
+to Habermann, "my good old papa was in such a good humor this morning,
+that he has given me permission to select the best of the four-year-old
+colts for my own use.
+
+"I will show you the animals with pleasure," said Habermann, "there are
+some fine fellows, among them."
+
+So the two companies separated, and Habermann only heard further how
+Braesig said to the Fraeulein Fidelia he was very glad to make her
+acquaintance, because he had once had a dog which was also named,
+"Fidele," and she was a famous rat-catcher!
+
+Habermann went with the Herr Lieutenant toward the colt-paddock. They
+talked together, naturally about farming matters,--the lieutenant was a
+lively young fellow, and Habermann had known him from childhood,--but
+the man had learned nothing about them, all his views were too far
+beyond, and none of his questions were to the point, so that Habermann
+said to himself, "He is good natured, very good-natured, but he knows
+nothing, and yet--God bless him--when the old Herr is gone, he must
+take the estate, and make his living off it!"
+
+As they were come to the paddock, and had mustered the colts, the
+lieutenant placed himself before Habermann, and asked, "Now, what do
+you say? which shall I take?"
+
+"The brown," said Habermann.
+
+"I would rather choose the black. Look at the beautiful neck, the fine
+head!"
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann, "you don't ride on head and neck,
+you ride on back and legs; you want a horse for use, and the brown is
+worth three of the black."
+
+"There seems to be English blood in the black."
+
+"That is true, he is descended from Wildfire; but there is old
+Mecklenburg blood in the brown, and it is a shame that one should let
+that go,--that one should not value the good which the fatherland
+offers, and exchange them for English racers."
+
+"That may be true," said Axel, "but in our regiment my comrades have
+only black horses,--I decide for the black."
+
+That was a reason which Habermann did not rightly understand, so he was
+silent, and as they went back, the conversation was a little one-sided;
+but as they were near the house--right before the door, as if he had
+spared himself to the last moment--the lieutenant held back the
+inspector, and with a deep sigh, as if he would shake off a burden from
+his heart, he said, "Habermann, I have long wished to speak to you
+privately. Habermann, I have debts,--you must help me! It is nine
+hundred dollars that I must pay, I must have it."
+
+That was a hard request for Habermann, but in truly serious business,
+age makes itself respected; he looked the young man of three-and-twenty
+full in the face, and said shortly, "Herr von Rambow, I cannot do it."
+
+"Habermann, dear Habermann, I have such pressing need of the money."
+
+"Then you must tell your father."
+
+"My father? No, no! He has already paid debts for me, and now he is
+sick, it would vex him too much."
+
+"Still you must tell him. Such business must not be done with strange
+people, it should be settled between father and son."
+
+"Strange people?" asked Axel, and looked him so beseechingly and
+affectionately in the eye, "Habermann, am I then so strange to you?"
+
+"No, Herr von Rambow, no!" cried Habermann, and grasped after the young
+man's hand, but did not reach it. "You are not strange to me. Anything
+that I _could_ do for you, I would do quickly. The matter itself is a
+little thing, and if I could not do it alone, my friend Braesig would
+help me out; but dear Herr von Rambow, your father is your natural
+helper, this step ought not to be delayed."
+
+"I cannot tell my father," said Axel, plucking at a willow-bush.
+
+"You _must_ tell him," said Habermann as impressively as he could. "He
+suspects that you have concealed debts from him, and it troubles him."
+
+"Has he spoken to you about it?"
+
+"Yes, but only in consequence of his own great embarrassment, which is
+known to you."
+
+"I know," said Axel, "and I know also the spring at which he has
+pumped. Well, what my father does, I can do also," added he coldly and
+shortly, and went in at the court-yard gate.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," cried Habermann, and followed him hastily, "I
+beseech you, for heaven's sake, not to take this course; it will be in
+vain, or it will only plunge you into greater difficulty."
+
+Axel did not listen.
+
+A couple of hours later, the Lieutenant von Rambow stood with
+Moses among the woolsacks and the hides in the entry of the Jew's
+house,--where David had his pleasure among the mutton-bones, like a bug
+in a rug,--and was making apparently a last, despairing attack upon
+Moses' cautious money-bags; but Moses held firmly to the decision:
+"Really and truly, Herr Baron, I can not. Now, why not, then? Why
+should I not? I can still serve you, I can still serve you well in the
+business. See, Herr Baron, there stands David. David where are you,
+what are you staring at? Come here, David. You see, Herr Baron, there
+he stands,--he stands before you and he stands before me. I will not
+wink, I will not blink, I will go into the other room; now you
+may ask David." And with that, he shoved himself with his right
+suspender-shoulder, back into the room.
+
+The poor lieutenant's business must stand a bad chance if he had to
+settle it with David, for if he looked in his shining uniform as if he
+were riding before the king's carriage, David's outside looked as
+shabby as if he had been in the marl and dirt-cart. But this business
+depended less on a stately outside, than on who could best get the cart
+out of the mud, and at that David was terribly expert. He had three
+things in and about himself which stood him in good stead; in the first
+place he had a particularly gorgeous Jew-lubber face, and as he stood
+there before the lieutenant, and chewed cinnamon-bark, which he stole
+out of his mother's pantry, on account of the evil odor of the
+business, and with his head askew, and his hands in his pockets, stared
+at him, he looked as impudent as if the spirits of all the dead and
+gone rats, through the long years of the produce business, had entered
+into him; and then, in the second place, his feelings were tough, much
+tougher than his father's, and they were not softened by his daily
+intercourse with the toughest business in the world, with wool, and
+hides, and flax; and, thirdly, he could make himself as repulsive as he
+pleased to any one, thanks to this same business.
+
+With such a happily gifted being, the lieutenant could not pull at the
+same rope. He went very shortly, with a heavy heart, out of the door;
+and David was so rejoiced over his own style and manners, that he
+became really compassionate, and he gave him on his way the Christian
+advice that he should go to the Notary Slusuhr. "He has it," said he,
+"and he can do it."
+
+Scarcely was the young man out of the door, when Moses sprang out of
+the room; "David, have you a conscience? I will tell you some news; you
+have none! How could you send that young man among those cut-throats?"
+
+"I have only sent him to his own people," said David, churlishly; "if
+he is a soldier, he is a cut-throat himself. If the notary cuts his
+throat, what do you care? And if he cuts the notary's throat, what do I
+care?"
+
+"David," said the old man, and shook his head, "I say, you have no
+conscience."
+
+"What is a conscience?" muttered David to himself; "when you are doing
+business, you drive me away; when you won't do business, you call me
+in."
+
+"David," said the old man, "you are still too young!" and went into the
+room.
+
+"If I am too young now," said David spitefully, "I shall always be too
+young; but I know a place where I am not too young."
+
+With that, he put on another coat, and went the same way that the
+lieutenant had gone, to the Notary Slusuhr's.
+
+What he had to do there, and what else was done there, I know not. I
+know merely that the young Herr von Rambow, the same evening at
+Pumpelhagen, wrote a number of letters, and sealed up money in them;
+and that when he had finished, he sighed deeply, as if he had thrown
+off a burden. The first necessity was met; but he had done like the old
+woman in the story, he had heated water in the kneading-trough.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+A couple of days later, the sun looked down in the morning right out of
+a rain-cloud, over the landlord's garden at Gurlitz. Her daughter, the
+Earth, had been having a great washing, and now she would help her dear
+child a little with the drying. It was, as it is always, a great
+pleasure to see the old mother settle herself to the task, and with her
+broad, friendly face peer out, now here, now there, from the white
+cloud-curtain, and again grasp the sprinkler, to dampen the bleached
+clothes a little more. On such an occasion she was always very
+sportive; she had the drollest fancies, and played as many tricks in
+her old age as the youngest girl, when she is beloved for the first
+time,--now she was sad enough to cry, and again she laughed heartily.
+
+To-day, moreover, the old woman had reason to laugh, as she looked down
+into the Gurlitz garden. "Now, just look there!" cried she, and smiled
+right goldenly over the meadow and the green corn, "how strangely
+things go on in this crazy world! For long years I have always seen
+down there that pretty, white fellow standing, and holding out a staff
+to me, that the poor hungry creatures of the human race might be able
+to know when it was mid-day, and time for their dinners; and now there
+stands in his place a stout, malicious-looking beast, with green
+breeches, smoking tobacco. Nowhere do things go on so strangely as in
+the world!" And with that the old woman laughed from the bottom of her
+heart over the landlord Herr Pomuchelskopp, who stood in his yellow
+nankeen coat and green plaid trowsers, by the sun-dial, in the very
+place where the handsome heathen god, Apollo, had stood, only instead
+of a lyre he had a short pipe in his hand; and yet a shadow often
+passed over her face when her eyes fell on her handsome, friendly
+secretary, who had for so many years recorded her doings with his
+pencil, and now lay among burdocks and nettles in the grass. But she
+had to laugh again, for all that.
+
+Pomuchelskopp laughed also; there were no indications of mirth in his
+face, but, whenever, from the height which his short stature allowed,
+he looked around him, he laughed in his heart: "All mine! All mine!"
+The sunbeam which brightened the world was not noticed by him, it
+touched neither his face nor his heart; the sunbeam which shone for him
+was properly a sum in arithmetic, which warmed his heart, but there
+were no signs of it in his face; there must be a joke, an actual joke,
+to make him laugh outwardly, and that was not wanting at the present
+moment.
+
+His two youngest children, Nanting and Philipping, had come out, and
+Philipping had made a rod of burdocks and nettle stalks tied together,
+and was flogging the poor, white heathen god, so that Father
+Pomuchelskopp laughed heartily; and Nanting ran into the kitchen and
+brought a coal, to give him a pair of moustaches, but his father would
+not allow this. "Nanting," said he, "let that go, it might disfigure
+him, and we may possibly be able to sell him yet. But you may beat
+him,"--and they did beat him, and Father Pomuchelskopp laughed as if he
+would shake himself out of his green trowsers.
+
+Meanwhile the "Madam" also walked out, the dryer half of Pomuchelskopp.
+She was of an extremely tall figure, and as dry as the seven lean kine
+of King Pharaoh. Her eyebrows were always puckered up into wrinkles, as
+if the cares of the whole world weighed o'er her mind, or her forehead
+was drawn into peevish lines above her nose, as if all the crockery
+broken by the maid-servants in this world, during a whole year, had
+belonged to her; and her mouth looked as sour as if she had drank
+vinegar and fed on sorrel all her days. She wore in the morning at this
+warm season of the year, a black merino over-sack, which she had once
+bought in a time of mourning and still wore; and through the day,
+cotton garments dyed olive-green with alder-bark, and to make up for
+the extravagance of Pomuchelskopp's new blue dress-coat with bright
+buttons, she bundled up her head with old bandages and caps, out of
+which her anxious face peered like a half-starved mouse out of a bunch
+of tow; and about the rest of her body she heaped one old thing above
+another, till her poor little legs looked like a couple of pins lost in
+a bundle of rags. However, I would advise every servant to keep out of
+her way, for even when her poor bones flew around frivolously on velvet
+and silken wings, her troubled soul was anxiously reckoning the expense
+and the wearing out.
+
+She was such a mother as one reads of in books,--she planned day and
+night how she might make over Malchen's coat into an under-jacket for
+Philipping; she loved her children according to the Scriptures, and
+chastened them in like manner, and Nanting could often show for one
+spot on his jacket two on his back, and for every one on his trousers
+two on the flesh they covered. Yes, she was strong against herself and
+against her own flesh and blood, but she could rejoice also, according
+to the scriptures, with moderation; and, as she came out to-day, and
+saw the joyous activity of her youngest offspring, there flew over her
+face such a hopeful light as when the February sun looks down on the
+fast-frozen soil, and says, "Patience! there will be a good crop of
+potatoes here this year."
+
+And she was also such a wife as one reads of in books; no neighbor
+could charge her with neglecting her duties a hair's breadth in
+thought, word or deed, all her days, although Pomuchelskopp was in her
+opinion quite light-minded, because often when joking was going on he
+would laugh right out loud, which she thought unbecoming in the father
+of a family, and she feared he would at length ruin his fortunes and
+bring herself and her children to beggary. She did another thing, which
+the minister had not inculcated at her betrothal,--she condemned his
+failings, and gave him daily of her own vinegar to drink and of her
+sorrel to eat. She tutored him--that is to say when they were alone--as
+she did her youngest child, her Philipping, and as if Pomuchelskopp
+still wore his green plaid trousers fastened behind; in short, she
+drove him just as she pleased. She did not beat him--God forbid! all
+was with dignity. Merely by her manner of speaking, she knew how to
+express her opinion of him: if he was unusually frivolous, she called
+him sharply and shortly by the last syllable of his name, just "Kopp!"
+ordinarily she called him by the middle syllable, "Muchel," and when he
+was quite after her own heart, and sat sulkily in the sofa-corner
+striking at the flies, she called him by the first syllable, and in an
+affectionate tone, "Poeking."
+
+She did not call him "Poeking" to-day. "Kopp!" said she, on account of
+his light-minded behavior with the children, "Kopp, why do you stand
+there smoking like a chimney? I think we should call at the Pastor's."
+
+"My Kluecking," said Pomuchelskopp, reluctantly taking the pipe from his
+mouth, "we can go. I will put on my dress-coat directly."
+
+"Dress-coat! Why so? Do you think I shall dress up in black silk? It is
+only our Pastor." She emphasized the "our," as if she had spoken of her
+shepherd, and as if she considered the Pastor merely their hired
+servant.
+
+"Just as you please, my Haeuhning," said Pomuchelskopp, "I can put on my
+brown overcoat. Philipping, let the beating go; Mama doesn't like it."
+
+"Kopp! let the children alone, attend to yourself. You can keep on your
+nankeen coat, it is clean and good."
+
+"My Kluecking," said Pomuchelskopp, "always noble, my dear Kluecking! If
+we owe nothing to the Pastor's family, we owe something to ourselves.
+And, if Malcheh and Salchen are going too, they must dress themselves
+up, and then we will set out."
+
+This argument gained Pomuchelskopp the permission to array himself in
+his brown overcoat. He was so rejoiced at having carried his point, a
+thing which did not often happen, that in his gratitude he desired to
+confer some pleasure upon his Kluecking, and make her a sharer in his
+own satisfaction; for no one must do Pomuchelskopp the injustice to
+suppose that he was overbearing in his own house,--no! there he was
+rather humble and depressed. He pointed, therefore, across the fields
+and said, "Just look, that is all ours!"
+
+"Muchel, you point too far," said the lady shortly; "all that over
+yonder belongs to Pumpelhagen."
+
+"You are right, that is all Pumpelhagen. But"--he added, and the little
+eyes looked greedily towards Pumpelhagen, "who knows? If God spares my
+life, and I sell my property in Pomerania at a good bargain, and times
+continue good, and the old Kammerrath dies, and his son gets into
+debt----"
+
+"Yes, Muchel," interrupted his wife, and across her face flitted that
+derisive gleam, which was the only approach to a smile ever seen on it,
+"yes, just as old Strohpagel said: 'If I were ten years younger, and
+hadn't this lame leg, and hadn't a wife--you should see what a fellow I
+would be!'"
+
+"Haeuhning," said Pomuchelskopp, making a face as if he were grieved to
+the heart, "how can you talk so? As if I wished to be rid of you!
+Without the thirty thousand dollars, which your father left you, I
+never could have bought Gurlitz. And what a fine estate Gurlitz is!
+See! this is all Gurlitz!" and he pointed again over the fields.
+
+"Yes, Kopp," said his wife, in a hard tone, "all but the Pastor's
+field, which you have let slip out of your fingers."
+
+"Ah, Kluecking," said Pomuchelskopp, as they left the garden,
+"always the Pastor's field! what can I do? See, I am an honest,
+straight-forward man; what can I do against such a pair of sly old
+fellows as Habermann and the Pastor? But the day is not over yet,
+Monsieur Habermann! We shall have something to say to each other yet,
+Herr Pastor!"
+
+At the Pastor's house, this morning, three pretty little girls were
+sitting in the Frau Pastorin's neat parlor, busy as bees, their fingers
+sewing and their tongues chatting at the same time, and looking, amid
+the white linen, as fresh and red as ripe strawberries on a white
+plate; these were Louise Habermann and the little twins, Mining and
+Lining Nuessler.
+
+"Children," said the little, round Frau Pastorin, as she now and then
+looked in from the kitchen, "you cannot think what a pleasure it is to
+one in my old age, when I put away my clean linen in the linen-trunk,
+and think with every piece when it was spun and when it was sewed! And
+how prudent it makes one, to know for oneself how much pains it has
+cost! Mining, Mining, your seam is crooked! Good heavens, Louise! I
+believe you are looking off half the time, yet you sew right along, and
+get no knots in your thread. But now I must go and take up the
+potatoes, for my Pastor will be here soon," and with that she ran out
+of the door, looking back, however, to say, "Mining and Lining, you
+must stay here to dinner to-day!" And so she flew from the kitchen to
+the parlor, and from the parlor back to the kitchen, like the pendulum
+of a clock, and kept everything in running order.
+
+But how came Lining and Mining Nuessler to be in the Frau Pastorin's
+sewing-school? It happened in this way.
+
+When the little twins had got so far that they could speak the "r"
+plainly, and no longer played in the sand, and ran after Frau Nuessler
+all day long, saying, "Mother, what shall we do now?" then Frau Nuessler
+said to young Jochen that it was high time the children went to school;
+they must have a governess. Jochen had no objections, and his
+brother-in-law, the Rector Baldrian, undertook the task of procuring
+one. When she had been six months at Rexow, Frau Nuessler said she was a
+cross old thing, she scolded the little girls from morning to night and
+made them so skittish that they did not know how to behave; she must
+go. Thereupon Kaufman Kurz looked up another; and one day, when nobody
+in Rexow dreamed of impending evil, a sort of grenadier walked in at
+the door, with heavy black eyebrows, and sallow complexion, and with
+spectacles on her nose, and announced herself as the new "governess."
+She began to talk French to the little twins, and as she observed that
+the poor little creatures were so ignorant that they could not
+understand her in the least, she turned, in the same language, to young
+Jochen. Such a thing had never happened to young Jochen in his life; he
+let his pipe fall from his mouth, and as they were drinking coffee he
+said, in order to say something, "Mother, ask the new school-ma'am to
+take another cup."
+
+This one was a "governess" over the whole house, and Frau Nuessler stood
+it bravely for a while; but finally she said, "Stop! This won't do; if
+anybody is to command here it is I, for I am the nearest, as Frau
+Pastorin says;" and she gave the grenadier her marching orders. Then
+uncle Braesig offered his assistance, and engaged a teacher,--"A smart
+one," he said, "always in good spirits, and she can play you dead on
+the harpsichord." He was right; one evening in the winter, there
+arrived at Rexow a little blue-cheeked, hump-backed body, who, after
+the first ten minutes, attacked the new piano, which Jochen had bought
+at auction, and belaboured it as if she were threshing wheat. When she
+had gone to bed, young Jochen opened the piano, and when he saw that
+three strings were broken, he shut it up again, and said, "Yes, what
+shall we do about it?"
+
+There were lively times in the house now; the girl-governess ran and
+romped with the little girls, until Frau Nuessler came to the conclusion
+that her oldest, Lining, had really more sense than the mamselle. She
+wished to inform herself how the mamselle managed the children in
+school-hours; she requested, therefore, to be shown a plan of their
+studies, and the next day Lining brought her a great sheet of paper
+with all the "branches" marked out. There was German and French,
+Orthography and Geography, and Religion, and Biblical History, and
+other History, and also Biblical Natural History, and then to conclude
+with, music, and music, and music.
+
+"Eh!" said Frau Nuessler to Jochen, "she may teach them all the music
+she wants to, for all me, if the religion is only of the right sort.
+What do you say, Jochen?"
+
+"Yes," said Jochen, "it is all as true as leather!"
+
+Well, she might have stayed, if Lining had not let out, accidentally,
+that mamselle played jack-stones with them in the Biblical History; and
+as Frau Nuessler heard one day, during the "Religion" hour, such a
+romping in the school-room that she opened the door suddenly, to see
+what kind of religion was going on, behold! Mamselle was playing
+"Cuckoo" with the children. Madam Nuessler could not approve of this
+lively sort of religion, so Mamselle "Hop-on-the-hill" hopped after the
+grenadier.
+
+It was very inconvenient, because it was now the middle of the fourth
+quarter, and if Frau Nuessler complained that the children were running
+wild, Jochen only said; "Yes, what shall I do about it?" But he began
+to study the Rostock "Times" with uncommon interest; and one day he
+laid aside the "Times," and ordered Christian to get out the "phantom."
+His good wife was considerably astonished, for she had no idea what he
+was thinking of; but as she looked at the pipe side of his face, and
+noticed that his mouth was stretched wider than usual, which
+represented a friendly smile, she gave herself no more anxiety, and
+said, "Let him go! He has something good in his head."
+
+After three days Jochen returned with an elderly, almost
+transparent-looking lady, and it went through the whole region like a
+running fire: "Only think! young Jochen has got a governess himself."
+
+Braesig came the next Sunday to see her; he was tolerably contented with
+her, "But," said he, finally, "look out, young Jochen, she has nerves."
+
+Braesig was not only a good judge of horses, but a judge of human
+nature; he was right,--Mamselle was nervous, very nervous indeed. The
+poor little twins went about on tiptoe, Mamselle took away Lining's
+ball, because she had accidentally thrown it at the window, and locked
+up the piano, so that Lining could no longer play, "Our cat has
+nine kittens," the only piece which she had learned from Mamselle
+"Hop-on-the-hill." Before long Mamselle added cramps to her nerves, and
+Madam Nuessler must run with sundry bottles of "drops," and both Fika
+and Corlin must sit up with her nights, because either one alone would
+be afraid. "Send her away," said uncle Braesig; but Frau Nuessler was too
+good for that, she sent rather for the doctor. Dr. Strump was summoned
+from Rahnstadt, and after examining the patient, he pronounced it a
+very interesting case, the more so that he had lately been studying
+"the night-side of Nature."
+
+Young Jochen and his wife thought nothing worse from that than that the
+doctor had lately been a good deal out of his bed o' nights, but he
+meant something quite different.
+
+One day, when the doctor was with the mamselle, Corlin called from the
+stairs:--
+
+"Frau, Frau! there is mischief going on. The doctor has been stroking
+her over her face, and now she is asleep, and talking in her sleep. She
+told me I had a lover."
+
+"God bless me!" cried Braesig, who happened to be there, "what sort of
+business is the woman carrying on?" and he went up-stairs with Frau
+Nuessler. After a while he came down, and asked, "Now, what do you say
+to, it young Jochen?"
+
+Jochen reflected awhile, and then said, "Yes, that doesn't help the
+matter, Braesig."
+
+"Jochen," said Braesig, going up and down the room with great strides,
+"I said to you before, 'send her away;' now I say, don't send her away.
+I asked her if it would rain to-morrow, and she said to me, in her
+somnambulic state, that it would rain torrents. If it rains torrents
+to-morrow, then take down your barometer from the wall,--barometers are
+of no use, and yours has stood there two years, always at fair
+weather,--and hang her up there; you can benefit yourself and the whole
+region."
+
+Young Jochen said nothing, but when next morning it rained torrents, he
+was silent indeed, and his astonishment kept him dumb for three days.
+
+The rumor spread in the neighborhood, that young Jochen had a
+fortune-teller at his house, and that she had prophesied the great rain
+on Saturday, and also that Corlin Kraeuger and Inspector Braesig would be
+married within a year. Dr. Strump naturally did his share toward
+setting this interesting case in a clear light, and it was not long
+before Frau Nuessler's quiet house became a kind of pilgrim's shrine, to
+which resorted all who were curious, or scientific, or interested in
+physical science; and, because Frau Nuessler would have nothing to do
+with it, and Jochen was incapable, Zachary Braesig undertook the
+business, when the doctor was not there, and ushered troops of visitors
+into the mamselle's room, and explained her somnambulic condition; and
+before the bed, by the mamselle, sat Christian the coachman, who was
+not afraid of the devil himself, for Corlin and Fika would no longer
+watch by her, even in the day time, having taken it into their heads
+that she was not respectable; because they translated Braesig's
+expression, "sonnenbuhlerisch" (somnambulic), into Platt-Deutsch, and
+said the mamselle was "suennenbuhlerisch" (no better than she should
+be).
+
+Among the visitors, who came to see this wonder, was the young Baron
+von Mallerjahn of Graeunenmur, who came daily to investigate the
+physical sciences and thought no harm of going into mamselle's room
+without Braesig. Frau Nuessler was disturbed by the impropriety of the
+thing, and requested Jochen to put a stop to the nuisance, upon which
+Jochen replied that they might put Christian up there; but when
+Christian came down one day, and said the Herr Baron had sent him away,
+because he smelled too strong of the stable, then Frau Nuessler's
+annoyance broke out in a flood of tears, and, if Braesig had not arrived
+just then, she would herself have treated the Herr Baron to a scolding;
+but Braesig, like a true knight, took the business upon himself.
+
+He went up-stairs, and said very courteously and decidedly, "Gracious
+Herr Baron, will you have the kindness to step the other side of the
+door for a moment."
+
+It was possibly too fine for the Herr Baron's comprehension, he laughed
+rather confusedly, and said he stood for the moment in magnetic
+_rapport_ with the mamselle.
+
+"Monetic apport!" said Braesig. "We need none of your money here, and
+none of your apporters either; Christian was put here on purpose to
+prevent such doings."
+
+Braesig himself stood in magnetic _rapport_, without being conscious of
+it, for when Frau Nuessler wept he fell into a passion, and in great
+wrath he cried to the baron, "Herr, be off with you, out of the house!"
+
+The baron was naturally astonished at this speech, and inquired rather
+haughtily whether Braesig was aware that he was growing rude.
+
+"Do you call that rudeness?" cried Braesig, taking the baron by the arm.
+"Then I will show you something else!"
+
+But the disturbance awoke the mamselle out of her sleep; she sprang
+from the sofa and grasped the baron by the other arm: she wouldn't stay
+here, nobody here understood her, he alone understood her, she would go
+with him.
+
+"The best thing you can do," said Braesig. "Don't let us detain you! Two
+birds with one stone!" and he assisted her down stairs.
+
+The carriage of the Herr Baron was all ready, and drove up to the door;
+the Herr Baron himself was in great perplexity, but the mamselle held
+fast.
+
+"Yes, there's no help for it," said young Jochen, as he watched their
+departure.
+
+"Young Jochen," said Braesig, as the equipage left the yard, "she is
+like leather, she is tough. And you, madam," said he to Frau Nuessler,
+"let the man go, now he can see as much as he likes of his monetic
+treasure."
+
+Habermann had been absent a good deal of late, on business for his
+master, and, when he came home for a day or two, he had so much to
+attend to on the estate that he could not trouble himself about other
+people's affairs. He had been at his sister's however, and had
+comforted her about the mamselle, that it was merely sickness and would
+pass over; but as he came home this time, the report was all over the
+neighborhood that young Jochen's sleeping mamselle had gone off with
+the Baron von Mallerjahn, but that she had previously infected Braesig
+with prophesying, and Christian with sleeping. Braesig prophesied
+wherever he went, and Christian fell asleep even on his feet.
+
+Habermann went to Pastor Behrens, and inquired what he knew of the
+story, and asked him to go with him to his sister's.
+
+"Willingly, dear Habermann," said the Pastor; "but I have not troubled
+myself much about this matter, for good reasons. I know very well that
+in our good fatherland many of my brethren in Christ have occupied
+themselves in healing the possessed, and casting out devils; but I
+think such cases belong rather to the department of the physician,
+or"--with a rather peculiar laugh--"to that of the police."
+
+When they came to Rexow, the cheerful, active Frau Nuessler, who could
+usually shake off easily the worst misfortune, or the most annoying
+vexation, seemed quite another person.
+
+"Herr Pastor," said she, "Brother Karl, that crazy woman has gone, and
+I had trouble enough about her, and so have they all gone, that I have
+had; but that is no matter, I shall get over that. What troubles me is
+my poor little girls, who know nothing and learn nothing. And when I
+think how the poor little dears will seem among their elders and equals
+like a couple of fools, knowing nothing that is talked about, and not
+even knowing how to write a letter--no, Herr Pastor, you, who have
+learned so much, you cannot know how one feels, but I know, and, Karl,
+you can understand it too. No, Herr Pastor, even though my heart should
+break, and I should go about alone with Jochen in this great house,
+like one in a dream, I will give up my little girls to go away to
+school, rather than have them remain stupid all their lives. You see,
+when Louise comes here, she is intelligent; one can talk with her, and
+she can read the newspaper to Jochen. Min can read too, but if she
+comes to a strange word, she begins to stammer. For instance the other
+day Louise read 'Burdoh,' and the place is called so,--and Min read
+'Bo-ur-de-aux.' What is the good of 'Bo-ur-de-aux,' when the city is
+called 'Burdoh?'"
+
+The Pastor had risen during this speech, and walked thoughtfully about
+the room; at last he came to a stand before Frau Nuessler, looked at her
+observantly and said, "My dear neighbor, I will make you a proposition.
+Louise is a little more advanced, to be sure, but that makes no
+difference; you shall not be separated from your little ones,--let me
+instruct them."
+
+Frau Nuessler had never thought of such an offer, and it seemed to her
+like drawing the great prize in the lottery, or as if she had stepped
+out of shadow into sunshine. She stared at the Pastor with her
+wide-open, blue eyes; "Herr Pastor!" she cried, springing up from her
+chair, "Jochen, Jochen, did you hear? The Herr Pastor offers to teach
+the children himself."
+
+Jochen had heard, and was also on his feet, trying to say something; he
+said nothing, however, only fumbled and grappled for the Herr Pastor's
+hand, until he grasped it, then pressed it warmly, and drew him to the
+sofa, behind the supper table, which was spread; and when Frau Nuessler
+and Habermann had fully expressed their pleasure, he also had become
+capable of expression, and said, "Mother, pour out a cup for the Herr
+Pastor."
+
+So Mining and Lining were now daily guests at the Gurlitz parsonage.
+They were as clearly a pair of twins as ever; only that Lining as the
+eldest was perhaps half an inch taller than Mining, and Mining was a
+good half inch larger round the waist, and--if one looked very
+closely--Mining's nose was a trifle shorter than Lining's.
+
+And so on the day when Pomuchelskopp set out to make his first call at
+the parsonage, the twins were in the Frau Pastorin's sewing-school, for
+the Frau Pastorin also meant to do her duty by the children, when the
+Pastor was occupied with the business of his calling.
+
+"God bless me!" exclaimed the Frau Pastorin, running into the room,
+"children put your work aside; take it all into the bedroom, Louise;
+Mining, pick up the threads and scraps; Lining, you put the chairs in
+order! Here come our new landlord with his wife and daughters, across
+the church-yard, right up to the house,--and, bless his heart! my
+Pastor has gone to Warnitz to a christening!" And she grasped
+unconsciously her duster, but had to lay it aside directly, for there
+was a knock at the door, and upon her "Come in!" Pomuchelskopp with his
+wife and his two daughters, Malchen and Salchen, entered the room.
+
+"They did themselves the honor," said Pomuchelskopp, endeavoring to
+make a graceful bow, which on account of his peculiar build was
+rather a failure, "to wait upon the Herr Pastor, and the Frau
+Pastorin--acquaintance--neighborhood----"
+
+Frau Pomuchelskopp stood by, as stiff and stately as if she had that
+morning been plated with iron, and Malchen and Salchen, in their gay
+silk dresses, stared at the three little maidens in their clean cotton
+garments, like a goldfinch at a hedge-sparrow.
+
+The Frau Pastorin was the most cordial person in the world, to her
+friends; but when she met strangers, and her Pastor was not present to
+speak for himself, she took his dignity also upon her shoulders. She
+drew herself up to her full height, looking as round and full as a
+goose on the spit, and with every word that she spoke the cap ribbons
+under her little double chin wagged back and forth with a dignified
+air, as if they would say, "Nobody shall take precedence of me!"
+
+"The honor is quite on our side," said she. "Unfortunately my Pastor is
+not at home. Won't you sit down?" and with that she seated the two old
+Pomuchelskopps on the sofa, under the picture-gallery.
+
+Meanwhile, as the older people were discussing indifferent topics with
+an appearance of interest, as the custom is, and now one and now
+another advancing opinions to which the rest could not assent, Louise
+went, in a friendly way, as was proper, to the two young ladies, and
+shook hands with them, and the little twins followed her example, as
+was also proper.
+
+Now Malchen and Salchen were just eighteen and nineteen years old. They
+were not handsome; Salchen had a gray, pimpled complexion, and Malchen,
+though she was not to blame for it, bore too striking a resemblance to
+her father. But they were _educated_--save the mark! and had recently
+attended the Whitsuntide fair and Trinity ball, at Rostock, so there
+was really a great difference between them and the little girls, and
+since they were not very kindly disposed, they looked rather coldly on
+the little maidens.
+
+These, however, either did not notice it, or took it as a matter of
+course that their advances should be received with coolness, and Louise
+said with great admiration to Malchen, "Ah, what a beautiful dress you
+have on!"
+
+Even an educated young lady might be pleased at that, and Malchen
+became a little more friendly, as she said, "It is only an old one; my
+new one cost, with the trimming and dress-making, all of ten dollars
+more."
+
+"Papa gave them to us for the Trinity ball. Ah, how we danced there!"
+added Salchen.
+
+Now Louise had heard in sermons about Sundays before and after Trinity,
+but of a Trinity ball she knew nothing; in fact she had no definite
+conception of a ball itself, for though the Frau Pastorin in her youth
+had taken pleasure like other people, and had occasionally set foot in
+a ball-room, yet, out of consideration for her present dignified
+position, she always answered Louise's questions what a ball was
+like,--"Mere frivolity!"
+
+As for Lining and Mining they would have known nothing of balls, for
+though their mother danced in her younger days, it was merely at
+harvest feasts, and young Jochen had indeed once gone to a ball, but
+upon reaching the door of the saloon he was so frightened that he beat
+a retreat,--but Uncle Braesig's descriptions had given the children a
+confused idea of many white dresses with green and red ribbons, of
+violins and clarionettes, of waltzes and quadrilles, and many, many
+glasses of punch. And as Uncle Braesig had described it all, he had also
+given an illustration, with his short legs, of the sliding step, and
+the hop step, so that they laughed prodigiously; but what a "ball,"
+such a ball as the last governess had taken away from Mining, had to do
+with it all, they had never comprehended. So Mining asked quite
+innocently, "But, if you dance, how do you play with a ball?"
+
+Mining was a thoughtless little girl, and she should not have asked
+such a question; but, considering her youth and inexperience, the
+Misses Pomuchelskopp need not have laughed quite so loud as they did.
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Salchen, "that is too stupid!"
+
+"Yes, good gracious! so very countrified!" said Malchen, and drew
+herself up in a stately attitude, as if she had lived under the shadow
+of St. Peter's tower in Rostock from her babyhood, and the first
+burgomeister of the city had been her next door neighbor.
+
+Poor little Mining turned as red as a rose, for she felt that she must
+have made a great blunder, and Louise grew red also, but it was from
+anger. "Why do you laugh?" she cried hastily, "why do you laugh because
+we know nothing about balls?"
+
+"See, see! How excited!" laughed Malchen. "My dear child----"
+
+She went no further in her wise speech, being interrupted by hasty
+words from the group on the sofa.
+
+"Frau Pastorin, I say it is wrong; I am the owner of Gurlitz, and if
+the Pastor's field was to be rented----"
+
+"It was my Pastor's doing, and the Kammerrath is an old friend, and one
+of our parishioners, and the field joins his land as well as it does
+yours, and Inspector Habermann----"
+
+"Is an old cheat," interrupted Pomuchelskopp.
+
+"He has already done us an injury," added his wife.
+
+"What?" cried the little Frau Pastorin, "what?"
+
+But her dear old heart thought in a minute of little Louise, and she
+overcame her anger, and began to wink and blink. It was too late; the
+child had heard her father's name, had heard the slander, and stood now
+before the arrogant man, and the cold, hard woman.
+
+"What is my father? What has my father done?"
+
+Her eyes shot fiery glances at the two who had spoken evil of her
+father, and the young frame which up to this time had known constant
+peace and joy, quivered with passion.
+
+People tell us that sometimes the fair, still, green earth trembles,
+and fire and flame burst forth, and showers of gray ashes bury the
+dwellings of men, and the temples of God. It seemed to her that a
+beautiful temple, in which she had often worshipped, had been buried
+under gray ashes, and her grief broke forth in streaming tears, as her
+good foster-mother put her arms around her, and led her from the room.
+
+Muchel looked at his Kluecking, and Kluecking looked at her Muchel; they
+had got themselves into trouble. It was quite another thing from having
+one of his laborer's wives come to him, in tears, and a pitiful tale of
+sorrow and distress--he knew what to do in such cases; but here he had
+no occasion for reproaches or advice, and, as he glanced about him in
+his confusion, and saw upon the wall the hands of Christ stretched out
+in blessing, it seemed to him that the flashing eyes of Louise had
+turned appealingly toward them, and he remembered how Christ had said,
+"Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of
+Heaven." He did not feel exactly comfortable.
+
+His brave Kluecking also, was quite disturbed. She had heard her own
+children screaming many a time under her vigorous discipline, but this
+was a different matter; Malchen and Salchen had often shot fire from
+their eyes, and stamped their feet, but this was a different matter.
+She recovered herself soon, however, and said,--
+
+"Kopp, don't make such a stupid face! What did she say about her
+father? Is Habermann her father?"
+
+"Yes," answered Mining and Lining, through their tears, "that is Louise
+Habermann." And they followed their little friend into the next room,
+to cry with her; for though they did not know how deeply her heart was
+wounded, they reckoned themselves one with her, in joy and sorrow.
+
+"I did not know that," said Pomuchelskopp; the very words he had used
+years before, when Habermann's wife lay in her coffin.
+
+"A foolish girl!" said his Haeuhning. "Malchen and Salchen, come, we
+will go; the Pastor's wife won't come back again."
+
+And so they went off, like the year 1822, of which Haeuhning represents
+the 1, on account of her leanness, and because she would always be
+number 1, Pomuchelskopp the 8, on account of his size and rotundity,
+and the two daughters the two figure 2's,--for such a 2 always looks to
+me like a goose swimming on the water.
+
+As they stepped out of the door, the Pastor was just returning from his
+duties at Warnitz, and had brought Uncle Braesig home with him. He knew
+by their appearance that they had been making a ceremonious visit, and
+sprung hastily from the carriage, that he might be in time for a part
+of it.
+
+"Ah, good day! How do you do? But," he added in surprise, "where is my
+wife?"
+
+"She went off and left us," said Frau Pomuchelskopp, stiffly.
+
+"Eh, there must be some mistake! Do come in again, I shall be back
+directly," and he ran into the house.
+
+Meanwhile Braesig had gone up to his old comrade Pomuchelskopp: "Good
+day, Zamel, how are you?"
+
+"Thank you, Herr Inspector, very well," was the reply.
+
+Braesig elevated his eyebrows, looked him square in the face, and
+whistled square in his face. If Frau Pomuchelskopp wished to make him a
+courtesy, she might do so, but only to his back, for he turned about
+and went into the house.
+
+"Come, Kopp," said she sharply, and the procession moved off.
+
+As the pastor entered the house, he found nobody there; he went through
+into the garden, and called, and it was not long before he saw the
+little twins sitting under a raspberry hedge, with red eyes, and they
+pointed to the birch-tree arbor, with anxious looks, as if to say he
+must go there if he would find out what the trouble was. He went to the
+arbor, and there sat his Regina, with the child in her lap, trying to
+comfort her. When she saw her Pastor, she put the child gently down on
+the bench, drew him out of the arbor, and told him the matter.
+
+Pastor Behrens listened in silence; but as his wife repeated the wicked
+word that the Herr Landlord had used, there flashed over his
+intelligent, quiet face a look of bitter anger, and then his clear eyes
+shone with the deepest compassion. He said to his wife that she might
+go in, and he would speak to the child. So it had come at last! his
+lovely flower had been pierced by a poisonous worm; the pitiless world
+had grasped this soft, pure heart with its hard, coarse hand, and the
+finger-marks could never be effaced; now it had entered upon the great,
+never-ending struggle, which is fought out here on earth until hearts
+cease to beat. It must come, yes, it must come, he knew that well
+enough; but he knew also that the greatest art of one who would train a
+human soul lies in keeping away, as long as possible, the hard hand
+from the tender heart, until that also had become harder, and then, if
+the evil grip should be even worse, the black fingers will not leave
+such deep marks upon the heart, until then innocent of the never-ending
+struggle. He went into the arbor. Thou art still happy, Louise; well is
+it for one who in such an hour is blessed with a faithful friend!
+
+Frau Pastorin, meanwhile, went into the parlor, and found Braesig.
+Braesig, instead of sitting down on the comfortable sofa, under the
+picture-gallery, or at least in a reasonable chair, had seated himself
+on a table, and was working like a linen-weaver, in his excitement over
+Pomuchelskopp's ceremonious behavior. "There you see me, there you have
+me!" he cried angrily. "The Jesuit!" As the Frau Pastorin came in, he
+sprang from his table, and cried,--
+
+"Frau Pastorin, what should you say of anybody you had known forty
+years, and you meet him, and you speak to him, and he calls you
+"Sie?"[1]
+
+"Ah, Braesig----"
+
+"That is what Pomuchelskopp has done to me."
+
+"Let the man alone! He has done worse mischief here;" and she related
+what had happened.
+
+Braesig was angry, exceedingly angry, over the injury which he had
+received, but when he heard this he was angry beyond measure; he
+stormed up and down the room, and made use of language for which the
+Frau Pastorin would have reproved him severely, had she not been very
+angry herself; at last he thrust himself into the sofa corner, and sat,
+without saying a word, looking straight before him.
+
+The Pastor entered, his Regina looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"She is watering the flowers," he said, as if to compose her, and he
+walked in his quiet way, up and down the room, finally turning toward
+Braesig. "What are you thinking of, dear friend?"
+
+"Hell-fire! I am thinking about hell-fire, Herr Pastor!"
+
+"Why of that?" asked the Pastor.
+
+But instead of replying, Braesig sprang to his feet, and said:
+
+"Tell me, Herr Pastor, is it true that there are mountains that vomit
+fire?"
+
+"Certainly," said the Pastor.
+
+"And are they good or bad for mankind?"
+
+"The people who live in the neighbourhood consider the eruptions a good
+thing, because then the earthquakes are not so violent."
+
+"So? so?" said Braesig, apparently not quite satisfied with the answer.
+"But it is true, isn't it," he went on, "that such mountains send forth
+flame and smoke, like a chimney?"
+
+"Something so," said the Pastor, who had not the slightest idea what
+Braesig was driving at.
+
+"Well," said Braesig, stamping with his foot, "then I wish that the
+devil would take Zamel Pomuchelskopp by the nape of his neck, and hold
+him over one of those fire-spouting holes till he got his deserts."
+
+"Fie, Braesig!" cried the little Pastorin, "you are a heathen. How can
+you utter such an unchristian wish in a minister's house!"
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, going back into the sofa-corner, "it
+would be a great benefit to mankind."
+
+"Dear Braesig," said the Pastor, "we must remember that these people
+used the disgraceful expression without any intention of hurting us."
+
+"It is all one to me," cried Braesig, "with or without intention. He
+provoked me with intention, but what he did here without intention was
+a thousand times worse. You see, Herr Pastor, one must get angry
+sometimes, and we farmers get angry regularly two or three times a
+day,--it belongs to the business; but moderately, what I call a sort of
+farm-boy anger. For example, yesterday I was having the fallow-ground
+marled, and I had ordered the boys to form a line with their carts.
+Then I stood in the marl-pit, and all was going nicely. Then, you see,
+there came that lubber, Christian Kohlhaas,--a real horned-beast of a
+creature,--there he was with his full cart coming back to the pit. 'You
+confounded rascal!' said I, 'what under heaven! are you going to bring
+the marl back again!' Do you believe, that blockhead looked me right in
+the face, and said he wasn't quite ready to empty the cart, and would
+go into the line. Well, I was angry, you may be sure; but there are
+different sorts of anger. This was a proper farm-boy anger, and that
+kind agrees with me, especially after dinner; but here--I can't scold
+Pomuchelskopp as I do the farm-boys. It all stays here, I can't get rid
+of it. And you will see, Frau Pastorin, to-morrow I shall have that
+cursed gout again."
+
+"Braesig," said the Frau Pastorin, "will you do me a favour? Don't tell
+Habermann anything of this."
+
+"Eh, why should I, Frau Pastorin? But I will go to little Louise, and
+comfort her, and tell her that Samuel Pomuchelskopp is the meanest,
+most infamous rascal on the face of the earth."
+
+"No, no," said the Pastor, hastily, "let that go. The child will get
+over it, and I hope all will be well again."
+
+"No? Then good-bye," said Braesig, reaching for his cap.
+
+"Surely, Braesig, you will stay to dinner with us?"
+
+"Thank you kindly, Frau Pastorin. There is reason in all things. One
+must be angry sometimes, to be sure; but better after dinner than
+before. I had better go and work in the marl-pit; but Christian would
+do well not to come back today with his full cart to the marl-pit. So
+good-bye, once more." And with that he went off.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Habermann heard nothing of this occurrence. His child said nothing to
+him about it, only treated him with increased tenderness and reverence,
+if that were possible, as if with her greater love to make up to him
+the wrong which had been done him. Frau Nuessler, who had heard the
+whole story from her little girls, could not find it in her heart to
+say a word to her brother which could grieve him, or make him
+suspicious of others. The Pastor and his wife had the same reason for
+silence, and also the wish that the whole matter should be forgotten by
+Louise.
+
+Jochen Nuessler said nothing of consequence, and Braesig also held his
+peace, that is toward Habermann. It happened, however, through
+his feeling of injury at this self-restraint, and the attack of
+gout,--which came as he said it would the next day,--that he excited
+the whole neighborhood against Pomuchelskopp; and as the latter made no
+special efforts towards friendship and sociability, it was not long
+before his intercourse with his neighbors was like my wife's kitchen
+floor at Pentecost, so naked and bare was he left in this respect.
+
+Pomuchelskopp looked upon social intercourse as a garden merely, in
+which he could plant his pride-beans; whether the garden gave him
+shade, or produced flowers, was of little importance to him provided
+that he had room for himself and what belonged to him to spread and
+grow. He had come into Mecklenburg, in the first place, because he
+could buy Gurlitz at a good bargain; but, secondly because he had a
+vague idea of his future prospects as a landlord.
+
+"Haeuhning," said he to his wife, "here in Pomerania, every body rules
+us, and the landrath says, 'It shall be so and so,' but in Mecklenburg
+we shall be law-givers ourselves, I among others. And I have heard it
+is customary there for rich burghers, who live like the nobility, to
+become ennobled in time. Think, Kueking, how it would seem to be called
+'my gracious lady von Pomuchelskopp!' but one must not throw himself
+away!"
+
+And he took pains not to throw himself away, giving up, for that
+purpose, one of his chief pleasures, the boasting and bragging of his
+money, in order not to associate too familiarly with the farmers and
+inspectors of the neighborhood. For that purpose, he had greeted old
+Braesig with "Sie," and had honored only Braesig's Herr Count with a
+formal visit. He went in his blue dress-coat, with bright buttons, and
+the new coach with four brown horses, and was as welcome there as a hog
+in a Jew's house. When he came home, he sat out of humor in the
+sofa-corner, and struck at the flies; and as his wife who always became
+affectionate when he was cross, said, "Poeking, what is the matter?" he
+grumbled, "What should be the matter? Nothing is the matter, only these
+confounded nobility, who are friendly to look at, and when you come
+nearer it is good for nothing. Oh, yes, he asked me to sit down, and
+then he inquired very politely how he could serve me. I don't want
+anything of him, I am better off than he; but I could think of nothing
+to say, at the moment, and then there was such a silence that I must
+needs go."
+
+But for all that, Pomuchelskopp would not throw himself away,--by no
+means! He trailed after the nobility like the tail after a sheep, and
+although he would never advance a penny of wages to his own people, and
+the poor tradesmen in the city had to wait till the year's end for
+their hard-earned pay, he had money for any spendthrift young
+gentleman. And, while every poor devil of a fellow who went through his
+fields was fined without pity, for trespassing, Braesig's gracious Herr
+Count had permission, even in harvest time, to go over them with the
+whole hunt; and while he cheated the Pastor shamefully in his
+Easter-lamb, the Herr Count's hunter could shoot the roe-buck before
+his very door, and he made no complaint. No! Zamel Pomuchelskopp did
+not throw himself away!
+
+Habermann kept out of his way. He was not a man for strife and
+contention, and was too well satisfied with his situation, to be
+looking here and there after other things. He was like a man, who,
+after being out in a storm, sits warm and dry in the chimney-corner;
+and his only trouble was his anxiety about his good master. He had some
+time before received a letter from him, in a strange hand, and with a
+black seal, which said that he had had a stroke of paralysis, and had
+not yet recovered the use of his right hand; but the greatest
+affliction which had befallen him was the loss of his wife, who had
+died suddenly, in full health. And it said also that his nephew Franz
+would arrive at Pumpelhagen, at Michaelmas, in order to learn farming.
+"It is his own wish to handle the spade and learn everything for
+himself. I also think it best." These words were written in the
+Kammerrath's own hand. A couple of weeks later he received another
+letter, in which the Kammerrath informed him that he had resigned his
+post in Schwerin and intended, after the next Easter, to reside at
+Pumpelhagen, with his three unmarried daughters; through the winter, he
+must remain in Schwerin, on account of his health. Habermann should
+however retain complete management of everything.
+
+This would be a change, which would have some effect upon his
+situation; and, though he had no occasion to dread the eye of the
+master, and would gladly exert himself to do anything for his comfort,
+yet he could not help saying to himself that the quiet peace and
+simplicity of his life were over, and how long would it be before
+greater changes must come?
+
+Michaelmas came, and with it came Franz von Rambow. He was not what is
+called a handsome young man; but he was healthy and strong, and upon
+nearer view one was struck by the earnestness of his manner, and the
+good-nature in his eyes. A shadow of sadness sometimes fell upon his
+face, which may have been owing to the fact that he lost his parents in
+early youth, and had since stood as an orphan, alone in the world. As
+one might infer from his appearance, he was no fool; he had good
+natural talents, which had been developed at the school in which he had
+fitted for the university, and he had also learned a more important
+lesson, how to labor. He was a young tree, raised in a nursery in a
+hard soil, and the wood had grown slowly, but firmly; he had shot out
+no rank shoots into the air, his branches were low, but wide-spread,
+and when he should be transplanted he would need no prop. "Let him be,"
+the gardener would say, "he is tough and strong, he can stand alone."
+
+At present, he was twenty years old, and the three years' child whom
+Habermann recollected had become a steady young man, with future
+prospects such as few young men in the country were possessed of. He
+owned two fine estates, which had become freed from debt by prudent
+management during his minority. It was before his recollection, to be
+sure, that Habermann had served as inspector with his father; but he
+had been told how friendly the inspector had always been toward him,
+and when a good, simple-hearted man knows that another has carried him
+in his arms, as a child, confidence easily glides into his heart, and
+he seems to see the little pillow in the cradle, and the tired head
+lies softly down, and the dreams of childhood return once more.
+
+Habermann returned this confidence, heartily and gladly. He cautiously
+and quietly led the young man along, in the new and unaccustomed path;
+he instructed him in matters of the farm-yard and of the field; he told
+him the reasons why such a thing should be done, and why it should be
+done just so, and not in a different manner. At the same time, he
+endeavored to spare him; but as he noticed that his scholar had no wish
+to be spared, and desired faithfully to fill his post, he let him have
+his way, saying to himself, like the gardener, "Let him alone, he needs
+no prop."
+
+But to these contented companions another was to be added, who would
+bring life into the house, and that was Fritz Triddelsitz.
+
+The little Frau Pastorin had a brother-in-law, the apothecary
+Triddelsitz, at Rahnstadt, and when he heard that Habermann had taken a
+pupil to be instructed in farming, he took it into his head that his
+Fritz, who was a foppish stripling of seventeen, should learn how to
+manage an estate under Habermann's tuition. "Merely the higher
+branches," said Fritz; "I know all about common things already, for I
+have been twice in the dogdays at the miller's in Bolz, and helped
+about the harvesting."
+
+The little Frau Pastorin was not quite pleased with the proposal, for
+she knew her greyhound of a nephew, and did not wish that Habermann
+should be troubled with him; but her brother-in-law persevered, and the
+matter was brought forward. Habermann would have gone through fire and
+water for the Pastor and his wife; but he could not decide such a
+question on his own responsibility. He wrote to his master about it:
+young Triddelsitz wanted to come in as a third, he had many crotchets
+in his head, but was good-hearted; his chief recommendation was that he
+was the Frau Pastorin's nephew, to whom Habermann was under great
+obligation, as the Herr Kammerrath was aware. For the rest, his father
+would pay, for two years, a hundred dollars for board. Would it be
+agreeable to the Herr Kammerrath, that Fritz Triddelsitz should come to
+Pumpelhagen, to learn farming?
+
+The Herr Kammerrath answered by return post; there was no question of
+board, the hundred dollars were for tuition, and with that he had
+nothing to do, that was Habermann's business; if he thought best, let
+him take the young man, and welcome.
+
+This was a great joy to Habermann; nothing more was said of board or
+tuition money, for he could now discharge a small portion of the great
+debt which he owed to the Pastor and his wife.
+
+So Fritz Triddelsitz came, and in such a way! He was his dear mother's
+only son,--to be sure she had a couple of daughters,--and she fitted
+him out for his new place, so that he could represent an apprentice, a
+travelling agent, an inspector, or a farmer and landlord, according to
+the occasion, or as the whim took him to play at farming, in this
+manner or that. He had dress-boots and working boots, laced boots and
+top-boots; he had morning shoes, and dancing shoes, and fancy slippers;
+he had button-gaiters, and riding-gaiters, and other gaiters; he had
+dress-coats, and linen frocks, and cloth coats and pilot-coats;
+overcoats and under-jackets, and rain-coats, and a variety of long and
+short trousers, too numerous to mention.
+
+This outfit for a gentleman farmer arrived at Pumpelhagen one fine day,
+in several large boxes, with a fine, soft bed, and a great clumsy
+secretary; and the carrier volunteered the news that the young
+gentleman would soon be there, he was on the way, and was merely
+detained by a struggle with his father's old chestnut horse, who would
+come no further than the Gurlitz parsonage, because that had been the
+limit of his journeys hitherto. How the contest terminated he did not
+see, because he came away; but the young gentleman was coming. And he
+came, and as I said before, in what a guise! Like an inspector over two
+large estates belonging to a count, and who has the privilege of riding
+to the hounds with his gracious Herr Count, in a green hunting-jacket,
+and white leather breeches, top-boots with yellow tops, and spurs, and
+over the whole a water-proof coat, not because it was likely to rain,
+but it was new, and he wanted to hear what people would say about it.
+And he came upon his father's old chestnut, and, from the appearance of
+both, it was evident that their present relations were the result of a
+contest. The horse had come to a stand in the middle of the great
+puddle before the Pastor's house, with a fixed determination to go no
+further, and Fritz had exercised him for a good ten minutes with whip
+and spur, to the great dismay of the little Frau Pastorin, before he
+could persuade him to advance; so when he dismounted at Pumpelhagen,
+his rain-coat looked as if he had been pelted with mud.
+
+The old chestnut stood before the house, and he pricked up his ears,
+and said to himself, "Is he a fool, or am I? I am seventeen years old,
+and he is seventeen years old. He has had his way this time, next time
+I will have mine. If he treats me so with whip and spur and kicks, next
+time I will lie down in the puddle."
+
+When Fritz Triddelsitz came into the room where Habermann, and young
+Herr von Rambow, and Marie Moeller, the housekeeper, were sitting at
+dinner, the old inspector was struck dumb with astonishment, for he had
+never seen him before. In his green hunting-jacket, Fritz looked like
+one of those long asparagus stalks which spring up in the garden, and
+he was so thin and slender that he looked as if one could cut him in
+two with his riding-whip. He had high cheek bones and a freckled face,
+and something so assured, and yet awkward in his whole demeanor, that
+Habermann said to himself, "God bless me! am I to teach him? He feels
+above me already."
+
+His reflections were interrupted by a burst of laughter from Franz von
+Rambow, in which Marie Moeller secretly joined, holding her napkin
+before her mouth.
+
+Fritz had begun, "Good-day, Herr Inspector, how do you do?" when he was
+interrupted by the laughter; he saw his old schoolmate at Parchen,
+shaking with fun; he looked at him rather doubtfully? but it was not
+long before he joined in the laugh himself, and then steady old
+Habermann could refrain no longer, he laughed till his eyes ran over.
+"Man!" said Franz, "how you have rigged yourself up!"
+
+"Always noble!" said Fritz, and Marie Moeller disappeared again behind
+her napkin.
+
+"Come, Triddelsitz," said Habermann, "sit down to dinner,"
+
+Fritz accepted the invitation--the fellow was in luck, for he had come
+at the best season for good living, in the roast-goose season, and as
+it happened, a fine, brown bird stood before him, and this beginning of
+his study of farming might well be agreeable. He was not at all sparing
+of the roast goose, and Habermann reflected silently that if he sat on
+horseback as well as at table, paid as much attention to farm-boys as
+to roast goose, knew as much about horses' fodder as of his own, and
+cleared up business as completely as he did his plate, something might
+be made of him in time.
+
+"Well, Triddelsitz," said Habermann, when dinner was over, "now you
+can go to your room, and change your clothes, and put this smart
+riding-suit away where the moths will not get at it, for you won't need
+it again this two years. We don't ride much here, we go on foot, and if
+there is any riding to do, I do it myself, by the way."
+
+Before long, Fritz re-appeared, with a pair of greased boots, short
+breeches, and a grass-green pilot-coat.
+
+"That will do," said Habermann; "now come, and I will give you some
+instructions to begin with."
+
+They went over the farm, and next morning Fritz Triddelsitz stood with
+seven of the farm laborers in the Rahnstadt road, and let the water out
+of the puddles,--an agreeable business, especially in November, with a
+drizzling rain all day long. "The devil!" said Fritz Triddelsitz,
+"farming isn't what I took it for!"
+
+A couple of weeks after his arrival, Braesig came riding into the yard,
+one Sunday noon. Fritz had by this time become so far subdued by
+Habermann, his monotonous work, and the everlasting rainy weather, that
+he began to comprehend his situation as an apprentice, and his natural
+good-heartedness made him ready for little services. So he started out
+of doors, to assist Braesig down from his horse, but Braesig screamed,
+"Don't come near me! Don't touch me! Don't come within ten feet of me!
+Tell Karl Habermann to come out."
+
+Habermann came: "Bless you, Braesig, why don't you get down?"
+
+"Karl--no, don't touch me I just get me a soft chair, so that I can get
+down by degrees, and then bring a blanket or a sheepskin or something
+soft to spread under it, for I have got this confounded gout."
+
+They did as he asked, spreading mats under the chair, and Braesig
+crawled down from the horse, and hobbled into the house.
+
+"Why didn't you send me word you were ill, Braesig?" said Habermann. "I
+would gladly have gone to you."
+
+"You can do nothing for me, Karl; but I couldn't stay in that
+confounded hole any longer. But what I was going to say is--I have
+given it up."
+
+"Given what up?"
+
+"Getting married. I shall take the pension from my gracious Herr
+Count."
+
+"Well, Braesig, I would do that, in your place."
+
+"Eh, Karl, it is all very well to talk; but it is a hard thing for a
+man of my years to give up all his cherished hopes, and go to a
+water-cure; for Dr. Strump is determined to send me there. I don't
+suppose Dr. Strump knows anything about it, but he has had the accursed
+gout himself, and when he sits by me and talks so wisely about it, and
+talks about Colchicum and Polchicum, it is a comfort to think that such
+a learned man has the gout too."
+
+"So you are going to a water-cure?"
+
+"Yes, Karl; but not before spring. I have made my plans; this winter
+I shall grumble along here, then in the spring I will go to the
+water-cure, and by midsummer I will take the pension, and go to live in
+the old mill-house at Haunerwiem. I thought at first I would go to
+Rahnstadt, but there I should have no house rent-free, and no village,
+and they would take me for a fat sheep and fleece me and skin me; it
+would be contemptible, and also too expensive."
+
+"You are right, Braesig; stay in the country, it is better for you; and
+stay in our neighborhood, for we should miss you sadly, if we did not
+see your honest old face, every few days."
+
+"Oh, you have society enough; you have these young people, and, I was
+going to say, old Broeker at Kniep, and Schimmel of Radboom would be
+glad to send you their boys also. If I were you I would put on an
+addition to the old farm-house, to have plenty of room, and establish a
+regular agricultural school."
+
+"That does very well for a joke, Braesig. I have enough to do with
+these."
+
+"Yes? How do they get along."
+
+"Well, Braesig, you know them both, and I have often thought I should
+like to ask your opinion."
+
+"I can't tell, Karl, till I have seen how they go. Young farmers are
+like colts, one can't judge merely by looking at them, one must see
+them put through their paces. See, there goes your young nobleman; call
+him a little nearer, and let me examine him."
+
+Habermann laughed, but complied with Braesig's request, and called the
+young man.
+
+"Hm," said Braesig, "a firm gait, not too rapid, holds himself together
+well, and has his limbs under control. He'll do, Karl. Now the other
+one!"
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann as the young man came up, "where is
+Triddelsitz?"
+
+"In his room," was the answer.
+
+"Hm," said Braesig, "resting himself a little."
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Tell him to come down," said Habermann, "and come back yourself.
+Coffee will be ready presently."
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, when they were alone, "you will see, the
+apothecary's son has been taking a nap."
+
+"No harm if he has, Braesig; he is young, and has been at work all the
+morning, giving out corn for fodder."
+
+"But he oughtn't, Karl; it isn't good for young folks to sleep after
+dinner. See, there he comes! Now send him somewhere, past the window,
+so that I can see how he goes."
+
+"Triddelsitz," called Habermann from the window, "go to the stables,
+and tell Jochen Boldt to be ready to take Herr Inspector Braesig home,
+by and by. He may take the two fore-horses----"
+
+"Bon!" said Fritz Triddelsitz, and skipped vivaciously along the
+causeway.
+
+"God preserve us!" cried Braesig, "what an action! Just look how awkward
+he is! See the weakness of his ankles, and the thinness of his flanks!
+It will take you a good while to fat him up. He is a greyhound, Karl, a
+regular greyhound, and, mark my words, you will make nothing of him."
+
+"Eh, Braesig, he is so young, he will outgrow these peculiarities."
+
+"Outgrow them? Sleeps in the afternoon? Says 'Bong' to you? And now
+look here--for all the world he is coming back again, and hasn't been
+near the stables."
+
+Fritz was coming back again, to be sure; he came to the window and
+said, "Herr Inspector, didn't you say Jochen Boldt should go?"
+
+"Yes," said Braesig snappishly, "Jochen Boldt shall go, and shall not
+forget what he is told. You see now, Karl, am I right?"
+
+"Braesig," said Habermann, a little annoyed by Fritz's stupidity, "let
+him go! we are not all alike; and, though it may cost a good deal of
+trouble, we will bring him through."
+
+Vexation was an infrequent guest with Habermann; and, whenever it came,
+he showed it the door. Thought, anxiety, sorrow of heart, he admitted,
+when they overpowered him; but this obtrusive beggar, which borrows
+something from each of the others, and lies all day at a man's ears,
+with all sorts of complaints and torments, he thrust out of doors,
+headforemost. So it was not long before the conversation became lively
+and pleasant again, and continued so until Braesig departed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The winter passed away without any special incidents. Habermann was
+accustomed to a uniform life, and desired no other, for himself; but
+the young people were sometimes wearied by it, and by their seclusion,
+especially Franz von Rambow. Fritz Triddelsitz had his aunt, the Frau
+Pastorin, close by, and a little farther off, his dear mother at
+Rahnstadt and, nearer than either, Marie Moeller the house-keeper, who
+often comforted him with a bit of roast goose, or a morsel of sausage,
+so that they soon came into friendly relations. Sometimes they were
+together like mother and child, for Marie was seven years older than
+Fritz,--she was four and twenty; sometimes they seemed more like
+lovers, for four and twenty is no great age, after all; and Fritz
+instead of learning his Latin at school, had fed upon romances, and had
+been a regular customer at the circulating library, so that he was
+quite well informed about such matters, and as his father had advised
+him to study human nature, and Habermann often repeated the advice, he
+thought it a good opportunity to improve his knowledge of love-affairs;
+but don't be alarmed, there is nothing serious coming--nothing more
+tender than roast goose and sausage.
+
+Habermann had no occasion to trouble himself about Fritz; it was only
+for Franz he felt anxious. He had taken him already once to the
+parsonage, and when Christmas time came, they were invited there to
+spend Christmas eve. The young Herr accepted,--Fritz had gone home to
+Rahnstadt for the holidays--and as they drove up in the sleigh--for
+it was fine sleighing--to the front door, which opened into the
+living-room, there stood the little, plump Frau Pastorin, motioning
+with both hand and foot:--
+
+"No, Habermann, no! you mustn't come in here! Herr von Rambow, if you
+will have the kindness, just go round to my Pastor's study."
+
+And, as they entered the study, Louise sprang towards her father, and
+kissed him, and whispered in his ear what presents she had made, and
+how she had arranged them, and who was to knock the Yule raps, and had
+scarcely time to give Herr von Rambow a hasty courtesy. But the Pastor
+made up for her neglect; he shook the young man's hand, and said that
+he was heartily glad that he had come to celebrate this joyous feast
+with them. "But," he added, "we must be under subjection; my Regina
+takes the rule to-day, and her head is never clearer and brighter than
+on Christmas eve."
+
+He was right in that; for every few moments her head was thrust in at
+the door: "Wait just a minute longer! Sit perfectly still! The bell
+will ring directly." And once she whisked through the room, with a blue
+package peeping from under her apron, and then in the next room they
+heard her merry laugh.
+
+At last, at last, the bell rung, and the door flew open, and there
+stood the Christmas tree, in the centre of the room, on the round
+table, and under the tree were as many dishes full of apples and nuts
+and ginger-bread as there were members of the family, and two more, for
+Habermann and the young gentleman. The Frau Pastorin fluttered about
+the tree, and then taking Habermann and Herr von Rambow by the hand,
+she led them up to the table. "This is your dish, and this is yours,
+and Louise and my Pastor have already found theirs!" then turning
+around, she cried, "Now all come in!" for the Pastor's man, George, and
+the two maids, Rika and Duerten, were all standing at the door, waiting
+for their Christmas boxes,--"now all come in! Where the bright dollars
+are sticking in the apples, those are your dishes, and the red cloth
+lying here is for the two maids, and this red vest is for George. And
+Louise--yes, yes, yes!" She could go no further, for Louise had grasped
+her about the neck, and was kissing the words from her lips, and in her
+hand she held a bright cherry merino dress: "This is from you, mother!"
+
+Here it must be confessed, the Frau Pastorin so far forgot herself as
+to equivocate, not in words, to be sure, but by shaking her head, and
+nodding towards her Pastor, and Louise sprang upon him: "Then it is
+you!"
+
+But he also shook his head, and professed to know nothing about it, and
+Louise grasped her own father by the arm, and cried: "No, no! It is
+from you!"
+
+The good old inspector was much affected at receiving from his child
+the thanks which were due to others; he stroked her soft hair, and his
+eyes grew moist, as he took her hand and led her back to the Frau
+Pastorin, saying, "No, darling, no! Your thanks belong here."
+
+But the Frau Pastorin had no time now to receive thanks. She was
+busy with her Pastor, whom she had drawn aside to see how his new
+dressing-gown fitted. It was fortunate that it did not happen to be a
+pair of pantaloons, for in the joy and excitement of this evening, the
+impropriety would never have occurred to her mind. The gown fitted
+well, and looked finely, and she drew back a couple of steps and looked
+at her Pastor, like a child when it has set up a new doll in the
+sofa-corner, and as she turned round she saw a package lying on her
+dish, which her Pastor had secretly placed there. Hastily she untied
+the string, and took off the wrappings, chattering all the while. What
+could it be? How strangely it felt! Somebody was surely playing a joke
+on her,--and at last, there was a beautiful black silk dress. Now the
+joy was at its height. Habermann had found a new pipe on his plate, and
+held it in his mouth, puffing contentedly, although it was quite cold,
+the Pastor lay back in the sofa-corner, like the new doll, and the Frau
+Pastorin and Louise walked up and down the room holding up the stuff
+for their new dresses, and looking down at them, as if the dresses were
+already finished.
+
+And Franz! Franz sat a little aside, and a slight sadness stole over
+him, at the thought of the joys he had missed since his childhood. He
+rested his head on his hand, and the Christmas eves of his life passed
+before him; kind friends and relatives brought him their greetings, but
+the two faces which hung in his room, under the wreath of immortelles,
+were missing. He felt that he did not belong here, but he would not
+disturb their joy; he recalled his thoughts, and as he raised his head
+he looked into a pair of great, beautiful, childish eyes, full of
+thought and compassion, as if they had read his heart.
+
+"Yule rap!" cried Rika's loud voice, and a package flew in at the door,
+"For the Frau Pastorin." It was a nice roller, and nobody knew where it
+came from. "Yule rap!" again; and this time it was a new stuffed
+cushion for the Pastor's arm-chair; but nobody had made it. Oh, what
+fibs they told that evening at the parsonage! "Yule rap!" There was a
+letter for the Frau Pastorin, and in it a ticket with a number,
+referring to another ticket up-stairs, and when she had got this, it
+referred her to another down in the cellar, and that to another, and
+another,--and if the Frau Pastorin wanted the pretty embroidered collar
+designed for her, she must chase it all over the house, to find it, at
+last, close by, in her husband's boot-leg. Another "Yule rap!" All,
+that was a great package! "To the Herr Pastor," it was addressed, but
+when the first wrapper was taken off, it was for the Frau Pastorin, and
+then for George, and then for Rika, and finally for Louise, and when
+the last paper had been taken off, there was a little work-table,
+exactly such a work-table as her father had given years ago to her dead
+mother. He knew where it came from, no one else.
+
+Then another "Yule rap!" Books for Louise. "Yule rap!" again--an
+embroidered foot-cover for Habermann. All this time Rika had not been
+visible. Now she came in and gathered up the wrapping paper and string.
+Then the door opened once more, a clear bell-like voice cried "Yule
+rap!" and, as the package was examined, it was found to be "For the
+Honourable Herr Franz von Rambow," and while they were looking, a
+little maiden crept softly in on tip-toe, a great joy beaming in her
+face.
+
+Franz was taken by surprise, but when he opened his package, he
+found a letter from his youngest cousin Fidelia, and the three
+unmarried daughters of the Kammerrath had sent him their Christmas
+gifts--Albertine a smoking-cushion, and he never smoked on a
+sofa,--Bertha a saddle-cover, and as yet he had no horse,--and Fidelia
+a cigar-case, and in fact he never smoked at all. But what of that?
+Whether one can use them or not, it is all one; not the gift, but the
+giver, and the good-will is the important thing at Christmas time.
+Franz no longer felt so lonely; and as he saw the pleasure in Louise's
+face, when she returned, he laughed and joked with her about his
+presents, and, whether she liked it or not, she must receive his
+thanks, because he had recognized her voice.
+
+Rika came in again, saying, "Frau Pastorin, they are all here."
+
+"So? Then we will go out."
+
+"No, dear Regina," said the Pastor, "let them come in."
+
+"Oh, Pastor, they will bring in so much snow on their feet!"
+
+"Never mind! Rika will get up early to-morrow morning, and clean it all
+up. Eh, Rika?"
+
+To be sure, Rika would do it gladly; so the door was opened, and in
+came head after head, flaxen heads and dark heads, all the little
+people in the village, and they stood there rubbing their noses, and
+opening their eyes wider and wider, and stared at the apples and
+ginger-nuts, with their mouths also wide open, as if to invite the
+dainties to walk in.
+
+"So!" said Frau Pastorin, "now let the godchildren come first.
+Habermann," added she, "we are next to their parents, my Pastor and I,
+in fact we are nearest to our godchildren." And more than half of the
+company pressed forward, for the Pastor and his wife had stood
+godparents to at least half the village children. One boy, who wanted
+to deceive, pushed forward with the others, that was Jochen Ruhrdanz,
+who had said last year that the godchildren got more than the others;
+but Stina Wasmuths noticed him, and pushed him back, saying, "You are
+not a godchild," so that his impudent attempt was unsuccessful.
+
+Then the Herr Pastor came forward, with a pile of books under his arm,
+and all the godchildren, who had during the winter come to him for
+instruction, received every one a hymn-book, and the others received
+writing-books and slates and primers and catechisms, according as they
+needed them, and all the children said, "Thank you, godfather!" but
+those who had hymn-books said, "Thank you very much, Herr Pastor." That
+was an old custom.
+
+Then came the Frau Pastorin. "So! I will take the nuts; Louise, you
+take the ginger-nuts, and, Herr von Rambow, will you take the
+apple-basket? And now, each in his turn! Come, children, put yourselves
+in rows, and hold your dishes ready."
+
+It was not a very quiet proceeding, there was some pushing and shoving,
+for each one wished to be in the front row, and each held out whatever
+he had brought, to receive his Christmas gift. The little girls had
+their aprons, but the boys had brought anything they could lay hands
+on; one had a platter, another a peck-measure, a third his father's
+hat, and one a great corn-sack, which he evidently expected to get
+almost if not quite full. Now began the dividing.
+
+"There, there, there--hold!" said the Frau Pastorin, as she came to a
+mischievous rogue of a boy. "Herr von Rambow, that boy is to have no
+apples, because he helped himself from the garden, last summer."
+
+"Oh, Frau Pastorin----"
+
+"Boy, didn't I see you myself, up in the great apple-tree by the wall,
+knocking off the apples with a stick?"
+
+"But, ah, Frau Pastorin----"
+
+"Not a word! Boys who steal apples can't expect to have any at
+Christmas." So she went on, but stopped again when she came to Jochen
+Ruhrdanz. "Didn't I see you, last week, fighting with Christian
+Rusborn, before the parsonage, so that my Rika had to go out and
+separate you?"
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin, but he said----"
+
+"Hush! Louise, he gets no ginger-nuts."
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin, but we made it all up again."
+
+"Ah! Then you may give him some, Louise."
+
+So they went through the rows, and then the children went off with
+their Christmas boxes, saying only, "Good evening!" for thanks were not
+the custom, at this stage of the proceedings.
+
+When they were gone, quite a different set of people came coughing
+and limping in at the door; these were the old spinning-women, and
+broom-tyers, and wooden-shoemakers, out of the village, and also some,
+who were no longer capable of any work. With these the Pastor spoke a
+few friendly, Christian words, and the Frau Pastorin gave each one a
+great loaf of plain, wholesome cake, and they went away, wishing God's
+blessing upon the Pastor and his wife.
+
+About nine o'clock the Pastor's George brought Habermann's sleigh to
+the door, and the two guests said "Good night!" and, as Habermann came
+out, he went up silently to the horses, and took off their bells, for
+up in the church-tower other bells were ringing which rung for the
+whole world.
+
+They drove slowly through the village. Here and there burned a
+Christmas candle in the cottages of the poor laborers, and up in the
+heavens God had lighted up his great Christmas tree with a thousand
+shining lamps, and the world lay stretched out beneath like a Christmas
+table, and winter had spread it with a cloth of whitest snow, that
+spring, summer and autumn might cover with Christmas gifts.
+
+As they came out of the village, Franz noticed the lighted windows of
+Pomuchelskopp's house; "They are keeping Christmas there, too," said
+he. They gave presents; but it was not a real Christmas after all.
+
+Pomuchelskopp had bought nothing at Rahnstadt; everything came from
+Rostock. "Always noble!" said he. He told also how much Malchen and
+Salchen's clothes had cost, and when Malchen heard that Salchen's dress
+was two dollars dearer than her's, she felt badly, and Salchen thought
+herself quite superior to her sister. And Philipping and Nanting began
+to quarrel about a sugar doll, and when Pomuchelskopp said that his
+favorite, Philipping, should have it, Nanting was angry, and threw a
+toy-box at Philipping, which unfortunately hit the great looking-glass,
+and broke it into a thousand pieces. Then their mother took the
+government into her hands, and got the strap out of the cupboard, and
+punished Nanting first for his misdeeds, and then Philipping, and
+afterwards the other boys for company. And not once in the whole
+evening did she say "Poeking" to her husband; not even when he brought
+out the new winter hat with great feathers, that he had bought for her;
+she said only, "Kopp, do you want to make me look like a scarecrow?"
+
+As Franz went to bed that night, he said to himself that he had never
+spent so pleasant a Christmas eve, and when he asked himself the
+reason, the joyous face of Louise Habermann appeared before his mind's
+eye, and he said, "Yes, yes, such a joyous child belongs properly to
+Christmas time!"
+
+Between Christmas and New Year's, a very unusual event occurred. Jochen
+Nuessler's blue cloak with seven capes drove over to Pumpelhagen in the
+"phantom," and when Habermann went out there sat Jochen himself inside
+the coat. He could not get out,--Oh, no!--he had been from home an hour
+and a half already; but he had been at the parsonage, and they were all
+coming to spend St. Sylvester's eve, and Braesig also, and he wanted his
+brother-in-law to come, and bring the two young people with him, and he
+would do what he could to entertain them with a big bowl of punch.
+
+Having uttered this long speech, he stopped abruptly, and when
+Habermann had accepted the invitation, and Christian had turned the
+horses' heads, a murmur came out of the seven capes, which sounded
+like, "Good-bye, brother-in-law!" but Christian looked back and said,
+"You must all come to coffee, Herr Inspector! The Frau told me so
+expressly."
+
+Franz forwarded the invitation to Fritz, who was still at Rahnstadt,
+and wrote him that, as his vacation would be over, he could come to
+Rexow the last day of the year, and go home with them to Pumpelhagen.
+
+As Habermann and Franz drove up to the Rexow farm house, at the
+appointed time,--it was a wet day,--there stood Jochen in the door, in
+his new black dress-coat and trousers, a Christmas present from his
+wife, and the red smoking-cap which Mining had given him, looking for
+all the world like a stuffed bullfinch.
+
+"Look alive, Jochen," called Braesig from within, "and do the
+'honneurs,' that Karl's young nobleman may have some opinion of your
+manners."
+
+After Jochen had received them, and the greetings with the family and
+the Pastor and his wife were over, Frau Nuessler began to talk to her
+brother about her domestic affairs, the Pastor engaged in conversation
+with the young Herr von Rambow, the Frau Pastorin asked the little
+girls about their Christmas presents. Jochen sat silently in his old
+corner by the stove, and Braesig in his great seal-skin boots which came
+nearly up to his waist, went from one to another, as if it were
+Christmas eve over again, and he were playing St. Nicholas, to frighten
+the children.
+
+The sun looked in at the window now and then, the room was warm and
+comfortable, the coffee-steam rose in little clouds and mingled with
+the smoke-wreaths from the Pastor's pipe, till it seemed like a summer
+day, with light, feathery clouds floating in the sunshine. Only, near
+the stove, it looked as if a thunder-shower was coming up, for there
+sat Jochen, smoking as if for a wager. His wife had taken away the
+"Fleigen Markur" from his tobacco-pouch, and filled it for the occasion
+with "Fine old mild," and he could not get the strength of the "Markur"
+from this more delicate quality of tobacco, without using a double
+portion.
+
+But a cloud was coming up outside, not exactly in the heavens, nor yet
+from the earth beneath,--which would disturb the repose of this quiet
+room.
+
+One of Frau Nuessler's maids came in to say that there was a man outside
+with a cart, who had brought a travelling trunk from the apothecary at
+Rahnstadt, and where should it be put?
+
+"God bless me!" cried the Frau Pastorin, "that is Fritz's trunk. You
+will see, Pastor, my brother-in-law is so inconsiderate, he has let the
+boy come on horseback again. Nobody ought to ride that wild horse,
+Habermann."
+
+"Oh, don't be troubled, Frau Pastorin," said Habermann, laughing a
+little, "the horse is not so bad----"
+
+"Ah, Habermann, but I saw him before, when he first came to
+Pumpelhagen; the creature would not stir a step."
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, "it is not so bad if a beast is balky as
+when the rascal takes to running; then the Latin riders used to fall
+off."
+
+But the little Frau Pastorin could not rest; she opened the window, and
+asked the man who had driven the cart whether Fritz was riding, and was
+the horse very vicious?
+
+"Like a lamb," was the reply. "If he does nothing to the horse, the
+horse will do nothing to him. He will be here directly."
+
+That was comforting, so the Frau Pastorin seated herself again on the
+sofa, saying, with a sigh,--
+
+"My poor sister! I tremble for her, whenever I set eyes on the boy. He
+plays too many stupid jokes."
+
+"He will be up to something of the sort, now?" said Braesig.
+
+Braesig was right. In the time between Christmas and New Year's Fritz
+had accomplished a great deal of folly, all the time in his wonderful
+inspector suit; for, though the weather had been cold and disagreeable,
+he had worn the green hunting-jacket, white leather breeches, and
+yellow top-boots, not merely in the day-time, but occasionally through
+the night. Once, at least, after he had come home late from a lively
+company of young farmers, the maid-servant found him next morning lying
+in bed in his boots and spurs. He had met an old friend that evening,
+Gust Prebberow by name, who went round half the year in yellow
+top-boots, and the pleasure of seeing him, together with the lively,
+agricultural conversation, had been a little too much for Fritz. Gust
+Prebberow had given him all sorts of useful advice, how to manage "the
+old man," as he called Habermann, and to pull the wool over his eyes,
+and had told incidents from his own experience in the management of
+farm-boys; and, after discussing these branches of agriculture, they
+came to the subject of horses. Fritz related his adventures with the
+old chestnut, who was naturally a very gifted horse, and good-natured,
+for the most part, but like his own father the apothecary, old Chestnut
+had always been suspicious of him, and on the look-out for mischief. He
+had evidently made up his mind that Fritz knew nothing about the
+management of horses, although Fritz had made repeated efforts to bring
+him to a better way of thinking. His greatest fault was that he
+positively would not stir a step farther than he pleased, neither kicks
+nor kindness, whipping nor spurring, could alter this determination
+when once he had taken it into his stupid head.
+
+"And do you allow that?" said Gust Prebberow. "Now, brother, I will
+tell you what to do. See, next time you mount him, take a good sized
+earthen pot full of water, and ride gently along just as usual, till
+you come to the place where he balks, and then give it to him with the
+spurs in the ribs, and break the pot over his head,--all at once!--so
+that the fragments of the pot will clatter down, and the water will run
+into his eyes."
+
+Fritz paid close attention to this advice, and when he started to-day
+in his smart inspector suit, he took the bridle in his left hand, the
+riding-whip under his left arm, and in his right hand a great jar full
+of water. He could not ride fast, without spilling the water, and old
+Chestnut had no desire to run away, so they jogged along very peaceably
+until they reached Rexow farm.
+
+Here Fritz wished to ride up to the house in a brisk trot, so he drove
+the spurs into old Chestnut's ribs, but Chestnut, having a bad
+disposition and still bearing Fritz malice, on account of his adventure
+in the Pastor's mud-puddle, all of a sudden stood still. Now was the
+time. A stroke of the whip behind, spurs in his ribs, and crash! the
+pot between his ears. "Uff!" grunted Chestnut, shaking his head, in
+token that he would not stir a step, but the blow must have stunned him
+a little, for he lay down directly. Fritz went too, of course, and
+though he had sense enough to fall clear of the horse, he could not
+prevent himself from lying at his side.
+
+The company in Frau Nuessler's parlor had witnessed the scene, and at
+first the little Frau Pastorin had lamented her poor sister's
+misfortune, but as she observed old Chestnut's quiet behaviour, and saw
+Fritz safely landed upon the soft and somewhat cold "bed of honor,"
+which the rain and dew of heaven and Jochen Nuessler's dung-heap had
+prepared for him, she was compelled to join in the general laughter,
+and said to her Pastor, "It is good enough for him!"
+
+"Yes," said Braesig, "and if he takes cold, it won't hurt him. What
+business has he to behave so with that old creature!"
+
+Fritz now approached, looking on one side like a plough-boy, black and
+muddy, on the other still smart and shining.
+
+"You are a dainty sight, my son," cried the Frau Pastorin, from the
+open window. "Don't come in here like that! Fortunately, your trunk has
+arrived, and you can change your clothes."
+
+He followed her advice, and entered the room, before long, in his most
+distinguished apparel, a blue dress-coat and long black trousers, like
+a young proprietor, but in great vexation, which Braesig's jokes and his
+aunt's observations did not tend to diminish. Franz, on the contrary,
+was in the most cheerful temper. He joked to his heart's content with
+the three little girls, and looked at their Christmas gifts, laughing
+himself half dead as the little twins finally dragged forward a great
+foot-sack, which Uncle Braesig had given them, "that the little rogues
+might keep their toes warm, and not get the cursed Podagra." Franz had
+never in his life enjoyed opportunities of intercourse with little
+girls younger than himself, and this confidential chatter and contented
+mirthfulness, making merry over things which in his eyes seemed nothing
+at all, made such an impression upon him, that when they sat down to
+supper, he kept among the little folks, decidedly refusing the pressing
+invitations of Frau Nuessler, who wished him, as a nobleman, to take a
+higher place.
+
+That was a joyous evening meal; talk went briskly back and forth, every
+one taking his share except Fritz and Jochen. Fritz could not get over
+his annoyance, and was vexed that he could not enjoy himself as Franz
+was doing. Jochen said nothing to be sure, but he laughed continually;
+if Braesig merely opened his mouth, Jochen stretched his from ear to
+ear, and when the punch was brought in, and Lining, as the most
+judicious of the little ones, undertook the task of serving it out, he
+found a voice, and endeavored to discharge his duties as host, saying
+now and then very quietly, "Lining, help Braesig!"
+
+The punch helped Fritz, also, to the use of his tongue. He was still in
+ill-humor, especially at Franz's undignified behavior. The little girls
+had hitherto seemed to him very small fry, but if one talked to them at
+all, one should employ a higher style of conversation. Accordingly he
+took up the _role_ which he had played at the Rahnstadt ball, when he
+had danced with the burgomeister's daughter, aged twenty-seven, and
+addressed Louise as "Fraeulein Habermann." The child looked at him in
+astonishment, and as he again uttered his "Fraeulein," she laughed
+innocently in his face: "I am no Fraeulein, I am only Louise
+Habermann,"--and Franz could not help laughing also.
+
+That was annoying for Fritz, but he knew what was proper, and how one
+should converse with ladies; he refused to be snubbed, and went on
+relating his experiences at the ball, what he said to the
+burgomeister's daughter, and what she had said to him, "fraeulein" ing
+also the little twins, right and left. And as this caused a great
+tittering and giggling among the little folks, he naturally talked
+louder and louder, in order to be heard, till at last the whole company
+were looking at him in silence. Jochen, who sat next him, had turned
+round and stared at him, as if to see how it were possible that one
+human being could talk so much. Braesig looked over Jochen's shoulder
+with an uncommonly happy face, rejoicing at his own knowledge of human
+nature, and nodding now and then to Habermann, as if to say, "You see,
+Karl, didn't I say so? A good-for-nothing puppy!"
+
+Habermann, annoyed, looked down at his plate, Frau Nuessler was in great
+perplexity to know what she ought to do as hostess, in such an
+emergency, the Pastor gently shook his head back and forth; but the
+most excited of all was the little Frau Pastorin. She bent down her
+head till the cap-strings rustled under her chin, and moved uneasily on
+her chair, as if the place were too hot for her, and as Fritz finally
+attempted to give a visible illustration of the schottische, how the
+gentleman embraced the lady, she could no longer contain herself. She
+sprang up and cried, "All keep still! As his aunt, I am the nearest to
+him! Fritz, come here directly!" And as he slowly rose, and very coolly
+and politely walked round to her, she took hold of his coat and pulled
+him along: "My dearest boy, come out here a moment!" With that, she
+drew him out of the door. The company inside heard fragments of a short
+sermon, which was interrupted by no reply, and then the door opened and
+the Frau Pastorin led Fritz back again, and, pointing to his place,
+said, "Now sit down quietly, and behave like a reasonable being."
+
+Fritz followed her advice, that is to say the first part of it; the
+second was not so easy, and ought not to have been expected. After
+fashionable talk, reasonable talk seemed to him very tame, and why
+should he spoil a good beginning by a bad ending?
+
+As Franz and the little girls gradually resumed their lively chatter,
+and the older people travelled on in the country road of reasonable
+talk, with a jolt now and then, when Braesig drove against a stone,
+Fritz sat and grumbled to himself, feeding his anger with punch, which
+served as oil to the flame, and inwardly called Franz "a crafty
+rascal," and the little girls, "foolish children," who understood
+nothing of polite conversation.
+
+In spite of this, and of the contempt which he felt for such childish
+intercourse, his anger was mingled with a little jealousy at not being
+himself "cock of the walk," and as he perceived that Franz seemed most
+taken with Louise Habermann, he vowed secretly that _that_ should come
+to an end; he himself, Fritz Triddelsitz, would see what he could do,
+provided, that is, that his aunt would keep out of the way.
+
+By this time it was growing late, but no one thought how late it was,
+until suddenly a strange figure appeared in the room, wrapped from
+top to toe in all sorts of warm garments, and he blew a horn, which
+was fearful to hear, and then began to sing, which was more fearful
+still. It was Gust Stoewsand, who was not more than half-witted,
+and, because he was fit for nothing else, Jochen Nuessler had made him
+night-watchman. And the boys and girls looked in at the door, to see
+how Just would manage his business, and they laughed, and pushed and
+pulled one another back and forth. Then congratulations began, and all
+wished each other "Happy New Year!" and after all was quiet again, the
+Herr Pastor made a little speech, which began quite playfully but ended
+seriously, how with every year one came a step nearer to the grave, and
+one must comfort oneself by this, that with every year new knots were
+tied, and friendship and love bound more closely together. As he
+finished his good words, he looked around the circle; the little Frau
+Pastorin had slipped her arm in his, Jochen stood by his wife,
+Habermann and Braesig held each other by the hand, the two little
+twin-apples had their arms around each other, and Franz stood by Louise
+Habermann. Fritz was nowhere to be seen, he had gone off in his
+vexation.
+
+So ended the year 1839.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+When Easter came, Braesig set out for the water-cure, and the Kammerrath
+arrived at Pumpelhagen, with his three daughters, Albertine, Bertha,
+and Fidelia.
+
+"He will never go away again, he is near his end," said Habermann to
+himself, and Franz thought the same, and they spoke sadly of it to each
+other as they sat together the evening after his arrival. Franz
+naturally took his meals after this with his uncle and cousins, and
+Habermann found himself very lonely in the old farm-house, he had
+become so accustomed to the young man's society, and found it so
+pleasant.
+
+During the first week the Kammerrath had a visitor. Pomuchelskopp came,
+in his blue dress-coat with bright buttons, and in his new coach, which
+was rendered more splendid than ever, since it was adorned with a coat
+of arms, which he had ordered from Vienna for half a louis-d'or. It
+represented a haddock's head (Dorsch Kopp) on a blue field (Fell),
+which the stupid laborers, who understood nothing about haddocks and
+blue fields called "a block head (das Kopp) in a blue coat" (Fell);
+having possibly discerned a personal resemblance between the escutcheon
+and their master.
+
+He had given up the idea of intercourse with Braesig's Herr Count, and
+no other families of nobility lived in the neighborhood, so he found
+the Kammerrath's arrival quite apropos. But the man was unfortunate. As
+he made known his errand to Daniel Sadenwater, the Kammerrath's old
+servant, in a melancholy tone--that he felt constrained to make
+personal inquiries after the Herr Kammerrath, and added that he had
+known the Herr Kammerrath very well at Rostock,--old Daniel went off
+with a peaceful face to announce him, but came back with a face quite
+as placid to say that the Herr Kammerrath regretted he was not in a
+state of health to receive callers. That was truly vexatious for
+Pomuchelskopp, and he sat all the afternoon sulking in the sofa-corner,
+and his dear wife, who always became so cheerful and affectionate on
+such occasions, called him "Poeking" incessantly, which certainly should
+have amply compensated for his disappointment.
+
+The Kammerrath, in his illness, felt the need of no other society than
+he found at home. His two oldest daughters thought of nothing else from
+morning to night but to amuse and comfort him, and the youngest, who
+was the pet child of the whole family, and who continued a little too
+young to suit her elder sisters, and perhaps prided herself a little
+upon her childlike joyousness, sought for means to enliven him. Franz,
+in the kindness of his heart, had assumed the office of secretary to
+his uncle, and took upon himself all the little annoying cares, which
+are not wanting in a household where sickness has entered; but the
+Kammerrath took especial pleasure in the society of Habermann, and
+consulted him not only about farming matters, but in all his affairs
+and perplexities.
+
+Habermann had little time, now, to visit at the parsonage, and if
+Louise wished to speak to her father, she must seek him in the fields,
+or at noon in the farm-house. So it happened that she often came in the
+way of the Fraeulein Fidelia, and as it is an old story that young girls
+who are growing to be rather old girls, hovering on the line between
+youth and age, always incline to the youthful side, and enjoy the
+society of those younger than themselves, it was quite natural that
+Fraeulein Fidelia should take a great fancy to Louise, and in a little
+while they were the closest friends.
+
+It is generally a good thing for a young girl to have such a friend,
+older than herself, but I would not say it is always so. It depends
+greatly upon the circumstances of the older lady. Louise took no harm
+from the intimacy, for Fraeulein Fidelia was very kind-hearted; she was
+also a little tired of the frivolity and ceremony of high society, and
+when her blessed mama--the gracious old lady, as Daniel Sadenwater
+called her,--had endeavored to make her more ceremonious and dignified,
+the Kammerrath had always taken his darling's part. He was a little to
+blame for her childishness; she had always frolicked with him, from her
+babyhood, and had laughed away his cares and troubles, and she kept on
+doing so from force of habit.
+
+She spoke of this daily task of amusing her father in such a manner
+that Louise thought of nothing but how to comfort and assist her; and
+what might have been dangerous under different circumstances became now
+rather a preventive of contagion. Louise had too much good sense to
+look among Fraeulein Fidelia's little fripperies of behavior for manners
+suitable to herself. But she not only received benefit, she gave it. If
+Louise had little knowledge of the world of fashion, Fraeulein Fidelia
+had as little of the world in which she lived and moved--and there
+Louise could give the best instruction.
+
+But a vexatious thing was first to occur, which gave Fraeulein Fidelia
+great annoyance. It happened in this way. The Kammerrath had sent to
+Schwerin for a beautiful dress, for her birth-day present, Fraeulein
+Albertine had given her a new summer hat, and Fraeulein Bertha, a pretty
+shawl, and when the presentation was over, the two elder sisters had
+arrayed their pet in the new finery, and stood looking at her right and
+left, admiring her fine appearance, and Fraeulein Bertha exclaimed, "She
+is a little fairy!" (fee).
+
+Corlin Kegels, one of the maids, was going through the room at the
+moment, and had nothing better to do than to say in the kitchen: "What
+do you think, girls? Fraeulein Bertha says that our little Fraeulein
+looks like a little cow (vieh)." The joke took, and Fraeulein Fidelia was
+soon known among the servants only as "the little cow." Of course it
+must come to her ears, sooner or later, and then there was a great
+uproar and a great investigation, and Corlin Kegels, in spite of her
+weeping and begging, was turned out of doors. Louise came in just then,
+and met Corlin crying on the door-steps, and found Fraeulein Fidelia
+crying in the parlor. One word led to another, and when Louise knew the
+whole affair, she said, placing her hands compassionately on the
+Fraeulein's shoulders, "Ah, the poor things didn't mean any harm."
+
+"Yes, indeed they did," cried the Fraeulein, hastily. "The rough,
+unmannerly common people!"
+
+"No, no! Don't say that!" exclaimed Louise, really distressed. "Our
+people are not rough; they have as much feeling as distinguished
+people. My father says one must learn to know them, and that is not so
+easy, their language separates them from their masters."
+
+"Very likely," said Fidelia. "I call 'little cow' a rough, coarse
+expression."
+
+"It was a misunderstanding," said Louise. "The word 'fee' is unknown to
+them, and this sounds like it, and seemed comical to them. They had no
+idea of offending you. Dear Fraeulein, you are the idol of all your
+servants."
+
+This last sugar-plum, which Louise administered with no thought of
+flattery, pacified the Fraeulein, and at last, in the kindness of her
+heart, she resolved upon a nearer acquaintance with her people, and
+Corlin Kegels was taken again into favor.
+
+The Fraeulein made inquires of Franz, and he praised the Pumpelhagen
+people highly, the Kammerrath, also, gave them a good character, and
+said that their ancestors had lived on the estate since the memory of
+man. "The first Herr von Rambow of whom we have intelligence," said he,
+"bad two servants, one of whom was called 'Asel' and the other 'Egel.'
+These had many namesakes, and in time a great confusion arose among the
+different 'Egels' and 'Asels.' One Egel would take home the bushel of
+wheat, which another Egel should have had, and one Asel would get the
+load of hay which properly belonged to another. This confusion had
+reached such a point under one of my forefathers, who--I am sorry for
+the family to confess--had a very short memory, that the Frau von
+Rambow, who was a good deal quicker-witted than her husband, undertook
+to remedy matters. She had an idea, and as she had the rule she could
+carry it out. All the fathers of families in the village were called
+together, One Sunday morning, and every one must tell his christened
+name and his father's name, and she wrote them down,--for she knew how
+to write,--and then took the first letter of the christened name, and
+the father's name together, and baptized the whole village. So 'Karl
+Egel' became 'Kegel,' and 'Pagel Egel' 'Pegel' and 'Florian Egel'
+'Flegel,' and 'Vullrad Asel' was changed to 'Vasel,' and 'Peter Asel'
+to 'Pasel,' and 'David Asel' to 'Daesel,' and so on. And, it is a thing
+to be noted, the old story said the ancestor of the Egels was a
+flax-head, and that of the Asels a black-head, and so it is among their
+namesakes to this day. And the resemblance was not merely external,
+they inherited mental peculiarities as well; for the first Egel was
+greatly skilled in cutting spoons and ladles, and making rakes and
+wooden shoes, while the first Asel was an uncommonly fine singer, and
+the gifts have remained in the families,--the night-watchmen have
+always been chosen from the Asels, and the wheelwrights from the Egels;
+you know at this day, Fidelia, David Daesel is the watchman, and Fritz
+Flegel is the wheelwright."
+
+Fraeulein Fidelia was excessively pleased with this story, and in her
+restless and frolicsome humor she ran about to all the laborer's
+cottages, chatting with the housewives by the hour, and keeping them
+from their work, and bestowing cast-off finery upon the children. If
+Louise Habermann had not been with her, she would have given Pasel's
+eleven-year-old Marie a riding-hat with feathers and veil, and Daesel's
+Stina, who watched the goslings in the duck-pond, would have got a
+gorgeous pair of light blue satin slippers. The old fathers of the
+village shook their heads over such doings; but the old mothers
+defended her, saying that if she were not so sensible as she might be,
+yet she meant well; and instead of calling her merely "little cow," as
+before, they called her "a nice good, pretty little cow."
+
+Pastor Behrens shook his head, also, when he heard of this new sort of
+beneficence. The Pumpelhagen people were the best in his parish, he
+said, and they had good reason to be, in having such a good old master,
+the Gurlitz people had suffered greatly from the change of proprietors;
+but nothing was so bad for people as indiscriminate and unmerited
+beneficence,--he must talk to the Fraeulein about it.
+
+He did so at the next opportunity; he told her that the Pumpelhagen
+people were so situated that unless in case of sickness, or the death
+of a cow, or some other misfortune, an industrious fellow and a tidy
+housewife could take care of themselves, and that unnecessary favors
+only taught them to look too much to others for assistance. These
+people must go their own, free way, just like others and one must be
+careful of intruding into their concerns, even to benefit them.
+
+I am glad to say that Fraeulein Fidelia saw the justice of these
+remarks, and limited her benefactions in future to the people who could
+no longer help themselves, to the old and the sick, and for these she
+was changed from a little "vieh" to a little "fee." Louise helped her
+in these Good-Samaritan labors, and as Franz now and then met them in
+the cottages, he saw to his surprise that the little maiden had a good
+deal of experience, and was both wise and skilful in action, and that
+the lovely eyes rested with as much sweetness and compassion upon a
+poor old sick laborer's wife, as upon him, that Christmas eve. He
+rejoiced at this, without rightly knowing why.
+
+The spring was over, summer had come, and one Sunday morning Habermann
+received a letter from Braesig, at Warnitz, saying that he must stay at
+home that day; Braesig had returned from the water-cure and was coming
+to see him in the afternoon. So it happened; Braesig came on horseback,
+and dismounted with a spring, as if he would send both feet through the
+causeway.
+
+"Ho, ho!" cried Habermann. "How active you are, you are as quick as a
+bird!"
+
+"Freshly sharpened, Karl! I have made a new beginning."
+
+"Well, old fellow, how did it go?" asked Habermann, when they were
+established on the sofa, and had started their pipes.
+
+"Listen, Karl! Damp, cold, soaking wet, that is only the beginning.
+They make a man into a frog, and before human nature changes to
+frog-nature a man suffers so much that he wishes he had come into the
+world as a frog, to begin with; but it is good, for all that. You see,
+the first thing in the morning is generally sweating. They wrap you up
+in cold, wet cloths, and then in woolen blankets, so tightly that you
+can move nothing but your toes. After that they take you into a bathing
+room, ringing a bell to keep the ladies away, and then they put you
+into a bathing-tub, and pour three pailfuls of water over your bald
+head, if you happen to have one, and then you may go where you please.
+Do you think that is the end? You may think so, but it is only the
+beginning; but it is good, for all that.
+
+"Well, then you go walking, for exercise. I have done a good deal of
+walking in my time, raking and harrowing and sowing peas, and so forth;
+but I always had something to do. Here, however, I had nothing at all.
+And then you drink water from morning to night. It is just like pouring
+water through a sieve, and they stand there and groan, and say, 'Ah,
+the beautiful water!' Don't you believe them, Karl, they are
+hypocrites. Water is bad enough, outside, but inside it is fearful; it
+is good, though, for all that.
+
+"Then you take a sitz-bath--can you imagine how that feels, four
+degrees above freezing point? Just as if the devil had got you on a
+red-hot iron stool, and kept putting fresh fire under; but then it is
+good for you. Then you walk again, till noon, and then you eat your
+dinner.
+
+"But you have no conception, Karl, how people eat at a water-cure! The
+water must sharpen the stomach famously. Karl, I have seen ladies, as
+slender and delicate as angels, who would eat three great pieces of
+steak, and potatoes--preserve us! enough to plant half an acre! The
+water-doctors are to be pitied, for one must eat them out of house and
+home. After dinner, you drink water again, and then you can talk with
+the ladies; for in the morning they won't speak to you, they go about
+in strange disguises, some with wet stockings, as if they had been
+crabbing, others with their heads tied up in wet cloths, and their hair
+flying. You can talk to them as you please, but you will find it hard
+to get answers, unless you inquire about their diseases, whether they
+have had an eruption, or swellings or boils, for that is polite
+conversation at a water-cure. After you have amused yourself in this
+manner, you must go to the 'Tuesche,'[2] but don't think that it is
+black,--no, nothing but clear cold water; it is good, though. You must
+take notice, Karl, everything that is particularly disagreeable and a
+man's especial horror, is good for the human body."
+
+"You should be cured of your gout, then, Braesig, for you have a special
+horror of cold water."
+
+"One may see very well, Karl, that you have never been at a water-cure.
+You see, the doctor explained it to me at length, this confounded
+Podagra is the chief of all diseases,--it is the mother of all
+mischief,--and it comes from the gout-stuff that lodges in the bones
+and ferments there, and the gout-stuff comes from the poison stuff that
+you swallow by way of nourishment, for example, Kuemmel and tobacco, or
+the things you get from the apothecary. And if you have the gout you
+must be sweated in wet sheets, till all the tobacco which you have ever
+smoked, and all the Kuemmel you have ever drank, is sweated out. So you
+see the poison-stuff goes away, and then the gout-stuff, and then the
+cursed Podagra itself."
+
+"Was it so with you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"No? why didn't you stay longer, then? I would have held out till the
+end."
+
+"Karl, you may talk. Nobody holds out,--no human being could. They had
+one man there who was sweated till he smelt so strong of tobacco that
+the doctor called the patients in, that their own noses might testify,
+and it was put down in the books; but it came out afterward that the
+rogue had been smoking a cigar, which is forbidden,--and Kuemmel is
+forbidden also. But to go on with the daily life. After the Tuesche, you
+walk again, and by that time it is evening. You may still walk about in
+the twilight, if you please, and many of the gentlemen and ladies do
+so, or you may amuse yourself in the house, with reading. I used to
+read the water-books which a certain Russian has written, his name is
+Frank, one of the chiefs of the water-doctors. Karl, there is
+everything in those books, everything in brief. But it is hard for a
+man to understand, and, on that account, I did not get beyond the
+second page. That was quite enough for me, for after I had read it I
+was as dizzy as if I had been standing on my head half an hour. Do you
+think, Karl, that fresh air is fresh air? Not a bit of it! And do you
+think that water out of your pump is water? You are quite mistaken! You
+see, fresh air is composed of three parts, oxygen and nitrogen and
+carbonic acid gas. And the pump water is composed of two parts, oxygen
+and hydrogen. The entire water-cure system is founded upon fresh air
+and water. And you see, Karl, how wisely nature has provided; we go
+about in the open air, and we breathe in the black carbonic acid,
+and the nitrogen, for they cannot be separated, and then comes the
+water-cure and turns these ugly things out of doors, for the oxygen of
+the water unites with the carbonic acid, and the hydrogen drives out
+the nitrogen from the body, in the sweating process. Do you understand,
+Karl?"
+
+"No," said Habermann, laughing heartily, "not a word of it."
+
+"You shouldn't laugh at things that you don't understand, Karl. You
+see. I know the nitrogen is driven out, I have smelt it myself; but
+what becomes of the black carbon? That is the point, and I never could
+get beyond it, in my water-cure science, and do you suppose Pastor
+Behrens understands it? I asked him yesterday, and he knows nothing at
+all about it. But you will see, Karl, the black carbonic acid is still
+in my body, and so I shall have the cursed Podagra again."
+
+"But, Zachary, why didn't you stay a little longer, until you were
+thoroughly cured?"
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, dropping his eyes, with a confused expression, "it
+wouldn't do! Something happened to me, Karl," looking Habermann in the
+face again. "You have known me since I was a child, have you ever
+noticed any disrespectful behavior to the ladies?"
+
+"No indeed, Braesig, I can testify to that."
+
+"Well, then, just think how it must have troubled me! A week ago this
+last Friday, I had an infamous grumbling in my great toe,--for it
+always begins at the extremities,--and the water-doctor said, 'Herr
+Inspector, you must have an extra packing. Dr. Strump's confounded
+Colchicum is doing the mischief, and we must have it out.' So he packed
+me himself, and bandaged me up so tight that I could scarcely draw
+breath, saying I did not need air so much as water, and upon that he
+was going to shut the window. 'No,' said I, 'I understand enough to
+know that I must have fresh air; leave the window open,' and he did so,
+and went off. I lay there quietly, thinking no harm, when suddenly I
+heard a humming and a buzzing, and as I looked up, a whole swarm of
+bees came in at the window, and the leader,--for I knew him, Karl, you
+know I am a bee-master, I went out one spring at Zittelwitz with the
+schoolmaster, and took seven and fifty hives--and this leader made
+straight for the blanket which the doctor had drawn over my head. Well,
+what was I to do? I could not stir,--I blew and blew at him, till I had
+no breath left; not the slightest use. The beast fastened himself on my
+bald head,--for I always left off my peruke, in order not to injure
+it--and the whole swarm came hovering over my face. I rolled myself out
+of bed, fell on the floor, struggled out of the blankets and wet
+sheets, and ran out of the door, with the devils after me, and cried
+for help. God be praised, the assistant of the water-doctor--the man's
+name is Ehrfurcht,--met me, and took me to another room, and got me
+necessary clothing, so that after resting awhile I could go down into
+the dining-room, that is to say, with half a score bee-stings in my
+body. I began to talk to the gentlemen, and they laughed. I turned to
+one of the ladies, and made a friendly remark about the weather, and
+she blushed. Why should the weather make her blush? I don't know, nor
+you either, Karl. Why do you laugh? I turned to another lady, who was a
+singer, and asked her very politely to sing a song, that she had sung
+every evening. What do you think she did, Karl? She turned her back on
+me. As I stood there wondering what it all meant, the water-doctor came
+to me, and said, 'Herr Inspector, don't take it ill, but you made
+yourself quite noticeable this afternoon.' 'How so?' said I. 'Yes,' said
+he, 'when you sprang out of the door, Fraeulein von Hinkefuss was
+crossing the corridor, and she has told it in confidence to all the
+rest.' 'And on that account, am I to be deprived of all pity? Shall the
+gentlemen laugh, and the ladies turn their backs on me? I did not come
+here for that! If Fraeulein von Hinkefuss had got half a score of
+bee-stings in her body, I should inquire after her every morning, with
+the greatest interest. But let her go! One cannot buy sympathy in the
+market. But now come, Herr Doctor, and take the bee-stings out of me.'
+If you believe me Karl, he couldn't do it. 'What,' said I, 'not take a
+bee-sting out of my skin?' 'No,' said he, 'I _could_, to be sure, but I
+dare not, it would be a surgical operation, and according to the
+Mecklinburg laws I am not qualified for it.' 'What?' said I, 'you can
+drive the poison out of my bones, and not draw the stings out of my
+body? You dare not touch the skin of the outer man, and you clear out
+his inside with your confounded water? I am obliged to you!' and from
+that moment, Karl, I lost confidence in the whole concern, and without
+that it could do me no good, they say so themselves to everybody, when
+he first arrives. So I came away, and had the stings taken out by old
+Surgeon Metz, at Rahnstadt. And so ends my story of the water-cure. It
+is a good thing, though; one gets quite a different view of things, and
+even if the cursed Podagra is not cured, one gets an idea of what a
+human being can endure. And, Karl, I brought you home a water-book, you
+can study the science in the winter evenings."
+
+Habermann thanked him, and the conversation turned to farming matters,
+and so, by degrees, to the apprentices.
+
+"How does your young gentleman get along?" inquired Braesig.
+
+"Very well indeed, Braesig, he is equally good at everything. I am only
+sorry that cannot see more of him. He does his duty, wherever he is,
+and Daniel Sadenwater tells me that he watches many a night with our
+poor, sick master, though he is very tired. He is a model young man. He
+has interest in his work, and a kind heart for his friends."
+
+"Well, Karl, and your greyhound?"
+
+"Oh, he is not so bad; he has a good many maggots in his head, but the
+youth is not vicious. He does what he is told, when he doesn't forget
+it. Well! we were young once ourselves."
+
+"The best of your young folks is that they are so hearty. I was at
+Christian Klockmann's, you see, lately, he has a son, fourteen years
+old, just confirmed. He is tired all day, falls asleep while he is
+walking, when he ought to eat he won't eat, and if he is sent to the
+field he perishes with cold."
+
+"Ah, no! my two are not like that," said Habermann.
+
+"And the young gentleman watches at night by the old master?" said
+Braesig. "It is sad for the young man! The Herr Kammerrath is then very
+feeble? Give him my respects, Karl, I must say adieu, I have an
+appointment to meet my gracious Herr Count." Whereupon Braesig departed.
+
+The Kammerrath had indeed grown very feeble, of late; he had suffered
+another slight shock, but had fortunately retained his speech, and this
+evening Franz came to ask Habermann to go over and see his uncle, who
+wished to speak with him.
+
+When the Inspector entered the room, Fidelia was there, chattering to
+the old gentleman of this and that; the poor child knew not how long
+she might be able to talk with her good father. The Kammerrath bade her
+leave him alone with Habermann, and when she was gone he looked at the
+inspector with deep sadness, and said, feebly, "Habermann, dear
+Habermann, when that which has always given us pleasure pleases us no
+longer, the end is near." Habermann looked at him, and could not conceal
+from himself the sad truth, for he had seen many death-beds; his eyes
+fell, and he asked, "Has the doctor been here to-day?"
+
+"Ah, dear Habermann, what good can the doctor do me? I would rather see
+Pastor Behrens once more. But I must speak to you first of other
+affairs. Sit down here, near me."
+
+He went on hastily, yet with frequent interruptions, as though time and
+breath were both growing short for him. "My will is at Schwerin. I have
+thought of everything, but--my illness came so suddenly--my wife's
+death--I fear my affairs do not stand quite so well as they should."
+After a short pause, he resumed, "My son will have the estate, my two
+married daughters are provided for, but the unmarried ones--poor
+children! they will have very little. Axel must take care of them--God
+bless him, he will have enough to do to take care of himself. He writes
+me that he wishes to remain another year in the army. Very well, if he
+lives carefully, something may be saved to pay debts. But the Jew,
+Habermann, the Jew! Will he wait? Have you said anything to him?"
+
+"No, Herr Kammerrath; but Moses will wait; at least I hope so. And if
+not, there is a good deal of money coming in from the farm, much more
+than last year."
+
+"Yes, yes, and real estate has risen. But what good is it? Axel
+understands nothing of farming; but I have sent him books, through
+Franz, books about agriculture,--he will study them; that will help
+him, won't it, Habermann?"
+
+"God bless the poor old Herr!" thought Habermann. "He was always so
+practical and reasonable himself, he wouldn't have said that when he
+was strong and well; but let him take what comfort he can," so he said
+yes, he hoped so.
+
+"And, dear friend, you will stay with him," said the Kammerrath
+earnestly, "give me your hand upon it, you will stay with him?"
+
+"Yes," said Habermann, and the tears stood in his eyes, "so long as I
+can be useful to you or your family, I will not leave Pumpelhagen."
+
+"I was sure of it," said his master, falling back exhausted upon the
+pillows, "but Fidelia shall write--see him once more,--see you and him
+together."
+
+His strength was gone, he drew his breath with difficulty.
+
+Habermann rose softly, and pulled the bell, and as Daniel Sadenwater
+came, he took him into the ante-room, "Sadenwater, our master is worse,
+I am afraid he cannot last long; call the young ladies, and the young
+Herr, but say nothing definite about him."
+
+A shadow fell upon the old servant's face, as when the evening wind
+passes over a quiet lake. He looked through the half-opened door of the
+sick-room as if it came from thence, and said to himself as if in
+excuse, "God bless him, it is now thirty years----" turned away, and
+left the room.
+
+Franz and the young ladies came. The poor girls had no idea that their
+father was failing so rapidly; they had thought surely the doctor would
+be able to help him, and the Lord would spare him a little longer. They
+had taken turns in watching by him, of late, and it struck them
+strangely that they should all be there at once, with Franz, and
+Habermann, and Daniel Sadenwater.
+
+"What is it, what is it?" began Fidelia, to the old inspector.
+
+Habermann took her hand, and pressed it. "Your father has become worse,
+he is very ill, he wishes to see your brother---- Herr von Rambow, if
+you will write a couple of lines, I am going to send the carriage for
+the doctor, and the coachman can take the letter to the post. In three
+days your brother can be here, Fraeulein Fidelia."
+
+"He will not last three hours," said Daniel Sadenwater, softly, to
+Habermann as they came out of the sick-room.
+
+And the three daughters stood around their father's bed, weeping and
+lamenting, and would fain hold fast the prop that had upheld them so
+long, and each was thinking anxiously for something to alleviate and
+help, and the three hearts beat more and more anxiously and quickly,
+and the one heart ever more slowly and feebly.
+
+Franz sat in the ante-room, listening to every sound, and now and then
+going into the sick-room. He had never before seen the departure of
+human life, and he thought of his own father, whom he had always
+imagined like his uncle, and it seemed as if his own father were dying
+a second time. He thought also of his cousin, who was not here, and
+whose place he filled, and thought that he should love him the more,
+all his life.
+
+Habermann stood at the open window, and looked out into the night. It
+was just such a warm, damp, cloudy night as that in which his heart had
+come so near to breaking. Then it was his wife, now his friend; who
+would come next? Would it be himself, or---- No, no, God forbid! that
+could not be.
+
+And Daniel Sadenwater sat by the stove, and did what he had done every
+evening for thirty years; he had a basket of silver forks and spoons on
+his lap, and on the chair near him lay a polishing cloth, and a silk
+pocket-handkerchief; and he rubbed alternately the spoons and forks
+with the handkerchief, and as he looked at his master's name on the
+fork which he had polished every evening for thirty years, his eyes
+were so dim that he couldn't see whether it were bright or not, and he
+set the basket down, and looked at the fork till his eyes ran over with
+tears.
+
+Amid all this trouble and sorrow, the pendulum of the old clock moved
+steadily back and forth, back and forth, as if old Time sat by a cradle
+and rocked his child safely and surely to sleep.
+
+And he slept. Two eyes closed themselves forever, the dark curtain
+between Here and Beyond dropped softly down, and this side stood the
+poor maidens, lamenting and vainly stretching their arms after that
+which was gone, and wringing their hands over that which was left
+behind. Fidelia threw herself down by her father's body, and sobbed and
+cried until she was taken with spasms. Franz, full of sympathy, lifted
+her in his arms, and carried her out of the room, and her two sisters
+followed, in new anxiety for their darling, and Habermann was left
+alone with Daniel Sadenwater. He pressed down the eyelids of the dead,
+and after a little turned away with a heavy heart; but Daniel sat on
+the foot of the bed, looking with his quiet face into the still more
+quiet face of his master, and he held the fork still in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Axel arrived three days after, having travelled by extra post, too late
+to hear the last words of his father, but not too late to render the
+last honors to his remains. The postillion blew lustily on his horn, as
+he drove into the court-yard, and at the door of the mansion-house
+appeared three pale mourners in black raiment. The young master knew
+what had happened. Everything came upon him at once,--thoughts for
+which he was, or was not accountable,--God's providence, his own
+weakness and frivolity, his sisters' desolate condition and his own
+inability to help them, more than all, his father's thoughtfulness and
+kindness, which were never wanting in good or evil times. He was quite
+beside himself. His nature was one to be easily excited even by less
+serious causes than the present. He wept and mourned and lamented, and
+kept asking how this and that had happened, and, when he heard from
+Franz that the last words of his father had been spoken to Habermann,
+he took the old Inspector aside and questioned him, and the latter made
+a clean breast of it, and told him that his father's last earthly care
+had been about his future, and how he and his sisters might get along
+by a prudent management of the estate.
+
+Ah, yes, that should be done! Axel swore it to himself, under the blue
+heavens, as he walked alone through the garden; he would turn the
+shillings into dollars, he would retire from the world and from his
+comrades. He could do it easily; but he would not resign from the army
+immediately, and take up the study of farming, as Habermann advised; he
+was too old for that, and it did not suit his position as an officer,
+and there was really no necessity. When he came by and by to live on
+the estate, he should learn about it, naturally; meantime he would live
+sparingly, pay up his debts, and study agricultural books, as his
+father desired. So a man deceives himself, even in the holiest and most
+earnest hours.
+
+The next day was the funeral. No invitations had been sent out; but the
+Kammerrath had been too much beloved in the region not to have many
+followers at his burial. Braesig's Herr Count came, and it seemed as if
+he thought he was receiving an honor instead of conferring one. Braesig
+himself was there, and stood in the room by the coffin, and while
+others bowed their heads and dropped their eyes, he stretched his wide
+open, and raised his eyebrows, and as Habermann passed by, he grasped
+his coat-sleeve, and, shaking his head, asked impressively, "Karl, what
+is human life?" but he said nothing more, and Jochen Nuessler, standing
+by his side, said softly to himself, "Yes, what shall we do about it?"
+And the laborers stood around, all the Pegels and Degels, and Paesels
+and Daesels, and as Pastor Behrens came from the other room, leading the
+youngest daughter by the hand, and, standing by the coffin, spoke a few
+words which would have gone to the heart even of a stranger, then many
+tears fell from all eyes. Tears of thankfulness were they, and tears of
+anxiety; the one for what they had enjoyed under the old master, the
+other for their unknown future under the new master.
+
+When his remarks were ended, the procession started for the Gurlitz
+church-yard. The coffin was placed in a carriage, and Daniel Sadenwater
+sat by it, with his quiet old face as stiff and motionless as if he
+were set up for a monument at his master's grave. Then came the
+carriage with the four children, then the Herr Count, then Pastor
+Behrens and Franz, who wished to take Habermann with them, but he
+declined, he would go with the laborers; then Jochen Nuessler and
+others, and finally Habermann, on foot, with Braesig and the laborers.
+
+Close by Gurlitz, Braesig touched Habermann, and whispered, "Karl, I
+have it, now."
+
+"What have you, Zachary?"
+
+"The pension from my gracious Herr Count. The last time I was with you,
+I went round to see him, and he gave it to me, paragraph for paragraph:
+two hundred and fifty thalers in gold, a living, rent free, in the
+mill-house at Haunerwiem,--there is a little garden there too, for
+vegetables,--and a bit of land for potatoes."
+
+"Well, Zachary, I am glad you have such a comfortable provision for
+your old age."
+
+"Eh, yes. Karl, that does very well, and with my interest from the
+capital which I have laid up, I shall want for nothing. But what are
+they stopping for, ahead?"
+
+"Ah, they are going to take the coffin from the carriage," said
+Habermann, and he turned to the laborers, "Kegel, Paesel! you must come
+now and carry the coffin." And he went forward with those who should do
+this office, and Braesig followed.
+
+Meanwhile, the people were getting out of the carriages, and, as Axel
+and his sisters stepped down, they were met by the little Frau Pastorin
+and Louise in mourning raiment, and the Frau Pastorin pressed the hands
+of the two older sisters, with the greatest friendliness and
+compassion, although she had hitherto held herself rather aloof from
+them, on account of the difference in rank. But death and sympathy
+bring all to a level, the lofty bow themselves under the hand of God,
+knowing that they are as nothing before him, and the lowly are lifted
+up, because they feel that the pity which stirs in them is divine. Even
+David Daesel might have taken the gracious Fraeuleins by the hand to-day,
+and they would have recognized his honest heart in his wet eyes.
+
+Louise held her friend Fidelia in her arms, and knew not what to say or
+what to do. "There!" she cried, with a deep sob, pressing into her hand
+a bunch of red and white roses, as if she gave with it the love and
+sympathy of which her heart was full.
+
+All eyes were turned upon the child of fourteen years,--was she still a
+child? When the barberry bush turns green after a warm rain, are they
+buds still which it bears, or are they leaves? And for the human soul,
+when its time has come, every deep emotion is like a warm rain, that
+changes the buds to leaves.
+
+"Who is that?" asked Axel of Franz, who looked steadfastly at the
+child. "Who is that young maiden, Franz?" asked he again, taking his
+cousin by the arm.
+
+"That young maiden?" said Franz, "do you mean that child? That is
+Inspector Habermann's daughter."
+
+Habermann had seen his child also, and the thought recurred which had
+come to him in the night, when the Kammerrath was dying. "No," said he
+again, "the good Lord will not suffer it." Strange! she was not ill;
+and yet who could tell? His poor wife had just such beautiful rosy
+cheeks.
+
+"What comes now?" said Braesig, rousing him from these gloomy thoughts.
+"Truly! Just look, Karl, Zamel Pomuchelskopp! With a black suit on!"
+
+It was so indeed. Pomuchelskopp came forward and bowed to the young
+ladies, the most melancholy bow which it was possible for a man of his
+build to achieve, and then, turning to the Herr Lieutenant: "He would
+excuse--neighborly friendship--deepest sympathy on this melancholy
+occasion--highest respect for the departed--hope for a future good
+understanding between Pumpelhagen and Gurlitz"--in short, whatever he
+could think of at the moment, and, as the lieutenant thanked him for
+his friendly interest, he felt as light as if he had discharged himself
+of all the sympathy that was in him. He looked around over the company
+and, seeing that there were no proprietors present besides the Count,
+he managed in the walk through the church-yard to follow closely behind
+him, and tread in his very footsteps, a proceeding to which the
+gracious Herr Count was utterly indifferent, but which gave
+Pomuchelskopp the liveliest satisfaction.
+
+The body was buried. The mourners stopped for a few moments at the
+parsonage, and partook of a little refreshment. The little Frau
+Pastorin was quite beside herself, torn into two halves, one part of
+her would gladly have remained on the sofa by the three daughters,
+endeavouring to comfort them, the other would be fluttering about the
+room, offering her guests bread-and-butter and wine, and, when Louise
+assumed the latter office, and the Pastor the former, the poor Pastorin
+sat down, quite unhappy, in her arm-chair, as if old Surgeon Metz of
+Rahnstadt had been putting together her two halves, and she had found
+the process a painful one.
+
+Louise filled her office well, for it was not long before the followers
+took leave, one after another; Jochen Nuessler was the last, and, when
+he had bowed awkwardly to the lieutenant, he went up to the Frau
+Pastorin, and took her hand and pressed it as affectionately as if she
+had just buried her father, and said very sadly, "Yes, it is all as
+true as leather."
+
+The Pastor also had discharged well the office of comforter, but it is
+easier to fill an empty stomach with bread-and-butter and wine, than to
+fill an empty heart with hope and joy. He began however, in the right
+way, touching lightly upon the thought of the love and protection which
+they had lost, and turning to what should come next, plans for the
+future, what would be most reasonable to do, and where they should
+live, so that when the three ladies went back with their brother to the
+desolate house, their future lay before them like a piece of cloth,
+which they must cut out with the shears, and turn this way or that as
+suited the pattern best, and fashion from it such raiment as they
+could.
+
+Other people were looking at the future, also, and calculating on what
+_might_ happen and what _must_ happen. Out of the Kammerrath's grave
+grew not only daisies, but, from the blight upon the fortunes of
+Pumpelhagen, burdock and nettles and henbane shot up also, and the
+golden daisies bloomed in strange company. Whoever would harvest here
+must not be afraid of a little poison, or mind being pricked by the
+briars and nettles. He who has to do with nettles must grasp them
+firmly, and the man who stood in the Gurlitz garden, looking over
+toward Pumpelhagen, had a firm grip, but he could wait till the right
+time,--the daisies must go to seed first.
+
+"The stone was out of the way," he said to himself, with satisfaction,
+"and it was the corner-stone. What was left now? The Herr Lieutenant?
+He would fatten him first, feed him with mortgages and bills of
+exchange, and processes and procurations, until he should be fat
+enough, and then knock him on the head. Or, could he do better? Malchen
+was a pretty girl, or Salchen either,--Herr von Zwippelwitz said the
+other day, when he borrowed the money for that chestnut colt, that
+Salchen had a pair of eyes like--now, what was it? like fire-wheels, or
+like cannon-balls? Well, Salchen would know.
+
+"But no, on the whole, no! He understood the other way best, he would
+not meddle with this. To be sure, it might do, in case of necessity;
+but safe was safe, better keep the cork in the bottle.
+
+"Then there was Habermann! Infamous, sneaking scoundrel! That very
+morning he wouldn't speak to him. Did he think it was for Pomuchelskopp
+to speak first? To a servant? What was he but a servant? No, let me
+first have the lieutenant well in my clutches, and then I will see to
+him.
+
+"Braesig, too, shall he keep putting stones in my way? The fool doesn't
+know that I have got him out of Warnitz; that upon my suggestion
+Slusuhr has put a flea in the Herr Count's ear, about the bad
+management at Warnitz. Now he must stay at Haunerwiem. And then the
+Herr Pastor! Oh, the Herr Pastor! I shall go round to his house
+to-morrow, and we shall be so friendly--oh, I know his friendliness!
+there lies the pastor's field before my eyes! To pretend friendship
+under such circumstances! Well, only wait a little, I will be even with
+him yet, for I have it. I have money." And with that, he slapped his
+fat hand upon his trowsers' pocket, till the golden seals on his watch
+chain danced merrily; but he quieted down suddenly, as he felt a hard
+hand on his shoulder, and his Haeuning said, "Muchel, you are wanted in
+doors."
+
+"Who is there, my Kueking?" asked Pomuchelskopp gently, damped as usual
+by his wife's presence.
+
+"Slusuhr the notary, and old Moses' David."
+
+"Good, good!" said Pomuchelskopp, throwing his arm around her, so that
+the pair resembled a basket embracing a hop-pole,--"but just look over
+at Pumpelhagen and that beautiful field. Is it not a sin and a shame it
+should be in such hands? But that those two should come to-day, don't
+it seem like a special providence, Kluecking?"
+
+"You are always dreaming, Kopp! You had better come in and talk to the
+people. Such plans as you have in your head take too long to carry out
+to suit me."
+
+"Gently, gently, my Kluecking, slow and sure!" said Pomuchelskopp, as he
+followed his wife into the house.
+
+Slusuhr and David were standing, meanwhile, in Pomuchelskopp's parlor.
+David had been suffering torments, for, as ill luck would have it,
+he had made himself fine with his great seal ring, and his gold
+watch-chain, and, as he entered the room, and stood with his back to
+the window, Philipping had spied the ring on his finger, and Nanting
+the watch-chain knotted across his vest, and they darted on him like a
+couple of ravens, tugging at the ring, and pulling at the chain, and
+Nanting trod on poor David's corns, and Philipping, who had got up on
+his knees in a chair, kept hitting him in the shins, and David's corns
+and shin-bones were tender points, especially the latter, since they
+bore the entire weight of his body, and nature had omitted to assist
+them with appropriate calves.
+
+Slusuhr stood at the other window, before Salchen, who sat there
+embroidering a landscape painting on a sofa cushion for her father.
+It represented a long barn and a plum-tree thickly set with blue
+plums, and before the barn hens were scratching, and a wonderful
+bright-colored cock, while ducks and geese, beautiful as swans, were
+swimming in a little pond, and in the foreground lay a fat young
+porker.
+
+Old Moses was right about the notary; he did look like a rat. His ears
+stuck out like a rat's ears, he was small and lean, like the rats in
+Rahnstadt,--exception being made of those who were so fortunate as to
+have a share in David's "produce business,"--he had grayish-yellow
+complexion and eyes, and also grayish-yellow hair and moustaches; but
+Malchen and Salchen Pomuchelskopp said he was "extremely interesting."
+
+_Interested_, Braesig said; he knew well enough how to talk, only it
+must be about himself and his own meannesses. Bat was it not quite
+natural for the notary, to prefer talking about his own cunning
+craftiness, rather than the stupidity of other people? Was the notary
+to blame if his wisdom was too great to be concealed under a bushel? It
+had increased to such an extent, indeed, that he was able to
+accommodate it only by turning out his entire stock of honesty. We are
+not competent judges of such people; rat-nature is rat-nature, David
+himself said,--if you spoke of rats, they were too many for him.
+
+To-day, he was telling Salchen, with great enjoyment, about an
+uncommonly stupid man, for whom he had promised a rich wife, and how on
+every journey to see the lady, he had plucked from the poor cock now a
+wing-feather, and now a tail-feather, until the last journey found him
+thoroughly stripped. "Extremely interesting," said Salchen, just as
+Pomuchelskopp entered the room.
+
+"Ah! Delighted to see you, Herr Notary! Good day, Herr David!"
+
+Salchen would have gone on laughing, but Father Pomuchelskopp motioned
+with his hand toward the door, so she gathered up her plums, chickens,
+geese and pigs, and saying, "Come, Nanting and Philipping, father has
+business to attend to," she went out with them.
+
+"Herr Pomuchelskopp," said David, "I came about the hides, and I wanted
+to ask about the wool. I got a letter----"
+
+"Eh, what? wool and hides!" cried the notary. "You can talk about those
+afterward. We came for this particular business that you know about."
+
+One may observe that the notary was a cunning business man, who could
+dispense with preliminaries, he took the bull by the horns, and that
+was what Pomuchelskopp liked,--he knew how to pull up nettles.
+
+He went up to the notary, shook his hand, and motioned him to the sofa.
+"Yes," said he, "it is a difficult, far-reaching piece of business."
+
+"Hm? Well, we can make it long or short, as you like. But difficult? I
+have managed much harder case's. David has a bill for two thousand five
+hundred; I myself lent him last quarter eight hundred and thirty. Would
+you like the note? Here it is."
+
+"It is good paper," said Pomuchelskopp, gently and composedly, and he
+stood up and took the money for it out of his pocket.
+
+"Will you have mine too?" asked David.
+
+"I will take yours also," said Pomuchelskopp, nodding his head with
+dignity, as if he were doing a great work for humanity. "But,
+gentlemen," he added, "I take them on this condition. Make out a bill,
+in my name, that you are indebted to me for the amount, and keep these
+notes and worry him with them. He must be only worried, for if we carry
+it too far he will get the money somewhere else, and the right time
+hasn't come yet."
+
+"Yes," said the notary, "we understand; we can manage the business; but
+David has something else to tell you."
+
+"Yes," said David, "I have a letter from P----, when he has been with
+his regiment, from Marcus Seelig, who writes me that he can buy up
+about two thousand dollars of the lieutenant's paper, and if you would
+like--what do you say?"
+
+"Hm?" said Pomuchelskopp, "it is a good deal to take at one time;
+but--yes, you may get it for me."
+
+"But I have a condition, too," said David. "You must sell me the wool."
+
+"Well, why not?" said Slusuhr, slily treading on Pomuchelskopp's toes.
+"Let him go and look at it."
+
+Pomuchelskopp understood the sign, and complimented David out of doors
+that he might go and examine the wool, and, when he returned and seated
+himself on the sofa by the notary, the latter laughed loudly, and said,
+"We know each other!"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Pomuchelskopp, feeling as if he had stepped
+out of his coach into the mud.
+
+"My friend," said the notary, slapping him on the shoulder, "I have
+known all along what you wanted, and, if you will pull at the same rope
+with me, you shall not fail of securing it."
+
+Good heavens, what a sly fox! Pomuchelskopp was frightened.
+
+"Herr Notary, I don't deny----"
+
+"No need of words between us. If things go as they should, you shall
+get Pumpelhagen in time, and David shall have his compound interest,
+and I--ah, I could manage the business myself, but it is a little too
+much for me to undertake,--I will take a mill or a farm, and by and by
+set up as a landed proprietor myself. But it will cost you a good deal
+of money."
+
+"That it will, God knows, a great deal of money; but that is no matter.
+It torments me too much to look over at that beautiful estate; isn't it
+a sin and a shame it should be in such hands?"
+
+The notary looked askance at him, as if to say, "Do you really mean
+that?"
+
+"Well," said Pomuchelskopp, "what do you look at me so for?"
+
+"Are you sure you are not joking?" said the notary, laughing. "If you
+want the end, you must use the means. You don't think that you can
+bring such an estate as Pumpelhagen to bankruptcy with a trumpery
+thousand thaler note? You must go to work on an entirely different
+plan; you must buy up all the mortgages on the estate."
+
+"I will do that," whispered Pomuchelskopp, "but there is Moses, with
+his seven thousand thalers not to be got at."
+
+"I have nothing to do with Moses, and desire nothing to do with him;
+but there is David, perhaps he can get it for us. But that is not all,
+by a great deal, that you must do. You must get on good terms with the
+lieutenant; as a friend, you can assist him in some temporary
+embarrassment, and then, in a temporary embarrassment of your own, sell
+his note,--to me, if you like,--so that I can worry him a little, and,
+finally, when the whole concern is ready to smash, then----"
+
+"I will do it," whispered Pomuchelskopp impressively, "I will do it
+all; but I must have him here first. You must go to him directly with
+the notes, so that he may be obliged to leave the army."
+
+"That is a small thing; if there is nothing more----"
+
+"Yes, yes, but there is something more," said Pomuchelskopp, still
+whispering, as if he feared being betrayed by a listener, "there is
+that Habermann; and so long as that sly old watch-dog is there, we
+cannot get him into our power."
+
+"Oh, how stupid you are!" and the notary laughed in his face. "Did you
+ever hear of a young man in pecuniary difficulties making a clean
+breast of it to an old friend like Habermann? I take it, the lieutenant
+is not different from the rest of the world. No, Habermann may stay at
+Pumpelhagen, for all that; but yet, if it is possible, we must get him
+away. He is too good a steward, and, if he manages Pumpelhagen as well
+as he has so far, the lieutenant can afford to keep us waiting a good
+while yet."
+
+"He a good manager! He didn't manage very well for himself."
+
+"Well, let him go! One mustn't undervalue things. But he must go."
+
+"Yes, but how can we bring it about?"
+
+"I can't do anything," laughed the notary, "but you--when you get the
+Herr Lieutenant with the bright dollars under his eyes, it will be easy
+to get an old, worn-out inspector turned off. The devil is in it, if
+you can't."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Pomuchelskopp, in a tone of annoyance; "but all that
+takes so long, and my wife is so impatient."
+
+"She will have to wait," said the notary, very quietly, "such things
+are not done precipitately. Only think how long Pumpelhagen has been in
+the Rambow family; the change cannot take place in a hurry. But now,
+stop! David is coming; not a word of this before David! Do you
+understand? Say nothing to him but about his money affairs."
+
+As David entered the room, he saw a couple of remarkably jolly faces.
+Pomuchelskopp was laughing as if the Herr Notary had made an uncommonly
+witty remark, and the Herr Notary laughed, as if Pomuchelskopp had been
+telling the best joke in the world. But David was not so stupid as he
+appeared at the moment; he knew very well that he had been made an
+April fool of; and that his two colleagues had been discussing
+something beside jokes. "They have their secrets," said he to himself;
+"I have mine." He sat down by the table, with the stupidest Jew-lubber
+face, and nodding to Pomuchelskopp said, "I have looked at it."
+
+"Well?" inquired Pomuchelskopp.
+
+"Well," said David, shrugging his shoulders, "you say it has been
+washed, and it may have been washed, for all I know."
+
+"What! Don't you believe me? Do you mean to say it isn't white as
+swan's-down?"
+
+"Well, if it is swan's-down it may be swan's-down for all me."
+
+"What are you driving at?"
+
+"Look here! We got a letter from Loewenthal in Hamburg; the great
+Loewenthal house in Hamburg--the stone is fourteen dollars and a half."
+
+"I know all that; you are always writing about that nonsense."
+
+"A house like the Loewenthals doesn't write about nonsense."
+
+"Eh, children," interrupted the notary, "this isn't business, this
+looks like a quarrel. Pomuchelskopp, let us have a couple of bottles of
+wine."
+
+The Herr Notary was extremely familiar with the Herr Proprietor; but
+the Herr Proprietor rang, and, as Duerting came, he said in a very
+friendly and pleasant way, for he was always pleasant in his own house,
+and especially to the women-kind, from his Haeuning down to the little
+girls, "Duerting, two bottles of wine, from those with the blue corks."
+
+When the wine stood on the table, Pomuchelskopp filled three glasses,
+and then emptied his own; but David merely sipped at his. As the notary
+finished his glass, he said, "Now, gentlemen, let me tell you
+something," and he winked at David across the table, and under the
+table he trod on Pomuchelskopp's toes.
+
+"You, David, can have fifteen dollars for the stone, and you,
+Pomuchelskopp"--here he trod on his toes again--"you don't care for
+ready money at present, if you can get good bonds you would like it all
+the better"--
+
+"Yes," said Pomuchelskopp, seeing the drift of the notary's remarks,
+"if you can get me the Pumpelhagen bonds from your father, I will give
+you up the surplus of the wool money."
+
+"Why not?" said David, "but how about the knots?"
+
+"The knots!" repeated Pomuchelskopp. "We can compromise----"
+
+"Hold on!" cried the notary, "you can settle about the knots, when you
+bring the bond."
+
+"Why not?" said David again.
+
+When they had finished their wine, and were getting into their wagon,
+the notary said softly and very jokingly to Pomuchelskopp, "To-morrow
+David can begin to worry the Herr Lieutenant, and next week I will
+tread on his toes."
+
+And Pomuchelskopp pressed his hand as gratefully as if the notary had
+saved his Philipping from drowning, and, after they were gone, he sat
+down with his Haenning, and cut and clipped contentedly at the web of
+the future, and the notary sat in the wagon highly pleased, well
+satisfied with himself that he was wiser than the others, and David sat
+at his side, and said to himself, "We shall see! You have the secrets,
+and I have the knots."
+
+But it was not all right about the knots yet; for when David told the
+business to his father, and wanted the bond, the old man looked at him
+sideways, over his shoulder, and said, "So! If you have been with that
+notary, that cut-throat, and that Pomuchelskopp,--he is another
+cut-throat,--and bought wool, you may pay for it with your own bonds
+and not with mine. Do business with rats if you like, but I shall have
+nothing to do with them."
+
+That was not so favorable for David and the knots.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+But it was worse for the poor Herr Lieutenant next morning, when David
+entered the room. David was never handsome,--nobody could say that, not
+even his own mother, but he had not improved since the lieutenant first
+made his acquaintance. Then, when he got the money for him at the
+notary's, there was something quite friendly in his appearance; but
+now, when he wanted the money again, he looked so tough and sour, that
+the lieutenant, without thinking what he was doing, drew on his gloves
+before speaking to him.
+
+Speak with him he must, however, though David's face seemed to him as
+if Moses and all the prophets were looking out from behind it; and when
+David said, "Take off your gloves, Herr Lieutenant, and write," he took
+off his gloves, and wrote across the note, and David's face became as
+friendly as at their first interview.
+
+"Thank God!" said the Herr Lieutenant, "that is done with."
+
+But a few days later a wagon drove into the yard, and in the wagon sat
+the notary Slusuhr, and Habermann shook his head, and said, "God
+preserve me, with _him_ too?"
+
+And as the notary entered the room, the Herr Lieutenant said also, "God
+preserve me, him too?"
+
+But he got on with him a little better than with David; the notary
+looked like a man of some cultivation, he always dressed well, and
+appeared outwardly like a gentleman, he understood also how to preserve
+such an appearance in his language,--that is to say, as long as he
+liked. This was the case at present; the lieutenant invited him to a
+seat on the sofa, and ordered coffee, and there followed what seemed a
+very friendly chat about the weather and the neighborhood and the bad
+conduct of people in general, for in the latter topic the Herr Notary
+was well posted, because he had cultivated the habit of looking around
+him, and never acquired that of looking within. "Yes," said he, telling
+about a merchant in Rahnstadt, "Just think, Herr von Rambow, how wicked
+men are! There, out of pure kindness,--that is, on account of the
+interest which I must pay, for I hadn't so much money lying idle, I had
+to borrow it myself,--I lent him the money, and helped him out of his
+difficulties, and he was so thankful,--and now--now that I want it
+again, must have it, he is rough, he threatens to complain of me for
+charging illegal interest."
+
+Of course there was not a word of truth in this story, the notary only
+told it to frighten the Herr Lieutenant, and it answered the purpose.
+In order to turn the conversation, he asked what sort of business the
+merchant was engaged in.
+
+But the notary was not to be diverted; he did not answer the question,
+but went on with his story.
+
+"But I have entered a complaint against him, and now let him look out!
+His credit is good for nothing,--and then the disgrace! It is not
+exactly entered yet, to be sure, but I have written it myself. What do
+you say to that?" The poor lieutenant was terribly distressed, the
+prospect looked as dark as if this was but the few drops before a heavy
+storm. He coughed, and cleared his throat, but said nothing, for he
+could think of nothing to say. It made no difference to the notary, he
+went on:
+
+"But, thank God! I don't often have to deal with such idiots,
+this fellow is an exception. And since we are talking of money
+business,"--here he drew out his pocket-book,--"will you allow me to
+give you back your note?"
+
+He held out the note for eight hundred and thirty dollars, and the
+rat-like ears seemed to erect themselves, and the grey eyes to protrude
+from the grayish yellow face, and the dry lips to moisten, like a rat
+when he smells bacon. The poor lieutenant took the note, and attempted
+to put aside the matter with a semblance of indifference.
+
+Yes, he said, he would send him the money; he had started so suddenly,
+and the occasion of his journey had been so sad, that he had not
+thought of the matter.
+
+Yes, replied the notary, he believed him, he knew how it was when his
+own father died; at such a time, a man thinks of nothing but his
+loss,--and he put on such a melancholy face, that the lieutenant took
+fresh courage,--but, said the notary, he had thought a great deal of
+this note lately, he depended on it, for he was under engagements, and
+to meet them,--he must have money.
+
+"But this is such a trifling matter," interrupted Axel.
+
+"Well, yes," said the notary, taking other papers from his pocket-book;
+"but then these little matters too!" and he laid on the table the notes
+for over two thousand dollars, which David had bought up at the
+lieutenant's garrison town.
+
+The lieutenant was startled out of his show of indifference.
+
+"How did you come by these papers?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Herr von Rambow, I believe the name 'exchange' is applied to such
+bills because they are transferable by their possessors; you cannot be
+surprised that I should take them instead of cash payment, all the more
+since I was saved a good deal of writing and postage money."
+
+The lieutenant became more and more perplexed, but the idea that all
+this was a concerted game did not yet occur to him.
+
+"But, my dear Herr Notary, I have for the moment no money on hand."
+
+"No?" cried the notary, shrugging his shoulders with an expression
+which let one look straight into the black depths of his soul, and
+revealed the compact that he had made with the devil. "No?" he
+repeated; "I don't believe it." And, in spite of all the lieutenant's
+assurances the notary stood before him, hard and cold, saying
+insolently, to his face, that he did not believe him; it was only that
+he _would_ not pay. Finally, the good old means of prolongation came
+upon the carpet, to which Axel would gladly have agreed at the first,
+if it had been proposed to him; but that would not have suited the
+notary. He wanted more commission than David, and he meant to take his
+satisfaction in the business, for he was a man who enjoyed a joke, and
+the best of all jokes to him was when he could say to himself, "No one
+can match you in craftiness; you set your foot on the necks of high and
+low, and it is good sport to watch their struggles."
+
+These were the troubles and distresses in which Axel von Rambow sat, up
+to the neck, and they distracted him from his grief about his father.
+From a deep sorrow, of God's sending, a soul works itself out fresh and
+pure, like a man over whom the waves of the sea have rolled; he may
+have had a hard struggle, but when he comes forth he stands on the
+beach clean and cool, and ready for new work. But he who has fallen
+into trouble through his own temerity, is like one who, having fallen
+into a slough, is covered with filth, and is ashamed to meet the eyes
+of others. So it was with the young Herr, he was ashamed that he had
+lived so thoughtlessly, he was ashamed of having involved himself with
+black and with white Jews, he was ashamed that he could not help
+himself out of the slough, and that the help which others had given
+could only sink him deeper. How easily he might have escaped all this,
+if he had but confided in Habermann! How gladly he would assist him
+even now, since the reason was gone that had hindered him before, the
+Kammerrath! But the human heart is a stubborn and also a perverse
+thing, and this perverse thing believes it will find more rest if miles
+lie between it and its disgrace; so Axel left his estate much sooner
+than his sisters had hoped.
+
+At his garrison he found everything as he had left it, only he himself
+was changed; at least he said so to himself, daily; but if one had
+asked his comrades they would have said they observed nothing peculiar
+about him, and quite naturally, for his good resolutions, which were
+the only respect in which he had altered, had not yet come to light. He
+meant to be economical, he meant to follow his father's advice, and
+study agriculture as well as he could from books, he meant to do well
+in all respects. His economy began the first morning; for a week he
+drank no sugar in his coffee,--"For," said he, "if a man despises
+little things, he will not prosper in great ones,"--and he smoked
+cigars at nineteen instead of twenty dollars the box. His servant got a
+serious lecture, when he brought the bread and butter for his
+breakfast, and received orders to give his two horses each half a
+measure of oats less than usual, "For," he said, "times are hard."
+
+The latter was the only enduring retrenchment--probably because he was
+not fed at the same crib with his mares; all the others stopped after a
+week or so; it was of no use, he said, to begin things that one
+couldn't carry through. It was much in the same way with his
+agricultural studies. The first three pages of every book, he knew
+almost by heart, he had read them so often; for he always began at the
+beginning, because, when he had got so far, some thing would divert his
+attention from the text. Then, as he felt so sure of these, he would
+reward himself for his industry by looking up something interesting in
+the books, and as he read a chapter on the breeding of horses, he would
+say to himself he knew all that, and more too; there had been great
+progress in those matters. After all, what good would it do for him to
+read these books, if he could not take hold of the business
+practically? he knew very well a farmer should be practical,--nothing
+if not practical! So he made the acquaintance of a Herr von So-and-So,
+who owned an estate in the neighborhood; he rode with him over the
+fields, and asked the inspector what he was doing that day, and when
+they returned to the house, he knew as well as the Herr von So-and-So
+that in Seelsdorp on the 15th of June, they were carting manure, and
+that his gray Wallach was foaled in Basedow from the gray Momus; or he
+went with Herr von So and So, with a gun over his shoulder, through the
+barley stubble, and got the information by the way that the barley had
+been harvested on the 27th of August, shot a brace of partridges, and
+when he went to bed at night he knew as well as Herr von So and So how
+the partridges tasted.
+
+He found this sort of practical apiculture very agreeable, and as a man
+is apt to talk about the things that please him, Axel did not fail to
+exhibit his attainments, and was soon known among his comrades as a
+shining light, quite an agricultural tallow candle, four to the pound.
+Since most of them were the sons of noble landed proprietors, and
+destined to the same life, and looking forward with horror to the time
+when they must leave their jolly soldier-life, for the hard work of
+gentlemen farmers, Axel seemed to them an unusual example of diligence,
+and they looked upon him as upon some wonderful animal who out of pure
+love for labor had put his head into the yoke. Most of them admired him
+accordingly, though a few blockheads turned up their noses, and
+insinuated that for a lieutenant his conversation savored too strongly
+of the farm-yard.
+
+Having set himself up as an authority in agricultural matters, it was
+necessary to sustain his reputation, and to make progress with time.
+And that was a period of wonderful progress in agricultural science,
+for Professor Liebig had written a famous book for the farmers, which
+was brimful and running over of carbon and saltpetre, and sulphur, and
+gypsum, and lime, and sal-ammoniac, and hydrates and hydropathy, enough
+to drive one crazy. People who wished to dip their fingers in science
+procured this book, and sat down to it, and read and read, until their
+heads were dizzy; and if they tried to recollect, they could not tell
+whether gypsum were a stimulant or a nutriment,--that is to say, for
+clover, not for human beings.
+
+Axel bought this book, and it fared with him as with the rest, he read
+and read, but kept growing dizzier, and his head turned round as if
+there were screws getting loose in it, and he shut the book. It would
+probably have stopped here, with him, as with the others, he would have
+forgotten the whole concern, if he had not had the fortune to know a
+good-natured apothecary, who could let him take all the drugs, of which
+the book treated, into his own hands, and smell them with his own nose.
+This was the practical way, and from that moment he understood the
+business, yes, as well as Liebig himself, so that he had no occasion to
+read farther in the book.
+
+The branch of agriculture which gave him particular pleasure was
+farming-implements and machinery. He had from a child taken great
+delight in all sorts of inventions; as a boy he had made little mills,
+he had pasted, and, although his mother had a great dislike to anything
+that smacked of handicraft, he had, during his school-days, taken
+private lessons in book-binding. These tastes came into exercise now;
+he was uncommonly pleased to see a design of a new-fashioned American
+rake, or a Scotch harrow, and it was not long before he indulged in the
+innocent amusement of cutting little rakes and harrows and rollers
+himself.
+
+He did not stop here, however, but went on to design rape-clappers,
+flax-bruisers, and corn-shellers. He might possibly have rested in
+these achievements,--and it was surely worthy of honor in a lieutenant
+to lay aside his uniform and go to work with drawing-knife, auger and
+glue-pot,--if he had not made the acquaintance of an old half-crazy
+watchmaker, who had wasted his life and his small property in
+endeavoring to discover, for an ungrateful world, the secret of
+perpetual motion. This old benefactor of humanity led him into his
+workshop, and showed him how one wheel must be made to turn upon
+another, and this upon a cylinder, and that upon a screw, and the screw
+upon a winch, and that upon a wheel again, and so on, over and over; he
+showed him machines that wouldn't go, and others that would go, and yet
+others which wouldn't go as they should; he exhibited machines which
+Axel could comprehend, and some which he couldn't comprehend, and some
+which he didn't comprehend himself; but it was all very interesting to
+Axel, and he became inspired in his turn with the desire of being a
+benefactor to mankind. His idea was to invent a machine, which would do
+all sorts of field labor, which should rake, harrow, roll, and pull up
+weeds. It was really touching to see the fresh, young lieutenant of
+cavalry and the withered, wrinkled old watchmaker, sitting together and
+planning with the lever and screws to elevate mankind.
+
+And so it might have gone on, for all me, and for all him, and he might
+possibly have elevated mankind, though the constant tugging of
+securities and discounts and such matters had a tendency to bring him
+down, for he thought nothing about the payment of his debts, and
+although there was a good income from Pumpelhagen, according to his
+father's will it was I to be applied first to the payment of his own
+debts, and the sisters must be supported out of it; and, as for the
+rest, he lived without anxiety when his first needs were supplied.
+
+But there are a pair--brother and sister--who shake the most
+indifferent person out of his dreams, and drive him, without, ceremony,
+out from the warm chimney-corner, into the storm and rain,--these are
+hate and love. Hate thrusts one head-foremost out of the door, saying,
+"There, scoundrel, away with you!" Love takes one gently by the hand,
+leads one to the door, and says, "Come, with me, I will show you a
+better place." But it comes to the same thing; one must leave his nice,
+warm chimney-corner. Axel made the acquaintance of both; and it
+happened quite accidentally, it was none of his doing.
+
+I don't know whether it is so still; but at that time it was the
+custom, among the Prussians, for the regimental commanders to send
+regular deportment lists of the officers to Berlin, and King Frederic
+William was in the habit of looking into the papers himself, in order
+to see what his officers were fit for.
+
+Now Axel's good old colonel liked the Herr Lieutenant very much,
+because he had once owned an estate himself, alongside Buetow and
+Lauenburg, which he had got rid of through his singular methods of
+farming; and because he still owned one, on which he could carry out
+these methods, one of them being never to enrich the soil, because he
+thought it not good for the land. He had a great opinion of his own
+methods, and as he was like the old carrier who, when they can no
+longer drive, still like to crack the whip, he enjoyed talking about
+them, and as Axel listened attentively, and was too polite to
+contradict him, the old colonel conceived a high opinion of his wisdom.
+For this reason Axel's testimonials were always very good; but
+unfortunately the old Colonel paid little attention to orthography, and
+so he wrote once, "Lieutenant von Rambow is a thoroughly 'feiger'
+officer," when he meant to say "faehiger" (capable). The king himself
+saw it, and wrote on the margin, "I have no occasion for a 'feiger'
+(cowardly) officer; let him be dismissed at once." It was a stupid
+thing in the old colonel; the mistake must be corrected; but he did not
+know how to do it without taking his adjutant into counsel. With his
+assistance, the orthography and the business were made right; but
+the rogue could not hold his tongue, and before long the whole set
+were aiming their poor jokes at our innocent Axel. Especially one
+thick-headed fellow, of "very old family," who had all along poked fun
+at him on account of his agricultural pursuits, not because he managed
+them foolishly, but because he took to them at all,--now applied the
+screw so insolently that all his comrades observed it; Axel alone took
+no notice, because he had not the slightest suspicion of the cause.
+
+There was another matter, in addition. The Herr von So and So, with
+whom Axel took practical lessons in farming on horseback and with a
+shot-gun, had a wonderfully pretty daughter,--nobody need laugh! she
+was really a fine girl,--by whom the Herr Lieutenant of the "old
+family" was strongly attracted. She, however, treated him quite coolly,
+and was much more gracious to Axel, who also turned his best side out
+in her presence. Whether it was that the young lady took no pleasure in
+the stupidly forward behavior of the Herr Lieutenant of "old family,"
+and if she were going to marry preferred a man gifted with more brains,
+or that she was pleased with Axel's good-temper and modesty, it was not
+long before Axel was evidently "cock of the walk," and the Herr
+Lieutenant of "old family," sat upon the nettles of jealousy.
+
+It happened, about this time, that the officers of the corps gave a
+ball, and the Herr Lieutenant of "old family" adorned himself for this
+festivity with a pair of false calves. Looking at his legs, his own
+comrades scarcely knew him, and as there is always a mischief-maker
+among so many frolicsome young people, who in this case happened to be
+the adjutant, he converted the cotton-wool calves of Axel's rival into
+a pincushion, and stuck them full of butterflies, with which the
+unconscious lieutenant hopped about quite merrily. People could not
+help looking and laughing, and the Herr Lieutenant, discovering how his
+calves were ornamented, became fearfully angry, as he had reason to be,
+and his wrath broke loose upon the first laughing face he chanced to
+meet, which happened to be Axel's. "If you were not already designated
+upon the colonel's conduct list, I should have the satisfaction of
+applying the epithet myself!" exclaimed he, in his rage. Axel did not
+hear the words distinctly, the insolent tone, however, was not to be
+misunderstood; and as he was really no poltroon, and very easily
+excited, he turned with equal anger to his rival, saying that "he did
+not understand what he said, but the tone he had used made an
+explanation necessary;" and with that he went to his captain, with whom
+he stood on good terms, and asked an account of the matter, and what he
+heard from him did not tend to diminish his anger. He fell into a
+terrible passion, and challenged the lieutenant of "old family," and
+also the adjutant, because he had brought the matter about, and the
+lieutenant challenged the adjutant, an account of the butterflies, and
+so the three rode out one fine Sunday afternoon, with a crowd of
+seconds and witnesses and impartial observers and doctors and surgeons,
+and they cut each other's faces, and shot at each other's limbs, and
+then there was peace again. Axel got a scar on his nose, because he was
+stupid enough to parry a thrust with his face instead of his sword. If
+this did not exactly beautify him, it certainly did him no harm. Herr
+von So and So's pretty daughter heard of the matter, she put together
+many little pleasantries which she had noted between the rivals, and
+who can blame this intelligent girl if she believed herself the
+innocent cause of such heroic deeds, and liked Axel afterward better
+than before?
+
+Here I might relate the entire love-story of Axel and Frida, and I
+leave it to any unprejudiced person if I should not have a pair of
+characters for a love-story, such as cannot be found even in the Bible,
+a lieutenant of cuirassiers, and a young lady of the nobility; but no,
+I will have nothing to do with it. For, in the first place, I never do
+more than I am obliged, and who can compel me to give private
+instructions to the burghers' daughters, who may possibly read this,
+about falling in love with a lieutenant of cuirassiers, or to teach
+young mechanics how they may ingratiate themselves with noble young
+ladies? Who would give me anything for that? And, secondly, I may as
+well say, once for all, I do not write with any regard to young people,
+I write merely for the old folks, who lie down of an afternoon on the
+sofa, and take a book to drive the flies from their faces, and the
+cares out of their heads. Thirdly, I have already three young maidens
+to dispose of, and any one who wants to know what a task that is may
+inquire of any mother of three unmarried daughters. Louise Habermann
+must have a husband, and would it not be a shame to leave the two
+little twin-apples to trundle through the world as old maids? Fourthly
+and lastly, I am not fitted to describe correctly the love of a
+lieutenant of cuirassiers, it is a touch beyond me, it requires the pen
+of a Shakespeare or a Muehlbach, and who knows whether Shakespeare
+himself were adequate to the task, for so far as I am informed he never
+ventured upon it.
+
+In short, they were betrothed, and the wedding was held at Whitsuntide,
+1843, and the Herr von So and So gave his blessing as a dowry, because
+it was all he had to give. Well, we will treat him like a Christian,
+and give him something, to wit a name,--for since he is become our
+father-in-law he must have a name,--so he shall be called Herr von
+Satrup of Seelsdorp, of which estate he owned still less than Axel of
+Pumpelhagen.
+
+Frida von Satrup was an intelligent girl, and understood before her
+marriage that a "Herr Lieutenant" was only a large piece of a small
+apple, and that a "Frau Lieutenant" would be a small piece of a large
+apple; she stipulated, therefore, that Axel should leave the army. Axel
+was not unwilling, for the foolery about the "feiger" officer was not
+by any means over, although he bore the mark of the old colonel's
+blunder in red ink on his face, and he had also a great desire and
+purpose to turn his agricultural science into ready money, at
+Pumpelhagen, and therewith to pay his debts.
+
+He took his discharge, therefore, packed his uniform, sash and
+epaulettes in a box, delivered, with tears in his eyes, a touching
+farewell address to his brave sword, laid that also in the box, nailed
+and sealed the box, and wrote on the top, "In case of sudden death, to
+be opened by my heirs," sent the whole to Pumpelhagen, was married in a
+black dress-suit, and started with his young bride for a journey up the
+Rhine.
+
+How he made his entrance into Pumpelhagen, in the midsummer of 1843,
+shall be told in another place.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The three years which, since his father's death, Axel had spent in
+garrison, occupied with agriculture, heroic deeds and love-affairs, had
+been passed by the dwellers in Pumpelhagen and the vicinity in much the
+same occupations. The agriculture was a matter of course; but the
+heroic deeds and the love affairs would have been wanting, if Fritz
+Triddelsitz, in his hours of leisure, had not turned his attention that
+way. His relations with Marie Moeller had slipped gradually out of the
+motherly into the brother-and-sisterly, and from thence, on her part at
+least, into the tenderly affectionate, and although they were still
+based on a foundation of ham and sausage, Marie Moeller indulged in all
+sorts of uncertain heavenly hopes touching priest and sexton, bridal
+wreath, and farming and house keeping for herself, if in process of
+time the business should take a serious turn, while Fritz lived in fear
+of being discovered by Habermann at some of these private repasts, and
+suspected that, if his aunt and is father and mother knew of his
+foolish behavior, the business might take a disagreeable turn for
+himself. In short, his love-affairs were not altogether satisfactory,
+and though he thought no harm of throwing his hook here and there, for
+example, to the little twin-apples, and, when his aunt was off duty, to
+Louise Habermann, yet he was forced to confess, when he dealt honestly
+with himself, that his only success was with Marie Moeller.
+
+The heroic deeds of Pumpelhagen were also confined to his department.
+He had at first attempted them merely against the farm-boys, and that
+in a quiet way, for if Habermann had known of it, the renown which he
+achieved upon their shoulders would have been sadly interfered with;
+now, however, as all went well, he grew bolder, and in an evil hour
+ventured to strike a stable-boy, and the rascal was so insolent
+as to forget all the respect due to his station, and gave him such
+a thrashing, in broad day-light, and Palm Sunday at that, that
+Marie Moeller must spend the whole Sunday afternoon cooling his
+shoulder-blades. And the most disagreeable of all was that with every
+cold bandage that Marie Moeller laid on his shoulders she sent a sting
+to his conscience, while she reminded him of all her kind deeds, and
+inquired about his plans and prospects, trustfully assuring him that
+she believed in his affection and would faithfully share his future. It
+was very annoying, because, for his part, he believed more in his
+appetite for ham and sausage than in his affection, and he preferred
+keeping his prospects to himself. He stammered out something which she
+did not or would not fully comprehend, and the cooler his blisters
+became the cooler became their relations; he tried to change the
+subject, she was not disposed to do so; she still applied the wet
+cloths, but with a less and less gentle hand.
+
+"Triddelsitz," said she finally, "what am I to think of you?"
+
+With that, she came round from her position behind him, and placed
+herself before his face, with arms akimbo.
+
+"Mariken," said he, alarmed and confused, "what do you mean?"
+
+"What do I mean? shall I, speak out more clearly?" exclaimed she, and
+the sweet, tender expression was quite gone from her eyes. "Am I a
+person to be made a fool of?"
+
+Then she went back again, and slapped a cold bandage on his shoulders,
+with emphasis.
+
+"Oh! Thunder!" cried Fritz, "that hurts!"
+
+"So? It hurts, does it? Do you think it doesn't hurt me, to find that a
+man for whom I have done so much means to betray me?"
+
+"Mariken, I ask you, what do you mean?"
+
+"What do I mean? I mean"--with another emphatic bandage--"will you tell
+me what to think of you?"
+
+"Thunder and lightning! That burns like fire!"
+
+"I hope it does! I should think your conscience would burn you,
+deceiving a poor girl with all sorts of promises and prospects and then
+backing out in this way!"
+
+"Good heavens, Marie, I am only nineteen years old."
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"I must serve somewhere else for a time, and then----"
+
+"Well, and then?" with another wet cloth on his shoulders.
+
+"Good heavens! You might be a little more careful, Marie."
+
+"_You_ might be a little more careful! Well, what then?"
+
+"Then, I must get me a farm; and all that will take ten years or more."
+
+"Well, and then?" pursued Marie Moeller, with truly infamous
+persistency.
+
+"And then," stammered Fritz finally, in his distress, "by that time,
+you will be too old for me."
+
+Marie Moeller stood at first as if thunder-struck; poisonous glances
+shot from her eyes; then she bent round and threw the cloth that was in
+her hand right in his face, so that the water spattered over his ears.
+
+"Too old? Impertinence! Too old, do you say?" and grasping the washbowl
+full of water she threw it over his head, and ran out of the room. And
+as Fritz stood there, gasping and snuffling, she opened the door again,
+and putting her head in, said,--
+
+"Don't let me see you in my pantry again!"
+
+Love had now received its death-blow; there was an end also of the
+pantry indulgences; and as Fritz stood there dripping, it seemed to
+him, among his confused thoughts, that the whole story did not exactly
+harmonize with his ideas of love, still less with the romances he had
+read, and he uttered in his vexation the selfsame words he had spoken
+at the beginning of his apprenticeship, when he was working on the road
+in the November rain: "It is quite different from what I thought! A
+good, thing, though, that the old man is not at home," added he, "or he
+might have heard the uproar."
+
+Habermann had gone with Franz this morning to the Gurlitz church. He
+always took this walk, with still, pious thoughts, but to-day his heart
+was brimful of thankfulness to God, whose fatherly hand had led his
+child so far on her life journey, for, on this Palm Sunday morning,
+Louise was to be confirmed. He walked, silent and absorbed in thought,
+along the foot-path, his eye resting on the pleasant landscape, where
+the snow still lay in white streaks along side the ditches and under
+the shade of the dark fir-trees, and where the green, springing rye in
+the bright sunshine told of Easter, and preached the Resurrection. The
+chimney-smoke lay over the little villages, and the sun seemed to press
+it down, as though this token of human care and labor ought not to
+darken the bright world, as if there would not be room enough else for
+the joyous sound of the church bells, which echoed, far and wide, over
+field and forest.
+
+"Ah, if she had only lived to see this day!" said the old man aloud,
+and as if he thought himself alone.
+
+"Who?" asked Franz, a little shyly, as if he feared to be too
+inquisitive.
+
+"My poor wife, the mother of my dear child," said the old man, softly,
+and looked at the young man with such friendly, honest eyes, that
+seemed to say, "Look into our depths and read this simple, true heart!
+We will answer all thy questions, and it shall echo long in thy
+memory." "Yes," said he, "my good wife! But what do I say? She sees
+more, to-day, than I can of her child, and she does more than I can for
+her child; for her thoughts are higher than the blue heavens, and her
+joys brighter than the golden sun."
+
+Franz walked silent by his side, he was careful not to disturb the
+Inspector; this old man, whom he loved, to-day seemed to him so worthy
+of reverence,--his white hair lay across his broad forehead, as pure as
+the white snow on the earth, his fresh countenance and bright eyes
+spoke as trustfully of the resurrection as did the springing rye, and
+the whole face shone with such a sunlight of love, that the young man,
+after a while, could no longer restrain himself, he grasped his
+friend's hand:
+
+"Habermann, my dear Habermann, you have certainly lived through much
+sorrow."
+
+"Not more than other people," was the reply, "and yet enough to think
+of, all one's life."
+
+"Will you tell me about it? I do not ask from curiosity."
+
+"Why not?" and he told his story; but he did not mention
+Pomuchelskopp's name, and he closed his narration with this remark
+about his child: "Yes, she was then my only comfort, and she is now my
+only joy!"
+
+They came to the parsonage. The little Frau Pastorin had become a
+little older, and a little fuller, with time, and could not fly round
+quite so quickly as before; and to-day she was unusually quiet, running
+in nobody's way, and the duster lay unnoticed in its corner, as lonely
+as a dog under the table, for to-day the approaching solemn ceremony
+forbade her usual bustling about, for, as the Pastor's wife, she was
+the nearest.
+
+But it was impossible for her to keep quite still, if she did not buzz
+about, she must at least run a little, now to fasten her Pastor's bands
+and bring him a glass of wine, now to Louise, to set her ruffle
+straight, and whisper a loving word in her ear; and when young Jochen
+and Frau Nuessler and the little twins and Braesig all arrived together,
+she would certainly have forgotten herself, if the sexton had not
+exercised his judgment, and commenced ringing for the last time. The
+twins were also to be confirmed to-day, and as the company were going
+to the church, and the Frau Pastorin looked at the three lovely
+children walking together across the church-yard, Louise in the middle,
+half a head taller than her little cousins, she said to Habermann,
+while tears stood in her friendly eyes, "Habermann, our child has no
+gold chain and brooch to wear, as is the foolish custom now-a-days; and
+that black silk dress, dear Habermann, is all of thirty years old. I
+wore it last the first time I went to church here after I was married,
+and a happy heart beat under it, for in that heart dwelt my Pastor; it
+was too small for me afterwards, for, you see, I was already growing
+rather stout, but it is as good as new, and nobody would know that it
+was pieced down. And, Habermann, I put the money that you gave me for a
+dress into Louise's money-box. You won't take it ill of me? I was so
+glad to see my old dress in use again."
+
+Just before the church door Braesig pulled Habermann by the coat, and as
+he turned round he said, quite moved with emotion, "Karl, it is
+remarkable, it is really remarkable, such a confirmation! See, when I
+look at those three little girls walking along it reminds me of my own,
+and how I had got through the infamous sheep-keeping for my sainted
+father, and was going to begin farming. We went along just like the
+three little girls, Karl Brandt and Christian Guhl and I, to the
+church, only we didn't have black silk dresses on; no, Christian had a
+green, Karl a brown, and I a gray coat; and instead of the bouquets of
+flowers, that the little girls carry in their hands, we had little
+sprigs of green stuck in our buttonholes; and instead of walking three
+abreast we went one behind the other, like geese in the barley. Yes, it
+was just so."
+
+After a hymn had been sung by the congregation, Pastor Behrens preached
+his sermon. He had grown older in his appearance, but his voice was
+strong, and his thoughts clear as ever, and a mild and gentle spirit
+breathed in every word. It is certain there is no profession in which
+age is less of a drawback than in the ministry, when the man who holds
+this office has discharged it faithfully. The people do not listen to
+his words merely, they look at his long, upright, honorable life, and
+he stands before them a living example of the truth which he utters. So
+it was with this Pastor.
+
+Then came the examination. The young maidens laid aside their outside
+wrappings, Louise embraced, with tearful eyes, her father and her
+foster-mother, Frau Nuessler affectionately kissed her little twins,
+young Jochen tried to say something, but did not succeed, and the three
+children stepped out from the Pastor's seat, up to the altar. "I wonder
+if the rogues know their lessons," said Braesig to Franz, who was next
+him; "I believe my godchild--that is Mining--will stumble." And with
+that, he blew his nose, and wiped, not his eyes, but his eyebrows.
+
+Franz did not answer; everything around him had disappeared for the
+time, he saw only one face, a familiar face, and yet he saw it as for
+the first time; he saw but one form, a form which he had seen springing
+joyously about, but now a wonderful, solemn thrill trembled through it;
+he saw a pair of hands which had been joyfully extended to him, now
+reached up to the Most High; and it seemed to him as if the Lord looked
+down, and upheld this trembling form, in the simple black dress, in
+which a happy heart had once throbbed, and showed him this pure virgin
+heart, and said, "Watch thine own, that it may be worthy to unite with
+this." He was like a man who had long ago seen a beautiful region, in
+bright sunshine, and who had rambled about therein, thinking of nothing
+but his own enjoyment, and coming again after a long time saw the same
+region under the silent moon, and could scarcely recognize it, because
+over hill and forest, over thatched roof and church-tower, lay the
+thick veil of the evening mist, upon which rested the silver moonlight,
+so that he saw only this, and not the pleasant region that he knew. It
+seemed to him as if his soul was stretching out imploring hands, from a
+deep abyss, and a profound self-pity came over him, because is own
+heart was so poor a gift to bestow. And this deep self-pity, this
+secret longing for a better heart, that falls upon us, like a moonbeam
+woven out of mist and light, we children of men call "Love."
+
+Braesig stood near him, and whispered now and then a couple of words,
+which Franz did not hear and which, if he had heard, he would probably
+have considered very stupid, and might have been annoyed by them; and
+yet the old Inspector's remarks had their origin in the same feeling
+which had come over himself, only that it was not so heavenly blue and
+rosy red as in his case, but old age had given it a tinge of gray.
+
+Braesig was in the greatest distress lest his godchild, Mining, should
+fail; and with every question that she answered properly, such a great
+sigh was heard that Pastor Behrens, if he had been of the new-fashioned
+style of preachers, must have thought he had brought a great sinner to
+repentance in sackcloth and ashes. "God be praised!" said this sinner,
+half aloud, "Mining knows it;" and after a while he touched Franz: "Now
+it is coming, just listen, now it is coming;" and he punched Habermann
+on the other side: "Karl, you will see Mining has got it. Mining has
+the great water-question. I knew it, Christian Guhl couldn't say it,
+and it came to me; but I have forgotten it all now, except just the
+beginning: 'Water indeed avails nothing of itself, but the Spirit of
+God'"--and as Mining repeated the answer, without faltering, the old
+man whispered after her the whole "water-question," and when the sexton
+came round with the poor-box, he put in a silver thaler, as if it were
+a relief to his feelings; and he turned round, and pressed Frau
+Nuessler's hand, and said almost aloud, "Frau Nuessler, did you hear our
+little rogue?" and blew his nose with so much emphasis, that Frau
+Pastorin secretly pronounced him an irreverent sinner, for disturbing
+the holy ordinance.
+
+If one should follow up the cord which bound Braesig to little Mining,
+and go a little way beyond Mining, he would find the end made fast, in
+Frau Nuessler's heart, where it was tied in a great double knot, which
+could never be parted. It seemed to be sure, quite another thing, and
+much rougher than the delicate, silken, rosy noose, which Franz would
+fain have knotted about Louise Habermann's little heart and which
+seemed to him too rough and hard for that tender heart. Love is
+everywhere, the world over, but she takes strange forms; she flies like
+an angel upon rosy pinions, and she shuffles about on wooden shoes; she
+speaks with tongues, like the apostles on the day of Pentecost, and she
+sits in the corner like a sulky child, whom the schoolmaster has struck
+on the mouth with the primer; she gives diamonds and coronets, and old
+Inspector Schecker sought to win the hand of my Aunt Schoening, with a
+fat turkey.
+
+When the confirmation was over, and the Lord's Supper had been
+administered to the young communicants, Pastor Behrens went into his
+vestry. Samuel Pomuchelskopp, in his blue dress-coat, followed after
+him, for his Gustaving had also been confirmed, and opening the door of
+the vestry stood before it, instead of going in,--"so that all the
+people may see what a blockhead he is," said Braesig to Habermann,--and
+invited the Pastor to "a spoonful of soup, and a morsel of roast meat,
+and a bottle of red wine," in as loud a tone, as if they were at a
+fair,--"that everybody may know what a confounded hypocrite he is,"
+said Braesig,--but the Pastor thanked him, and said he was too much
+fatigued to-day, and besides he had company at home.
+
+Pomuchelskopp went back, and threw over his left shoulder a glance into
+the parsonage-pew, making most elaborate attempts at distinguished
+behavior, but they were quite discomfited as he met Braesig's venomous
+face, for Braesig was such a bad Christian--as the Frau Pastorin would
+have said had she seen it--that even in the Lord's own house he could
+not keep his wicked feelings from showing in his face. But how quickly
+was his old face changed when the three little girls came back, with
+happy tearful faces, to give him also their hands, and offer their lips
+to be kissed, as they had done to their parents and foster-parents! How
+he lifted his eyebrows, and wrinkled his forehead, giving himself a
+really paternal expression! This was his manner to Louise and Lining,
+but when his little pet Mining came, he looked as comical as if he were
+a child himself, he put his arms round her and whispered in her ear,
+"You shall see, Mining, you shall see, I will give you something!" And
+since he did not know what, at the moment, and chanced to have his
+handkerchief in his hand, he said, "I will give you a dozen
+handkerchiefs, bright ones!" for he wanted to do the business
+thoroughly.
+
+Each of the company had now offered his kind wishes, and each had
+taken his thanks in kisses from the fresh, red lips, two only
+excepted,--young Jochen never got more than half a kiss, and Franz got
+none at all. Young Jochen could, of course, blame no one but himself,
+for he need not have squeezed himself into the farthest corner of the
+pew, so that the long left side of his mouth was quite out of their
+reach, and the little girls must content themselves with the short
+right side, which was not quite half of it. And Franz? He never thought
+of the matter, he had not yet returned to earth, but was still in
+heaven, and it did not occur to him, till they were leaving the church,
+and he found himself near Louise at the door, to take her hand and say
+something, which he could not recollect a moment after. He was
+certainly in love! That beautiful face in deep devotion was imprinted
+upon his heart and imprinted for ever-more!
+
+I may be interrupted here, possibly, by some pious lady, or some
+experienced maiden,--I do not mean old people here, but also
+middle-aged,--who will inquire, "Could not this young man find some
+other place to concern himself with such worldly matters as falling in
+love?" And I reply, "Honored madame, and especially honored
+mademoiselle, this young man was as yet so stupid in a business with
+which you are quite familiar from early experience, that he had never
+thought of love as belonging to worldly matters. And pray, where should
+a young man fall in love? Only in an arbor, in the summer twilight, or
+in a cotillion at a ball in winter? Many roads lead to Rome, but many
+more to marriage, and he who starts on his bridal journey does better
+to begin it in a church than in a ball-room; for he finds the marriage
+altar close by, and the path is straight and clean; but between the
+ball-room and the altar stretches the long, dusty, dirty street, and
+many enter with soiled boots and shoes upon the holy path of marriage.
+Is it not true, honored madame? Do you not agree with me, respected
+mademoiselle?"
+
+A simple dinner was waiting at the parsonage. Braesig was very lively,
+and smiled like sunshine after rain; the old Pastor was also very
+cheerful, for he knew with Solomon that everything has its time, there
+is "a time to gather stones, and a time to cast them away;" but they
+were all quiet, the church bells still chimed in their hearts, and only
+with the hot coffee did Frau Pastorin and Frau Nuessler find their
+tongues unlocked.
+
+Immediately after dinner, the old Herr Pastor took a little nap on the
+sofa in his study, to rest from the fatigue of the morning. Habermann
+had gone out into the fresh air, with his daughter and his two nieces,
+that the sweet influences of the secretly awakening spring might
+compose these young agitated souls, and Franz had gone with them, also
+to enjoy the secretly awakening spring, but the one which was budding
+and blooming in his own breast. Jochen Nuessler had found a corner,
+which was almost as convenient as his own particular corner, by the
+stove, at home. Braesig went up and down the room, with his short legs
+and his long pipe, his feet turned out in an extraordinary manner, for
+since he had received his pension his gait had acquired a peculiar,
+swing, and he used his little feet broad side out, so that people might
+see that no man was his master, and he stood in his own shoes, and that
+his long years of farming had not prevented him from appearing what he
+was, an elderly gentleman, living on his own income. Frau Pastorin and
+Frau Nuessler sat under the picture gallery, upon the sofa.
+
+"Yes, dear Frau Nuessler," said the Frau Pastorin, "thank God! we have
+got on so far with our children. Louise is seventeen years old, and
+your twins are six mouths older. My Pastor says, and I know it too,
+they have learned much; and with a little more help here and there,
+they could earn their bread as governesses, any day."
+
+Braesig stopped, lifted his eyebrows, and blew a cloud of smoke toward
+the sofa, and young Jochen also turned himself about, in that
+direction.
+
+"Yes, indeed," exclaimed Frau Nuessler, "and the little girls owe it all
+to you and the Herr Pastor!" and she grasped the Frau Pastorin's hand,
+"my brother Karl said, and I say too, we could do well enough for them
+in some respects, we could get them their daily bread and see that they
+were neatly dressed, and teach them to tell the truth, and how to take
+care of themselves, and keep house; but for all which makes a human
+being of real worth, we were not capable. Isn't it so, Jochen?"
+
+From behind the stove came a low, comfortable, assenting growl, such as
+a faithful old watch-dog gives, when he has his head scratched.
+
+"You hear, Frau Pastorin, Jochen says so too."
+
+"Oh, I have done nothing," said the little Frau Pastorin, turning off
+the compliment, "that is to say, for your two; of course it was
+different with Louise, for I was the nearest to her. But--what I was
+going to say,--we have never spoken about it,--had you thought of
+having your children, or one of them, perhaps Mining, become a
+governess?"
+
+"What?" said Frau Nuessler, looking at the Frau Pastorin, as if she had
+told her Mining had a prospect of becoming a Papist; and as the Frau
+Pastorin was about to explain her project, she was interrupted by a
+singular burst of laughter: "Ha, ha, ha! A good joke! Did you hear
+that, young Jochen? Our little Mining to teach children! Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+That was Braesig; but he made a great mistake. The Frau Pastorin sat
+there, like a puppet on a wire, her red face grew pale with anger, and
+under her little chin the little cap-ribbons fluttered quite
+indignantly:
+
+"What are you laughing at, Braesig? You are laughing at me, perhaps? You
+laugh because I thought Mining might be a governess? Oh, Herr
+Inspector," and she drew herself up, stiffly, "I have been a governess
+myself, and it is quite a different thing to teach children, from what
+it is to cudgel farm-boys."
+
+"To be sure! You mustn't mind me, Frau Pastorin, but our little Mining
+a school-mistress! Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+But the Frau Pastorin was carried away by her feelings, and went on to
+say: "And it makes a great difference whether one has learned
+something, or whether one knows nothing at all; a man like you could
+never be a governess!"
+
+As she uttered these words, her Pastor entered the room, having been
+awaked by Braesig's laughter, and it struck him as so ludicrous that
+they were talking about Braesig's qualifications as a governess--and,
+being short-sighted, he did not notice his wife's anger--that he joined
+in the laugh: "Ha, ha! Braesig a governess!"
+
+The entrance of her Pastor made a singular impression upon the Frau
+Pastorin, at first the waves of passion rose higher than ever, but then
+it seemed as if oil were poured on the troubled waters; she had indeed
+often allowed herself a momentary ebullition of anger in his presence;
+but to break out into flaming wrath! that was quite contrary to her
+principles, and a droll conflict began in her spirit and gleamed
+through her round honest face, like the light through a basket lantern;
+the flame of anger blazed up once more, and then sank down into the
+deep red glow of shame, that she, a Pastor's wife, and on such a day as
+this, had so far forgotten herself, and the glow died out in the gray
+ashes of a wholesome anger with herself, and as her own last words,
+that Braesig could never be a governess, recurred to her, and she saw
+her Pastor laughing, the ashes were blown away by a little gust of
+merriment, but she held her handkerchief before her face, that the
+others might not see it.
+
+Frau Nuessler had meanwhile been sitting on thorns, and, as the Pastor
+came in, she sprang up and said, quite distressed, "Herr Pastor, I am
+the innocent cause of all this trouble. Braesig, stop your stupid
+laughing! Frau Pastorin thinks our Mining should be a governess. Dear
+heart, yes! If you and the Frau Pastorin think it best, it shall be so;
+you have always advised us for the best. Isn't it so, Jochen, it shall
+be so?"
+
+Jochen slowly emerged from behind the stove. "Yes, it is as true as
+leather; if she must, she must," and with that, he went out of the
+room, probably to get the business through his head, in solitude.
+
+"But what is all this?" asked the Pastor. "Regina, are you really in
+earnest?" And Frau Nuessler went up to the little Frau Pastorin. "It
+shall be just as you say, Frau Pastorin. Braesig, for shame! Frau
+Pastorin, don't cry any longer!" and she drew away the handkerchief,
+and started back in surprise as she met the laughing face. "What does
+it mean?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Only a misunderstanding, dear neighbor," said the old gentleman.
+"Nobody has thought of Mining being a governess. No! our children shall
+not swell the number of poor, unhappy maidens thrust out into the
+world, to earn their bitter bread in this hard calling, with weariness
+of mind and sickness of body. No, our children shall, with God's
+blessing, first become fresh, healthy and skilful housewives, and after
+that they may be governesses, if they like,--that is, to their own
+children."
+
+"Herr Pastor, dear Herr Pastor," cried Frau Nuessler, as if a stone had
+been lifted from her heart, "God bless you for these words! Our Mining
+shall not be a governess. Jochen--where are you, Jochen? Ah, he has
+gone out in his grief! Yes, Herr Pastor, and they shall learn
+housekeeping! You shall see, I will do my best for them."
+
+"Yes," interrupted Braesig, "and they must learn to cook a good dinner."
+
+"Of course, Braesig. Ah, Herr Pastor, I have had so much trouble with
+governesses, myself; and only last week, I went to see the new Frau
+Amtmann,--she was a governess,--you see she totters and staggers, and
+sighs and gasps around the house, and looks as pale as a corpse--what
+you call _interesting_."
+
+"Interesting people always look as if they needed tying up to a stake,"
+said Braesig.
+
+"But you Bee, Frau Pastorin, she cooks her eggs too hard, and burns her
+roast meat. I have nothing to say against learning, a great deal of
+learning if one likes--it is very nice to read the papers, and to know
+something about old Fritz and such people, and to know where the
+oranges and the spices grow; but even if one doesn't know such things,
+one can wait till one meets learned people, and then ask them; but
+about cooking, Frau Pastorin, you can't wait for that, for you must
+have your dinner, and who can you ask about that,--in the country? the
+stupid maid-servants? That would be a fine story!"
+
+"You are right, neighbor," said the Pastor, "it is very important that
+girls should be well trained in housekeeping."
+
+"So I say, Herr Pastor. To think of that poor little Frau Amtmann! She
+has the best will in the world, but knows nothing at all. She asked
+questions that my children could answer at seven years of age, whether
+the swine were milked, and how the little chickens cut open the shell.
+And Louise will not be a governess either, Herr Pastor?"
+
+"No, not with our consent, and Habermann is of the same opinion;
+she shall learn housekeeping. Regina is getting a little too lazy,
+and--isn't it so?" sitting down by his wife on the sofa, and putting
+his arm about her,--"a little too old also, she will be glad of a young
+assistant, and could not bear to be parted from her Louise."
+
+"You mean you could not bear it, Pastor! Really, I feel myself quite
+set aside; from morning to night, it is, 'Louise, get this!' and
+'Louise, bring me that!'"
+
+"Well, we will not quarrel, I should miss the child sorely, if she were
+away."
+
+Meanwhile, Habermann had returned, with Franz and the children, and had
+met young Jochen wandering about in a state of unusual agitation. He
+ran to Mining, took her in his arms and kissed her, saying, "Mining, I
+can do nothing to prevent it;" and when Habermann asked what was the
+matter, he said only: "Brother-in-law, what must be, must." And as they
+took their departure from the parsonage, and he sat in the carriage, he
+felt as if he were carrying a lamb to the slaughter, and although his
+wife explained the whole matter fully, and told him Mining should never
+be a governess, the whole thing had made such a deep impression upon
+him, that he ever afterward looked upon Mining as an unhappy maiden,
+and treated her accordingly. She must always sit next him at the table,
+and, he gave her the best of everything, as if every meal were her
+last.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+So now, for the first time, the future of the little maidens was marked
+out, so far, that is, as one human being can arrange the course of life
+for another; but destiny is a strange fellow for a godfather, and he
+interferes often in the most quiet and reasonable plans that old,
+serious, white-haired people can think out, with some stupid trick that
+nobody could dream of. The worst of this plan-making is, that generally
+the very wisest prove the stupidest in the end, because the good, old,
+white-haired people think merely of their own white heads, and do not
+take into account the black ones which they had in their youth.
+
+It had never seriously occurred to the old Herr Pastor that his
+foster-child might be taken off his hands by a young man; and the Frau
+Pastorin, who, after the fashion of women, had thought much and often
+upon this chapter in the woman's catechism, had always comforted
+herself with the reflection that Louise was not acquainted with any
+young men; since, on account of his nobility, she did not consider
+Franz as a young man, and Fritz, with his stupid jokes and her own
+motherly authority over him, seemed like a little, undeveloped boy. But
+her eyes were to be opened, she was to discover that a young, pretty
+maiden, even if she is hid in a parsonage, will attract young people as
+surely as a flower the butterflies. The gay-colored caterpillar, which
+had crept across her path so often to her annoyance, had popped out of
+its chrysalis, a gorgeous, yellow, swallow-tailed butterfly, which
+fluttered around the flower in her garden, and settled upon it, and
+devoted himself to it, in a way which would have amused her extremely,
+if the butterfly had not been her sister's son, and the flower Louise
+Habermann.
+
+Fritz came to Gurlitz, a few days after the confirmation, with a great
+and righteous hatred in his heart, against the whole race of womankind.
+
+The wash-bowl full of water, which he had got over his head, and the
+banishment from his pantry-paradise, had exercised a damp, cold, hungry
+influence upon him, and as he had learned from his romances that every
+young man in love, when he quarrels with his loved one, has a right to
+hate all other women too, he made use of his right. He had not been at
+Gurlitz for a long time, because he wished to punish his aunt a little
+for the everlasting fault-finding in which she allowed herself toward
+him. Now, as he sat in the parsonage, feeding his hatred, and speaking
+to no one but the Pastor, the Frau Pastorin rejoiced over his serious
+behavior, and said to Louise, out in the kitchen, "Fritz is really
+quite sensible. Thank God! he is coming to years of discretion."
+
+Louise said nothing, but she laughed, for though she had not much
+acquaintance with young people, she knew Fritz for the scapegrace that
+he was. In undertaking to represent a new character, he was like the
+donkey who attempted to play the guitar, and, however painful his
+efforts had been to assume a strange role,--as for example, to-day,
+that of a woman-hater,--it was not long before he stripped off the
+whole disguise, and appeared in his proper person, as Fritz
+Triddelsitz, much to the chagrin of his dear aunt. He had been but a
+little while in the society of Louise, before he threw overboard the
+whole cargo of hatred of the sex, and painful recollections of Marie
+Moeller, the washbowl and pantry, and took in, beside the ballast of
+romantic ideas, "a fresh, budding love for Louise,"--as he described to
+himself his new lading,--and when he had stowed it away under the
+hatches of his heart, and taken in his cable and made everything clear,
+he set sail. At first he tacked and cruised about, and his aunt,
+standing on the shore, could not tell thither he was steering, but that
+did not last long, his course became more direct, and as he was now
+fairly out on the high sea of "his feelings," and hoisted his topsail,
+she saw to her dismay in what direction he was steering, and that her
+beloved sister's son was no better than a reckless sea-rover, pirate
+and corsair, who was pursuing, in a scandalous manner, the pretty
+little brig, in which all her motherly hopes were embarked.
+
+She spoke the strange craft, and asked "whence?" and "whither?"--but
+the pirate paid no attention; she hung out signals of distress to her
+Pastor, but the matter seemed only to amuse him, probably because he
+foresaw no danger for the little brig; he sat there, and laughed to
+himself, though he shook his head a little, now and then.
+
+The little Frau Pastorin was disgusted beyond measure, with the
+behavior of her nephew; "Stupid fellow, scape-grace, rascal!" she kept
+saying to herself,--and when the pirate began to bombard the little
+craft with honey-comb speeches, and bonbon verses, she put to sea
+herself, and grappled the pirate, and when she had him fast, she sailed
+away with him, out of the room. "Come with me, my son, come! I have
+something to tell you, Fritz! And take your hat, too!" And when she had
+got him into the pantry, she man[oe]uvred him into a corner, from
+which, on account of the pots and pans, egress was difficult, and she
+seized a loaf of bread and cut off a thick slice, with the words, "You
+are hungry, Fritz, you have an empty stomach, my little son, and an
+empty stomach leads to all sorts of mischief, see I have spread butter
+on it, and here is cheese for you too, now eat!"
+
+Fritz stood there, hardly knowing what had happened; he had designed to
+win a heart, and he had got a piece of bread and butter; he attempted
+to say something, but his aunt gave him no time: "I know, my boy, what
+you would say; never mind, my child! But here,--if you will do me the
+favor,--here is a bottle of beer,--Habermann is back of our garden,
+sowing peas in the Pastor's field, take it to him, come along! and
+greet him from me. I know he will be glad to get some of the
+Stauenhagen burgomeister's beer." And with that she had him through the
+kitchen, and out of the back-door, and before she shut the door, she
+called to him, through the crack, "You will be too busy, Fritz, to
+visit us much at present, for seed-time is coming,--no, never mind, my
+boy, it is no matter,--but when you do come again, perhaps in the
+autumn, Louise will be seventeen then, and you mustn't talk such
+nonsense to her as you did to-day, she will be too sensible for such
+folly. So, my son, now eat your bread and butter." And she shut the
+door, and Fritz stood there, in one hand a great slice of bread and
+butter, in the other a bottle of beer!
+
+Fie! It was really infamous treatment on the part of his aunt! He was
+very angry, and at first had a great mind to throw the bread and butter
+through the kitchen-window, and send the beer-bottle after it, and he
+swore never to set foot in the parsonage again; but reflection is a
+man's best teacher, and he started at length, along the garden path,
+looking alternately at his bread and butter and his beer-bottle, and
+grumbling to himself: "The devil knows I am not hungry, and the old man
+is not on this side of the field. She only wanted to get rid of me.
+Just wait, though; you shall not succeed quite yet! I know when and
+where Louise goes out walking. She must be mine! Whatever opposes, she
+must be mine!"
+
+Then he sat down on the garden fence, and planned out his new campaign;
+but how angry he would have been if he had known that Louise was
+watching him, that very minute, from her chamber window!
+
+But he didn't know it, and as the bread and butter might have fallen
+into the dirt, if he had laid it down on the fence, he eat it up
+leisurely, and when he had finished it he said, "I laugh at my aunt,
+and I laugh at Marie Moeller. Louise is an angel! She shall be mine! My
+relations do not approve of our love, it is evident. Good! Louise
+cannot be won without a struggle. I will--well, what shall I do?"
+
+And before he did anything else, he preferred to drink up the beer so
+he did that, and when he had finished it he went on, with fresh
+courage, across the field, and with every step he stamped into the
+soft-ploughed-ground the firm resolve: "She shall be mine!" and when
+the seed had sprung up, the old peasants in the region often stopped on
+their way, to look, and to say to each other: "The devil has been
+sowing thorns and thistles in old Inspector Habermann's peas."
+
+So Fritz was established in a new love, and it had one good effect; he
+became very dutiful toward the old inspector, since he looked upon him
+as his future father-in-law. He sat with the old man of evenings, and
+told him about his expectations from his father, and asked his advice
+whether he should rent or purchase a farm, or whether he would think it
+better for him to buy a nice little estate in Livonia or Hungary. The
+old man tried seriously to dissuade him from such ideas, which were a
+little too absurd, but he could not help wondering what had wrought
+such a change in his apprentice; formerly the youngster had talked of
+nothing but riding, dancing, and hunting, and now he talked entirely
+about serious matters, although in a foolish way. He wondered still
+more when Fritz, one evening when Franz had gone to Gurlitz, told him
+in confidence that if he remained in Mecklenburg, he should look
+out for a handsome residence to purchase or to rent, with a park
+attached,--"_park_," said he, "not garden,--for the latter he would be
+indebted to his future wife, and she should have a good one; her
+relations should be the same to him as his own," and with that he
+looked at the old inspector so touchingly that the latter had much ado
+not to laugh.
+
+"Don't be a goose, Triddelsitz," said the old man. "Have you been
+filling your head with love-stories?"
+
+Maybe, said Fritz, maybe not; at all events, his old father-in-law
+should live with him, and one wing of the house should be set apart
+entirely for him, and if he wanted out-door exercise, either riding or
+driving, a pair of horses should always stand ready for his use. And
+then he got up, and walked about the room with great strides,
+flourishing with his hands, and Habermann, sitting in the sofa-corner,
+kept turning his head back and forth like a man with the palsy, to
+observe the singular behaviour of his apprentice. As he took leave that
+evening, Fritz pressed the old gentleman's hand with the deepest
+emotion, and as Habermann cordially returned the pressure, he felt a
+warm hand on his white hair, his head was bent gently back and a hot
+kiss was pressed upon his forehead, and, before he recovered from his
+astonishment, Fritz strode out of the room.
+
+Fritz was a good fellow, he wanted to make everybody happy; his
+disposition was good, but his discretion was small. Go to Gurlitz
+again to see his aunt, he positively would not. He raged inwardly, and
+the grief which he endured, in his separation from Louise, was a
+bitter-sweet draught in which he indulged daily. But this bitter was
+mingled with another, as if one should add gall to quassia--a draught
+for the devil! and the gall was added by whom, of all persons in the
+world--Franz! Franz ran over to Gurlitz that spring whenever he had
+time, and when the three unmarried daughters came to Pumpelhagen, in
+the summer, Louise often came to visit them, and Franz, naturally, was
+not far away; but he--our poor Fritz--stood afar off, and could look on
+only from a distance, which was a doubtful gratification for him.
+
+I would not say, and nobody who has read this book so far would say,
+that Fritz was that sort of a suspicious rascal who ferrets out
+something for his purposes from any kind of tokens, but he must have
+been a perfect idiot if he had not noticed that something was the
+matter with Franz. Even if this had not been the case, a young man in
+love must be jealous of somebody, it belongs to the business, and a
+young man who is in love, and has no rival, always reminds me of my
+neighbor Hamann, when he sits on horseback with only one spur. But it
+was the case; Franz was truly his rival, and Fritz treated him as such,
+and so before long he was as much vexed with Franz as with Marie Moeller
+and his aunt, he scarcely spoke to him, and had friendly intercourse
+only with his good, old, future father-in-law.
+
+The human heart can hold but a limited measure of woe, what is too much
+is too much; there must be some relief, and the only relief, for a
+lover, is intercourse with the beloved object. Fritz must contrive
+means to this end, and he went craftily to work; he lay in wait
+everywhere for Louise. Every hollow tree was a sentry-box, from whence
+he watched for his darling, every ditch on the Pumpelhagen estate was a
+trench, from which he besieged her, every hill was a look-out, where he
+stood on picket-guard, and behind every bush he lay in concealment.
+
+Of course this could not last long without his attaining his desired
+end, and frightening Louise out of her wits, for at times when she was
+thinking of nothing at all, or perhaps--let us confess it--thinking of
+Franz, his long body would shoot out from behind a bush, or he would
+thrust up his head, like a seal, out of the green rye, or suddenly drop
+down before her feet, from a tree, where he had been lying in wait,
+like a lynx for a deer. At first, she soon recovered from her fright,
+for she took those for some of his stupid jokes, such as she knew of
+old; she laughed, then, and talked with him about ordinary matters; but
+she soon became aware that the young man was in an extraordinary
+condition. He was so solemn in his manner, he spoke of common things in
+such an uncommon tone, he rubbed his head as if the deepest thoughts
+were struggling for birth, he laid his hand on his heart, when she
+spoke of the weather, as if he were taken with a stitch in his side, he
+shook his head sadly, when she invited him to Gurlitz, and said his
+honor would not allow him to accept; when she spoke of her father, a
+stream flowed from his lips, as when one takes the tap from a barrel:
+that was an angel of an inspector, never was such an old man born
+before; his father was good, but this father was the father of all
+fathers; if she asked after Fraeulein Fidelia, he said he did not
+trouble himself about the ladies, they were nearly all alike to him,
+and as she once, unfortunately, inquired after Franz, lightnings shot
+from his eyes, he cried "Ha!" laughed in a fearful manner, grasped her
+hand, thrust a paper into it, and darted headlong into the rye, in
+which he disappeared, and when she opened the paper she found the
+following effusion.
+
+
+                                "To Her.
+
+           "When with tender, silvery light,
+            Through the clouds fair Luna beams,
+            When from vanquished shades of night,
+            Sunlight o'er the heaven gleams,
+            Where the whispering waters dance,
+            And the ivy leaves entwine,
+            Ah, bestow one loving glance
+            On a heart that beats for thine!
+
+           "Where thou goest with joyous tread,
+            Only truest love can be;
+            Spring flowers twine about thy head,
+            I, unseen, still follow thee;
+            Love is vanished, sweetest flowers
+            Bloom in vain, when thou art gone;
+            Ah, a youth has also hours,
+            Thou, alas! hast never known!
+
+           "But revenge will I enjoy,
+            I will lay my rival low!
+            I, who write this poetry,
+            Dream of vengeance only, now.
+
+                       "Fritz Triddelsitz.
+
+"Pumpelhagen, July 3rd, 1842."
+
+
+When Louise read "this poetry" for the first time, she did not quite
+understand it, she read it the second time, and understood it still
+less, and when she had read it for the third time she did not
+understand it at all; that is to say, she could not positively decide
+upon whom the unhappy poet intended to execute vengeance, although she
+was not so stupid as to be ignorant that the "Her" addressed was
+herself.
+
+She would gladly have taken the whole thing for a piece of his usual
+buffoonery, and tried to think it nothing but a joke; but as she called
+to mind his appearance and language, and his unusual behavior, she had
+to acknowledge to herself that this was something beyond a joke; and
+she resolved that, as much as possible, she would keep out of his way.
+She was innocent enough to think it a great misfortune for Fritz, and
+to feel profound compassion for his suffering. Compassion is a bridge
+which leads over to love, and Louise stood for the first time, looking
+over beyond the bridge into that fair meadow, adorned with rose-arbors
+and jasmin-hedges,--and that is for a young maiden of seventeen like
+cherries to a bird,--and who knows but she might have gone a little way
+beyond the bridge, if she had not, in her mind's eye, seen Fritz, in
+his yellow top-boots and green hunting-jacket, riding about, among the
+rose-arbors, on old Chestnut, and sitting under the jasmin-hedges, with
+a slice of bread and butter and a beer-bottle in his hands, and his
+legs dangling. She had to laugh, in spite of her compassion, and
+remained on the safe side of the bridge, preferring to contemplate
+Fritz from a distance, for old Chestnut might lie down in the mud
+puddle a second time, or Fritz might smear her with his bread and
+butter.
+
+The most stupid young man can sometimes lead a girl of seventeen by the
+nose, and fellows, who carry a puff-ball instead of a heart under their
+vests, can captivate such young hearts; only the poor fools, who wear
+harlequin jackets, are never successful, for nothing is so fatal to
+young love as a touch of the ridiculous. So, finally, she had to laugh
+over the poetry, a clear, hearty laugh, and as she finished laughing,
+she was startled, for it seemed to her as if a warm hand had pressed
+her hand, and a pair of friendly eyes had looked deep into her own, and
+the thought of Franz came into her mind, probably because he was that
+moment approaching, in the distance. She tore up the vengeance-poetry
+into little scraps, and as Franz came towards her, and greeted her, she
+blushed, and, becoming conscious that she was growing red, she was
+angry with herself, and grew still redder, and as Franz talked with her
+about every-day matters, she became embarrassed, gave confused answers,
+and, in her absence of mind, strewed the fragments of Fritz's vow of
+vengeance upon the air.
+
+"What can be the matter?" said Franz to himself, when he had
+accompanied her a little way, and was returning. "She is so different
+from her usual self. Is it my fault? Has something annoyed her? What
+paper was that, which she was strewing the bits of to the wind?" With
+such thoughts he came to the place where she had dropped them, and see!
+There lay the fragments of paper, and, without picking them up, he read
+on one of them,--"dreams of vengeance!! only now Fritz Triddelsitz," for
+Fritz had forgotten to put a period after "now." This excited his
+curiosity, for he recognized Fritz's handwriting; he looked further,
+but found only a couple of fragments, and, fitting them together, made
+out these disconnected words:--
+
+"Entwine--a loving glance--heart that beats for thine--Spring
+flowers--I unseen, still follow--Love is vanished--Bloom in vain--Ah, a
+youth--But Revenge!--vengeance!! only now Fritz Triddelsitz;" the wind
+had carried away the rest.
+
+There was not much to be made out of this; the only thing which after
+long reflection he believed himself positively to have arrived at, was
+that Fritz Triddelsitz was in love with Louise, that he was upbraiding
+her, and threatening her with vengeance. The thing was ridiculous, but
+Fritz was a creature as full of stupid tricks as a donkey of gray
+hairs, he was quite capable of doing some crazy thing, and giving
+annoyance to Louise; so Franz resolved to be on the watch, and if Fritz
+went toward Gurlitz, not to let him out of his sight.
+
+Fritz had broken the ice now, he had done his part; now it was the turn
+of Louise, she must speak, if anything was to come of the matter. He
+waited and watched, but nothing came. "It is very provoking," he said
+to himself, "but she knows nothing of such affairs, and it is doubtless
+all right; I must show her the way." So he set himself to work, and
+wrote a letter in a disguised hand.
+
+
+Address:--"To One Who Knows."
+
+Superscription:--"Sweet Dream of my Heart!"
+
+"This letter is dumb, it says merely what is necessary, and will be
+found on the _third_ rose-bush in the _second_ row; other things by
+word of mouth. This by way of preliminary: when a cross is marked with
+white chalk on the garden gate, the _contents of my heart_ may be found
+under the pot of the third rose-bash in the second row. _Waving a
+handkerchief_, from the Gurlitz side betokens thy presence, and desire
+for an interview; my response will be three whistles on the handle of
+my walking-stick. (Our shepherd taught me that, love is an apt
+scholar.)
+
+"Rendezvous: the great water-ditch at the right of the bridge.
+
+                             "Thine ever!!
+
+                       "One Whom thou Knowest.
+
+"P.S. The loved one will excuse me for writing this in my
+shirt-sleeves, it is so infernally hot."
+
+
+This letter fell into the wrong hands; it was the little Frau Pastorin
+who found it, as she was watering the flowers, while Louise, who was
+learning housekeeping, was preserving gooseberries. She made no scruple
+of opening and reading the letter, and when she had made herself
+acquainted with its contents, she had no doubt that it was intended for
+Louise, and that it came from Fritz, her precious nephew. She said
+nothing to Louise of her discovery, that would have been playing into
+Fritz's hand; but she alluded in a variety of ways to ridiculous
+correspondence, just to ascertain if Louise had found similar epistles
+before; it was to no purpose however, the child understood nothing from
+her hints, and she then resolved to say nothing of the matter to her
+Pastor,--why should he be worried about it? and then it went terribly
+against the grain to confess that her own flesh and blood--for so,
+unfortunately, she must consider Fritz--should perpetrate such a piece
+of nonsense. She would gladly have spoken her mind to _him_, but he
+kept out of her way.
+
+She went about with such thoughts in her mind for a day or two, taking,
+by the way, the watering of the flowers out of Louise's hands, once for
+all, that she might suspect nothing. It was wise in her to do so, for
+it was not long before she found a water-soaked letter, under the third
+rose-bush in the second row. This spoke more clearly:
+
+
+Address:--"To the _Only One_, known to me _alone_."
+
+Superscription:--"Soul of my life!"
+
+"Snares surround us; I know that the enemy lies in wait. Cowardly
+_spy_, I _laugh_ at thee! Have no fear, my dearest, I can rescue thee.
+One bold deed will give _freedom_ to our love. To-morrow afternoon, at
+two o'clock, when the DRAGON sleeps, who guards my TREASURE, I will
+expect thy signal with the handkerchief, I shall be strewing manure,
+behind the water-ditch, three _whistles_ on the handle of my stick will
+give thee warning, and though hell itself bursts forth, I have sworn
+it. Ever
+
+                                   "Thine."
+
+
+When the Frau Pastorin read this she was quite off her balance. "That!
+That! Oh, the miserable scamp! 'Dragon Sleeps!' The rascal means me by
+that! But wait! I will give you a signal, and if hell doesn't burst
+forth, something shall crack about your ears, let me only get hold of
+you!"
+
+The next day, before two o'clock, the Frau Pastorin rose from her sofa,
+and went into the garden. The house-door had creaked, and her Pastor
+heard the gate-latch also rattle, so he got up and looked out of the
+window, to see what his wife was doing in the garden, at this unusual
+hour, for her nap generally lasted until three o'clock. He saw her go
+behind a bush, and she stood there and waved her handkerchief in the
+air. "She is beckoning to Habermann, perhaps," said he, and lay down
+again. She was, however, merely giving a friendly signal to her nephew,
+till she might get a little nearer to his ears.
+
+But he did not come, nor did she hear the three whistles. Greatly
+disappointed, she went back to the house, and when it was time for
+coffee, and her Pastor asked her whom she had been beckoning to in the
+garden, she was so much embarrassed, that, I regret to confess, she
+fibbed, although she was a pastor's wife, and said she had been so
+oppressed by the heat, she was merely waving her handkerchief to get a
+little fresh air.
+
+On the third day, she found another letter.
+
+
+Address: "To MY OWN, destined for me by FATE."
+
+Superscription: "Sun of my darkened Soul!!"
+
+"Dost thou know what _hell-torments_ are? I suffered them yesterday
+afternoon, at two o'clock, when I was strewing manure. The air was
+free, the enemy was in the clover-field, and thy handkerchief fluttered
+like one of my white pigeons in the perfumed air. I was just upon the
+point of giving the pre-arranged signal of three whistles, when that
+old horned beast of a Braesig came up to me, and stood talking a whole
+hour, about the manure. When he was gone, I rushed down to the
+water-ditch, but, vinegar!
+
+"The time had seemed long to thee, and thou wert gone! But now,
+_listen_! This evening, punctually at half past eight, when I have
+eaten my sour milk, I will be at the _place of rendezvous_; to-day is
+Saturday, the Pastor is writing his sermon, and the _dragon_ is
+cleaning house; the _opportunity_ is favorable, and the underbrush will
+conceal us there. (Schiller.) Wait but a little, thou too shalt rest,
+(Goethe) in the arms of thy DEVOTED ONE, who would sell all that is
+dear to him, to buy with it something dear to thee.
+
+
+           "Oh, meeting blest! Oh, meeting blest!
+            Awaiting which I calmly rest,
+            And all my longing, all my dreams,
+            Bury in Lethe's silent stream.
+            I shall behold thee, dear, once more.
+            When the waves wash me to the shore,
+            So farewell, yet not in sorrow,
+            We shall meet again to-morrow!
+
+
+"The _beginning_ is my own, the _middle_ from Schiller, and the _end_
+from a certain Anonymous, who has written a great deal; but I altered
+it a little to suit my purpose.
+
+                 "With torments of longing,
+
+                                   "THINE OWN."
+
+
+"Well!" exclaimed the little Frau Pastorin, when she read this patch
+work, "This goes beyond everything! Yes, my dear sister, you have
+brought up a beautiful plant, and it bears fine fruit. But other people
+must trim and prune it, and I think, as his aunt, I am the nearest to
+him. And I'll do it!" she cried, in a loud voice, stamping her little
+foot, "and I should like to see who will hinder me!"
+
+"I for one would not think of it, Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, who had
+come up, unperceived, behind the bee-hives.
+
+"Have you been listening, Braesig?" asked the Frau Pastorin, still in an
+excited tone.
+
+"Listening?" said Braesig, "I never listen; I only keep my ears open,
+and then I hear something, and I keep my eyes open, and see something.
+For instance, I see now that you are provoked about something."
+
+"It is true; but it is enough to drive an angel wild."
+
+"No, Frau Pastorin, the angels have enough to do with their wings; we
+need not incommode them about our matters, but if you want to see
+something wild, I believe the devil has broken loose here in
+Pumpelhagen."
+
+"Good heavens, has Fritz----"
+
+"No, I didn't say so;" said Braesig; "I don't know what it is; but there
+is something going on."
+
+"What is it, then?"
+
+"Frau Pastorin, Habermann is irritable, and when that is the case, you
+may be sure there is some disagreeable business in the wind. You see, a
+few days ago, I came to Pumpelhagen, when he was busy with the hay and
+the rape harvest, and I said, 'Good morning,' says I. 'Good morning,'
+says he. 'Karl,' says I, and was going on to say something, when he
+interrupts: 'Have you seen my Triddelsitz anywhere?' 'Yes,' said I.
+'Where?' asked he. 'Sitting in the great water-ditch,' said I. 'Did you
+see young Herr von Rambow anywhere?' asked he. 'He is sitting in the
+next ditch close by,' said I. 'What are they doing?' asked he. 'They
+are playing,' said I. 'You are joking,' said he, 'playing at this busy
+time?' 'Yes, Karl,' said I, 'and I have been playing too.' 'What have
+you played then?' asked he. 'Bo-peep, Karl. See! there is your
+greyhound peeping over the ditch towards Gurlitz, and your nobleman is
+peeping after the greyhound, and I was peeping out of the marl-pit
+after both of them, and when one turned his head, the other ducked, and
+so we sat there, peeping and ducking alternately, till the thing grew
+rather tedious to me, so I went boldly up the nobleman. "Good day,"
+said I. "Good day," said he. "Begging your pardon," said I, "what sort
+of farm-work are you doing here?" "I?" said he, and stammered, "I was
+looking after our peas, whether they were filling out well." "Hem!"
+said I. "So?" said I. "Well!" said I, "good morning," and went towards
+the greyhound.' You won't mind it, Frau Pastorin, I always call your
+nephew so."
+
+Not at all, said the Frau Pastorin, she called him worse names,
+herself.
+
+"'Good day!' said I, 'what sort of work are you doing?' 'Oh, nothing
+just now,' said he, going off, like a whipped hound, 'I have been
+looking after the peas.' 'Karl!' said I to Habermann, 'if your peas
+fill up according as they are looked after, you will have a plentiful
+harvest.' 'The cuckoo knows,' said he, terribly provoked, 'both of them
+are as stupid as possible; I can't make out the young Herr at all, this
+summer; he goes about like a man in a dream, forgets everything I tell
+him, and is no longer always up to the mark, as he used to be; and the
+other stupid fellow is worse than ever.' You don't mind Habermann
+calling your Herr Nephew a stupid fellow, Frau Pastorin?"
+
+"God forbid!" said the Frau Pastorin, "Habermann has reason."
+
+"You see, this was, say, a week ago,--now I started out yesterday
+morning early with my fishing rod, to see if the perch would bite; what
+do I see? Your Herr Nephew, the greyhound, goes slyly down here into
+the garden, and after a while comes out again, and behind him creeps
+along the nobleman among the bushes, and along side the ditch, as if he
+were tracking a fox, and when he has gone past my place of observation,
+there comes my good Karl Habermann over the hill, following the other,
+and when he had passed, I went on behind him, and so we went in a great
+curve, with wide spaces between us, clear down around the village, each
+one seeing only the man in front of him, which I found extremely
+amusing. They will do it again to-morrow probably, and if you would
+like to see the fun, Frau Pastorin, or the Herr Pastor, you can come in
+behind me, for Habermann says he shall make thorough work of the
+business, and he has been after them three times already."
+
+"Thank you very much for the proposal," said the Frau Pastorin; "I have
+had amusement enough already, from this affair. Can you keep a secret,
+Braesig?"
+
+"Like a sieve, with a hole in it."
+
+"No; jesting aside, can you be silent?"
+
+"Utterly," said Braesig, striking his hand over his mouth.
+
+"Well, then listen," said the Frau Pastorin, and told him what she
+knew.
+
+"Why, he really is a stupid fellow, then, your Herr Nephew!" said
+Braesig, and Frau Pastorin read him the letter.
+
+"But, Frau Pastorin, how did this stupid fellow get such a command of
+language? He is stupid, to be sure, but his writing is not so stupid,
+he writes like a poet." And when Frau Pastorin read about the dragon,
+Braesig laughed merrily: "He means you, Frau Pastorin."
+
+"I know that," said she shortly, "but the horned beast here, in the
+third letter, means you; and we have nothing to hold us back. The thing
+to be done is simply this; let me get hold of the fellow, and I will
+wash his head for him."
+
+"You are right, and nothing is easier. You see, we two, you and I, will
+hide here in the garden, about eight o'clock; at half past eight, take
+Louise, and seat her in the water-ditch, and you shall see, he will
+come, like a bear after honey, and when he has began to lick it, we two
+will break loose and catch him."
+
+"Ah, you are not very cunning, Braesig. If I am to tie the business to
+the big bell, I don't need your assistance, It would be a great pity
+for Louise to have anything to do with it; Habermann too, and even my
+Pastor himself need know nothing of the matter."
+
+"Hm, hm!" said Braesig, "then--then--hold! I have it; Frau Pastorin you
+must make yourself as thin as possible, and put on Louise's dress, and
+go to the rendezvous, and when he comes, and sits down by you, and
+begins to caress you, you must catch him, so, by the throat, and hold
+on until I come;" and with that he laid hold of the Frau Pastorin's
+nearest hand, to illustrate his remarks.
+
+"You are imprudent, Braesig."
+
+"Yes, you say so, Frau Pastorin; but if he doesn't see his dearest
+sitting in the ditch, he won't come down, and if we don't take him
+unawares, we may whistle for him, for he is a confoundedly long-legged,
+thin-ribbed hound, and we can never chase after him with our short legs
+and our corpulence."
+
+That was true, to be sure; but no! should she go to a rendezvous?
+Braesig was going quite too far, and, besides, how could she get
+Louise's clothes? But Braesig was not dismayed, he represented to her
+that it was merely an interview with her own nephew, and that, if she
+sat on the edge of the ditch, she need only wear Louise's shawl, and
+her Italian straw hat: "But you must keep sitting, for, if you should
+stand up, he will see in a minute that you are a foot shorter than
+Louise, and that you are a foot larger round the waist."
+
+Finally,--finally, the Frau Pastorin let herself be persuaded, and as
+she went out about eight o'clock that evening, through the back door,
+dressed in Louise's hat and shawl, the Herr Pastor, who stood at the
+window, in deep thought over his sermon, said to himself, "Good
+heavens! where is Regina going, with Louise's hat and shawl? And there
+comes Braesig, out of the arbor. Well, he will come in, if he wants to
+see me; but it is very singular!"
+
+The Frau Pastorin went along the garden walk with Braesig prepared for
+any emergency, opened the garden gate, and went through it alone, while
+Braesig remained in the garden, and ensconced himself behind the fence.
+
+"Braesig," said she, as the thought occurred to her, "you will be too
+far off here; come down with me to the ditch, for when I have caught
+him, I must have you close by."
+
+"All right!" said Braesig, and followed het down to the ditch.
+
+Such a ditch, as this water-ditch was, is not often seen now-a-days;
+for out modern system of drains has made them unnecessary; but every
+old farmer remembers them, how they were dug through a field, sixteen
+or twenty feet from bank to bank, but narrow at the bottom, bordered
+right and left with thorn-bushes, nearly always dry, only in spring and
+fall there was perhaps a foot and a half of water; and occasionally in
+summer also, after a heavy rain. This was the case at present.
+
+"Braesig," said the little Frau Pastorin, "lie down behind that bush,
+close by me, so that you can come quickly to my help."
+
+"Why not? all right," said Braesig. "But, Frau Pastorin, you must think
+up some catch-word, upon which I shall break loose."
+
+"Yes, surely. Yes, that is necessary; but what? Wait a moment! when I
+cry, 'The Philistines be upon thee,' then you must spring out."
+
+"Good, Frau Pastorin."
+
+"Good heavens!" said she to herself, "I seem to myself like a Delilah
+indeed. Seated at a rendezvous, at half past eight in the evening! At
+my time of life! How scandalized I should have been when I was a young
+girl, at the thought of such a thing, and to be doing it now in my old
+age! Braesig! Don't sneeze so dreadfully! One might hear you a quarter
+of a mile off. And all this for that boy, for that miserable boy! God
+bless me, if my Pastor knew! Braesig, what are you laughing at? I forbid
+you to laugh!"
+
+"I am not laughing, Frau Pastorin."
+
+"Yes, you were laughing: I distinctly heard you laugh."
+
+"I was merely yawning a little from weariness, Frau Pastorin."
+
+"And can you yawn, over such a matter as this? I am ready to fly, hand
+and foot. Ah, you miserable scamp! What have you made of me! And I can
+tell nobody, I must fight it out alone. Braesig is a real godsend."
+
+By and by Braesig spoke--in a whisper to be sure, but one could hear it
+as distinctly as the cry of the quail in the distance:--"Frau Pastorin,
+make yourself as long as Lewerenz's child, and as thin as possible, and
+put on a lovely, shamefaced mien, for he is coming over the hill, I can
+see him against the evening sky."
+
+And the little Frau Pastorin's heart throbbed, and her wrath rose high
+against the youth, and she glowed with shame at her own situation, and
+now she would certainly have run away, if Braesig had not laughed again;
+but that provoked her, and she meant to show him that she was in
+earnest.
+
+This time, Braesig really did laugh, for, behind the first dark figure
+that came over the hill he saw a second, and behind the second a third,
+and he chuckled to himself, behind his thorn-bush: "So! There is Karl
+Habermann, too; and now the whole inspectorship of Pumpelhagen is on
+foot, probably out to see how the peas look in the evening. This looks
+like a comedy!"
+
+The Frau Pastorin did not see the others, she saw merely her precious
+nephew, who came straight towards her. Now he ran across the bridge,
+now he ran along the bank of the ditch, now he sprang forward a couple
+of feet, and clasped his dear aunt about the waist: "Beloved angel!"
+"Wait, you rascal!" cried she in reply, and with the grip which Braesig
+had taught her she seized him, not exactly by the throat, but by the
+coat-collar, and cried with a clear voice, "The Philistines be upon
+thee!" and Braesig, the Philistine, scrambled up. Oh, thunder! his foot
+was asleep! but no matter! He hopped on one leg along the ditch, and
+almost sprang upon Fritz; but the overtasked leg failed under the
+weight of the hundred and eighty pounds it dragged after it; Braesig
+fell backwards into a thorn-bush, lost his balance, and tumbled, a lump
+of misfortune, into the foot and a half of ditch-water.
+
+There he sat, for a moment, stiff and stark, as if he were at the
+water-cure, taking a sitz-bath. Fritz, also, stood stiff and stark, and
+felt as if he were taking a bath, but a shower-bath: he stood fairly
+under the stream of his aunt's indignant reproaches, which rushed and
+roared about his ears, ever ending with the words: "The dragon has you
+now, my son! The dragon has you now!"
+
+"And here comes the horned beast!" growled Braesig, who had scrambled
+out of the ditch, and was close upon them. But Fritz had come to
+himself by this time; he broke loose from his aunt, and would have
+escaped, if a new enemy had not come upon him, from across the ditch.
+This was Franz, and it was not long before Habermann also was there,
+and the little Frau Pastorin had scarcely recovered from this shock,
+when her Pastor stood before her, asking, "For heaven's sake, Regina,
+what does all this mean?"
+
+The little Frau Pastorin was at the last extremity; but Braesig was not
+quite so far gone, although he felt as if he were changed into running
+waters, and on the point of dissolving. "Infamous greyhound!" cried he,
+giving Fritz a couple of digs under the ribs, "must I go and get my
+cursed Podagra again, on your account? But they shall all know what a
+confounded Jesuit you are. Habermann, he----"
+
+"For heaven's sake!" cried the Frau Pastorin, catching breath again, in
+the gathering storm, and springing between them,--"don't any of you
+listen to Braesig! Habermann, Herr von Rambow, I beg of you! just go
+quietly home, the business is over, it is all over, and what isn't
+finished, my Pastor will attend to; it is a family affair, merely a
+family affair. Isn't it so, Fritz, my son? It is just a family affair,
+that concerns only us two. But now come, my son! We will tell my Pastor
+all about it. Good-night, Herr von Rambow! Good-night, Habermann. Fritz
+shall come back to you soon. Come, Braesig, we must get you to bed
+immediately."
+
+And so she dispersed the company. The two who were not to be
+enlightened went off homewards, each by himself, shaking their heads;
+Habermann annoyed at the inexplicable behavior of his two young people,
+and that he could not penetrate its secret; Franz more than suspicious
+of the whole concern, for he had clearly recognized Louise's hat and
+shawl, in the half-twilight, and Louise must have some connection with
+the affair though he could make no sense of it.
+
+Fritz, quite abashed, followed the Pastor and the Frau Pastorin, while
+the latter, in shame and sorrow, related the whole story. The
+procession drew near to the parsonage, and the evil-doer had so far
+recovered his courage, that he showed signs of running away; but Braesig
+stuck so close to his side that he was compelled to yield outwardly;
+but he raged inwardly all the more, and when Braesig asked the Frau
+Pastorin, who it was that had come so opportunely to their aid, and she
+mentioned the name of Franz, Fritz stood still, and shook his fist over
+the peas, in the direction of Pumpelhagen, and exclaimed, "I have been
+betrayed, and it shall be avenged, the Junker shall pay for it."
+
+"Boy!" cried the Frau Pastorin, "will you hold your foolish tongue?"
+
+"Softly, Regina!" said the Pastor, who was getting a tolerable idea of
+the matter, "go in and see that Braesig is put to bed; I will have a few
+words with Fritz."
+
+She complied with his request, and as much reason as Fritz was capable
+of taking in was then, in all kindness, administered by the old Herr
+Pastor; but one can pour only so much clear wine into a full cask, as
+the working off of the froth and scum leaves room for, and while the
+Pastor gently poured in, Fritz was foaming out of the bung-hole: his
+own relations had conspired against his happiness, and thought more of
+the rich Junker than of their own sister's child.
+
+Much the same thing was going on inside the house; only the cask,
+before which the Frau Pastorin stood, neither foamed nor dripped; this
+was Uncle Braesig, who would not be put to bed.
+
+"I couldn't do it, Frau Pastorin," said he; "that is to say, I could,
+to be sure, but I oughtn't, for I must go to Rexow. Frau Nuessler has
+written me orders to report myself at Rexow."
+
+The same spirit and leaven which worked in Fritz sending off froth and
+scum not of the purest, fermented slowly but strongly in old Braesig,
+although the old cask had stood long in the cellar, and had become
+seasoned; and when he at last, out of respect for the Frau Pastorin and
+the Frau Podagra, suffered himself to be persuaded into bed, his
+thoughts turned the same corner which those of Fritz were turning, as
+going through the pease-field, back of the Pastor's garden, he stamped
+for the second time his heroic resolutions into the earth: "He would
+renounce her! Renounce her! But the devil take the confounded Junker!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+The next morning--it was Sunday morning--Braesig awoke, and lay
+stretching himself in the soft bed--"A pleasure," he said to himself,
+which I have never allowed myself before, but which is very agreeable.
+However, it is mainly from the novelty of the thing; one would soon get
+tired of it; "and he was on the point of getting up, when Frau
+Pastorin's maid-servant whisked in at the door, seized his clothes with
+one grasp, and ran off with them, leaving in their place a black coat
+and black trousers, and a black vest, lying on the chair.
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed he, looking at the black suit. "It is Sunday, and
+this is the parsonage; can it be possible they think I am going to
+preach to-day?" He lifted one garment after another, and said, at last,
+"Now I understand! It is only because of the ditch yesterday; because
+my own clothes are so wet and dirty, I must make myself comfortable in
+the Herr Pastor's. Well, here goes!"
+
+But it didn't go quite so easily, and as for being comfortable that was
+out of the question. The clothes were long enough, to be sure, but as
+for breadth, he found close quarters in the Herr Pastor's trousers, it
+was utterly impossible to button the lower buttons of the vest, and
+when he put on the coat, it cramped him dreadfully between the
+shoulder-blades, and his arms stood out from his body, as if he were
+ready on this Sunday morning, to press the whole world to his honest
+heart.
+
+So he went down stairs to the Frau Pastor in, his legs turned outward,
+as was his usual manner of walking since he had been pensioned; but his
+arms also were turned outward now, and the Frau Pastorin had to laugh
+heartily; but retreated behind the breakfast table, as Braesig came
+towards her, with open arms, as if she were to be the first subject of
+the world-embrace.
+
+"Don't come near me, Braesig!" cried she '"If I had dreamed that you
+would cut such a ridiculous figure in my good, old Pastor's clothes,
+you should have stayed in bed till noon, for it will be as late as that
+before yours are washed and dried."
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed Braesig, "was that the reason? And I was flattering
+myself that you sent me the Pastor's clothes that I might be more
+pleasing in your eyes at our rendezvous this morning."
+
+"Just listen to me, Braesig!" said the Frau Pastorin, with a face red as
+fire. "I will have no such joking as that! And if you go round in the
+neighborhood--you have nothing else to do now, but carry stories from
+one to another--and tell about last evening, and that confounded
+rendezvous, I'll have nothing more to say to you."
+
+"Frau Pastorin, what do you take me for?" cried Braesig, advancing upon
+her again, with outspread arms, so that she took refuge a second time
+behind the table. "You need not be afraid of me, I am no Jesuit."
+
+"No, Braesig, you are an old heathen, but you are no Jesuit. But you
+must tell something. Oh, dear! Habermann must know, my Pastor says so
+himself. But when he asks you about it, you can leave me out of the
+story. Only think, if the Pomuchelskopps should get hold of it, I
+should be the most miserable woman in the world. Oh, heaven help us!
+And I did it only in the kindness of my heart, for that innocent child,
+Braesig. I have sacrificed myself for her."
+
+"That you have, Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, earnestly, "and therefore
+don't worry yourself about it the least in the world; for, you see,
+if Karl Habermann asks me what we were doing there, then I can
+say--then--then I will say you had appointed a rendezvous with myself."
+
+"With you? For shame, Braesig!"
+
+"Now, Frau Pastorin, am I not as good as that greyhound? And surely our
+years are more suited to each other!" And with that Braesig looked up as
+innocently, as if he had thought of the best excuse in the world. The
+Frau Pastorin looked keenly in his honest face, and folded her hands
+thoughtfully on her lap, and said, "Braesig, I will trust you. But,
+Braesig, dear Braesig, manage it as quietly as you can. And now come, sit
+down, and drink a cup of coffee." And she grasped one of his stiff
+arms, and turned him round to the table, as a miller turns about a
+windmill to the wind.
+
+"Good!" said Braesig, taking the cup, which he held out with his
+stiff arm as if he were a sleight-of-hand performer, and the cup a
+hundred-pound weight, and he was holding it before an appreciative
+public in the open air; he tried to seat himself also; but as he bent
+his knees something cracked, and he sprang up,--whether it was the
+Pastor's chair, or the Pastor's trousers, he did not know; but he drank
+his coffee standing, and said, "It was just as well; he could not wait
+long, for he must go to Rexow, to Frau Nuessler."
+
+All the Frau Pastorin's entreaties that he would wait till his own
+clothes were dried were of no avail; Frau Nuessler's least wish was for
+him a command, registered in the memorandum book of his conscience, and
+so he sailed off,--the long, black flaps of the priestly garment flying
+behind him in the summer morning,--toward Pumpelhagen and Rexow, slowly
+and heavily, like the crows we used to catch, when I was a boy, and
+then let fly again.
+
+He came to Pumpelhagen, and there he was accosted by Habermann, who saw
+him over the garden fence. "Good heavens, Zachary, how you look!"
+
+"The result of circumstances, Karl! You know I fell into the mud, last
+night,--but I haven't time, I must go to your sister."
+
+"Braesig, my sister's business can afford to wait better than mine, I
+have noticed for some time, there has been a great deal going on behind
+my back, which I was to know nothing of. That wasn't so much; but,
+since last night, I am sure that the Herr Pastor and the Frau Pastorin
+know all about the matter, and if they are keeping anything from me, I
+know it can be merely out of kindness."
+
+"You are right, Karl; it is out of kindness," interrupted Braesig.
+
+"I am sure of it, Braesig, and I am not disposed to be suspicious, but
+for some time it has lain heavy on my heart that this is a matter which
+concerns me very nearly. What did you have to do with the business last
+evening?"
+
+"I, Karl? I only had a rendezvous with the Frau Pastorin, in the
+water-ditch."
+
+"What did the Herr Pastor have to do with it?"
+
+"Karl, we did not know anything about it, he surprised us."
+
+"What had the Herr von Rambow to do with it?"
+
+"He caught your greyhound by the collar, because I had tumbled into the
+ditch."
+
+"_What had Fritz Triddelsitz to do with the business?_" asked Habermann
+with terrible emphasis. "And what had Louise's hat and shawl to do with
+it?"
+
+"Only this Karl, that they didn't fit the Frau Pastorin at all well,
+because she is much too large for them."
+
+"Zachary," said Habermann, reaching his hand over the fence, "these are
+merely evasions. _Will_ you not tell me,--and we such old friends,--or
+_dare_ you not tell me?"
+
+"Karl--the devil take the whole rendezvous business, and the Frau
+Pastorin's worry besides!" cried Braesig, and grasped Habermann's hand
+across the fence, and shook it in the tall nettles that grew by the
+fence, until both were stung, and drew back. "Karl, I will tell you.
+The Pastor will tell you himself--why shouldn't I? Your Fritz
+Triddelsitz, the cursed greyhound, loved you, doubtless because you
+have been like a father to him, and now his love has gone on to Louise,
+for love always goes on, for instance, mine for your sister and
+Mining."
+
+"Braesig, speak seriously."
+
+"Am I not speaking seriously, when I speak of your sister and Mining?"
+
+"I know that," said Habermann, reaching after Braesig's hand again, in
+spite of the nettles, "but what had Franz to do with it all?"
+
+"For all I know, he may love you too, for your fatherly kindness, and
+for all I know, his love may have gone on to your daughter."
+
+"That would be a misfortune!" cried Habermann, "a great misfortune! To
+put that right again, is more than I can do; the Lord himself must help
+us!"
+
+"I don't know about that, Karl: he has two estates----"
+
+"Not a word, Zachary: come in, and tell me all you know."
+
+And when Braesig had told all that he knew, and was again under way, and
+steering toward Rexow, Habermann stood looking after him and talking to
+himself: "He is a good fellow, his heart is in the right place; and, if
+I found it was really so, I should like it right well,--but--but----"
+He did not mean Braesig this time, however, he meant Franz.
+
+On this Sunday morning young Jochen was sitting, about breakfast time,
+in his usual chimney-corner, and in his arm-chair. Lining and Mining
+had spread the table for breakfast, and had brought in the dishes of
+ham, and sausage, and bread, and butter, and when all stood ready on
+the table, Frau Nuessler herself came in, and set down a platter of hot
+scrambled eggs, saying: "There, Jochen, don't let it get cold!" and
+went out again, to see about some thing or other.
+
+The eggs were still crackling in the dish,--they were really
+splendid--but young Jochen did not stir. Whether it was, that he had
+not yet smoked out his pipe, and wanted to finish it, or that he was
+lost in thought over two letters, which were lying in his lap, he did
+not stir, and his eyes remained fastened upon one particular spot. And
+on this spot, under the stove, close by him, lay young Bauschan,
+looking at his master. Young Bauschan was the latest new-comer of the
+whole Bauschan race, which had been brought up and weaned in the house,
+since old Jochen's time; when one spoke _to_ him he was called
+"Bauschan," but when one spoke _of_ him, he was called the
+"Thronfolger" (crown-prince,) not on his own account, but on Jochen's
+account, because, so far as anybody could recollect, this was the only
+joke he had ever perpetrated.
+
+So, as I said before, these two young people, young Jochen and young
+Bauschan, sat and looked at each other, each thinking his own thoughts;
+young Jochen's suggested by his letters, and young Bauschan's by the
+savory smell which came to his nose. Jochen did not move, but the
+crown-prince stroked himself with his paw over his thoughtful face, his
+nose grew sharper, and the nostrils quivered, he crept out from under
+the stove, put on a courteous mien, and made his compliments to young
+Jochen with his tail. Young Jochen took no notice, and young Bauschan
+inferring that everything was in its usual condition, went nearer to
+the table, looked round sideways, more after Frau Nuessler than for
+young Jochen, then laid his head against the table and indulged in
+blessed hopes, as young folks will. Hope kept him quiet for a
+time, but--one really needs something more substantial, for one's
+stomach,--the crown-prince returned to put his two paws--merely the
+fore paws--in a chair, and bring himself a little nearer. His nose came
+directly over the dish containing the red bacon, and--now, young
+folks--Bauschan snapped at it, exactly as we should in our youthful
+days, when a pair of red lips smiled up to us; and--just like us--he
+was frightened, in an instant, at his wickedness, and crept away,
+but--that I should have to say it! with the bacon in his teeth.
+
+"Bauschan!" cried young Jochen, as impressively as the mother, who
+keeps guard over the red lips; but for all that, he did not move;
+meanwhile Bauschan--whether that as crown-prince he believed himself
+possessed of a species of regal right over all the red lips in his
+realm, or that he was so spoiled that even such a sweet, clandestine
+titbit made no impression upon him--looked Jochen boldly in the face,
+licked his chops, and hankered for more. Jochen looked him right in the
+eye, but did not stir, and after a little while Bauschan got up again
+on a chair, this time with his hind legs, and ate up a plate full of
+sausage. "Bauschan!" cried Jochen. "Mining, Bauschan is eating up the
+sausage!" but he didn't stir. The crown-prince bestirred himself,
+however, and when he had made way with the sausage, he addressed
+himself to his chief dainty, the dish of scrambled eggs. "Mother,
+mother!" cried young Jochen, "he is eating up the eggs!" But young
+Bauschan had burned his moist nose against the hot dish, he started
+back, upset the platter, knocked the Kuemmel bottle over with his tail,
+and disordered the whole table, young Jochen never stirring the while,
+only calling from his corner, "Mother, mother! The confounded dog! he
+is eating up our eggs!"
+
+"What are you roaring about, young Jochen, in your own house;" cried
+one, who just then entered the door, but it was such a singular figure,
+that Jochen was frightened. He let his pipe fall from his mouth, in his
+terror, put out both hands before him, and cried, "All good spirits
+praise the Lord! Herr Pastor, is it you, or, Braesig, is it you?"
+
+Yes, it was Braesig, at least one who looked at him near enough, and had
+time to consider, would recognize the yellow-topped boots as belonging
+to an inspector's uniform, but Jochen had no time to consider, for the
+figure which entered the door at once perceived Bauschan's misdeeds,
+and ran into every corner of the room, in search of a stout stick for
+the crown prince's back, and behind him fluttered in the air two long,
+long black coattails, like the wings of a dragon, and out of the high
+black coat-collar, and under the high black hat, which had slipped down
+half over his eyes, shone a red, angry face, as if a chimney-sweep had
+taken a glowing coal in his mouth, to frighten the children. Young
+Jochen was no longer a child, to be sure, but yet he was frightened, he
+had started up, and held on with both hands to the arms of his chair,
+and exclaimed alternately, "Herr Pastor! Braesig! Braesig! Herr Pastor!"
+and the crown-prince, who was still in his childhood, was terribly
+frightened, he also ran into all the comers, and howled, and could not
+get out of the room, for the door was shut, and when the black figure
+beat him with the yellow stick--necessity works wonders--he sprang
+through the window sash, and took half the glass along with him.
+
+This made uproar enough to raise the dead, why, then, should not Frau
+Nuessler hear it in the kitchen? and, just as she opened the door,
+Braesig was shoving up his hat with one hand, and pointing with the
+other, still holding the stick, to the broken window, while he uttered
+the remarkable words, "You can thank nobody but yourself, young Jochen!
+For what does the dumb creature of a crown-prince understand? All the
+beautiful Kuemmel!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Frau Nuessler, coming in. "What is all this,
+Jochen? Bless me, Braesig, how you look!"
+
+"Mother," said young Jochen, "the dog and Braesig--what can I do about
+it?"
+
+"For shame, young Jochen," cried Braesig, going up and down the room
+with great strides, his long coat-tails almost dipping in the Kuemmel,
+"who is master of this house, you, or young Bauschan?"
+
+"But, Braesig, why in the world are you dressed so horribly?" asked Frau
+Nuessler.
+
+"So?" said Braesig, looking at her with great eyes, "suppose you had
+gone to a rendezvous with the Frau Pastorin, last night, and tumbled
+into the ditch, so that your clothes were all damp and muddy, this
+morning? And suppose you got a letter, that you must come here to
+Rexow, to a family council? And what was I to do? Is it my fault that
+the Herr Pastor is tall as Lenerenz's child, and as thin as a shadow,
+and that his head is so much bigger than mine? Why did the Frau
+Pastorin rig me out in his uniform this morning, so that all the old
+peasants going to church called out to me, from a distance, 'Good
+morning, Herr Pastor!' but that I might come here, out of pure
+kindness, to your family council?"
+
+"Braesig," said young Jochen, "I swear to you----"
+
+"Don't swear, young Jochen! You will swear yourself into hell. Do you
+call this a family council, with all the Kuemmel running about the room,
+and I in the Pastor's clothes, to be made a laughing-stock of?"
+
+"Braesig, Braesig," exclaimed Frau Nuessler, who scarcely knew her old
+friend in his anger, and who had been picking up the broken fragments
+and setting the table-cloth straight, "don't mind such a trifle! Sit
+down, it is all right again, now."
+
+Under Frau Nuessler's friendly words, Braesig quieted down, and allowed
+himself to be seated at the breakfast-table, only growling to himself,
+"The devil knows, young Jochen, I have always lived in the hope that
+you would grow a little wiser with years, but, I see well, what is dyed
+in the wool will never wash out. Meanwhile though--what is the matter
+here?"
+
+"Yes," said Frau Nuessler--"Yes," said Jochen also, and his wife was
+silent, for she thought Jochen was really going to say something; he
+said nothing, however, but "It is all as true as leather." So Frau
+Nuessler began again: "Yes, there is Rector Baldrian's Gottlieb,
+Jochen's sister's son, a right good fellow, and well-educated, and has
+studied his Articles as a Candidate--you have seen him here a great
+many times."
+
+"Yes," nodded Braesig, "a right nice young fellow, a sort of Pietist,
+combed his hair behind his ears, and instructed me that I did wrong to
+go fishing Sunday morning."
+
+"Yes, that is the one. And he has got through with his schooling, and
+the Rector wants us to take him here, for a while, till he studies some
+last things into his head, and we wanted to ask you what we should do
+about it."
+
+"Why not? The Pietists are quiet people, their only peculiarity is
+their love of instructing; and you, Frau Nuessler, are likely to give
+them opportunity for it, and young Jochen, too,--God be praised!--since
+he will not allow himself to be instructed by Bauschan and me."
+
+"Yes, that is well enough, Braesig, but there is something else; there
+is Kurz's Rudolph, he has studied for the ministry, too, and he also is
+Jochen's nephew; he heard that the other wanted to come here, and he
+wrote yesterday, saying he had wasted his time dreadfully at Rostock,
+and he would come here to Rexow, and review what was necessary. Just
+think of it! there in Rostock he has all the learned professors, and
+here at Rexow only Jochen and me."
+
+"Oh, I know him," cried Braesig, "he is an exceedingly fine fellow! When
+he was first beginning to study, he caught me half a dozen perch out of
+the Black Pool; the very smallest weighed a good pound and a half."
+
+"Eh! How you remember everything! And he was the one who got Mining,
+when she had climbed up on the ladder to the old stork's nest, and
+stood there clapping her hands for joy, and we down below frightened
+out of our wits, and he brought her down, safe and sound. Yes, he is
+bright enough about such matters, but not so good at his books, and
+Rector Baldrian says, there at Rostock he is always getting into
+fights. Just think, they fought with bare swords, and he was in the
+midst of it all, and it was all on account of a rich merchant's pretty
+daughter."
+
+"May you keep the nose on your face!" cried Braesig. "In a real, regular
+fight, and about a pretty merchant's daughter! Well, young Jochen, all
+the troubles come from the women!"
+
+"Yes, Braesig, you may well say so; but what shall we do about it?"
+
+"Why, where is there any difficulty? If you don't want the two young
+ecclesiastics, write and say so, and if you do want them to come, write
+and say so; you have room enough, and plenty to eat and drink, only
+look out for the expenses for the books, for those make fearful holes
+in the pocket. And if you wish to take only one, take the fighter, for
+I, for my part, would much rather fight with the one, than be
+instructed by the other."
+
+"Yes, Braesig, that is all very well," said Frau Nuessler, "but we have
+already written to Gottlieb Baldrian, and now we cannot refuse to take
+Rudolph, without affronting the Kurzes."
+
+"No? Well, then, take both."
+
+"Yes, Braesig, it is easy to say so; but our two little girls--they have
+just been confirmed--there, Jochen, you tell him!"
+
+And Jochen really began to speak: "It is all as true as leather,--you
+see, Braesig. Mining is just like--you know all about it--educated just
+like a governess, and my old mother used to say, a governess and a
+candidate in the same house--that would never do."
+
+"Ho, ho! Young Jochen! Now I understand you. You are afraid of
+love-affairs. But that little rogue and love-affairs!"
+
+"Well, Braesig," said Frau Nuessler, hastily, "it is not so improbable!
+I, as a mother, should know that. Why, I was not so old as they are,
+when----" Frau Nuessler stopped suddenly, for Braesig had pulled a
+terribly long face, and was looking very keenly in her eyes.
+Fortunately, Young Jochen took up the conversation, and said;
+"Braesig,--mother, fill Braesig's glass,--Braesig, you can understand
+something about it, and now, what ought we, as parents, to do?"
+
+"Let them alone, young Jochen! Why has the Lord put young people into
+the world, and what else have they to do but make love to each other?
+But that little rogue!"
+
+"You are jesting, Braesig," interrupted Frau Nuessler. "You ought not to
+talk so about such a serious matter, for out of a smooth egg many times
+crawls a basilisk."
+
+"Let him crawl," cried Braesig.
+
+"So?" asked Frau Nuessler. "Do you say so? But I say otherwise. Jochen
+is not accustomed to trouble himself about such things; for all he
+cares, every one of our servant-maids might fall in love. Idle about,
+and get married; and I--God bless me! I have both hands full of work,
+and enough to find fault with before my eyes, without looking after
+what goes on behind my back."
+
+"What am I for, then?" asked Braesig.
+
+"Oh, you!" said Frau Nuessler, off hand, "you have no experience in such
+matters."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Braesig. "I, who once had three sweethearts----" He
+went no further, for Frau Nuessler put on a long face, and looked at him
+with so much curiosity, that he covered his embarrassment by drinking
+the Kuemmel in his glass.
+
+"A miserable piece of business!" he cried, standing up, "and who is to
+blame for it all? Young Jochen!"
+
+"Eh, Braesig, what have I to do with it?"
+
+"You let the crown-prince eat up the breakfast, under your very nose,
+and take two ministerial candidates into your house, and don't know
+what to do about it! But, never mind, Frau Nuessler, take the two young
+fellows in, and don't be afraid. I will look after the little rogue,
+and the two confounded rascals shall catch thunder and lightning. The
+fighter, the duel-fighter--I will take care of him; but you must keep
+an eye on the proselyter; they are the slyest."
+
+"Well, we can't do otherwise," said Frau Nuessler, also rising.
+
+And at Michaelmas the two clerical recruits arrived at head-quarters,
+and Franz went away to the agricultural college at Eldena, and as he
+went out of the Pastor's garden, there looked after him, over the
+fence, in the same place where Fritz had sat, with his bread and butter
+and his beer-bottle, a dear, beautiful face, and the face looked like a
+silken, rose-red purse, out of which the last groschen had been given
+for a dear friend.
+
+When Louise came back into the parlor, in the twilight, that evening,
+the Frau Pastor in took the lovely girl upon her lap, and kissed
+the sweet mouth, and pressed the pure heart to her own. Well the
+women-folks can't help doing such things!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+The evening before St. John's day, 1843, David Daesel's oldest boy was
+sitting with Johann Degel's youngest girl, in the pleasure-garden at
+Pumpelhagen, enjoying the moonlight, and Fika Degel said to Krischan
+Daesel, "Say, did you see her, that time, when you took the horses to
+the young Herr?"
+
+"To be sure I saw her; he took me into the parlor, and shewed her to
+me, and said, 'See, this is your gracious lady!' and she filled me a
+glass, that I should drink there."
+
+"What does she look like?"
+
+"Well," said Krischan, "it is hard to describe her; let me see, she is
+about your size, and has such light hair as yours, and just such a pink
+and white face, and she has grey eyes also, as you have, and just such
+a little, old, sweet, pouting mouth," and with that, he pressed a
+hearty kiss on the red lips.
+
+"Gracious, Krischan!" cried Fika, freeing herself from his arm, "then
+does she look just like me?"
+
+"Child, have you no more sense than that?" said Krischan. "No, don't
+flatter yourself to that extent! You see, that sort of people have
+always a something about them, quite different from our sort. The
+gracious lady might sit here with me, till she were frozen to death in
+midsummer, it would never come into my head to give her a kiss."
+
+"So?" said Fika Degel, standing up, and tossing her pretty head, "then
+you think I am good enough for you?"
+
+"Fika," said Krischan, throwing his arm round her again, though she
+made a show of resistance, "that sort are too slender-waisted, and have
+too weak bones for us, if I should hug her as I do you, I should always
+be afraid of dislocating her spine, or knocking her down. No," said he,
+stroking her soft hair, "like must mate with like." And as they
+separated, Fika was quite gracious again towards her Krischan, and
+looked as friendly as if she were his gracious lady.
+
+"Well, I shall see you to-morrow," said she, "I am going to help the
+girls tie wreaths, in the morning."
+
+And so she did. Yes, they were tying wreaths in Pumpelhagen, and a
+great gate of honor was constructed, and while Habermann was overseeing
+the preparations, and Marie Moeller was running hither and thither, with
+greens and flowers, and Fritz Triddelsitz, as a volunteer of the first
+class, in his green hunting-jacket, and white leather breeches, and
+yellow top-boots, and a blood-red neck-handkerchief, strutted about
+among the farm-boys and day-laborers, there arrived upon the scene
+Uncle Braesig also, neat as wax, in light-blue, tight summer trousers,
+and a brown dress-coat, of unknown antiquity, which covered his back
+very well, down to the calves, but in front he looked as if the
+lightning had struck him, and torn off his brown bark, leaving exposed
+a long strip of yellow wood, for he wore under it a fine, yellow pique
+vest. On his head he had, of course, a silk hat, three-quarters of an
+ell high.
+
+"Good morning, Karl! How are you getting on? Ha, ha! There stands
+already the whole concern. Fine, Karl! The arch should be a little
+higher, though, and right and left you should have a couple of towers;
+I have seen them so in old Friedrich Franz's time, at Gustrow, when he
+came home in triumph. But where is your flag?"
+
+"Flag?" said Habermann, "we have none."
+
+"Karl, bethink yourself! How can you celebrate without a flag? The Herr
+Lieutenant is a military character, of course he must have a flag.
+Moeller!" he went on, without hesitation, "go into the house, and bring
+me out two sheets, and sew them together lengthways; Krischan Paesel,
+bring me a nice, smooth, straight beanpole; and you, Triddelsitz, get
+me the brush that you mark bags with, and an inkstand!"
+
+"What under heaven are you going to do, Zachary," said Habermann,
+shaking his head.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, "it is a mercy he was in the Prussian army, if he
+had been in the Mecklenburg, we couldn't have got the colors; but the
+Prussian--black ink, white linen, and there are your colors!"
+
+Habermann would have entered a protest, but he thought: "Well, let him
+work, the young Herr will understand that it is all meant well."
+
+So Braesig worked away, and painted a great "Vivat!!!" with the brush.
+"Hold it tight!" he cried to Marie Moeller, and Fritz Triddelsitz, whom
+he had pressed into the service as assistants, "so that the 'Herr
+Lieutenant' and 'Frau Lieutenant' may come out nice and clear on the
+flag!" for he had decided upon these words to put under the "Vivat,"
+instead of "A. von Rambow" and "F. von Satrup" which had been his first
+thought: for these were merely a couple of names of the nobility, and
+having lived among noblemen all his life he held them for nothing
+remarkable; but he had not had so much to do with lieutenants, and
+considered the title a very high one.
+
+When he had finished his flag, he ran up to fasten it on the highest
+point of the manor-house, then puffed down stairs again, to see the
+effect from outside, and placed himself at the door of the granary, and
+then at the sheep-barn, but nowhere did it seem to satisfy him.
+
+"It don't look right, Karl," said he, much annoyed; but, after a little
+reflection, he placed himself before the green archway, and called out,
+"Karl, what am I thinking of? _This_ is the right spot, from which they
+will perceive it!"
+
+"But, Braesig," remonstrated Habermann, "it would cover our triumphal
+arch entirely, and under the tall poplars there wouldn't be a breath of
+air for the flag, and the two heavy old sheets would hang down on the
+bean-pole like a great icicle."
+
+"I'll make it all right, Karl," and Braesig pulled out from his pocket a
+long string, which he proceeded to fasten to the upper, outer end of
+his flag. "Gust Kegel," he called to one of the swineherds, "are you a
+good climber?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Inspector," said Gust.
+
+"Well, my dear swine-marquis," said Braesig, laughing at his own joke,
+and all the men and boys and girls laughed with him, "just take this
+end of the string, and climb into that poplar, and draw it tight." And
+Gust did the business very skilfully, and drew the string tight and
+hauled up the sail, as if all Pumpelhagen were making ready to sail off
+and Braesig stood by the bean-pole, as if he were standing by the mast
+of his ship, an admiral commanding a whole fleet: "They may come now,
+Karl, whenever they like; I am ready."
+
+But Fritz Triddelsitz was not ready yet, for he had appointed himself
+commander of the land-forces, and wished to draw them up in military
+array, by the sheep-barn, on one side the old day-laborers, and
+the servants, and farm-boys, and on the other, the house-wives,
+servant-maids and little girls. After much instruction, he had got his
+breeches-company about half-drilled, but with the petticoat-company he
+could do nothing at all. The house-wives' carried, instead of a weapon,
+a baby each, upon the left arm, that little Jochen and Hinning might be
+able to see too, and man[oe]uvred with them in a highly irregular
+manner; the maid-servants declined to recognize Fritz as their
+commander, and Fika Degel called out to him that Mamselle Moeller was
+their corporal, and the light-troops of young girls skirmished behind
+poplars and stonewalls, as if the enemy were in sight, and they in
+danger of being taken prisoners. Fritz Triddelsitz struck fiercely at
+his troops with his cane, which he carried as a staff of command, and
+told them they were not worth their salt, and, going up to Habermann,
+vowed he would have nothing more to do with the concern; but if
+Habermann had no objections he would take his gray pony, and ride off
+to see how soon the Herr lieutenant and his lady would arrive.
+Habermann hesitated, mainly out of consideration for the old Gray; but
+Braesig whispered quite audibly, "Let him go, Karl, then we shall be rid
+of the greyhound, and it will be much nicer."
+
+So Fritz rode off on the Gray, towards Gurlitz; but a new annoyance
+intruded itself in Braesig's plan, that was schoolmaster Strull, who
+came marching up with the school-children, descendants of Asel and
+Lgel, with open psalm-books in their hands. The order which Fritz had
+not been able to accomplish with an hour's training, Master Strull had
+held for a whole year; he advanced his troops in two divisions, in the
+first stood the Asels, whose singing could always be relied upon, in
+the second, were the Egels, of whom he was--alas! but too well aware,
+that each one had his own idea of time and melody.
+
+"Preserve us, Karl, what is all this?" asked Braesig, as he saw the
+schoolmaster approaching.
+
+"Now, Zachary, Master Strull wishes to show honor to the young Herr, as
+well as the rest of us, and why shouldn't the children have a chance to
+show what they have learned?"
+
+"Too ecclesiastical, Karl; altogether too ecclesiastical for a
+lieutenant? Haven't you got a drum or a trumpet?"
+
+"No," laughed Habermann, "we don't keep that sort of agricultural
+implement."
+
+"Very unfortunate," said Braesig, "but hold! Krischan Daesel, come and
+hold the flag a moment! It is all right, Karl," said he, as he went
+off. But if Habermann had known what he had in his mind, he would have
+called it all wrong. Braesig beckoned the night-watchman, David Daesel,
+to step aside, and asked him where his instrument was. David bethought
+himself a little, and finally answered, "Here!" holding up his staff,
+for Fritz Triddelsitz had ordered all the day-laborers to bring them
+along, "that they might do the honors to the Herr Lieutenant," as he
+said.
+
+"Blockhead!" cried Braesig, "I mean your musical instrument."
+
+"You mean my horn? That is at home."
+
+"Can you play pieces on it?"
+
+"Yes," said David Daesel, he could play one.
+
+"Well," said Braesig, "bring your instrument, and come out behind the
+cattle-stall, and I will hear you play."
+
+And when they were alone, David put the horn to his mouth, and blew, as
+if the whole cattle-stall were in flames: "The Prussians have taken
+Paris. Good times are coming now,--toot! toot!" for he was very
+musical. "Hold!" said Braesig, "you must blow quietly now, for I want to
+give Habermann a pleasant surprise; by and by, when the lieutenant
+comes, you can blow louder. And when the schoolmaster is through with
+his ecclesiastical business, then keep watch of me; I will give you a
+sign, when I wave the flag three times, then begin."
+
+"Yes, Herr Inspector; but the old watch-dog ought to be tied fast in
+his kennel, for we are not on good terms of late, and whenever he sees
+me with my horn, he flies at me."
+
+"It shall be attended to," said Braesig, and he went back with Daesel, to
+the celebration, and grasped his flag-staff again, just at the right
+moment, for Fritz Triddelsitz came riding over the hill, as fast as old
+Gray could gallop: "They are coming! They're coming! They are in
+Gurlitz already!"
+
+They were coming. Axel von Rambow and his lovely young wife rode slowly
+on, in the lovely morning; the chaise-top was down, and Axel pointed
+over the wide green fields, full of sunshine, to the cool shadows of
+the Pumpelhagen park: "See, dearest Frida, this is our home." The words
+were few, but much happiness lay in them, and much pride, that he was
+in circumstances to spread a soft couch for the dearest one he had on
+earth; if he had said it in a thousand words, she could not have
+understood him more clearly. She felt the happiness and pride in his
+heart, and a great wave of love and thankfulness broke over her own.
+Everything about her was cool, and fresh, and clear; she was like a
+cool brook, which, until now, had flowed under green, silent shadows,
+aside from the highway, through hills and forests, and now springs
+forth suddenly into golden sunshine, and sees in its own depths bright
+pebbles and close-shut mussels, treasures of which it had never
+dreamed, and bright little fish darting hither and yon, like wishes and
+longings for working and waking, and green banks and flowers mirrored
+in the clear water, like her joyous future life.
+
+And outwardly, she was cool, and fresh, and clear, and agreed in all
+respects with Krischan Daesel's description; but if one had seen her at
+this moment, as she looked over toward the Pumpelhagen garden, and back
+again into her young husband's face, he would have seen the fresh
+cheeks take on a deeper glow, and the clear light that shone from her
+gray eyes, a softer, warmer radiance, as when the summer evening bends
+over the bright world, and hushes it to sweet sleep with a cradle-song.
+
+"Ah," she cried, pressing his hand, "how beautiful it is here, at your
+home! What rich fields! Only see, how stately the wheat stands! I have
+never seen it so before."
+
+"Yes," said Axel, happy in her pleasure, "we have a rich country, much
+richer than your region."
+
+He might have kept silence, now, and it would have been quite as well;
+but she had touched unwittingly upon his favorite province, that of
+agriculture, and he must needs show her that he knew something of it,
+so he added: "But that must all be altered. We are lacking in
+intelligence, we don't know how to make the most of our soil. See!
+yonder there, over the hill, where the wheat is growing, that belongs
+to Pumpelhagen, wait a couple of years, and we will have all sorts of
+commercial products growing here, and bringing us three times the
+profit." And he began to harvest his hemp and hops and oil-seeds, and
+anise and cummin, and sprinkled among them, like an intelligent farmer,
+lucerne and esparcet also, "to keep his cattle in good condition," and
+while he was among the dyer's weeds, and selling his red madder, and
+blue woad, and yellow weld for a good price, and well in the saddle on
+his high horse, up shot a living example of all these bright colors,
+close by the turn, on this side of Gurlitz, who was also on a high
+horse, that is the gray pony. This was Fritz Triddelsitz, who went up
+like a complete rainbow, and disappeared like a shooting star.
+
+"What was that?" cried Frida, and Axel called "Hallo! hallo!"
+
+But Fritz never looked round, he must carry tidings to the
+gate-of-honor, and he had barely time, as he galloped through Gurlitz,
+to call out to Pomuchelskopp, who stood in his door, "They are coming!
+They will be in Gurlitz in five minutes!" and Pomuchelskopp called over
+the garden fence, toward the arbor: "Come, Malchen and Salchen! It is
+time now!"
+
+And Malchen and Salchen threw down the landscape paintings they were
+embroidering, among the nettles by the arbor, and tied on their straw
+hats, and fastened themselves one on each side, to Father
+Pomuchelskopp's elbows, and Father Pomuchelskopp said, "Now don't look
+round, for pity's sake, for it must appear as if we had just gone out
+walking, for all I care, to see the beauties of nature."
+
+But misfortune was impending. As Muchel and his young ladies stepped
+out of the door, and Axel rode slowly through the village, while his
+young wife asked him "who was that lovely girl, who just greeted us?"
+and he replied that it was Louise Habermann, his inspector's daughter,
+and the house where she stood was the parsonage, the devil of
+housekeeping possessed old Haeuning to come out, in her white kerchief
+and old black merino sacque,--for it still held together, and was
+plenty good enough,--to feed the little turkeys with malt grains. When
+she saw Pomuchelskopp walking off with his two daughters, she thought
+it a great piece of impertinence for her Muchel to go off without her;
+she wiped her hands on the old black merino, and hastened after, black
+and white, stiff and straight, as if one of the old, mouldering
+tombstones, in the church-yard near by, had taken a fancy to go walking
+for pleasure.
+
+"Muchel!" she called after her husband.
+
+"Don't look round!" said Muchel, "it must all appear quite natural."
+
+"Kopp," she cried, "will you stop? shall I run myself out of breath for
+you?"
+
+"For all I care," said Pomuchelskopp angrily. "Don't look round,
+children, I hear the carriage, it must seem quite off-hand."
+
+"But, father," said Salchen, "it is mother."
+
+"Ah, mother here, and mother there!" cried Pomuchelskopp, downright
+angry, "she will spoil the whole business! But, my dear children," he
+added, upon a little reflection, "you need not tell mother I said so."
+
+And Kluecking came puffing up: "Kopp!" but she had not time for fuller
+expression of her feelings, for the carriage came opposite, and
+Pomuchelskopp stood, bowing: "A-a-ah! Congratulations--best wishes, God
+bless them!" and Malchen and Salchen courtesied, and Axel bade the
+coachman stop, and said he was very happy to see his Herr Neighbor and
+his family looking so well, and Muchel tugged secretly at the old black
+sacque, to make Haeuning courtesy also, but she stood stiff and
+straight, puffing away, as if the reception was too warm to suit her,
+and Frida sat there, very cool, as if the thing was not much to her
+taste. And Muchel began to speak of the wonderful coincidence, that he
+should have just started out walking with his two daughters, but he got
+a poke from his Haenning's elbow, and heard a venomous whisper, "So your
+wife is of no account, is she?" so that he lost the thread of his
+discourse, and went rambling about in a distressed manner, until Axel
+bade the coachmen drive on, saying he hoped to see Herr Pomuchelskopp
+again soon.
+
+Pomuchelskopp stood in anguish, by the roadside, hanging his head, and
+Malchen and Salchen took hold of his arms again, and instead of going
+on naturally with their walk they went back to the house. Blind behind
+him marched Haenning, and led him, with gentle reproaches, back to his
+duty again; but he remembered this hour for a year and a day, and her
+reproofs he never forgot while his life lasted.
+
+"Those seem very disagreeable people," said Frida, as they drove on.
+
+"They are, indeed," replied Axel, "but they are very rich."
+
+"Mere riches are a small recommendation," said Frida.
+
+"True, dear Frida, but the man is a large proprietor, and since they
+are such near neighbors, we must keep up some intercourse with these
+people."
+
+"Do you really mean it, Axel?"
+
+"Certainly," he replied.
+
+She sat a little while, reflecting, and then inquired, suddenly;--
+
+"What sort of man is the Pastor?"
+
+"I know very little of him, myself, but my father thought very highly
+of him, and my inspector reveres him wonderfully. But," he added, after
+a moment, "that is natural enough, the Pastor has brought up his only
+daughter, since she was a little child."
+
+"Oh, yes, that charming girl, at the door of the parsonage; but the
+Pastor's wife must have had the most to do with that. Do you know her?"
+
+"Why yes,--that is to say, I have seen her,--she is a lively old lady."
+
+"They are certainly good people," said Frida, with decision.
+
+"Dear Frida," said Axel, drawing himself up a little, "how you women
+jump at conclusions! Because these people have brought up a strange
+child, and--we will take it for granted that they have brought her up
+well--you--" and he was going on, in his shallow wisdom, which he
+called "knowledge of human nature,"--for it is an old story that those
+who have come into the world as blind as young puppies, and have only
+nine days' experience, are the very ones to pride themselves on their
+"knowledge of human nature; "--but, unfortunately for the world, he had
+no opportunity, for his Frida sprang up suddenly, crying,--
+
+"See, Axel, see! A flag, and a triumphal arch! The people mean to give
+us a grand reception."
+
+And Degel, the coachman, looked round over his shoulder, with a grin of
+delight: "Yes, gracious lady. I was not to speak of it; but now you can
+see it for yourself, and it is a great pleasure. But I must drive
+slowly, or else the horses will be frightened."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+And now they were come; and Habermann stepped up to the carriage, and
+spoke a few words, which sprang from his heart to his lips, and the
+clear eyes of the young wife shone on the white hair of the old man
+like a sunbeam, full of friendly warmth, and before Axel noticed,--for
+with his surprise and his interrupted discourse, he was not prepared
+for the occasion,--she reached out her hand to him, and with the grasp
+of the hand a friendship was settled, without a word, for each had
+looked into the eyes of the other, and had read there clearness, truth
+and confidence. And now Axel was ready with his hand, and Schoolmaster
+Strull came forward with his Asels, and struck up a song of
+"Thanksgiving for particular occasions," No. 545, out of the
+Mecklenburg Psalm-book, "After a heavy thunderstorm," beginning, like a
+sensible man, with the second verse, because it seemed to him
+particularly appropriate,--
+
+
+           "We praise Thy might, Oh Lord,"--
+
+
+and Braesig was trying to wave the flag, but Gust Kegel held it fast.
+
+"Let go of the string, you rascal!" cried Braesig.
+
+
+           "We know Thine anger's power,"
+
+
+sung the schoolmaster.
+
+"Boy, let go the string out of your hand!" screamed Braesig again.
+
+
+           "Protect us by Thy grace
+               In sorrow's gloomy hour,"--
+
+
+sung the schoolmaster.
+
+"Boy, when I get hold of you, I'll break every bone in your body!"
+roared Braesig.
+
+
+           "They who rest within Thy arm,
+            Shall be safe from every harm,"
+
+
+sang the schoolmaster.
+
+"Herr, it sticks fast in the poplar," cried the boy, and Braesig tugged
+at the flag, and brought down with it part of a branch, while the
+schoolmaster sung,
+
+
+           "How it roars and crashes!"
+
+
+and Fritz Triddlesitz ran for the dinner-bell, which hung in the
+door-way, and played a storm, and Braesig waved the flag, and the men
+and women, and servants and maids, and boys and girls shouted "Vivat!"
+and "Hurrah!" and David Daesel blew on his horn: "The Prussians have
+taken Paris, good times are coming now, toot! toot! toot!" and it was
+all so festive that no dog could help howling, and at the last "toot!"
+out sprang the old watch-dog, which Gust Kegel had mischievously
+unfastened, so that he might enjoy himself with the rest, and made
+straight for David Daesel's legs, and the two brown coach-dogs also
+began to sniff and howl in such a singular manner that it was really a
+piece of good fortune that Degel the coachman had his reins well in
+hand, and was prepared for emergencies.
+
+As it was, all passed off well, and the carriage soon arrived safely at
+the manor-house, and Axel lifted out his lovely young bride. Inside the
+house, there was the same preparation and adornment, with flowers and
+greens, as outside, and among the wreaths and garlands, Marie Moeller in
+a new red jaconet dress, with a fiery red face, moved her fiery red
+arms hither and thither, and when she had cooled off a little among the
+greens, ran back into the kitchen, to the cooking stove, as if she were
+a flatiron-heater, which must be kept constantly red-hot,--and when the
+gracious young lady stepped across the threshold, she came towards her,
+with her fiery arms outspread, as if she were a priestess of Moloch,
+and placed a wreath of bright red roses on the young lady's head, and
+then, falling back a couple of paces, and gesticulating with the fiery
+arm, as if striking out brilliant flames, she repeated a verse, which
+she had been learning for the last three months, under Braesig's
+tuition,--
+
+
+              "Hail, beauteous lady, sweet and bright,
+            Accomplished, virtuous, wise and bland,
+              Deign to accept this offering slight,
+            From your devoted, humble servant's hand."
+
+
+And when she had said her lesson, she threw wide open the door of the
+dining-room, and there stood a table spread for dinner, in good season,
+for it was high noon, and Axel said a word or two to his wife, and she
+nodded in a pleased way under her wreath of roses, and turned to the
+old inspector: he must be her guest today, and also the schoolmaster,
+and the young farmer, and would the old gentleman who had waved the
+flag honor them with his company also? Then she went to Marie Moeller,
+and thanked her for her fine speech and all that she had done to
+welcome them, and would she have time to enjoy with them the nice
+things she had prepared? And Marie Moeller became as red with delight as
+if there were a cooking stove in her heart, filled with glowing coals.
+
+Of before long, they all came in. Habermann brought up Braesig, and
+introduced him as his old friend of many years' standing, who had also
+been well acquainted with the late Herr Kammerrath, and would by no
+means be found wanting in taking his part in the rejoicing at
+Pumpelhagen. And Braesig went to Axel, and got hold of his hand, will
+he, nill he, and squeezed it, and, shaking his head back and forth,
+assured him of his friendship for life and death: "Herr Lieutenant,
+very dear and welcome, as I just said to Karl, how glad I shall be if
+you only take after your good father!" And then he turned to the young
+lady: "Gracious Frau Lieutenant," and fumbled after her hand, which he
+succeeded in grasping, and it looked as if he intended to kiss it; but
+he held it for moment, and then said, "No! not that! I always kissed
+the hand of my gracious countess, and it was proper, as a token of
+service; I will not take that liberty, you are so lovely to look
+at; but if you ever need an old man's service--my name is Zachary
+Braesig--just send for me,--a short mile from here--Haunerwiem,--and the
+day shall not be too hot for me, or the night too dark."
+
+Braesig's speeches were peculiar things; honest folks have a way of
+talking right out of their hearts, without thinking, at the moment, how
+they will be understood. Axel did not take it as it was meant. That
+such an one as Inspector Braesig should presume to hold up an example to
+him,--even if it were his own father, to whom he was so deeply
+indebted,--did not suit him; he was put out of humor. Frida, who went
+to the heart of every thing, took the old inspector's speech in her
+hand, like an onion, and shredded off the old, dry skins, one after
+another, and found a bright, hard kernel inside, and, as she cut it
+across, there was such a sound heart disclosed that she took the old
+fellow by the hand, and made him sit next to her at table.
+
+Then came Fritz Triddelsitz, in the guise of a young proprietor, for he
+had arrayed himself in his blue coat with gilt buttons, which looked,
+for all the world, like a young son of Pomuchelskopp's. And then came
+Schoolmaster Strull, a great, strong fellow, whom the Lord had made
+fitter to be a hewer of wood than a trainer of children. The old boy
+looked, with his big head and his black suit, which was getting rusty,
+like a stout wheel-nail, which Fate had shoved to the wall, and which
+had quietly rusted there. His face was rather rusty, too, and the only
+thing which looked gay about him was his shirt-bosom, which his old
+mother, because it was a little yellow, had dipped so generously in the
+blueing, that a fine sea-green color was the result.
+
+These two were treated with special attention by Axel, and when he
+heard that Fritz's father was an apothecary in Rahnstadt, and could
+make chemical analyses (Analysen), he asked Fritz to sit next him, and
+as Uncle Braesig heard the word "Analysen" he snapped it out of the Herr
+Lieutenant's mouth, and said, aside to Habermann, "Alleluesen? Alleluesen?
+What does he mean by Alleluesen? Some kind of vermin?" and without
+waiting for an answer, he said to Axel: "Gracious Herr Lieutenant, for
+such stuff you must let the apothecary's son bring you a pot of
+'ungewendten Napoleon,'" (unguentum Neapolitarum), which was, naturally,
+quite incomprehensible to Axel. But if he had understood it, he had no
+time to explain, for as soon as they were fairly seated,--the
+schoolmaster not more than a quarter, for he balanced himself on the
+edge of his chair,--he launched forth into his favorite subject, the
+farming of the estate, and began to enrich the fields with bone-dust,
+and Chili saltpetre and guano, and laid out behind the garden a great
+plantation of hops; while old Habermann said to himself, he had not
+thought the young Herr knew so little about farming, and wondered how
+Braesig could sit there and laugh at it all. But that was very natural,
+since Braesig took all these brilliant plans of Axel's for a good joke,
+and when the young Herr had got his hop-field in working order, Braesig
+laughed heartily, and said, "Of course the soil must first be
+prepared,--and when we are through with this preparation, we can
+fertilize it a little more, and then we can raise raisins and
+almonds, to feed the pigs with; you have no idea, gracious Frau
+Lieutenant,"--turning to the lady--"how sweet a pig tastes, that is
+fatted on raisins and almonds."
+
+This was not pleasing to Axel; he looked down, and knitted his brows in
+vexation; but he was too fairly started in his agricultural progress to
+be turned back for such a trifle; he began on tillage, and told about
+his invention of a machine for a clod-breaker, and with that he turned
+graciously to his neighbor, to Fritz Triddelsitz, who gave such
+uncommonly intelligent answers that Marie Moeller sat listening, with
+open mouth, and inwardly smote on her breast, and cried, "God be
+merciful to me sinner! Ignorant worm that I am, to stretch out my hand
+toward him! No! a goose might as well seek to mate with an eagle."
+
+When the dinner was over, the gracious lady arose, took her leave of
+the company, and said to Habermann that Axel and herself proposed going
+over the estate, the next morning, and reckoned on his company to show
+them the way. Habermann assented with pleasure, and when she had left
+the room the bottle went round the table once more, and Daniel
+Sadenwater brought cigars.
+
+At Frida's request. Axel had retained the old servant, and Daniel had
+put on the old master's knife and fork, and so consecrated them, in his
+mind, to the new master, and every time he presented a dish on the
+salver to his young Herr, he laid himself with it as an offering, and
+his old eyes said clearly, his young master might do with him whatever
+he liked, he had given him all.
+
+Braesig accepted a "Zichalie," as he called them, and informed Herr von
+Rambow that he smoked such a thing, now and then, of Koester Broeker's
+make, though they were a little strong to be sure. Axel made no reply;
+he did not like Braesig, he thought he had been laughing at him, and did
+not appreciate his knowledge of agriculture. Fritz Triddelsitz was a
+much more agreeable listener; he had nodded, and shaken his head, and
+admired so much, and ah'd and oh'd and wondered, till Axel appeared to
+himself a great light in agriculture, set up on a lofty candlestick, to
+enlighten Pumpelhagen and the country round about, and, for all I know,
+the world itself.
+
+As I have often said. Axel was a good fellow, he liked to make
+everything bright and pleasant about him; the good dinner, the costly
+wine, the feeling that he was master, had excited benevolent thoughts,
+to which he must give expression. He called Habermann to the window,
+and asked him how he was satisfied with Fritz. Habermann said, pretty
+well; he had learned a good many things, and he hoped, in time, he
+might become a skilful farmer. This was quite enough, in Axel's
+gracious mood; he asked, farther, how much salary Fritz received, and
+whether he had a horse. No, said Habermann, he had neither horse nor
+salary, as yet; he gave nothing, and he got nothing.
+
+Axel then turned to Fritz, and said, "Dear Triddelsitz, I am glad to
+hear from the Herr Inspector that he is very much pleased with you; I
+shall do myself the pleasure of offering you, for the next year, a
+small salary of fifty thalers, and the keeping of a horse."
+
+Fritz could not believe his ears; that Habermann was very much pleased
+with him was sufficiently wonderful,--fifty thalers, that would be very
+nice; but a horse! that took away his breath and his senses, so that he
+could scarcely thank Axel. The latter left him little time, however,
+but turned back to Habermann, at the window. And now galloped through
+Fritz's brain all the old horses of the whole region, black and brown
+and gray and chestnut, and he held parley with each one of them, as if
+the Rahnstadt horse-market were going on in his head, and Braesig sat
+opposite and grinned.
+
+All at once, this blessed child of fortune cried out, "Herr Inspector,
+next month the Grand Duke makes his entry into Rahnstadt, I must have
+her by that time, for the reception, for we young country-people are to
+receive him."
+
+"_Whom_ must you have?" asked Braesig.
+
+"The chestnut mare, the Whalebone mare. Gust Prebberow has her."
+
+"I know her," said Braesig, very coolly.
+
+"Famous horse!"
+
+"An old sch----" he couldn't say schinder (carrion,) he bethought
+himself in time that he was in a distinguished house, so he said, "she
+is an old shyer, and you can't do anything with her when the Grand Duke
+comes to Rahnstadt, for she cannot hear a 'Hurrah!'"
+
+That was fatal, for a great many hurrahs would be necessary on that
+occasion; but Fritz knew that Braesig delighted in contradicting him, on
+every opportunity, and he would not let him see his disappointment.
+
+Meanwhile, Axel had favored the old inspector with a brief discourse
+upon the progress recently made in the science of agriculture, and at
+the close, put into the old man's hand a book, with the words, "I have
+the pleasure of giving you this book; it should be the Bible of every
+farmer."
+
+Habermann thanked him gratefully, and, as it was now beginning to grow
+dark, the company broke up. The two old inspectors and Schoolmaster
+Strull, who was invited to accompany them, went to Habermann's house;
+Fritz Triddelsitz went to the stables.
+
+What he wanted there, nobody knew, certainly not himself, but a sort of
+instinct drew him toward the horses, as if to bring his inner man into
+harmony with the outward world, and so he went, in the half-twilight,
+up and down behind the old farm-horses, that he had seen a thousand
+times, and examined their legs. This one had spavin,--nobody should
+sell him a spavined horse, he would take care of that,--bones shaped
+like a ship; this one was balky,--he found out what a balky horse was,
+two years ago; this had fits,--a man must be a fool to be imposed upon
+by such a horse; this had swellings, not dangerous, blistered a little
+by the crupper-iron; and then came wind-galls, and other ills which
+horse-flesh is heir to; and through all this his thoughts were dwelling
+on a friendly smile, and a wonderfully fair face, that of his gracious
+lady, with whom, since dinner, he had fallen desperately in love, and
+the ungrateful rascal was conspiring against the happiness of the
+master who had just been so kind to him.
+
+"Yes," said he, as he stood in the stable-door, and the evening light
+sunk softly into darkness, "what is Louise Habermann compared with this
+angel! No, Louise, I am sorry for you! But I cannot imagine how I came
+to fall in love with you. And then Mining and Lining! A pair of little
+goslings! And Marie Moeller, to be sure! A lump of misfortune! How she
+looked to-day beside the gracious lady, like a wild plum beside a
+peach. And when I get the chestnut mare, then--'Gracious lady, any
+commands?' Perhaps a letter for the post? or when she is coming home
+from some ball at Rahnstadt, and old Daniel Sadenwater is not at
+hand--down with the carriage steps, hand her out--'Ah, I have forgotten
+my handkerchief,' or 'my overshoes,'--'They shall be sent for
+immediately,' and then I mount my chestnut,--hs--hsch--off we
+go,--in half an hour I am back again. 'Gracious lady, here are the
+overshoes,' and then she says, 'Thanks, dear Triddelsitz, for this
+kindness,'--thunder and lightning! the confounded pole!" for as he went
+back to the house, in the dark, absorbed in these charming
+anticipations, he stumbled over a carriage-pole, left there by his own
+negligence, and lay, in all his gorgeous attire, upon something which
+felt very soft. What it was, he didn't know, but his nose had a sort of
+suspicion, and he thought he should do well to examine himself by the
+light, before going into Habermann's room.
+
+Meanwhile the three old men had gone in, and, as they were sitting in
+the twilight, Braesig asked:
+
+"Karl, is the book a story-book, to read in the winter evenings?"
+
+"Eh, Zachary, I don't know. I will light a candle, and we can see."
+
+When it was light, Habermann was going to look at the title; but Braesig
+took the book out of his hand:
+
+"No, Karl, we have a scholar here, let Strull read it."
+
+Strull began to read, all in a breath, as if he were reading the
+Sunday's lesson out of the Gospels, stopping only for a strange word:
+"'Printed by Friedrich Vieweg and Son in Brunswick Chemistry in its
+Relation to Agriculture and Phy-si-o-logy.'"
+
+"Hold!" cried Braesig, "that word isn't right, it should be
+'fisionomy.'"
+
+"No," said Strull, "it is spelled 'physiology.'"
+
+"For all I care, Strull," said Braesig; "let them spell their outlandish
+words as they please, at one time this way, another time another way.
+Go ahead!"
+
+"'By Justus Liebig, Doctor of Medicine and Philosophy, Professor of
+Chemistry at the Ludwig's University at Giessen, Knight of the
+Grand Ducal Hessian Ludwig's Order, and of the Imperial Russian St.
+Annen, Order of the Third Class, Corresponding Member of the Royal
+Academy of Science at Stockholm,'--now comes some Latin which I cannot
+read,--'Honorary Member of the Royal Academy at Dublin----'"
+
+"Stop!" cried Braesig, "Lord preserve us, what is all this fellow?"
+
+"But that isn't all, by a great deal, there is ever so much more."
+
+"We will give him the rest. Go ahead!"
+
+"'Fifth Revised and much Enlarged Edition. Brunswick published by
+Vieweg and Son 1843.' Now comes a preface."
+
+"Let that go, too," said Braesig. "Begin at the beginning."
+
+"The heading runs in this way: 'SUBJECT' with a line underneath."
+
+"Well!" said Braesig. "Go on!"
+
+"'Organic Chemistry has for its purpose the investigation of the
+chemical conditions of life, and the complete development of all
+organisms.' Period."
+
+"What sort of things?" asked Braesig.
+
+"All organisms," said the schoolmaster.
+
+"Well," exclaimed Braesig, "I have heard a great many outlandish words,
+but 'organisms,' organ---- Hold! Karl, don't you know 'Herr Orgon stood
+before his door,' that we used to learn by heart, with Pastor Behrens,
+out of Gellert? Do you suppose this organ can be any connection of
+his?"
+
+"Let it go, for the present, Braesig, we don't understand it yet."
+
+"No? why not, Karl?" said his old friend, "We can learn. You will see,
+this is a water-book; they always begin with something you can't
+understand. Go ahead!"
+
+"'The existence of all living beings is carried on by the reception of
+certain materials into the system, which we call means of nourishment;
+they are expended by the organism for its own improvement and
+reproduction. Period."
+
+"The man is right there," said Braesig; "Means of nourishment belong to
+living beings, and"--taking the book out of Strull's hands, "'they are
+expended by the organism,'--now I know what organism means; it means
+the stomach."
+
+"Yes," said the schoolmaster, "but then here is 'reproduction.'"
+
+"Ah," said Braesig, off hand, "production! We have got used to that of
+late years; when I was a child, nobody knew anything about production;
+but now they call every bushel of wheat and every ox a production. It
+is only an ornamental way of speaking, that they may appear learned."
+
+So they went on for a little while, until the schoolmaster went home,
+and when he had gone, the two old friends sat together, quietly and
+trustfully,--for Braesig was to spend the night at Pumpelhagen,--until
+Habermann gave a deep sigh, and said:
+
+"Ah, Zachary, I am afraid there are hard times coming for me."
+
+"Why so? Your young Herr is a lively, witty fellow; what amusing things
+he said about farming!"
+
+"Yes, that is the very thing; you took it for jest, but he meant it for
+earnest."
+
+"He meant it for earnest?"
+
+"Certainly he did. He has studied farming out of new-fashioned books,
+and they don't agree with our old ways, and though I should be very
+glad to understand the new methods, I can't do it, I haven't the
+requisite knowledge."
+
+"You are right there, Karl! See, the sciences always seem to me, like
+seafaring. When one has been used to it from a child, going up the
+mast, and out on the shrouds, he can do it when he is old without being
+dizzy-headed, and so a school-boy, who is trained in the sciences from
+his youth up, won't be dizzy either and can run out with ease, even in
+his old age, on any rope that science stretches out for him. Do you
+understand me, Karl?"
+
+"I understand you. But we did not learn in our young days, and for
+dancing on such ropes," pointing to the book, "my old bones are too
+stiff. Ah, I would not say a word against it, he can farm in the new
+fashion, for all me, and I will help him to the best of my power; but
+this kind of farming needs a long purse, and that is something we
+haven't got. I supposed, at first, he would get something with his
+wife; but it couldn't have been much, for even the new equipage and the
+new furniture were ordered from Rahnstadt, and the first shilling is
+not yet paid for them."
+
+"Well, Karl, never mind; he hasn't made a bad bargain. The lady pleased
+me uncommonly."
+
+"She pleased me, too, Braesig."
+
+"And you can see by your own dear sister, what the right sort of woman
+can accomplish, in a family. I must go and see her to-morrow, for the
+two confounded divinity students will be getting into all sorts of
+mischief. And so, good-night, Karl."
+
+"Good-night, Braesig."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Fritz Triddelsitz darted about the Pumpelhagen court-yard next morning,
+like a pickerel in a fish-pond, for he had put on his little uniform,
+the green hunting-jacket, and gray breeches, to please the gracious
+lady,--as he said,--that her lovely eyes might have something agreeable
+to look upon. His own eyes, which were usually directed to Habermann's
+window like the compass to the north star, wandered this morning over
+the whole front of the manor-house, and when a window was raised, and
+the young Herr put his head out and called to him, he darted across
+the court-yard, like a pickerel, as if Axel in his silver-gray
+dressing-gown were a flat-fish, and the red handkerchief about his neck
+were the fins.
+
+"Triddelsitz," said Herr von Rambow, "I have decided to make a little
+address to my people this morning; get them together here at nine
+o'clock, before the house."
+
+"To command," said Fritz, using this form of speech to do honor to the
+Herr Lieutenant.
+
+"Where is the inspector? I wish to speak to him; there is no hurry,
+however."
+
+"He has just gone out with Inspector Braesig."
+
+"Very well. When he comes back."
+
+"Fritz made a particularly fine bow, and went off; but turned back
+after a little, and asked:--
+
+"Does Herr von Rambow wish the women to come also?
+
+"No, merely the men. However,--wait a moment,--yes, you may tell the
+housewives to come."
+
+"To command," said Fritz, and went to the village, and told the
+housewives and the men who were at work about the farmyard, to put
+on their best clothes. It was eight o'clock already, and if the
+farm-laborers who were at work in the fields were to be there by nine,
+and also in state, they must be called. So he started for the fields.
+
+Habermann had walked a little way with his old friend, and was now
+crossing the field to join the laborers, when Fritz came hurrying over
+the hill, as fast as his slovenly gait and the broken ground of the
+ploughed field would allow.
+
+"Herr Inspector, you must let them stop work, the people are all to be
+at the manor-house by nine o'clock, the Herr is going to deliver an
+oration."
+
+"What is he going to do?" asked Habermann, in astonishment.
+
+"Deliver an oration," was the reply, "the laborers have already been
+notified, and the woman also. He had forgotten them, but I reminded him
+of them in time."
+
+"You might----" have been in better business, Habermann was going to
+say, but controlled himself, and said quietly, "then do your errand to
+the people."
+
+"You are to come, too."
+
+"Very well," said the old man, and turned, quite out of humor, towards
+the house. He had pressing work for his teams, and they would be taken
+out of the field for the whole morning; however he could have got over
+that, that was not the trouble. His master had issued orders, the very
+first day, without taking him into counsel, he had consulted with
+Triddelsitz instead, and there could be no hurry about the matter; but
+although he felt the slight, it wasn't that so much which annoyed him;
+it was the "oration" itself. Why should he talk to the people? Would he
+admonish them about their duties? The people were good, they did their
+work as simply and naturally as eating and drinking, they had no idea
+that they were doing any thing remarkable; and it was a mistake to
+lecture such people about their duties. If they were much talked to,
+they would begin to grow discouraged. In one sense laborers are like
+children, they would soon reckon their duty as a merit. Or was he going
+to bestow gifts upon them? He was good-natured enough. But what would
+he give them? They had all that they needed, and he could not give them
+anything definite, he did not know their circumstances well enough, he
+could merely give them fair words and general promises, which each
+would fill out according to his own wishes, and which it would be
+impossible to make good. And so he would make the people discontented.
+
+These were his thoughts, as he entered his master's room. The young
+wife was there, ready for the walk agreed upon the night before. She
+came towards him in a friendly manner: "We must wait a little while,
+Herr Inspector; Axel will speak to the people first."
+
+"That will not take long," said Axel, who was turning over his papers.
+There was a knock at the door. "Come in!" and Fritz entered, with a
+letter in his hand. "From Gurlitz," said he.
+
+Axel broke the seal, and read; it was an odious letter, it was from
+Slushur, the notary, who announced himself as coming before noon, with
+David; they were accidentally at Herr Pomuchelskopp's, and had heard
+from him that Herr von Rambow was returned, and since they must speak
+with him on necessary business, they begged his permission, etc. The
+business was very urgent, however, as was mentioned in a postscript.
+Axel was in great perplexity, for he could not decline the visit; he
+went out and told the messenger the gentlemen were welcome, and when he
+came in again, he seemed so disturbed that his wife asked, "What is the
+matter?"
+
+"Oh, nothing. But I think my talk to the laborers may take longer than
+I supposed; it will be best for you to go alone with the Herr Inspector
+to see the fields."
+
+"Oh, Axel, I was so pleased at the thought of going with you."
+
+"Yes; but it cannot be helped, my dear child. I know the fields well
+enough. Go with the Herr Inspector, dear Frida, and--well, as soon as
+ever I can, I will follow you."
+
+It seemed to Habermann that he was really in haste to get rid of them;
+so he helped him in his design, and the young lady finally started,
+upon his invitation, though a little out of humor.
+
+When they were gone, and the whole village had come together. Axel made
+his address, although the pleasure of this state occasion was quite
+spoiled for him by that infamous letter; for, however he might put it
+to himself, his own pleasure, and the importance which he felt as
+master, were his chief reasons for the undertaking. As for the speech
+itself, it happened much as Habermann had feared. Admonitions and
+promises, in lofty words and fine figures of speech, paraded themselves
+quite unintelligibly before the old laborers' eyes, and the only things
+which they saw clearly, though somewhat dizzied by these, were the
+golden wings of the benefits he promised them, saying that his people
+were to come to him with every wish; he would care for them like a
+father.
+
+"Yes," said Paesel to Daesel, "'father;' I like that. He will do it. I
+shall go to him to-morrow, and ask him to let me wean a calf next
+year."
+
+"But you had one last year."
+
+"That is no matter; I can sell it to the weaver in Gurlitz."
+
+"Yes," said Kegel to Degel. "I shall go to him to-morrow, and ask him
+to let me have twenty roods more of potato land next spring; mine will
+not last through the winter."
+
+"Eh! you didn't hoe your potatoes at the right time; the old man gave
+you a fine scolding for it."
+
+"No matter; _he_ knows nothing about it, and he is master now, and not
+the inspector."
+
+So unrest and discontent were in full progress; Axel himself was
+restless and discontented, because he dreaded the coming visit, and the
+only being at the Pumpelhagen farm, who, though restless, was yet
+contented, was Fritz Triddelsitz, so the young Herr had not altogether
+thrown his pearls before swine.
+
+Slusuhr and David came, and what shall I say about their visit? They
+sang the same song which they did before, and Axel had to write the
+notes for it. This time, he did it readily. Borrowing is certainly a
+bad business; but there is not a business in the world, down to
+beheading and hanging, so bad that somebody will not pursue it with
+satisfaction; I have known people who were not contented till they had
+borrowed money of all Judea and Christendom, and if Axel had not gone
+quite so far, he was ready enough to improve favorable circumstances;
+he added a new debt, to-day, to those he already owed David, that he
+might pay for the new furnishing of his house, "in order not to have to
+do with so many people, but with one;" but he probably did not reflect
+that this one was worse than a thousand others.
+
+Meanwhile Habermann and the young Frau were going through the fields.
+The clear summer morning soon drove away the little shadows of
+annoyance from her fresh face, and her bright eyes looked at everything
+with hearty interest, and desire to inform herself, and Habermann saw,
+with great pleasure, that she understood the business. She had been
+brought up in the country, and it was natural to her to observe things
+that lay a little out of her usual way, and that not superficially, she
+must know a reason for everything. Thus she knew enough about farming
+to feel quite at home here, although her father's place was a great
+sand-hill, and Pumpelhagen was the finest wheat soil, and if she saw
+anything unfamiliar which she did not understand, the old Inspector
+helped her, with brief, simple explanations. The walk was, for both of
+them, a real pleasure, and from a pure, mutual pleasure grows the fair
+blossom, Confidence.
+
+They came to the Gurlitz boundary, and Habermann showed her the
+Pastor's field, and told her how the late Kammerrath had taken it in
+lease.
+
+"And the barley, over yonder?" asked the young Frau.
+
+"That is Gurlitz ground and soil; that belongs to Herr Pomuchelskopp."
+
+"Ah, that is the proprietor who greeted us yesterday, with his family,"
+said Frida. "What sort of a man is he?"
+
+"I have no intercourse with him," said Habermann, a little embarrassed.
+
+"But you know him, don't you?" asked the young lady.
+
+"Yes--no--that is, I used to know him, but since he has lived here, we
+have nothing to do with each other," said the old man, and would have
+spoken of something else; but Frida laid her hand on his arm, and
+said,--
+
+"Herr Inspector, I am a stranger in this region,--Axel seems to be
+acquainted, though only superficially, with this man; are they suitable
+associates for us?"
+
+"No," said Habermann, short and hard.
+
+They walked on, each occupied in thought. The young Frau stood still,
+and asked, "Can you, and will you, tell me the reason why you have
+broken off intercourse with this man?"
+
+Habermann looked at her thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes," said he, finally, rather as if he were speaking to himself, "and
+if you receive my words with the same confidence that the blessed
+Kammerrath did, it may be for your profit," and he told her his story,
+without heat or anger, but also without restraint. The young Frau
+listened attentively, without interrupting him, and when he had
+finished said merely:
+
+"I half disliked those people yesterday; I quite dislike them to-day."
+
+They had just come through the Pastor's field, up to the garden fence,
+when a clear, joyous voice sounded from the other side: "Good morning,
+father! Good morning!" and the lovely young girl, whom Frida had seen
+yesterday, came running through the garden gate towards the old
+inspector. She stopped suddenly as she saw the gracious lady, and stood
+blushing, so that Habermann must help himself to his good-morning kiss,
+if he meant to have it at all.
+
+Full of happiness and pride, the old man introduced his dear daughter;
+the young Frau spoke to her very kindly, and urged her to come often to
+Pumpelhagen, to visit her father and herself; and when Habermann had
+sent greetings to the Pastor and the Pastorin, she took leave, and they
+continued their walk.
+
+"The Pastor and his wife must be very good people?" said Frida.
+
+"Gracious lady," said Habermann, "you ask this question of no impartial
+man. These people have saved for me all that was left out of my
+misfortunes; they have given loving protection and nurture to my only
+child, and taught her everything good; I can only think of them with
+the highest respect and the deepest gratitude. But ask in the
+neighborhood, if you will; rich and poor, high and low, will speak of
+them with respect and affection."
+
+"Herr Pomuchelskopp, too?" inquired the gracious lady.
+
+"If he would speak honestly, and without prejudice, yes," said the old
+man, "but as he is now--he quarrelled with the Pastor, soon after his
+arrival here, about this very field, in which we are walking. It was
+not the Pastor's fault; I gave the first provocation to his anger,
+because I advised the blessed Herr to rent the field. And, gracious
+lady," he added, after a moment, "Pumpelhagen cannot spare this field;
+the advantage is too great for us to give it up."
+
+Frida asked him to explain it more fully, and, when she understood the
+matter, it was easy to see that she said to herself, she would do what
+she could to keep the field.
+
+As they came into the Pumpelhagen court-yard Slusuhr the notary and
+David were just starting off, and Axel stood before the door taking
+leave of them as politely as if Slusuhr were the colonel of his
+Regiment, and David a young count.
+
+"Who is that?" asked Frida of Habermann. He told her. Then she greeted
+her husband, and asked, "But, Axel, what business have you with these
+people, and why are you so uncommonly polite to them?"
+
+"Polite?" repeated Axel, "why not? I am polite to everybody," with a
+quick glance at Habermann, who met it quietly and firmly.
+
+"Of course you are," said his wife, taking his arm, in order to go into
+the house with him, "but towards a common Jew moneylender and----"
+
+"Dear child," interrupted Axel hastily, to prevent her saying more,
+"the man is a produce-dealer, and wool-merchant, I shall often have
+business to transact with him."
+
+"And the other?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh, he--he only came along with him accidentally. I have nothing to do
+with him."
+
+"Adieu, Herr Inspector," said Frida, giving her hand to the old man, "I
+thank you very much for your friendly company."
+
+With that, she went into the house. Axel followed her; at the door he
+looked round, the old inspector's eyes rested sadly upon him, and he
+turned away. He followed his wife into the house.
+
+In this honest and mournful glance lay the whole future of the three
+persons who had just separated.
+
+Axel had lied; he had betrayed, for the first time, the confidence of
+his young wife, and Habermann knew it, and Axel knew that Habermann
+knew it. Here was a stone in the path, over which every one must
+stumble who passed that way, for the path was darkened by falsehood and
+dissimulation, and no one could speak to another of the stone, and warn
+him against it. Frida went onward innocently and trustfully; but how
+long would it be before she would stumble over this stone? Axel tried
+to deceive himself, also, he thought he could bring her safely over it,
+in the darkness, without her being aware of it, and, beyond, the path
+would be smooth. Habermann saw the danger clearly, and could and would
+have helped; but if he stretched out his hand to point it out, and warn
+them against it, Axel repulsed him with coldness, and secret
+resentment. People say that a bad man will, in time, conceive a hatred
+for one who has bestowed benefits upon him; it is possible, but that is
+nothing to the secret gnawing and boring of resentment, which a weak
+man feels towards one who is the only person in the world conscious of
+his falsehood. Such a feeling is not developed at once, like downright
+hatred, born of open strife and contention, but bores slowly and
+gradually into the heart, like the death-worm into dry wood, and eats
+deeper and deeper, till the whole heart is full of ill-will and
+bitterness, as the wood is full of worm-dust.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Braesig went next morning, as he had designed, to Rexow, to see Frau
+Nuessler. The crown-prince came to meet him at the door, wagging his
+tail in such a Christian manner that one must believe him to be a dog
+of good moral principle, since he bore no malice against Braesig for his
+late chasing and drubbing. One would infer, also, from the quiet
+content expressed in his yellow-brown eyes, that all was well at Rexow,
+Frau Nuessler in the kitchen, and Jochen sitting in his arm-chair.
+
+But it was not so, for when Braesig opened the door, Jochen was sitting
+indeed in his old place; but Frau Nuessler stood before him, delivering
+a brief but impressive discourse to the effect that he troubled himself
+about nothing, and said not a word to the purpose, and when she caught
+sight of Braesig, she went up to him, quite angrily, saying, "And you,
+too, notice nothing, Braesig; for all you care, everything here may
+stand on its head; and it is your fault, too, we never should have
+taken those two but for you!"
+
+"Fair and easy!" said Braesig, "fair and easy! Not quite so fast, Frau
+Nuessler! What has happened now with the young candidates?"
+
+"A good deal has happened, and I have said nothing about it, because
+they were Jochen's friends, and it is a bad bird that fouls its own
+nest; but since the time those two fellows came into my house, there
+has been no peace nor rest, and if it goes on so much longer, I shall
+quarrel, at last, with Jochen himself."
+
+"Mother," said young Jochen, "what shall I do about it?"
+
+"Keep still, young Jochen," cried Braesig, "you are to blame. Can't you
+rouse up and teach them manners?"
+
+"Let Jochen alone, Braesig," said Frau Nuessler, hastily, "this time it
+is your fault. You promised to have an eye to these young men, and see
+that they did not get into mischief, and instead of that, you have let
+one go on as he liked, without troubling yourself about him, and you
+have put the other up to all sorts of nonsense, so that instead of
+minding his books, he goes off with his fishing-pole, and brings me
+home at night a great string of perch, as long as your finger. And when
+I think I have everything tidy, I must go and dress the horrid things,
+and make it all straight again.
+
+"What? Brings home things a finger long, and I showed him the right
+place to catch the great fellows! oh, you must--no, hold on!"
+
+"Ah, what!" cried Frau Nuessler. "You should forbid his fishing
+altogether, he did not come here for that purpose. He was to learn
+something, his father said, and he is coming here to-day, too."
+
+"Well, Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "I am very greatly annoyed that he
+should do so little credit to my instructions, in his fishing. Has he
+done anything else amiss?"
+
+"Ah, yes, indeed! both of them have. But, as I said before, I have said
+nothing about it, because they were Jochen's friends, and at first, it
+seemed as if everything would go on well. At first, there were merry,
+lively times here, and my little girls enjoyed it uncommonly; it was
+Mining here and Rudolph there, and Lining here and Gottlieb there, and
+they talked with Gottlieb, and romped with Rudolph, and the two old
+fellows were very industrious at their work, and Gottlieb sat up stairs
+in his room, and studied until his head swam, and Rudolph, too, read in
+his books; but it was not long before they got to disputing and
+quarrelling about ecclesiastical matters, and Gottlieb, who is much
+more learned than the other, told him he did not look at things from a
+Christian standpoint."
+
+"Standpoint, did he say?" asked Braesig.
+
+"Yes, he said standpoint," replied Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Ho, ho!" cried Braesig, "I can hear him talk. Where other people stop,
+at a standpoint, is only the beginning with the Pietists. He wanted to
+proselyte him."
+
+"Yes," said Frau Nuessler, "so it appeared. Now the other one is much
+cleverer than Gottlieb, and he began to crack all manner of jokes at
+him, and got the better of him, and so the strife grew worse and worse,
+and, I don't know how it happened, but my little girls began to take a
+part in the business, and Lining, as the most intelligent, was on
+Gottlieb's side, and talked just as he did, and Mining laughed over
+Rudolph's jokes, and carried on with him."
+
+"Yes," interrupted Jochen, "it is all as true as leather."
+
+"You should be ashamed of yourself, young Jochen, to allow such doings
+in your house!"
+
+"Come, Braesig," said Frau Nuessler, "let him alone; Jochen has done
+everything he could to keep peace; When Gottlieb talked about the
+devil, to frighten one out of his wits, then he believed in the devil,
+and when Rudolph laughed about the devil, and made fun of him, then he
+laughed with Rudolph. But, when the dispute was at the highest, little
+Mining happened on a bright idea; she took their books and changed
+them, and put Rudolph's into Gottlieb's room, and Gottlieb's into
+Rudolph's, and when they looked at her in astonishment, she said,
+merrily, they had better exchange studies for awhile, and they might
+possibly learn to agree. Well, at first they would hear nothing of it;
+but Gottlieb is always a good-natured old fellow, he soon began to
+read, and since it was a winter day, and he could not amuse himself out
+of doors, Rudolph finally began also. And then you should have seen
+them! It was not long, before it seemed as if they had been exchanged
+with their books. Gottlieb made bad jokes, and laughed about the devil,
+and the other old fellow groaned and sighed, and talked of the devil,
+as if he sat at table with us every day, and eat his potatoes, like
+other honest people. Now, my little girls were quite perplexed; Mining
+attached herself to Gottlieb, and Lining to Rudolph, for now it was
+Rudolph who said Gottlieb did not occupy a Christian standpoint."
+
+"Fie!" said Braesig, "he should not have said that. And such a fellow as
+that cannot catch a good-sized perch!"
+
+"Yes," cried Frau Nuessler quite angrily, "and with your confounded old
+perch-fishing, the whole trouble came again, for when it was spring,
+and the perch began to bite, Rudolph threw his Christian standpoint
+aside, and took up his fishing-rod, and ran off into the fields, and
+Gottlieb took up the devil again, for he was going to pass his
+examination, and there is no getting through that without the devil.
+And my two little girls were puzzled to tell which they should stand
+by."
+
+"They are a pair of confounded rascals," cried Braesig, "but the
+proselyter is to blame for it all; why couldn't he let the other alone,
+with his devil and his standpoint?"
+
+"Well, never mind! He studied well at any rate and passed his
+examination all right, and can be a minister any day; but the other
+cousin has done nothing at all at his books, and has made us all this
+dreadful trouble!"
+
+"Why, what else has he done? He hasn't been catching whitings?"
+
+"Whitings! He caught a sermon. You see, the Rector Baldrian's wife
+wanted to hear her Gottlieb preach, and she asked the pastor in
+Rahnstadt about it, and he promised her Gottlieb should preach last
+Sunday, and she told her sister, Frau Kurz. She is naturally very much
+annoyed that her boy is not so advanced as Gottlieb, and she goes to
+the pastor also, and the old pastor is such a sheep that he promised
+her Rudolph should preach the same Sabbath. Then they drew lots, who
+should preach in the morning, and who in the afternoon, and Rudolph got
+the morning. Well, old Gottlieb studied as hard as he could, and sat
+from morning till night, out in the arbor, in the garden, and because
+he has a bad memory, he studied aloud, and the other went roving about
+as usual; but the last two days, he seated himself on the grassy bank
+behind the arbor, as if he were making a sermon too. And then Sunday
+came, and Jochen let them ride in to town, and we all rode, and were
+seated in the pastor's pew, and, I tell you, I was terribly afraid for
+Rudolph; but he stood there, as if there were nothing the matter, and
+when it was time, he went up into the pulpit, and preached a sermon,
+that made all the people open their eyes and mouths, and I rejoiced
+over the youth, and was going to say so to Gottlieb, who sat by me; but
+there sat the poor creature, fidgeting with his hands and feet, as if
+he would like to go up and pull the other out of the pulpit, and he
+said, 'Aunt, that is _my_ sermon!' And so it was, Braesig; the wicked
+boy had learned the sermon by hearing it, because Gottlieb must study
+it aloud."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Braesig heartily, "that is a good joke!"
+
+"Do you call that a _joke_?" exclaimed Frau Nuessler, greatly excited.
+"Such a trick as that in the house of God, you call a joke?"
+
+"Eh, now," said Braesig, still laughing, "what would you have? It is a
+devil of a joke, it is an infamous trick, to be sure: but I can't help
+laughing, for the life of me."
+
+"Oh yes!" said Frau Nuessler, bitterly, "that is the way with you; when
+we others are ready to die with shame and anger, you stand by and
+laugh!"
+
+"There, don't scold me," said Braesig, trying to appease her, "tell me
+what the proselyter did. I wish I could have seen him!"
+
+"What could he do? He couldn't preach the same sermon over again, in
+the afternoon; the old pastor had to warm up an old sermon for the
+occasion, but he was fearfully angry, and said, if he should report the
+matter, Rudolph might as well hang up his gown on the nearest willow."
+
+"Well, and the proselyter?"
+
+"Ah, the good old creature was so confounded, he said nothing at all;
+but his mother talked all the more, and quarrelled so fiercely with her
+sister, Frau Kurz, that they have not spoken to each other since. Oh,
+what a time it was! I was ashamed, and I was provoked, for Kurz and the
+rector came up, too, and Jochen was lingering with them, but
+fortunately our carriage drove up, and I got him away."
+
+"But what did the duel-fighter say?"
+
+"Oh, the rogue was clever enough to keep out of the uproar, he made
+himself scarce after his fine sermon, and ran off home."
+
+"He got a proper good lecture from you, I will wager."
+
+"No," said Frau Nuessler, "he didn't. I don't meddle in the affair. His
+father is coming, to-day, and he is the nearest to him, as the Frau
+Pastorin says. And I told Jochen, decidedly, he ought not to talk so
+much about it, for he has quite changed his nature, of late, and is
+always troubling himself, and talking about things that are none of his
+business. Keep still, Jochen!"
+
+"Yes, Jochen, keep still!"
+
+"And my two little girls, I scarcely know them again; after the sermon,
+they cried all the way home, and now they keep out of the way so shyly,
+and speak so short to each other, and they used always to go about
+together arm in arm, and if one had anything on her heart the other
+quickly knew it. Ah, my house is all topsy-turvy!"
+
+"Mother," said young Jochen, rising suddenly from his chair, "it is
+what I have said before, but I will say it once more; you shall see,
+the boys have put something into their heads."
+
+"What should they put into their heads, Jochen?" said Frau Nuessler,
+rather sharply.
+
+"Love-affairs," said Jochen, sitting down again in his corner. "My
+blessed mother always said: A candidate and a governess in the same
+house--you shall see, Gottlieb and Mining.
+
+"Now, Jochen, so you talk and talk! The Lord keep you in your senses!
+If I thought that was the case, the candidate should be turned out of
+the house, and the other after him. Come out here, Braesig, I have
+something to say to you."
+
+When they were outside, Frau Nuessler took him to the garden, and sat
+down with him in the arbor.
+
+"Braesig," said she, "I cannot listen to this everlasting chatter of
+Jochen's; he has got it from Rudolph, who used to talk with him so
+much, last winter, in the evenings, and now he has got in the habit of
+it, and cannot break off. Now tell me honestly,--you promised that you
+would look after them,--have you ever had any idea of such a thing?"
+
+"Eh, preserve us!" said Braesig, "not the remotest conception!"
+
+"I cannot believe it is so," said Frau Nuessler, thoughtfully; "at
+first, Lining and Gottlieb were always together, and Mining and
+Rudolph,--afterwards, Mining held to Gottlieb, and Lining to Rudolph,
+and after the examination, Lining went back to Gottlieb again; but
+Mining and Rudolph are not friends, for since the sermon she will
+scarcely look at him."
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "love is a thing which begins in some
+hidden way, perhaps with a bunch of flowers, or a couple say 'Good
+morning' to each other, and touch each other's hands, or they stoop, at
+the same time, to pick up a ball of cotton, and knock their heads
+together, and a looker-on observes nothing more, but after a while, it
+becomes more perceptible, the women often turn red, and the men cast
+sheep's-eyes, or the women entice the men into the pantry, and offer
+them sausage and tongue and pig's head, and the men come to see the
+women, dressed up in red and blue neck-ties, or, if it is very far
+gone, they go out walking on summer evenings, in the moonlight, and
+sigh. Anything of that sort with the little rogues?"
+
+"I cannot say, Braesig. They have been in my pantry, off and on; but I
+soon sent them out, for I won't have people eating in the pantry, and I
+never noticed that my little girls turned red, though they have cried
+their eyes red, often enough, of late."
+
+"Hm!" said Braesig, "this last is not without significance. Now I will
+tell you, Frau Nuessler, leave it wholly to me, I know how to track
+them; I detected Habermann's confounded greyhound, in his love-affairs.
+I am an old hunter; I can track him to his lair; but you must tell me
+where they have their haunts; that is, where I shall be likely to find
+them."
+
+"That is here, Braesig, here in this arbor. My little girls sit here in
+the afternoon, and sew, and the other two come and sit with them; I
+never thought any harm of it."
+
+"No harm in that," said Braesig, and stepping out of the arbor he
+looked carefully around, and in so doing perceived a large Rhenish
+cherry-tree, full of leaves, which stood close by the arbor.
+
+"All right!" said he, "what can be done shall be done."
+
+"Dear heart!" sighed Frau Nuessler, as went back to the house, "what a
+miserable time we shall have to-day! Kurz is coming this afternoon, in
+time for coffee, he is bitterly angry with his son, and such a
+malicious little toad. You shall see, there will be a great uproar."
+
+"It is always the way with little people," Braesig: "the head, and the
+lower constitution are so close together, that fire kindles quickly."
+
+"Yes," sighed Frau Nuessler, again entering the house, "it is a misery."
+She had no idea that the misery in her house was already in full
+course.
+
+While these transactions were going on below stairs the two little
+twin-apples sat up in their chamber, sewing. Lining sat by one window,
+and Mining by the other, and they never looked up from their work, they
+never spoke to each other, as in those old times, at the Frau
+Pastorin's sewing-school,--they sewed and sewed, as if the world were
+coming to pieces, and they, with needle and thread, were patching it
+together again, and they looked so solemn about it, and sighed so
+heavily, as if they knew right well what an arduous task they had under
+their fingers. It was strange that their mother had said nothing to
+Braesig of how their pretty, red cheeks had grown pale, and it must have
+been because she had not noticed it herself. But it was so, the two
+little apples looked as wan as if they had grown on the north side of
+the life-tree, where no sun-beams pierced to color their cheeks, and it
+seemed, too, as if they hung no longer on the same twig. At last Lining
+let her work drop in her lap, she could not sew any longer, her eyes
+filled, and the tears ran down her white cheeks; and Mining reached for
+her handkerchief, and held it to her eyes, and great tears dropped in
+her lap, and so they sat and wept, as if the fair, innocent world in
+their own bosoms had gone to pieces, and they could not patch it
+together again.
+
+All at once Mining sprang up and ran out of the door, as if she must
+get into the free air; but she bethought herself, she could not run off
+without being seen and questioned by her mother, so she stood there, on
+the other side of the door, still crying. Lining sprang up also, as if
+she should comfort Mining, but she bethought herself that she did not
+know how, so she stood on this side the door, crying.
+
+So is often interposed, between two hearts, a thin board, and each
+heart hears the other sighing and weeping, and the thin board has on
+each side a latch, that one needs merely to lift, and what has
+separated the hearts may be shoved aside; but neither will stir the
+latch, and the two hearts weep still.
+
+But, thank God! such selfish pride towards each other these little
+hearts had not yet learned, and Mining opened the door, and said,
+"Lining, why are you crying?" and Lining reached out her hands, and
+said, "Ah, Mining, why are _you_ crying?" And they fell into each
+others arms, still crying, but their cheeks grew red as if the sunlight
+had reached them, and they clung fast to each other, as if they were
+again growing on the same stem.
+
+"Mining!" said Lining, "I will give him up to you, and you shall be
+happy with him."
+
+"No, Lining!" cried Mining, "he cares more for you, and you are a great
+deal better than I am."
+
+"No, Mining, I have made up my mind; uncle Kurz is coming this
+afternoon, and I will ask father and mother to let me go back with him,
+for to stay here and look on might be too hard for me."
+
+"Do so, Lining; then you will be with his parents; and I will ask
+Gottlieb to get me, through his father, a place as governess,
+somewhere, far, far away, before you come back; for my heart is too
+heavy to stay here."
+
+"Mining," said Lining, pushing her sister back, and looking earnestly
+in her eyes,--"with his parents? whom do you mean?"
+
+"Why, Rudolph."
+
+"You mean Rudolph?"
+
+"Yes, of course; whom do you mean, then?"
+
+"I? I meant Gottlieb."
+
+"No, no!" cried Mining, throwing her arms again about her sister's
+neck, "how is that possible? Why, we don't mean the same one, after
+all!"
+
+"Dear heart!" exclaimed Lining, "and what misery we have made
+ourselves!"
+
+"And now it is all right!" cried Mining, dancing about the room, "it is
+all right now!"
+
+"Yes, Mining, it is all right now," and Lining also danced about the
+room. And Mining fell upon her sister's neck again, this time in joy.
+
+Yes, when one touches the latch, in time, and shoves back the
+separating wall, then the hearts come together again, and all is right,
+even if there is not such a rejoicing as here in the little chamber.
+First they wept, and then they danced about the room, then they sat
+down one in the other's lap, and talked it all over, and blamed
+themselves for stupidity, that they had not noticed how it stood with
+them, and wondered how it was possible that they should not have come
+to an explanation before, and then each confessed how far she had gone
+with her cousin, and that the young men had not yet spoken openly, and
+they were both half inclined to scold them, as the cause of all the
+trouble. And Lining said she had been, all along, in great doubt; but
+since last Sunday, she had been convinced that Mining cared for
+Gottlieb, for otherwise why should she have cried so? and Mining said
+she could not help crying, because Rudolph had done such a dreadful
+thing, and she supposed Lining was crying for the same reason. And
+Lining said that what troubled her was because her poor Gottlieb was
+served so. But it was all right now; and when the dinner-bell rang, the
+little twin-apples tumbled down stairs, rosy-red, and arm in arm, and
+Braesig, who had seated himself with his back to the light that he might
+judge the better of their appearance, stared in astonishment at their
+bright eyes and joyous faces, and said to himself: "How? they are shy?
+They are in trouble? They are in love? They look just ready for a
+frolic."
+
+Upon the ringing of the dinner-bell, entered Braesig's proselyter, the
+candidate Gottlieb Baldrian. Lining grew red, and turned away, not in
+ill humor, but on account of the confession she had made upstairs, and
+Braesig said to himself, "This strikes me as a very curious thing;
+Lining is affected. How can it be possible? and he such a scarecrow!"
+
+Braesig had expressed himself too strongly, but Gottlieb was no beauty.
+Nature had dealt niggardly with him, and the little that he had he did
+not use to advantage. Take his hair, for instance. He had a thick head
+of hair, and if it had been properly kept under by the shears, it would
+have been good, respectable light hair, and he might have gone about,
+without attracting any attention; but he had, in his clerical heart,
+set up for his model, St. John the beloved, and he parted his hair in
+the middle, and combed it down on each side, though its natural
+tendency was to stand upright. Eh, well, I have nothing to say against
+it if a little rogue of ten or twelve years runs around with curls
+about his head, and the mothers of the little rogues have still less to
+say against it, and they turn them about, and stroke the hair out of
+their eyes, and comb it smooth, too, when a visitor is coming,--silly
+people sometimes go so far as to put it up in curl-papers, and use hot
+irons; I should have nothing to say, if it were the fashion for old
+people to curl their hair in long curls, for the old pictures look very
+fine so; but he who has no calves ought not to wear tight trowsers, and
+if a man's hair does not curl, he does better to keep it short. Our old
+Gottlieb's incongruous wig hung down, tanned by the sun, as if he had
+tied in a lot of rusty lath-nails, and because he had to oil it very
+liberally to keep it in its place, it ruined his coat-collar,--farther,
+it did not reach. Under this rich gift of nature, looked out an
+insignificant, pale face, which usually wore a melancholy expression,
+so that Braesig was always asking him what shoemaker he employed, and
+whether his corns troubled him. The rest of his figure harmonized with
+this expression, he was long, and thin and angular; but the part
+devoted to the enjoyment of the good things of this world seemed quite
+wanting, and the place which this necessary and useful organ generally
+occupies was a great cavity, like Frau Nuessler's baking-tray, seen from
+the inside. He was really a natural curiosity for Braesig, who ate like
+a barn-thresher, and couldn't help it. One would almost have believed
+that the Pietist was nourished in some other way than by eating and
+drinking. I have known people, and know some people still, whom I never
+could rival in this respect. It is true these candidates are often very
+thin, as one may see by the best of the Hanover candidates, who are so
+plenty among us; but when one gets a fat parish, he often begins to
+fill out, and so Braesig did not give up the hope that Gottlieb might
+come to something, in time, though he puzzled his brains over him a
+great deal. This was the way Gottlieb Baldrian looked; but the picture
+would not be complete, if I did not say that over the whole was spread
+a little, little smirk of Pharisaism; it was a very little, but that
+Pharisee stuff is like a calf's stomach; with a little, little bit one
+can turn a whole pan of milk sour.
+
+They sat down to dinner, and Jochen asked,--
+
+"Where is Rudolph?"
+
+"Good gracious, Jochen, what are you talking about?" said Frau Nuessler
+hastily, "you ought to know by this time, that he never in his life was
+in season. He has gone fishing; but if people won't come in time, they
+may go without their dinner."
+
+The meal was a quiet one, for Braesig did not talk, he lay in wait, with
+all his senses and faculties, and Frau Nuessler wondered in silence what
+could have so changed her little girls. They sat there laughing and
+whispering lightly to each other, and looking so happy, as if they were
+just awaked from a bad dream, and were rejoicing that it wasn't true,
+and that the sun shone brightly once more.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+When dinner was over, Mining, whose turn it was to help her mother, in
+clearing up, tidying the room and making coffee, asked her sister,
+"Lining, where are you going?"
+
+"I am going to get my sewing," said Lining, "and sit in the arbor."
+
+"Well, I will come soon," said Mining.
+
+"And I will come too," said Gottlieb slowly, "I have a book that I must
+finish reading to-day."
+
+"That is right," said Braesig, "that will be a devilish fine
+entertainment for Lining."
+
+Gottlieb wanted to preach him a little sermon upon his misuse of the
+word devilish, but restrained himself, since he reflected that it would
+be thrown away upon Braesig; so he said nothing, but followed the girls
+out of the room.
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Frau Nuessler, "what has happened to my
+children? I don't know what to make of it; they are one heart and one
+soul again."
+
+"Keep quiet, Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "I will find out all about it,
+to-day. Jochen, come out with me; but don't go to talking!"
+
+Jochen followed him into the garden. Braesig took him under the arm.
+"Keep quite still, Jochen, and don't look round, and act as if we were
+taking a walk after dinner."
+
+Jochen did so, very skilfully.
+
+When they came to the cherry-tree before the arbor, Braesig stopped.
+
+"So, Jochen, now stoop over,--with your head against the tree."
+
+Jochen would have spoken, but Braesig pushed down his head.
+
+"Keep still, Jochen,--put your head against the tree!" and with that he
+clambered up on Jochen's back. "So I now stand up! Sure enough, I can
+just reach,"--and he caught the lowest boughs, and pulled himself up
+into the tree. Jochen had said nothing as yet, but now he broke out:
+
+"Braesig, they are not ripe yet."
+
+"Blockhead!" cried Braesig, looking, with his red face among the green
+leaves, like a gay basket hung on the branches, "do you think I expect
+to pick Rhenish cherries on St. John's day? But you must go away now,
+and not stand there looking at me, like a dog that has treed a cat."
+
+"Yes, what shall I do about it?" said Jochen, and left Braesig to his
+destiny.
+
+Braesig had not long to watch, before he heard a light, quick, step on
+the gravel-walk, and Lining seated herself in the arbor, with a great
+heap of needle-work. If she meant to do all that to-day, she should
+have begun immediately; but she laid it on the table, rested her head
+on her hand, and, looking out into the blue heaven through Braesig's
+cherry-tree, sat in deep thought. "Ah, how happy I am!" said the
+little, thankful soul, "my Mining is good to me again, and Gottlieb is
+good to me, else why did he keep touching my foot at dinner? and how
+Braesig looked at me! I believe I turned quite red. Ah, what a good old
+fellow Gottlieb is! How seriously and learnedly he talks, how steady he
+is, the minister is clearly written on his face! He is not handsome, to
+be sure, Rudolph is much better looking, but he has something peculiar
+about him, as if he were ever saying, don't come near me with your
+pitiable, lamentable nonsense, I have higher thoughts, I am spiritually
+minded. But I will cut his hair for him, by and by."
+
+It is a merciful providence that the little maidens are not all taken
+with a fine exterior, else we ugly fellows would be obliged to remain
+bachelors, and it would be a sad company, for what can be uglier than
+an ugly old bachelor?
+
+In Lining's closing reflection--that she would cut Gottlieb's hair
+shorter--was implied such a confident hope, that she blushed to think
+of it, and, as she heard the gravel creak under slow, dignified steps,
+she seized her needle-work and begun to sew diligently.
+
+Gottlieb came with his book, and seated himself about three feet from
+her, and began to read, but often looked off from his book as if he
+were turning over in his mind what he had just read, or perhaps
+something else. It is always so with the Pietist candidates, that is,
+when they have found their right calling, and sincerely believe what
+they preach to the people; before their examination they have none but
+spiritual thoughts, but after their examination worldly matters claim
+their share of attention, and instead of thinking of a parish they
+think first of a marriage. It was so with Gottlieb, and because, since
+his examination, no other girls had come in his way but Lining and
+Mining, and Lining had paid much closer attention to his admonitions
+than her light-hearted sister, he had happened upon the worldly thought
+of making her a pastor's wife. He was not very expert at the business,
+labouring, indeed, under great embarrassment, and had as yet gone no
+further than treading on her feet, a proceeding which he was quite as
+bashful in attempting, as Lining in receiving. He had decided, however,
+to open the matter in proper style, so he said, "Lining, I have brought
+this book out really on your account. Will you listen to some of it?"
+
+"Yes," said Lining.
+
+"It will be a tedious story," said Braesig to himself. He did not lie on
+a bed of roses, up in the cherry-tree.
+
+Gottlieb read an edifying discourse upon Christian marriage, how it
+should be thought of, and with what feelings entered into, and when he
+had finished, he moved a step nearer, and asked:
+
+"What do you say to it, Lining?
+
+"It is certainly very beautiful," said she.
+
+"Marriage?" asked Gottlieb.
+
+"Oh, Gottlieb!" said Lining, and bent lower over her needlework.
+
+"No, Lining," said Gottlieb, moving up another step, "it is _not_
+beautiful. God bless you for it, that you have not placed a light
+estimate upon this important act of human life. It is terribly hard,
+that is in a Christian sense," and he gave her a fearful description of
+the heavy duties and troubles and cares of married life, as if he were
+preparing her for a residence at the House of Correction, while Braesig,
+up in the cherry-tree, crossed himself, and thanked his stars that he
+had not entered on that sad estate. "Yes, Lining," said he, "marriage
+is a part of the curse, with which God drove our first parents out of
+Paradise," and he took his Bible, and read to the little girl the third
+chapter of the first book of Moses, till Lining trembled all over, and
+did not know where to go, for shame and distress.
+
+"Infamous Jesuit!" exclaimed Braesig half aloud, "to distress the
+innocent child like that!" and he was almost ready to spring down from
+the tree, and Lining would almost have run away, only that the book out
+of which he was reading was the Bible, and what was in the Bible must
+be good; she covered her face with her hands, and cried bitterly. He
+was now full of spiritual zeal, and threw his arm about her, saying, "I
+spare thee not, in this solemn hour! Caroline Nuessler, wilt thou, under
+these Christian conditions, be my Christian wedded wife?"
+
+Ah, and Lining was in such a dreadful confusion, she could neither
+speak nor think, but only cry and cry.
+
+Then resounded along the garden path, a merry song:
+
+
+           "Little fish in silver brook,
+            Swimming off to a shady nook,
+                 Little gray fish
+                 Seeking a wife."
+
+
+And Lining made a desperate effort, and started out of the arbor, spite
+of the Bible and Christian conditions, to meet Mining, who was coming
+out, with her sewing; and Gottlieb followed, with long, slow steps, and
+his face looked as wonder-stricken as that of the young preacher, when
+in the midst of his long sermon, the sexton laid the church-door key on
+the pulpit, saying that when he had finished he might lock up, himself,
+for he was going to dinner. And he might well looked astonished, for,
+like the young preacher, he had done his best, and his church stood
+empty.
+
+Mining was a little, inexperienced child, being the youngest, but she
+was sufficiently acute to perceive that something had happened, and to
+ask herself whether she would not cry under similar circumstances, and
+what sort of comfort would be necessary. She seated herself quietly, in
+the arbor, arranged her needle-work, and, reflecting upon her own
+unsettled circumstances, began to sigh a little, for want of anything
+else in particular to do.
+
+"Preserve me!" said Braesig, in the tree, "now the little rogue has
+come, and my legs are perfectly numb, and the business is getting
+tedious."
+
+But the business was not to be tedious long, for soon after Mining had
+seated herself, there appeared around the corner of the arbor a
+handsome, young fellow, with a fishing-rod over his shoulder, and a
+basket of fish suspended around his neck.
+
+"This is good, Mining," cried he, "that I find you here. Of course you
+have had dinner long ago?"
+
+"You may well think so, Rudolph," she replied, "it is just two
+o'clock."
+
+"Aunt will certainly be very angry with me."
+
+"You may be sure of that, she is so already, without your being late to
+dinner; but your own stomach will be the worst to you, for you have
+cared for it poorly, to-day."
+
+"So much the better for yours, this evening. I could not come sooner,
+it was out of the question, with the fish biting so finely. I have been
+to the Black Pool today. Braesig will never let me go there, and I
+understand the reason; it is his private pantry when he cannot find
+fish elsewhere; the whole pond is full of tench, just look! See there,
+what splendid fellows!" and he opened his basket, and showed his
+treasures. "I have got ahead of old Braesig, this time!"
+
+"Infamous rascal!" exclaimed Braesig, to himself, and his nose peered
+out between the leaves, like one of the pickled gherkins, which Frau
+Nuessler was in the habit of putting up for the winter, in these same
+cherry-leaves. "Infamous rascal! he has been among my tench, then! May
+you keep the nose on your face! what fish the scamp has caught!"
+
+"Give them to me, Rudolph," said Mining. "I will take them in, and
+bring you out something to eat."
+
+"Oh, no! no! Never mind.
+
+"But you must be hungry.
+
+"Well, then, just a little something, Mining. A slice or two of bread
+and butter!"
+
+Mining went, and Rudolph seated himself in the arbor.
+
+He had a sort of easy indifference, as if he would let things come to
+him, but yet, when they touched him nearly, he would not fail to
+grapple with them. His figure was slender, and yet robust, and with the
+roguery in his brown eyes was mingled a spark of obstinacy, with which
+the little scar on his brown cheek harmonized so well, that one could
+safely infer he had not spent all his time in the study of dogmatic
+theology. "Yes," said he, as he sat there, "the fox must go to his own
+hole. I have beaten about the bush long enough; to be sure there has
+been time to spare, there was no hurry about settling matters until
+now; but, to-day, two things must be decided. To-day the old man is
+coming; well for me that mother does not come too, else I might find
+myself wanting in courage, at last. I am as fit for a parson as a
+donkey to play on the guitar, or Gottlieb for a colonel of cuirassiers.
+If Braesig were only here, to-day, he would stand by me. But Mining! If
+I could get that settled first."
+
+Just then, Mining came along, with a plate of bread and butter.
+
+Rudolph sprang up: "Mining, what a good little thing you are!" and he
+threw his arm around her.
+
+Mining pulled herself away; "Ah, let me be! What a naughty boy you are!
+Mother is dreadfully angry with you."
+
+"You mean on account of the sermon? Well, yes! It was a stupid trick."
+
+"No," said Mining, earnestly, "it was a _wicked_ trick. It was making
+light of holy things."
+
+"Oh, ho! Such candidates' sermons are not such holy things,--even when
+they come from our pious Gottlieb."
+
+"But, Rudolph, in the _church_!"
+
+"Ah, Mining, I acknowledge it was a stupid trick, I did not consider it
+beforehand; I only thought of the sheepish face Gottlieb would make,
+and that amused me so that I did the foolish thing. But let it go,
+Mining!" and he threw his arm about her again.
+
+"No, let go!" said Mining, but did not push it away. "And the pastor
+said, if he should report the matter, you could never in your life get
+a parish."
+
+"Let him report it then; I wish he would, and I should be out of the
+scrape once for all."
+
+"What?" asked Mining, making herself free, and pushing him back a
+little way, "do you say that in earnest?"
+
+"In solemn earnest. It was the first and last time I shall enter a
+pulpit."
+
+"Rudolph!" exclaimed Mining, in astonishment.
+
+"Why should that trouble you?" cried Rudolph, hastily. "Look at
+Gottlieb, look at me! Am I fit for a pastor? And if I had whole systems
+of theology in my head, so that I could even instruct the learned
+professors, they would not let me through my examination; they demand
+also a so-called religious experience. And if I were the apostle Paul
+himself, they would have nothing to do with me, if they knew about the
+little scar on my cheek."
+
+"But what will you do, then?" asked Mining, and laid her hand hastily on
+his arm. "Ah, don't be a soldier!"
+
+"God forbid! Don't think of such a thing! No, I will be a farmer."
+
+"Confounded scamp!" said Braesig, up in the tree.
+
+"Yes, my dear little Mining," said Rudolph, drawing her down on the
+bench beside him, "I will be a farmer, a right active, skilful farmer,
+and you, my little old dear Mining, shall help me about it."
+
+"She shall teach him to plough and to harrow," said Braesig.
+
+"I, Rudolph?" asked Mining,
+
+"Yes, you, my dear, sweet child,"--and he stroked the shining hair, and
+the soft cheeks, and lifted the little chin, and looked full in the
+blue eyes,--"if I only knew, with certainty, that in a year and a day
+you would be my little wife, it would be easy for me to learn to be a
+skilful farmer. Will you, Mining, will you?"
+
+And the tears flowed from Mining's eyes, and Rudolph kissed them away,
+here and there, over her cheeks, down to her rosy mouth, and Mining
+laid her little round head on his breast, and when he gave her time to
+speak, she whispered softy that she would, and he kissed her again, and
+ever again, and Braesig called, half aloud, from the tree, "But that is
+too much of a good thing! Have done!"
+
+And Rudolph told her, between the kisses, that he would speak with his
+father, to-day, and remarked also, by the way, it was a pity Braesig was
+not there; he could help him finely in his undertaking, and he knew the
+old man thought a great deal of him.
+
+"Confounded scamp!" said Braesig, "catching away my tench!"
+
+And Mining said Braesig was there, and was taking his afternoon nap.
+
+"Just hear the rogue, will you?" said Braesig. "This looks like an
+afternoon nap! But it is all finished now. Why should I torment my poor
+bones any longer?" And as Rudolph was saying he must speak to the old
+gentleman, Braesig slid down the cherry-tree, until his trousers were
+stripped up to his knees, and caught by the lowest branches, saying,
+"Here he hangs!" and then he let himself fall, and stood close before
+the pair of lovers, with an expression on his heated face, which said
+quite frankly he considered himself a suitable arbiter in the most
+delicate affairs.
+
+The young people did not conduct themselves badly. Mining did like
+Lining in putting her hands before her face, only she did not cry, and
+she would have run away like Lining, if she had not, from a little
+child, stood on the most confidential footing with her Uncle Braesig.
+She threw herself, with her eyes covered, against her Uncle Braesig's
+breast, and crept with her little, round head almost into his
+waistcoat pocket, and cried,--
+
+"Uncle Braesig! Uncle Braesig! you are an abominable old fellow!"
+
+"So?" asked Braesig. "Eh, that is very fine."
+
+"Yes," said Rudolph, with a little air of superiority, "you should be
+ashamed to play the listener here."
+
+"Monsieur Noodle," said Braesig, "let me tell you, once for all, I have
+never in my life done anything to be ashamed of, and if you think you
+can teach me good manners you are very much mistaken."
+
+Rudolph had sense enough to see this, and, although he would have
+relished a little contest, it was clear to him that on this occasion he
+must yield to Mining's wishes. So he remarked, in a pleasanter tone,
+that if Braesig were up in the tree by chance--he would take that for
+granted--he might at least have advised them of his presence, by
+coughing, or in some way, instead of listening to their affairs from A
+to Z.
+
+"So?" said Braesig, "I should have coughed, should I? I _groaned_ often
+enough and if you had not been so occupied with your own affairs, you
+might easily have heard me. But you ought to be ashamed, to be making
+love to Mining without Frau Nuessler's permission."
+
+That was his own affair, Rudolph said, and nobody's else, and Braesig
+knew nothing about such matters.
+
+"So?" asked Braesig, again. "Did you ever have three sweethearts at
+once? I did, sir; three acknowledged sweethearts, and do I know about
+such matters? But you are such a sly old rascal, fishing my tench out
+of the Black Pool, on the sly; and fishing my little Mining, before my
+very eyes, out of the arbor. Come, leave him alone, Mining! he shall
+have nothing to do with you."
+
+"Ah, Uncle Braesig," begged Mining so artlessly, "be good to us, we love
+each other so much."
+
+"Well, never mind Mining, you are my little goddaughter; though that is
+all over now."
+
+"No, Herr Inspector!" cried Rudolph,--laying his hand on the old man's
+shoulder, "no, dear, good Uncle Braesig, that is not over, that shall
+last as long as we live. I will be a farmer, and if I have the prospect
+of calling Mining my wife, and"--he was cunning enough to add--"and you
+will give me your valuable advice, the devil must be in it, if I cannot
+make a good one."
+
+"A confounded rascal!" said Braesig to himself, adding, aloud, "Yes, you
+will be such a Latin farmer as Pistorius, and Praetorius, and Trebonius,
+and you will sit on the bank of the ditch and read that fellow's book,
+with the long title, about oxygen and carbonic acid gas, and organisms,
+while the cursed farmboys are strewing manure, behind your back, in
+lumps as big as your hat-crown. Oh, I know you! I never knew but one
+man who had been to the great schools, and was worth anything
+afterward, and that was the young Herr yon Rambow, who was with
+Habermann."
+
+"Ah, Uncle Braesig," said Mining, lifting her head, suddenly, and
+stroking the old man's cheeks, "what Franz can do, Rudolph can do
+also."
+
+"No, Mining, that he can _not_! And why? Because he is a greyhound, and
+the other is a decided character!"
+
+"Uncle Braesig," said Rudolph, "you are thinking of that stupid trick of
+mine, about the sermon; but Gottlieb had teased me so with his zeal for
+proselyting, I must play some little joke on him."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Braesig, "well, why not, it amused me, it amused me
+very much. So he wanted to convert you too, from fishing, perhaps? Oh,
+he has been trying to convert somebody here, this afternoon, but Lining
+ran away from him; however, that is all right."
+
+"With Lining and Gottlieb?" asked Mining anxiously, "and have you
+listened to that, too?"
+
+"Of course I listened to it, it was on their account I perched myself
+in this confounded cherry-tree. But now come here Monsieur Rudolph.
+Will you, all your life long, never again go into the pulpit and preach
+a sermon?"
+
+"No, never again."
+
+"Will you get up at four o'clock in the morning, and three o'clock in
+the summer-time, and give out fodder grain?"
+
+"Always, at the very hour."
+
+"Will you learn how to plough and harrow and mow properly, and to reap
+and bind sheaves, that is, with a band,--there is no art in using a
+rope?"
+
+"Yes," said Rudolph.
+
+"Will you promise never to sit over the punch-bowl, at the Thurgovian
+ale-house, when your wagons are already gone, and then ride madly after
+them?"
+
+"I will never do it," said Rudolph.
+
+"Will you also never in your life--Mining, see that beautiful larkspur,
+the blue, I mean, just bring it to me, and let me smell it--will you,"
+he continued, when she was gone, "never entangle yourself with the
+confounded farm-girls?"
+
+"Herr Inspector, what do you take me for?" said Rudolph angrily,
+turning away.
+
+"Come, come," said Braesig, "every business must be settled beforehand,
+and I give you warning: for every tear my little godchild sheds on your
+account I will give your neck a twist," and he looked as fierce as if
+he were prepared to do it immediately.
+
+"Thank you Mining," said he, as she brought him the flower, and he
+smelled it, and stuck it in his buttonhole.
+
+"And now, come here, Mining, I will give you my blessing. No, you need
+not fall on your knees, since I am not one of your natural parents, but
+merely your godfather. And you, Monsieur Rudolph, I will stand by you
+this afternoon, when your father comes, and help you out of this
+clerical scrape. And now, come, both of you, we must go in. But I tell
+you, Rudolph, don't sit reading, by the ditches, but attend to the
+manure-strewing. You see there is a trick in it, the confounded
+farm-boys must take the fork, and then not throw it off directly, no!
+they must first break it up three or four times with the fork, so that
+it gets well separated. A properly manured field ought to look as neat
+and fine as a velvet coverlid."
+
+With that, he went, with the others, out of the garden gate.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Towards the middle of the afternoon, the merchant Kurz, and the rector
+Baldrian were approaching the Rexow farm.
+
+Kurz had invited the rector to be his companion, to his own detriment,
+for a little man appears to fearful disadvantage beside a long-legged
+fellow, and nature, in cheating Kurz of his rightful dimensions,
+appeared to have endowed the rector with the surplus. So they walked
+along the road, and the rector made a joke; he said that they two
+together reminded him of the metre, which the Romans called a dactyl,
+long, short, short; long, short, short. That provoked Kurz, since it
+was disparaging to his legs and his capabilities as a pedestrian; he
+took the longest possible steps.
+
+"Now we can pass for a spondee," said the rector.
+
+"Do me the favor, brother-in-law," said Kurz, angrily, and wholly out
+of breath, "to spare me your learned witticisms. They are altogether
+too much for me." And he wiped off the sweat from his face, pulled off
+his coat, and hung it over his stick.
+
+In his belief, Kurz was properly a materialist, but by trade he was a
+mercer. There were always remnants left over, in this business, which
+was quite a convenience to a man of his short stature, since he could
+use them up for himself. When he had cleared out his old stock last
+year, he had a piece of ladies' dress goods left on hand, on which were
+represented giraffes plucking at a palm-tree. He could not think of
+throwing it away, and he could not get rid of it, so he had it made up
+into a summer coat for himself, and he was now marching on the Rexow
+farm, with this banner over his shoulder, as if he were the youngest
+standard-bearer in the army of a German prince, who bore a giraffe and
+a palm-tree in his shield; and rector Baldrian stalked by his side, in
+a yellow nankeen coat, like a right file-leader, in the body-guard of
+the German prince, who might, for a change, have adopted yellow nankeen
+as a uniform.
+
+"Dear me!" sighed Frau Nuessler, "Kurz is bringing the rector with him."
+
+"Sure enough," said Braesig, "but he shall not incommode us much to-day,
+I will cut his speeches short." For they both had, not without reason,
+a great terror of the rector's circumstantiality.
+
+The two guests entered, and the rector delivered a long oration upon
+his joy in seeing them again, and the happy opportunity of coming with
+Kurz; to which Braesig replied curtly, that long legs were the best
+opportunities for one who was going across country, and turned away, so
+that the rector, while Frau Nuessler was occupied with Kurz, found his
+audience limited to Jochen, who listened in the most exemplary manner
+to the whole discourse, and finally said, "Good day, brother-in-law,
+sit down a little while."
+
+Kurz was out of temper; in the first place, because he had come to give
+his boy a scolding, secondly, because the rector had walked him off his
+legs, and, thirdly, because in pulling off his coat he had taken cold,
+and got a fit of the hiccoughs. His crossness, to be sure, was nothing
+remarkable, for he was angry year in and year out, because he was a
+democrat, of course not a state democrat, for they didn't have such
+then in Mecklenburg; only a city democrat, since he made it the
+particular business of his life to pull public offices from the grasp
+of the thick-nosed baker, in the market-place, who was so horribly
+favored by the burgomeister. He went puffing and hiccoughing about the
+room, and looked, with his red, moist face and his short grizzled hair,
+like a fine, red, freshly cut ham, cooked in paste, well sprinkled with
+pepper and salt, with the gravy following the knife.
+
+The comparison is not strictly accurate, because the knife was wanting,
+but Braesig took care for that; he ran to the dresser, caught up a long,
+sharp carving-knife, marched directly up to the ham and said, "So,
+Kurz, now sit perfectly still."
+
+"What is that for?" inquired Kurz.
+
+"Remedy for the hiccoughs. So! Now you must look right at the point of
+the knife. Now I come nearer and nearer to you with the point; but you
+must be frightened, or it will do you no good. Still nearer,--still
+nearer, as if I were going to split your nose open. Still nearer--close
+to your eyes."
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" cried Kurz, springing up. "Do you mean to put
+my eyes out?"
+
+"Good!" said Braesig, "good! You are frightened, and that will help
+you."
+
+And it did help, truly, that is, as regards the hiccoughs, not as
+regards the crossness.
+
+"Where is my boy?" he asked. "He shall get a scolding to-day. Nothing
+but vexations, brother-in-law!" turning to Jochen. "Here with the boy,
+at the Rathhaus with the public documents, at home with my wife, on
+account of that confounded sermon affair, in the shop with that beast
+of an apprentice, selling a half ounce of black sewing silk for a
+drachm, and here, on the road, with the rector's long shanks."
+
+"Mother," said young Jochen, pushing a coffee-cup towards her, "help
+Kurz."
+
+"Eh, brother-in-law," said Frau Nuessler, "there is time enough, let us
+talk it over first; to come down on the boy when you are so heated
+would be like pouring oil on the fire."
+
+"I'll come down on him----" began Kurz; but he went no further, for the
+door opened, and Gottlieb entered.
+
+Gottlieb's step was more than usually dignified, as he walked up to his
+father, and greeted him. He was so excessively solemn, and had such an
+air of clerical reserve, that he looked as if St. Salbaderus had taken
+him under his special tuition, and hung him up by a string every night,
+to keep him out of harm's way.
+
+"Good day, how goes it, papa?" said he, and kissed his father on the
+cheek, so that the old man kissed in the air, like a carp, when he
+comes up out of the water.
+
+"How is mamma?" inquired the son.
+
+Gottlieb had been brought up from a child to say "Papa" and "Mamma,"
+because the rector thought "Father" and "Mother," although quite good
+enough for ordinary burghers, were not suitable for educated people; at
+which Frau Kurz was naturally very indignant, since her children always
+said "Daddy" and "Mammy."
+
+"Good day, uncle," said Gottlieb to Kurz, "good day, Herr Inspector,"
+to Braesig, and, turning again to his father, he went on: "I am very
+glad you have come to-day, for I wish to speak to you particularly, on
+important business."
+
+"Ha, ha," said Braesig to himself, "it is beginning already."
+
+The rector went out into the court-yard with his son, and Braesig
+stationed himself at the window, and watched them. Frau Nuessler came up
+to him: "Braesig, did you find out anything, this afternoon, about my
+little girls?"
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "don't you be troubled, the business has
+settled itself."
+
+"What?" cried Frau Nuessler, hastily, "how has it settled itself?"
+
+"You will soon find out, for if you look out of the window you will see
+it is being settled now. Why do you think the rector is shaking hands
+with Gottlieb, and embracing him? On account of his Christian belief?
+Come, I will tell you why; it is because you, Frau Nuessler, are such a
+good housekeeper."
+
+Braesig had great knowledge of human nature, and could read hearts like
+a prophet; but he shared the common failing of prophets, he uttered
+dark sayings. Frau Nuessler did not understand a word: "What? He
+embraces Gottlieb because I am a good housekeeper!"
+
+Braesig had another prophet's failing; he gave no answer to a reasonable
+question, if it did not suit his humour. "Can't you see how he gives
+him his blessing?" he exclaimed. "He knows very well that money
+answereth all things, and he knows there is plenty of it here."
+
+"What has that to do with my children?"
+
+"You will soon find out. See! now the Pietist is going away, and now
+look at the old man. Lord have mercy on us! he is learning off a speech
+by heart; and it will be a long one,--all his speeches are long, but
+the ceremonious ones are the longest."
+
+Braesig had great knowledge of human nature, as was fully proved on this
+occasion, for the rector came in, and began immediately:
+
+"Honored friends, a certain wise man of antiquity has uttered the
+indisputable truth, that the happiest home is that where quiet peace
+dwells, in company with a comfortable, substantial competency. Here, in
+this house, this is the case. I have not come here to disturb this
+quiet peace; my dear brother-in-law, Kurz can do what he pleases,--I
+have come by accident, but accident is a 'casus' or falling out,
+whereby important things sometimes fall in a man's way. This is the
+case with me to-day. This accident may fall out for good, or it may
+fall out for evil; but I will not anticipate, I will say nothing
+further about it. Dear Brother Jochen, you as the proper head of this
+happily situated family"--Jochen made a face as if his brother-in-law
+had said he was the proper autocrat of all Russia, and ought by good
+rights to be sitting on his throne in the Kremlin at Moscow, instead of
+sitting here in the chimney-corner--"yes," repeated the rector, "you,
+as the proper head of the family, will pardon me if I address myself
+also to my dear sister-in-law, who has cared for the affairs of her own
+family with so much love and circumspection, and with such blessed
+results, and also upon the families related--I refer here particularly
+to the friendly reception of my Gottlieb--has exerted a highly
+beneficial influence. You, my dear brother-in-law Kurz, belong also to
+the family, and although our two families, at least the female members,
+have been lately a little divided, though--well, on this happy occasion
+we will say nothing more about it--I am sure you really feel interested
+in my happiness. But now," going up to Braesig, "how shall I address
+you, Herr Inspector? You, though you do not, strictly speaking,
+belong to the family, have yet been so helpful in action, so wise in
+counsel----"
+
+"Come. I will give you a bit of advice," said the old man; "take a
+fresh start or you will never get to the end."
+
+"End?" said the rector, with the authority of the clergyman breaking
+through the crust of the pedant. "End?" asked he, solemnly, raising his
+eyes to heaven, "will it come to a good or a bad end? Who knows the
+end?"
+
+"I know it," said Braesig, "for I heard the beginning, this afternoon,
+up in that confounded cherry-tree. The end of the whole story is, the
+Pietist wants to marry our Lining."
+
+Then there was an uproar, "Gracious heavens!" cried Frau Nuessler.
+"Gottlieb! our child?"
+
+"Yes," said the rector, snapping out the word, and standing there like
+Klein, the head-fireman at Stemhagen, when the engines were being
+tried, and the hose burst, and he got the whole stream of water over
+himself.
+
+Kurz sprang up, exclaiming; "The rascal! Gottlieb? That is too much!"
+
+And Jochen also got up, but slowly, and asked Braesig, "_Mining_, did
+you say, Braesig?"
+
+"No, young Jochen, only _Lining_," said Braesig, quietly. And young
+Jochen sat down again.
+
+"And you knew that, Braesig, and never told us?" cried Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Oh, I know yet more," said Braesig, "but why should I tell you? What
+difference could it make whether you knew it a quarter of an hour
+sooner, or not; and I thought it would be a pleasant surprise for you."
+
+"And here he is," said the rector, leading in Gottlieb, who had been
+behind the door all the time, "and he wishes to receive his answer from
+your kindness."
+
+And now came old Gottlieb, for once with nothing ludicrous about him,
+but like any other man. His clerical demeanor, and the exclusiveness of
+his Levitical calling, he had quite thrown overboard, since he had no
+room in his heart for such folderols. At this moment it was full of
+pure human nature, of doubt and hope, of fear and love, and those who
+could decide his happiness or misery stood before him as human beings
+in flesh and blood--Jochen to be sure was sitting--and real love, with
+its proper circumstances of betrothal and marriage, is such a fair,
+pure, human feeling, that truly no clerical parade can make it fairer.
+At any other time, Gottlieb himself would have been the first to
+dispute this assertion, but at this moment he was so overcome by this
+tender feeling, and expressed himself with so much warmth and
+confidence toward Frau Nuessler and Jochen, that Braesig said to himself,
+"How the man has altered! If Lining has done so much in this short
+time, let her go on, in heaven's name! She will make a good fellow of
+him yet!"
+
+Frau Nuessler listened to Gottlieb's straightforward story, and indeed
+she had always liked old Gottlieb, but the thought of losing her child
+overcame her for the moment; she was much agitated; "Good heavens!"
+cried she, "Gottlieb, you were always a good fellow, and you studied
+your books well, but----"
+
+Here she was for the first time in her life, interrupted by Jochen.
+When Jochen understood that they were not talking about Mining, he
+became quiet; while Gottlieb addressed him, he was collecting his
+thoughts and, as he became aware that all eyes were turned upon him, he
+resolved to speak, and so he took the words out of his wife's mouth,
+saying, "Yes, Gottlieb, it is all as true as leather, and what I can do
+in the matter, as a father, I will do, and if mother is willing I am
+willing; and if Lining is willing I am willing."
+
+"Good heavens, Jochen!" cried Frau Nuessler, "what are you talking
+about? Just keep quiet! No, I must first speak, to my child, I must
+first hear what she will say to it." With that she ran out of the room.
+
+But it was not long before she came back, leading Lining by the hand,
+and behind her followed Mining and Rudolph, probably intending to make
+a practical use of this occasion; and Lining, red as a rose, dropped
+her mother's hand, and threw herself upon Gottlieb's breast, and then
+on her mother's, and then went and sat down on Jochen's knee--for he
+had seated himself again--and would have kissed him, but could not for
+coughing, for Jochen in his excitement was puffing violently at his
+strong tobacco, so she only said "Father!" and he said "Lining!" and
+when she rose, Braesig was standing beside her, and he caressed her, and
+said; "Never mind, Lining, I will give you something." Then Gottlieb
+took her by the hand, and led her up to his father, and the rector bent
+so low to give her his fatherly kiss, that the others thought he was
+picking up a pin from the floor, and he began on a new oration, but did
+not get far in it, for Braesig stood at the window, drumming "The old
+Dessauer," so that nobody could hear a word. The old man was staring
+over Jochen's barn-roof, into the clear sunshine, as if there were
+something quite remarkable to be seen there. And there was, in fact,
+something remarkable to be seen; he saw, far off, an apple-tree, which
+had been once covered with rosy bloom; it was his tree, he had propped
+and trained it, it was his tree, but Jochen had transplanted it to his
+garden, and he had been compelled to suffer it; but for all that, he
+had still watched and tended the tree, and the tree had borne fruit,
+beautiful red, round fruit; and the fruit had grown ripe, and was fair
+to look upon, and now a couple of boys had climbed over the fence, and
+one had plucked an apple, and put it in his pocket, and the second was
+reaching out his hand for the other. Well, boys will be boys, and
+apples and boys belong together; he knew that, and had often said to
+himself that it must come; he did not grudge them but it troubled him
+that the care of his little twin-apples should pass into other hands,
+especially he could not easily give up the care of his little rogue, so
+he drummed lustily on the window-frame.
+
+And Kurz, the shop-keeper, blew his nose as fiercely as if he were
+playing the trumpet to Braesig's drumming. It was not from emotion, that
+he blew it so impressively, only from anger; for he was the fifth wheel
+on the wagon amid all this domestic happiness, and yet he had come on
+an important piece of business; but the circumstances demanded that he
+should offer friendly congratulations, so with a face like a salt plum
+that has been steeped in vinegar, he passed by his son Rudolph without
+looking at him, and congratulated, right and left, as if he stood
+behind his counter, serving his customers, and must have a friendly
+word ready for every one, though he heard clearly all the time, behind
+his back, the whole vinegar barrel running out. But when he came to the
+rector, and should have poured him out a measure of oil for his
+pathetic oration, there was the vinegar, which his boy had left
+running, close at his heels, and he could talk to his customers no
+longer; he turned quickly on his heel, and cried to Rudolph, "Are you
+not ashamed of yourself?" then turning back to the customers, "I beg
+your pardon! but this business must be attended to--are you not ashamed
+of yourself? Have you not cost me more than Gottlieb his father? Have
+you learnt anything? Just tell me!"
+
+"Dear brother-in-law," said the rector, and laid his hand with
+friendliness on Kurz's head, as if he had done his Latin exercise
+uncommonly well, "what he has learned, he cannot tell you in a moment."
+
+"Eh, what!" cried Kura, twitching out from under the hand, and
+stumbling backward, "did you bring me along, or did I bring you along?
+I think I brought you along; it is time for my business to be attended
+to now. Are you not ashamed of yourself?" he cried, to Rudolph again;
+"there stands Gottlieb, has passed his examination, has a bride,--a
+fair, a lovely bride,"--with that he endeavoured to bow to Lining, but
+in his excitement always made his compliments to Frau Nuessler,--"can be
+a pastor to-morrow,"--Braesig got this bow, instead of Gottlieb,--"and
+you, and you--oh, you have fought duels, and what else have you done?
+Got into debt; but I won't pay your debts!" and although nobody said
+that he should pay them, he kept repeating, "I won't pay them! No! I
+won't pay them!" and he placed himself by Braesig, at the window, and
+joined him in drumming.
+
+The poor boy, Rudolph, stood there, terribly mortified. It is true,
+nature had given him a pretty tough hide, and he was too well used to
+his father's abuse, to take it for more than it was worth, for nobody
+must believe that Kurz, in his inmost heart, was angry with his boy,
+no, God forbid! quite the contrary! because he cared so much for him,
+he was angry that his boy was not so well off as the rector's.
+
+But for all that, and although Rudolph knew right well how much his
+father thought of him, he could not bear it this time, for the old man
+was too hard on him, and before so many witnesses, and he had a whole
+stream of bitter words on the cud of his tongue, when his eye
+fortunately fell upon Mining, who this afternoon reckoned herself truly
+one bone and one flesh with Rudolph, for her flesh was pale instead of
+his, and every bone in her body trembled for him. Rudolph swallowed his
+bitter words, and for the first time the feeling came over him, that
+his misdeeds could recoil on any other head than his own, and he
+resolved to do nothing for the future, without looking into Mining's
+eyes first. And, I say, that is a very good sign of a young, honest
+love.
+
+"Father," said he, when he had controlled himself, and went, without
+troubling himself at the long faces around him, up to his father, and
+laid his hand on his shoulder, "Father, come! I have done with stupid
+tricks from henceforth."
+
+Kurz kept on drumming; but Braesig stopped.
+
+"Father," said Rudolph again, "you have reason to be angry with me, I
+have deserved it, but----"
+
+"Stop your confounded drumming!" said Braesig, arresting Kurz's
+knuckles.
+
+"Father," said Rudolph, offering his hand to his father, "come, forgive
+and forget!"
+
+"No!" said Kurz, thrusting both hands in his pockets.
+
+"What?" said Braesig, "You will not? I know very well, nobody should
+interfere between father and son, but I _will_ interfere, because it is
+your own fault that the business has been talked about so openly. What!
+You will not forget and forgive this young fellow's follies, and he
+your own son? Haven't you always sent me that old, sweet Prussian
+Kuemmel, and didn't I forgive and forget, and go and trade with you
+again, and pay you honestly?"
+
+"I have always served you well," said Kurz.
+
+"So?" asked Braesig, mockingly. "How about that trousers' pattern? Young
+Jochen, you know all about it, you can remember how they looked
+afterwards."
+
+"Those stupid old trousers!" cried Kurz, "you have made so much fuss
+about them already that----"
+
+"Ha, ha!" interrupted Braesig, "do you talk like that? Wasn't it pure
+wickedness on your part, to let me wear them, and you knowing they
+would turn red, and haven't I forgiven and forgotten? Well, not
+forgotten, to be sure, for I have a very good memory,--but if you don't
+forget what the young fellow has done, you can at least forgive him."
+
+"Dear brother-in-law," began the rector, who believed that, in
+consideration of his having formerly been a clergyman, it was his duty
+to make peace.
+
+"Do me the pleasure!" cried Kurz, turning short round, "you have a
+bride, and will get a parish,--that is to say, your Gottlieb will get
+one, and we--we--we have learnt nothing, we have no bride, no parish,
+and we have a scar!" and then he ran wildly about the room.
+
+"Father!" cried Rudolph, "just hear me!"
+
+"Yes," said Frau Nuessler, who was heated to the point of boiling over,
+and she caught Kurz by the arm; "just hear what he has to say for
+himself. If he did do a foolish thing about the sermon,--and no one was
+more troubled about it than I,--yet otherwise he is a good boy, and
+many a father would be proud of him."
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Kurz, impatiently, "I will hear him, I will listen to
+him," and he placed himself before Rudolph with his hands on his sides:
+"Come now, say what you have to say, now say it!"
+
+"Dear father," said Rudolph, standing there with a beseeching and yet
+resolved expression upon his face, "I know it will grieve you deeply,
+but I cannot do otherwise; I shall not be a clergyman, I am going to be
+a farmer."
+
+It is said that they teach the bears to dance, in Poland, by putting
+them on hot iron plates, where they must keep their legs constantly in
+motion, to avoid being burned. In precisely such a manner, did Kurz hop
+about the room, at these words of Rudolph's, first on one foot and then
+on the other, as if the devil were under Frau Nuessler's floor, toasting
+his feet for him. "That is pretty," he cried at every jump, "that is
+fine! My son, who has cost me so much, who has learned so much, will be
+a farmer! will be a clodhopper, a blockhead, a stable-boy!"
+
+"Young Jochen," cried Braesig, "shall we suffer ourselves to be called
+by such names? Stand up, young Jochen! What, Herr!" exclaimed he, going
+up to Kurz, "such a herring-dealer, such a syrup-prince as you, to
+despise farmers! Herr, do you know who we are? We are your very
+foundation; if it were not for us, and our buying of you, the
+shopkeepers might all run about the country with beggars' sacks,--and
+you think your son has learned too much for such a calling? He has
+learned too much, perhaps, in one way, but he has learned too little in
+another. Do you believe, Herr, that a capable agriculturalist--stand up
+here by me, Jochen!--needs nothing but a sheep's head and asses' ears?"
+
+"Dear brother-in-law," began the rector, again.
+
+"Will you kill me, with your long speeches?" roared Kurz. "You have
+sheared your little sheep; I came out, also, to shear my black sheep,
+and now you all seem bent on shearing me."
+
+"Kurz," said Frau Nuessler, "be reasonable. What cannot be, cannot. If
+he won't be a pastor, he is the nearest thing to it, as the Frau
+Pastorin says; and in my opinion, if he is only an industrious fellow,
+it is all the same whether he preaches or ploughs."
+
+"Father," said Rudolph now, as he noticed that his father was
+considering, "give me your consent; you do not know how much my life's
+happiness depends on it."
+
+"Who will take you for a pupil?" cried Kurz, still angrily. "Nobody!"
+
+"That is my affair," said Braesig. "I know a man,--that is Hilgendorff,
+of Tetzleben,--who understands book-farming, and who has already done
+well for his pupils. He had one fellow, who was beside himself with
+poetry, which he used to write behind the shed; if he wanted to say
+that the sun was risen, he said, 'Aurora had looked over the hedge,'
+and when he would speak of a storm coming up, he said, 'It glowed and
+towered up, in the west,' and if he would say it drizzled, he said,
+'Light drops distilled from heaven,'--and for all that, he has made a
+useful man out of him. He must go to Hilgendorff."
+
+"Yes," said Kurz, "but I must speak with Hilgendorff; I shall tell
+him----"
+
+"Tell him everything, father," said Rudolph, embracing the old man,
+"but I have yet another petition."
+
+"Ha, ha!" cried Kurz, "about your debts, I suppose; but don't come near
+me with those to-day, I have enough of this clodhopper business, and I
+won't pay them!" and he shoved his son away.
+
+"And you shall not, father," said Rudolph, drawing himself up proudly,
+and his whole bearing expressed such cheerful courage and such sure
+confidence, that all eyes were attracted towards him. "You shall not do
+it!" he cried, "I have incurred debts to-day, and I have given my word
+of honor, honestly to pay and discharge them, and I will do it, with my
+heart's blood. I have made them here," he exclaimed, going up to
+Mining, who all this time, and through all this quarrel, had been lying
+on her sister's shoulder, and who felt as if it were the beginning of
+the judgment day. "Here!" said he, and laid Mining on his own breast.
+"If I am ever good for anything, you have this little girl here to
+thank for it," and the tears started from his eyes, "my darling little
+bride."
+
+"Confounded rascal!" said Braesig, rubbing his eyes, and he went back to
+the window, and drummed the Dessauer, for he was the only one who was
+not surprised at this announcement. The others stood there, confounded.
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried Frau Nuessler, "what is this?"
+
+"What?" cried Jochen, "_Mining_, did he say?"
+
+"Good gracious, Jochen, don't talk so much!" cried Frau Nuessler,
+"Mining, what is this, what does this mean?"
+
+But Mining lay on Rudolph's breast, as white and still, as if she would
+never raise her head, or speak another word. Kurz had comprehended the
+matter at once, he had quickly ciphered out in his head a couple of
+examples in arithmetic, of which Jochen's property furnished the
+principal items, and he found the result so satisfactory, that he began
+to dance again, this time, however, not like the Polish bears, but like
+a wild Indian executing a war-dance, and Braesig drummed the measure.
+Rector Baldrian's face was the one quiet point, in all this general
+excitement, for it looked as uncomprehensive as mine would, if I were
+poring over a Hebrew Bible.
+
+"What is this, what does this mean?" cried Frau Nuessler again, sinking
+into a chair. "Both my two! Both my little girls in one and the same
+day! And _you_ said," turning upon Braesig, "that you would look after
+them!"
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "have I not looked after them, till all my
+bones were sore? But there is no harm done, so far as I can see. What
+do you say to it, Jochen?"
+
+"I have nothing to say; my blessed mother always said: A candidate and
+a governess----"
+
+"Jochen," cried Frau Nuessler, "you will talk me dead, and you learned
+this very chattering from Rudolph, the rascal!"
+
+"Blockhead!" exclaimed Kurz, dancing about the pair, "why didn't you
+tell me that, in the first place? I would have forgiven you anything,
+on account of this little--this dear little daughter!" and he lifted up
+Mining's head, and kissed her.
+
+"Gracious heavens!" cried Frau Nuessler, "there is Kurz calling her his
+daughter, and kissing her, and his boy is nothing at all yet, and
+Mining is so inconsiderate!"
+
+"So?" said Braesig. "You mean because she is the youngest? Now come here
+a minute, I want to speak to you privately," and he led Frau Nuessler
+into the corner, and the two looked attentively at the old spittoon,
+which stood there. "Frau Nuessler," said he, "what is right for one,
+must be reasonable for the other. You have given your blessing to
+Lining, why not to Mining? Yes, it is true, she is not so thoughtful,
+because she is the youngest; but after all, Madame Nuessler, the
+difference in years is so little, in a pair of twins, that it is
+scarcely to be regarded, and then--you must give your daughter to the
+presbyter, and how he will take care of her, the devil knows! we know
+nothing about the ways of the clergy, for you and Jochen and I have
+never studied theology; but the other, the duel-fighter, you see how he
+stands there, as if he could cut his way through the world--a
+confounded rascal! well, you see with him, as a farmer, we shall have
+the advantage, for you and Habermann and I, and if the worst comes to
+the worst, Jochen himself, an look after him, and admonish him, and
+Keep him in order. And you see, Frau Nuessler, I always thought Jochen
+would improve with age; but does he improve? No, he doesn't improve,
+and it may be a real blessing for you to have this youth here, as a
+son-in-law, if he does well, for we are getting old, and when I close
+my eyes--well, I shall last a little while longer, perhaps--but it
+would be a great comfort to me to know that you had some one on hand,
+to look after you."
+
+And the old fellow looked down fixedly into the spittoon, and Frau
+Nuessler threw her arm around his neck, and kissed him, for the first
+time in her life, and said in a quiet, friendly way; "Braesig, if you
+really think it right, then it cannot be against the will of God." Many
+an arbor has witnessed a fresher, rosier, more glowing kiss, but the
+old spittoon would not exchange with them.
+
+And Frau Nuessler turned back, and went up to Rudolph, and said,
+"Rudolph, I say nothing more but, In God's name," and she drew Mining
+to her arms, and reached after Lining, and laid the two little twins
+alternately upon her breast, as she had done years ago, and hope stood
+again at her side, in her freshest, green wreath, as she had done years
+ago; yet it was quite different to-day, from that other time. Then she
+had given the two little twins, now she would take them away; for hope
+is like the bee, she plunger into every flower, and extracts from each
+its honey.
+
+And Braesig went up and down the room, with great strides, and held his
+nose in the air, and snuffed about, and elevated his eyebrows, and
+turned out his little legs, with as much dignity and importance, as if
+he were the rightful father, who should give away the children, and had
+made up his mind to the sacrifice, and by him also stood a fair,
+womanly image. With a wreath, it was a wreath of moss and yellow
+immortelles; but it harmonized well with the still, sad eyes, and she
+took him softly by the hand, and led him again and ever again towards
+the mother and children, till he laid his hands on her head, and
+whispered in her ears, "Be content, you shall have them still."
+
+Rudolph had gone directly up to Gottlieb, and offered him his hand:
+"You are no longer angry with me, to-day, are you, Gottlieb?" and
+Gottlieb pressed his hand, saying, "How can you think so, dear brother?
+Forgiveness is the Christian's duty." And the rector coughed, as if he
+were preparing to deliver a brief oration, but Kurz caught hold of his
+coat, and begged him, for God's sake, not to spoil the business--and
+then all at once, the company became aware that Jochen was missing.
+Where was Jochen?
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Frau Nuessler, "where is my Jochen?"
+
+"Good gracious! where is Jochen?" repeated one and another; but Braesig
+was the first who made any efforts to bring him back to his proper
+place; he ran out, and screamed out of the front door, across the
+court-yard, "Jochen!" and ran back again, and screamed through the
+garden, "Jochen!" and, as he came back through the kitchen, he saw a
+fiery face puffing and blowing at the coals, under a great copper
+kettle, and that was Jochen's face.
+
+The feeling had come over him, that he ought to do something, in honor
+of such a special occasion, and his heart became so warm, that five and
+twenty degrees (Reaumur) in the shade seemed too cool for him, and
+since he wanted to bring his outside into harmony with his inside, and
+could think of nothing more suitable to a family festival, he decided
+upon punch, and was brewing it in the most energetic manner. Braesig
+assisted, and undertook the tasting, and they came back finally,
+bearing in Frau Nuessler's largest soup-tureen, both fiery as a pair of
+dragons guarding a treasure, and Jochen placed it on the table, with
+the single word, "There!" and Braesig said to the little twin-apples,
+"Go to your father, and thank him; your father thinks of everybody."
+
+As the old fellows gathered about the punch-bowl, and the young people
+had something else to think about, Frau Nuessler stole quietly out of
+the room; she wished to talk over the matter with an older friend than
+Braesig.
+
+The little twin-apples were hidden in the green arbor of their happy
+future; only as Uncle Braesig's playful jests blew aside the green
+leaves, their blushing faces were revealed.
+
+"Yes," said he to Gottlieb, "there are all sorts of people in the
+world, and wicked Pietists among them. You wanted to convert me, take
+care I don't convert you; I shall convert you by means of Lining." And
+as Gottlieb was about to reply, he stood up, and gave him his hand in
+the heartiest manner, "Well, never mind, you will have fire enough yet,
+and if you are the village pastor, I shall get on well with you, and we
+shall be good friends."
+
+And to Rudolph, he said, "Just wait! You have caught my tench out of
+the pool, you rascal, but Hilgendorff will make you face the music,"
+and he went up to his young fishing-comrade and whispered in his ear:
+"It is not so bad! You must always think of Mining, with every bushel
+of corn you measure out, and when you are out in the spring, in a stiff
+east wind, with a dozen laborers, and the old loam-dust flies in your
+nose, and sticks there, as if a swallow had built her nest in your
+head, and the sun looks out through the dust, as round and red as a
+copper-kettle, then you must think that is Mining's face, looking down
+on you. Isn't it so, my little godchild?"
+
+Meanwhile the rector had drank three glasses of punch, one to the
+health of each betrothed pair, and one to the health of the company,
+and he would allow himself no longer to be hindered, even by Kurz, from
+resuming his interrupted speech. He began with the introduction to the
+introduction. He stood up, reached after a tea-spoon and after the
+sugar-tongs, which had been on the table since coffee was served,
+coughed a couple of times, as a sign that he was ready to begin, and
+when he was aware that all were looking at him, and Jochen had folded
+his hands, he first looked very thoughtfully, now at the spoon, and
+then at the tongs. All at once, he thrust the spoon right under
+Braesig's nose, as if Braesig had stolen it, and must be convicted of the
+act: "Do you know that?"
+
+"Yes," said Braesig, "what of it?" Then he held the sugar-tongs before
+Kurz's eyes, and asked if he knew it.
+
+Kurz knew it, it was Jochen's.
+
+"Yes," he began; "you know them; that is, you have a sensible
+perception of them, you know how to distinguish them from other objects
+by color, shape, and brightness: but the moral conception, which I
+connect with them, you do not know."
+
+He looked around, as if he expected some one to contradict him; but
+they were all silent.
+
+"No, you do not know it! I must communicate and explain it to you. See,
+how long will it be before the careful housewife of this family will
+come and take spoon and tongs, and put these, which are now visibly
+divided, lying here on the table, into one common tea-caddy, where they
+will rest together; in thousands of houses they rest together in one
+tea-caddy, and for a thousand years, they rest together in one
+tea-caddy. It is a custom honored for ages, that what belongs
+together should not be separated. And Adam"--here he held up the
+sugar-tongs--"and Eve"--then he held up the tea-spoon--"belonged
+together, for they were created for each other,"--here he held them
+both up--"and the Lord himself put them together in the tea-caddy of
+Paradise. And what did Noah do? He built himself an ark, a
+tea-caddy,--if you will, my beloved,--and he called the males and
+females, and they followed his call,"--here he marched the sugar-tongs
+over the table, alternately pinching them together and letting them
+loose again, and shoved the tea-spoon after them--"and they went----"
+
+"Come in!" cried Braesig, for somebody knocked at the door, and in
+walked Fritz Triddelsitz. "Herr Habermann's compliments to Herr
+Nuessler, and would he lend him a pair of rape-sifters, as they were
+ready to begin harvesting." This made a little disturbance, but the
+rector remained standing at his post.
+
+"Yes," said Jochen, he would do so; and Fritz perceiving by the odor of
+the punch, and the rector's state of preparation,--which he knew well
+enough of old, since he had many a time made his shoulders black and
+blue,--that there was something unusual in progress, crossed the room
+on tiptoe, and sat down, and Jochen said, "Mining, help Triddelsitz."
+Fritz drank, and the rector waited.
+
+"Begin again at the beginning," said Braesig, "else Triddelsitz cannot
+understand it."
+
+"We were speaking, then," began the rector----
+
+"About the sugar-tongs and the teaspoon," cried Kurz, wickedly, "and
+that they belonged in the tea-caddy," and he snatched the silver out of
+his hand and put it into the caddy, saying, "There, now the males and
+females are in Noah's ark, and I think ours will get in there too. You
+must know, Triddelsitz, we are celebrating a double betrothal here,
+to-day, and that is the principal thing; the rector's sermon is only
+the fringe about the garment. What is Habermann doing?"
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Fritz, "he is very well," and he stood up, and
+offered his congratulations to the two couples, on their betrothal, in
+suitable terms enough, and yet with rather a condescending manner, as
+if it were merely a birthday, and the little twin-apples were betrothed
+every year. The rector stood waiting, all this time.
+
+"Lining, help uncle rector," said Jochen.
+
+She did so, and the rector drank; but, instead of diverting his
+attention, the punch moved and stirred and poked about among the
+thoughts which he had collected for his speech, and there was a great
+commotion in his brain, and every idea wanted to take the lead, but
+they were constantly pushed back by one after another of the company,
+now Jochen, now Kurz, and now Fritz, and as he was at last bringing
+forward his heavy artillery of "reflections on marriage," Braesig
+observed, in the most innocent way, "You have been very happy, then, in
+the married state, Herr Rector?"
+
+He seated himself, with a deep sigh, and to this day, no one knows
+whether it was over his marriage or his speech. I incline to think the
+latter, for I hold it easier to resign a happy marriage than a happy
+speech.
+
+It was now evening, and the rector, Kurz, and Triddelsitz took leave;
+Rudolph also was to go with them, for Braesig and Frau Nuessler had both
+given their opinion that he should get into the traces immediately, for
+his new business, and not loaf about any longer. Jochen and Braesig
+accompanied the others a little way.
+
+"How does your new master get on, Triddelsitz?" inquired Braesig.
+
+"Thank you, Herr Inspector, he is quite remarkable, he made a speech to
+the laborers this morning, as one might say, extempore."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Kurz, "does he make speeches too?"
+
+"What had he to speak about?" asked Braesig.
+
+"What did he make?" asked Jochen.
+
+"A speech," said Triddelsitz.
+
+"I thought he was going to be a farmer," said Jochen.
+
+"Why, yes," said Triddelsitz; "but cannot a farmer make a speech?"
+
+That was too much for Jochen; a farmer make a speech? such a thing had
+never occurred to him before; he did not say another word during the
+whole evening, until, just before he fell asleep, he uttered his
+ultimate conclusion: "That must be a confounded smart fellow!"
+
+Braesig did not give up so easily. "What had he to speak about?" said he
+again. "If there was anything to be done about the laborers, there is
+Habermann!"
+
+"Herr Inspector," said the rector, falling in, "a good speech is always
+in place. Cicero----"
+
+"Who was this Cicero?"
+
+"The greatest orator of antiquity."
+
+"Eh, I didn't ask about that; I mean, what was his business; was he a
+farmer, or a shopkeeper, or was he appointed a magistrate, or was he a
+doctor, or what was he?"
+
+"I have told you, he was the greatest orator of antiquity."
+
+"Oh, antiquity here, antiquity there! if he was nothing else--I cannot
+bear those old gabblers, a man should do something. Let me tell you,
+Rudolph, don't be an orator, you may fish, for all me, it is all one,
+perch or carp,--but this speaking is as if you should go fishing in a
+well. And now, good night! Come Jochen!"
+
+With that, they went off, and Fritz struck off to the right, across the
+Pumpelhagen fields, with a medley of thoughts in his head.
+
+The old fellow was not envious, but it went against the grain that his
+two schoolmates in Rahnstadt should each have a bride, while as yet he
+had none. But he knew how to comfort himself. No, said he, he would not
+thank any one for such a bride as they had got; he could have had
+either of the little twins, but he wouldn't take them. Louise
+Habermann, too, might go to Jericho, for him. He would not be a fool,
+to pick the first good plum, for the first plums were always wormy; he
+would wait till they were all properly ripe, and then he could take his
+choice from the upper or the lower branches; and, meanwhile, all the
+little maidens who ran about the world on their pretty feet belonged to
+him, and then he was going to have a horse, and the very next day he
+would go and buy the Whalebone mare of Gust Prebberow.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+A couple of weeks had passed, which Axel, instead of acquainting
+himself with his fields, and the management of his estate, spent, for
+the most part, with Flegel, the wheelwright, in his work shop. The
+model of his new machine had arrived, which was to plough, harrow, and
+break clods, all at the same time, and he must set it at work, for
+himself and for the world. Letters and accounts, and other business in
+the way of writing, incident to a large estate, must naturally be
+postponed; and when he came into the house to dinner or supper, he had
+an important air, as if he must show his young wife what progress he
+was making in husbandry. And who is more credulous than a young wife? a
+bride, perhaps? Oh, no! a bride is uncertain, she is feeling and
+inquiring round, she wishes to learn to know the man she loves; but
+when she believes that she has learned to know him, and has given him
+her hand for life, then she becomes secure, and follows him blindly,
+until the bandage is forcibly torn from her eyes, and even then, she
+turns away, and strives not to see, and thinks it her duty not to
+believe what she cannot help seeing. It was nothing wicked which he
+concealed from her, it was merely follies, and he himself believed that
+in future he should be active and diligent; but it was a pity that he
+did not understand, and she did not understand; for, with all her clear
+eyes and her clear head, she had no idea but it was the same with him
+as with herself, who went about looking into kitchen and cellar, into
+milk-house and butter-room, learning how to take the charge of the
+housekeeping into her own hands.
+
+But everything has its time, and old Kopf, the shepherd, used to say,
+"On the ninth day, puppies got their eyes open." She was walking one
+day, towards evening in the garden, under the shade of the high
+enclosure which separated it from that part of the farm-yard, where the
+work-shop was situated; and, as she went thoughtfully up and down, she
+heard, on the other side of the fence, a scolding and disputing, as if
+two people were having a quarrel: "So? That doesn't suit you? Do you
+think it suits me? Rascal, what lies in my way? What are you doing
+here? I would like----" Bang! went something against the door. She
+became curious, and peeped through the fence; but saw only one man,
+that was the old wheelwright, Fritz Flegel, and there was nobody with
+him, at the moment, and he was carrying on the scolding and arguing
+with his tools and his work. Such a passion in a person entirely alone
+is very amusing, and the young Frau looked on, with laughing eyes as
+the old man went on cursing and scolding: "The devil take you, for all
+me I shall I go crazy over you?" bang! bang! he threw his tools about
+the shop, and through the half-open door, and then thrust his hands
+into his hair, and tossed it about his head. Then he stood still again,
+staring down at the ground. "Infamous creature! making me so much
+trouble and misery!"
+
+"Good evening, Father!" said another voice, and Kegel, the day-laborer,
+came in, and stood leaning on his shovel, "what are you working here
+for? it is evening."
+
+"Working, do you say? Here is something to work at! Say to torment one,
+rather. What? Do you call that a model? I can work very well after a
+model, but the devil himself couldn't work after such a model as that."
+
+"Is that the same old beast, you had begun on, the other day?"
+
+"What else should it be? You may ask me next summer, if it is
+finished!"
+
+"He must have a clever head, though, to think out such things as that."
+
+"So? Do you think so? let me tell you any blockhead can _think_ out
+things, but the difficulty is to _make_ them. You see, there are three
+sorts of people in the world; one understands things, but cannot make
+them, and the second can make them, but don't understand them, and the
+third can neither make nor understand, and he belongs to the last
+class,"--here he threw a wedge against the door,--"and that is why he
+torments a fellow so!"
+
+"Yes, Father, that is so, he doesn't understand. You know, he said we
+were to go straight to him, if we wanted anything; well I went to him,
+and told him about the potato-land, how I wanted some more, and he said
+he knew nothing about such matters, he would speak to our old man about
+it. If he comes to him, I may wait long enough, for he knows that I let
+the hoeing go by."
+
+"The old man for me! he stands by his word; he says to me, Flegel, cut
+me out a plough-board; and I do it, and he says, Flegel, the wheels
+must have new felloes, and I put them on, and I have nothing to worry
+about; but with him! You will see, neighbor, he will lie in the
+nettles, and we shall lie in the nettles too."
+
+"That is so," said Kegel, "my potato-patch lies in the nettles,
+already."
+
+"Yes," said Flegel, shutting the door, and pulling on his jacket, "but
+it serves you right! If you have no potatoes it is your own fault,
+because you did not hoe them; and if the inspector should give you more
+land, it would not help you."
+
+"That is true," said Kegel shouldering his spade, and going off with
+Flegel, "it wouldn't help, especially towards filling the children's
+mouths, yet I might help myself by means of it."
+
+People say, and it is true, that praise from the mouth of a child, or
+the humblest person, is pleasing to the wisest and most distinguished;
+but it is just as true that a hard judgment, from the same
+insignificant source, is painful, and especially painful when it
+concerns one whom we hold dear. And what had happened? It was only the
+gossip of laborers, such as often occurs among ignorant people; but the
+smile had gone from the young wife's eyes, and a look of vexation found
+place there. Her husband's insight, and his good will to carry out what
+he had promised in his speech, were called in question, and it all came
+from this, that he had not grown up to the business he had undertaken.
+
+She was out of humor, when she came in to supper, and he was gay, so
+that their moods were discordant.
+
+"So, dear Frida," said he, "now we are comfortably settled, I think it
+is time for us to make our visits in the neighborhood."
+
+"Yes, Axel, but to whom?"
+
+"Well, I think first our nearest neighbors."
+
+"Our Pastor, first of all."
+
+"Why yes, there, too,--later."
+
+"Who else is there, in the neighborhood?" asked the young wife,
+reckoning over as if thinking aloud, "the landlord Pomuchelskopp, and
+the paechter[3] Nuessler."
+
+"Dear Frida," said Axel, looking more serious, "you must be jesting
+about the paechter Nuessler, we can have no intercourse with paechter
+people."
+
+"I do not agree with you," said Frida, quietly, "I look more at the
+man, than at his rank. It may not be the same here, as with us, in
+Prussia; but in my father's house, we were intimate with several
+paechter families, why not here? Frau Nuessler seems to be a very nice
+woman."
+
+"My inspector's sister. I cannot visit her; it would not be suitable."
+
+"But the landlord Pomuchelskopp?"
+
+"Of course; the man is a proprietor, is wealthy, is a deputy, as well
+as myself--"
+
+"And is notorious, in the whole region, and his wife yet more so. No,
+Axel, I shall not visit there."
+
+"My dear child----"
+
+"No, Axel. If the paechter Nuessler had bought the Gurlitz estate, would
+he be another person, and would you visit him?"
+
+"That has nothing to do with the case. I shall _not_ visit the
+paechter," said Axel, angrily.
+
+"Nor I the landlord, I have an aversion to the family," said Frida,
+putting down her trump, also.
+
+"Frida!" begged Axel.
+
+"No, Axel," said she, decidedly, "I will go with you to Gurlitz,
+to-morrow, but I shall stop at the Pastor's."
+
+That was the conclusion; there was no quarrel about it, but each
+remained fixed in the same decision. How readily and gladly would she
+have yielded, if she had not sat down to supper with the uneasy feeling
+that Axel was lacking in insight to understand a business, and in
+firmness to carry it out; and how readily and gladly would Axel have
+yielded, and stayed away from Pomuchelskopp's, if it had not been
+always in his mind that Pomuchelskopp was a rich man, and he must keep
+on good terms with him, because he might be useful; how readily and
+gladly he would have called at the Nuesslers', but for the foolish
+opinions he had imbibed, in his regiment.
+
+But it was done; and could not be undone, the first beginning of
+discord had entered the house, and the door stood half-open for the
+rest to follow; for discord is like one of those dragon's tails that
+children play with, there is a long thread, and bit after bit is
+fastened to it, and though each bit is a mere nothing, it makes a great
+bunch, when it is rolled up in a heap, and it is hard to disentangle,
+for there is neither beginning nor end to be found.
+
+The next afternoon they walked over to Gurlitz;--in that, Axel had
+yielded to Frida, who preferred walking to riding,--and Axel took his
+wife to the door of the parsonage, and promised to call for her; he
+himself went to the court.
+
+The Pomuchelskopps were just taking coffee, and Philipping and Nanting
+and the other little ones were playing their tricks, and standing about
+the table, like colts at the rack, and dipping biscuits in the
+chicory-coffee, and smearing their faces, and dabbling with fingers and
+tea spoons in the cups, after the soaked biscuit, and writing their
+beautiful name. "Pomuchelskopp," in the spilt coffee and milk, all over
+the table, and shoving and pushing each other, and then looking up
+innocently at their mother, as if they were not the culprits; for
+Haeuning, in her every-day black gown, sat with them at the table, and
+kept order.
+
+It was a charming family picture, full of domestic happiness, biscuits
+and chicory; and Pomuchelskopp lay in the corner of the sofa, and
+smoked his pipe. He had finished his coffee, for father was served
+first, with pure coffee, out of a special coffee-pot; but it was a
+cheat, after all, for Malchen and Salchen, who took turns in making the
+coffee, always drank off the first drawing from father's, and filled it
+up with chicory, out of the family pot. He sat in his sofa corner, with
+his left leg thrown over the right, quite in accordance with Duke
+Adolph von Klewe's direction: "A judge should sit for judgment in this
+manner, with the left leg thrown over the right," etc., and if he was
+not a judge, he was something more important, at this very moment he
+was a law-maker, and thinking about the Landtag, (assembly of
+deputies,) which he had positively decided to attend next year.
+
+"Haeuning," said he, "next year, I am going to the Landtag."
+
+"So?" said the old woman, "have you no other way to spend your money?"
+
+"My Kluecking, it is expected of me; I must show myself, and it will not
+be very expensive. The Landtag is held quite near us next year, at
+Malchen, and if I take a basket with me----"
+
+"So? and I shall go round in your boots meantime, wading through the
+deep mud in the farm-yard, to look after the threshers?"
+
+"My Kluecking, Gustaving is here for that, and if I am needed I can be
+here again, at any time."
+
+"But, father," said Malchen, who was the only one of the family who
+ever looked into the Rostock "Times," and for that reason, and because
+she always knew where the Grand Duke and the Frau Grand Duchess were,
+at the time being, considered herself to have a great taste for
+politics, for Pomuchelskopp read only the prices current, and the rate
+of exchange,--"but, father, if something important should come up, for
+instance about the red cloak, whether you burgher-proprietors may also
+wear red cloaks, or about the convent question, then you couldn't get
+away."
+
+For she possibly had a feeling, that the convent question might become
+_her_ question.
+
+"Now, you do not really think," said Pomuchelskopp, going up and down
+the room with great strides, "that your father would make himself so
+common, and run in the same groove with all the burgher proprietors,
+and vote with them, and neglect his affairs at home? No, if anything is
+wanted here, you must write, and I will come, and if I want the red
+cloak, I know a better way to get it--let every man look out for
+himself--and it is more honorable for me, if I get it alone, and not
+with trumpery landlords, who have perhaps a couple of thousand thalers,
+and when I come back sometime, and say, Malchen, I _alone_ have got it!
+then you may be proud of your father;" and with that he stalked about
+the room, and puffed tobacco in the eyes of his innocent children, till
+they looked like trumpeting angels in the clouds, who needed only a
+mouth-piece, with which to trumpet his future glory.
+
+"Kopp, are you going daft?" inquired his loving wife.
+
+"Let me alone, Haeuning! Always noble! Tell me who you go with, and I
+will tell you who you are. If I agree with the nobility----"
+
+"I should think you had got snubbing enough from the nobility."
+
+"Haeuning," began Pomuchelskopp, but went no further, for Salchen, who
+sat by the window, sewing, sprang up: "Good heavens! there comes the
+Herr von Rambow into the yard."
+
+"Haeuning," said Pomuchelskopp once more, and there was great reproof in
+his expressive eyes, "do you see the nobleman comes to _me_. But now,
+out with you! Out!" and he hunted his offspring out of the room.
+"Malchen, take the coffee things away! Salchen, a wiping cloth! And
+Haeuning," folding his hands in supplication, "now go and put on another
+dress!"
+
+"What?" said she, "do I go to him, or does he come to me? I am good
+enough for him, as he finds me."
+
+"Haeuning," begged Pomuchelskopp, abjectly, "I beseech you! you will
+spoil the whole thing with your black morning dress."
+
+"Muchel, are you a perfect idiot?" she asked, not stirring from her
+seat, "Do you think he comes on your account, or on mine, either? He
+comes because he wishes to make use of us, and, for such a beggar, the
+old sacque is good enough."
+
+Muchel still petitioned,---vainly. Malchen and Salchen whisked out of
+the room, to dress themselves up a little,--the old woman sat there,
+stiff as a stake.
+
+Axel came in, and greeted the pair, and the old black sacque received
+as much attention as the green checked trousers, for the young Herr
+knew how to turn his good manners to account, at the right time, so
+that Pomuchelskopp was quite carried away with the friendliness and
+graciousness of the young nobleman, and Haeuning became so cheerful and
+affectionate that she called her dear husband "Poeking;" yes, even the
+old every-day black gown grew so ashamed of its own shabbiness, in this
+sunshine of courtesy, that even to Frau Pomuchelskopp's eyes, it looked
+quite rusty. And now Salchen came in, as if she had forgotten
+something, and then Malchen came in, as if she had something to attend
+to, and Pomuchelskopp introduced them, and the courteous conversation
+took an artistic turn, over Salchen's embroidery, and again a
+political, as Malchen happened to take up the Rostock "Times." And
+Philipping came in, and placed himself in the corner, behind his
+mother, and Narting came in, and stood by Philipping, and the other
+little ones all came in, one after another, and crowded up beside them,
+till Haeuning looked like our old black hen, with all her chickens
+huddled about her, when a hawk is in the air. And when mother took the
+key of the linen-closet out of the basket, and went out,--for, she said
+to herself, one must do something in return for so much courtesy,--the
+whole brood followed her, for in that linen-closet were kept the
+cookies, which Haeuning always kept on hand, and baked fresh, twice a
+year. And these cookies were always very fine, only they acquired, in
+course of time, rather a soapy taste, as they took the flavor from the
+linen; but that didn't hurt them for the children, they were not
+fastidious, and had always been accustomed to the flavor, and if Axel
+had not been listening to Pomuchelskopp, he must have heard the begging
+and whining outside; "Mother, me!" "Mother, me too!" But Pomuchelskopp
+had taken possession of him, and was endeavoring to inspire him with a
+good opinion of himself and his family.
+
+"You see, Herr von Rambow," said he, "you find here an extremely simple
+family, I am very simple, my wife--" here he looked round to see if
+Haeuning were present--"is extremely simple, as you have seen; my
+daughters, my other children, have been brought up very simply. We make
+no pretensions, we merely live by ourselves, in a happy family-circle.
+Every society does not suit us, thank God, we are sufficient to
+ourselves; but," he added, putting on a venerable patriarchal
+expression, "every one must pull his own rope, each has his particular
+occupation, which he must attend to,--_must_, I say, when he has once
+undertaken it, and then the blessing of God will not be wanting."
+
+Axel said, courteously, he believed that must be an excellent
+arrangement.
+
+"Yes," said Pomuchelskopp, catching hold of Philipping, who had his
+mouth full of eight and ninety per cent cooky, and two per cent fresh
+soap, and presenting him to the young Herr: "Make your compliments,
+Philipping! You see this little fellow, he looks after the eggs, that
+is to say, when the hens lay astray; for every dozen eggs, he gets a
+shilling, and the money goes into his saving's box. Philipping, how
+much have you collected, already, my little son?"
+
+"Seven thalers, and forty-three shillings,"[4] said Philipping.
+
+"You see, my boy," said Pomuchelskopp, patting his child on the head,
+"the blessing of God always accompanies industry; and so," turning
+again to Axel, "Nanting has old iron, nails, horse-shoes, etc., he gets
+paid for it by the pound, and Marriken and Heining and Stoeffing have
+the apples and pears and plums, that is, the wind falls; to be sure,
+they are mostly unripe, but no matter, the city people buy them. So you
+see, Herr von Rambow, each one of my children has his own apartment."
+
+Axel laughed in his sleeve a little, at this conclusion, and Malchen
+and Salchen looked at each other, and laughed secretly over their
+father's blunder, for Pomuchelskopp slipped occasionally, as well as
+Braesig; but there was a great difference between the two. Braesig knew
+very well that he made queer work of foreign words, but he had fallen
+into the habit of using them, and could not leave off, it pleased him,
+and injured nobody else; but Pomuchelskopp meant to ornament his
+language with them, and when he found that he had said something
+ludicrous, he was out of humor. When he saw his daughters laughing
+together, he knew this was the case, and it was fortunate that his
+Haeuning came in, just then, with a bottle of wine, and a plate of
+cookies, and, to his joy, without her black sacque, in a yellow silk
+gown, and with a stately cap on her head.
+
+"Haeuning," said Pomuchelskopp, "not _that_ wine! When we have such a
+highly honored guest, let us offer him the best we have!"
+
+"Order it yourself, then," said the old woman, curtly. He did so, and
+then resumed the thread of his discourse:
+
+"Yes, and my two eldest daughters have also each her peculiar province.
+Salchen is all for art, with her embroidery and piano-playing, and
+Malchen cares more for the newspapers and politics." Axel professed to
+be astonished at Malchen's taking pleasure in such things, which ladies
+usually cared nothing about, and Malchen replied, somebody must trouble
+themselves about such things, for father wouldn't, and now he was a
+deputy, he ought to know what was going to be done at the Landtag,
+adding that, just as Herr von Rambow came in, they were saying that
+father must go to the Landtag next year.
+
+"Yes, Herr von Rambow," said Muchel, "I am going, for once; not on
+account of the business which my burgher colleagues are moving about,
+that does not concern me, and I know the difference between nobles and
+burghers, very well; no! I am only going for once, to show people who I
+am."
+
+Axel then asked, for sake of saying something, if Pomuchelskopp had any
+intercourse with the people in the neighborhood.
+
+"With which of them?" asked Pomuchelskopp. "With the farmer at Rexow?
+He is a blockhead. With the inspector? He does not suit me. And there
+is nobody else about here."
+
+"Then you don't associate with the Pastor?
+
+"No, not with him either. He has behaved in such a manner from the
+first, that I would have nothing to do with him; he has intercourse
+with people who do not suit me, and he has adopted the daughter of your
+inspector, Habermann, and I should be sorry for my daughters to have
+any acquaintance with her.
+
+"I thought she was a very worthy girl," said Axel.
+
+"Oh, yes, I dare say," said Pomuchelskopp. "I don't want to say
+anything bad of the girl,--you see, Herr von Rambow, I am a simple old
+man,--but I knew Habermann long ago, I will not say that he cheated me
+at that time, but--no! I have not been pleased at the way and the
+manner in which she and the young Herr von Rambow have been brought
+together, by her own father, and the parsonage people."
+
+"With my cousin Franz?" asked Axel.
+
+"Is his name Franz? I mean the one who was studying here, with
+Habermann. I don't know him, he never came to my house. But I liked
+what I heard about him."
+
+"He is always writing to her," said Haeuning.
+
+"No, mother," said Malchen, "you mustn't say that, his letters are
+always to the Pastor. Our post-boy always brings the Pastor's letters
+with ours," she explained to Axel.
+
+"That is all the same," said Haeuning, "I beat the sack, but I mean it
+for the donkey."
+
+"This is the first I have heard of the matter," said Axel, looking
+annoyed.
+
+"Yes!" said Pomuchelskopp, "the whole region knows it. Under the
+pretence of visiting her father and your sisters, she was always
+running after him, and when something came between them once, Habermann
+and the parsonage people soon made it right again."
+
+"No, father," said Salchen, "old Braesig was the chief canal, he was
+always fetching and carrying."
+
+"Who is this old Braesig?" asked Axel, now really irritated.
+
+"He is an old beggar!" cried Haeuning.
+
+"That he is," said Pomuchelskopp, puffing himself up, "he has got a
+little pension from the Herr Count, and now he has nothing better to do
+than to run from one to another, and tell tales of people; and then he
+is besides----"
+
+"No, father," interrupted Malchen, "let me tell that. Herr von Rambow,
+the old fellow is a democrat, an out and out demo-crat!"
+
+"That he is," continued Pomuchelskopp, "and I shouldn't wonder if he
+was an incendiary as well."
+
+And this good-for-nothing subject had sat at Axel's own table, and
+whose fault was it? Habermann's. These communications having
+sufficiently heated the young gentleman's blood, and the cookies not
+being very tempting, he took leave and Pomuchelskopp went with him
+across the yard, to the gate.
+
+"Is that really true, about my cousin?" asked Axel, as they went out
+together.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Pomuchelskopp, "I am a simple old man, and at
+my age, one does not trouble himself about such stories. I merely tell
+you what people say."
+
+"It can be only a passing fancy; 'out of sight, out of mind.'"
+
+"I don't believe that," said Pomuchelskopp, very seriously; "so far as
+I know Habermann, he is a crafty old serpent, who always keeps a
+definite end in view. Your Herr Cousin is caught."
+
+"The boy must be crazy," said Axel, "but he will be obliged to listen
+to reason. Farewell, Herr Neighbor! I thank you for your company so
+far, and hope to see you soon. Adieu!" and with that he turned towards
+the right, into the street.
+
+"Begging your pardon," called Pomuchelskopp after him, "you are going
+the wrong way; you turn to the left to go to Pumpelhagen."
+
+"I know it," said Axel, "I am going to the Pastor's, to call for my
+wife. Adieu!"
+
+"Ah," said Pomuchelskopp, going back across the yard, "this is very
+nice, this is very pretty! For the young Herr, I am good enough; but
+for the gracious lady? Children!" cried he, as he entered the door,
+"the gracious lady is at the Herr Pastor's, we are not good enough for
+her."
+
+"That pleases me, uncommonly, Poeking," said the old woman, "that the
+nobleman has put such a fine pair of leather spectacles on you."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed Salchen.
+
+"Possible indeed!" said her father, "it is certain;" and he gave
+Nanting and Philipping, who were running about, the remainder of the
+cookies, one apiece: "Out with you, baggages!" and he threw himself
+into the sofa corner, and struck at the flies; and the old woman teased
+him with invidious remarks about distinguished acquaintances, and
+beggars, and the nobility, and said, "Salchen, take that bottle of
+costly wine back to the cellar; there is some in it still, father can
+treat some highly honored friend with it." And after a while she
+called, "Father, come here to the window! See, there goes your
+distinguished friend, with his gracious lady--the foolish fellow! and
+who have they with them? Your incendiary, that old Braesig!"
+
+It was really so: Braesig was walking with the pair, towards
+Pumpelhagen, and it did not trouble him in the least that Axel turned a
+cold shoulder on him, and gave him very short answers, for he was
+taking his delight in the gracious lady, whom he had met at the
+Pastor's, and whom he had found still more pleasing to-day than at the
+dinner.
+
+And she might well have pleased him, or have pleased any body, as she
+came in, so friendly and confiding, to the Frau Pastor's parlor, where
+he sat with the old Herr Pastor, who was lying half sick upon the sofa;
+as she held back the old gentleman, who would have risen in honor of
+her visit, and, laying her two hands on the little Frau Pastorin's
+shoulders, asked if she would be mother-confessor to one who was a
+stranger, and needed good advice, And then turned to Braesig, and shook
+hands with him as frankly, as if he were an old acquaintance. And then
+Louise! came in, and she greeted her also as an old acquaintance, but
+kept looking at her, as if there were something new to be read in her
+face, and grew thoughtful, as one who reads a beautiful book, and will
+not turn the leaf, until he fully comprehends it.
+
+The young Frau had many leaves to turn here, and upon every leaf stood
+something lovely and intelligent; on the Pastor's side, stood
+experience, and friendliness and benevolence, and on the Frau
+Pastorin's stood housewifery, and enjoyment of life, and the kindest
+disposition, crossed over each other, and on Louise's stood modesty,
+and good sense, and pleasure at meeting a lady who bore that name which
+had become so dear to her; and on Braesig's side, stood at first sight,
+only notes on the whole, but they belonged to the matter, and made it
+clearer, and the young Frau read these notes with as much pleasure as
+we sluggards used, formerly, on the _pons asinorum_, or _ad modum
+Minellii_, in Cornelius Nepos. And it all harmonized together, so
+sweetly and innocently, and there was such love and joyousness, that
+the gracious young lady felt as if she stood among a group of pretty
+children, in a lovely garden, under cool shadows of old trees, dancing
+Kringelkranz, and Louise stood in the ring, and reached her hand
+towards her, saying, "Come, now you must release me!"
+
+Into this lovely peace Axel came, full of annoyance at the story that
+had been trumpeted in his ears, and vexed at having to call for his
+wife among such people, and Braesig's greeting, "Good day, Herr
+Lieutenant!" quite overflowed the measure of his good temper. He turned
+shortly to the Pastor, and made some indifferent remark about the
+weather, but so coldly, that his manner struck like an icicle to the
+warm heart of his wife, and she sprang up, hastily, to take leave, that
+all this warm friendliness should not be chilled, as by a shower of
+hail in summer.
+
+They went, but Uncle Braesig went too, not at all disturbed by the young
+Herr's discourtesy; he had done nothing, and he had a good conscience,
+and withal he had a great opinion of his ability in entertaining
+people, and putting them in a good humour, when they were vexed. He
+limped along, therefore, by the young lieutenant, and talked to him of
+this and that, but did not succeed in changing the young Herr's short
+and cutting replies to more friendly remarks. But as the young Herr
+stopped, where the church path joined the street, and asked him which
+way he would go, it shot through his head, for the first time, that the
+"confounded fool" might think he wished to force himself upon them.
+
+"Listen to me, Herr Lieutenant," said he also standing still, "this
+strikes me as very strange. Perhaps you are ashamed to be seen walking
+with me, in the public street? Then let me tell you, I was not going on
+your account, I was only going with your honored, gracious lady wife,
+because she is friendly towards me. In future, I will not incommode
+you," and, with a profound bow to the young lady, he started off across
+the rape-stubble, to Habermann, who was building a stack of rape-straw,
+near by.
+
+"Axel," said Frida, "why have you grieved that good-hearted old man?"
+
+"Your good-hearted old man is nothing but an old tattler and busybody."
+
+"Do you really believe that? and do you think, if he were, our
+Habermann would be on such intimate terms with him?"
+
+"Why not, if he is useful to him?"
+
+The young wife looked at him half astonished, half grieved: "Axel, what
+is the matter with you? You were always so friendly towards everybody,
+and trusted everybody, what has prejudiced you so against these people?
+against these, too, who have always been so friendly and honest towards
+us?"
+
+"Friendly? Why shouldn't they? I am the master of the estate. But
+honest? Time will show, and what I have heard today, does not agree
+very well with my conception of honesty."
+
+"What have you heard? From whom have you heard it?" asked Frida,
+quickly and meaningly. "Tell me. Axel! I am your wife."
+
+"I have heard a good deal," said Axel, in a derisive tone, "I have
+heard, that our Habermann, as you call him, has already been a
+bankrupt; and the best thing I heard about him was that he perverted
+the influence that he exercised as an instructor, to fasten his
+daughter--with the help of the parsonage people and this old
+go-between, whom I have just got rid of--to our cousin Franz, and"--he
+added, angrily and spitefully, "the stupid dunce has let himself be
+caught!"
+
+Frida boiled over with indignation; by this detraction, not merely that
+poor child, Louise Habermann, but her whole sex was wounded to the
+heart, and put to shame; her eyes kindled, as she grasped Axel by arm,
+and made him stand still: "You have been in bad company, and have
+yielded to the most unworthy influences!" Her hands loosed their hold,
+the anger passed, and a deep sadness came over her. "Oh, Axel," cried
+she, "you used to be so good, how can such insinuations disturb your
+honest judgment?"
+
+Axel was startled at the heat with which his wife took up the matter,
+he would gladly have taken back what he had said; but he had said it,
+and if he should make light of it now, he would seem to himself like a
+credulous, easily prejudiced man, and he wished to seem a decided one,
+so he took nothing back, but said, "Frida, what ails you? There is no
+denying the matter. The whole region knows that our foolish cousin has
+entangled himself with this girl."
+
+"If you will express this part of your news differently, if you say
+that your cousin has fallen in love with this girl, I shall be glad to
+believe it, and your cousin, whom I do not yet know, will be so much
+the dearer to me."
+
+"What? Shall my cousin, who has a large, independent fortune, marry the
+daughter of my inspector?"
+
+"That is the greatest advantage of a large, independent fortune for a
+young man, that he is free to choose; and, truly! he has not chosen
+unworthily."
+
+"And so I shall be connected with my inspector, in a sort of family
+relationship, and this old busybody, who has tied and twisted, and
+knotted the match, shall triumph? I will never, never consent to such a
+thing!"
+
+"See here!" cried Frida, "it is in this part of your news, that the
+lies and calumny are interwoven; how is it possible for you to believe
+such an unlikely accusation? How can you--to say nothing of this
+lovely, innocent girl--suspect such a simple, old man, such an
+affectionate father, who finds his own happiness only in that of his
+daughter,--how can you suspect the worthy Pastor and his kind-hearted
+wife, or this poor old man, who has just left us, feeling so grieved,
+and to whom, in his uprightness, many an inappropriate word may be
+pardoned,--how can you suspect these people, of making the darling of
+their hearts the object of a speculation!"
+
+"Oh, that is very easily understood," said Axel, "they wanted to insure
+her happiness."
+
+"Oh," said Frida earnestly and sadly, "then we differ widely in our
+conception of happiness. One never obtains happiness in such ways."
+
+"I was not speaking of my idea of happiness," said Axel, surprised at
+the reproach, "I meant only what these people consider happiness."
+
+"Do not deceive yourself in this, Axel, for God's sake, do not deceive
+yourself! A higher rank may afford one a wider range in social
+relations, but in more modest circumstances, on the other hand, love is
+more apt to be the controlling power, which is of far higher value than
+mere worldly relations,--and which we must so often do without," she
+added slowly, and wiped a tear from her eye, as she thought of her own
+youthful years, without a mother, brought up by her father alone, who
+could poorly sustain the style of living demanded by his rank, and
+consoled himself, for his trouble and pains, in the amusements of
+country squires.
+
+They went home, and Axel was kind to her, in his good nature, and she
+took the kindness as it was meant, and they were again united,--at
+least to outward appearance,--for on the subject of discussion each
+retained his own opinion.
+
+Braesig had gone to Habermann, who was standing by the foundation of his
+straw-stack; he was angry, exceedingly angry; this must be
+Pomuchelskopp's work; and his irritation could only be put out by a
+counter-irritation, he had a real hankering after a little farm-boy
+anger.
+
+"Good day, Karl," said he, and pushing by Habermann, he bent his head,
+elevated his eyebrows, looked hard at the stack, and without raising
+himself up, stalked entirely round it.
+
+"Are you going to bake a pancake, here?" he asked his friend, when he
+had completed his journey, and placed himself saucily before him.
+
+"Ah, don't talk to me about it!" cried Habermann, out of humor, "I have
+vexed myself enough over it. I said yesterday to Triddlesitz he should
+lay the stack twenty paces through-measure, and he has laid it twenty
+paces half-measure, and, when I came out to-day, here stood this
+monster. Well, let it go; it is nothing but straw, even if it should
+get spoiled by the rain; but I cannot help being provoked to see such a
+pancake on my field."
+
+"Yes, Karl, and your neighbor Pomuchelskopp will be cracking his jokes
+on it."
+
+"Let him! But what to do with my Triddelsitz, I don't know. Since the
+time that the young Herr promised him a horse, he is of no mortal use."
+
+"Try giving him a good flogging!"
+
+"Ach, what good would that do? He can think of nothing but horses. He
+doesn't consult me, now-a-days, but our young Herr has advised him to
+get an English brood mare, and says he will buy the colts. And I sent
+him off this morning,--he is not to be talked out of it,--to make an
+end of the matter, and get his old mare."
+
+"Gust Prebberow's chestnut mare, the Whalebone mare?"
+
+"Yes, that must be the one."
+
+"Splendid!" cried Braesig, "Beautiful! And he will exercise about on
+this horse, when the Grand Duke enters Rahnstadt? Karl, you have a
+great treasure in your greyhound!"
+
+"Yes, Lord knows," said Habermann, looking at his stack.
+
+"I say nothing of him as a farmer, Karl, I speak of him merely as an
+agreeable fellow, and if he agrees with his young master----"
+
+"Braesig, don't speak of my master here, before the laborers."
+
+"I agree with you there, Karl, it is not proper; but come this way!"
+
+And when they had gone a little way towards the street, he stood still,
+and said, slowly and impressively, "Karl, this young fellow thought it
+something to be ashamed of, to be seen walking with me on the highway.
+What do you say now? He gave me a Timothy, in the presence of his
+lovely wife;" and he related the circumstances. Habermann tried to talk
+him out of his anger, but did not wholly succeed, for Braesig was too
+much provoked. "Karl," said he, "he has shot the arrow, in his
+stupidity, but it was pointed by Zamel Pomuchelskopp, for he had been
+calling there. And you may say what you will, Karl,--your young Herr is
+downright stupid, and when you are hunted away, then I shall amuse
+myself coming over here, and place myself on the hill, where I can
+overlook the fields, and see what sort of performances your young Herr
+and your greyhound carry on together."
+
+"Well," said Habermann, "you can see one of them, at this moment. Just
+look round!" and he pointed down the road, near which they happened to
+be standing, behind a thorn-bush. Braesig looked, and stood stiff and
+stark with amazement, unable to utter a word; at last he said, "Karl,
+your greyhound is cracked. Apothecaries are often crackbrained, and it
+is natural their children should inherit it."
+
+It really looked, as if Braesig were right. Fritz came riding up, on the
+famous horse, on a gentle trot. He had taken off his hat, and was
+swinging it violently in the air, and shouting with all his might,
+"Hurrah! Hurrah!" and all this, entirely by himself; for he did not
+perceive the two behind the thorn-bush, until he had ridden up to them,
+and Habermann asked if he were clean out of his head.
+
+"They are nothing but lies," said Fritz.
+
+"What are lies?" asked Habermann, sharply.
+
+"That the mare cannot hear hurrahs," and with that he began to cry
+"Hurrah!" again. "You see," and he sprang off the horse, and tied it to
+a willow, and going off a few steps, again cried "Hurrah!" "You see,
+she does not budge an inch. And _you_"--he turned to Braesig, who was
+half dead with laughter, "_you_ told me so; but it isn't true!"
+
+"Yes," said Braesig, shaking all over, "but it is true, though. What I
+said, I say again: she cannot hear it, for the old granny has been,
+these five years that I have known her, _stone deaf_."
+
+There stood Fritz Triddelsitz, the old clever, crafty Fritz
+Triddelsitz, wearing the most sheepish face imaginable.
+
+"But," said he, at last, "Gust Prebberow is a good friend of mine, and
+he never told me that."
+
+"Yes," said Braesig, "you will know, after this, that friendship goes
+for nothing, in a horse trade."
+
+"Well, never mind, Triddelsitz," said Habermann, "one can get along
+with a deaf horse; take care not to get a dumb one!"
+
+"Oh!" said Fritz, quite relieved, "no fear of that! Just look at her,
+what a model of a horse! Full blood! And Herr von Rambow is going to
+buy all the colts, and when I have sold three or four----"
+
+"Then you can buy an estate," interrupted Braesig. "Yes, we know that,
+already. Now ride carefully up to the house, and don't upset your
+milk-pails, on the way, like the maiden. Karl, do you remember? In
+Gellert?"
+
+Fritz rode off. "Good-for-nothing greyhound!" said Braesig.
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Habermann, "I cannot help liking the old
+fellow, he has such a contented disposition."
+
+"That is because of his youth, Karl," said Braesig.
+
+"Well, perhaps so," said Habermann, reflectively. "See, there he goes,
+quite happy with his deaf, old, brood mare."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+And Fritz was happy, he was the happiest being at Pumpelhagen Court,
+for there was not much happiness there, and that which was painted as
+such was not in fast colors. Habermann became, from day to day, more
+and more conscious that his good times were over, for his young Herr
+meddled with business that he did not understand, and that merely by
+fits and starts, with a heat and haste, which spoiled the farming, and
+confused the people, and when things did not go as they should, and the
+cart got into the ditch, then the inspector had to bear the blame. The
+young Herr also was unhappy, he was tormented by debts, which he wished
+to keep secret from his wife, he was also tormented by letters from
+David and Slusuhr,--personally they no longer troubled him, he had
+settled that, on account of the secrecy he wished to maintain, and they
+were very willing to consent, for the more secret the business was so
+much the better could they shear him, and when they had him quietly by
+themselves in Rahnstadt, they could use quite other knives and pincers,
+than they could at Pumpelhagen, where he was host, and they were
+obliged to treat him with some degree of respect.
+
+But, besides this, he was not happy; he wanted to play the master, and
+had not the stuff in him, for he who would command must have capacity
+as well as knowledge; he had knowledge enough, more than many
+people,--"but capacity! neighbor, capacity!" said old Flegel, the
+wheelwright, and he had reason; the unhappiest of men is he who will,
+and can not. And Frida? She also was unhappy; she observed that her
+husband's full confidence was not given to her, she noticed that upon
+many serious questions they differed widely in opinion, she noticed
+that the business he had taken as his life work was one for which he
+had no training, she felt that he was unfair enough to visit his own
+failings upon other people, and more than all,--and worst of all for a
+sensible wife,--she felt that he made himself ridiculous, and that
+Pomuchelskopp, who, against her wishes, came often to Pumpelhagen, must
+have other reasons than ordinary civility, for not laughing at the
+confused and inconsiderate opinions of her husband. She resolved to
+keep watch over him, but such an occupation did not increase her
+happiness.
+
+Fritz Triddelsitz was the happiest creature in all Pumpelhagen, and, if
+we except the two little twin-apples, in the whole region; but we must
+except these, for in happiness and blessedness a bride goes beyond all
+other beings, even the bridegrooms themselves, for if old Gottlieb, who
+had taken a candidate's place, with a cheerful, brisk, burgher-like old
+proprietor, taught and flogged the boys with uncommon pleasure and
+fidelity, and if Rudolph also, with Hilgendorf at Little Tetzleben,
+strewed manure so that it was a pleasure to see him, and the Tetzleben
+soil looked like a velvet coverlid, and went to bed at night singing
+and piping, and regularly fell asleep, for weariness, in the middle of
+a verse,--in comparison with the little twin-apples' blessedness as
+they sat together and sewed, stitching on their trousseuax, and
+chatting, and joking with father and mother, and telling Louise, and
+showing their letters, all the bridegrooms' blessedness went for
+nothing.
+
+But the old fellow was really very happy. The first thing in the
+morning, he went to the stable, where the young Herr's two
+riding-horses, and Habermann's old Gray stood, together with his
+treasure; he fed her, stealing the oats from the very mouths of the
+other horses, yes, although he had never been trained to the work, he
+groomed her, single-handed, for Krischan Daesel, who had charge of the
+riding-stable, did not give him satisfaction. On Sunday afternoons,
+when there was nothing else to do, he went to the stable, shut the door
+behind him, seated himself on the fodder-chest, folded his hands on his
+stomach, and thoughtfully contemplated the dear old creature, as she
+munched her oats and straw, and if she groaned from fullness he got up,
+stroked her back, and called her affectionately "his good old woman;"
+and three times a day he exercised her, for which devotion he should
+not be blamed, for upon her depended his future income.
+
+But no happiness is perfect, a little annoyance always creeps in. And
+he had his share. In the first place, it went very much against him,
+that his chestnut mare should stand next Habermann's stiff old Gray:
+the company was not suitable; and secondly, he was in everlasting
+conflict with Krischan Daesel, about fodder and grooming.
+
+"Herr Triddelsitz," said Krischan, once as they were disputing, "let me
+tell you, I feed the horses all alike, and groom them all alike; but I
+have often noticed that you take away the oats from the inspector's old
+gray, and give them to your mare. Now, don't take it ill of me, Herr
+Triddelsitz, but the gray is just as good a creature as the other, and
+has an equal right to a living. And what is this?" he asked, going up
+to the rack. "How? this is calf-hay; how comes this calf-hay here? I
+will have no vermin getting into the pelts, when the inspector comes
+round."
+
+"I know nothing about it," said Fritz, and he really was ignorant.
+
+"Well, it is all the same to me," said Krischan, "but if I catch any
+one bringing it into the stable, I will break his bones for him, for I
+won't be troubled with such things."
+
+After that Krischan Daesel lay in wait, to catch the bringer of the
+calf-hay, and it was not long before he was successful. And who was it,
+who transgressed all law and order, for the love of Fritz's chestnut
+mare? Who was so hard-hearted as to deprive the innocent calves of
+their food, for the sake of Fritz's chestnut mare? Who was so
+foolhardy, for the sake of the chestnut mare, as to risk the breaking
+of her bones by Krischan Daesel? Who was it? I must tell, but let no one
+repeat it. It was Marie Moeller, who, every time she came from feeding
+the young calves, and passed the riding-stable, brought an armful of
+the sweet hay for Fritz's old woman.
+
+Some one may turn upon me here,--hold! here you have blundered! How
+came they to have little calves in summer? I reply. Friend, that is my
+affair. I can skip over as much time as I please, and am now in the
+middle of winter, after the new year 1844. And if any one should
+inquire further. How came Marie Moeller to do such a thing? I would
+answer, that is as stupid a question as the one about the calves; have
+I not a right to introduce good-hearted people, who forgive and forget,
+into my book, as well as the spiteful and venomous, who bear malice to
+all eternity?
+
+Marie Moeller could forgive and forget, and, since it was not suitable
+for her to throw herself openly upon Fritz's neck, she threw herself
+with her affection, and the calf-hay, upon the neck of the old mare,
+which was, just then, the dearest thing Fritz had in the world. And it
+was quite touching, and Fritz was really affected, when he learned the
+occasion of the quarrel between his old sweetheart and Krischan Daesel;
+he made his peace with his old love, and the pleasant ham-and-sausage
+relationship was resumed.
+
+It was now winter, as I have said, And nothing remarkable had occurred
+in the region, only that Pomuchelskopp, late in the autumn, had taken
+his journey to the Landtag, causing a great excitement in his quiet,
+simple family. Haeuning skirmished about the house, threw the kitchen
+utensils around,--that is to say, such as were not liable to
+break,--banged the doors, and said, openly, the Herr Proprietor had
+gone crazy; Malchen and Salchen took the other side,--although
+secretly, for they had heard that the lieutenant, who commanded the
+Landtag Guards, derived a great part of his income from a splendid ball
+which he gave, with tickets of admission a louis-d'or each. They had
+been to the Whitsuntide-fair ball, at Rostock, they had been to a
+cattle-show; but a Landtag's ball? That must go beyond everything! They
+teased their father so persistently, that he took courage to speak out
+to his wife.
+
+"Kluecken," said he, "I cannot do otherwise, I have promised Herr von
+Rambow, and he went yesterday, and will wait on me there."
+
+"So?" said Haeuning, "and his peacock of a wife, will she wait on me?"
+
+"Kluecking, that has nothing to do with it; and if I lose every
+opportunity of showing that I am a man who stands up for the nobility,
+how shall I get made a nobleman myself? See, I shall ride away to-day,
+with a black coat, we will talk about it again, when I come back with a
+red one."
+
+"A pretty figure you will cut in it!" said the old woman, going out of
+the door.
+
+"As good as any other nobleman," growled Pomuchelskopp, after her.
+
+"Gracious! father, I know," cried Salchen, and she ran out, and came
+back with a scarlet flannel petticoat, which she threw over her
+father's shoulders, like a herald's mantle, and placed him before the
+mirror; and the Herr Proprietor turned about, and contemplated himself
+with great satisfaction, until the old woman came in again, and
+snatched off the petticoat: "If you will positively make a fool of
+yourself, you may do so at the Landtag, but not here in my house."
+
+The Herr Proprietor took this for full permission to journey to the
+Landtag, and journeyed accordingly. But when he arrived at Malchin, and
+got down at Voitel's, his troubles began at once, for he had got into
+the wrong box; he should have stopped at the Bull, where the
+nobility resorted, and here he was among mere burgomeisters and
+burgher-proprietors, who could in no way aid his designs. He stood
+about in everybody's way, not knowing what to do with himself, and
+nobody else seemed to know, till at last he plucked up courage to
+inquire if any one had seen Herr von Rambow of Pumpelhagen, for he
+meant to pattern after Axel. Nobody had seen him; at last some one said
+that the Herr von Rambow had gone off that afternoon, with the Herr von
+Brulow, to Brulowshof, to see his blood horses. In his great
+embarrassment, he finally went up to a rather large and stately
+gentleman, who had something friendly in his appearance, but with a
+roguish gleam in his eyes as if he enjoyed a joke, when he had an
+opportunity.
+
+"Begging your pardon," said he, "I am the proprietor Pomuchelskopp, of
+Gurlitz, and am here, for the first time, as a deputy. You appear to be
+a friendly man, and I want to ask you what I have to do here."
+
+"Yes," said the stranger, taking a pinch of snuff, "what have you to do
+here? You have nothing further to do; you will have made the necessary
+visits already?"
+
+"No," said Pomuchelskopp.
+
+"Well, then, you must pay your respects to the deputy-governor, the
+land-marshal, and the landrath. Good evening, Langfeldt, where are you
+going?" he interrupted himself, and addressed this question to a man
+who was just going out with a lantern in his hand.
+
+"To make the stupid old visits," said he, turning round in the doorway.
+"Do you stay here, Brueckner? I will come back again, by and by."
+
+"Don't wait too long, then," said the friendly Herr, and turned again
+to Pomuchelskopp. "So you have not made your visits yet?"
+
+"No," said the Herr Proprietor.
+
+"You should make them at once, then. The gentleman with the lantern has
+to make the same visits, you need only follow behind his lantern. That
+will do finely! But be quick, quick!" And Pomuchelskopp snatched his
+hat from the nail, rushed out of doors, and ran through the streets of
+Malchin, as fast as his stoutness and short breath would allow. The
+friendly Herr took a pinch of snuff, with his eyes full of mischief,
+and sat down quietly behind the table, laughing to himself, and saying,
+"I only wish I could see Langfeldt."
+
+And it would really have been worth his while. When the burgomeister
+from Gustrow had gone in, to see the deputy-governor of Schwerin, and
+had given his lantern to the footman, something came puffing up the
+steps, and Pomuchelskopp made a low bow to the footman, and asked,
+"Herr Footman, where is the Herr whom one must visit here?" The man
+opened the door for him, and Pomuchelskopp bowed himself in, making his
+deepest reverences to Langfeldt, whom he took for the deputy-governor,
+for which he should not be blamed, since the Herr Burgomeister from
+Gustrow always held his head forward as if he were going to push
+through a wall with it, which would suit very well for a Mecklinburg
+deputy-governor. He turned Pomuchelskopp round, however, and showed him
+the right man, and since he was out of the fight, he went out, and took
+up his lantern. Pomuchelskopp feared that he would desert him, he made
+a couple of bows, and was off again, after Langfeldt's lantern.
+
+At the land-marshal's, it was just so; the Herr Burgomeister had begun
+a courteous speech, when Pomuchelskopp came puffing in, behind him.
+
+"What is that beast coming here again for?" said Langfeldt to himself,
+and quickly took leave, thinking to escape him; but the Herr Proprietor
+was persistent, the lantern was his only reliance, he rushed after him
+again. The performance was repeated at the landrath's; the burgomeister
+was getting very angry, and because he was well acquainted with the
+landrath, since they had sat together on the select committee, he did
+not restrain himself from speaking out:
+
+"Herr, why do you run after me, so?"
+
+"I--I--" stammered Pomuchelskopp, "I can make visits, as well as you!"
+
+"Make them alone by yourself, then," cried the burgomeister.
+
+The landrath endeavored to smooth matters, and Pomuchelskopp grew
+supercilious and obstinate; but when the burgomeister took leave, he
+followed him again, on account of the lantern. But the burgomeister's
+patience was wholly exhausted. "Herr!" said he, turning round on him in
+the street, "what are you running after me for?"
+
+Pomuchelskopp, however, was no longer in distinguished company, he had
+found that he had only to do with a burgomeister, so he cleared his
+throat, and said:
+
+"Herr, I am just as good a Fasan (pheasant) of the Grand Duke's as you
+are!" He meant to say Vasall (subject), but got it wrong. Even an angry
+man must have laughed at such a speech, and the burgomeister, who was
+an honest old fellow, quite forgot his vexation, and, laughing
+heartily, said:
+
+"Come along then! Now I know what sort of a fellow you are."
+
+"And where you can go," cried Pomuchelskopp, still in anger, "there I
+can go, any day!" and he trotted on again, after the lantern. He should
+not have done that, for Langfeldt had finished his visits, and was now
+going to his lodgings, to get his latch-key, and a little money for
+playing ombre. Pomuchelskopp followed him into his room. The Herr
+Burgomeister put down the lantern on the table,--the thing was getting
+to be very amusing,--turned round, and asked, laughing:
+
+"Will you be kind enough to tell me what you want?"
+
+"To make my visits as well as you," cried Pomuchelskopp, in great anger
+at being laughed at.
+
+"To whom, then, here?"
+
+"That is none of your concern," cried Pomuchelskopp, "the gentleman
+will come," and he sat down in a chair.
+
+"Why, this is really a comedy," said the burgomeister, and he called
+out of the door: "Fika, bring a light!" and when Fika came he pointed
+to Pomuchelskopp, and asked her, "Fika, did you ever see a pheasant?
+See, this is a pheasant! This is the Grand Duke's pheasant!" and Fika
+shouted and laughed, and ran laughing out of the room, and the
+burgomeister's host came in, to take a look at the pheasant, and the
+host's children came in, and there was such a frolic, that
+Pomuchelskopp finally discovered whom he was visiting. He rushed out of
+the house, in great wrath, and the Herr Burgomeister went softly behind
+him, with the lantern.
+
+"Langfeldt," inquired the friendly Herr, at Voitel's, taking a pinch of
+snuff, "have you made your visits properly?" and his eyes were full of
+roguery.
+
+"Let me tell you," cried the Herr Burgomeister, "now I know! I might
+have thought that it was you who sent that beast after me." And he told
+the story, and so it came about, for the gentlemen at the Landtag will
+have their jokes, that Pomuchelskopp was called the pheasant, and Axel,
+after whom he was continually trotting, was called the "pheasant's
+keeper," and when Malchen and Salchen came up to the Landtag's ball, in
+gorgeous array, they were the "pheasant-chickens." When Pomuchelskopp
+wrote his assent on a ballot, with a "Jah!" (instead of "Ja," yes,)
+there were some who were for calling him the Landtag's donkey; but it
+wouldn't go, the "pheasant" had got the start too thoroughly.
+
+No, he did not enjoy himself very much, at the Landtag, for even the
+nobility, after whom he dawdled, and with whom he voted, would
+have nothing to do with him, lest they should make themselves a
+laughing-stock; but when he reached home, his real trials began, for
+his Haeuning called him "Poeking," continually, and he knew what o'clock
+that was, and Malchen and Salchen did not stand by him, as they ought,
+for at the Landtag's ball they had sat, as if they were sitting on
+eggs. And they pricked and stung the poor, simple man and lawgiver, in
+his sofa corner, till a stone would have pitied him: "Poeking, what did
+you really do at the Landtag?" and "Father, are you going to be a
+nobleman soon?" and "Poeking, what do they _do_, any way, at the
+Landtag?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. They cut at each other."
+
+"Poeking, who did you cut at?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. One cuts at one, and another at another."
+
+"Father, what did they decide about the convent-question?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; you will find out soon enough, from the Rostock
+'Times;'" and with that he went out to the barn and took refuge among
+the threshers.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+But--as I have said--the new year 1844 had come, and the winter was
+over, and spring stood at the door, with leaves and grass and flowers,
+only waiting a nod from the master of the house to begin her
+decorations; and, as the snow and ice disappeared from the earth, men's
+hearts were softened, and their eyes grew bright, like the sunshine
+that lay upon the world.
+
+Old Habermann's eyes, also, grew clearer, and his heart became lighter,
+and as he worked in the fields in the spring sunshine, and sowed the
+summer seed in the dark ground, the Lord was sowing his sad heart with
+fresh hopes. His master had gone with his young wife to visit her
+relatives, so he could govern his realm after his own pleasure, and he
+could see his daughter more frequently than in the winter. This very
+morning he had spoken with her, when he went to church, and now he was
+sitting comfortably in his parlor, in the afternoon, thinking of
+various matters; no one disturbed him, for Fritz was in the stable with
+his mare, which was very agreeable for the old man, since he always
+knew where he was to be found, which, formerly, had not always been the
+case.
+
+"Good day, Karl!" said Braesig, coming in at the door.
+
+"What?" cried Habermann, springing up, "I thought you had the Podagra,
+and I was just wishing I could go over to see you to-day; but the Herr
+is not at home, and Triddelsitz is not to be depended upon in these
+days----"
+
+"No, what ails him?"
+
+"Oh, his old mare is going to have a colt."
+
+"Ha, ha!" cried Braesig, "and it will be a thorough-bred, and the young
+Herr is to buy it."
+
+"Yes, it is so. But have you had the Podagra, or not?"
+
+"Karl, it is impossible to tell, in this confounded disease, whether it
+is the proper Podagra, or not. Really, it is all the same, so far as
+the torment is concerned; but in respect to the causes there is a great
+difference. You see, Karl, you get the Podagra by good eating and
+drinking, that is the proper kind; but if you get it only from these
+infamous, good-for-nothing, double-sewed wax-leather boots, that is the
+improper kind, and that is what I have."
+
+"Yes, why do you always wear the old things, then?
+
+"Karl, I used to wear them because of my relations with the count, and
+I cannot throw them away. But what I was going to ask--have you been at
+the Pastor's to-day?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, how is it there?"
+
+"Ah, it looks badly, the old Herr is very weak: when he came out of the
+pulpit the sweat ran down his cheeks, and it was a long time before he
+got rested, lying on his sofa."
+
+"Hm! hm!" said Braesig, shaking his head, "I don't like that; but, Karl,
+he is getting into years."
+
+"That is true," said Habermann, thoughtfully.
+
+"How is your little girl?" asked Braesig.
+
+"Thank you, Zachary, she is very well, thank God! She was here last
+week,--I had no time to spare, I must be out sowing peas, but the
+gracious lady had seen her, and kept her, and she stayed here until
+evening.
+
+"Karl!" cried Braesig, springing up, and walking back and forth, and
+biting off in his excitement, the knob from the point of his pipe, "you
+may believe me or not,--your gracious lady is the chief production of
+the whole human race."
+
+Habermann rose also, and walked up and down, and every time that they
+met each other, they smoked more violently, and Braesig asked, "Am I not
+right, Karl," and Habermann replied, "You are right, Zachary." And who
+knows how long they would have ruminated upon this topic, if a carriage
+had not driven up, from which Kurz and the rector descended.
+
+"Good day! good day!" cried Kurz, as he entered the room, "see there,
+see there, there is the Herr Inspector. Well, how goes it, old friend?
+Habermann, I came about that clover seed."
+
+"Good day," said Rector Baldrian, to Braesig, drawing out the word
+"day," as if the day were to last forever, "how goes it with you, my
+honored friend?"
+
+"Very well," said Braesig.
+
+"Habermann," exclaimed Kurz, "Isn't it so? Capital seed!"
+
+"Why, Kurz," said Habermann, "the seed wasn't quite ripe. I tried it on
+the hot shovel, and if it is the right kind, the kernels will spring
+up, like flies, from the shovel, but here many kernels lay still."
+
+"You don't look quite so blooming, my honored friend," said the rector
+to Braesig, "as at the time when we drank punch together, at the
+betrothals."
+
+"There is reason for that," said Habermann, throwing his arm over
+Braesig's shoulder, "my old friend has bad a touch of Podagra again."
+
+"Yes, yes," laughed the rector, growing quite merry:
+
+
+                 "Vinum the father,
+                  And c[oe]na the mother,
+                  And Venus the nurse,
+                  Produce the Podagra."
+
+
+"The seed is beautiful!" cried Kurz, "you will find no better between
+Grimmen and Greifswald."
+
+"Ho, ho, Kurz," said Habermann, "not go fast! I have a word to say----"
+
+"Listen to me!" said Braesig, across to the rector. "Don't come near me
+with your French! I don't understand it. What did you say about Fenus?
+What have I, and my cursed Podagra, to do with Fenus?"
+
+"My honored friend and benefactor," said the rector, with unction,
+"Venus was, in antiquity, the goddess of love."
+
+"It is all one to me," said Braesig, "she might be something very
+different, for all I care,--now-a-days, every stupid sheep-dog is
+called Fenus."
+
+"No, Habermann," cried Kurz, again, "if the clover seed has the right
+lustre, and looks so violet-blue, then----"
+
+"Well, Kurz," said Habermann, "yours didn't look like that."
+
+"My benefactor," said the rector again, to Braesig. "Venus was, as I
+have said, a goddess, and as a sheep-dog----"
+
+"Eh, what?" said Braesig, "you must have imagined all that, about the
+goddess, Fenus means a sort of bird. Karl, don't you remember the
+stories we read, when we were children, about the bird Fenus?"
+
+"Ah!" said the rector, as light dawned upon his mind, "you mean the
+bird Ph[oe]nix, which builds itself, in Arabia, a nest of costly
+spices----"
+
+"That is an impossibility!" exclaimed Kurz. "How can the most skillful
+bird build a nest out of cloves, pepper-corns, cardamoms and nutmegs?"
+
+"Dear brother-in-law, it is only a fable."
+
+"Then the fable is a falsehood," said Braesig, "but I don't think you
+pronounce the word rightly; it isn't Ph[oe]nix, it is Ponix, and they
+are not birds, they are little horses, and they don't come from Arabia,
+but from Sweden, and Oland, and I know them very well, for my gracious
+lady the countess had two Ponixes, which she used to drive for
+pleasure."
+
+The rector wanted to set him right, but Kurz interrupted: "No,
+brother-in-law, let it go! We all know that you are better informed
+than Braesig, in such learned matters."
+
+"No," said Braesig, "let him come on!" standing before the rector, as if
+he had no objections to a contest.
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Kurz. "We didn't come out here, to quarrel about
+Venuses and clover-seed; we came merely to have a pleasant game of
+Boston."
+
+"We can have that," said Habermann, beginning to clear the table.
+
+"Hold, Karl," said Braesig, "I don't like to see you doing that, that is
+the house-steward's business." And with that he roared across the
+court, "Triddelsitz!" and Fritz came running in. "Triddelsitz, we are
+going to play Boston, get the table ready, and a sheet of paper to set
+down the winnings, and fill the pipes, and make a handful of matches."
+
+And when Fritz had made ready, they sat down, and prepared to begin.
+They must first decide how high they would play. Kurz was for playing
+Boston grandissimo, for shilling points; but Kurz was always very
+venturesome; that was a little too high for the others, and Braesig
+declared that he wouldn't sit down to play, to get people's money out
+of their pockets. At last, through Habermann's interposition, they
+settled what the game should be, and were ready to begin.
+
+"Who has diamonds?" asked the rector; "he deals."
+
+"Kurz deals," said Braesig.
+
+So now they could finally begin; but they did not begin, quite yet, for
+the rector laid his hand on the cards, and said, looking around the
+circle, "It is worthy of note! We are all pretty reasonable men, and we
+are going to play a game, namely the game of cards, which, according to
+authentic information, was invented for the entertainment of an insane
+king. King Charles of France----"
+
+"Come, children," said Kurz, taking the cards out of the rector's,
+hand, "if we are going to play, let us play, if we are going to tell
+stories, we will tell stories."
+
+"Go ahead!" cried Braesig, and Kurz dealt,--made a misdeal, however in
+his haste, so "Once more!" This time it was all right, and they began
+to look at their cards. "I pass," said Habermann, who had the lead.
+Then it came to the rector; they had to wait for him a little, because
+he had not yet arranged his cards, for he had a superstition that the
+cards were better if he took them up, one by one, and because he
+improved all his opportunities with great conscientiousness he arranged
+all his cards in order of rank and turned the sevens and fives so that
+he could see the middle spot, and not mistake them for the sixes and
+the fours. Kurz, meanwhile, laid his cards on the table, folded his
+hands over them, looked at him and sighed. "I pass," said the rector.
+
+"I knew you would," said Kurz, for he knew that his brother-in-law must
+examine his cards closely, before he would commit himself, and, on the
+other hand, he was afraid of his assisting, because usually he either
+had nothing, or if he had something, he played it the wrong time.
+
+"Pass!" said Braesig, whose turn came next.
+
+"Boston grandissimo!" said Kurz. "Who assists?"
+
+"Pass!" said Habermann.
+
+"Dear brother-in-law," said the rector, "I--one trick--two tricks--well
+I shall find a third--I assist."
+
+"Well," said Kurz, "but we don't pay together. Each pays for himself."
+
+"Come, Karl," said Braesig, "Out with it! We will break their fiddle in
+two."
+
+"Well," said Kurz, "don't talk about it."
+
+"God forbid," said Habermann, and led the ten of hearts: "Duke Michael
+fell upon the land."
+
+"Come, Herr Oberfoerster," said the rector, playing the knave of hearts.
+
+"Herze mich und kuesse mich, und kruenkle meine krause nich,"[5] said
+Braesig, playing the queen.
+
+"That maid must have a man," said Kurz, playing the king, and, laying
+the trick aside, he led a low club (kreuz). "Kreuz Kringel und
+Zweibach!"[6]
+
+"Bite, Peter, they are lentils!" cried Braesig to Habermann.
+
+"Hold!" cried Kurz, "no telling!"
+
+"God forbid!" said Habermann, and played also a low club.
+
+"A fine singer is our sexton," said the rector, playing the nine.
+
+"A cross and strife, a wicked wife, the Lord hath sent upon me," said
+Braesig, and took the trick with the queen.
+
+"Well," said Kurz, "that was a heavy cross, to be sure. What have you
+next?"
+
+"Pay attention, Karl, now we begin our journey," said Braesig. "Herr,"
+to Kurz, "I was whist. Here! Pikas was a pointer," and led the pik-as
+(ace of spades), and followed with the king,--"Long live the king!" and
+then the queen,--"Respect for the ladies!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Kurz, laying down his cards, and looking at the
+rector, "what a hand! He can't have any more spades."
+
+"Dear brother-in-law," said the rector, "I come yet."
+
+"But too late," said Kurz, taking up his cards, with a deep sigh, as if
+the rector had treated him unworthily, but he would bear it like a
+christian.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, "how much have we in all?
+
+"Four tricks," said Habermann.
+
+"Come," said Kurz, "that is not fair, no telling!"
+
+"Is it telling," said Braesig, "when I merely ask a question? Now pay
+attention, Karl, I shall take one more, and if you take one, then we
+are out."
+
+"I shall get mine," said Kurz.
+
+"And I shall get mine, too," said the rector.
+
+After a couple of rounds, Kurz laid his hand over his tricks: "So, I
+have mine." Diamonds were on the table, the rector ventured a cut with
+the queen, Braesig followed with the king, and the poor rector had lost
+his trick: "How that could happen, I cannot comprehend!"
+
+"It wasn't a whist game!" cried Kurz.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, "if you had been careful, they would have lost
+another trick."
+
+"You must blame yourself for that, you didn't play after me in hearts."
+
+"Karl, did I have any? I had nothing but the queen."
+
+"No, brother-in-law," cried Kurz, meantime, "you threw away the game,
+you had the king of clubs, and you played the nine. It lost the game."
+
+"What would you have?" said Braesig, with great contempt. "Are you a
+dunce? Here I sit with a handful of spades, and a couple of queens
+besides; what would you have?"
+
+"Herr, do you think, when I have said Boston, I am afraid of your
+trumpery queens?"
+
+"Come, come!" cried Habermann, dealing the cards, "let it go, this old
+after-play is disagreeable."
+
+In this fashion, they played on, and it seemed as if they would tear
+each other's hair, and yet they had the best feelings towards each
+other. The rector won, and he had the best prospect of winning, for he
+who loses the first game, as is well known, always wins afterward. Kurz
+sat disconsolate at his bad luck; but that also often finds
+compensation. "Ten grandissimo!" said he. All were surprised, even he
+himself, and he looked his cards through once more. "Ten grandissimo!"
+said he again, laid the cards on the table, and walked up and down the
+room: "They play like that in Venice, and other great watering places."
+
+In the midst of his greatest triumph, and the greatest distress of the
+others, Fritz Triddelsitz came to the door, looking quite disturbed and
+pale: "Herr Inspector, Herr Habermann, oh, do come out here!"
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Habermann, "what has happened?" and was
+springing up, but Kurz held him back.
+
+"No," said he, "the game must be played first. It happened so to me,
+once before, at the time of the great fire, I had just put a grand on
+the table, and they all ran away."
+
+"Herr Inspector," begged Fritz, "you must come."
+
+"What is it?" cried Habermann, dropping his cards, and jumping up. "Is
+anything on fire?"
+
+"No," stammered Fritz, "I--me--something has happened to me."
+
+"What has happened to you?" said Braesig, across the table.
+
+"My chestnut mare has a colt," said Fritz, in an anxious tone.
+
+"Well, that has often happened," said Braesig, "but you make a face like
+a funeral; it is rather a joyful occasion, under the circumstances."
+
+"Yes," said Fritz, "but--but--it is so queer. You must come with me,
+Herr Inspector."
+
+"Why, is the colt dead?" asked Habermann.
+
+"No," said Fritz, "it is well enough; but it looks so queer. Krischan
+Daesel says he should think it was a young camel."
+
+"Well," said Habermann, "we can finish the game afterwards, we will go
+out with you."
+
+And in spite of Kurz's remonstrances, they all went with Fritz to the
+stable.
+
+"I never saw such a colt," said Fritz, on the way, "it has ears as long
+as that," measuring from the wrist to the elbow.
+
+When they came to the stable, there stood Krischan Daesel by the
+enclosure, where the mare was looking fondly at her little one, and
+whinnying over it, and the little one was making its first attempts at
+springing about; he shook his head, and said to Braesig, who came and
+stood by him, "Now tell me, Herr Inspector, did you ever see the like
+of that?"
+
+"Yes," said Braesig, looking at Habermann, and said with emphasis, "I
+will tell you, Karl, what sort of an animal it is. Fullblood's colt is
+a mule."
+
+"That is it," said Habermann.
+
+"A mule?" cried Fritz, and he sprung over into the enclosure, and
+succeeded, in spite of the whinnying of the old mare, in grasping the
+colt by the neck, and examined his face and eyes and ears, and as the
+fearful truth flashed upon him he exclaimed, in fierce anger, "Oh, I
+could wring the creature's neck, and Gust Prebberow's, into the
+bargain!"
+
+"For shame, Triddelsitz," said Habermann, seriously, "just see how
+pleased the mother is, even if it isn't a thorough-bred."
+
+"Yes," cried Braesig, "and she is the nearest to it, as the Frau
+Pastorin says. But you may wring Gust Prebberow's neck, for all I care,
+for he is an out-and-out, double-distilled rascal."
+
+"How is it possible!" said Fritz, as he slowly stepped out of the
+enclosure, and his wrath had given place to a great melancholy; "he is
+my best friend, and now he has cheated me with a deaf horse and a mule.
+I will sue him."
+
+"I told you before, there was no friendship nor honesty in
+horse-dealing," said Braesig, taking Fritz under the arm, and drawing
+him out of the stable, "but I am sorry for you, in your just
+retribution. You have bought your experience in horse-dealing, and that
+is what every one must do, but let me warn you against a horse lawsuit,
+for long after the mule is dead such a lawsuit will be far from ended.
+You see," he went on, leading Fritz up and down the court, "I will tell
+you a story, for an example. You see, there was old Ruetebusch, of
+Swensin, he sold a horse to his own brother-in-law, who was inspector
+here before Habermann's time, an infamous creature of a dapple-gray, as
+a saddle-horse. Good, or, as you are in the habit of saying, 'Bong!'
+Three days after, the inspector wishes to try his new acquisition, so
+he climbs on to the creature, which was very high; but scarcely was he
+seated, when the old schinder ran off to the village pond--no stopping
+him!--and there he stood, up to the neck in water, and would move
+neither back nor forward.
+
+"It was fortunate, both for the dapple-gray and the inspector, else
+they might both have been drowned; the inspector roared mightily for
+help, for he couldn't get down there, and he couldn't swim, and old
+Flegel the wheelwright had to come to his rescue in a boat. Well, then
+the lawsuit began, for the inspector said the horse was a stupid, what
+we farmers call a studirten (scholar), and Ruetebusch must take him
+back, for stupidity protects from everything, in horse-dealing as in
+other matters. Ruetebusch wouldn't do it, and the two brothers-in-law
+first had a falling out, and then quarrelled so bitterly, that they
+wouldn't go within three miles of each other.
+
+"The lawsuit went on, all the time. All Swensin was called up to
+testify that the creature was in its right mind when they knew it, and
+the Pumpelhagen people had to swear that it appeared to them like a
+studirten. So the lawsuit went on, into its fifth year, and the
+creature stood quietly in its stable, eating oats, for the inspector
+never got on it again, since he considered it such a dangerous animal;
+he dared not kill it, either; for it was the _corpus delicti_ of
+the whole concern, as they call it. They brought the most learned
+horse-doctors to see it, but it did no good, for they were not agreed,
+three said it was clever, and three said it was stupid. The lawsuit was
+going on, slowly, all the time, and a whole brood of new lawsuits was
+hatched out of it, for the learned horse-doctors charged each other
+with maliciousness and ill-breeding, and sued each other for libel.
+Then they wrote to a celebrated horse-professor, in Berlin, to see what
+he thought of the business. He wrote back that they must cut off the
+old schinder's head, and send it to him, till he could examine the
+brains; it was hard enough to tell whether a reasonable being was
+clever or stupid, but it was harder, with an unreasonable beast,
+because the poor creature had nothing to say for himself.
+
+"Well, that might have been done, but old Ruetebusch and his lawyer
+opposed it, and carried their point, and the suit went on again. Then
+old Ruetebusch died, and six months afterwards, his brother-in-law died
+also, and they never were reconciled, even on their death-beds, and
+went into eternity, each obstinate in his own opinion, the one that the
+old schinder was clever, the other that he was stupid. The lawsuit was
+suspended, for the time, and soon died out of itself, for the old
+gray kicked the bucket, three weeks later, out of pure idleness and
+over-feeding. Then they salted his head nicely, and sent it to the
+professor, at Berlin, and he wrote back, clearly and distinctly, that
+the old horse had, all his life, been as little of a studirten as
+himself, and he only wished that every one of the lawyers had as much
+intelligence as the beast, so very reasonable had his brains appeared.
+And the man was right; for I afterwards had the infamous rascal of a
+boy, who brought out the horse for the inspector, for a servant, and he
+confessed to me that he had tied a piece of burning tinder under the
+poor creature's tail, out of pure deviltry, because the inspector had
+given him a beating the day before. And I ask any reasonable being, how
+intelligent must not that poor beast have been, to run into the village
+pond, to extinguish the fire! And so the great lawsuit came to an end;
+but the little lawsuits, between the learned horse-doctors, are still
+going on. And now, let me tell you something: Habermann is a good
+friend of old Prebberow, the rascal's father, and he shall speak to
+him, and get justice done you. And now you may go, and don't cherish
+any hatred against the innocent little beast, or against the mother,
+for they couldn't help it, and the mother is a poor, deceived creature,
+as well as you."
+
+With that, he followed the others, who had returned to the card-table.
+
+"Come, come!" said Kurz, "so; ten grandissimo! I play myself."
+
+"Karl," "aid Braesig, "you must talk with old Prebberow, and not let
+your confounded greyhound get into difficulties."
+
+"I will do so, Zachary, and it shall all be made right; but I am sorry
+for the poor boy, that he should be so disappointed. Who would have
+thought of a mule!" (maulesel.)
+
+"I observe," said the rector, laying the cards, which he had arranged
+in order of rank, upon the table, "that you all speak of this little
+new-born animal as a maulesel, while according to the natural history
+use of language, it should be called a maulthier. The difference
+is----"
+
+"Don't bore us with your natural history!" cried Kurz. "Are we playing
+natural history, or are we playing cards? Here, ace of diamonds lies on
+the table!"
+
+Well, there was no help for it, they suited and suited, and Kurz won
+the game, and with it the right to boast, for four weeks, of his ten
+grandissimo.
+
+So they played on, in friendly excitement, until the rector, looking
+over the account, became aware that he had won, in all, three thalers
+and eight groschen, and since the luck was going rather against him of
+late, he resolved to stop; so he rose, and said his feet were getting
+cold, and put his winnings in his pocket.
+
+"If you suffer from cold feet," said Braesig, "I will tell you a good
+remedy; take a pinch of snuff every morning, on an empty stomach,--that
+is good for cold feet."
+
+"Eh, what!" cried Kurz, who had been winning lately, "how can he get
+cold feet?"
+
+"So?" said the rector, hotly, for he was determined to retain his
+winnings, "haven't I as good a right to cold feet as you? Don't you
+always get cold feet, at our club, when you have had good luck?" and he
+carried it out, he kept his cold feet, and his winnings, and after a
+little while the two city people drove off, taking Braesig with them.
+
+Habermann was just going to bed, when there was a loud talking and
+scolding before the door, and Fritz Triddelsitz and Krischan Daesel came
+in.
+
+"Good evening, Herr Inspector," said Krischan, "it is all the same to
+me."
+
+"What is the matter now?" asked Habermann.
+
+"Herr Inspector," said Fritz, "you know how it has gone with--well,
+with the mule, and now Krischan won't have the beast in the stable."
+
+"What has happened?" said Habermann.
+
+"Yes, Herr, it is all the same to me. But this isn't all the same, I
+have been used to horses and colts, and not to camels and mules. Why,
+Herr Triddelsitz might as well bring bears and monkeys into the
+riding-stable!"
+
+"Well, but if I tell you so, the beast _shall_ stand in the stable, and
+you shall take just as good care of it as of any other colt."
+
+"Yes, if you command me, then it is all the same to me, and then it
+shall always be so. Well, good night, Herr Inspector, and don't take it
+ill of me," and he went off.
+
+"Herr Habermann," said Fritz, "what will Herr von Rambow say to this
+accident? and the gracious lady too?"
+
+"Make yourself easy, they will not trouble themselves much about it.
+
+"Well," said Fritz, and went out of the door, to go to bed, "it is too
+provoking, that this should have happened to my mare."
+
+When the Herr came home from his journey, he got the story of the
+chestnut mare fresh from Krischan, and because he was a good-natured
+man, and liked Fritz, since in some respects they were a good deal
+alike, he comforted him and said, "Never mind! This does not interfere
+with our bargain. You must think that it is only the natural result of
+a _mesalliance_. We will put the mare and the colt into the paddock, by
+and by; and you will see they will give us a great deal of pleasure."
+
+It was really so; every one found amusement in the little beast. When
+the village children strolled through the fields, on Sunday afternoons,
+they would go to the paddock, and gaze at the little mule: "See,
+Joching, there he is." "Yes, that is a nice one! See, how he pricks up
+his ears!" "Now look, see him kick!"
+
+When the maids passed the paddock, on the way to the milking shed, they
+also stopped: "See, Stina, there is Herr Triddelsitz's mule!" "Come,
+Fika, let us go round that way." "Not I, what a horrid-looking
+creature!" "You need not call him horrid, he gives you the least
+trouble of any of them."
+
+And through the whole region, the mare and the mule and Fritz were
+renowned, and wherever the latter showed himself he was asked after the
+welfare of the mule, to his great annoyance. The little old donkey,
+however, was not at all troubled, he ran about in the paddock all
+summer, with the other well-born and high-born colts, and, if any of
+them came too near him, he knew how to stand up for his rights.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+This was a very favourable year for Pumpelhagen; and when the harvest
+came, and the prices of grain went up, Axel von Rambow was relieved
+from all his anxieties and embarrassments.
+
+He made calculations, and was quite sure, reckoning the rape at such a
+figure, and the profit of the sheep and of the dairy-farm at so and so
+much, that, with the quantity of wheat he should have, he could pay the
+last dollar of his debts. The devil must be in it, if he didn't finish
+this year, completely out of debt. There was good reason why this year
+should be prosperous, he had been himself at Pumpelhagen, he had
+concerned himself in the management of affairs, and every one knows
+that the eye of the master is for husbandry what the sun is for the
+world, everything grows and ripens in its light, and the grass grows
+green beneath the master's tread. So Axel took the gifts and mercies of
+the Lord coolly out of his hands, and gave himself the credit of the
+blessed year,--even the high price of grain seemed to him a deserved
+reward for his industry.
+
+So he sat on his high horse, and although he found it for the moment a
+little difficult to meet the necessary expenses of the estate, and to
+pay the notes held by David and Slusuhr, as they fell due, yet it gave
+him no uneasiness, for he had gained great credit, in the region, for
+his intelligent and industrious management, as he inferred from the
+fact that Pomuchelskopp had several times taken occasion to offer him
+money. He had accepted it, without reflection, to satisfy David and
+Slusuhr, and he paid them with Pomuchelskopp's money, and they paid it
+again to Pomuchelskopp, and he again to Axel, and so it went round the
+circle. This arrangement would have been very fine, if he had not been
+the only one to suffer by it, and if Pomuchelskopp had not had the
+inconvenience of unpacking the rouleaux, every time, lest Axel should
+notice that he got his own money again. But this was unavoidable,
+unless Pomuchelskopp would come out from his cover, under which he lay
+in wait for Pumpelhagen; so he yielded to the necessity, especially
+since he found the business so amusing.
+
+Axel also took pleasure in this business, for he always had money to
+supply his necessities, and the amount that he gave for it seemed to
+him quite insignificant, since it had never occurred to him to reckon
+the interest for a whole year. He also thought seriously of introducing
+great improvements upon the estate. It is an old story, though a sad
+one, that these young masters, who understand nothing properly about
+farming, are always introducing improvements, whereby they ruin
+themselves in the speediest manner. I mean, particularly, with the
+live stock. Why is this so? I think it is mainly because the young
+masters have very little trouble in procuring a new bull or a pair of
+new-fashioned rams, and because the laws of cattle-breeding are so
+plainly laid down, that the stupidest person can discourse wisely about
+them. They need only to shove aside the experience of years, and that
+is not hard for them, and then they stand there, with their young
+heads, as important as the old people with their gray ones.
+
+Upon the Pumpelhagen estate, there was a dairy-farm, of Breitenburg
+cows, which the old Kammerrath had purchased with Habermann's
+assistance, and upon Habermann's recommendation. Something new must be
+done here, so Axel journeyed to Sommersdorf, in Pomerania, where there
+was a cattle-auction, and bought, upon Pomuchelskopp's advice, a
+wonderful Ayrshire bull. Why? Well, firstly, because he was handsome,
+secondly, because he came from Scotland, and, thirdly, because he was
+something new. There was a flock of sheep on the estate, of the
+Negretti-stock, which yielded a great deal of wool, and were always
+profitable, but Pomuchelskopp, _as he said_, had got a thaler and a
+half more the stone, at the wool-market, so the young Herr let himself
+be persuaded into buying of his neighbor, for ready money, a pair of
+very fine Electoral rams. That he could estimate the value of them and
+reckon it against Pomuchelskopp, to his great advantage, did not occur
+to him; he had enough else to think of.
+
+Habermann strove, with all his might, against these new arrangements,
+but in vain; in the eyes of his young Herr he was an old man, who had
+fallen astern and could not keep up with the times; and although the
+old man based his opposition on very strong and reasonable arguments,
+he had always the same answer: "But, good heavens! we can at least try
+it;" not thinking that, in some things, trying and ruining are the
+same. The inspector could do nothing, and was only thankful his master
+had not taken to raising thorough-bred horses, which was the business
+he detested, of all others. The young wife also, could prevent nothing;
+she did not know the manner in which Axel relieved himself from his
+difficulties,--without being an indifferent observer, she must judge by
+what she saw, and this was just at present with Axel great contentment
+and golden prospects.
+
+In Gurlitz, also, Pomuchelskopp and his Haeuning were in a state of
+great, though not strictly speaking, family contentment; but this they
+did not expect, in their modesty, no, they were contented with the
+smooth progress of the money business, And their prospects became,
+literally, more and more golden, for the boundary between Pumpelhagen
+and Gurlitz was growing more and more undefined, and Pomuchelskopp,
+meanwhile, had only the unpleasant task of clipping his Haeuning's
+wings, lest she should positively fly over the hedge, and scratch for
+worms on the other side.
+
+In Jochen Nuessler's house, the old lady Contentment had established
+herself comfortably on the divan, and, if one had spoken of golden
+prospects there, it must have been in the sense in which the poets
+speak of the "golden morning sky," not because they think that the glow
+of the morning sky is like the glitter of gold, but only that they know
+nothing more beautiful than the latter, possibly because they see it so
+seldom. Gottlieb was getting rid of his long-haired, Pietistic ways,
+and beginning to look at the world with his natural eyes, instead of
+through the blue spectacles he had acquired at Erlangen, or elsewhere.
+
+To Braesig's joy, he played Boston--very badly; he had been on
+horse-back once, and had fallen off, without getting hurt, and when he
+came to Jochen Nuessler's harvest feast, though he did not exactly
+dance, that is to say, openly, before all the people, he had practised
+a Schottische with Lining in the parlor, and, at its close, had sung
+with a clear though rather plaintive voice, "Vivallera!"
+
+But Rudolph? Well, we will only repeat what Hilgendorf himself said to
+Braesig about him: "He, Braesig? Just as I was, true as I live! Bones
+like ivory! Just looks at a thing, and knows how, just as I used to!
+And books? Won't touch 'em! Just like me!"
+
+Frau Nuessler was happy in the happiness of her children, and young
+Jochen and young Bauschan sat together peacefully, for hours, without
+saying a word, and thought of the time when they should have a new
+crown-prince, young Jochen Rudolph, and young Bauschan the seventh.
+That was not exactly a morning sky, but for moderate people, like
+Jochen and Bauschan, an evening sky often looks golden.
+
+So in every house, in the whole region, there was happiness for each
+after its kind, but in one house, where Peace had long been an inmate,
+and had sat in his own place by the warm stove, in winter, and under
+the lindens before the door, or in the arbor in the garden, in summer,
+like a good old grandfather, and had kept a watchful eye upon little
+Louise's joyous bounds, and had guided the Frau Pastorin's duster, and
+kept the Herr Pastor's papers in order, the good old grandfather was no
+longer there,--he had silently taken his leave, and had shut the door
+softly behind him, and was gone to the place whence he came; and, in
+his stead, unrest and anxiety had entered, for the good old Pastor was
+daily growing weaker. He was not confined to a sick-bed, and had no
+particular disease, and Doctor Strump, of Rahnstadt, with the best
+intentions in the world, could find, out of the three thousand, seven
+hundred, seventy and seven diseases which humanity is subject to, by
+good rights, no single one which suited him. So he must minister to
+himself, and he did so, for good old grandfather Peace, when he took
+his departure, had laid his hand on the Pastor's head, saying, "I go,
+but only for a short time; then I will return to thy Regina. Thou dost
+not need me, for I entered thy heart years ago, in the solemn hour when
+thou didst choose between God and the world. Now sleep, for thou mayest
+well be weary."
+
+And he was weary, very weary. His Regina had placed him on the sofa,
+under the picture-gallery, according to his desire, that he might look
+out of the window; his Louise had covered him warmly, and they had both
+gone out on tiptoe, that they might not disturb his repose. Out of
+doors, the first snowflakes of the winter were falling from the sky,
+gently, ever gently; and it was as quiet without as within, as within
+his heart; and it seemed to him as if the outstretched hands of Christ
+beckoned and pointed,--no one saw it, but so his Regina afterwards
+explained the matter,--and he got up, and opened his old chest of
+drawers, which he had from his father, and which his mother had always
+polished, herself, and had seated himself in the arm-chair before it,
+wishing once more to look over things which he had valued so much.
+
+The chest was his cabinet of curiosities, for everything that had been
+important or remarkable in his life had its memento here; it was his
+family medicine chest, in which he stored his remedies for the troubles
+and cares of this world, which he used when he was sick at heart;
+simple remedies, but they always answered the purpose. They were not
+put up in vials and bottles and boxes, and no labels were fastened on
+them; they were merely plucked by his hand, in happy hours, and
+preserved for use. Everything, by which he could recall to his memory
+the purest joys of his life, was gathered here, and whenever he was
+sad, he refreshed his soul with them, and he never closed the old chest
+without deriving strength from his remedies, and expressing gratitude
+for them. There lay the Bible, which, when a boy, he had received from
+his father, there was the beautiful crystal glass, which his best
+friend had given him, when he left the University, there was the
+pocket-book, which his Regina had embroidered for him, when they were
+betrothed; there were sea-shells, which a sailor, whom he once directed
+into the right way, had sent to him, years after; there were little
+Christmas and New Year notes, from Louise and Mining, and Lining, which
+they had indited with infinite labor, and also their first attempts at
+needlework; there was the withered bridal-wreath worn by his Regina on
+their wedding-day, and the great silver-clasped, pictorial Bible,
+Habermann's gift, and the silver mounted meerschaum pipe, Braesig's
+gift, upon his seventy-fifth birth-day. In the cupboard underneath,
+were old shoes; the shoes which Louise and Regina and himself had worn,
+when they first entered the Pastor's house.
+
+Old shoes are not beautiful, but these must have been very dear to him,
+for he had taken them out, and placed each pair by itself, and looked
+long at them, and thought much, and then he had taken his first Bible
+upon his lap, and opened at our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and read
+therein. No one saw him, to be sure, but it must have been so; his
+Regina knew very well how it all happened. And then he grew weary, and
+laid his head back against the chair, and fell softly asleep.
+
+So they found him, and the little Frau Pastorin sat down by him in the
+chair, and put her arms around him and closed his eyes, and laid her
+head against his, and cried silently, and Louise threw herself at his
+feet, and folded her hands upon his knees, and looked, with tearful
+eyes, at the two dear, still faces. Then the little Frau Pastorin
+folded down the leaf in the Bible, and took it gently out of his hand,
+and she rose up, and Louise rose also, and clung about her neck, and
+they both broke into loud weeping, and sought protection and comfort in
+each other, until it grew to be twilight. Then the little Frau Pastorin
+took the Pastor's boots and her shoes, and put them back into the
+cupboard, saying, "I bless the day, when you came together into this
+house;" and Louise put her little shoes beside them, saying, "And I the
+day, when you first crossed the threshold," and then they locked up the
+chest, with all its joys.
+
+After three days, good Pastor Behrens was buried, in his churchyard, in
+a place which he had selected, during his life, which one could see,
+through the clear panes of glass, from the living-room of the
+parsonage, and upon which fell the first beams of the morning sun.
+
+The funeral guests had departed, Habermann also had been obliged to go;
+but Uncle Braesig had explained that he should spend the night at the
+parsonage. Through the day, he had lent a helping hand, and now, as he
+saw the two women standing at the window, arm in arm, lost in sorrowful
+thoughts, he stole softly out of the room, up to his sleeping-chamber,
+and looked, through the twilight, over to the churchyard, where the
+dark grave lay in the white snow. He thought of the man who lay beneath
+it, how often he had extended the hand, to help and to counsel him, and
+he vowed to repay the debt he owed him, with all his might, to the Frau
+Pastorin. And underneath, in the living-room, stood the two bereaved
+women, also looking over at the dark grave, and vowing silently, in
+their hearts, each to the other, all the love and friendship, which he
+had so often enjoined, and so constantly practiced. And the little Frau
+Pastorin thanked God and her Pastor that she had so sweet a comforter
+in her sorrow as she held in her arms, and she stroked Louise's soft
+hair, and kissed her again and again; and Louise prayed to God and her
+other father, that she might be endowed with all that was good and
+lovely, that she might lay it all in her foster-mother's lap.
+
+Fresh graves are like hot-beds, which the gardeners plant; the fairest
+flowers spring out of them; but poisonous toadstools shoot up, also,
+from these beds.
+
+That same evening, two other people in Gurlitz, were standing at a
+window, and looking through the panes, in the twilight,--not at the
+God's acre, that was far from their thoughts, no, at the Pastor's
+acre,--and Pomuchelskopp said to his Haenning, now they could not fail,
+now the field fell out of the lease, now they would have it, he would
+speak to the new Pastor about it, before his appointment.
+
+"Muchel," said Haenning, "the Pumpelhagen people will never allow it,
+they will not let that field slip out of their fingers."
+
+"Haeuning, out of their fingers? I hold it in my own hands."
+
+"Yes, if the young Herr must accommodate you; but how if we should get
+a young priest here, who will farm it himself?"
+
+"Kluecking, I don't recognize you, my dear Kluecking! We have the choice;
+we will choose a Pietist. That kind are all taken up with their Bibles
+and Psalm-books and tracts, and have no leisure for farming."
+
+"Yes, but you don't choose alone, there are Pumpelhagen, and Rexow, and
+Warnitz."
+
+"Kluecking, Warnitz and Rexow! What can they do against. Pumpelhagen and
+Gurlitz?--If the Pumpelhagen people and my people agree----"
+
+"Don't trust to your people, you will get nothing but vexation. Don't
+you know how the Pastor's wife treated you? and she can do anything she
+pleases with the villagers, they stick to her like burs."
+
+"Can't I get her out of the way? She shall move out of the village!
+There is no Pastor's-widow-house here, and am I likely to build one?
+Make the most of your meal, Frau Pastorin, you will have to go
+further!"
+
+"Kopp, you are a great blockhead! The election of the new Pastor comes
+first." With that she left him.
+
+"Kluecking," he called after her, "I promise you, dear Kluecking, I will
+make it all right."
+
+Yes, many a poisonous weed grows out of a fresh grave, when the heirs
+reach out impatient hands for the money and goods of the silent man,
+when a neighbor profits by the distress of the widow and orphan to make
+his own house and garden and fields larger and finer, and when the
+coarse fellow sits in his comfortable sofa corner, and grumbles at it,
+as a great trial, that he must go out to water a new milch cow.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+Braesig had remained at the parsonage through the week. He made all the
+arrangements rendered necessary by such a change; he made out the
+inventory, wrote whole heaps of the drollest mourning letters, and
+carried them to the post himself, in spite of snow and cold and
+podagra; he settled with the tailor and shoemaker at Rahnstadt, and
+now, on the Monday after the funeral, he was sitting with the Frau
+Pastorin and Louise at the breakfast-table, intending to leave
+immediately after, when a carriage stopped before the door, and Franz
+von Rambow jumped down, and soon after, healthy and joyous, entered the
+room. But how his face changed when he saw the black mourning dresses
+of the two women. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed, in his first surprise,
+"what has happened? Where is the Herr Pastor?"
+
+The little Frau Pastorin rose from her chair, and going up to the
+young Herr she gave him her hand, and said, with an effort, "My Pastor
+has gone a journey to his last home, and he left greetings for all,
+all"--here she was overcome, and put her handkerchief to her eyes, "all
+whom he once loved, you also."
+
+And Louise came up, and gave him her hand, without speaking. The color
+had risen in her face, when she first saw and recognized him, but now
+she was composed again, and seated herself. And Braesig shook hands, and
+talked of this and that, to turn their attention to other subjects, and
+away from their fresh grief; but Franz did not listen, he stood like
+one thunderstruck, the news was so unexpected, and fell so heavily upon
+his joyous hopes.
+
+He had spent two years at the academy in Eldena, had been industrious,
+and had stored his mind with all the sciences which he would need in
+the widest field of agriculture, or which could assist him in his
+chosen calling; the practical part of it he had already acquired, under
+Habermann's instruction; he was now of age, and could take possession
+of his property, nothing stood in the way of his establishing a
+household, but his own consideration. This, and the late Pastor's
+quiet, sensible letters, which had carefully avoided the remotest
+question or allusion, and with all their joyous heartiness had showed
+so much intelligence and reason, had kept him from hasty steps and rash
+actions. He had not a cold heart, it beat as hotly in his breast as
+that of any other young man, who falls over head and ears in love at
+first sight, and at once offers his heart and his hand; but, from his
+childhood, he had been thrown upon his own judgment, and been
+accountable for his own actions, and had decided the smallest matters
+after much reflection,--some said too much reflection,--but it did no
+harm! In this matter he was right, he would take this important step in
+life with a warm heart, but with a cool head. He had restrained his
+heart, had locked all his sweet dreams of joy and happiness in his own
+breast, like the sweet kernel in a hard nut; he would not crack the nut
+for his mere pleasure, he would wait patiently, till favorable
+circumstances, like the sun and rain, should make the shell open gently
+of itself, and the green sprout should come to light, and a tree should
+grow from it, beneath whose shade he and his Louise might sit happily
+together. And when his heart beat faster, and urged him to visit her,
+and see her again, he strove against it, with a right feeling toward
+his maiden, she should not be troubled till she had time to learn and
+to comprehend herself; and he had a feeling of pride, that he would
+have no match-maker meddling with his happiness. And when his heart
+often bled in the conflict, he called to it, fresh and strong; "Hands
+off! We are playing no lottery, here! Such a gain is too easily won,
+and too easily lost. The reward shall pay for the trouble. No bitter,
+no sweet!"
+
+But now he was of age, now he was in all respects a man, now his own
+pride and his honor toward the dearest, sweetest maiden in the world
+were to receive their reward, now the tender green of the sprouting
+kernel pushed through the softened shell, and through the dark earth,
+up to the light, and it was time to care for it, that the tree might
+grow; and it was not time, merely, it was also duty. Now he threw
+himself into his carriage, the strife between the cool judgment and the
+warm heart was at an end, the former he left at home, safely stowed
+away, so that it might not be lost, for he might need it afterwards,
+and the latter he took with him, and comforted and soothed it, and sung
+it sweet song all the way, as if it were a child in the cradle, and he
+the mother.
+
+And now all this joy was gone, the songs of happiness and love had been
+sung in vain, between these two sorrowful, black-robed forms, his heart
+throbbed as restlessly as before, and though he had left his judgment
+at home, his kind feelings, his reverence for so great a sorrow, and
+his remembrance of the worthy, silent man, were too strong for him, and
+against such a power, no honest heart could strive; it surrenders,
+although with wounds and suffering. Love is full of selfishness, and
+knows no consideration for others, people say,--and there is truth in
+it! It is a world for itself, and goes its own way, as if it had no
+concern for anything else; but if it comes from God, its path is marked
+out by eternal laws, that it should do no injustice, nowhere give
+offence, and beam upon other worlds with its sweet, gentle light, like
+the evening star, when it sheds peace upon the weary heart.
+
+Such was Franz's love, it could not offend, could not bring trouble
+upon others, it must comfort and heal; so he restrained his heart, and
+was silent, and when he took his leave of the parsonage, he felt like a
+wanderer, who has come, with labor and weariness, to the church tower,
+which beckoned to him in the distance, and when he reaches the first
+houses in the village, he finds that this is not the right place, and
+that the end of his journey lies far beyond; he takes one deep,
+refreshing draught, and travels sturdily on.
+
+It was a lovely, bright winter's day as Franz walked towards
+Pumpelhagen, letting the carriage follow slowly behind him; Braesig went
+with him. The young man was absorbed in his own thoughts, Braesig quite
+the contrary, so they did not accord well together. Braesig should have
+held his tongue instead of telling all the stories which haunted his
+brain, but it was one of Uncle Braesig's happiest peculiarities, that he
+never observed when he was troublesome. At last, however, he became
+aware that the young Herr gave him no replies; he stood still, as it
+happened, in the very place where Axel had treated him so shabbily, and
+asked, "How? Am I perhaps an inconvenience to you? It has happened to
+me before, in this very place, with your gracious Herr Cousin; I can go
+on by myself, as I did then."
+
+"Dear Herr Inspector," said Franz, grasping the old man's hand; "you
+must not be offended with me; the death of the good Pastor, and the sad
+change in the dear old parsonage, have affected me very deeply."
+
+"So?" said Braesig, pressing his hand, "if that is it, then I am not at
+all offended, and I always said also, to the Frau Pastorin and the
+little Louise, that you were an educated farmer, like the man in the
+book, since you keep kind feelings in your heart, and can look out for
+the good-for-nothing farm-boys; and I have always told Rudolph he
+should take you for a model. Do you know Rudolph?" And he began to tell
+about Rudolph and Mining, and Gottlieb and Lining, and brought the
+whole region into the story, and Franz compelled himself to listen
+attentively, so that before he reached Pumpelhagen, he knew all about
+everybody, even about Pomuchelskopp and his Haeuning.
+
+"So," said Braesig, when they reached the court-yard, "you go now to
+your gracious Herr Cousin, and I to Habermann, and what I have said to
+you about Pomuchelskopp, and his secret projects must remain _praeter
+propter_ between us, and you may rely upon it, I will keep watch of
+him, and if he attempts any more scurvy tricks I will let you know."
+
+But Franz did not go into the manor house, he ran before Braesig into
+the farmhouse, into the room where he had spent so many quiet, happy
+hours with his good old instructor, and he fell upon the old man's
+neck, and old and young lay in each other's arms, as if the time and
+the years between the two had been blotted out, and the old eyes grew
+moist, and the young cheeks took a fresher color, as if age were giving
+its dew and its blessing that youth might grow fresher and brighter. So
+it was, and so shall it ever be!
+
+Then Franz went up to Fritz Triddelsitz, and offered his hand:
+"Good-day, Fritz!"
+
+But Fritz had his pride, also, his burgher-pride, and he had also his
+revenge, the revenge which he had stamped into the pease-field, after
+the ditch-rendezvous, so he said, coldly, "How do you find yourself,
+Herr von Rambow?"
+
+"Fritz, have you no sense?" said Franz, and turned away and left him,
+as if Fritz were an inexplicable riddle, and he would turn to something
+else; he shook hands with the two old men, and went to his cousin.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, sitting down to the table, where the dinner stood
+ready, "an excellent young man, this Herr Von! And what a beautiful
+piece of roast pork you have here! I have seen no such roast pork, in
+seven cold winters."
+
+The reception given Franz, by his cousin Axel, was cordial, and the joy
+he expressed was sincere, as might well be supposed, for the two
+cousins were the only male descendants of their race. Frida, whom Franz
+had previously met at her wedding, was particularly pleased with the
+kind-hearted, sensible young man, and did everything in her power to
+make his visit agreeable, and as Habermann, having given Braesig his
+company a little way after dinner, was returning across the court, she
+sent out, and invited him in to coffee, believing rightly that it would
+please Franz. Upon this occasion, it came out that Franz had gone
+already to the farm-house, and had made his first call on the
+inspector. This annoyed Axel a little, he wrinkled up his forehead at
+the intelligence, and his wife, at least, noticed before long that he
+began to put on the master. This would have been a matter of
+indifference, if he had not been so unreasonable and unjust as to
+punish Habermann, by a cold, ceremonious manner, for the fault of
+Franz,--if it were a fault.
+
+The company was not quite harmonious; every friendly word, which was
+exchanged between Habermann and Franz, disturbed Axel; he became
+stiffer and colder, and the whole conversation, in spite of the lovely
+warm sunshine which the young wife always diffused around her, was
+dropping to the freezing-point, when Habermann suddenly sprang up, went
+to the window, and, without a word, ran out of the room. Axel's face
+turned a dusky red with the anger that rose in him; "That is very
+strange behavior!" cried he, "the Herr Inspector seems to consider
+himself exempt from the ordinary rules of politeness.
+
+"It must be something very important," said Frida, going to the window.
+"What is he doing to that laborer?"
+
+"That is the day-laborer, Regel," said Franz, who was also looking out
+of the window.
+
+"Regel! Regel!" said Axel, springing up, "that is the messenger that I
+sent to Rostock yesterday, with two thousand thalers in gold; he cannot
+be back so soon."
+
+"That must be what has disconcerted the old man so," said Franz. "Only
+see, he is laying hands on the fellow! I never saw him so excited!" and
+he ran out of the door, and Axel after him.
+
+As they came out the old inspector had seized the young, strong
+day-laborer in the breast, and shook him till his hat fell off into the
+snow.
+
+"Those are lies!" cried he, as he shook him, "those are miserable lies!
+Herr von Rambow, this fellow has lost the money!"
+
+"No, they took it from me!" cried the laborer, standing there, pale as
+death.
+
+Axel also turned pale; the two thousand thalers should have been paid
+in Rostock, long ago, but he had delayed till the last moment, and then
+borrowed the sum of Pomuchelskopp,--and now it was gone.
+
+"They are lies!" repeated Habermann, "I know the fellow. They took the
+money away from you by force? No ten fellows could take even a pipe of
+tobacco from you by force!" and he attacked him again.
+
+"Hold!" cried Franz, coming between them. "Let the man just tell his
+story, quietly. How was it about the money?"
+
+"They took it from me," said Regel. "As I was beyond Rahnstadt, this
+morning, near the Gallin wood, two fellows came toward me, and one of
+them asked me for a little fire for his pipe, and while I was striking
+it, the other seized me behind, by the belt, and pulled me off, and
+they took the black package out of my pocket, and then they ran off
+into the Gallin wood, and I after them, but I could not catch them."
+
+"What is that?" interrupted Axel, "how did you come to be near the
+Gallin wood this morning? It lies only half a mile beyond Rahnstadt.
+Did I not charge you expressly, to get a pass from the burgomeister at
+Rahnstadt, and ride all night, so that the money might be in Rostock at
+noon to-day?" (This was the last day on which the note could be paid,
+it would otherwise be protested.)
+
+"Yes, Herr," said the laborer, "I got the pass, and here it is," and he
+pulled it out of his hat band, "but to ride all the winter night was
+too much, and I stayed with my friends in Rahnstadt, thinking I could
+get to Rostock in time."
+
+"Krischan Daesel!" called Habermann, across the courtyard. He had become
+perfectly composed, for it was merely the conviction that the laborer
+was lying to his face, which had roused the old man to such a state of
+excitement.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said he, as Krischan came up, "don't you wish the
+justice to be sent for?" and as Axel assented, he said, "Krischan, take
+two of the carriage horses, and put them to the chaise. You must bring
+the Herr Burgomeister from Rahnstadt; I will give you a letter to him.
+And you, Regel, come with me, I will show you a quiet place, where you
+can recollect yourself." With that, he went off with the day-laborer,
+and locked him into a chamber.
+
+When Axel returned to the house with his cousin, he had an excellent
+opportunity to make the young man acquainted with his pecuniary
+embarrassments; but, although he knew that Franz could easily and
+willingly help him, he was silent. It is a strange but indisputable
+fact, that people who run in debt will turn sooner to the hard heart of
+the usurer, for assistance, than to the soft ones of friends and
+relatives. They are too proud to acknowledge their debts, but not
+too proud to beg and to borrow of the most good-for-nothing Jew
+money-lenders. But it is not pride, it is nothing but the most pitiable
+cowardice, which is afraid of the reasonable and well-meant
+remonstrances of friends and relatives.
+
+So Axel was silent, and walked restlessly up and down the room, while
+Frida was talking with Franz over this singular occurrence. The
+business was a very serious one for him, the money must be procured, or
+he would be sued for it,--his note was probably already protested. He
+could no longer endure it; he ordered his horse, and, although it was
+growing dark, he went off for a ride,--so he said, at least,--but he
+went to Pomuchelskopp.
+
+Pomuchelskopp listened to Herr von Rambow's troubles with a great deal
+of sympathy, and lamented the wickedness of mankind, and expressed the
+opinion that Herr von Rambow might as well have no inspector at all as
+one who had not understanding enough to choose a safe messenger on such
+an important business,--he would not say anything but there must be
+something behind; he would say nothing prematurely, but this much he
+would say, Habermann had always looked out sharply for his own
+interests, for example, there was the Pastor's acre; he had advised the
+late Herr Kammerrath to rent it, so that his own salary might be
+increased; but it was certainly an injury to the Pumpelhagen husbandry,
+as he could convince the Herr, and he inflicted upon Axel a long
+chapter of calculations which the latter did not attempt to follow,
+for, in the first place, he did not understand calculations, and
+secondly, he was absorbed, for the moment, in thoughts of his troubles.
+He said "Yes" to everything, and at last came out with the request that
+Pomuchelskopp should advance another two thousand thalers.
+
+Pomuchelskopp hesitated a little at first, and scratched behind his
+ear, but at last said, "Yes;" on condition that Axel would not rent the
+Pastor's acre again, of the new Pastor. This might well have startled
+the young Herr, and Muchel was conscious of the danger, so he proved to
+him again, with figures, that it would be much better that the Gurlitz
+farm should undertake this lease, and that in this way both would be
+gainers. Axel gave but little attention, and finally consented to give
+the desired promise in writing; his difficulty was pressing, he must
+meet the first necessity, and he was just the sort of man to kill his
+milch cow, in order to sell her skin.
+
+The business was now settled; Axel wrote his bond, and Pomuchelskopp
+packed up the two thousand thalers, and sent it, with a letter from
+Axel, by his own servant, to Rahnstadt, to the post. That was the best
+way; no one in Pumpelhagen need know anything about it. As Axel rode
+home, he repeated two lies to himself, until he really believed them;
+first, that Habermann alone was properly to be blamed for the loss of
+the money, and second, that he ought to be glad to get rid of the
+Pastor's acre.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+Meanwhile, the Rahnstadt burgomeister, who was Axel's magistrate, had
+arrived at Pumpelhagen, bringing Herr Slusuhr, the notary, as his
+recording clerk.
+
+The man had acted very discreetly; as soon as he had read Habermann's
+letter, he had sent policemen round to all the alehouses and shops,
+where laborers resorted, to inquire whether and when the day-laborer
+Regel, of Pumpelhagen, had been there, and in this way he found out
+enough to assist him in the examination. The laborer had come to him,
+yesterday afternoon, about four o'clock, and had got his pass made
+out; he had showed him the package of money,--the gold was sewed in
+black-waxed cloth,--and the burgomeister had looked at it closely
+enough, to see that the seal had not been tampered with. The man had
+told him,--he was on the whole, rather talkative,--that he should
+travel all night; it was pretty hard, to be sure, at this time of year;
+but the man was a strong, hearty fellow; it would be no darker, for the
+snow made it light, and, towards midnight, the moon rose; so he had
+advised him to set off immediately. This however, as he had
+ascertained, he had not done, he had gone into several ale-houses, and
+treated himself to liquor; even by nine o'clock he was not out of
+Rahnstadt, he had stopped before a shop, and drank brandy, and bragged,
+and talked of his great sum of money, had also showed the packet to the
+shopman. Where he had stayed, afterwards, he did not know; but so much
+seemed to be certain, the man was grossly intoxicated; and the justice
+now asked Axel and Habermann, whether the fellow were in the habit of
+drinking.
+
+"I do not know," said Axel; "in these particulars, I must rely upon my
+inspector."
+
+Habermann looked at him, as if this speech seemed to him a very strange
+one, and he would have said something about it; but he merely remarked
+to the burgomeister that he had never noticed anything of the kind, or
+even heard of it; Regel was always the soberest fellow on the place,
+and in that respect he had no complaints to make of any of the people.
+
+"May be," said the burgomeister, "but it wasn't quite right with the
+man; there is always a first time,--he had certainly been drinking
+before he came to me. Let his wife come in."
+
+The wife came. She was a young, pretty woman; it was not long since she
+had been running about, a young girl, as fresh and bright as only our
+Mecklenburg country girls can be, but now sickness had washed off the
+maiden roses from her cheeks, and household labor had made the soft,
+rounded outlines a little angular,--our housewives in the country grow
+old early,--moreover she wore mourning, and was trembling all over,
+with anxiety.
+
+Habermann pitied the poor woman, he went up to her, and said,
+"Regelsch, don't be afraid; just tell the truth about everything, and
+it will all come right again."
+
+"Good Lord, Herr Inspector, what is this? What does it all mean? What
+has my husband done?"
+
+"Just tell me, Regelsch, does your husband often drink more brandy than
+he can carry?" asked the justice.
+
+"No, Herr, never in his life, he drinks no brandy at all, we don't keep
+it in the house; only at harvest time, he drinks a glass, when it is
+sent down from the manor house."
+
+"Had he drank any brandy, yesterday, when he left home?"
+
+"No, Herr! He ate something first, and then he started off, about
+half past two. No, Herr,--but wait, wait! No, I did not see him, but
+yet--oh, Lord, yes! Last evening, when I went to the cupboard, the
+brandy-bottle was empty."
+
+"I thought you didn't keep any brandy in the house," said the
+burgomeister.
+
+"No, we don't; but this was a little of the funeral brandy; we buried
+our little girl last Friday, and there was some left over. Ah, and how
+he grieved! how he grieved!"
+
+"And do you think your husband drank it?"
+
+"Yes, Herr, who else should have done it?"
+
+The evidence was recorded, and Regelsch was dismissed.
+
+"So!" said Slusuhr in an insolent way to Axel, and winked towards the
+burgomeister, "we have got at the brandy, if we could only get at the
+money!"
+
+"Herr Notary, write!" said the burgomeister, quietly and with dignity,
+and pointed with his finger to his place: "The day-laborer, Regel, is
+brought in, admonished to tell the truth, and gives evidence."
+
+"Herr Burgomeister," said Axel, springing up, "I don't see what this
+brandy story has to do with my money. The fellow has stolen it!"
+
+"That is just what I want to find out," said the burgomeister, very
+quietly, "whether he has stolen or, more properly, embezzled the money,
+and whether he was altogether in a condition to do such a thing," and
+going up to the young Herr he said, very kindly, but also very
+decidedly, "Herr von Rambow, a thief, who intends to steal two thousand
+thalers, does not begin by getting drunk. Moreover, I must tell you,
+that as a magistrate, I have to consider not only your interests, but
+also those of the accused."
+
+The day-laborer, Regel, came in. He was deadly pale; but the distress
+which he had shown in his whole manner, before the old inspector, in
+the afternoon, had left him, he looked almost like old oaken wood, into
+which no worm ventures.
+
+He acknowledged that he had drunk the brandy at home, more yet in
+Rahnstadt, and that he had been with the shopkeeper, about nine
+o'clock; then he had spent the night with his friends, in Rahnstadt,
+and about six o'clock had started for Rostock; but there he stuck to
+his story: by the Gallin wood, two fellows had attacked him, and taken
+the money by force. While the last of his deposition was being taken
+down, the door opened, and the laborer's wife rushed up to her
+husband,--for police-laws are not very strict, in our primitive
+Mecklenburg tribunals,--and grasped his arm: "Jochen! Jochen! Have you
+made your wife and children unhappy forever?"
+
+"Marik! Marik!" cried the man, "I have not done it. My hands are clean.
+Have I ever, in my life, stolen anything?"
+
+"Jochen!" cried the wife, "tell the truth to the gentlemen!"
+
+The laborer's breast throbbed and his face flushed a deep red, but in a
+moment he was as deadly pale as before, and he cast a shy, uncertain
+glance at his wife: "Marik, have I ever, in all my life, stolen or
+taken anything?"
+
+The wife let her hands fall from his shoulder: "No, Jochen, you have
+not! You have not, truly! But you lie, you have often lied to me." She
+put her apron to her eyes, and went out of the room. Habermann followed
+her. The day-laborer, also, was led away.
+
+The burgomeister had not disturbed the interview between the man and
+wife,--it was not in order, but it might furnish him a clue, by which
+he could draw the truth to light. Axel had started up at the woman's
+words, "You lie, you have often lied to me," and walked hastily up and
+down the room; his conscience smote him, he did not exactly know why,
+this evening, he only knew that he also had never stolen or taken
+anything, but he had lied. But so it is with the soul of a man who is
+not sincere, even at the moment when his conscience troubles him, he
+lies again, for his own advantage. _His_ case was quite a different one
+from the laborer's; he had only told a few falsehoods, for the benefit
+of his wife, that she might not be disturbed, the laborer had lied to
+conceal his guilt. Yes, Herr von Rambow, only keep on like that, and
+the devil will surely, in time, reap a fine harvest!
+
+Slusuhr had finished his writing, and again went boldly up to Axel:
+
+"Yes, Herr von Rambow, he who lies will steal."
+
+That was an infamous speech, to a man in Axel's present humor, and when
+he knew, also, how near Slusuhr's business came to stealing; he was not
+merely astonished, he was terrified at the fellow's impudence. He might
+not have been so, if he had known what people said about the notary.
+
+People used to say, that the Herr Notary's father had wished to sell
+him, when a little boy, to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, as a runner,
+and with this design had taken him to the Herr Doctor and Surgeon
+Kohlman, at New Brandenburg, to have his spleen cut out, so that he
+could run the better; but the Herr Doctor, who knew everything else,
+and claimed to have been appointed by the Lord Minister of the Supreme
+Wisdom for New Brandenburg, had, in an unfortunate moment, when his
+eyes were a little dim, cut out the conscience, instead of the spleen,
+so that Slusuhr had to journey through life, with a spleen, and without
+a conscience, and not as a runner, but as a notary.
+
+There was nothing more for the magistrate to do at present; the
+witnesses, and the friends of the laborer, who had last seen him, were
+not at hand, and the burgomeister gave orders that the prisoner should
+be kept under guard, for this night, at Pumpelhagen, and taken to
+Rahnstadt the next day.
+
+"He shall be put under the manor house, in the front cellar," said Axel
+to Habermann, who had come in again.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann, "Isn't it better to leave him in the
+chamber at the farm-house? There are iron bars--"
+
+"No," said Axel, sharply, "there are iron bars in the cellar, too; I
+wish to avoid collusions, which might take place at the farm-house."
+
+"Herr von Rambow, I am a very light sleeper, and if you wish it, I can
+have another person to watch at the door."
+
+"What I have ordered, I have ordered. The business is of too much
+importance, for me to trust to your light sleep, and to a comrade of
+the rascal's."
+
+Habermann looked at him inquiringly, and said, "As you command," and
+went out.
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock, the supper table had long been waiting,
+Marie Moeller was scolding because the baked fish would be cooked to
+death, Frida was also annoyed over the long delay of the supper, and
+only through her conversation with Franz was able to muster a little
+patience, when the gentlemen came in, after the trial. Frida went up to
+the burgomeister, in her bright way: "Isn't it so? He hasn't stolen the
+money?"
+
+"No, gracious lady," said the burgomeister, with quiet decision, "the
+day-laborer has not stolen it, but it has been stolen from him, or he
+has lost it."
+
+"Thank God!" cried she, out of a full heart, "that the man is no thief!
+The thought that we had dishonest people on the place, would have been
+dreadful!"
+
+"Do you think that our people are bettor than all others? They are just
+such a set as on any other estate, they all steal," observed Axel.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann, who had also come in to supper, "our
+people are honest, I have been here long enough to be fully convinced
+of it. No thieving has occurred, during the whole time."
+
+"Ah, so you have always said, and now we have this,--now we have this!
+My foolish credulity had cost me two thousand thalers. And if you knew
+the people so well, why did you send this particular man?"
+
+Habermann looked at him in astonishment. "As it seems," said he, "you
+wish to put the blame upon me; but if there has been a fault in the
+matter, I do not take it upon myself. It is true," he added hastily,
+and his face flushed with anger, "I sent this man; but only because you
+had employed him constantly as a messenger, in carrying money; he has
+already been sent by you more than ten times to Gurlitz, and the Herr
+Notary, here, can testify how often he has been to him on such
+errands."
+
+Frida looked hastily over to Slusuhr, upon these words, and the Herr
+Notary had turned his eyes towards her; they said nothing, but,
+different as their thoughts were, it seemed as if each had read the
+very soul of the other. Frida read, in the secret, malicious joy in the
+notary's eyes, that he was the chief enemy of her happiness, and the
+notary read, in the dear, sensible eyes of the young wife, that she was
+the chief obstacle in the way of his and Pomuchelskopp's plans. Axel
+would have given a hasty answer to Habermann's words, but he held his
+peace when he saw the old man's steadfast gaze, and then Frida's
+questioning glance resting upon him. Slusuhr was also silent, and lay
+in wait; he was the only one who could see through the thorn-bush,
+which was growing in this garden, and now he lay behind the thorn-bush,
+and watched, to see if a hare would not run in his direction.
+
+The justice and Franz were the only ones who had no suspicion of the
+disturbance caused by Habermann's hasty words, and they alone carried
+on the conversation at table. When the company rose from the table,
+they separated; the justice remained through the night.
+
+All were asleep in Pumpelhagen, only two married couples were still
+waking; one couple was the Herr von Rambow and his wife, the other was
+the day-laborer, Regel and his wife. The one pair sat close together,
+in a warm room, and the night was so silent about them that one might
+well have a desire to open his heart, and find courage to speak the
+truth. But it was not so. Frida begged her husband earnestly to confide
+in her, she knew already that he was in great pecuniary embarrassment;
+they would retrench, but the dealings with Pomuchelskopp and Slusuhr
+must be given up; he should talk with Habermann, he would show him the
+right way.
+
+Everything went by halves with Axel, he did not exactly lie, but
+neither did he tell the truth. That he was in temporary embarrassment,
+he would not deny; when a man had two thousand thalers stolen, he might
+well be embarrassed; he had exchanged nothing as yet, had also been
+able to sell nothing,--that he had sold a fine crop of wheat, in
+anticipation, and got the money for it, he did not tell her. His
+dealings with Pomuchelskopp and Slusuhr--he said nothing about
+David--could do him no harm, those were old, made up stories,--he did
+not speak of the new loan from Pomuchelskopp,--and the people were
+prejudiced against him; as for Habermann,--and here he became excited
+for the first time,--he could not consult about money matters with his
+inspector, it was not suitable for him, as master. Axel did not exactly
+tell falsehoods, and when he put his arm around her, and said that it
+would all come right again, he said what at the moment he believed to
+be the truth. She left him with a heavy heart.
+
+The other pair were not sitting in a warm room; the laborer lay in the
+cold cellar, and his wife crouched on her knees outside, before the
+cellar-window, in the fine, cold November rain; they were not close
+together, an iron grating divided them. "Jochen," whispered she,
+through the broken window-panes, "tell the truth."
+
+"They took it from me," was the reply.
+
+"Jochen, who?"
+
+"Eh, do I know?" said he, and it was the truth; he did not know who the
+woman was who had taken the black packet, in broad daylight, and on the
+public road, out of his waistcoat pocket, as he, not yet recovered from
+the intoxication of yesterday, and having just taken a couple of
+glasses on an empty stomach, was tumbling along towards Gallin. He did
+not lie, but he could not tell the truth; how could he confess that
+from him, a young, strong fellow, a woman had taken the two thousand
+thalers, on the open street? He could not do that, if it should cost
+him his life.
+
+"Jochen, you are lying. If you will not tell me the truth, tell it to
+our old inspector."
+
+No, to him, of all others, he could not tell the truth, for he had
+promised him he would not lie any more, and he had admonished him so
+earnestly,--he could not tell him.
+
+"Marik, get me my chisel, and a couple of thalers in money."
+
+"Jochen, what are you going to do?"
+
+"I will go away."
+
+"Jochen, Jochen! and leave me here, with the poor little ones?"
+
+"Marik, I must go; it will never go well with me here again,"
+
+"Jochen, tell the truth, and it will be all right."
+
+"If you don't bring me the chisel and the money, I will take my life,
+this very night!"
+
+And here, also, there was much begging and pleading and talking, as
+there was upstairs in the warm room, but the truth would not come out,
+no more here than there, it was kept back, here as there, by the shame
+of confessing inconsiderate and disreputable actions, and here, also,
+the wife left her husband with a heavy heart.
+
+The first thing next morning came the news, setting all Pumpelhagen in
+an uproar, that the day-laborer, Regel, had broken out, and run away.
+The justice made preparations to have him arrested again, and rode off,
+homewards, with the Herr Notary. Axel was in a rage,--no one knew why;
+but it was with himself; and because he could shove the blame upon
+nobody else, for he himself had given orders that the man should be
+locked up in the cellar.
+
+After breakfast came Pomuchelskopp, to inquire about the matter, of
+which he had heard, as he said. Franz greeted him coldly, but so much
+the warmer was Axel's reception. He knew well how to talk of the
+matter, the laws were too easy towards these low fellows, and the
+burgomeister at Rahnstadt was much too good to the rascals; he told
+thief-stories, out of his own experience and that of his acquaintances,
+and finally said that he believed, like Habermann, that the fellow had
+not done it. "That is to say," he added, "not of his own accord, he can
+merely have been the tool of another, for no day-laborer would venture
+to steal two thousand thalers which had been entrusted to him; there
+must be a cleverer rogue in the background. And therefore," said he, "I
+advise you, Herr von Rambow, to have an eye on the people who may have
+assisted his flight, and especially on those who take his part."
+
+Axel's feelings, through the loss and through his anger, were like
+freshly prepared soil, and whatever seed fell therein, even were it
+darnel and cockles, must sprout up finely. He walked up and down the
+room; yes, Pomuchelskopp was right, he was a practical old fellow, who
+knew the world, that is to say, the agricultural world; but who could
+have been concerned with Regel in such a business? He knew of no one.
+Who had taken Regel's part? That was Habermann, he had said expressly,
+from the first, that he must have lost the money. But he had been so
+angry with the fellow, at the first news. Well, that might all have
+been acting! And why had he been so anxious to have the laborer close
+by his room, in the chamber? Perhaps that he might have intercourse
+with him, perhaps that he might be better able to help him off.
+
+For an intelligent man, these were very stupid thoughts, but the devil
+is a cunning fellow, he does not seek out the prudent and strong, when
+he wishes to sow darnel and cockles in the fresh furrow, he takes the
+foolish and weak.
+
+"What is the Herr Inspector doing with that woman?" asked
+Pomuchelskopp, who had stepped to the window.
+
+"That is Regelsch," said Franz, who stood near him.
+
+"Yes," said Axel, hastily, "what has he to do with her? I must find
+out."
+
+"That is very singular," said Pomuchelskopp.
+
+Habermann stood in the yard, with the laborer's wife, apparently
+persuading her to something; she resisted, but finally yielded, and
+came with him towards the manor house. They entered the room.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann, "the woman has confessed to me that
+she helped her husband away in the night."
+
+"Yes, Herr," said the woman, trembling all over, "I did it, I am
+guilty; but I could not do otherwise, he would have taken his life
+else," and the tears started from her eyes, and she put her apron to
+her face.
+
+"A pretty story!" said Axel, coldly,--and he was usually so
+kindhearted--"a pretty story! This seems to be a regular conspiracy!"
+
+Franz went up to the woman, made her sit down, and inquired, "Regelsch,
+didn't he confess to you what he had done with the money?"
+
+"No, young Herr, he told me nothing, and what he said was false; I know
+that; but he hasn't taken it."
+
+"How came you," said Axel roughly to Habermann, "to be questioning this
+woman without my orders?"
+
+Habermann was startled at this question, and still more at the tone in
+which it was expressed; "I believed," said he, quietly, "that it would
+be well to find out how and when the prisoner got away, in order to
+obtain some hint of his present place of concealment."
+
+"Or perhaps to give some!" exclaimed Axel, and turned quickly about, as
+if he had done something which might cost him dear. The result was not
+quite so bad as he had reason to fear, for Habermann had not understood
+the meaning of his words, he heard merely the tone, but that was enough
+to lead him to say, with serious emphasis, "What you mean by your
+words, I do not know, and it is a matter of indifference to me; but the
+manner and tone in which you have spoken to me, last evening and this
+morning, are what I will not take from you. Yesterday I was silent,
+out of consideration for the gracious lady, but in the present
+company"--here he glanced at Pomuchelskopp--"I need not exercise such
+consideration," and with that he left the room. The laborer's wife
+followed him.
+
+Axel was going after him; Franz stepped in his way: "What are you going
+to do, Axel? Recollect yourself! You are in fault, you have bitterly
+wronged the old man, as he evidently thinks."
+
+"That was a bold move," said Pomuchelskopp, as if he were talking to
+himself, "that was a bold move, for an inspector," but he must be going
+home, he said, and called, out of the window, for his horse. He had got
+things started finely.
+
+The horse was brought, Axel accompanied his Herr Neighbor out of the
+door; Franz remained in the room. "Certainly a very good man, your Herr
+Cousin," said Pomuchelskopp, "but he does not know the world yet, does
+not know yet what is proper for the master, and what for the servant."
+With that, he rode off. Axel came back into the parlor, and threw the
+cap, which he wore because the morning was cold, into the sofa corner,
+exclaiming, "Infamous cheats! The devil take the whole concern, if one
+can no longer rely upon anybody!"
+
+"Axel," said Franz, going up to him kindly, "you do your people great
+wrong, you do yourself wrong, dear brother, if you cherish such an
+unjust hatred in your benevolent heart."
+
+"Unjust? What? Two thousand thalers have been stolen----"
+
+"They are lost, Axel, through the inconsiderate fault of a
+day-laborer."
+
+"Oh, what, _lost_!" exclaimed Axel, turning away, "you come with the
+same story as my Herr Inspector!"
+
+"Axel, all intelligent people are of this opinion, the burgomeister
+himself said--"
+
+"Don't talk to me of that old nightcap! I should have conducted the
+examination myself, then we should have come to quite a different
+conclusion, or if I had only got hold of the woman first, this morning,
+her story would have been quite another thing; but so? Oh, it is all a
+contrived plot!"
+
+"Listen to me, Axel, you have made that allusion once before," cried
+Franz sharply and decidedly; "fortunately, it was not understood; now
+you make it for the second time, and I, for my part, must understand."
+
+"Well, then you may understand that it is not made without sufficient
+grounds."
+
+"Can you make such a declaration to your own conscience? Would you, in
+your unjust excitement and with wanton cruelty, cast such a stain upon
+sixty years of honorable life?"
+
+This touched Axel, and cooled him off a little, and he said peevishly,
+for his unnatural excitement was wearing off, "I have not said that he
+has done it; I only said he might have done it."
+
+"The suspicion," said Franz coldly, "is as bad as the other, as bad for
+_yourself_ as for the old man. Remember, Axel," said he, impressively,
+laying his hand on his cousin's shoulder, "how long the old man has
+been, to your father and yourself, a faithful, upright steward! To me,"
+he added, in a lower tone, "he was more, he has been my friend and
+teacher."
+
+Axel walked up and down, he felt that he was wrong,--at least, for the
+moment,--but to confess, freely and fully, that he had endeavoured to
+shove off the blame of his own foolishness and untruthfulness upon
+another was too much, he had not the clear courage to do it. He began
+to chaffer and bargain with himself, and availed himself of the
+expedient which the weak and dishonest are always ready to employ,--he
+carried the war into the enemy's camp. In every age, up to the present
+time, truth is yet sold, in a weak human soul, for thirty pieces of
+silver.
+
+"Oh, to _you_!" said he, "he would like to be still more to you."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Franz, turning round on him sharply.
+
+"Oh," said Axel, "nothing more! I only mean you may call him 'Papa,' by
+and by."
+
+There was an unworthiness in this speech, in the intention to offend
+the man who had been firm enough to tell him the truth. Franz flushed a
+deep red. His deepest, holiest secret was brought to light, and in this
+insulting manner! The blood rushed to his face; but he restrained
+himself, and said, shortly:
+
+"That has nothing to do with the matter."
+
+"Why not?" said Axel. "It at least explains the warmth with which you
+defend your Herr Habermann."
+
+"The man needs no defence of mine, his whole life defends him."
+
+"And his lovely daughter," said Axel, striding up and down, in great
+triumph.
+
+A great passion rose in Franz's soul, but he restrained himself, and
+asked, quietly, "Do you know her?"
+
+"Yes--no--that is to say, I have seen her; I have seen her at the
+parsonage, and she has often been here, with my wife, and my wife also
+has visited her. I know her merely by sight; a pretty girl, a very
+pretty girl, 'pon honor! I was pleased with her, as a child, at my
+father's funeral."
+
+"And when you learned, that she was dear to me, did you not seek a
+nearer acquaintance?"
+
+"No, Franz, no! Why should I? I knew, of course, that nothing serious
+could come of such an attachment."
+
+"Then you knew more than I."
+
+"Oh, I know more still, I know how they set traps and snares for you,
+and were always contriving ways to catch you."
+
+"And from whom did you learn all this? But why do I ask? Such childish
+gossip could have been hatched in but one house, in the whole region.
+But since we have mentioned the matter, I will tell you frankly, that I
+certainly do intend to marry the girl, that is, if she does not refuse
+me."
+
+"She would better beware! She would better beware!" exclaimed Axel,
+springing about the room, in his anger. "Will you really commit this
+folly? And will you give me this affront?"
+
+"Axel, look to your words!" cried Franz, whose temper was getting the
+upper hand. "What business is it of yours?"
+
+"What? Does it not not concern _me_, as the oldest representative of
+our old family, if one of the younger members disgraces himself by a
+_mesalliance_."
+
+Yet once more Franz restrained himself, and said:
+
+"You yourself married from pure inclination, and without regard for
+subordinate matters.
+
+"That is quite another thing," said Axel, with authority, believing now
+that he had the advantage. "My wife's family is as good as mine, she is
+the daughter of an old house; your beloved is the daughter of my
+inspector, adopted out of pity and kindness, by the Pastor's family."
+
+"For shame!" cried Franz, passionately, "to make an innocent child
+suffer for a great misfortune!"
+
+"It is all the same to me," roared Axel, "I will _not_ call my
+inspector's daughter cousin; the girl shall never cross my threshold!"
+
+All the blood which had rushed through Franz's veins and flushed his
+face, a moment before, struck to his heart; he stood pale before his
+cousin, and said in a voice, which trembled with intense excitement:
+
+"You have said it. You have spoken the word which divides us. Louise
+shall never cross your threshold, neither will I."
+
+He turned to go; at the door he was met by Frida, who had heard the
+quarrel in the next room: "Franz, Franz, what is the matter?"
+
+"Farewell, Frida," said he, hastily, and went out, towards the
+farm-house.
+
+"Axel," cried Frida, running up to her husband, "what have you done?
+What have you done?"
+
+"I have showed a young man," said Axel, striding up and down the room,
+as if he had fought a great battle with the world-out-of-joint, and
+made everything right again, "I have showed a young fellow, who wanted
+to make a fool of himself over a pretty face, his true standpoint."
+
+"Have you dared to do that?" said Frida, sinking, pale, into a chair,
+and gazing with her great, clear eyes at her husband's triumphal march
+through the room, "have you dared to thrust your petty pride of birth
+between the pure emotions of two noble hearts?"
+
+"Frida," said Axel, and he knew very well that he had done wrong, and
+his conscience smote him, but he could not confess it, "I believe I
+have done my duty."
+
+Any one may notice, if he will, that the people who never in their
+lives do their duty always make the most use of the word.
+
+"Ah!" cried Frida, springing up, "you have deeply wounded an upright,
+honest heart! Axel," she begged, laying her folded hands on his
+shoulder, "Franz has gone into the farm-house, follow him, and repair
+the injury you have done! Bring him back to us again!"
+
+"Apologize to him, in the presence of my inspector? No, rather not at
+all! Oh, it is charming!" and he worked himself again into a passion,
+"my two thousand thalers are stolen, my inspector finds fault with me,
+my Herr Cousin stands by his dear father-in-law, and now my own wife
+joins herself to the company!"
+
+Frida looked at him, loosened her hands, and, throwing a shawl over her
+shoulders, said, "If you will not go, I will," and went out, hearing
+him call after her, "Yes, go! go! But the old sneak shall clear out!"
+
+As she crossed the court, they were bringing round Franz's carriage,
+and as she entered the inspector's room Habermann had just been saying
+to the young man, "Herr von Rambow, you will forget it. You have spent
+your life hitherto, in our small circle; if you travel,--as I should
+think advisable,--then you will have other thoughts. But, dear Franz,"
+said the old man, so trustingly, in his recollection of earlier times,
+"you will not disturb the heart of my child?"
+
+"No, Habermann," said Franz, just as the young Frau entered the room.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Habermann, "I have forgotten something. You will
+excuse me, gracious lady!" and he left the room.
+
+"Always considerate, always discreet!" said Frida.
+
+"Yes, that he is," said Franz, looking after the old man. The carriage
+drove up, but it was kept waiting; the two had much to say to each
+other, and, when at last Franz got into the carriage, Frida's eyes were
+red, and Franz also dashed away a tear.
+
+"Greet the good old man for me," said he, "and greet Axel, also," he
+added, in a lower tone, as he pressed her hand.
+
+The carriage drove off.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+Young Jochen sat in his chimney-corner smoking. Young Bauschan lay
+under his chair, but with his head far enough out to look at young
+Jochen. Young Jochen looked at him, but said nothing, and Bauschan said
+nothing.
+
+It was very quiet and peaceful, in the Rexow house, on this December
+afternoon; there was only one thing which rattled and creaked, that was
+Frau Nuessler's arm-chair, in which she sat by the window; and every
+time that she took up a stitch, it made a note of it; for which it
+should not be blamed, for she squeezed it without mercy, since she had
+become, with time, what one calls a stout woman. But, to-day, the old
+chair creaked more than usual, for Frau Nuessler had been knitting, in
+deep thought, and her thoughts became more and more earnest, and
+oppressed her soul, and the chair and its creaking became louder and
+louder. "Dear heart!" said she, laying her knitting in her lap, "why
+must it be so, in this world, that one's misfortune should be another's
+happiness! Jochen, do you know what I have just thought of?"
+
+"No," said young Jochen, and looked at Bauschan; Bauschan didn't know,
+either.
+
+"Jochen, what would you think, if Gottlieb should offer himself for the
+Gurlitz parish? Gottlieb is but a farthing candle, compared with our
+old Herr Pastor; but somebody must get the parish, why not he as well
+as another?"
+
+Jochen said nothing.
+
+"If Pomuchelskopp is against him, and our people and the Warnitzers in
+his favor, it will depend merely on the Pumpelhagen Herr. What do you
+say, Jochen?"
+
+"Yes," said Jochen, "it is all as true as leather;" and, because the
+matter interested him uncommonly, he spoke further, and said, "what
+shall we do about it?"
+
+"Ah," said Frau Nuessler, "there is no use in talking to you. I wish
+Braesig were only here, he could give us advice," and she resumed her
+knitting.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, half an hour later, "speak of the wolf, and he
+is not far off; there comes Braesig, driving up the yard. And who has he
+with him? Rudolph,--now just think of it, Rudolph! Why should Rudolph
+come to-day? Jochen, now do me a single favor,--the old fellow is doing
+so nicely,--don't go and distress him with your foolish chatter!" With
+that she ran to the door, to receive her guests.
+
+But she had delayed too long over her preface, for, as she came out,
+Mining lay in Rudolph's arms.
+
+"Preserve us!" cried Frau Nuessler, "softly, Mining!" and she led
+Rudolph into the living-room.
+
+"Well," said Jochen, "Braesig, sit down a little! Rudolph, sit down,
+too!"
+
+But that was not so easily done. Rudolph had too much to arrange with
+Mining and Lining, to be in haste to sit down, and Braesig's head was
+going round like clock-work, and he trotted up and down the room, as if
+his legs were the pendulums, to keep the machinery running.
+
+"Young Jochen," said he, "have you heard the news? They haven't caught
+him."
+
+"Whom," asked Jochen.
+
+"Good gracious, Jochen," said Frau Nuessler, "let Braesig tell. You are
+always interrupting people so; let him speak! Braesig, whom haven't they
+caught?"
+
+"Regel," said Braesig; "they tracked him to Wismar, but there they found
+themselves too late, since he had gone off a week before, on a Swedish
+oakum ship, and is up in the Baltic sea."
+
+"What a trouble this is for my brother Karl!" sighed Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Frau Nuessler, you are right there; Karl is hardly to be recognized,
+for he has completely insulated himself, and is surrounded with gloomy
+thoughts. The business troubles him dreadfully, not on his own
+account,--no! only on his young Herr's account, for you shall see, the
+young man must, sooner or later, declare himself insolvent."
+
+"That would kill Karl!" cried Frau Nuessler.
+
+"How can you help it?" said Braesig. "The young nobleman is ruining
+himself with his eyes open; he is beginning now the higher style of
+horse-breeding. For, as I learned from old Prebberow, he has become
+intimate with Lichtwark, and has bought an old thorough-bred horse,
+which has got spavin, and swelled sinews, and in short, the whole
+band in his legs, and he has bought a thorough-bred mare, and he is
+going to buy Triddelsitz's old, deaf granny, and establish a complete
+horse-hospital. He has got the little mule too, and I am glad of that,
+for it is the only sensible creature in the whole company."
+
+"Well, never mind him, Braesig, he must run his risk," said Frau
+Nuessler; "but Jochen and I were just talking about the young
+Herr--Mining, you can take Rudolph out a little while! And Lining, you
+can go with them!"--and when they were gone she said, "Braesig, it is
+about the Gurlitz living. If Gottlieb could only get it!"
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, bringing his pendulums to a stop, and
+standing before Frau Nuessler, as if the clock had struck, "what you
+have said is an idea, and nobody in the world is so quick at conceiving
+ideas as the women folks. Where did you get this idea?"
+
+"Entirely by myself," said Frau Nuessler, "for Jochen does not agree
+with me, as he used to; he is always contradicting."
+
+"Jochen, keep perfectly quiet!" said Braesig. "You are wrong, for this
+opinion of your dear wife is a reasonable one. I will answer for
+Warnitz; the people will choose my candidate, even if the gracious
+count and countess should oppose; you for Rexow, young Jochen;
+Pomuchelskopp won't do it, out of spite; but no matter, it depends on
+Pumpelhagen. Who shall talk to the young nobleman about it? Habermann?
+He stands on his apropos with him, just at present. I? Worse, if
+anything, for he has insulted me. Young Jochen himself? I wouldn't
+trust young Jochen, he has got into the way of talking too much lately.
+Gottlieb? A good fellow, but a sheep's-head. Then who? Rudolph! An
+infernal scoundrel, as Hilgendorf has just written me. Rudolph must go,
+and you, Frau Nuessler, must go with him, on account of the family
+connection, that the young fellow may leguminiren."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Frau Nuessler, "shall I go to see the young Herr!"
+
+"No," said Zachary Braesig, "you go to the young Frau, and Rudolph to
+the young Herr. Where is Rudolph? Rudolph must come in immediately."
+
+Rudolph was quite ready to undertake the errand for his cousin
+Gottlieb, and it was settled that, the next day, he should drive with
+his aunt to Pumpelhagen.
+
+It so happened; but when the deputation drove up to the manor house,
+Herr von Rambow was not at home, he had gone out riding; so they were
+announced to the gracious lady, and met with a very friendly reception.
+
+"Gracious lady," said Frau Nuessler, going up to the young Frau, in her
+truehearted way, without many compliments, "you will not take it
+unkindly, if I speak Platt-Deutsch; I know a little High German; but it
+is almost nothing. We are old-fashioned people, and I always say a
+bright tin plate pleases me better than a silver one which is
+tarnished."
+
+Frida herself took off the good Frau's wrappings, and pressed her to
+sit down by her on the sofa; she motioned Rudolph to a chair, and would
+have seated herself again, but she was held back by Frau Nuessler, who
+said to her, quite confidentially:
+
+"You see, gracious lady, this is a nephew of mine, who is going to be
+my son-in-law; he is a son of Kurz the merchant, in Rahnstadt, with
+whom you have traded."
+
+Rudolph bowed, as was his place, and the young Frau, with her bright
+ways, soon made an end of the introduction, and got Frau Nuessler seated
+on the sofa.
+
+"Yes," said the stout lady, "he has studied too, but he didn't go very
+far; but now that he has become a farmer, he is doing finely, as
+Hilgendorf has written to Braesig."
+
+That was all very fine for Rudolph; but it annoyed him to be talked
+about, so he interrupted Frau Nuessler.
+
+"But, dear aunt, you don't want to tell about me, you want to tell
+about Gottlieb."
+
+"Yes, gracious lady, that is properly my errand; you see, I have still
+another, who is also to be my son-in-law, also a nephew, Rector
+Baldrian's son, in Rahnstadt, who has studied regularly, and learned
+everything that he ought, and can be a pastor any day. Now our good
+old Herr Pastor has gone to heaven,--ah gracious lady, what a man he
+was!--and you cannot blame me, if I have the wish to keep my Lining in
+the neighbourhood, and that Gottlieb should get the parish."
+
+"No, dear Frau Nuessler," said Frida, "I do not blame you, and if it
+depended on me, your future son-in-law should, by all means, have the
+presentation, on our side; I have heard so much good of you and your
+daughters."
+
+"Have you really?" asked Frau Nuessler, warmed to the heart. "Yes, they
+are dear, good little girls!" she exclaimed.
+
+At this moment, footsteps were heard outside, and Herr von Rambow, who
+had returned from his ride, came in. The young wife undertook the
+introductions, and Axel looked uncommonly grave, at the names. Rudolph
+was not disconcerted, however; he had a fine trump to play, which he
+did not mean to stake for nothing; he went up to the Herr, and said:
+
+"Herr von Rambow, may I be allowed a few words with you in private?"
+
+Axel went with him into the next room.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Rudolph, "the week before last, you lost two
+thousand thalers in gold,--as you have said, all in Danish double
+louis-d'ors; the day-laborer made his escape, and it seems that he will
+not be easily retaken; but they are on the track of the money."
+
+"What?" cried Axel. "How do you know that?"
+
+"Since yesterday afternoon, I know that the trial-justice, the
+burgomeister, at Rahnstadt, has obtained a very clear indication in
+this direction. I was with my father, in his shop, when a woman came
+in, a weaver's wife, who is suing for a divorce from her husband, and
+wanted change for a Danish double louis-d'or. I know the woman, she is
+miserably poor, and the burgomeister knows also, from the divorce suit,
+that she has nothing, nothing at all. My father and I gave information
+of this occurrence, and in the examination it came out that, besides
+the gold pieces alluded to, she had other money, of which she could
+give no account, and it also came out--which is the principal
+thing--that she had gone on the same road with the messenger, on the
+same morning."
+
+"How is it possible!" cried Axel; "then didn't the fellow steal the
+money himself?"
+
+"It seems," said Rudolph, "as if it had been stolen from him. Our
+prudent old burgomeister has had the woman arrested, on other minor
+charges of theft, and has forbidden my father and me to mention the
+matter; to yourself, on the contrary, when he heard that I was coming
+this way, he expressly allowed me to speak of it. You will certainly
+hear from him, by letter, very soon."
+
+"Herr Kurz," said Axel, "I am extremely obliged to you, for riding over
+to give me this information," and he gave the young man his hand.
+Rudolph laughed a little, and said finally, "If this had been all, I
+should have come alone, but you have noticed my aunt, she has something
+very much at heart."
+
+"If I can serve you in any way----" said Axel, courteously.
+
+"Come, I will say it right out, a cousin of mine, a theological
+candidate, proposes himself, through my aunt, for the presentation to
+the Gurlitz living."
+
+"A cousin? I thought you were a theologue yourself."
+
+"Was! Herr von Rambow, was!" cried Rudolph briskly. "I believe I am not
+sufficiently highly organized, as they call it now-a-days, and I
+preferred to become a farmer, and I can tell you," he went on, looking
+joyously in the young Herr's eyes, "since then, I have been a very
+happy man."
+
+It must have been a terribly churlish fellow who would not have warmed
+at contact with such fresh life, and Axel was still, on the whole, a
+good apple, bruised a little here and there, on the outside, and a
+little soiled, but inside, yet sound at the core; he exclaimed
+heartily:
+
+"That is right? That is right! That has been my experience. The life of
+a Mecklenburg farmer shall yet be worth one's while. Where are you
+staying, Herr Kurz?"
+
+"With the greatest farmer of the age, with Hilgendorf, at Little
+Tetzleben," laughed Rudolph.
+
+"A very capable man!" said Axel, "thorough-bred too! that is to say,
+his horses."
+
+And now they began to talk of Gray Momus, and Herodotus, and Black
+Overshire, and Hilgendorf received his share of attention, and when
+Rudolph finally stood up, and offered his hand to Herr von Rambow, it
+was very kindly pressed, and the Herr said:
+
+"Rely upon it, no other than your cousin shall get the presentation
+from me."
+
+As they came back into the parlor, Frau Nuessler rose from the sofa, and
+said to Frida, "He would give his life for you, and for the Herr," and
+going up to the Herr, she said, "isn't it so? you will do it, Herr von
+Rambow? It will make me so happy if I can keep my Lining in the
+neighborhood."
+
+Axel was not disposed to like such a free, off-hand reception, nor was
+he--though of course without any reasonable ground--disposed to like
+the Nuessler ways; but the news that there was a possibility of
+recovering his two thousand thalers, the "thorough-bred" talk with
+Rudolph, and the really impressive, simple, true-hearted manners of
+Frau Nuessler, had their effect; he went up to his wife and said:
+
+"Dear Frida, we have a prospect of recovering our two thousand
+thalers."
+
+"The dear God grant it!" said Frau Nuessler. "Rudolph, have you spoken
+to the gracious Herr?"
+
+"Yes," replied Axel for him, "the business is settled, he shall have
+the presentation from me; but--I should like to see him first."
+
+"That is nothing more than right and proper," said Frau Nuessler; "who
+would buy a cat in a bag? And you shall see, if he is appointed, and
+preaches, you shall see that he _can_; but, dear heart! stupid? Well,
+everybody is stupid about something; I cannot promise for that."
+
+And so they rode off. Gottlieb would have the presentation.
+
+"So," said Braesig, "the business is well started; now Gottlieb has only
+his last execution at Pomuchelskopp's and then the election! But he
+must strike while the iron is hot, and since neither God nor man can
+help him with Zamel Pomuchelskopp, he must run his risk, and that
+quickly."
+
+The opinion was reasonable, and Gottlieb got a letter containing a
+positive command that he should report himself at Rexow, next day,
+there to receive further instructions.
+
+He arrived, and, when Braesig had briefly explained the business, he was
+ready to undertake the dangerous errand. Krischan the coachman drove
+the Phantom up to the door, Lining brought a foot-sack and cloak and
+shawls, and tucked her future husband warmly in.
+
+"That is right," said Braesig; "wrap him up, Lining, so that he may not
+freeze, and that the catarrh may not run away with his fine voice; it
+is showery weather to-day."
+
+Suddenly Jochen Nuessler rose up from his chimney-corner, and said,
+"Mining, my cloak!"
+
+"Well, this is a fine time of day!" said Braesig.
+
+"Jochen, what do you want?" asked Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Mother," said young Jochen, "you went with Rudolph, I will go with
+Gottlieb. I will do my share of the business," and he made such a
+decided motion of the head, and looked at them all with so much
+expression, that Braesig cried out, "May you keep the nose on your face!
+I never saw the like, in all my life."
+
+"Ah, Braesig," said Frau Nuessler, "he is always like that lately; but
+lei him go, there is no use talking."
+
+And Jochen rode on with him. Lining, however, went up to her little
+chamber, and prayed as earnestly for Gottlieb, on his difficult,
+errand, as if he were really going to execution.
+
+Jochen and Gottlieb rode on through the deep mud, in silence; neither
+spoke a word, for each had his own thoughts, and the only remark made
+was when Krischan looked round over his shoulder, and said, "Herr, if
+one should drive here in the dark, and slip, he might turn over very
+conveniently." So, about four o'clock in the afternoon, they arrived at
+Pomuchelskopp's.
+
+Pomuchelskopp lay like a lump of misfortune on his sofa, rubbing his
+eyes, for Gustaving had startled him out of his afternoon sleep, when
+he came in for the key of the granary, for it was Saturday, and he
+wanted to give out the grain.
+
+"Gustaving," he cried spitefully, "you will be an awkward fellow all
+your days, you are a regular dunce! Blockhead! I will put you on a
+pole, for all the people to see what a dunce you are!"
+
+"Yes, father----"
+
+"Eh, what? yes, father! How often have I told you not to make such a
+clattering with the keys, when your father is trying to rest! What
+carriage is that, driving up the yard?"
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Gustaving, "that is our neighbor Nuessler, and
+another Herr."
+
+"Blockhead!" exclaimed Pomuchelskopp. "How often have I told you, you
+should not call everybody neighbor! The day-laborer, Brinkmann, will be
+my neighbor next, because he lives near my garden; I will not be
+neighbor to everybody," and with that he went to the door, to see what
+was going to happen.
+
+Jochen and Gottlieb, meanwhile, had got down from the carriage, and
+Jochen came up to him: "Good day, neighbor!" Pomuchelskopp made him a
+very ceremonious bow, such as he had learned to make at the Landtag,
+and showed them into the parlor. It was very still in the room, if one
+excepts the little creaking of the chairs; Jochen thought Gottlieb
+ought to speak, Gottlieb thought Jochen ought to speak, and
+Pomuchelskopp thought he ought not to speak, lest he should commit
+himself to something. Finally, however, Gottlieb began:
+
+"Herr Pomuchelskopp, the good, brave Pastor Behrens has gone to God,
+and if it seems hard, and almost unchristian, that I should offer
+myself, so soon after his death, as a candidate for the vacant parish,
+yet I do not believe that I offend against the common feelings of
+humanity, or the duty of a true Christian; because I am conscious that
+I take this step only to satisfy the wishes of my own parents, as well
+as those of my future father and mother-in-law."
+
+That was a fine speech for Gottlieb, and he was right, in every
+respect; but Pomuchelskopp had the right of it, also, when he made no
+other reply than to say to Gottlieb, all that might be, but he wished
+to know with whom he had the honor of speaking. Jochen motioned with
+his head to Gottlieb that he should tell him frankly, and Gottlieb said
+that he was the son of Rector Baldrian, and a candidate. Jochen lay
+back comfortably in his chair, after this announcement, as if the
+business were settled, and he could smoke his pipe in peace. But since
+Muchel had offered him no pipe, he had to content himself with going
+through the motions, with his mouth, puffing away like a Bohemian carp,
+when it comes up for air.
+
+"Herr Candidate," said Pomuchelskopp, "there have been several of your
+sort, already, to see me about this business,"--this was a lie, but he
+knew no other way of managing a parish business, than if he were
+selling a lot of fat swine to the butcher,--"but I have let them all
+go, because the matter with me turns upon one point."
+
+"And that was?" asked Gottlieb. "My examina----"
+
+"That is nothing to me," said the Herr Proprietor, "I mean the Pastor's
+acre. If you will consent to rent the field to me,--of course for a
+good, a very good price,--then you shall have my vote, otherwise not."
+
+"I think I have heard," said Gottlieb, "that the field is rented to the
+Herr von Rambow, and I should not like----"
+
+"You may set your mind at rest on that point, Herr von Rambow will not
+rent the field again," and Pomuchelskopp looked at Gottlieb in an
+overbearing way, as if he had sold his fat swine at the highest price.
+Jochen said nothing, but stopped his puffing for a moment, and looked
+at his candidate son-in-law, as if to ask, "What do you say now?"
+
+Gottlieb was beyond his depth, for he was very ignorant of worldly
+affairs, but he reflected, and his honorable nature was strongly
+opposed to entering upon his clerical office by means of such a
+bargain; he said, therefore, frankly:
+
+"I cannot and will not give such a promise; I do not wish to procure
+the living by such means. It will be time enough to settle that
+business when I am in the living."
+
+"So?" asked the Herr Proprietor, grinning at Gottlieb and Jochen,
+"then, let me tell you, the fox is too wise for you; what comes after,
+the wolf seizes, and if Herr von Rambow should not change his mind
+about the field, you can rent it to your Herr father-in-law. Isn't it
+so, to your Herr father-in-law?"
+
+That was an infamous speech of Pomuchelskopp's. Jochen rent the field!
+Jochen, who from morning to night bore such a heavy burden, should take
+this also on his shoulders! He sprang quickly to his feet, and said,
+"Herr Neighbor, if a man do what he can do, what can he do more; and
+what can I do about it? If the Pumpelhagen Herr will not have the
+field, neither will I, I have enough to do."
+
+"Herr Nuessler," said Pomuchelskopp, craftily, "will you give me that in
+writing, that you will not rent the field?"
+
+"Yes," said Jochen readily, and he sat down again comfortably in his
+chair, and smoked on. Pomuchelskopp walked up and down the room, and
+calculated: Herr von Rambow gave up the lease, Jochen would not take
+it, they were the only ones who could use it, the field was too small
+to rent as a farm by itself, and he, as the proprietor, need not allow
+it; it came to this, whether Gottlieb could farm it himself, and
+Pomuchelskopp examined him with reference to that question, looking at
+him sideways, as he walked back and forth.
+
+There are all sorts of men in the world, and every one has his peculiar
+talents, and most people have a good deal of one kind of talent, and
+other kinds in much smaller proportions; in Gottlieb's case, however,
+nature seemed to have made a little mistake, she sent him into the
+world, at least to all appearance, without the slightest trace of
+agricultural talent. Braesig had done his utmost to educate Gottlieb a
+little in these matters, but all in vain; what isn't _in_ a man cannot
+be brought out of him. Gottlieb could not tell the difference between
+oats and barley, he did not know which was ox and which was bull, and
+Braesig finally gave him up in despair, sighing, "Good heavens, how will
+the poor fellow ever get through the world!"
+
+Pomuchelskopp, the practical old fellow, detected this failing of
+Gottlieb's, and was much pleased. "He knows nothing whatever of
+farming," said he to himself, "that is my man. But I mustn't let him
+know it!"
+
+"Herr Candidate," said he aloud, "I am pleased with you, you are a very
+sensible man, and a man of morality--you will not comply with my
+request--good! neither will I promise to grant yours. But if Herr
+Nuessler will give me a written statement that he will not rent the
+Pastor's acre, we need talk no further about the business; for, as I
+said, I am pleased with you."
+
+So then Jochen signed his name, and the two old dunces rode off, very
+well satisfied with the transaction. They had got nothing, nothing at
+all, but a partial promise from the Herr Proprietor, and for that
+Jochen had been obliged to give his signature; but they were quite
+contented. Jochen was strongly of the opinion, and remained so till his
+death, that he had obtained the parish for his son-in-law by his
+signature.
+
+Jochen and Gottlieb would have been glad to stop a little while at the
+parsonage; but Krischan the coachman opposed it violently, saying it
+would never do, it was pitch dark already; so the old Phantom labored
+along, in the night and the mist, through the deep country roads. To
+night and mist and a phantom, sleep is appropriate, and whoever finds
+this four-leaved clover, has the prospect of all sorts of good fortune.
+Sleep was not long absent. Jochen slept before they were fairly put of
+Gurlitz, and if it had been daylight, one could have seen, from the way
+Krischan dragged his whip, that he was beginning to doze, and though
+Gottlieb did not sleep he was farther off, in his thoughts, than the
+others; for he was dreaming of his Lining, and his parish, and his
+election sermon, and his entrance sermon. And when they came to the
+place where Krischan had made his intelligent remark, as they were
+going, and as the influences of sleep and darkness combined with its
+dangers, and Gottlieb had come in his dream to the last election vote,
+which gave the decision in his favor, the confounded old Phantom began
+to totter, the fore-wheel was up, high and dry, on the shore, and the
+hind-wheel, over which Gottlieb sat, fell into a deep hole; so, two
+steps further, and splash! the whole company lay in the ditch.
+
+I see, from my window, a great many farmers of the Grand Duke's lands
+getting down from their carriages, at my Frau Neighbor's, the landlady
+Frau Lurenz, at the "Prince's Arms," but I never in my life saw any one
+get down so quickly as Jochen; he shot out, in a great curve, over
+Gottlieb, who was lying beneath him, directly, in the soft mud, and
+Krischan, old, honest, faithful soul, who could not think of deserting
+his master in such a crisis, also shot head-foremost from his seat, and
+lay at his master's side.
+
+"Purr--Oh! Herr, just lie still!" cried the honest old fellow, "the
+horses will stand!"
+
+"You blockhead!" cried Jochen.
+
+"Praise God!" exclaimed Krischan, getting on his feet, "I am all right.
+But Herr, just lie perfectly still, I will hold the horses."
+
+"You blockhead!" said Jochen again, scrambling up, while Gottlieb
+splashed and waded about in the deep mire, "how could you turn us over
+here?"
+
+"Yes, it is all as true as leather," said Krischan, who, in his long
+years of service, had caught his master's expressions, "what could a
+body do, on such a road, in such pitch darkness?"
+
+Since Jochen's words were taken out of his mouth in this way, he didn't
+know what to say for himself, so he asked, "Gottlieb, are your bones
+whole?"
+
+"Yes, uncle," said the candidate, "and yours too?"
+
+"Yes," said Jochen, "except my nose, but that seems clean gone out of
+my face."
+
+The carriage had been righted by this time, and, as they got in again,
+Krischan turned half round and said:
+
+"Herr, didn't I tell you, this afternoon, this was the place to tip
+over?"
+
+"Blockhead!" cried Jochen, rubbing his nose, "you were asleep."
+
+"Asleep, Herr, asleep? In such pitch darkness, it is all the same
+whether one sleeps or wakes; but I said so before. I know the road by
+heart, and I said so."
+
+And when he afterwards related the story to the other servants, he
+always said that he had prophesied it, but the Herr would not listen to
+him; holding up Jochen in the light of a venturesome fellow, who would
+risk his neck for nothing, against all opposition.
+
+They arrived at the house, and Gottlieb first got down from the
+carriage. Lining had been sitting all this time on thorns and nettles
+of impatience, and had listened, through the darkness, for every sound
+which could bring her certainty of happiness or misfortune. Now she
+heard something--that must be--no, it was only the wind in the poplars;
+but now! yes, that is a carriage, it came nearer, it drove up,--she
+sprang up, she ran to the door, but must stop to press her hand against
+her throbbing heart,--how it beat, with hope and fear I would Gottlieb
+bring happiness or misfortune? She opened the door.
+
+"Don't touch me!" cried Gottlieb, but it was too late, Lining, although
+the oldest, was still very thoughtless, she threw her arms around
+Gottlieb, and pressed him to her warm heart; but such a chill struck
+through her, that she felt as if she had taken a frog in her arms, she
+let him go, exclaiming,--
+
+"Good heavens! what has happened?"
+
+"Overturned," said Gottlieb, "we were, by God's gracious help,
+overturned; that is to say, Krischan took care of the overturning, but
+God's gracious help preserved us from serious injury."
+
+"How you look!" cried Braesig, who came out with a light, just as Jochen
+entered the door.
+
+"Yes, Braesig," said Jochen, "it is all as, true as leather; we were
+tipped over."
+
+"Eh, where?" said Braesig, "how could a reasonable man, of your years,
+get tipped over, on his own roads? You were asleep, Jochen!"
+
+"Good gracious, Jochen!" cried Frau Nuessler, "how you look!" and she
+turned him round, before the light, as if he were a piece of roast
+veal, on the spit, which she had just finely basted with gravy.
+"Gracious, Jochen! and your nose----"
+
+"And how does the clerical gentleman look?" inquired Braesig, holding
+the light to Gottlieb, in front and rear. "Well!" he said, leaving him,
+"and now Lining! Why, Lining, you were not tipped over! Frau Nuessler,
+just look at her! She has half the road from here to Gurlitz upon her
+clothes!"
+
+Lining blushed deeply, and Mining wiped off the mud from her, and Frau
+Nuessler did the same for Jochen.
+
+"Gracious, Jochen, how you have muddied yourself! Now, just look at it,
+the nice new cloak!" Jochen had purchased it for his wedding, some
+twenty years before. "Well, it can't be helped; I must rip it all out,
+and to-morrow the whole thing must be washed in the brook."
+
+Orders were issued accordingly, and, after a little while, the two
+travellers were seated, in dry clothes, at the table, in the
+living-room. Now, for the first time, Frau Nuessler saw her Jochen's
+nose, in a clear light.
+
+"Jochen," said she, "how your nose looks!"
+
+"Yes, they said so," replied Jochen.
+
+"Jochen," said Braesig, "I must be an infamous liar, if I ever said that
+your nose was particularly handsome; but--may you keep the nose on your
+face!--what a nose you have on your face!"
+
+"For shame, Braesig, how can you wish he should keep such a nose as
+that? Preserve us! it grows bigger and bigger! What can be done for
+it?"
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, "he must go to the water-cure."
+
+"What?" said Frau Nuessler, "my Jochen go to the water-cure, because he
+has bumped his nose?"
+
+"You don't understand me," said Braesig, "he need not go, wholly and
+entirely, body and bones, to the water-cure; he shall only send his
+nose there; we must make him cold bandages. Or, Jochen, could you bleed
+a little from the nose? It would refresh you very much."
+
+But Jochen could not do that, so they prepared the cold bandages, and
+Jochen sat there, very stately and contented, with his nose wrapped up
+in wet linen, and, under his nose, his pipe of tobacco.
+
+"But," said Braesig, "no mortal knows yet how you succeeded with Zamel
+Pomuchelskopp."
+
+"Yes," said Lining, "how was it, Gottlieb?" So Gottlieb described their
+interview with the Herr Proprietor, and when he had finished, Jochen
+said,--
+
+"Yes, it is all settled, I have signed my name."
+
+"Jochen, what have you signed your name for?" asked Braesig, angrily.
+
+"About the Pastor's acre, that I will not rent it."
+
+"Then you have done something very foolish. Oh, the Jesuit! _He_ wants
+the Pastor's acre. Nightingale, I hear thee singing, from the little
+brook wilt drink. That was his great end and aim! But--but"--he sprang
+up, and stalked about the room, "I will spoil your game. Hear to the
+end, says Kotelmann. Zamel Pomuchelskopp, we will talk about this! What
+does the celebrated poet say, about David and Goliath? I consider
+myself David, and him Goliath. 'He took the sling into his hand, and
+smote him on the brow, headlong he fell.' And how finely the same
+celebrated poet says, in his grand concluding words, 'So ever does the
+boaster fall, and when he thinks he firmly stands, then lies he in the
+ditch.' And so it shall be with you, Zamel! And, Frau Nuessler, now I
+have got myself angry, and can eat no supper, so I will say 'Good
+night,' for I have all sorts of things to think about."
+
+He took his candle and departed, and after supper they all went early
+to bed, and Lining lay a long time, wakeful through care and anxiety,
+and listened to the wind in the trees, and the steps in the room
+beneath, which went back and forth, back and forth, in the same
+measure; for there Uncle Braesig lodged, and--as he said next
+morning--was planning campaign that night.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+The year 1845 had arrived, and the world went on in its old course, and
+turned itself over, as usual. Day and night, and joy and sorrow,
+succeeded each other, just as they have done since time began, since
+the Lord appointed day and night, and placed man in the garden of Eden,
+and then expelled him from it. How many days and nights, and how much
+joy and sorrow! The day always dawns, and the night always comes; there
+is no difference. But is it even so with joy and sorrow? Are they as
+impartially divided? I think so! The Lord's hand stretches over all,
+and from his hand falls happiness and unhappiness, comfort and anxiety,
+upon the world, and every one has his share; but men are perverse, they
+will call their misfortunes happiness, and their happiness they take
+for misfortune; they push aside the cup of comfort, as if it were
+filled with gall, and they laugh away their anxieties.
+
+The people, whom I have written about in this book, were no better than
+others, they did just like the rest; but there are two things which the
+Lord sends into the world as joy and sorrow, and no gall can embitter
+the one, and the other cannot be laughed away,--these are birth and
+death, beginning and ending. In my little world also, there was
+beginning and ending, birth and death; the fair, young Frau sat in
+Pumpelhagen, and held a little child, a little daughter, upon her lap,
+and the door of her heart stood wide open, for God's clear sunlight to
+shine in. She could not help it. The dark shadows which had been
+closing around her were no longer visible to her eyes,--she must
+rejoice! and before the parsonage at Gurlitz, lay a grave, and two
+figures in black went silently back and forth, and when spring came,
+they planted flowers upon it, and when the linden leaved out, before
+the house, and the lilacs blossomed, they sat together on the bench,
+and leaned against each other, as in the old time, when the Frau
+Pastorin had wrapped the little Louise in her shawl. Now it was
+reversed, now Louise threw her shawl around the little Frau Pastorin.
+And so these two mourners sat together, and looked over at the
+churchyard, and when Habermann came, there were three, and they sat
+patiently in the shadows, and did not push aside the cup of comfort,
+and when they separated, the evening star was shining.
+
+The first, violent grief was gone from the parsonage, but its marks
+were yet to be seen, beautiful marks, which the death-angel leaves upon
+human faces. He had kissed Louise upon her clear, high forehead, and
+the kiss remained there, lighting her face like an earnest thought; he
+had embraced the little, round Frau Pastorin, at his departure, and had
+taken away almost all her own quick, eager vivacity, and had left in
+its place only loving thoughts of her Pastor. She lived entirely in
+these. All must remain as it had been in his life; in his study, the
+arm-chair stood before the writing-table, the last sermon which he had
+written lay upon it, and the pen by its side, and the Bible of his
+childhood lay open, where she had turned the leaf at his death. Every
+morning she went first into this room, with her duster, and dusted and
+put everything in order, and stood long in thought, and looked at the
+door, as if he must come in, in his dressing-gown, and give her a kiss,
+and say, "I thank you, dear Regina." And at dinner, Louise put plates
+for three; and her Pastor's chair was always in its place, and it
+seemed to her as if he were sitting opposite, and talking in the most
+cheerful manner, and the remains of her own vivacity, which grief had
+left, reappeared at these times, for she did not push aside the cup of
+comfort.
+
+But how long could this last? The parish must be supplied with a new
+pastor, and then she must leave the house, she must leave the village,
+she must sever herself from the grave; for there was no widow's house,
+and Pomuchelskopp would not build one, for he had no occasion for one.
+
+For the last time she watched the blooming of the fruit-trees, which
+her Pastor had planted, for the last time she sat under the fragrant
+lilacs, where she had sat so happily with him, for the last time came
+the spring, and wound its wreath around the peaceful dwelling, for the
+last time came the summer, and strewed its golden blessing upon it:
+"Louise, when the swallows fly, in the autumn, we must be flitting
+too," she said, sadly, and she felt that it would be like another
+death.
+
+Habermann was her truest friend, and she gave herself wholly into his
+hands, what he did must be right. He thought and thought, but could
+think of no way to spare them the removal; but he would make it easier.
+Kurz the merchant had a roomy house, near his own, with a garden
+attached, which could be altered to resemble the parsonage. And Louise
+must secretly measure the rooms at the parsonage, how large the parlor
+was, and how long the wall, and then drive with her father to
+Rahnstadt, and Schultz the carpenter was sent for, to draw a plan
+after Louise's measurements. But he wouldn't do it, for "in the first
+place," said he, "I couldn't draw a plan after a woman's ribbon
+and apron-string measuring, and, secondly, it is not necessary;
+plan-drawing is plan-drawing. I don't believe in plan-drawing, I carry
+my plans in my head." And Kurz said, if it were arranged differently it
+would be much better, but Habermann was firm; it should be so, and if
+it could not be made so, the business was settled; and Schultz the
+carpenter said there was no sort of difficulty, and, if it could
+only be managed, he would go over, and take the measurements himself.
+This was arranged, and he came before daylight while the Frau
+Pastorin was still sleeping, and measured the rooms, talking to
+himself the while: "Seven--seven--five and twenty, five and
+twenty,--Kurz--Habermann--Kurz--Habermann--awkward, awkward,--here
+there must be a projecting beam,--too great a strain, a bolt carried
+through,--so, so,--all right,--so, now out! out!"--and he went out to
+his brown ponies, and drove softly away, with the finest building-plan
+in his head that ever a man could make. The building began immediately,
+and Habermann, who took a diligent supervision, was, on the whole, very
+well satisfied, only he did not quite understand the projecting beam,
+but he yielded, when he observed that Schultz himself felt strongly
+about the matter, and when he came to know that that architect never in
+his life put up a building without a "projecting beam." Kurz also
+yielded his opposition, and so the removal was made as easy as it was
+possible for him to make it.
+
+At Pumpelhagen, as I have said, there was great joy: the clear eyes of
+Frida rested on her little daughter, and before these clear eyes,
+mother-love had woven a light, sweet veil, as if it would conceal from
+the mother the future of the little one, and leave her undisturbed to
+dream and create. And there was nothing in her way, one happy dream
+succeeded another; and now again the clear sunlight beamed from her
+heart to Axel, when she held up to him her child. Axel's heart was also
+full of joy, he came continually to inquire after mother and child; but
+yet he had a slight feeling of disappointment; he had wished for a son,
+an heir of his ancient name. It is a horrible thing that a little
+innocent girl, from the first moment she opens her eyes to the
+daylight, should have to contend with the unjust wishes and prejudices
+of other people, and suffer on account of them. It any one had said
+this to Axel, he would have been very angry, for he was really glad, in
+spite of his disappointment; he had seated himself directly, and
+announced the "happy event" to all his acquaintances, even his
+horse-acquaintances, and Pomuchelskopp; three people only, he had
+intentionally omitted; his cousin Franz,--"that stupid boy,"--the Frau
+Pastorin at Gurlitz,--"that matchmaker,"--and Frau Nuessler,--"that
+uncultivated old woman." And when he laid the letters on his wife's
+bed, and she wondered that these three were forgotten, he said coldly,
+he had nothing to do with these people, if she wished to do it, she
+must do it on her own responsibility.
+
+She did it, accordingly; and after a few days came Louise, to offer
+congratulations, in the name of the Frau Pastorin, and Axel came into
+the room, and seeing the inspector's daughter said, "Ah, Mademoiselle
+Habermann! I beg you will excuse me," and went quickly out of the room.
+And again after a few days, Frau Nuessler came, with Krischan and the
+Phantom, driving into the yard, and Axel went off to the fields, when
+he saw them coming; and when he returned, and learned from Daniel that
+Frau Nuessler was still with the gracious lady, he exclaimed
+impatiently: "I do not comprehend my wife, how she can take any
+pleasure in the society of such uneducated people!"
+
+That was a very droll thing for him to say, for only a few weeks
+before, in a company of horse-raisers, he had pronounced his friend,
+Herr von Brulow, of Brulowshof, a very cultivated man of science, and
+when a young doctor, who was accidentally present, had remarked that
+his education and science were not carried to a very great extent. Axel
+rose up, and said, over his shoulder, to the mistaken young man, if one
+had, in any direction whatever, such an experience as the Herr von
+Brulow in raising thorough-bred horses, and especially in the
+management of colts, he must be allowed, by the most envious person,
+the name of an educated and scientific man, even if he understood
+nothing else; for that business was one of the greatest importance. And
+yet in his eyes, this good woman was uneducated, though nobody in the
+world was better qualified to advise his wife in the nursing and
+management of his own little infant. Pomuchelskopp also had come, in
+his blue dress-coat, with gilt buttons, and the coach with the coat of
+arms, and the four brown horses, and had brought his congratulations.
+That was another thing, that was a genteel equipage! And he was very
+cordially received by Axel, and must stay for luncheon, and afterwards
+Axel showed him his thorough-bred mares with their colts, and
+Pomuchelskopp was highly delighted, and laying his hand impressively on
+Axel's arm, and looking up in his eyes, he said, "All very fine, Herr
+von Rambow, very fine for a beginning, but if you want to do something
+worth while, in horse-raising, you should have paddocks. The young
+animal should naturally be brought up in the open air. Freedom,
+freedom, Herr von Rambow! That is the first condition, if you mean to
+do anything of importance. And, you see, you have here the finest
+opportunity, if you take off four paddocks here, behind the park, for
+your thoroughbred mares, and let the field, up as far as the hill, be
+sowed with grass and clover, instead of grain; there is the brook down
+there, and you have the finest water. Something can be done. Of
+course," he added, as Axel looked a little thoughtful, "your inspector
+will not like the idea."
+
+"My inspector has nothing to say, if I command anything," said Axel
+hotly.
+
+"I know that," said Pomuchelskopp, pacifying him, "he knows nothing
+about such matters."
+
+"But the meadow will be too small, if I take off this corner of the
+best soil," said Axel.
+
+"Yes," said Pomuchelskopp, and shrugged his shoulders, "you must make a
+change with the meadow, for you have had the pastor's acre, hitherto,
+for meadow land, and the lease is out; and a little more or less will
+not signify."
+
+"That is true," said Axel, with some hesitation, for what he had
+promised in an emergency had often annoyed him since, and it always
+puts a man out of humor, when he must give up something from which
+he has derived advantage and pleasure. But Pomuchelskopp was so
+friendly, so well-meaning and upright; he gave him so much good
+advice,--and--this he said by the way--if things didn't go right, he
+was always at hand,--that Axel shook hands with him cordially, as he
+took leave, and sat down to his reflections, with his head full of
+paddocks.
+
+Habermann was crossing the courtyard; Axel opened the window, and
+called to him: "Herr Habermann," said he, "how far have you gone with
+the barley-sowing, behind the park?"
+
+"I think we shall finish the meadow day after to-morrow; to-morrow we
+begin down here, by the brook."
+
+"Good! From there up to the hill--I will tell you about the rest
+afterwards--you may sow Timothy, rye-grass, and white clover, with the
+barley. Send Triddelsitz to Rahnstadt, in the morning, to get the seed
+from David."
+
+"But pasture grass does not follow barley."
+
+"Do you hear me? I wish this piece of ground sowed for a pasture. I am
+going to put up paddocks there, for the brood-mares."
+
+"Paddocks? paddocks?" asked the old man, as if he could not believe his
+ears.
+
+"Yes, paddocks," said Axel, preparing to close the window.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann, laying his hand on the window-seat,
+"this is the finest soil in the whole meadow, if you take it away,
+there will not be enough for grain. That was the very reason the late
+Herr Kammerrath rented the pastor's acre."
+
+It was the very thing which Axel had said to himself, and he knew very
+well that the inspector was right; but it is very irritating for a
+master, to acknowledge his inferior in the right.
+
+"I shall not rent the pastor's acre again," said the young Herr.
+
+The old man let his hands fall to his sides.
+
+"Not rent the Pastor's acre again?" said he, "Herr, the field has
+brought us--I have kept a special book for it----"
+
+"It is all one to me! You hear me, I shall not rent it again."
+
+"Herr von Rambow, it cannot be possible----"
+
+"Did you hear me? _I shall not rent it again!_"
+
+"But Herr, I beg of you, reflect----"
+
+"Eh, what!" exclaimed Axel, and closed the window. "A tedious old
+fellow!" he exclaimed, "an old fogy!" and he went back to his chair,
+and thought about his paddocks; but the fine pictures which his fancy
+had painted would not return, he must first get rid of the thought that
+he had again committed an injustice.
+
+And the old man? How deeply grieved he went back to the meadow! How his
+attachment and gratitude to the late Kammerrath struggled against the
+mortification he had so often endured from the only son of his old
+master! And of what use was this struggle? Of what use was he to the
+young Herr? None at all! Step by step, the young man went forward to
+his destruction, and his hand which could save him, and so gladly
+would, was thrust aside, and his heart which was brimful of love and
+friendliness to the young Herr, and his whole household, was treated as
+if it beat in the breast of an unfaithful servant, who thought merely
+of his own reward.
+
+"Triddelsitz," said he, when he came to the meadow, "this corner,
+between the brook and the hill, the Herr will have sowed with grass; he
+will come out himself, and show you about it; let them sow the barley a
+little thinner."
+
+"What is he going to do with it?" asked Fritz.
+
+"He will tell you himself, when he sees fit. There he comes, from the
+garden," said the old man, and went out of his master's way.
+
+"Triddelsitz," said Herr von Rambow, "this piece of ground, up to the
+hill, is to be sowed with grass; you shall get the seed from David
+to-morrow; I am going to have paddocks here."
+
+"Famous!" cried Fritz. "I have always thought of that, whether we
+couldn't have paddocks, or something of the kind."
+
+"Yes, it is necessary."
+
+"To be sure, it is necessary," said Fritz, fully convinced. For no one
+must think that he was a flatterer; he really meant what he said, and
+if he had known what an expense and what trouble these paddocks would
+cost, he would certainly not have expressed this opinion; but--as I
+have said before--in all such crazy performances, he was united, with
+his whole soul, to his master.
+
+"Have you a measuring-rod here?" asked Axel.
+
+"A measuring-rod? No," said Fritz, laughing, in a rather contemptuous
+and yet shamefaced manner, "I have myself invented a measuring
+instrument. If you will allow me, I will show you," and he ran to the
+nearest ditch, and brought out a great barrel-hoop, which was all
+entangled with strings; into the midst of these strings he put his
+walking-stick, as in the axle of a wheel, and let the machine run.
+
+"The circumference of the hoop is just the length of the rod," said
+Fritz, "and this hammer strikes on the board, when it has turned
+completely round."
+
+"See! see!" cried Axel, his old delight in inventions reviving. "And
+did you invent that, all by yourself?"
+
+"All by myself," said Fritz, but he should have said his laziness
+invented it, for he had a great dislike to stooping his long body.
+
+"Well, you can measure the land for me," said Axel, and went back to
+the house, saying to himself, Triddelsitz was a skilful farmer, and a
+wide-awake fellow, he would rather have him for a manager than
+Habermann.
+
+After a while, the old inspector returned to Fritz, very much out of
+humor.
+
+"Triddelsitz," said he, "what are you doing? You have let them sow the
+barley much too thick."
+
+"God forbid!" said Fritz, "I arranged the machine just as you ordered,
+I measured the land myself."
+
+"It isn't possible!" cried Habermann, "then my eyes must deceive me.
+Where is your measuring-rod?"
+
+"I haven't a measuring-rod," said Fritz, "and don't need one either,"
+he added, spitefully, for the great approbation of the young Herr had
+gone to his head. "I measure everything with my instrument," pointing
+to his invention which lay at his feet.
+
+"What?" cried Habermann, "what is that?"
+
+"An invention of mine," said Fritz, looking as proud as if he had set
+up the first steam-engine.
+
+"Ah!" said Habermann, "well, take the trumpery, and measure me ten
+rods."
+
+Fritz took his invention in hand, and let the thing run. Habermann
+walked by his side, and asked:
+
+"How much have you?"
+
+"Ten rods," said Fritz.
+
+"And I have nine, and two feet," said the old man.
+
+"It isn't possible," said Fritz, "you must have counted wrong, my
+instrument is right."
+
+"Five of my steps are a Mecklenburg rod," said the old man hotly, "but
+because you are a fool you have spoiled the whole field of barley. How
+can such trumpery measure in the fresh furrow, when it could hardly do
+upon perfectly even ground. Oh, laziness, laziness! Go in directly, and
+bring me out a proper measuring-rod!" and he took his knife out of his
+pocket, and cut Fritz's invention into little pieces, and then went to
+the machine, and arranged it differently.
+
+Fritz stood there, looking first at him, and then at his invention,
+which lay about him, in little bits; it is really a hard thing for a
+man, who wishes to accomplish something in the world, to be so taken
+down, at his first attempt. He had such benevolent intentions,--of
+course towards himself first, but also towards all his colleagues, and
+all the clerks in Mecklenburg,--that that infamous stooping might go
+out of fashion, and now his good intentions lay in fragments at his
+feet.
+
+"I must bring the measuring-rod," said he, "there is no help for that;
+but I would a thousand times rather manage with the gracious Herr, than
+with old Habermann." And as he went up to the house after the rod, a
+great bitterness came over him towards Habermann, and he forgot all
+that he had promised him in a happy hour,--the best rooms in his house,
+two carriage horses, and a saddle horse,--and as he was speaking, for a
+moment, with Marie Moeller, who had again taken possession of his vacant
+heart, and learned from her that the young Herr had spoken sharply to
+Habermann at the window, he comforted himself, and went off with the
+rod over his shoulder, and a bit of sausage in his hand, saying:
+
+"Well, the old man will not do for us much longer; he is getting too
+old; he has no capacity for new ideas."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Seed-time passed, and summer came; the young Frau went out but little,
+and the comfort which the old inspector would have taken from her
+bright eyes and cheerful disposition he must do without, for she had
+something dearer, something of more importance to do, even if all this
+importance lay wrapped up in a bundle of flannels; she knew how
+precious were the hopes and wishes which she cradled in her arms, and,
+for the time, all other duties were sacrificed to these.
+
+Over Axel also, came with his fatherhood a vague, undefined feeling, as
+if it were his sacred duty and obligation to labor for his child; he
+began to manage his estate with great diligence; instead of
+superintending matters, in a general way, as he had hitherto done, like
+a sort of field-marshal, he conducted himself more like a corporal, who
+concerns himself about all the little details of his corporalship, and
+he stuck his nose into everything, even into the tar-barrel. He might
+have done that, and it is very well for a master to be interested in
+everything, but he should have left the commanding alone, for he didn't
+understand it.
+
+He took hold of the management in the most unintelligent way, broke up
+the old man's arrangements, and when he had brought everything into
+confusion, he went into the house, and scolded the old man: "The old
+man has not the least _method_! He is too old for me. No, we cannot go
+on so any longer!" And Krischan Segel said to Diedrich Snaesel: "Well,
+what shall we do now, the Herr says _so_, and the inspector says _so_?"
+
+"Well, neighbor," said Diedrich, "if the Herr says----"
+
+"Yes, but it is all stuff and nonsense."
+
+"Then you need not do it, and if he has said it, it is no matter."
+
+So the harvest ripened, and the blessing of the fields must be gathered
+into barns, the rye was cut, and had stood three days in sheaves.
+
+"Herr Inspector," called Axel from the window, and as Habermann came up
+he said, "to-morrow, we will bring in the rye."
+
+"Herr von Rambow, it will not do yet, yesterday and to-day it has been
+cloudy, and it has not dried; the grain is still soft, and some stems
+are quite green."
+
+"Well, it will do. How will you bring it in?"
+
+"If it must be brought in, we should begin right behind the village,
+and go with two gangs, one to drive into the great barn, the other into
+the barley barn."
+
+"Begin behind the village? With two gangs? Why?"
+
+"The nearer we begin to the village the more we can get in in one day
+and the weather looks suspicious; and we must bring it in in two gangs,
+and into two barns, or the people will get in each other's way, and the
+wagons will interfere."
+
+"Hm!" said Axel, closing the window, "I will think about it." And he
+thought, and came to the conclusion that he would get in this harvest
+with Fritz Triddelsitz alone; Habermann should have nothing whatever to
+do with it, and they would show him that he was the fifth wheel of the
+coach. They would begin at the other end of the field, and bring it in
+with one gang. What one gang or two gangs were, he was not quite clear
+in his own mind, but they were only subordinate matters, probably
+nothing more than some whim of the old inspector's, and he would have
+nothing to do with these, he meant to free himself from them entirely.
+
+The next morning, at six o'clock, he was on his feet, and went up in a
+very friendly way to the old man, who was busy in the yard.
+
+"Dear Herr Habermann, I have considered the matter,--you must not take
+it unkindly,--but I have decided to get in this harvest, with young
+Triddelsitz, quite by myself, and to give all the necessary orders in
+person."
+
+The old man stood before him, confounded and dismayed. At last came,
+heavily and constrained from his breast, the words: "And I, Herr, am I
+merely to look on? And do you prefer the help of a stupid apprentice to
+my help?"
+
+He held his walking-stick in front of him, and looked at the young man
+with eyes which shone in his old face with as much youthful fire, as if
+all the energy and activity of his long life were concentrated in them,
+and said frankly:
+
+"Herr, you were a little boy, when I devoted my whole abilities to your
+good father,--he thanked me, on his dying bed he thanked me! but you?
+You have filled my cup to the brim, with your ingratitude, and now you
+wish to disgrace me!"
+
+Then he went off, and Axel called after him:
+
+"Dear Herr Habermann, it is not so intended. I only wanted to try
+myself." But it was so intended, as he knew very well; he did not want
+the old man in his way, he looked after him too sharply, and he felt
+ashamed before him.
+
+The old inspector went to his room, opened his desk, and seated himself
+before it; but it was long before he could think and begin anything,
+and meanwhile there was great commotion in the yard. "Triddelsitz!"
+"Herr von Rambow!" "Where are you going, Jochen?" "Eh, I don't know,
+nobody has told me." "Fritz Paesel, what are you doing with the
+plough?" "Eh, what do I know? I was going to plough in the field."
+"Blockhead!"--this was Fritz's voice--"we are going to get in the rye."
+"It is all the same to me, if I am not to do it, I will not,"--and he
+tumbled the plough out of the wagon,--"what the inspector tells me, I
+do."
+
+"Flegel!" called the young Herr. "Fritz Flegel!" repeated Triddelsitz,
+after him.
+
+"What do you want?" roared a voice from the workshop.
+
+"Where are the harvesting straps?" asked Fritz Triddelsitz. "There,
+where you stand," said the wheelwright; "and nobody has said anything
+to me about them."
+
+"Well, what shall we do?" asked the day-laborer Naesel. "Lord knows,"
+replied Pegel, "nobody has told us." "Flegel!" cried Fritz again, "we
+are going to bring in the rye; the wagons must be greased." "For all
+me," called Flegel from his shop, "the tar-barrel stands there."
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Fritz, "where is Habermann? shall I not call
+the inspector?"
+
+"No," said Axel slowly, turning to go away.
+
+"Well," said Fritz, who was growing distressed, "we cannot do anything
+about it this morning."
+
+"It isn't necessary, we can begin this afternoon."
+
+"But what shall the day-laborers be doing meanwhile?"
+
+"Good gracious, the day-laborers!" said Axel, "always the day-laborers!
+The men can employ themselves usefully here, about the yard. Do you
+hear?" and he turned round, "you can help grease the wagons."
+
+Meanwhile the old inspector sat at his desk, trying to write something,
+something difficult, which clutched at his inmost heart, he was going
+to separate himself from his master, to break down the bridge, which,
+between the late Kammerrath and himself, had united heart to heart; he
+would give notice to quit. He heard,--though not distinctly,--the
+stupid commotion outside, once he sprang to the window, as if he would
+give an intelligent order; no; that was all over, he had nothing more
+to do with it! He tore up the letter which he had written, and began
+another, but that also did not suit him, he pushed aside his writing
+materials, and closed his desk. But what now? What should he begin?
+He had nothing to do, he was superseded; he threw himself into the
+sofa-corner, and thought and thought.
+
+When the afternoon came, by the help of the old wheelwright and a
+couple of intelligent old laborers, the wagons and the barns were so
+far ready that the harvesting could begin; and it began accordingly.
+Axel was on horseback, commanding the whole; Fritz, by his master's
+order, must also be on horseback; because his old, deaf granny was
+lame, he rode the old thorough-bred Wallach, which was also a springer;
+he himself was a sort of adjutant.
+
+Now they could begin. Six spans of horses were fastened to six harvest
+wagons, and driven in a row, up to the yard,--order is the principal
+thing,--on one side stood the pitchers and stackers for the barns, on
+the other the pitchers, loaders and rakers for the field, and, on a
+given sign, the stackers marched off to the barns, and the field people
+climbed into the wagons; Axel and Fritz rode on, the wagons followed,
+and never in the world had there been such order, in the Pumpelhagen
+farm-yard, as on this fine afternoon; and we must have order.
+
+The old wheelwright, Fritz Flegel, stood in his workshop, and looked at
+the procession: "What is all that for?" said he, scratching his head,
+for he had no appreciation of this beautiful order. "Well, it is none
+of my concern," he said and went back to his work, "but where is our
+old Herr Inspector?"
+
+He was sitting in his room thinking; the first heat had passed, he
+stood up and wrote a brief letter, resigning his post at the next
+Christmas, and asking leave of absence, during the harvest, since he
+was superfluous under these circumstances; then he took his hat and
+stick, and went out, he could stay in doors no longer. He sat down on a
+stone wall, under the shade of a lilac bush, and looked along the road
+to Warnitz, from which the harvest wagons must come; but they came not,
+only Braesig came along the road.
+
+"May you keep the nose on your face, Karl, what sort of performances
+are you carrying on here? How can you get your rye in yet? it is green
+as grass! And how can you bring it in with six wagons in one gang? and
+what keeps the loaded wagons down there in the road?"
+
+"Braesig, I don't know, you must ask the Herr and Triddelsitz."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Braesig, I have nothing more to say."
+
+"What? How? What did you say?" cried Braesig, elevating his eyebrows.
+
+"I have nothing more to say," said Habermann quietly, "I am shoved
+aside, I am too old for the young Herr."
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, laying his hand on his old friend's shoulder,
+"what is the matter? Tell me about it!"
+
+And Habermann told him how it all happened, and when he had finished
+Braesig turned round, and looked savagely at the beautiful world, and
+ground his teeth together, as if he had the world between his teeth,
+and would crack it, like a tough hazelnut, and called, with a voice
+half-choked with rage, down the Warnitz road: "Jesuit! Infamous
+Jesuit!" and turning back to Habermann said, "Karl, in this Triddelsitz
+also, you have warmed a snake in your bosom!"
+
+"Braesig, how can he help it? He must do as he is told."
+
+"There he comes racing along, and the six wagons behind him, making a
+procession--of loaded wagons! This is a comedy, this is an agricultural
+comedy! Go ahead! and when you get to the old bridge turn over!" cried
+Uncle Braesig, dancing around, recklessly, on his poor gouty legs, as if
+they had brought about the whole mischief, and must be punished
+accordingly, for his fierce anger had given place to malicious joy.
+
+"Here we have it!" he exclaimed, in great delight, for it happened just
+as he had said, as the first full wagon came up to the bridge, at a
+slow trot, it overset. "Stop!" they cried, "thunder and lightening,
+stop!" Fritz looked round,--well, what, now? He had not the slightest
+idea what to do; fortunately, he saw Habermann and Braesig, on the stone
+wall, and rode up to them hastily.
+
+"Herr Inspector----"
+
+"Herr, you have crumbled your bread, and now you may eat it!" cried
+Braesig.
+
+"Dear Herr Inspector, what shall we do? The wagon lies right across the
+bridge, and the others cannot get by."
+
+"Ride quickly----"
+
+"Karl, hold your tongue, you are laid aside as a sheep for the
+slaughter, you have nothing to say," interrupted Braesig.
+
+"Ride quickly"--said Habermann, "no, let them alone, the servants are
+more intelligent than you are, they will soon get the sheaves out of
+the way."
+
+"Herr Inspector," said Fritz anxiously, "it is not my fault. Herr von
+Rambow has ordered it all so, the wagons should drive in a row, and the
+men should drive quickly with the full loads."
+
+"Drive on then, till your tongues hang out!" cried Braesig.
+
+"And he is on horseback, on the hill, overseeing and commanding the
+whole."
+
+"Has he a sperspective in one hand, and a commander's staff in the
+other, like old Bluecher, in the Hop-market, at Rostock?" said Braesig
+mockingly.
+
+"Ride up to the court," said Habermann, "and see that the first loaded
+wagon drives out again quickly."
+
+"I must not do that," said Fritz, "the Herr has expressly commanded
+that the wagons should drive in again in a row, he says he will have
+order in the business."
+
+"Then you may tell him the finest donkey I ever saw in my life----"
+
+"Braesig, take care!" cried Habermann.
+
+"Was--was your little mule, Herr Triddelsitz," concluded Uncle Braesig,
+with great presence of mind.
+
+Fritz rode up to the court.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, "we might go too, and observe the beautiful order
+from your window."
+
+"Well, it is all the same," said Habermann, and sighed deeply, "here or
+there."
+
+They went; the wagons drove into the yard, the first up to the
+barn-floor, the others waited behind, in a row. The men who unloaded
+were scolding that they must work themselves to death, the day-laborers
+were scolding about the damp rye and asking who should thrash it, in
+the winter, the servants were laughing and cracking jokes, in idleness,
+and Fritz rode up and down with an uncommonly easy conscience, for he
+was doing his duty, and following his master's orders. When all was
+finished he placed himself again at the head of the empty wagons, and
+the procession moved off. The pitchers and stackers came round into the
+shade of the barns, laid themselves down, and took a nap; they had time
+enough now.
+
+"A very fine, peaceful harvest, Karl," observed Braesig, "the whole
+court is as still as death, not a leaf stirs. It is very pleasant for
+me, for I never saw such an one before."
+
+"It is not very pleasant for me, Braesig," said Habermann, "I see
+trouble coming. Two or three more such pieces of stupidity, and the
+people will lose all respect for their master; when they see that he
+orders things that he does not understand, they will do what they
+please. And the poor, unhappy young man! and especially, the poor, poor
+young Frau!"
+
+"There comes your gracious lady, just now, out of the house, and the
+nursemaid follows, with the baby-carriage, in which lies the little
+sleeping beauty. But Karl! come quick to the window! What is this?"
+
+And it was really worth his while to go to the window, for Fritz
+Triddelsitz, who led the procession again, came gallopping across the
+court, on old Bill, and about ten rods behind him raced Axel, and
+shouted, "Triddelsitz!"
+
+"Directly!" cried Fritz, but raced out of the other gate, and Axel
+after him.
+
+"What the devil is this?" inquired Braesig, and had scarcely time to
+express his astonishment, when Fritz and Bill and Axel came in again,
+at the water-gate, and raced again across the yard: "Triddelsitz!"
+"Directly!"
+
+"Herr, are you crazy?" cried Braesig, as Fritz rode past the farm-house,
+but Fritz gave no reply, and sat, all bent up, on his horse, laughing,
+amid the distress and sorrow around him, and would have greeted the
+gracious lady, but merely took off his cap, for the young Frau was
+asking anxiously, "Axel, Axel, what is this?" but got no answer, for
+Axel was very busy. And, all at once, Bill took the hurdle, before the
+sheepfold, and Fritz shot off headforemost, into a heap of straw, and
+Axel turned his horse, and called again, "Triddelsitz!" "Directly, Herr
+von Rambow," said Fritz, out of the straw-heap.
+
+"What devil rides you?" cried Axel.
+
+"He didn't ride me," said Fritz, as he stood--thank God!--on his own
+feet again, "I rode him; I believe Bill took a leap with me."
+
+"He was trained for that," said Krischan Daesel, who came running out of
+the stable; "you see, gracious Herr, the Herr Count used to ride Bill
+to steeple-chases, and when he takes the notion he runs until he comes
+to some sort of hedge or gate, and then he springs over, and whenever
+he has done that trick, he stands like a lamb. You see, there he
+stands."
+
+"Axel," said the young Frau, coming up, "what does all this mean?"
+
+"Nothing, my child, I had given an order to the steward, and, when he
+had ridden off, something better occurred to me, and I wished to recall
+my order, and so followed him; his horse took a leap with him, and I
+rode back again."
+
+"Thank God," said she, "that it is all right. But will you not come in
+and take luncheon?"
+
+"Yes," said he, "I have rather fatigued myself to-day. Triddelsitz,
+everything goes on in the usual order."
+
+"To command!" said Fritz, and Axel went into the house with his wife.
+
+"Axel," she asked, as they sat at the table, "what does it mean? With
+us, at home, in the harvest, only one loaded wagon came into the yard
+at a time, and here you had six at the same time."
+
+"Dear Frida, I know the old method well enough, but in that way,
+disorder is unavoidable; we have much better order, by having all the
+wagons driven in a row."
+
+"Did Habermann arrange it so?"
+
+"Habermann? No, he had nothing to do with it; I felt the necessity of
+emancipating myself finally from the supervision of my inspector, and I
+have signified to him that I would get in this harvest without his
+help."
+
+"Axel, what have you done! The man cannot suffer that."
+
+"He _must_, though! He must become aware that I am the master of the
+estate."
+
+"He has always recognized you as such. Dear Axel, this will be a source
+of bitter sorrow to us," and she leaned back in her chair in deep
+thought, looking straight before her. Axel was not in a good humor:
+then the door opened, and Daniel Sadenwater brought a letter: "With the
+Herr Inspector's compliments."
+
+"There it is!" said Frida.
+
+Axel read the letter: "The Herr Inspector gives notice to leave at
+Christmas. May go at once. I need no Inspector. Can get a hundred for
+one. But it provokes me that he should give me notice, and that I did
+not get the start of him!" and with that he sprang up, and ran up and
+down the room. Frida sat still, and said not a word. Axel took that for
+a reproof, for he knew very well that he was in a dangerous path; but
+he would not allow himself to confess it, he must lay the blame of his
+fault upon other shoulders, and so he said, in his injustice:
+
+"But that comes from your prejudice in favor of the old, pretentious
+hypocrite!"
+
+Frida said not a word, but she rose quietly, and left the room.
+
+She sat that evening, by the cradle of her little daughter, and rocked
+her darling to sleep. Ah, if thoughts could only be rocked to sleep!
+But a child comes from our Lord, and has yet a bit of heaven's own
+peace in itself, which it has brought from above; human thoughts come
+from the earth, and care and sorrow dog their uncertain, weary feet,
+and an over-wearied man can not sleep. Yes, Axel was right, he could
+get another inspector, a hundred for one. But Frida was also right: a
+true heart was to leave her.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+In Jochen Nuessler's house, there was great joy and pleasure: Gottlieb
+was elected, was really chosen to be a pastor, and whom had he
+especially to thank for it? Who else, but our good, old, simple
+Pomuchelskopp; he gave the decisive vote. "Haeuning," said our old
+friend, in the church, while the three young candidates, in anguish and
+fear, were taking their turns in the pulpit, contending for the parish;
+"Haeuning," said he, as Gottlieb concluded, and wiped the sweat from his
+pale face,--"Kluecking, we will choose this one, he is the stupidest."
+
+"If you are only sure of it," said his dear wife, "how can you tell one
+blockhead from another?"
+
+"Kluecking," said Pomuchelskopp, taking no notice of his wife's
+pleasantry, perhaps because he was so accustomed to it, perhaps because
+Gottlieb's sermon had touched him, for Gottlieb had preached from the
+text, "Forgive your enemies,"--"Haeuning, the first, the one with the
+red face, is a son of old Paechter Hamann, and like goes to like, you
+should see, he would farm it himself; and the second, see! he is a sly
+one, Gustaving saw him looking at the field, a little while ago, and he
+asked the Pastor's coachman who took care of the Pastor's barn, the
+thing was tumbling to pieces. Neither of them would do; the rector's
+son is our man."
+
+"He who reckons wrong, reckons twice," said Haeuning.
+
+"I am not reckoning wrong," said Pomuchelskopp, "the Herr von Rambow
+and Nuessler have declined the business, in writing; the young man
+cannot farm it himself, he is too stupid, and I need not allow an
+under-paechter; he must rent the field to me, and I have it in my own
+hands, I can say, 'So much, and not a shilling more!'"
+
+And so Gottlieb was elected, for nearly all the votes were given for
+him, only a couple of day-laborers from Rexow voted for their master,
+Jochen Nuessler. It was merely a mistake, for they believed it was all
+the same, and it was done in friendship.
+
+And in Jochen Nuessler's house, there was great joy and pleasure, and
+the two little twin-apples were floating in bright sunshine, down a
+clear brook, and nestled close to each other, and Mining floated
+joyously with her sister, although her own prospects were not so
+brilliant. But she had a little personal ground of rejoicing; her
+father, young Jochen, had come in from the field one day, and said this
+everlasting working was too hard for him, he wished Rudolph were there;
+and Mother had said he ought to be ashamed of himself, he was still a
+young fellow; and father had said, "Well, he would manage a little
+longer;" but it was the beginning of the final blessedness, and the
+thing was a little hook for her hopes to hang upon.
+
+With Lining, however, all was settled and arranged, and the outfit was
+purchased, and Frau Nuessler's living-room looked like a spinning-room
+and cotton factory; here was spinning, and there was knitting, there
+was sewing and embroidering, and twisting and reeling, and skeins were
+wound on and wound off, and every one had his share, even young Jochen,
+and young Bauschan. Young Jochen was employed as yarn-winder, and sat
+up stiffly, with his pipe in his mouth, and held out his arms with a
+skein of yarn, and his wife stood before him and wound it off, and when
+he believed he was to have a little relief, there came Lining, and then
+Mining, and he was a conquered man; but young Bauschan had his share,
+also, they were always treading on his toes, and no one had so much
+reason to curse this wedding as young Bauschan, till, at last, he
+retired from the business altogether, esteeming the rubbish-heap in the
+farm-yard a more comfortable place than a room where an outfit was
+being prepared.
+
+"So," said Frau Nuessler one evening, folding her hands in her lap,
+"Braesig, for all I care, they may be married to-morrow, I am ready with
+everything."
+
+"Well," said Braesig, "then make your preparations, for the Pietist and
+Lining are sure to be ready too."
+
+"Ah, Braesig, how you talk! The principal thing is still wanting, the
+government has not given its assent to the parish--What do you call the
+thing?"
+
+"Ah yes, I know. You mean the vocation, as it is generally called, but
+I think vocations is the right word, because the blessed Pastor
+Behrens, in my younger days, always said vocations."
+
+At this moment, Krischan the coachman came in at the door: "Good
+evening, Madam, and here are the papers."
+
+"Are there no letters?" asked Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Yes," said Krischan, "there was a letter."
+
+"Why didn't you bring it then?"
+
+"Well," said Krischan, tossing his head, as if such stupidity could not
+be laid to his charge, "there was some trespass-money charged for it,
+and I hadn't so much by me."
+
+"What did it cost?"
+
+"Now just think of it, eight thalers! And they said there was a
+post-express or a post-payment, or something of that sort,--perhaps it
+was brought with post-horses,--and it was for a young Herr, who is our
+bridegroom."
+
+"Good gracious, Krischan, such an expensive letter as that! From whom
+could it be?"
+
+"I know something," said Krischan, "but I daren't say it," and he
+looked at Braesig.
+
+"Before the Herr Inspector, you may say anything," said Frau Nuessler.
+
+"For all I care!" said Krischan. "It was from some woman-creature, but
+I have forgotten the name."
+
+"From a woman!" exclaimed Frau Nuessler, "to my son-in-law! and eight
+thalers to pay!"
+
+"Everything comes to light!" said Braesig, "even the Pietists get found
+out!"
+
+"Yes; it all comes out!" said Krischan, going out of the room.
+
+"Krischan," Frau Nuessler sprang up, "you must go to Rahnstadt to-morrow
+with the rye; ask particularly about the name, and I will give you
+eight thalers, I must have the letter."
+
+"Good, Madam," said Krischan, "I will get it."
+
+"Braesig," cried Frau Nuessler, throwing herself into her arm-chair,
+so that the poor old thing groaned with her weight, "what has my
+son-in-law to do with a woman?"
+
+"I don't know," said Braesig. "I am wholly unacquainted with his
+affairs, since I don't trouble myself about secrets. Hear to the end,
+says Kotelmann, to-morrow we shall know."
+
+"But this Gottlieb, this quiet man!" exclaimed Frau Nuessler.
+
+"The Pietists are not wholly to be trusted," said Braesig. "Never trust
+a Jesuit!"
+
+"Braesig!" cried Frau Nuessler, and the old chair shrieked aloud, as she
+sprang up, "if there is something concealed here, I shall take back my
+child. If Rudolph had done it, I could have forgiven him, for he is a
+rough colt, and there is no secrecy about him; but Gottlieb? No, never
+in my life! One who can set himself up for a saint, and then do such a
+trick--don't come near me! I want nothing to do with such people!"
+
+And when Gottlieb came to the table that evening, his future
+mother-in-law looked at him askance, as if she were a shop clerk, and
+he were trying to cheat her with a bad groschen. And when he asked
+Lining, after supper, if she would take a glass of fresh water up to
+his room, she told him Lining had something else to do, and when
+Gottlieb turned to Marik, the waiting-maid, she told him he might go to
+the pump himself, he could do it as well as Marik. And so she speedily
+drew a magic circle around him, over which no woman might pass.
+
+As they sat at table next morning, Krischan came to the door, and
+beckoned to Frau Nuessler; "Madam, Oh, just a word." And Frau Nuessler
+motioned to Braesig, and the two old lovers went out with Krischan into
+the hall.
+
+"Here it is," said Krischan, pulling out a great letter, from his
+waistcoat pocket, "and I know the name of the woman, too."
+
+"Well?" asked Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Yes," whispered Krischan privately into Frau Nuessler's ear. "Mine is
+her own name, and Sterium is her father's name."
+
+"What? Is her name Mine Sterium?"
+
+"Hoho!" cried Braesig, snatching the letter from Frau Nuessler's hand,
+"that comes from ignorance of outlandish names, that is the vocation of
+the Ministerium," and he opened the door, and shouted into room:
+"Hurrah! You old Pietist, you! Here it is, and next week is the
+wedding!"
+
+And Frau Nuessler fell upon old Gottlieb's neck, and kissed him, and
+cried, "Gottlieb, my dear Gottlieb, I have done you a great wrong:
+never mind, Gottlieb, Lining shall take up water for you, every
+evening, and the wedding shall be whenever you please."
+
+"But what is it?" asked Gottlieb.
+
+"No, Gottlieb, I cannot tell you yet; it is too shameful, but when you
+have been married three years, I will tell you all about it."
+
+The wedding was celebrated, and a great deal might be told about it,
+how Mining and her sister Lining wept bitterly after the ceremony, how
+Gottlieb looked really handsome, since Lining had cut off the long
+locks, like rusty wheel-nails, out of his neck. But I will tell nothing
+about this wedding, but what I saw myself, and that was, the next
+morning, at half-past three, the two old friends young Jochen and young
+Bauschan, lying on the sofa, arm in arm, asleep.
+
+Habermann was at the wedding, very silent, his Louise was there also,
+her inmost heart full of love for her little Lining, but she was also
+silent, quietly happy; Frau Pastorin had declined her invitation, but
+when the guests were crowding about the bride and bridegroom, and
+Jochen, afterwards, was trying to say a word also, the door opened, and
+the Frau Pastorin came in, in her widow's mourning, into the bright
+marriage joy, and she threw her arms around Lining's neck saying:
+
+"I bless you, I bless you from my heart, and may you be as happy there
+as I have been. You are now the nearest to him." and she kissed and
+caressed her, and then turned quickly away, and went, without greeting
+any one, to the door; there she said, "Habermann!"
+
+But she need not have spoken, for he stood by her already, and when she
+was in the carriage, he sat by her side, and they drove back to
+Gurlitz.
+
+At Gurlitz, they got out of the carriage, the pastor's coachman, Juern,
+must wait,--and went to the churchyard, and they held each other by the
+hand, and looked at the green grave, on which bright flowers were
+growing, and as they turned away, she said with a deep, deep sigh, as
+when one has drained a full cup, "Habermann, I am ready," and he placed
+her in the carriage, and drove with her to Rahnstadt.
+
+"Louise is discreet," she said, "she took charge of everything for me,
+this morning."
+
+They went together through the new house, and the little Frau Pastorin
+thanked him, and kissed him, for his friendship, that he had arranged
+everything just as it was in Gurlitz, and she looked out of the window,
+and said, "Everything, everything, but no grave!"
+
+They stood for a long time at the window, then Habermann pressed her
+hand, and said, "Frau Pastorin, I have a favor to ask, I have given
+notice to Herr von Rambow, and shall leave next Christmas; can you
+spare me the little gable room, and will you take me at your table?"
+
+At a less agitated moment, she would have had much to ask, and much to
+say; but now she said merely.
+
+"Where Louise and I live, you are always the nearest."
+
+Yes, so it is in the world, what is one's joy is another's sorrow, and
+weddings and graves lie close together, and yet the distance between
+them is wider than between summer heat and winter cold; but there is a
+wonderful kind of people in the world,--if one seeks one can find
+them,--who can throw a kind of wonderful, heaven-climbing bridges, from
+one heart to another, over the gulfs which the world has torn open, and
+such a bridge was built between the little, round Pastors' wives,
+Lining of Rexow, and Frau Pastorin of Rahnstadt; and when the key stone
+was dropped into place, exactly over the parsonage at Gurlitz, they
+fell into each other's arms, and held so fast together that to their
+life's end they were never parted.
+
+And our old Gottlieb! He did his share, he brought stones and
+mortar,--he had but a brief experience in the pastoral office; but I
+must say that, when he preached his entrance sermon, he thought less of
+himself than of his faithful predecessor, the old Pastor Behrens.
+
+"He sticks to common sense," said Braesig, as he came out of the church,
+and he patted Lining's cheek, and gave Mining a kiss. "The pietists
+often become very reasonable people; but they think too much of the
+devil. I have a very good pietist acquaintance, that is the Pastor
+Mehlsack, a really clever man, but he is so taken up with the devil
+that he says scarcely anything about the Lord; and there is the pastor
+in the beautiful Krakow region, who has paddagraphically discovered
+that there are three hundred, three and thirty thousand different
+devils running about the world, not counting the regular devil and his
+grandmother. And you see, Lining, what an inconvenience it is for us:
+you sit down in Rahnstadt with your good friends around a punch bowl,
+and you drink to this one, and to that one, and then to another, and at
+your side sits a gentleman in a brown dress-coat,--for the devil always
+wears a brown dress-coat, he must, that is his uniform,--and he talks,
+the whole evening, very friendly things to you, and when you wake up
+next morning there he stands before you, and says, 'Good morning! you
+signed yourself to me last evening,' and then he shows you his cloven
+foot, and if he is polite he takes out his tail, and slaps you over the
+ears with it, and there you are, his rightful property. So it is with
+the honest Pietists, the others are a great deal worse."
+
+And so Gottlieb and Lining were settled in the pastor's house, and
+Mining was naturally much with them, and it often happened that good
+old Gottlieb embraced Mining, in the twilight, and gave her a kiss,
+instead of Lining; but it was all in friendship, he had no other
+design.
+
+But Pomuchelskopp had a design, when he came with his wife and Malchen
+and Salchen to make their first call on the young Herr Pastor. And this
+design was the pastor's acre, and the blue dress-coat with the gilt
+buttons said to the black coat he would take the field, and offered him
+just half the sum which the Herr von Rambow had given, and our old
+Haeuning stood up and said, that was all it was worth, and it could not
+be otherwise disposed of, for Jochen Nuessler had declined it, and old
+Gottlieb stood there bowing to the blue dress-coat, and was going to
+say "yes," when Lining sprang up like a ball, out of the sofa-corner,
+and said, "Hold! In this business, I have a word to say. We must
+consult other people," and she called, from the door, "uncle Braesig,
+will you come in, a moment?"
+
+And he came, placing himself audaciously in a linen frock, before the
+blue dress-coat, and asked, "How so?"
+
+And Lining sprang towards him saying, "Uncle Braesig, the field shall
+not be rented. It will be my chief pleasure."
+
+"So it shall not, my dear Frau Pastorin Lining," and he bent down, and
+gave her a kiss, "I will farm it for you my personal self."
+
+"I am not obliged to allow an under-paechter," cried Pomuchelskopp.
+
+"Nor shall you, nor shall you, Herr Zamel! I will merely manage it as
+inspector for the Herr Pastor himself."
+
+"Herr Nuessler gave it to me in writing."
+
+"That you are a blockhead!" said his Haeuning, and drew him angrily out
+of the room.
+
+"My dear Herr Pastor," said uncle Braesig, going with Gottlieb into the
+garden, "you have not to thank me for this arrangement, but only your
+dear wife, Lining. It is really worthy of notice, how positive these
+innocent little creatures become, after they are married. Well, never
+mind, perhaps they know best. You, from your Christian stand-point,
+about the blows on the right and left cheeks, you will read me a
+lecture about hatred, but hatred must be,--where there is no hate,
+there is no love, and the story of the blows is all nonsense to me. I
+have a hatred, I hate Zamel Pomuchelskopp! Why? How? What? He says
+'Sie' to you, and wouldn't you hate him?"
+
+"My dear Herr Inspector, this wicked axiom----" and he would, in his
+new office of pastor, have preached the old man a sharp sermon, as he
+had before about fishing if, Lining had not fortunately come along, and
+throwing her arms around his neck cried, "uncle Braesig, uncle Braesig,
+how shall we repay you for giving up your leisure for us?"
+
+"Don't trouble yourself about that, Lining, where there is hate there
+is also love; but did you notice how I called him merely Herr Zamel,
+although he was christened by the more distinguished name, 'Zamwel?'"
+
+"You mean Samuel," interrupted Gottlieb.
+
+"No, Herr Pastor, 'Samuel' is a Jew's name, and although he is a real
+Jew,--that is, a white one,--he was baptized by the Christian name of
+Zamwel, and his wife by the name of Karnallje."
+
+"Uncle Braesig," cried Lining, laughing heartily, "how you mix things
+together! Her name is Cornelia."
+
+"It is possible, Lining, that she lets herself be called so now,
+because she is ashamed of it, but I have seen it with my very eyes. The
+old pastor at Bobzin had died; and the sexton had to keep the church
+books, and there it stood; 'Herr Zamwel Pomuchelskopp to Fraeulein
+Karnallje Klaetterpott,' for she is a born Klaetterpott, and she is a
+Karnallje too. But, Lining, let her go; they shall not trouble us, and
+we two will have a pleasant time together, and you shall give me the
+little corner room, that overlooks the yard, and the devil must be in
+it, if in a year and a day, our young pastor isn't in a condition to
+farm his land himself. And now, adieu," and he went off, the old
+heathen, who could not give up his hatred.
+
+Bat he who will hate, must expect to be hated in turn; and nobody was
+more hated that day than uncle Braesig. When the Pomuchelskopps had
+reached home, Haeuning stroked the quiet, simple father of a family, and
+Mecklenburg law-giver, the wrong way, and stung his poor knightly flesh
+with thorns and nettles, and the constant conclusion of her satirical
+remarks was: "Yes, Kopp, you are as prudent as the Danish horses, that
+come home three days before it rains!"
+
+At last, our old friend could bear it no longer, he sprang up out of
+his sofa-corner, and cried:
+
+"Malchen, I beg of you, have I not always cared for you as a father?"
+
+But Malchen was as deep in the Rostock Times, as if her own betrothal
+were recorded there.
+
+"Salchen, is it my fault that the world is so bad?"
+
+But Salchen embroidered earnestly on the flesh of a little cupid, and
+sighed, as if it were a pity that her dear father were not the little
+cupid; and to fill his cup, Gustaving came in, and rattled the keys on
+the board, as if he was attempting to set this lovely family scene to
+appropriate music.
+
+But too much is too much! Human nature can bear only a limited amount;
+our old friend must show his refractory family that he was master in
+his own house, so he ran out of the room, and left them alone; he ran
+into the garden, as far as the sundial, but what good did it do? He had
+exercised his rightful power on his own flesh and blood, but he himself
+was no happier, for before his eyes lay the pastor's acre, the
+beautiful pastor's acre. And beyond lay Pumpelhagen, fair, fair
+Pumpelhagen, which rightfully belonged to him, for he had given for the
+Pastor's acre two thousand thalers, payment in advance, and how much
+more to Slusuhr and David, and that beggar, the Herr von Rambow! He
+could not bear the sight, he turned away, and looked up into the blue
+harvest heaven, and asked, was there no righteousness left in the
+world?
+
+Then came Phillipping, and tugged at his blue dress-coat,--for out
+of spite to his Haeuning, he had kept it on, against all law and
+order,--and said the Herr von Rambow was there, and wished to speak to
+him.
+
+The Herr von Rambow? Come, wait! now he had one whom he could torment
+in turn, upon whom he could avenge the sufferings his family had caused
+him; the Herr von Rambow? wait! he was going in, but there he came
+himself, towards him.
+
+"Good morning, my respected Herr neighbor, how are you? I wanted to
+learn how it has gone about the pastor's acre."
+
+So? Pastor's acre? No, wait, don't let him see it! Pomuchelskopp looked
+down at the little bit of a nose which nature had given him, and said
+not a word.
+
+"Now, how has it been?" asked Axel. But Pomuchelskopp said neither good
+nor bad, and looked along his nose, as if it extended for miles.
+
+"My dear Herr Neighbor, what is the matter? It is all right, I hope?"
+
+"I hope so," said Muchel, stooping to pull a weed out of the potatoes;
+"at least your note for the two thousand thalers is all right."
+
+"What?" asked Axel, astonished, "what has that to do with it?"
+
+Wait, Axel! that is all coming right; keep still! he only wants to
+tease you a little. What must be, must.
+
+"You, Herr von Rambow," said Muchel, still plucking weeds, and turning
+a red face up to the young Herr, "you have the two thousand thalers,
+and I the Pastor's acre,--that is to say, I haven't it."
+
+"But, Herr Neighbor, you were so sure"----
+
+"Not nearly so sure as you, you have the two thousand thalers--haven't
+you? You got them? and I"--and he shook his left leg, and thrust the
+words out from his chest, "and I--I have--the devil!"
+
+"But----"
+
+"Ah, let your 'Buts' alone, I have heard 'Buts' enough this morning;
+our business is about these notes," and he felt in his pocket, "So! I
+have another coat on, and have not the pocket by me where they are. One
+was due three weeks ago."
+
+"But, my dear Herr Neighbor, how came you to think of it just to-day?
+It is not my fault, that you have not been able to rent the acre."
+
+It does you no good, Axel, keep still! He'll not do anything, only
+torment you a little. Pomuchelskopp had heard too much already to-day,
+about that cursed field, to trouble himself about it any longer, so he
+passed by Axel's remark, and took another turn at the screw.
+
+"I am an amiable man, I am a friendly man; the people say, also, that I
+am a rich man, but I am not rich enough to throw my money into the
+street, I cannot afford that yet. But, Herr von Rambow, I must see
+something, I must see something. I must see that the soul stays in a
+gentleman, and when one has signed a note, then he must also see----"
+
+"My best Herr Neighbor," interrupted Axel, in great distress, "I had
+clean forgotten it. I beg you--I had not thought of it at all."
+
+"So?" asked Muchel, "not thought of it? But a man _should_ think,
+and"--he was going on, but his eye fell upon Pumpelhagen; no I don't
+let him notice! why should he shake the tree, the plums were not yet
+ripe. "And," he continued, "I owe all this to my friendship for that
+miserable fellow, that Braesig. So he has repaid the kindnesses I did
+him in his youth. I lent him money when he wanted to buy a watch, he
+has worn trousers of mine when his were torn, and now? Ah! I know well
+how it all hangs together,--that old hypocrite, Habermann, is behind."
+
+Give the devil a finger, and he soon takes the whole hand, and then he
+leads you whither he will, and if it suits his humour, he holds you before
+him, and you must pray in distress and sorrow, in anguish and pain.
+
+So it was with Axel; he must agree, in a friendly way, with the Herr
+Proprietor, he must hew at the same timber, against his honor and
+conscience, he must slander Braesig and Habermann. Why? Because the
+devil, with his note in his hand, pressed him down on his knees. And he
+did it, too; the gay, careless lieutenant of cuirassiers lay on his
+knees before the devil, and talked all sorts of malice and detraction
+concerning Braesig and Habermann, to appease his old Moloch, in the blue
+dress-coat; he was a traitor to his best friends, he was a traitor to
+his God. But when he came to himself sufficiently to be aware of what
+he had done, he was full of self-contempt, and rode hastily away from
+the house, where he had left a great part of his honor.
+
+He rode home, and as he came to the boundary of his fields, he
+saw Habermann, in the oppressive heat of the sun, following the
+sowing-machine, and preparing everything for the seed-time, and for
+whom? For _himself_, he must answer, and the coals of fire burned his
+head. And when he had ridden a little farther, a linen frock appeared
+before him, and Uncle Braesig came toiling up, shouting across the
+field, "Good day, Karl! I am on the right apropos, that is to say on a
+preliminary cow business and it is all right; we are going to farm it
+ourselves, and Zamel Pomuchelskopp may go hang;" and then he heard
+Axel's horse, and turned round, and the worm, that was gnawing in
+Axel's breast, made him a little more friendly to the old fellow, and
+he said:
+
+"Good day, Herr Inspector! What? always on your legs?"
+
+"Why not, Herr Lieutenant? They still hold out, in spite of the
+Podagra, and I have undertaken to procure an inventory for the young
+pastor people, and am on my way to Gulzow, to Bauer Puegal; he has a
+couple of milch cows, that I want to acquire for the Herr Pastor."
+
+"You understand all the details of farming, Herr Inspector?" asked
+Axel, in order to be friendly.
+
+"Thank God," said Braesig, "I am so well acquainted with all the
+details, that I don't need to learn them at all. One of our kind needs
+only to cast an eye at anything, and he knows just how it is. Do you
+see, I was yesterday," and he pointed over to Axel's paddocks, "down by
+your Podexes, and I saw that the mares and the colts were all down in
+the lowest one, and why? They steal the oats out of the crib, and if
+you want them to come to anything, you must put a padlock on."
+
+Axel looked sharply at him: was this a piece of pure malice on the old
+fellow's part? Of course! He gave his horse the spur: "Adieu!"
+
+"If the blockhead won't take it, he need not!" said Braesig, looking
+after him. "I meant it well enough. It looks to me as if the young
+nobleman--well, take care! You will yet come, on your hands and feet,
+to your senses. Karl," he cried, across the field, "he has pushed me
+off again!" and he went away, on his cow business.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Winter had come again, and the world must open to the rough guest.
+
+When he comes properly, let him come in, and welcome; but when he comes
+at Christmas, with a wet shaggy coat, and fills one's room with mud,
+and his boots smell of train-oil, he may stay away for all me.
+
+But this time he came differently. He came, as he has often come to my
+door, with ringing bells, and a snapping whip, and two gray horses
+before the sleigh, stamping their feet, and he sprang from the sleigh
+exactly like Wilhelm of Siden Vollentin, and rubbed his blue, frosty
+cheeks, and thrashed his arms about his body, once--twice--thrice.
+"Good morning, Herr Reuter, I have come for you. Compliments of the
+Herr and of the Frau, and you need only step into the sleigh, for there
+are heaps of foot-sacks and wraps there, and to-morrow is Christmas
+eve, and little Hans charged me to drive fast."
+
+Yes, when he comes like that, we both sing, my wife and I, "Come in,
+come in, thou welcome guest!" and we treat the old fellow to a glass of
+wine, and then get into the sleigh, and off we go,--ten miles an
+hour,--and when old Winter sets us down at the door of Vollentin, Fritz
+Peiters says, "Why the devil have you been so long on the road?" and
+the Frau kisses my wife, and takes off her wrappings, and says to me,
+"Uncle Reuter, I have got you short kale and long sausage," and the two
+girls, Lising and Anning, whom I have so often carried in my arms when
+they were tiny little things, come and give their old uncle a kiss, and
+then hang about my dear wife, and Fritz and Max come, who are now at
+the great Anclam gymnasium and greet us with a hearty shake of the
+hand, and little Hans, who has been waiting his turn, comes, and jumps
+and frolics around me, and climbs on my left knee, and there I must
+hold him, the whole evening. And then little Ernest, the nestling, is
+presented, and we stand about this little wonder of the world, and clap
+our hands at his wisdom and understanding, and then comes
+_grandmother_. And then begin the winter and Christmas pleasures, the
+tree blazes, and the yule raps are rapped, and then comes a yule rap
+from my dear wife, with a poem, the only one she ever wrote in her
+life: "Here! sit, and here I sing, and ask for nothing more"--and the
+melody goes no further, but it is enough of the kind.
+
+And then comes the first Christmas day, and all is so solemn and still,
+and our Lord strews the white snow flakes, like down, on the earth,
+that no noise may be heard. And the second Christmas day comes, and
+then come the Herr Pastor Pieper, and the Frau Pastorin, and the Herr
+Superintendent and his wife, and then comes Anna, who is my darling,
+for she used to be my scholar; and then comes the Frau Doctor Adam, and
+the Frau Oberamtmann Schoenermark, and Lucia Dolle, she sits on the left
+hand of the Adam and on the right of the Schoenermark, that is between
+them,--and then! yes, then comes a round ball driving up, and the Herr
+Doctor Dolle sits beside the ball, and rolls it out of the sleigh, and
+gives it to a couple of maids who stand ready,--for they have
+experience in the matter--and they unwind from the ball furs and cloaks
+and comforters and foot-sacks, until the Herr Justizrath Schroeder comes
+to light. But he is not finished yet, by a great deal. He must sit down
+in a chair, and Fika takes one foot, and Marik the other, and they pull
+off his great fur boots, while I hold him by his shoulders, lest they
+should drag him off the chair.
+
+Then comes another sleigh!--and out springs Rudolph Kurz, jumping clear
+over the coachman's whip, and behind him comes Hilgendorf. Do you know
+Hilgendorf? Hilgendorf, our Rudolph's principal? No? Let me tell you,
+then, in a word, Hilgendorf is a natural curiosity, he has ivory
+bones,--"pure ivory," and so strongly is this proprietor put together
+by nature, that one who ventures to slap him on the shoulder or the
+knee gets black and blue spots, merely on account of the ivory.
+
+Then we drink coffee, and the Herr Justizrath tells stories, wonderful
+stories, and he tells them with _much fire_, that is to say, he is
+always lighting fresh matches, because he is constantly letting his
+pipe go out, and before long he has smoked up the whole cupful of
+lighters, and Max is stationed beside him, for the express purpose of
+keeping him supplied. And then we play whist, with Von der Heyt and
+Manteufel, and all the old tricks and dodges, for otherwise the Herr
+Justizrath will not play. Then comes supper, and over the rabbit and
+roast goose, the Herr Justizrath makes the finest poetry, with the
+drollest rhymes, and there is great applause, and when we rise from
+table, we press each other's hands, and separate in peace and joy, each
+happy face saying, "Well, next year, again!"
+
+But in Pumpelhagen, this year, there was no such merry Christmas;
+winter had come, fine and clear; but that which makes it welcome, the
+close meeting of heart with heart, had stopped outside, instead of
+coming in, bringing joy by the coat-collar. Each sat with his own
+thoughts, no one exchanged his love for another's, Fritz Triddelsitz
+and Marie Moeller excepted, who sat together, the afternoon of the
+second holiday, and eat gingernuts, until Fritz said, "No, I cannot eat
+more, Marik, for to-morrow I shall have to ride to Demmin, to deliver
+three tons of wheat; and if I should eat any more gingernuts, it might
+make me sick, and I should not like that; and then I must pack up our
+books for the circulating library, to exchange them in Demmin, so that
+we may have something to read, in the evenings," and then he got up,
+and went to look after his mare, and Marie Moeller had a misgiving that
+the heart could not wholly belong to her, whose affections she shared
+with a horse.
+
+In another room, Habermann sat, alone with his thoughts, and they were
+serious enough, when he reflected that his working on this earth had
+come to an end, and that he might henceforth fold his hands in his lap;
+and they were sad enough, when he reflected what an end it was, and how
+the seed he had sowed for a blessing seemed to have sprung up as a
+curse. In still another room sat Axel and Frida, together indeed, yet
+each was lonely, for each had his own thoughts, and was shy of exposing
+them to the other. They sat in silence, Frida quietly thoughtful, Axel
+out of humor; then sleigh bells were heard in the court, and
+Pomuchelskopp drove up to the door. Frida took up her needle-work, and
+left the room; Axel must receive the Herr Neighbor alone.
+
+A regular agricultural talk, about horse-raising and the price of
+wheat, was soon in progress between the two gentlemen, and the holiday
+afternoon would have passed innocently and peacefully enough, if Daniel
+Sadenwater had not brought in the mail-bag. Axel opened it, and finding
+in it a letter to Habermann, was about handing it to Daniel to deliver,
+when he saw his own arms on the seal and, as he looked nearer,
+recognized his cousin's handwriting.
+
+"Is that confounded affair still going on, behind my back?" he
+exclaimed almost throwing the letter in Daniel's face: "To the
+inspector!"
+
+Daniel went off, astonished, and Pomuchelskopp inquired, very
+compassionately, what had happened to vex the young Herr.
+
+"Isn't it enough to vex one, when my blockhead of a cousin obstinately
+persists in his silly romance, with this old hypocrite and his
+daughter?"
+
+"Oh!" said Pomuchelskopp, "and I thought that was at an end, long ago.
+I was told that your Herr Cousin, upon hearing the report, which is in
+everybody's mouth, had broken off the business suddenly, and would have
+nothing more to do with them."
+
+"What report?" asked Axel.
+
+"Why about your inspector and the day-laborer, Regel was his name, and
+the two thousand thalers."
+
+"Tell me, what do the people say?"
+
+"Now, you know already. I thought you had given the old man notice
+because of it."
+
+"I know nothing of it, tell me!"
+
+"Why it is universally known. People say, Habermann and the day-laborer
+made a compromise; the inspector let the fellow get off, and had half,
+or more, of the stolen money, and he gave him a recommendation, upon
+which he got taken on as a sailor, in Wisman."
+
+Axel ran about the room. "It is not possible! I cannot have been so
+shamefully betrayed!"
+
+"Ah! and the people say, also, that the two had planned it all out,
+beforehand; but that I do not believe."
+
+"And why not? What was the old sinner contriving with the woman, behind
+my back? The fellow, who had always been sober before, must be
+intoxicated, at this particular time!"
+
+"Yes, but the burgomeister of Rahnstadt himself noticed that."
+
+"Oh, the burgomeister! What could one do, with such a trial-justice?
+Now he thinks it was a poor weaver's wife who stole the money from the
+laborer on the highway. And why? Merely because she tried to get change
+for a Danish double louis-d'or, which she had found; for she sticks to
+that story, and the wise Herr Burgomeister has been obliged to let her
+go.
+
+"Yes, and the one who saw the louis-d'or, Kurz, the shop keeper, is a
+connection of Habermann's."
+
+"Ah!" cried Axel, "I would give a thousand thalers more, if I could get
+to the bottom of this meanness."
+
+"It would be a hard task," said Pomuchelskopp, "but, in the first
+place, I would--when does he go?"
+
+"Habermann? To-morrow."
+
+"Well, I would examine his books with the greatest care; there is no
+knowing but they may be wrong, also. Look particularly at the money
+account; one often finds out something in that way. He seems to be in
+pretty good circumstances; he is going to live in Rahnstadt, on his
+interest. Well, he has been in a good place, for many years; but I know
+for a certainty, that he had old debts to pay which were not
+insignificant. Lately, as I have learned from Slusuhr, the notary, he
+has done a considerable money business at high rates of interest, with
+his few groschen, perhaps also with money belonging to the estate."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Axel, "and once when I asked him"--he stopped abruptly,
+not wishing to betray himself, but a feeling of hatred arose in him, as
+he thought that Habermann might have helped him then, and would not,
+because he did not offer him high enough interest.
+
+Nothing of importance was said, after this, for each had enough to
+occupy him in his own thoughts; and when Pomuchelskopp drove home, well
+satisfied with his management, he left the young Herr von Rambow in
+such a bitter, venomous state of mind, that he was angry with himself
+and everybody else, and could not sleep the whole night, for hateful
+thoughts.
+
+In a third room, at Pumpelhagen, was another lonely man; Habermann sat
+before his desk, with his books lying open, and was going over the last
+month's accounts once more. Ever since he had managed for his young
+Herr, he had brought in his accounts, every quarter, for examination;
+but at one time the young Herr was too hurried to attend to them, and
+at another he said; "Yes it is all right;" but scarcely looked at them,
+and again he said it was quite unnecessary for him to examine them.
+Habermann, however, had not taken advantage of this neglect; he kept
+his books very carefully, as he had always been in the habit of doing,
+and insisted that Fritz Triddelsitz should put down his grain account
+regularly, every week, and on this point, if anything was wrong, he
+scolded Fritz much more sharply, than about other things.
+
+As the old man sat at his work, Fritz came in, and asked about one
+thing and another connected with his journey to Demmin, and when
+Habermann had given him his instructions, and he was going out, the old
+man called after him, "Triddelsitz, have you made out your grain
+account?"
+
+"Yes," said Fritz, "that is, I have begun it."
+
+"Well, I wish you to finish it, this evening, and take care that it
+balances better than the last."
+
+"All right," said Fritz, and went out. Daniel Sadenwater came in, and
+brought the inspector a letter; the old man got up, and seated himself
+by the window, and when he recognized Franz's hand, his heart beat
+quicker, and as he read and read, his eyes grew bright, a great joy
+beamed upon his heart and thawed all the frost and ice which had lately
+gathered there, just as the sun melts the snow from the roofs, and it
+falls in drops to the ground. He read and read, and his eyes grew
+moist, and tears dropped softly on the paper.
+
+Franz wrote him how he had heard that Habermann was to leave
+Pumpelhagen, and was now, therefore, free; that, under the
+circumstances, the consideration he had hitherto exercised toward Axel
+must give way to Franz's own earnest wishes, which left him no peace,
+and drove him, though in spite of her father's request, to write to
+Louise herself; and he enclosed a letter which he begged Habermann to
+deliver to his daughter, and which he hoped might make three people
+truly happy.
+
+The old man's hands trembled, as he laid the letter to his child in his
+pocketbook, his knees shook, as he walked up and down, so much was he
+agitated by the thought that upon the step which he was about to take
+depended the happy or unhappy future of his child; he seated himself in
+the sofa-corner, and it was long before he was composed enough to look
+at the matter with deliberation. So the morning sea rages in wild
+waves, and at noon, they are less boisterous, but it still looks dark
+and threatening over the water, and at evening the smooth mirror
+reflects the blue heavens, and the light summer clouds drift across it,
+and the setting sun frames the picture in his golden rays.
+
+So it was with the old man; as the waves of emotion subsided, grave
+thoughts came over him; he asked himself, earnestly and carefully,
+whether it would be right for him to yield, whether he would violate
+his obligations, if he said, "Yes," against the will of his young
+master.
+
+But what obligations had he, to a man who had rewarded him with
+ingratitude, who had driven him away, almost with shame and disgrace?
+None at all. And the pride rose in him, which one in a dependent
+position must so often repress, and which he only knows, who has a
+clear conscience; he would no longer sacrifice his best, most sacred
+feelings, to the ingratitude of an unreasonable boy, or the happiness
+of his child to an unjust, aristocratic prejudice. And when he had
+reached this conclusion, out of the tranquil sea shone the reflection
+of a lovely evening sky, and he sat long, gazing at the future of his
+two children, as at bright summer clouds drifting over it, and out of
+doors the setting sun was shining on the white snow, and its beams fell
+upon his white hair.
+
+While he sat, absorbed in these happy thoughts, the door opened
+hastily, and Krischan Degel rushed in: "Herr Inspector, you must come,
+the Rubens mare has a dreadful colic, and I don't know what to do for
+her." The old man sprang up, and went in haste to the stables.
+
+Scarcely had he gone, when Fritz Triddelsitz came in, carrying his
+travelling-bag, and the books for the circulating library, with some
+shirts and his proprietor's uniform, in which he meant to cut a figure
+at Demmin, and depositing them on a chair by the window, was about to
+begin packing when his eye fell upon Habermann's account-book, for the
+old man, in his agitation, had forgotten to put his book away.
+
+"That just suits me," said Fritz, and took the book to enter his grain
+account, but he must carry it to the window, for it was growing quite
+dark.
+
+He had not quite finished, when Krischan Degel rushed in again.
+
+"Herr Triddelsitz, you are to go immediately--quick! to the granary,
+and bring a wrapping cloth, we are going to pack the mare in wet
+sheets."
+
+When Fritz heard some one coming, he thrust Habermann's book behind him
+in the chair, and as Krischan hurried him off, thrusting the key of the
+granary into his hand, he left the book lying there, and ran out. At
+the door of the granary, he met Marie Moeller, who had just come from
+milking. "Marie," said he, "do me the favor just to pack my things in
+the bag,--they are all on the chair by the window, and don't forget the
+books!"
+
+Marie did it, and in the twilight, and lost in her loving reflections,
+she packed up Habermann's account book with those which were to go back
+to the library.
+
+When Habermann returned from the stables he locked up his desk without
+any premonition of evil, and the next morning Fritz Triddelsitz was off
+at cock-crowing, with his load of wheat, and his travelling-bag, also
+without any premonition of evil. When the old inspector had given the
+day-laborers their instructions, for the last time, he thought of his
+own affairs, and began to put up his luggage, that he might be ready to
+leave in the afternoon. He was not quite ready, when Daniel Sadenwater
+came in, and called him to the Herr von Rambow.
+
+Axel had passed a very restless night, his best thorough-bred mare, on
+which he had set great hopes, had been sick, the flea, which
+Pomuchelskopp had put in his ear, had stung him, he was annoyed at his
+unaccustomed position of managing for himself, and he must pay
+Habermann his salary, and also for the outlays which he had made in
+paying the laborers' wages, and he did not know how much it would be,
+or whether his cash would hold out. He could not humble himself however
+before the inspector, who had given him warning, so he must try to make
+some difficulty in the business, and discover some reason for refusing
+to pay him immediately. Such a reason would be hard to find; but he
+could pick a quarrel, and that might answer for a reason. A pitiable
+means, although a very usual means; and that Axel should resort to it,
+shows how rapidly his pride as a man and a nobleman was declining; but
+nothing drives a weak man to underhand ways quicker than the need of
+money, when he must keep up appearances, and "poor and proud" is a true
+proverb.
+
+As Habermann entered, he turned to the window, and looked through the
+panes.
+
+"Is the mare well again?"
+
+"No," said Habermann, "she is still sick, I think it would be best to
+send for the horse doctor."
+
+"I will give orders. But," he added, sitting down, and still gazing
+stiffly out of the window, "that comes from there being no proper
+supervision of the stables, from feeding the spoiled musty hay."
+
+"Herr von Rambow, you know, yourself, that the hay got wet, this
+summer, but it isn't musty. And you yourself undertook the oversight of
+the blood-horses, for, a few weeks ago, when I had ordered a slight
+alteration in the stable, you forbade it, with hard words, and said you
+would take the horses under your own supervision."
+
+"Very well! very well!" exclaimed Axel, leaving the window, and walking
+up and down the room, "we know all that, it is the old story."
+
+Suddenly he stopped before Habermann, and looked him in the face,
+though a little unsteadily: "You are going to-day?"
+
+"Yes," said Habermann, "according to our last arrangement----"
+
+"I am not really obliged," interrupted the young Herr, "to let you go
+before Easter; you must at least stay till the day after New-Year's."
+
+"That is true," said Habermann, "but--"
+
+"Oh, it is all the same," said Axel, "but we must settle our accounts
+first. Go and get your books."
+
+Habermann went.
+
+Axel had already laid his plans, that he might not be embarrassed about
+his money affairs; when Habermann came with his books, he would say he
+had not time to examine them, and if Habermann insisted, he could mount
+his high horse, and say, the day after New Year's would be time enough.
+But he was to get off more comfortably, Habermann did not come back. He
+waited and waited, but Habermann did not come; at last, he sent Daniel
+after him, and with him there came the old man, but in great
+excitement, very pale, and crying, as he entered the room: "My God!
+what has happened! How is it possible, how can it be!"
+
+"What is the matter?" inquired Axel.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," cried Habermann, "yesterday afternoon, I balanced my
+grain and money accounts, and locked up the book in my desk, and now it
+is gone."
+
+"Oh, that is admirable!" cried Axel, mockingly, and the seed which
+Pomuchelskopp had yesterday planted in his soul began to sprout and
+grow, and shoot up, "Yes, that is admirable! So long as no one wanted
+the book, it was there safe enough, but as soon as it is wanted, it is
+missing!"
+
+"I beg of you," cried Habermann in anguish, "do not judge so rashly, it
+will be found, it must be found," and with that, he ran out again.
+
+After a while, he returned, saying, in a weak voice: "It is not there;
+it has been stolen from me."
+
+"Oh, that is charming!" exclaimed Axel, working himself into a passion.
+"At one time you say there is never any stealing here,--you know,
+about my two thousand thalers,--and another time it must have been
+stolen,--just as it suits your convenience."
+
+"My God! my God!" cried the old man, "give me time, Herr!" and he
+clasped his hands. "Before God, my book is gone!"
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Axel, "and the day-laborer Regel is gone, too, and the
+people know _how_ he got away, and my two thousand thalers are also
+gone, and people know _where_ they have gone. Were they down in your
+book?" asked he, walking up to Habermann, and looking sharply in his
+face.
+
+The old man looked at him, he looked around him to see where he was,
+his folded hands fell apart, and a fearful trembling went through his
+limbs, as when a great river breaks up its covering of ice, and the
+blood shot through his veins into his face, like the water in the great
+river, when it is free, and the blocks of ice tower up and the dam
+gives way: 'Ware children of men!
+
+"Rascal!" he cried, and sprung at Axel, who had stepped back, as he saw
+the passion he had roused. "Rascal!" he cried, "my honest name!"
+
+Axel reached towards the corner where a gun was standing.
+
+"Rascal!" cried the old man again, "your gun, and my honest name!" and
+there ensued a struggle and a wrestling for the weapon, Habermann had
+caught it by the barrel, and tried to twist it out of his hand. Bang!
+it went off. "Oh, Lord!" cried Axel, and fell backwards towards the
+sofa; the old man stood over him, holding the gun in his hand. Then
+the door was torn open, and the young Frau rushed in, through the
+powder-smoke, to Axel: "Good Heavens, what is this!" and all the love
+which she had formerly cherished for him broke, like a ray of sunlight
+through the clouds which had obscured it, she threw herself down by
+him, and tore open his coat: "My God! my God! Blood!"
+
+"Let it be!" said Axel, trying to raise himself, "it is the arm."
+
+The old man stood motionless, the gun in his hand; the stream had gone
+back to its bed, but how much human happiness had it ruined in its
+overflow! and the meadows and fields of fertile soil were covered with
+mud and sand, and it seemed as if nothing could ever grow there again.
+
+Daniel came running in, and one of the maids, and, with their help,
+Axel was lifted to the sofa, and his coat removed; his arm was
+dreadfully torn by the small shot, and the blood streamed to the floor.
+
+"Go for the doctor!" cried the young Frau, trying to stanch the blood
+with cloths, but what she had at hand was not enough, she sprang up to
+fetch more, and must pass Habermann, who still stood there silent and
+pale, gazing at his master.
+
+"Murderer!" cried she, as she went out, "murderer!" she repeated, as
+she came in again; the old man said nothing, but Axel raised himself a
+little and said: "No, Frida, no! he is not guilty of that," for even an
+insincere man will give his God the glory, when he feels His hand close
+to his life; "but," he added, for he could not avoid the old excusing
+and accusing, "he is a traitor, a thief. Out of my sight!"
+
+The blood shot into the old man's face again, he would have spoken, but
+he saw that the young Frau turned away from him, he staggered out of
+the door.
+
+He went to his room; "He is a traitor, a thief," kept ringing through
+his head. He placed himself at the window, and looked out into the
+yard, he saw all that was passing, but saw it as in a dream; "A
+traitor, a thief," that was all he understood, that alone was real.
+Krischan Degel drove out of the yard, he knew he was going for the
+doctor, ho opened the window, he wanted to call to him to drive as fast
+as possible; but--"a traitor, a thief," he spoke it out, involuntarily;
+he closed the window. But the book! The book must be found. The book!
+He opened the chests and boxes which he had packed, he scattered his
+little possessions all about the room, he fell upon his old knees,--not
+to pray, for "he is a traitor, a thief," but to feel with his cane
+under his desk, under his chest of drawers, under his bed; he must find
+the book, the book! But he found nothing. "A traitor, a thief." He
+stood at the window again, he looked out; but he had his cane in his
+hand, what did he want of his cane? Would he go out? Yes, he would go
+out, he would go away, away from here!--away! He put on his hat, he
+went out of the door, and the gate. Whither? It was all one! it made no
+difference; but, from old habit, he took the path to Gurlitz. With the
+old way, came the old thoughts; "My child! my child!" he cried, "my
+honest name!" He felt in his breast pocket, yes, the pocket-book was
+there, he had his daughter's happiness in his hands. What should he do
+now? He had ruined this letter for his child, it was destroyed forever
+with his honest name and by this cursed shot! and the first bitter
+tears were wrung from his tormented soul, and with them his good
+conscience came back, and its soft hand made room in his constrained
+breast, so that he could draw breath again; but his honest name, and
+his child's happiness, were gone for ever. Oh, how happy he was
+yesterday, sitting in his room, with the letter in his hand that Franz
+had written to his daughter, what blessedness that letter was to bring
+her, what happiness would bloom from it, what a bright future he had
+painted! and now it was all gone and lost, and the brand which was
+impressed upon him must burn into the heart of his only child, and
+devour and consume it.
+
+But what had his child to do with it? Why should it stand in the way of
+her happiness? No, no! The curse and disgrace of the father was visited
+upon the children, to the fourth generation, and the same thorny hedge,
+which would sever him now from all honest people, would interpose
+between his child and happiness. But he was innocent! Who would believe
+him, if he said so? Those whose white garments of innocence the world
+has once soiled with filth must walk in them through life; no one can
+wash them clean, even if our Lord should come down from heaven, and do
+signs and wonders, that innocence should be brought to light,--the
+world would not believe. "Oh!" he cried, "I know the world!" Then his
+eye fell upon Gurlitz, upon Pomuchelskopp's manor house, and out of a
+corner of his heart, which he had believed forever locked, rose a dark
+spirit and spread her black wings over him, so that the bright winter
+sunlight no longer fell upon him; this was hate, which sprang up in his
+heart. The tears of compassion, which he had wept over his child, dried
+in his eyes, and the voice which had spoken in him, against his will,
+called again. "A traitor, a thief!" and the dark spirit moved her
+wings, and whispered thoughts to him, which flashed out like flames:
+"It is his doing, and we are enemies once more!" He went through
+Gurlitz, looking neither to the right nor the left, all which he had
+held dear had disappeared for him, he was merely conscious of his
+hatred, and that drove to a single aim, and in a definite path.
+
+Braesig stood in the way, near the Pastor's barn, he went to meet his
+old friend: "Good morning, Karl. Well, how is it? But what ails you?"
+
+"Nothing, Braesig. But leave me, let me alone! Come to-morrow to
+Rahnstadt, come to-morrow" and he passed on.
+
+As he came to the elevation, beyond Gurlitz, from which Axel had first
+shown his young wife his fair estate of Pumpelhagen, and where her warm
+heart had throbbed with such pure joy, he stood still, and looked back;
+it was the last point from which he could see the place where he had
+lived so many happy years, where he had suffered such fearful anguish,
+and where his honor and happiness had been turned to disgrace and
+misery. A tempest raged in his soul. "Miserable wretch! Liar! And she?
+'Murderer,' she called me, and yet again, 'murderer!' and when she had
+spoken the shameful word she turned herself away from me. Your
+unhappiness will not wait long,--I could, and would, have turned it
+aside, I have watched over you, like a faithful dog, and like a dog,
+you have thrust me out; but"--and he walked on toward Rahnstadt, and
+hate hovered over him, on her dark wings.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+In Rahnstadt, in the Frau Pastorin's house, there was great running up
+and down stairs, the day after Christmas, for Louise was putting the
+last touches to the arrangement of her father's room: and when she
+would think, now it was all ready, there was always something more that
+she must do for his comfort. Noon came; but her father had not yet
+arrived, although they expected him to dinner; she put a plate for him,
+however, for he might still come.
+
+"I don't know," she said to the Frau Pastorin, "why my heart is so
+heavy today."
+
+"What?" cried the little Frau, "only three months in the city, and
+already having premonitions, like a tea-drinking city lady? What has
+become of my fresh little country girl?" and she patted her daughter's
+cheek, affectionately.
+
+"No," said Louise, taking the friendly hand, and holding it fast in her
+own, "I do not mind such vague presentiments, mine are unfortunately
+very definite misgivings, whether my father will feel contented here,
+in the loss of his usual occupations, and will accustom himself to city
+life."
+
+"Child, you talk as if Rahnstadt were a Residence; no,--thank God! the
+geese go barefoot here, as well as in Pumpelhagen, and if your father
+takes pleasure in agricultural industry, he can see our neighbor on the
+right carting manure with two horses, and our neighbor on the left with
+three; and if he enjoys conversation about farming he has only to turn
+to our landlord, Kurz, who will talk to him about renting fields, and
+such matters, till he is as weary of them as we are."
+
+Louise laughed, and as they rose from dinner, she said, "So, mother,
+now lie down and rest a little, and I will walk along the Gurlitz road,
+and perhaps I shall meet my father."
+
+She wrapped her cloak around her, and tied a warm hood over her head,
+and went along the road, where she was constantly in the habit of
+walking, for it brought her nearer to the place where she had been so
+happy, and when she had time she walked as far as the little rising
+ground from which she could see Gurlitz, with the church, the
+parsonage, and the church-yard, and if she had still more time, she
+went on to see Lining and Gottlieb, and to talk with them of old and
+new times. She walked on and on, but her father came not, the east wind
+blew in her face, and colored her cheeks rosy red, till her lovely
+countenance looked out of the dark hood like a bright spring day, when
+it shines out of dark rain-clouds, filling the world with joy and hope.
+But the water stood in her eyes; was that because of the east wind? Was
+it because she was looking so sharply along the road for her father?
+Was it because of her thoughts? No, it was not the east wind, for she
+had stopped, and was looking towards the west, and yet her eyes were
+full of tears; it was not from looking for her father, for she was
+gazing in the opposite direction, where the sun, like a ball of fire,
+was just sinking behind the black fir-trees; it must have been her
+thoughts. Such thoughts as, in joy and grief, play around a young
+heart, entwining it as with a wreath of roses, so that it rejoices in
+utter gladness, and again weeps bitterly, when the thorns of the
+rose-wreath wound it to bleeding. But why was she looking westward? Ah,
+she knew that he was there, who sent her from thence the dearest
+greetings.
+
+
+                 "Westward, oh, westward fly, my keel,
+                    Westward my heart aspires,
+                  My dying eyes will look to thee,
+                    Thou goal of my desires!"
+
+
+The old rhyme whispered itself in her ear, and she stood there flushing
+rosy-red, full of sweet unrest over the secret power that spoke in her
+heart, like a bright spring day when it goes to rest, and the glowing
+clouds promise another fair day for the morrow.
+
+She went farther, to the elevation where her father had stood, a couple
+of hours before, and tasted the bitterness with which his fellow-men
+had filled his cup; she stood there, looking towards Pumpelhagen and
+Gurlitz, and the love which she had received from her fellow-creatures,
+in these places, overflowed her heart, and the curses uttered in hatred
+and misery, by that poor old heart, were washed away from the tablets
+of the recording angel, by the daughter's prayers, and her tears of
+love and thankfulness.
+
+It was a mile from Rahnstadt to Gurlitz, and the winter sun was near
+its setting; she must go home. Then she saw a man approaching from
+Gurlitz, it might be her father, she stood still awhile, looking; no,
+it was not her father! and she went on, but turned round again to look,
+and now perceived that it was Uncle Braesig, who was hurrying up to her.
+
+"God bless you, Louise! How? Why are you standing here, on the open
+road, in this bitter wind? Why don't you go in, and see the young folks
+at the parsonage?"
+
+"No, Uncle Braesig, not to-day. I merely came out to meet my father."
+
+"What? Karl Habermann? Why, isn't he with you?"
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"But he went through Gurlitz, this morning, about half past twelve."
+
+"He has been here? Oh, where can he be?"
+
+Braesig remembered Habermann's agitated appearance, and, seeing the
+anxiety of his child, he tried to comfort her: "It is often the case
+with us farmers, we have one thing here, and another there, to attend
+to; possibly he has gone over to Gulzow, or possibly he may be already
+in Rahnstadt, attending to some business there. But I will go with you,
+my child," he added, "for I have business in Rahnstadt, and shall stay
+all night, and get back my three thalers from that sly rogue of a Kurz,
+the syrup-prince, which he won from me at Boston. It is our club-day."
+
+When they had gone a little way, they were met by a chaise from
+Rahnstadt. It contained Krischan Daesel and Dr. Strump. The doctor
+stopped, saying, "Have you heard? Herr von Rambow has met with an
+accident, with a fowling-piece; he has shot himself in the arm. But I
+have no time, the coachman was obliged to wait for me a great while; I
+was not at home. Go ahead!"
+
+"What is this?" cried Louise. "Has my father left Pumpelhagen, when
+such an accident has just happened? He would not have done that."
+
+"It may have occurred since he left," said Braesig, but when he thought
+of Habermann's appearance that morning, he did not believe his own
+excuse. Louise grew more and more anxious, and hastened with quicker
+steps. Between her father's delay and the accident at Pumpelhagen she
+could find no probable connection, and yet it seemed to her that they
+must have something to do with each other.
+
+Meanwhile, Habermann had arrived in Rahnstadt, at the Frau Pastorin's.
+He had turned off from the direct road, and made a circuit, until he
+could collect himself, that he might not appear before his child in
+such fearful excitement. As he entered the Frau Pastorin's door, he had
+indeed controlled himself, but the terrible conflict he had just fought
+out in his heart left a lassitude and weariness, which made him look
+ten years older, and could not but strike the little Frau immediately.
+She sprang up, letting the coffee boil over, which she was taking off,
+and cried:
+
+"Good heavens! Habermann, what is the matter? Are you sick?"
+
+"No--yes, I believe so. Where is Louise?"
+
+"She went to look for you, didn't you meet her? But sit down! Bless me,
+how exhausted you look!"
+
+Habermann sat down, and looked about the room, as if to see whether he
+were alone with the Frau Pastorin.
+
+"Habermann, tell me, what ails you?" said the little Frau, grasping his
+cold hands in her own.
+
+"It is all over with me; I must go through the world, henceforth, as a
+useless and dishonored man."
+
+"Oh, no! no! Don't talk like that!"
+
+"That the opportunity of working should be taken from me, I can bear,
+though it is hard; but that I should also lose my honest name, that
+pierces me to the heart, that I cannot bear."
+
+"And who should take that from you?" asked the Frau Pastorin, looking
+him trustfully in the eyes.
+
+"The people who know it best, the Herr von Rambow and his wife," said
+the old man, and began to tell the story with a weak, and often broken,
+voice; but when he came to the end, how the young Frau had also
+deserted him, had turned her back upon him, and let him go out of the
+door, as a thief and a traitor, then his anger broke out, he sprang
+from his chair, and walked up and down the room, with gleaming eyes and
+clenched fist, as if he were ready for combat with the wicked world.
+
+"Oh," he cried, "if that were only all! But they have injured me more
+cruelly than they know, they have ruined my child's happiness along
+with mine. There! read it, Frau Pastorin!" and he gave her the letter
+from Franz. She read, the sheet trembling in her hand, so greatly had
+the story excited her, while he stood before her, and looked at her,
+without once turning away his eyes.
+
+"Habermann," she said, grasping his hand, when she had read it, "don't
+you see the finger of God? The injury which one cousin has done you,
+shall be made up to you by the other."
+
+"No, Frau Pastorin," said he sternly, "I should be the scoundrel which
+the world will henceforth deem me, if I could let a brave, trustful man
+take to his house a wife with a dishonored name. Poor and honest! For
+all I care! But dishonest? never!"
+
+"Dear heart!" cried the little Frau, "where is my Pastor, now? If my
+Pastor were only here! He could help and counsel us.
+
+"That he could," said Habermann, to himself. "I cannot do it," he
+cried, "my child must decide for herself, and you must help her, you
+have done more to educate her sense of right and wrong, than I alas!
+have been able to do. If my child considers it right and honourable, in
+spite of everything, to accept his offer, if you yourself agree with
+her, then let it be! I will exert no influence in the matter, I will
+not see her, until she has decided. Here is a letter from Franz to her,
+give it to her, telling her, beforehand, what has happened; just as I
+have told you, is the truth. I will go up to my room; I cannot, I dare
+not touch a finger." He left the room, but came back again; "Frau
+Pastorin, consult her happiness only, have no regard for mine! Forget
+what I said before. I will do what I can to keep my dishonoured name in
+concealment."
+
+He went out again, saying to himself as he mounted the stairs, "I
+cannot do otherwise, I cannot do otherwise." As he threw himself down
+on the sofa, in his little room, and everywhere about him saw the hand
+of his daughter, how she had arranged and ordered everything for his
+comfort, he put his hand over his eyes, and wept. "Shall I lose all
+this?" He sighed deeply. "And why not? why not? If it is for her
+happiness," he cried aloud, "I will never see her again!" The
+house-door opened, he heard Braesig's voice, he heard the bright
+greeting of his child. All was still again, he listened for every
+sound. Now Frau Pastorin was telling what had happened, now his
+darling's heart was torn. Slowly there came steps up the stairs; Braesig
+came in, looking as silent and composed as if death were walking over
+his grave, his eyebrows, which he generally raised so high when
+anything unusual occurred, lay deep and heavy over his eyes, he said
+nothing but "I know, Karl, I know all," and sat down by his friend, on
+the sofa.
+
+So they sat long, in the half-twilight, and neither spoke; at last
+Braesig grasped Habermann's hand: "Karl," said he, "we have known each
+other these fifty years. Don't you remember, at old Knirkstaedt's? What
+a pleasant youth we had! always contented and joyous! and, excepting a
+couple of foolish jokes that we played together, we have, upon the
+whole, nothing to reproach ourselves with. Karl, it is a comfortable
+sort of feeling, when one can look back upon old days, and say,
+'Follies, to be sure, but nothing base!'"
+
+Habermann shrank back, and drew his hand away.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig again, "a good conscience is a fine thing, when one
+is growing old, and it is noticeable, quite noticeable, how this good
+conscience stands by us when we are old, and will not leave us. Karl,
+my dear old boy!" and he fell upon Habermann's neck, and wept bitterly.
+
+"Braesig," said Habermann, "don't make my heart heavy, it is heavy
+enough already."
+
+"Eh, how, Karl! How can your heart be heavy? Your heart is as pure as
+Job's; it should be as light as a lark, which mounts in the clear
+heavens; for this story of the infamous--no, I won't talk about that; I
+would say---- Why, what were we talking about? Yes, so! about the
+conscience. It is a wonderful thing, about the conscience, Karl! For
+instance, there is Kurz, with his, for he has one, as well as you and
+I, and I suppose he will stand before God with it sometime; but before
+me he stands very badly, for he peeps at the cards, when we play
+Boston; he has a sort of groschens-conscience; for, you see, in great
+things, he is quite correct, for example, in renting the house to the
+Frau Pastorin; but ell-wise, and pot-wise and pound-wise, he takes what
+he can get, he isn't at all ashamed, that is when he can get anything;
+when he don't get anything he is ashamed of himself. And let me tell
+you, Karl, if you live here, you must have a good deal of intercourse
+with him, and that pleasure will be a good deal like his conscience,
+for he is fond of discoursing about farming, and it is as if he were
+taking a drive for pleasure in a manure-cart. It will be no pleasure to
+you, and so I have thought, when I have seen our young pastor through
+his spring seed-time, and everything is in train, I will come over here
+to you, and we can cheer each other up a little; and then in harvest
+time, we can go out to Gurlitz, to keep the poor fellow from getting
+into difficulties; and he will not, for Juern is a considerate fellow,
+and he himself begins,--thank God,--to do all sorts of useful things,
+with Lining's assistance. And when he has finished his first year, you
+shall see, he will be quite rid of his Pietistry, but we must let him
+struggle a little sometimes, that he may learn to know himself and the
+world, and find that there is something more in human life than to read
+psalm-books. Yes, and then I will come to you, Karl, and we will live
+as they do in Paris, and you shall see, Karl, this last quarter of our
+lives shall be the best piece of the whole ox."
+
+And he embraced him again, and talked of past times and future,
+alternately, like a mother trying to divert her child to other
+thoughts. The moon shone in at the window, and what can better heal a
+torn heart, than its soft light, and the love of an old, tried friend,
+who has been true to us? I always think that the bright, warm sunshine
+is more suitable for love, but with friendship, the moonlight
+harmonizes best.
+
+While they were sitting thus, the door opened, and, with light step, a
+slender form entered the room, and remained standing, in the full
+moonlight, the arms crossed on her breast, and the white face gleaming
+in the moonshine, as if it were a statue of white marble, against a
+dark wall of yew-trees: "Was hat man Dir, Du armes Kind, gethan?"[7]
+
+Braesig left the room, without speaking. Habermann covered his eyes with
+his hand as if something pierced him to his inmost heart. The slender
+form threw itself at his side, the folded arms opened to embrace him,
+and the white face pressed itself to his. For a long time, there was
+silence, at last the old man heard light, soft words breathed in his
+ear: "I know what you think right; I am your child--am I not? Your
+darling child."
+
+Habermann threw his arm about his darling child.
+
+"Father, father!" she cried, "we will not part! My other father, who is
+now with God, has told me how you would not be separated from me, when
+you were in the deepest trouble and sorrow, when the good laborer's
+wife wanted to keep me; now you are again in trouble and sorrow, would
+you be parted from me _now_? should I leave you _now_?" and she pressed
+him to her heart, saying softly, "thy name is my name, thy honor is my
+honor, thy life is my life."
+
+Much was spoken, in the sweet moonlight, in the cozy little room, but
+of all this nothing shall be betrayed, for when a faithful father and a
+loving child talk thus together, talk for their whole lives, our Lord
+himself is with them, and it is not for the world, 'tis for the two
+alone.
+
+Down-stairs, in the Frau Pastorin's living-room, it was quite
+different. Frau Pastorin sat in her arm-chair, and cried bitterly; the
+dear, good Frau was quite beside herself,--Habermann's misfortune had
+moved her deeply,--but when she must rouse this fearful conflict in the
+breast of her dear child, when she saw the struggle going on, and
+afterwards saw confidence and courage getting the mastery in that dear
+heart, in spite of wounds and sorrow, she felt as if she had
+maliciously destroyed the happiness of her child, and her poor heart
+was torn with self-reproach and sorrow and compassion, till she broke
+out into bitter weeping. Braesig, on the contrary, had used up his
+compassion, he had done his utmost, when with Habermann, to keep back
+his wrath against the wretchedness of mankind, and when he came down to
+the Frau Pastorin, and, in the darkness, was not aware of her distress,
+he broke loose:
+
+"Infamous pack of Jesuits! What? Such a man as Karl Habermann, would
+you destroy his honor and reputation? It is like Satan himself! It is
+as if one held the cat, and the other stabbed it. Curses on them----"
+
+"Braesig, Braesig, I beseech you," cried the little Frau Pastorin, "stop
+this unchristian behavior!"
+
+"Do you call that unchristian behavior? It seems to me like a song of
+the holy angels in Paradise, if I compare it with the scurvy tricks of
+this pack of Jesuits."
+
+"Braesig, we are not the judges of these people."
+
+"I know very well, Frau Pastorin, I am not the magistrate, and you are
+not in the judge's chair, but when a toad hops across my path, you
+cannot expect me to look upon it as a beautiful canary bird. No, Frau
+Pastorin, toads are toads, and Zamel Pomuchelskopp is the chief toad,
+who has spit his venom upon us all. What do you say to his chicanery
+that he has contrived against me? You see, in the one foot-path, which
+has led to the pastor's acre, for this thousand years, so far as I
+know, he has had a stake put up, so that we cannot go there, and he
+sent word to me that if I went there, he would have my boots pulled
+off, and let me go hopping about in the snow, like a crow. Do you call
+that a Christian disposition? But I will complain of him. Shall such a
+fellow as that liken me to a crow? And Pastor Gottlieb must complain of
+him. How can he forbid him the foot-path? And young Jochen must
+complain of him, for he has said openly, young Jochen was an old
+blockhead, and young Jochen is not obliged to put up with that. And you
+must complain of him, because he would not build a widow-house, since
+all the people have told me there must be Acts about it. And Karl
+Habermann must complain of the young Herr. We must organize revolution
+against the Jesuits, and if I can have my way, we will all drive
+to-morrow, in a carryall, to Gustrow, to the court of justice, and
+complain of the whole company, and we will take along five advocates,
+so that each may have one, and then, hurrah for a lawsuit!"
+
+If he had known that Louise had suffered most from the Jesuits, he
+might have proposed taking another advocate for her; but as yet, he had
+no suspicion of her troubles. Frau Pastorin tried to pacify him, but it
+was not an easy task, he wanted to turn everything topsy-turvy, and the
+misfortunes of his old friend had so agitated his heart, that the
+troubles which usually lay in its depths, the farm-boy angers, and the
+card-playing vexations, all came to the surface. "I came over here,"
+said he, "to amuse myself, since it was club-day, and to win back my
+three thalers from that old toad of an evil-doer, that Kurz, which he
+got out of me with his infamous cheating, and now the devil must hold
+his confounded spy-glass before my eyes, and bring all the wickedness
+of the world right into the neighborhood. Well, I call that amusing!
+And Frau Pastorin, if you don't think ill of it, I might spend the
+night here with you, for this stupid game of Boston will come to
+nothing, and it would be a good thing for me to sleep with Karl,
+because he needs somebody to cheer him up."
+
+Frau Pastorin said she should be glad to have him stay, and the evening
+was spent in maledictions on his side, and efforts at pacification upon
+hers. Habermann and Louise did not appear, and when Braesig went up to
+his old friend, Louise was no longer there.
+
+The next morning Braesig took leave of his old friend, with these words:
+
+"Rely upon it, Karl, I will drive to Pumpelhagen, myself, and look
+after your affairs. You shall get everything, though it makes me creep
+all over, to cross a threshold where you have been thrust out so
+infamously."
+
+The same morning, Habermann sat down and wrote to Franz; he told him
+truly and circumstantially what had happened lately in Pumpelhagen, he
+wrote of the dreadful conclusion the matter had arrived at, and
+informed him of the shameful suspicions which had fallen upon him, and
+finished with the statement that he and his child were of one mind,
+they must refuse his offer. He wanted to write warmly and heartily of
+the friendship which he felt for the young man, but he could not speak
+freely, as before, he seemed constrained. At last he begged him
+earnestly, to leave him and his child to themselves; they two must bear
+their fate, alone.
+
+Louise wrote also, and when, towards evening, the Frau Pastorin's maid
+took the letter to the post, she stood at the window, and looked after
+her, as if she had taken leave of her dearest friend in the world
+forever. She looked at the sun, which was going down in the west, and
+murmured, "My dying eyes shall look to thee, thou goal of my desires."
+But she did not turn red as yesterday, she stood there pale, and, as
+the last rays of the sun disappeared behind the houses, a deep sigh
+rose from her oppressed heart, and as she turned away bitter tears
+flowed down her pale cheeks. The tears flowed not for her lost
+happiness, no, for his.
+
+As Braesig came to the parsonage, the young Frau Pastorin met him at the
+door; "God bless you, Uncle Braesig, I am glad you have come here,--no,
+not here, in Pumpelhagen there are dreadful stories. Dr. Strump has
+been here,--our Juern was taken sick suddenly, last night, he was
+delirious,--and I ran for the doctor, who had been at Pumpelhagen, to
+speak to him as he passed through the village,--and he told me dreadful
+things,--not he, properly speaking, he only let himself be questioned,
+but his coachman told me that--ah, come in, it blows so out here!" and
+she drew him into the house. Here she told him all that the people
+said, that her dear Uncle Habermann had shot Axel, and had gone off,
+nobody knew where, but probably to take his own life. Braesig comforted
+her with news that Habermann was alive, and told her about the
+shooting, then inquired how it was with the young Herr, and learned
+that Dr. Strump did not think it a dangerous case. He then went to see
+Juern, who apparently had an attack of pneumonia. By this time, it was
+noon, and he must pursue his journey to Pumpelhagen, to attend to
+Habermann's affairs, and must also look out for another coachman. He
+inquired about in the village, but nobody would go to drive, and help
+him to load the goods; one had this, another that excuse, and finally
+he resolved to play coachman himself, when old Ruhrdanz, the weaver,
+said, "Well, it is all one to me, what he says to it; if he wants to
+chicane me, he may. I will drive you, Herr Inspector."
+
+Braesig made no objections, being very glad to find some one to help him
+with the loading, and they drove off.
+
+"Ruhrdanz," asked Braesig, "what did you mean by chicaning?"
+
+"Why, Herr, he has forbidden us all to do anything for the folks at the
+parsonage; we must not even take a step for them."
+
+"Who has forbidden you?"
+
+"Eh, he, our Herr Pomuchelskopp."
+
+"Infamous Jesuit!" said Braesig to himself.
+
+"If we did so, he told us, we might fodder our cows next winter on
+sawdust, he wouldn't give us a handful of hay or straw, and we might
+build with bricks, for he would give us no wood or turf."
+
+Braesig turned dark with anger, but the old man was fairly launched, and
+went on, under full sail:
+
+"And we must be always ready for him, night or day. I was out for him,
+the whole holiday, and got home last night, at ten o'clock."
+
+"Where did you go?"
+
+"Eh, to Ludswigslust, to the old railroad."
+
+"What had you to do there."
+
+"Eh, I had nothing to do there."
+
+"But you must have had business there."
+
+"Why, yes, I had business; but it came to nothing, for he had no
+papers."
+
+"Well, what was it, then?"
+
+"You see, he sent down from the Court, I should drive a ram down to the
+old railroad; well, I did so, and we got there all right. There was a
+fellow standing at the station; he let me pass, and I said to him,
+'Good morning,' says I, 'here he is.' 'Who?' he asked. 'The ram.' says
+I. 'What of him?' says he. 'Well, I don't know,' says I. 'Has he any
+papers?' asked he. 'No,' says I, 'he hasn't any papers.' 'Blockhead,'
+says he, 'I asked if _he_[8] had any papers.' 'No,' says I, 'I told you
+before, the ram has no papers.' 'Thunder and lightning!' says he, 'I
+asked if _he himself_ had any papers.' 'What?' says I, 'if I? What do I
+want of papers? I was to deliver him here.' You see, the fellow was
+undecided, and first he turned me out, and then he put out the old ram
+after me, and there we both stood by the train. Huiueue! said the old
+thing, and then it went off, and we stood there, he had no papers, and
+I had no papers, and what should I do about it? I loaded him in again,
+and drove back home. And when I went up to the house, last evening,
+there was a great uproar, and I thought our Herr would eat me up, he
+flew at me so. But what did I know? If he must have papers, he should
+have given them to somebody. But so much I know, if our Herr were not
+such a great Herr, and if he hadn't such a stiff backbone, and if we
+all held together, we would try a tussle with him. And his old Register
+of a wife is a thousand times worse than himself! Didn't she beat my
+neighbor Kapphingsten's girl half dead, last spring? She beat the girl
+three times with a broomstick, and shut her up in the shed, and starved
+her, and why? Because a hawk had carried off a chicken. Was it her
+fault that the hawk carried off the chicken, and was it my fault that
+he had given me no papers?"
+
+Braesig listened to all this, and, though yesterday he wanted to start a
+revolution against Pomuchelskopp, to-day he kept perfectly still, for
+he would never have forgiven himself, if he had, by a thoughtless word,
+excited the people against their master.
+
+They came to Pumpelhagen, and drove up to the farm-house door. With a
+great leap, Fritz Triddelsitz came out of the house to Braesig: "Herr
+Inspector, Hen Inspector! I truly could not help it, Marie Moeller
+packed the book up, through an oversight, and when I went to change my
+clothes, in Demmin, there was the book."
+
+"What book?" asked Braesig hastily.
+
+"Good gracious! Habermann's book, that all this uproar has been about."
+
+"And that book," said Braesig, catching Fritz by the collar, and shaking
+him, till his teeth chattered in his head, "you infamous greyhound, did
+you take that book to Demmin with you?" and he gave him a push towards
+the door: "In with you! Bring me the book!"
+
+With fear and trembling, Fritz brought out the book; Braesig snatched it
+from his hand. "Infamous greyhound! Do you know what you have done? The
+man who in his kindness and love has tried to make a man of you, who
+has covered all your stupidities with a silken mantle, you have ruined,
+you have brought into this shameful quarrel."
+
+"Herr Inspector, Herr Inspector!" cried Fritz, deadly pale, "Oh, Lord!
+it wasn't my fault, Marie Moeller packed up the book, and I rode from
+Demmin to-day, in two hours, to bring it back again as soon as
+possible."
+
+"Marie Moeller!" cried Braesig, "what have you to do with Marie Moeller?
+Oh, if I were your Herr Father, or your Frau Mother, or even your Frau
+Aunt, I would lash you till you ran like a squirrel along the wall.
+What have you to do with that old goose of a Marie Moeller? And do you
+think to make up for your stupidity by gallopping over the public road?
+Shall the innocent beast suffer for your fault? But come now, come
+before the board! Come before the judgment seat, to the gracious Frau!
+You shall tell her how it has all happened, and then you can go and
+parade with Marie Moeller."
+
+And with that, he went off, and Fritz followed slowly behind, his heart
+full of misgivings.
+
+"Announce me, with the young man, to the gracious Frau," said Braesig,
+to Daniel Sadenwater, when they came to the porch, and he pointed to
+Fritz. Daniel made a sort of half-grown bow, and went. Fritz stood
+there, like butter in the sun, making a face, which came very readily
+to him, since his days at Parchen, because he used to make it when
+there was a conference of teachers, and his misdeeds came up for
+judgment. Braesig stood bent up in the corner, with the book under his
+arm, and tugged alternately at his left and right boot-straps, that his
+yellow tops might appear to the best advantage. When the gracious Frau
+came, and went into the living-room, he followed her, quite red from
+the stooping and his excitement, and Fritz, very pale, went in behind
+him.
+
+"You wished to speak to me, Herr Inspector?" asked the young Frau,
+looking now at Braesig, and now at Triddelsitz.
+
+"Yes, gracious Frau, but I would first beg you graciously to hear what
+this Apothecary's son, this--infamous greyhound,"--he was going to say,
+but restrained himself--"young man has to say, he has a fine story to
+tell you."
+
+The young Frau turned a questioning glance upon Fritz, and the old
+fellow began to stammer out his story, growing first red, and then
+pale, and told it pretty much as it happened, only that he left out
+Marie Moeller's name, ending with, "And so the book came, by an
+oversight, into my travelling bag."
+
+"Out with Marie Moeller!" cried Braesig, "the truth must finally come to
+light!"
+
+"Yes," said Fritz, "Marie Moeller packed it up; I had so much to do that
+day."
+
+The young Frau was greatly disturbed. "So it was all only an unhappy
+accident?"
+
+"Yes gracious Frau, it was so," said Braesig, "and here is the book, and
+here, on the last page, is Habermann's account, and there are four
+hundred thalers due him, beside his salary, and it is right, and
+balances, for Karl Habermann never makes mistakes, and when we were
+boys he used to excel me myself, in the accuracy of his reckoning."
+
+The young Frau took the book with trembling hand, and as she, without
+thinking of it, noticed the sum total on the last page, the thought
+shot confusedly through her mind, Habermann was innocent of this
+charge, why not of the other, in which she had never believed? Fritz's
+story could not be an invention, and she had done the man the bitterest
+injustice; but he had shot her husband! In that, she found a sort of
+excuse, and she said, "But for God's sake, how could he shoot at Axel?"
+
+"Gracious Frau," said Braesig, raising his eyebrows very high, and
+putting on his most serious expression, "with your favor, those are
+abominable lies; the young Herr took aim at him, and as Habermann was
+trying to wrest the gun from him, it went off, and that is the whole
+truth, and I know all about it, because he told me himself, and he
+never lies."
+
+Dear heart, she knew that, and she knew also, that so much could not be
+said of her husband; at the first, in his first excitement, he had
+said, "He is not a murderer," but since then, he had constantly
+affirmed that Habermann had shot him. She sat down, and laid her hand
+over her eyes, and tried to take counsel with herself; but it was of no
+use; she collected herself with an effort, and said, "You have come, I
+suppose, to receive the money for the inspector; my husband is
+suffering, I cannot disturb him now, but I will send it."
+
+"No, gracious Frau, I did _not_ come for that," said Braesig, drawing
+himself up, "I came here to tell the truth, I came here to defend my
+old friend, who was my playmate sixty years ago."
+
+"You have no need to do that, if your friend has a good conscience, and
+I believe he has."
+
+"I see, by this remark, gracious Frau, that you know human nature very
+poorly. Man has two consciences, the one inside of him, and that no
+devil can take from him, but the other is outside of him, and that is
+his good name, and that any scamp may take from him, if he has the
+power, and is clever enough, and can kill him before the world, for man
+lives not for himself alone, he lives also for the world. And these
+wicked rumors are like the thistles, that the devil and his servants
+sow in our fields, they stand there, and the better the soil is the
+bigger they grow, and they blossom and go to seed, and when the top is
+ripe, then comes the wind,--no man knows whence it cometh or whither it
+goeth, and it carries the down from the thistle-top all over the field,
+and next year the whole field is full of them, and men stand there and
+scold, but no one will take hold and pull up the weeds, for fear of
+getting his fingers pricked. And you, gracious Frau, have also been
+afraid of pricking your fingers, when you let my old friend be driven
+out of your house, as a traitor and a thief, and I wanted to tell you
+that, and to tell you that _that_ hurt my Karl Habermann the worst of
+all. And now farewell! I have nothing more to say." With that, he left
+the room, and Fritz followed him.
+
+And Frida? Where was the bright young wife with her clear eyes and
+sound understanding, who looked at everything so sensibly and quietly?
+This was not the same woman, the cool, intelligent composure had
+changed to restless agitation, and before the clear eyes lay a shadow,
+which hindered her from looking about her. "Ah," she exclaimed, "untrue
+again! All these suspicions are merely the progeny of lies, of
+self-deception and the most unmanly weakness! And my distress for him,
+my love for him, must make me a sharer in his wrong, I must give a
+deadly wound to this honest heart that loved me so truly! But I will
+tell him!"--she sprang up,--"I will tear away this web of lies!" but
+she sank down again, in weakness; "no, not yet; I cannot; he is too
+ill." Ah, she was right; insincerity and falsehood surround in a wide
+circle even the most upright heart, and come nearer and nearer, and
+draw it into the whirlpool, till it no longer knows whether it is out
+or in, when cool composure is lost, and considerate thought is absorbed
+in fear or hope.
+
+When Braesig came to his wagon, Ruhrdanz, with the help of Krischan
+Daesel and others, had packed nearly all the goods, and what was left
+soon found a place. Braesig was getting into the wagon by Ruhrdanz, when
+Fritz Triddelsitz held him fast: "Herr Inspector, I beg of you, tell
+Herr Habermann that I am innocent, that I couldn't help it."
+
+Braesig would have made no answer, but when he saw Fritz's sorrowful
+face, he pitied him, and said, "Yes, I will tell him; but you must
+reform." Then he drove off.
+
+"Herr Inspector," said Ruhrdanz, after a little while, "it is none of
+my business, and perhaps I should not speak of it; but who would have
+thought it--I mean about Herr Habermann."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, nothing,--I only mean that he should go off so suddenly, and then
+this shooting."
+
+"Eh, that is all stuff and nonsense," said Braesig, in vexation.
+
+"So I said, Herr Inspector; but the groom Krischan, he stood there, as
+we were packing, and he said that the whole disturbance came from the
+confounded papers, because Herr Habermann had no regular papers to
+show. Yes, so I say, the confounded papers!"
+
+"Habermann's papers are all right."
+
+"Yes, so I say, Herr Inspector, but about the shooting! Our young Herr
+Gustaving was telling about it this morning, all over the village."
+
+"Gustaving," cried Braesig in his wrath, "is a rascal of a puppy! a
+puppy who has not yet got his eyes open."
+
+"So I say, and don't take it evil of me, Herr Inspector; but he is the
+best of the lot, up at the Court. For, you see, there is the old--well,
+Orndt's nephew was here last week, and he came from Prussia to Anclam,
+and he said that our Herr always had human skin on his stick, he banged
+the people about so; but the Prussians wouldn't put up with him, and
+the people went to the Landgrafenamt, or to the Landrathenamt,--I don't
+know what the old thing is called,--and complained of him, and the
+Landgraf turned him out in disgrace. I wish we had such a Landgraf in
+our neighbourhood, for the court of justice is too far off."
+
+"Yes," said Braesig hastily, "if you had such a Landrath as that, you
+would have something rare."
+
+"So I say, Herr Inspector, but once he went rather too far, for he beat
+a woman who was in the family way, and injured her severely, and, you
+won't take it ill of me, Herr Inspector, but I think that was a great
+crime. Then they complained of him to the king, and he commanded that
+he should be imprisoned in Stettin for life, and drag balls after him.
+Well, then, his old woman went to the king, and fell down on her knees
+to him, and the king let him out, on condition that he should wear an
+iron ring round his neck, all his life long, and every autumn he should
+drag balls, for four weeks, in Stettin,--he was there this last
+autumn,--and that he should leave the country; and so he came here; but
+now tell me, Herr Inspector, if he should be driven away from here,
+where could he go?"
+
+"Where the pepper grows, for all I care," said Braesig.
+
+"Yes, so I say, Herr Inspector; but don't take it ill of me, I don't
+believe they would take him there; for, you see, he has money enough to
+buy a place, but how about his papers? For when the king comes to see
+his papers, and he reads that he must wear an iron ring on his neck,
+and that that is the reason he always wears such a great thick
+neck-cloth, then they will have nothing to do with him."
+
+"Eh, then you will have to keep him," said Braesig.
+
+"Well, if there is no other way, then we must keep him; he is, so to
+speak, married to us. Get up!" he cried, and drove at a trot, through
+Gurlitz; and Braesig fell into deep thought. How strangely things went
+in the world! Such a fellow, who had such a reputation, was yet in
+circumstances to ruin an honest man's good name; for he was quite
+certain that Pomuchelskopp was at the bottom of all the stories, and
+that he had taken pains to set them in circulation was evident from
+Gustaving's share in the matter.
+
+"It is scandalous," he said to himself, as he got down, in Rahnstadt,
+at the Frau Pastorin's, "but take care, Zamel! I have taken one trick
+from you, with the pastor's acre, I shall get another; but first I must
+complain of you, about the 'crow!'"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+New-Year's day, 1846, had come, and brought its kind wishes, and the
+Rahnstadters congratulated each other, in the cold streets, or in the
+warm parlors, just as it happened, and some people slept until noon,
+and ate pickled herrings, because it was Sylvester's eve, and there was
+much talk among the young people of this and that, which had happened
+at the ball, yesterday, and the old folks sat together, and talked of
+what had happened, not indeed at the ball, but in the world. And the
+story of Habermann and Herr von Rambow was a chief dish, which was
+served up at all tables; and as every house had its own cookery, so it
+had also its own gossip, one believed the story so, and another so, and
+each suited it to his own palate, and invited his neighbor as guest,
+and Slusuhr and David went everywhere, as unbidden guests, and the one
+added his pepper, and the other his garlic to the dish. And so, for the
+city of Rahnstadt and the region round about the story and the slander
+became richer in its process, as each seasoned it with his favorite
+spice: Habermann had for years been cheating his two masters, and had
+accummulated a great pile of money, which was the reason why the young
+Herr von Rambow was always in pecuniary embarrassment; he had gone
+halves with the lay-laborer Regel, in his robbery, and had helped him
+off and given him a recommendation. Whether Jochen Nuessler had assisted
+in the conspiracy, people were not definitely informed. But at last the
+apothecary Triddelsitz's son, who was an uncommonly wideawake and
+discreet young man, had come upon the track, by secretly examining
+Habermann's books, in which he discovered the whole imposition, word
+for word. He had told it to the housekeeper, Marie Moeller, and they
+both agreed that Triddelsitz must take the book till Habermann had
+gone, and the considerate young man did so, and carried it with him to
+Demmin, intending to deliver it afterwards to Herr von Rambow. But, the
+next day, Habermann had missed the book, and was persuaded that Herr
+von Rambow had taken it, so he went to him, and told him he was a
+rascal, and demanded his book again, and when the young Herr could not
+give it him, he aimed a rifle at his breast. The young Herr would not
+bear that, and grappled with him for the rifle, and it went off, and
+the Herr von Rambow was now lying at the point of death. Habermann was
+doubtless in concealment, somewhere in the city. This was pretty nearly
+the story which the Rahnstadters had pieced together, and everybody
+wondered that the burgomeister did not have such a dangerous man put in
+prison.
+
+There were, fortunately, two intelligent beings in the city, who would
+not bite at the story; one was Moses, who, when David told him of the
+affair, said merely, "David, you are too stupid!" and went about his
+business, the other was the burgomeister himself, who shook his head
+and also went about his business. The Rector Baldrian did not go about
+his business, for he had a vacation, and he said if the whole city said
+so there must be something in it, but so much he would say, and he
+would go to the sacrament upon it, his Gottlieb's father-in-law, Jochen
+Nuessler, was not in the conspiracy. Kurz said it was possible, but he
+would never have suspected it of old Habermann; but no one could read
+the heart of another. Meanwhile, he must say, one thing seemed to him
+improbable, that Fritz Triddelsitz could have acted with much
+discretion, and he believed that part of the business must have
+happened differently. Just for the reason that his Fritz had
+distinguished himself, the apothecary believed in the story, and told
+it all over the city, that he might increase his dear son's celebrity.
+
+And so strangely does destiny play with us. At this very moment when
+Fritz's renown was spread through the whole city, he himself stood
+before that dreadful criminal, Habermann, in the guise of a penitent
+sinner, begging him earnestly to forgive his share in the trouble, he
+had not done it intentionally. Habermann stroked his chestnut hair, and
+said, "Let it go Triddelsitz! But notice one thing; many a good action
+has evil consequences in the world, and many an evil one has good; but
+we are not responsible for the consequences, those lie in other hands,
+and the consequences do not make an action either good or bad. If you
+had not done wrong, in deceiving me about your grain-account, your
+conscience would not trouble you, and you need not have stood before me
+thus. But I forgive you; and now take the receipt for the money, and be
+a good, steady fellow! And now, good-bye!"
+
+He gave him a receipt, for the gracious Frau had sent him his salary,
+and this money he had paid out, by Fritz.
+
+Fritz went to the inn, when he had left his horse. There were many
+people there and they flocked around him: "Well, how is it? You did that
+well!" "Is the Herr von Rambow dangerously hurt?" "Then he is still
+living!" "Do let Herr Triddelsitz speak!" "Just tell us----" "No, just
+tell us, have you got Habermann?"
+
+Fritz was in no mood for narration, he had no desire to expose his own
+stupidity; he pushed through the crowd, with a few general remarks, and
+mounted his horse, and the Rahnstadters said, with one accord, he was a
+very discreet young man, he would not sound his own praises.
+
+If the Rahnstadters gathered about Fritz, in their curiosity, as if he
+were a bottle of syrup, and they the flies, they were to have a still
+richer treat; this New-year's day was to be a real news-day. Scarcely
+had Fritz, outwardly so proud and reserved, inwardly so dejected and
+penitent, ridden away from the door, when a carriage drove up to
+the inn,--the gentleman driving himself, and the coachman sitting
+behind,--and the Rahnstadters flattened their noses against the window
+panes; who could that be? "He looks wonderfully familiar to me," said
+one. "Yes, I have surely seen him before," said another. "Is it
+not----" began a third. "Eh, what? No, it is'nt the one you think,"
+said Bank, the shoemaker. "I know him," said Wimmersdort the tailor, "I
+have made him many a coat, that is the Herr von Rambow who lives beyond
+Schwerin, at Hogen-Selchow, the cousin of the Pumpelhagen Herr." "The
+tailor is right, it is he." "Yes, it is he." "Probably he comes on
+account of this story." "That must be it, for the Pumpelhagen Herr lies
+so low, he can attend to nothing. You shall see, he will take the
+business in hand." And as Franz came in to lay off his furs, the
+Rahnstadters all stood with their backs against the windows, with their
+backs against the stove, with their backs against the walls, and all
+looked to the middle of the room, where Franz stood, as it were,
+surrounded by a web of curiosity, from which all the threads ran to the
+middle, where he was caught, like a helpless fly.
+
+Franz went out, spoke a couple of words to the servant, and went off
+towards the market. "Johann," asked one from the window, "what did he
+say to you?" "Ah," said Johann, "he only asked after the burgomeister,
+if he was at home." "Did you hear? he asked after the burgomeister; he
+is going to work in earnest." "Johann," said another, "did he say
+nothing else?" "Yes, he asked where the parson's wife lived, who has
+moved here lately, near Kurz the shopkeeper." "Ha, ha! Do you notice
+that? The inspector is probably stowed away, with the parson's wife.
+Well, good-bye."
+
+"Gossip Wimmersdorf, where are you going?" "Oh, I shall drop in at
+Kurz's." "Wait, I will go too." "That is so," said another, "at Kurz's,
+we can see everything finely." "Yes, let us go to Kurz's," and it was
+not long before Kurz's shop was fuller of customers than he had seen it
+for a long time, and every one took a dram, and some two, and Kurz said
+to himself, "Thank God! the new year begins finely."
+
+After a while, Franz came back from the market, and went past Kurz's
+shop, directly up to the Frau Pastorin's door.
+
+"How? He has no policeman with him!" said one.
+
+"Yes, Hoppner is not at home, he has gone to get a pig to-day, from the
+farmer at Prebberow."
+
+"Oh, that is all right, then."
+
+"How Habermann will feel, when he finds himself caught!" said
+Wimmersdorf.
+
+"Children, my feet are getting cold," said Bank, the shoemaker, "I am
+going home."
+
+"What? You may as well wait till the business comes to a head," said
+Thiel, the cabinet-maker.
+
+"What do you know about it?" said Bank. "It seems to me as if there
+was'nt a word of truth in the whole story."
+
+"What? You told me the story, yourself, this morning," said Thiel.
+
+"Yes, that is so, but morning talk is not evening talk. I have
+considered the matter since then."
+
+"That is to say, you have got cold feet over it," said the tailor. All
+laughed.
+
+"That is a stupid joke," said the shoemaker, "and the whole story is a
+stupid joke; the old inspector has traded with me all these years, and
+has always paid his accounts honestly, and is he likely, in his old
+age, to take to cheating and stealing?"
+
+"Eh, you may talk! But when the whole city says so?"
+
+"Eh, the whole city! Here stands Herr Kurz, ask him if he has'nt always
+paid honestly! Ask the man what he says to it!"
+
+"What I say to it? I say nothing," said Kurz, "but I don't believe it,
+and I have my own reasons."
+
+"There, do you hear?"
+
+"Yes, it may possibly be so."
+
+"Yes, I said, all along, the matter looked very strange to me."
+
+"Well," said Wimmersdorf, "he never traded with me, and I don't see why
+I should'nt believe it."
+
+"Eh, tailor, don't let yourself be laughed at!"
+
+"Yes, children, laugh at the tailor!"
+
+"Now, I will tell you something," said Bank, smiting with his fist on
+the counter. "Come here, all of you,--Herr Kurz, fill the glasses once
+more! Now let us all drink to our brave, old, honest inspector!"
+
+And they did so, and went home with a stronger belief than ever in
+Habermann, and with all of them, except Wimmersdorf the tailor, the old
+man was reinstated in his good name. Why? Because Bank the shoemaker
+had cold feet.
+
+Upon such little things often depends good or evil opinion. Here, the
+good prevailed; but what availed the good opinion of a few
+insignificant mechanics against that secret, invisible power which
+determined the fate of the children of men in this little city, and
+held the entangled threads of happiness and misery in its hand, and
+pulls them, so that one must dance on the string, at its will? I mean
+that secret tribunal which the women folks hold, in the quiet evening
+hours, to the terror of all evil-doers, over their knitting and
+tea. There, every sinner gets his deserts, he is pricked with the
+knitting-needles, pinched with the sugar-tongs, burned in the
+spirit-lamp, and every biscuit or muschueken[9] soaked in the teacups
+gives a faithful picture of the condition of his terrified soul, if he
+were standing before this tribunal. What did this Rahnstadt Female
+Assembly care for Hans Bank's good opinion, or his cold feet? What for
+Habermann's well-paid accounts? These judges went seriously to
+work; they first took account, in an intelligent manner, of the
+antecedents,--as jurists say,--and they found the case very weak, for
+Habermann, for Louise, for the Frau Pastorin, even for Braesig. Malchen
+and Salchen Pomuchelskopp had circulated all the particulars, here a
+little drop and there a little drop, Salchen had gathered those
+precious pearls together, and arranged them in proper order, and even
+David had helped a little, and so the Female Assembly had a very
+correct representation of Franz's attachment to Louise, of Habermann's
+and the Frau Pastorin's match-making, and of Braesig's scandalous
+tale-bearing, which they were qualified to make use of, in the best
+possible manner.
+
+The preliminaries had just been disposed of, when the wife of the city
+Syndic, (Recorder,) and the merchant's wife. Madam Krummhorn, came in
+together, and received a friendly scolding from the hostess, because
+they were so late. They defended themselves, in rather a condescending
+way, saying nothing of importance, but they sat down with such a swing,
+and took out their knitting with such significant shaking of heads,
+that the high tribunal must have been excessively stupid, if it had not
+observed that they had something special on their minds. It did its
+duty, beginning to feel round, by degrees, but the Frau Syndic and the
+Frau Krummhorn were prepared for resistance, and pinched their lips
+together, like live oysters, and the knives applied by the high
+tribunal were not successful in opening the shells. With sighs, the
+assembly took up its knitting-work, and soaked a couple of fresh
+muschueken in its tea, and with horror the two oysters became aware that
+their fast-locked news was stale, and that the best juice had run out
+from it; they opened, therefore, of their own accord, and the Frau
+Syndic asked the burgomeisterin, if a young gentleman had not called on
+the Herr Burgomeister that afternoon. Yes, said the Frau
+Burgomeisterin, the cousin of Herr von Rambow had been to see her
+husband, they had just been speaking of it.
+
+"And what did he want?" asked the Frau Syndic.
+
+"To inform himself how the examination about the stolen money had
+resulted, and he also asked whether the stories in Pumpelhagen--you
+know, the shooting--had any connection with that affair."
+
+"And what else?" inquired Frau Syndic, looking down at her knitting.
+
+"My husband has told me nothing more," said the burgomeisterin.
+
+"And do you believe that?" asked Frau Syndic. Now it is a shame, before
+any tribunal, especially before such as this, to expect it to believe
+any simple, natural story. The burgomeisterin felt the accusation,
+which was implied in this question, and said sharply:
+
+"If you know it better, dear, tell it yourself."
+
+One oyster looked at the other, and both laughed aloud. Well, when such
+a fat oyster--for the Frau Syndic was fat, and Frau Krummhorn was also
+well-to-do--laughs so at another, it makes a great impression upon
+people, and as a natural consequence the company laid their knitting in
+their laps, and looked at the oysters.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried the hostess, at last, "what do you know?"
+
+"Frau Krummhorn may tell," said Frau Syndic, coolly. "She saw it as
+well as I."
+
+Frau Krummhorn was a good woman, she could relate well and skilfully;
+but her gift of the gab had one failing, it was like Protonotary
+Scharfer's legs,--rudderless; and just like the protonotary, she was
+obliged to call out to one and another, "Hold me fast!" or "Turn me
+round!" She began: "Yes, he came right across the market-place."
+
+"Who?" asked a stupid little assessor, who could not comprehend the
+business.
+
+"Keep still!" cried everybody.
+
+"So, he came right across the market-place. I knew him again directly,
+he had bought himself a new suit, of my husband, a black dress-coat,
+and blue trousers, eh, what do I say! a blue dress-coat and black
+trousers: I can see him, as if it were yesterday, he always wore
+yellow-leather breeches and boot-tops,--or was that Fritz Triddelsitz?
+I really am not quite sure. Yes, what was I saying?"
+
+"He came right across the market-place," said a chorus of three voices.
+
+"Exactly! He came right across the market-place, and into the Frau
+Syndic's street, I had just gone into Frau Syndic's, for she wanted to
+show me her new curtains, they came from the Jew Hirsch's,--no, I
+know,--the Jew Baeren's, who has lately become bankrupt. It is
+remarkable, my husband says, how all our Jews become bankrupt, and yet
+grow richer all the time, no Christian merchant can compete with these
+confounded Jews. How far had I got?"
+
+"He came into the Frau Syndic's street."
+
+"Ah, yes! The Frau Syndic and I were standing at the window, and could
+look right into the parlor of the Frau Pastorin Behrens, and the Frau
+Syndic said her husband had told her, if the Frau Pastorin would go to
+law about it,--no, not the Frau Pastorin, it was the Church, or else
+the Consistory,--then Herr Pomuchelskopp, or somebody else, must build
+a new parsonage at Gurlitz, and the Frau Syndic----"
+
+But the Frau Syndic could contain herself no longer,--in putting up
+Frau Krummhorn to tell the story, she had prepared a fine rod for her
+own impatience, so she interrupted her, without ceremony:
+
+"And then he went into the Frau Pastorin's and, without waiting, right
+into the parlor, and the old Frau rose from the sofa, and made such a
+motion of the hand, as if she would keep him away from her, and looked
+as distressed as if a misfortune had happened to her, and that might
+well be the case; and then she placed a chair, and urged him to sit
+down; but he did not sit down, and when the Frau Pastorin went out, he
+walked up and down the room, like--like----"
+
+"Frau Syndic," said Frau Krummhorn, "you repeated a fine couplet this
+afternoon."
+
+"Why, yes. 'King of deserts is the Lion, when he strides along his
+path.' Well, he strode up and down like such a king of deserts, and
+when the old inspector and his daughter came in, he rushed up to them,
+with the bitterest reproaches."
+
+"But, good gracious!" said the little assessor, laying her knitting in
+her lap, "could you hear, then?"
+
+"No, dear," said Frau Syndic, laughing at the stupidity of the little
+assessor, "we did not _hear_ it; but Frau Krummhorn and I both _saw_
+it, saw it with our own eyes. And the old inspector stood before him,
+like a poor sinner, and looked down, and let it all go over his head,
+and his daughter threw her arm about his neck, as if she would protect
+him."
+
+"Yes," interrupted Frau Krummhorn, "it was just so, as when old Stahl,
+the cooper, was arrested, because he had stolen hoops. His daughter
+Marik sprang between him and the policeman, Hoppner, and would not let
+her father be taken to the Rath-house, because of his white hair; but
+he had stolen the hoops, I am sure of it, for I had him put three new
+hoops about my milk-pail, and my husband said it was all the same to
+us, whether they were stolen or not, and for the milk also, it would
+not turn sour, on account of the stolen hoops; but I have noticed----"
+
+"Right, Frau Krummhorn," said Frau Syndic, stopping her, "you noticed,
+also, how pale the girl looked, and how she trembled, when the young
+Herr turned to her, and released himself."
+
+"No," said Frau Krummhorn, honestly, "she looked pale, but I did not
+see that she trembled."
+
+"_I_ saw it," said the Frau Syndic, "she trembled like _that_,"
+shaking herself back and forth in her chair, as if it were a warm
+summer day, and she were shaking off the flies,--"and he stood before
+her, like this,"--here she stood up--"'The last link is broken,' as my
+son, the student, sings, and he looked at her _so_," and here she
+looked so angrily at the little assessor, that the latter grew quite
+red, "and then the old Frau Pastorin thrust herself between them, and
+tried to quiet her, and soothed him, and talked so much, and perhaps
+succeeded in a measure, for he gave them both the hand, at parting; but
+when he left the house, it was clearly to be read in his face, how glad
+he was that he had broken off with this company. Wasn't it so, Frau
+Krummhorn?"
+
+"I didn't see that," said the merchant's wife, "I was looking at the
+young girl, how she stood with her arms crossed on her breast, and so
+pale. God bless me! I have seen pale girls enough,--only lately, my
+brother's daughter, she has the pale sickness, and the doctor is always
+saying, 'Iron! iron!' but she has iron enough, her father is a
+blacksmith. He might have been something very different, for our late
+father----"
+
+"Ah, the poor girl!" cried the stupid little assessor, "she is such a
+pretty girl. And the poor old man! I cannot believe that, with his
+white hair, he has done such dreadful things."
+
+"Dear," said the Frau Syndic, with a look at the little assessor,
+which, interpreted into ordinary language, meant "You goose!"--"dear,
+be careful of such indiscriminate compassion, and beware how you
+associate with people who are connected with criminals."
+
+"Yes, he has done it," went from mouth to mouth, from stocking to
+stocking, from cup to cup. The little assessor was silenced; but all at
+once, a couple of gray, old, experienced advocates stood up for her,
+who usually in the tea-fights were retained as state-attorneys for the
+prosecution, but, to-day, undertook the defense. They had looked at
+each other and nodded, during the Frau Syndic's speech; they would let
+her tell it all out quietly, and then they would free their minds. And
+the Frau Syndic had done a stupid thing, she had forgotten the
+relationship, for the two old advocates were Frau Kurz, and Frau
+Rectorin Baldrian, and now was their time, and they took the Frau
+Syndic by the collar:
+
+"Dear, how do you know that Habermann is a criminal?"
+
+"Darling, didn't you know that Habermann is brother-in-law to my
+brother?"
+
+"Dear, you should be careful of your sharp tongue."
+
+"Darling, you have often got into trouble on account of it."
+
+So they shot each other, with "Dear" and "Darling," back and forth
+across the table, and the tea-spoons clattered in the cups, and the
+cap-ribbons fluttered under the chins, the innocent knitting-work was
+bundled together, and stuffed into bags; the Frau Burgomeisterin took
+sides with the two advocates, for she had not forgotten the Frau
+Syndic's sharp words; the hostess ran from one to another, and begged
+by all that was holy, they would not disgrace her so sadly, as to break
+out into such a quarrel at her tea, and the little assessor began to
+cry bitterly, for she believed that she was the cause of the whole
+disturbance. But the mischief was done; half went away, the other half
+stayed, and Rahnstadt was divided into two parties.
+
+And the people, about whom all the fuss was made, were sitting, if not
+peacefully, yet quietly, in their room, with no suspicion how much
+trouble and breaking of heads they had caused to their next neighbors,
+and how much strife and hatred. They had no idea that the stern look,
+which the Frau Syndic shot across the street from her red face
+signified anything to them, and the little Frau Pastorin remarked more
+than once, "From her looks the Frau Syndic must be a very determined
+and energetic person, who would keep good order in her household." And
+Louise had no suspicion that the pretty young girl, who went back and
+forth past their house, and cast many a stolen glance at her window,
+was filled to the depths of her heart with sympathy for her, and that
+this was the foolish little assessor, who had taken her part at the
+tea-fight.
+
+Ah no, these people had something quite different to think of, and to
+care about; Louise must keep her sick heart still, and conceal it from
+the world, that her father might not see its bleeding wounds, which the
+visit of Franz had torn open afresh; Habermann was more quiet and
+profoundly thoughtful, after this visit than before; he had neither
+eyes nor thoughts for anything but his child. He sat lost in
+reflection, only, when his daughter looked paler and more absent-minded
+than usual, he would spring up, and run out into the little garden, and
+walk up and down, till he became composed. Ah, where was his hatred,
+when he saw his child's love! Where was his anger against the world,
+when, in the world nearest him, he saw only kindness and friendliness?
+Hate and anger must disappear from such a heart; but sadness remained,
+and the most pitiful compassion, for the destiny of his only child. The
+little Frau Pastorin thought no longer of her duster, she had something
+else to care for than tables and chairs. She must clear away the
+rubbish from two hearts, which had grown fast to her own, and she
+polished away at them, with her efforts to comfort, till they should be
+bright and clear again: but her labor was in vain, at least with
+Habermann. The sinews of the old man's strength were cut, with his good
+name, every joy and hope of life was gone, and the unwonted quiet and
+inaction made him more and more depressed, so that his case would have
+been a lamentable one, if the sweet voice of his child had not
+sometimes banished the evil spirit, as the singing of the youthful
+David the evil spirit of King Saul. All that Franz had urged so
+impressively, that the chief difficulty was removed by the finding of
+the book, that he must know what a weak, inconsiderate creature his
+cousin Axel was, and that his judgment could not harm him, that _he_
+should believe in him, though all the world were against him, for he
+had another world in his own breast; all this, which the Frau Pastorin
+repeated, he put aside, and remained firm in his resolve that, so long
+as his innocence was not fully established about the stolen money, so
+long his name was branded with disgrace, and he must hold back the
+young man, even against his will, that his own reputation might not be
+injured.
+
+This was now, seen by daylight, sheer nonsense, and many a one might
+here ask, with reason, Why did he not, with his good conscience, go
+freely and boldly before the world, and scorn their lying rumors? And I
+agree, the question is reasonable; he should have done it, and he would
+have done it, if he had still been the _old_ Habermann. But he was so
+no longer, through provocations, injuries and neglect, he had grown
+morbid, and now came this open accusation, and the dreadful scene with
+his master, and the young Frau had deserted him, for whom he would have
+given his life, and all this happened at a time when his heart had just
+opened to the hope of a happy future. The frosts of winter do no harm;
+spring will yet come; but when everything is fresh and growing, and the
+snow falls upon our green hopes, then there is snow and trouble, and
+all the little song-birds, who were building and pairing with the
+spring, are chilled and frozen in their nests, and the blighted groves
+are silent as death. The old man had prepared a great feast in his
+heart, and would welcome to it the fairest hopes, and now dark forms
+crowded in, and turned everything to confusion, and took away the only
+treasure, which he had laid up in his whole life; that gave him a blow,
+from which he could not recover. Take away a miser's treasure, which he
+has been scraping together for sixty years, and you take his life with
+it, and that is but a treasure which rust can devour; what is it to an
+honest name?
+
+So the Frau Pastorin's only comfort lay in the last words of Franz: he
+could wait, and he should come again.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+So Habermann kept himself to himself, and sat in his room, or went into
+the garden, when the Frau Pastorin had visitors; and that was often the
+case, for one half of Rahnstadt believed they were causing great
+annoyance to the other half, who had put the Frau Pastorin's house
+under the ban, if they visited her frequently. So it came to pass, that
+the Rector Baldrian and Kurz the merchant were continually dropping in
+at the Frau Pastorin's; for their wives had discoursed to them so
+impressively, at home, over Habermann's innocence, that it was
+impossible for them to retain any doubt of it. From outside the city,
+came young Jochen, and his wife, and Mining, and also Pastor Gottlieb
+and Lining, often, of an afternoon; but Braesig came at all times, and
+made the Frau Pastorin's house his dove-cote, where his innocent old
+heart flew in and out, with a crop full of news, which he had gathered
+in Rexow, and Pumpelhagen, and Gurlitz, for his old friend. He informed
+him that the earth was dry,--that is to say, the fields,--but he did
+not always bring the olive-branch in his beak; when the talk was about
+Pomuchelskopp and Axel, he let it fall, in his anger, and the dove
+became a veritable raven. He was not to be brought back, when he had
+flown away, and he told Habermann to his face he came to divert him to
+other thoughts, and if it did not please him, he did not take it ill;
+but would come again the next day, with much to tell about the weather
+and the farming.
+
+And in the spring of 1846, there was much to tell about these subjects.
+The winter had been warm and moist, and the spring came so early, that
+scarcely any one could remember the like; in February the grass was
+green, and the winter wheat was up and the clover sprouting, and the
+ground was wonderfully dry, and the farmers went about, considering if
+it were not time to plant peas. "Karl," said Braesig, "you shall see, it
+will be a pitiful story, the spring is too early, and when a bird sings
+too soon in the morning, the cat catches him before night; you shall
+see, we shall look sad enough, at the harvest. The devil take such
+early springs!" And on Palm-Sunday, he came into Habermann's room, with
+an open rape-blossom in his hand, and laid it on the table before him.
+"There, you see, it, is just as I told you! I picked that from your rape
+in Pumpelhagen. You shall see, Karl, in a week the louis-d'ors will be
+out; but it is of no good, full of bugs from top to bottom."
+
+"Eh, Zachary, we have often had it so, and yet had a good crop of
+rape."
+
+"Yes, Karl, the _black_; but the _gray_,--I have brought you the proof
+for your entertainment," and he reached to the table and picked out a
+little chrysalis; but when he opened it, there was nothing in it.
+
+"That is what I say, Karl! These old skulking gray chafers are such sly
+old dogs, they are not to be reckoned on, and no more is the mischief
+they do. You shall see, Karl, this whole year will be a spoiled omelet,
+everything is going contrary to nature. How? Usually you will see crows
+in the rye, by May-day; this year you will see half-grown turkeys
+there! No, Karl, the world has turned round, and in some places the
+pastors are already preaching from their pulpits that the moon has
+crowded in between the sun and the earth, and that then the sun comes
+too near to the earth, and everything will be destroyed, that this is
+the beginning of the last day, and that people must repent."
+
+"Ah, Zachary, that is all stuff and nonsense."
+
+"So I say, Karl, and the repenting has turned out badly, in some
+places, for at Little Bibow, the day-laborers have struck work, and
+sold their bits of possessions to the Jews, and drink from morning to
+night, because they want to enjoy their property here. My Pastor
+Gottlieb would have preached something of the kind, but I stood by
+Lining, and she talked him out of it. But no good will come of such a
+year, Karl."
+
+"I think, myself, that we shall have a bad harvest; but Kurz was here
+yesterday, and he talked so much about the fine winter wheat, which is
+standing in the fields----"
+
+"Karl, I thought you had more sense. Kurz! I beg of you. Kurz! He knows
+what a salt herring ought to be, he understands _that_, for he is an
+experienced merchant; but when he talks about winter wheat, he should
+get up earlier in the morning,--that belongs to farmers, experienced
+farmers. And this is just what I say, Karl, everybody thinks he may
+meddle with our business, and these old city folks are as wise as the
+bees. Well, if any one practices farming pour paster la tante, just for
+his own amusement,--a la bonc[oe]ur! I have no objections; but if he
+sets himself as a judge--well! Kurz! In syrup casks and cards, he can
+see straight enough; but when he looks at a rye-field, there is a veil
+before his eyes. But what I was going to say is, next week I am coming
+to you, bag and baggage."
+
+"No, Braesig, no! If this proves a bad year, you will be necessary to
+the young people, and the young pastor knows too little of farming to
+be able to get on without you."
+
+"Yes, Karl, he is stupid, and if you think so,--for I have quite given
+myself up to you,--then I will stay with him. But now, good-bye. I
+don't know what ails me, but my stomach feels badly: I will see if Frau
+Pastorin hasn't a little kuemmel for me."
+
+With that he went out, but put his head in again to say, "I had almost
+forgotten about Pumpelhagen, they have a management there, now, that
+you could warm your hands and feet at. Yesterday I met your
+Triddlesitz, at the boundary, and although he is such an infamous
+greyhound, he almost cried. 'Herr Inspector,' said he, 'you see I lay
+all night, thinking about the management, and not able to sleep, and
+when I had planned it all out, in the nicest way, and given the people
+their orders, in the morning, do you see, the Herr comes out with his
+arm in a sling, and spoils my plans, and sends one laborer here, and
+another there, running about the fields like hens with their heads cut
+off, and I run after them and get them together again, and get things
+in order, and then, in the afternoon, he tears it all to pieces again!'
+Karl, it must be a great satisfaction for you,--that is, to see that
+they cannot get on without you." Then he shut the door, and went off,
+but, after a little while, made his appearance again: "Karl, what I was
+going to say--half the horses in Pumpelhagen are used up; a couple of
+days ago, there stood a loaded manure-cart, and the poor beasts stood
+there so forlorn, head and ears down, just like the peasants in church.
+And it is not because they are overworked, but because they have not
+enough to eat, for your young Herr has no superfluity in his barns, and
+he has sold this spring three tons of oats and two tons of peas to the
+Jews, and now his granary is as bare as if the cattle had licked it.
+And now he must buy oats; but the poor screws that earn his bread don't
+get it, most of it goes to the old thorough-bred mares who do nothing
+but steal a living from others. There is great injustice in the world!
+Well, good-bye, Karl!" and this time he really departed.
+
+That was a sad picture, which Braesig had drawn of the situation at
+Pumpelhagen; but in truth, matters were much worse, for he had said
+nothing of the influence which Axel's constant need of money had upon
+his temper, and this was the saddest. Continual embarrassment not only
+makes a man out of humor, it makes him hard towards his inferiors, and
+our Axel fell into the old fault; he believed he was so badly off
+because his people fared too well, and Pomuchelskopp was always telling
+him so. He took from them one thing here, and another there, and when
+his natural good-nature got the upper hand, he gave them again
+something here and there; but everything capriciously,--and that has a
+bad effect. At first, the people had laughed at his confused
+management, but that is always the beginning, and the laughing soon
+became a grumbling, and the grumbling broke out into accusations and
+complaints. Under Habermann's rule, the day-laborers had always
+received their grain and money at the right time; now they must wait,
+until there was something to give them; that was bad. And if they went
+to their master with complaints they were snubbed; that was worse.
+Discontent was universal.
+
+Axel comforted himself with the new, harvest, and with the new
+receipts; but, unfortunately, Braesig proved a true prophet; when the
+harvest was ripe it was very thin, and when it was garnered, the barns
+were only half full, and the old experienced country people said to the
+new beginners: "Take care! Spare in time, and you will have in need!
+The grain will not hold out." The advice was good, but of what use was
+it to Axel? He must have money, so he had most of his grain thrashed
+out, for seed-corn and for sale. And grain was for sale at a fine
+price, for the Jews saw how it must turn out, and bought up on
+speculation, and so to the natural scarcity was added an artificial.
+The old day-laborers, at Pumpelhagen, shook their heads, as the loads
+of rye were driven from the Court: "What will become of us! What will
+become of us! We have got no bread-corn." And the housewives stood
+together, wringing their hands: "See, neighbor, that little heap! Those
+are all my potatoes, and all poor, and what are we to live on this
+winter?" And so the scarcity was universal, and it had come over this
+blessed land like a thief in the night, no one had thought of it, no
+one had prepared for it, since no one knew what to expect. But it was
+the worst in the little towns, and there it was the hardest for the
+poor mechanics,--for laboring men, there was still labor, and their
+children went about begging from door to door, and afterwards there
+were soup-kitchens organized; but the poor mechanics? They had no
+work,--no one employed them,--and they did not understand begging, nor
+did it suit their honor and reputation. Ah, I went once into the room
+of a right clever, industrious burgher's wife, when the dinner stood
+upon the table, and the hungry children stood around it, and as I
+entered the room the Frau threw, a cloth over the platter, and when she
+had gone out to call her husband, I lifted the cloth, and what did I
+find? Boiled potato-skins. That was their dinner.
+
+At such times, our Lord sits in the heavens, and sifts the good from
+the bad, so that every one may clearly distinguish between them; the
+good, he keeps by himself, in his sieve, that he may take his pleasure
+in them, and that they may bear fruit, the bad fall through with the
+tares and the cockles and the nettles,--these are their unrighteous
+wishes, their wicked intentions, and their bad thoughts,--and when one
+looks to see if they bear fruit, the weeds are growing rapidly, and the
+blossoms make a fair show before the world, but when the harvest comes,
+and the sickle goes through the field, then their grain falls light on
+the soil, and the master turns away from the field, for it stands
+written, "By their fruits ye shall know them."
+
+Many a one stood firm in this trial, and gave with full hands, in spite
+of his own necessities, and the Landrath von O---- and the Kammerath
+von E---- and the Paechter H---- and also our old Moses, and many
+others, remained in the Lord's sieve, and bore good fruit in these bad
+times, but Pomuchelskopp fell through, and Slusuhr and David, and lay
+among the tares and the nettles, and they sat together at Gurlitz, and
+planned how they might fatten their swine upon other people's
+misfortunes. And David and Slusuhr knew well enough how to do it, if
+they only had money enough, they would lend it out to the poor and the
+distressed, to the hungry and the freezing, at high interest; but the
+capital which they had at their command, for the time being, was all
+embarked in this fine business, and they came now to the Herr
+Proprietor to get him to advance money and he should share in their
+profits. But the far-sighted Herr would not do this, it would be in
+everybody's mouth, and he should be blamed; so he said that he had
+nothing to spare, and must keep the little he had to bring his cattle
+and his people through.
+
+"As for your cattle," said Slusuhr insolently, "I give in; but for the
+people? Do me the favor to say nothing about them! Your people are
+begging all over the country, and just as we drove by the parsonage,
+your housewives and their children were standing in the parson's yard,
+and your old friend Braesig stood by two great pails of pea soup, and
+the young Frau Pastorin ladled it into their kettles.
+
+"Let them! let them!" said Pomuchelskopp, "I wouldn't hinder any body
+in a good work. _They_ may have it to spare; I haven't, and I have no
+money either."
+
+"You have the Pumpelhagen notes," said David.
+
+"Yes, do you think he can pay them? He has had a poorer harvest than
+the rest of us, and the little he had he has threshed out and sold."
+
+"That is just it," said Slusuhr, "now is your time. Such a fine
+opportunity may not come again, and he cannot take it unkindly of you,
+for you are yourself pressed for money, and must pay the notes to
+David. Now don't make any objections, but shake the tree, for the plums
+are ripe."
+
+"How high is the sum total?" inquired David.
+
+"Well," said Pomuchelskopp, going to his desk, and scratching his head,
+"I have his notes here for eleven thousand thalers."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" said Slusuhr, "it must be more than that."
+
+"No, it isn't more than that,--I lent him eight thousand on security, a
+year and a half ago, when he asked me."
+
+"Then you have done a stupid thing, but you must first give him notice,
+and then you can sue him," said the notary; "but never mind! Give me
+the eleven thousand thalers, we can distress him finely, in these hard
+times."
+
+Muchel would not consent, at first; but Haenning put her head in at the
+door, and he knew very well what she wanted, so he gave the notes to
+Slusuhr and David.
+
+Then the old game was played over again in Pumpelhagen, Slusuhr and
+David came, and set Axel burning, as if with fever, and attacked him
+more sharply than ever, and this time there was no talk of extension.
+He must and should pay, and he had'nt a shilling, not even the prospect
+of getting any money. It came over him like Nicodemus in the night, and
+for the first time the dark thought rose in his mind that this was a
+concerted plan, that his friendly neighbor at Gurlitz was the real
+cause of his embarrassment, and that he must have some special design
+in sending the notes to be cashed through these two rascals; but what
+it could be, remained hidden from his eyes. But what availed thinking
+and grumbling, he must have money, and from whom? He knew no one, and
+in spite of the suspicion which had risen in his mind, his thoughts
+returned to his neighbor Pomuchelskopp. He must help; who else was
+there? He mounted his horse, and rode over to Gurlitz.
+
+Muchel received him with uncommon friendliness and cordiality, as if
+neighbors should be drawn nearer together, in these hard times, and
+stand by each other faithfully, in their troubles. He told great
+stories of his bad harvest, and complained sadly of his pecuniary
+embarrassments, so that Axel was quite taken aback in his purposes, and
+feel almost ashamed to come to a man who was in such distress, to ask
+for assistance. But need breaks iron, and he asked him, finally, why he
+had served him so as to give up his notes to those two bloodsuckers;
+and Pomuchel folded his hands on his stomach, and looked very
+mournfully at the young man, saying,--
+
+"Ah, Herr von Rambow, in my great need! Do you see!" and he opened his
+desk, and showed a drawer, in which a couple of hundred thalers were
+lying, "There is all I have, and I must take care of my people and my
+cattle, and I thought perhaps you might have money lying idle."
+
+"But," said Axel, "why not come to me yourself?"
+
+"I did not like to," said Muchel; "you know the old proverb, 'Money
+joins enemies, and severs friends,' and we are such good friends."
+
+Yes, that was true. Axel said; but these two had distressed him
+grievously, and he was in the most dreadful embarrassment.
+
+"Did they do that?" exclaimed Pomuchelskopp, "but they ought not! I
+gave it to them on condition that my dear Herr Neighbor should not be
+distressed. You will of course want the note extended, it will cost you
+a little something, perhaps, but that can be no objection under the
+circumstances."
+
+Axel knew that, but he did not let himself be so easily persuaded, his
+condition was too desperate, and he begged earnestly that if the Herr
+Proprietor had no money to spare, he would help him with his credit.
+"Good heavens! gladly," said Muchel, "but with whom? Who has any money
+now?"
+
+"Could not Moses help?" asked Axel.
+
+"I don't know him at all," was the reply, "I have no dealings with him.
+Your father did business with him, and you know him yourself. Yes, I
+would go and see him."
+
+That was all the comfort Axel got; smoothly as an eel, the Herr
+Proprietor slipped through his fingers, and when he got on his horse,
+and rode home, all was dark around him, but it was darker still within.
+
+David and Slusuhr came again, they beset him in the most shameless
+manner, and whatever he might say of Pomuchelskopp's later intentions,
+they would know nothing about them, they only knew that they must have
+their money.
+
+He rode hither and thither, he knocked here and there; but there was
+nothing to be had anywhere; and weary and discouraged he came home, and
+there he was met by the quiet eyes of his wife, which said, clearly
+enough, that she suspected everything, but her mouth was silent, and
+her lips closely compressed, as if a fair book, in which stood many a
+word of comfort, must remain forever closed to him. Since the time when
+Habermann had been sent off in such a disgraceful manner, and she had
+become aware of the great injustice she had done him, out of love to
+her husband, she had said nothing more to him about his difficulties;
+she could not help him, and she would give him no occasion to betray
+himself and other people with new falsehoods. But this time he was, for
+the moment, in great anxiety, and his excitable, vexed, hasty demeanor
+betrayed his distress more fully than usual, and when she retired that
+night, and looked long at her child, the thought flashed through her
+head and heart, he was yet the father of her dearest on earth, and he
+seemed to her so pitiable that she wept bitterly over him, and she
+promised herself to speak to him with friendliness, the next morning,
+and to take upon herself, willingly, her share of his self-imposed
+burdens.
+
+But when morning came. Axel come down stairs, with singing and piping,
+and called Triddelsitz, and gave him instructions, and called for
+Krischan Daesel, and ordered him to put the horses to the carriage, and
+prepare for several days absence, and came in to his wife with a face
+which was not merely free from distress but full of security, so that
+she was astounded, and took back her promise.
+
+"Are you going a journey?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, I must travel on business, and shall probably go as far as
+Schwerin. Have you any commands for the sisters?"
+
+She had merely greetings to send, and after a little while Axel said
+good-bye, and got into the carriage, and drove to Schwerin. He had told
+his wife but half the truth; he had no other business but at Schwerin,
+and with his sisters. It had occurred to him, during the night, that
+his sisters had money; his father had left them a little house, with a
+garden, and fifteen thousand thalers, and their capital was invested at
+four and a half per cent., and they lived on the interest; to be sure,
+in rather slender circumstances, but the Kammerrath could not do better
+for them, and had reckoned that the brothers-in-law, and especially
+Axel, would be able to assist them a little. This capital had occurred
+to Axel in the night, he could use it at once, it would help him
+immediately, and he could pay them interest for it, as well as strange
+people, but he would give them five per cent., and, though he was hard
+up for the moment, the devil must be in it, if he could not pay them
+again. This prospect was what had so enlivened him.
+
+When the young Herr came to Schwerin, and explained his business to the
+sisters, and complained of the bad year, the poor old creatures became
+very soft-hearted and comforted him, as if the whole world had gone
+against him, and when Albertine, who was the cleverest of them, and who
+looked after the money matters, began to speak very gently of
+securities, the other two, and especially Fidelia, interrupted her.
+That would be very narrow-minded, their brother was in need, and so
+were many people in the country, and their brother was their pride, and
+their only dependence, so their blessed father had said, shortly before
+his death; and when Axel readily promised to give them security on the
+estate Albertine surrendered, and the three old maidens were greatly
+delighted that they could help their dear brother. He was also
+fortunate, in getting hold of the money; a couple of Jews had it, and
+he found them, and a little interest was due on it, and this he took
+likewise, for he intended, of course, that his sisters should receive
+their full fifteen thousand thalers again, and from this time get five
+per cent, interest on it.
+
+He returned to his house, in the week after New Year, 1847, and a
+couple of days later, when David and Slusuhr came again, expecting to
+torment him, he counted out the money on the table, paid his notes, and
+made a bow to their long faces, which both translated into the words:
+"A good riddance, gentlemen!"
+
+"What is this?" asked Slusuhr, as they got into their carriage.
+
+"God bless me!" said David, "he has money. Did you see? He had still a
+great packet of money."
+
+"Yes, but how did he get it?"
+
+"Well, we must ask Zodick."
+
+Zodick was a poor cousin of David's, whom he always took with him, as
+coachman, but his real business was to listen to the people on the
+estate.
+
+"Zodick, did you see, did you hear where he has been?"
+
+"The coachman told me he had been to Schwerin."
+
+"To Schwerin? What business had he at Schwerin?"
+
+"He got the money there."
+
+"In Schwerin? It is what I have always said to my father, these
+nobility stand by each other. He must have got it from the rich one,
+from the cousin."
+
+"So?" asked Slusuhr, taking a packet of money out of his pocket, and
+holding it under David's nose. "Smell of that! Does that smell of
+nobility? It smells of garlic; he got it from your confounded Jews. But
+it is all one,--we must go to Pomuchelskopp. Ha, ha, ha! How the
+crafty, little beast will hop about with anger!"
+
+And in that he was right, Pomuchelskopp was beyond all control, when he
+learned that his blow had not succeeded: "I said so, I said so; it was
+not yet time; but, Haeuning, Haeuning! you crowded me so!"
+
+"You are a blockhead!" said Haeuning, and left the room.
+
+"Take hold again," said Slusuhr; "never mind this, now you can give him
+notice, for St. John's day, for the eight thousand which you have let
+him have."
+
+"No, no," whispered Pomuchelskopp, "that is the only foothold I have in
+that fine estate; if he should pay me, my plans are all spoiled. And he
+has still more money?" he asked of David.
+
+"He had a large packet and a small packet."
+
+"Well," said Slusuhr, "you will have your way, like the dog in the
+well; but he must be an uncommon blockhead if he doesn't suspect, now,
+that you are at the bottom of the whole affair; and, if he has smelt a
+rat, it amounts to the same thing, whether you give him notice now, or
+a couple of years later."
+
+"Children, children!" cried this dignified old proprietor, stamping and
+puffing up and down the room, like a steam-engine, "if he has really
+suspected it, he cannot do without me; I am the only friend that can
+help him."
+
+"Well, don't help him, then. St. John's day is the best time, then he
+has no money coming in."
+
+"Hasn't he though? He has the wool-money, and the rape-money."
+
+"Yes, but then he has interest to pay, and most of it will have been
+spent beforehand."
+
+"No, I cannot do it, I cannot do it; the foot which I have once planted
+in that fine estate, I can never draw back," said our old
+philanthropist.
+
+"It is a great pity for a man to set himself about something, and then
+be afraid of the means," said the Herr Notary to David, as they drove
+home. "Our fine business in Pumpelhagen is at an end. I shall merely
+have to deal with the old woman, instead of him, the old woman will put
+it through."
+
+"A dreadfully strong, clever woman," said David.
+
+"Well, there is no help for it. Our milch cow at Pumpelhagen is dry.
+And it would all have gone well enough, David, if you had not been such
+a dunce. Why couldn't you make your father give notice for his seven
+thousand thalers? Then we two could have stripped him finely."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried David, "he wouldn't do it. There he goes to old
+Habermann, and there they sit and talk, and when I say, 'Father, dear,
+give notice!' then he says, 'Give notice of your own money, I will take
+care of mine.'"
+
+"He is getting childish then, and a man whose judgment is not worth
+more should be put under guardians," said Slusuhr.
+
+"Well, you know, I have thought of that; but, you know,--it is
+so--well, so--so--and then, you know, the father is too clever!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+Axel, by the help of what remained of his sisters' money, slipped along
+through the spring and half the summer of 1817, and, as he at last came
+to the bottom of his purse, he preferred to sell his wool in
+anticipation, rather than apply to his honest old neighbor. He saw, at
+last, the thick knuckles of Pomuchelskopp behind the whole affair, and
+his suspicion grew more and more lively that he had been sheared like
+one of the sheep, and that his dear old neighbor had kept the wool,
+though of what his chief aim might be he had not the least conception.
+He grew colder and colder towards Pomuchelskopp, he no longer visited
+him, he went out through the garden into the fields, when he saw from
+the window the Herr Proprietor coming to call, and his wife rejoiced
+silently at the change. We might rejoice, also, if he had acted
+intelligently and with consideration, and had broken off the
+intercourse with a cool head, but he worked himself up into such an
+opposition to Pomuchelskopp, that he wished never to set eyes on him
+again, and when the opportunity occurred, at the patriotic union at
+Rahnstadt, and the Herr Proprietor pressed up to him in a very friendly
+way, he not only snubbed him, but treated him in the most contemptuous
+manner, and used such bitter words that all the people who were
+assembled there took it for a reproach against Pomuchelskopp for his
+money-lending. This was, if not dishonorable, certainly extremely
+foolish, for he still owed Pomuchelskopp eight thousand thalers, which
+he was not ready to pay, and, if he had known the Herr Proprietor as
+well as he said, he must also have known what the effect of such
+treatment would be. Pomuchelskopp could swallow a considerable dose of
+rudeness, but this, in the presence of all the people, was too much for
+him, and his vengeance lay too close at hand for him not to avail
+himself of it. He said nothing, but he went round to Slusuhr the
+notary: "You can give the Herr von Rambow notice on St. John's day, to
+pay my eight thousand thalers on St. Anthony's. I know, now, where I
+am; we shall get him in our fingers again, and he shall smart to pay
+for it."
+
+"If only Moses would give notice too!" cried Slusuhr, and this pious
+wish was destined to fulfilment, but later. A change had also come over
+young Jochen, although no one but Frau Nuessler had thought of it; she,
+indeed, had long suspected that her Jochen would come to a bad end, and
+that, at last, he would not allow himself to be ruled by any one. And
+the time had now come. Jochen had, from the first, laid by money every
+year: at first indeed, only a couple of hundred thalers; but afterwards
+the hundreds became thousands, and though he did not trouble himself to
+count the money, his wife told him, every New-Year's morning, how much
+they had saved the past year, and his soul rejoiced in it, though he
+scarcely knew why; but he had been accustomed to it now for many years,
+and custom and life were, for Jochen, the same thing. When the bad year
+came, Frau Nuessler said to Jochen at the harvest: "This will be a bad
+year, you shall see we shall have to use some oL our capital."
+
+"Mother!" said Jochen, looking at her with astonishment, "you wouldn't
+do it!"
+
+But this New-Year's morning his dear wife came and told him she had,
+this year, taken up three thousand thalers, and God grant they might
+get through with that! "We cannot let our people and our cattle
+starve," she added.
+
+Jochen sprang to his feet, a very unusual thing, trod on Bauschan's
+toes, another unusual thing, looked stupidly in his wife's face, but
+said nothing, which was not unusual, and went silently out of the
+room, Bauschan following him. Noon came, Jochen was not there, a fine
+spare-rib was smoking on the table, Jochen did not appear; his wife
+called him, but he did not hear; she sought him, but he could not be
+found; for he was standing in the dark cow-house, in one hand the
+tar-bucket, in the other, the tar-brush, with which he was marking
+crosses on his cattle; Bauschan stood beside him. After a long time,
+his wife discovered him at this occupation.
+
+"Good gracious, Jochen, why don't you come to dinner?"
+
+"Mother, I have not time."
+
+"What are you doing here in the cow-stable, with the tar-bucket?"
+
+"I am marking the cows, that we must sell."
+
+"God forbid!" cried Frau Nuessler, snatching the brush out of his hand.
+"What is this? my best milk-givers!"
+
+"Mother," said Jochen quietly, "we must get rid of some of our people
+and our cows, they will eat us out of house and home." And it was
+fortunate he had begun on the cattle, and not on the people, otherwise
+the boys and girls might have been running about Rexow, that New Year's
+day, with tar crosses marked on their backs.
+
+With great difficulty Frau Nuessler coaxed him away from this business,
+and got him into the house, but then Jochen announced it as his
+positive decision, he would manage no longer, and he _could_ manage no
+longer, and Rudolph must come, and marry Mining, and undertake the
+management. Frau Nuessler could do nothing with him, and sent for
+Braesig. And Mining, who had heard enough, for her share, fled to her
+little gable-room, and held her little heart with both hands, and said
+to herself that was wrong, why should not her father take his ease, and
+why should not Rudolph carry on the farm, he was able, Hilgendorff had
+written so; and, if Uncle Braesig was opposed to her in this matter, she
+would tell him, once for all, she would no longer be his godchild.
+
+When Braesig came, and the matter was explained to him, he placed
+himself before young Jochen, and said to him, "What are you doing,
+young Jochen? Painting your cows with tar crosses, on the blessed
+New-Year's morning? and going to sell your wife's best milk-givers? and
+going to give up the management?"
+
+"Braesig, Rudolph can manage; why should not Mining get married, when
+Lining is married? Is Mining any worse?" And he looked sideways at
+Bauschan, and Bauschan shook his head.
+
+"Jochen," said Braesig, "that is all right. You have spoken a very
+clever word in your foolishness,"--Jochen looked up--"no, Jochen, it is
+no special credit to you, it is only because it suits my ideas, for I
+am of the opinion that Rudolph must manage here. Keep still, Frau
+Nuessler," said he, "just come here, a moment." And he drew Frau Nuessler
+into another room, and put the case before her. Until Easter, he should
+stay with Pastor Gottlieb, and till then, he could look after matters
+here; but, after Easter, Rudolph must manage, "and that will be good
+for you," he added, "for he will make no tar crosses on your cows, and
+it will be good for him too, he will get used to managing, by degrees,
+and then, a year from Easter, we, will have joyful wedding."
+
+"But, Braesig, that will never do, how can Mining and Rudolph live in
+one house, what will people say?"
+
+"Frau Nuessler, I know people have a very bad opinion of their
+fellow-creatures when they are betrothed; I know, when I had
+three,--eh, what was I saying? Well, Mining can go to Pastor Gottlieb's
+at Easter, I shall go to Rahnstadt, to Habermann, and then my room will
+be empty."
+
+"Well, that would do," said Frau Nuessler.
+
+And so it was all arranged. Rudolph came at Easter, but Mining must go,
+and as she sat in the carriage with bag and baggage, she wiped the
+tears from her eyes, and thought herself the most unfortunate being in
+the world, because her mother had thrust her out of her father's house
+among strangers,--by which she meant her sister Lining,--and that
+without any reason; and she clenched her little fist, when she thought
+of Braesig, for her mother had let it out that Braesig had advised it.
+"Yes," said she, "and now I am to go into his room, which he has so
+smoked up with tobacco, that one can write his name with his finger, on
+the walls."
+
+But how she opened her eyes, when she entered the room! In the middle
+of the room stood a table, covered with a white cloth, and on it stood
+a pretty glass vase with a great bouquet of such flowers as the season
+afforded; snow drops and blue violets, yellow daffodils and hyacinths,
+and under it lay a letter to Mining Nuessler, in Uncle Braesig's
+handwriting, and as she opened it she was almost frightened, for it was
+a copy of verses, and this was the first time she had received such
+homage. Uncle Braesig had borrowed an old verse-book from Schultz the
+carpenter, and found a couple of verses to suit him, and added another
+out of his own head, and this was the letter:
+
+
+                 "To my dear Godchild!
+
+                 "The room is mine
+                  And yet not mine,
+                  He who was before me
+                  Thought it his own.
+
+                 "He went out
+                  And I came in,
+                  When I am gone
+                  It will be so again.
+
+           "Yes, parting and leaving are sad,
+            But next year, we shall be glad,
+            Be good and contented here,
+            And the wedding shall be next year!"
+
+
+Mining turned red a little, over the last line, and fell upon Lining's
+neck, laughing and scolding Braesig; but in heart she waved him a
+friendly kiss. And so Mining was here, Rudolph at Rexow, and Braesig
+with the Frau Pastorin and Habermann at Rahnstadt.
+
+There was not much change in Habermann, he still kept by himself,
+although many troubled themselves about him; the rector preached him a
+little sermon now and then, Kurz entertained him with agricultural
+conversation, and old Moses hobbled up the stairs, and asked his advice
+about his business; but this did not cheer the old man, he tormented
+himself, day and night, with thoughts of his child, and with the
+long-deferred hope that the day-laborer Regel might return, and by a
+full confession free him from these shameful suspicions. The laborer
+had sent letters, and also money, to his wife and children; but never
+let himself be seen. The little Frau Pastorin had a secret anxiety lest
+her old friend should become incurably morbid, and she felt truly
+thankful, when Braesig finally came. Braesig could help her, and Braesig
+would; if any one could, he was the man. His restless and yet
+good-natured disposition left his Karl no peace, Karl must do this, and
+do that, he must go walking with him, he must listen to all the stupid
+books that Braesig got out of the Rahnstadt Circulating Library, and if
+nothing else would rouse him, Braesig would make the most extravagant
+assertions, till he had stirred Karl up to contradict him, and engaged
+him in a dispute. In this way, there seemed a real improvement in
+Habermann; but if the conversation turned upon Pumpelhagen or Franz, it
+was all over, and the evil spirit came upon him again.
+
+Louise was much better off, she was not one of the woman who believe
+that if their love is blighted they must doctor themselves all their
+lives, and must show the world, through a weary, dreamy behavior, how
+sick their poor hearts are, that death alone can heal them, and that
+they are of no more use in the world. No, she did not belong to this
+species, she had strength and courage to bear a great grief by herself,
+she needed not the compassion of the world. Deep, deep at the bottom of
+her heart lay her love, like pure gold, and she granted no one a sight
+of it, its very shining was locked up from the world, and when she went
+into this secret place, in quiet hours, and looked at her treasure, she
+changed it into little money for every-day use, and gave it out, here
+and there, to all with whom she had to do; and _this_ love the world
+perceived, but not the other. When our Lord sees such a heart striving
+bravely against misfortune, and trying to turn it into good, then he
+helps it, and sends many a chance to its help, of which no one thinks.
+Chances men call them, but, rightly viewed, they are the consequences
+of many other consequences, of which the first cause is hidden from our
+sight.
+
+Such a chance befell Louise, in the Spring after the Female
+Vehmgericht. She was coming home from Lining's at Gurlitz, and going
+between the Rahnstadt gardens, along a footpath, when a garden gate
+opened, and a pretty little maiden stepped out, blushing rosy red, and
+put into her hand a nosegay of lilacs and tulips and narcissus. "Ah,
+take them," said the little assessor,--for it was she,--and as Louise
+stood, rather astonished, not knowing how she came there, the tears ran
+down the little assessor's cheeks, and she covered her hand over her
+eyes, and said, "I should be so glad to give you a pleasure."
+
+Well, that was so kind and friendly! Louise threw her arm about her,
+and kissed the little assessor, and the latter drew her into the
+garden, to the arbor, and then they sat under the blossoming lilacs,
+and Louise and the innocent little girl conceived a warm friendship for
+each other, for from the coals of love friendship is easily kindled,
+and from this time the little assessor was a daily guest at the Frau
+Pastorin's, and all in the house rejoiced at her coming. When Habermann
+heard the first tone of the Frau Pastorin's old piano, he came down
+stairs, and sat in the corner, and listened, while the little assessor
+brought sweet music out of the old instrument, and when that was over,
+the Frau Pastorin had her diversion, for the little assessor was a
+doctor's daughter, and doctors and doctors' children always have
+something new to tell, and although the Frau Pastorin was not exactly
+inquisitive she was very glad to know what was going on in the world,
+and since the time she had lived in the city this little peculiarity
+had developed in her, and she said to Louise, "I don't know; but it
+seems as if one was glad to know what is going on around one; but when
+my sister Triddelsitz tells me anything, it all sounds so sharp, but
+when little Anna tells anything it sounds so innocent and gay; she must
+be a good little child."
+
+But the real significance of this friendship first appeared when the
+bad year came, and its consequences entered the little city,--poverty
+and hunger and misery. Little Anna's father was a doctor, and he had no
+title at all; but he had something better, he had a compassionate
+heart, and when he had told of this and that, at home, the little
+assessor would go to the Frau Pastorin and Louise, and tell it over
+again, and the Frau Pastorin would go to her store-room, and into the
+pantry, and down into the cellar, and pack a basket,--she always did
+that herself, nobody else must meddle with it,--and the two little
+maidens carried it off, in the half-twilight, and when they came back,
+they gave each other a kiss, and the Frau Pastorin one, and Habermann
+one, and that was all. And when the soup-kitchen was to be started, the
+ladies of Rahnstadt held a great "perpendicle," as Braesig called it, to
+decide what it was best to do, and the Frau Syndic said, "It should be
+something noble," and when she was asked what she meant by that, she
+said it was all one to her; but it must be noble, otherwise she would
+have nothing to do with it. And the old Vehmgerichters said there must
+be a distinction made between the wicked and the good poor, the wicked
+might go hungry; and a young lady, who was just married, said they
+ought to have gentlemen at the head; but that was a great mistake,
+all were opposed to her, and the Frau Syndic said, so long as she
+had lived--and that must be a good many years, interjected Frau
+Krummhorn--cooking and nursing had come under the rule of the ladies,
+what did men know about such things? but the business must be noble.
+And the conventicle separated, as wise as it had been when it came
+together, and when the soup-kitchen was started, two pretty little
+maidens, in white aprons, served together at the fire, and put the
+gifts for the poor into the soup-kettles, and sat down with the wicked
+and the good poor, on the same bench, and peeled potatoes for the next
+day, and scraped turnips, and this was the small money into which
+Louise had changed her golden treasure, and the little assessor added
+her groschens to the sum.
+
+Now came Braesig, and relieved the little assessor of the out-door
+errands, for he was peculiarly fitted for such duties, and when he had
+not the confounded Podagra, he ran about the city, saying to Habermann,
+"Karl, Dr. Strump says Polchicum and exercise, and the water-doctor
+says cold water and exercise; they both agree on the exercise, and I
+find that it is good for me. What I was going to say--Moses sends his
+regards to you, and is coming to see you this afternoon."
+
+"What? Has he got back from Doberau, from the baths? I thought he was
+not to come back until August."
+
+"Yes, Karl, it is St. James' day, to-day, and August is almost here.
+But--what I was going to say,--the old Jew has quite renewed his youth,
+he looks really well, and he ran about the room, just to show me how
+spry he was. But I must go to old widow Klaehn, she is waiting in her
+garden for me, because I promised her some turnip-seed, and then I must
+go to Frau Krummhorn, she wants to show me her young kittens, to see
+which one she shall keep for us, for, Karl, we need a good mouser; and
+then I must go to Risch, the blacksmith, to see about the shoes for
+Kurz's old saddle-horse. The old thing has wind-gall, as bad, I tell
+you, Karl, as Moses' David's corns. You don't know, perhaps, if your
+young Herr has got a horse with a wind-gall, he might like to buy the
+old thing from Kurz, for the completeness of his lazaretto. And,
+towards evening, I must go to the Frau Burgomeister, for they have
+three or four bushels of rye, and I shall have a sort of feast, since
+it was cut to-day, and I shall of course have Streichelbier, so that it
+will seem quite like farming. Well, good-bye, Karl, this afternoon I
+will read to you, for I have brought home an amusing book." And so he
+ran off again, up street and down, like a Jack of all trades, toiling
+for other people; for since in our little Mecklenburg towns the chief
+interests turn upon farming matters, he advised here and prophesied
+there, helped this one and that, and was soon the oracle and errand boy
+of the whole city. After dinner he sat down by his Karl, with a book in
+his hand, to read to him out of it, and if we peep over his shoulder we
+may read the title; "The Frogs of Aristophanes, translated from the
+Greek." We open our eyes; but how would the old Greek have opened his
+eyes over the cultivation of the Rahnstadters, had he, after two
+thousand years, peeped over uncle Braesig's shoulder, and perceived,
+from the stamp, that his confounded Frog-nonsense was ranged with the
+various "Blossoms" and "Pearls," and "Forget-me-nots" and "Roses," in
+the Rahnstadt Circulating Library. How the rogue would have laughed!
+Uncle Braesig did not laugh, he sat there very sober, he had on his horn
+spectacles with the great round glasses, which shone like a pair of
+coach-lanterns, he held the book as far from his body as his arm would
+reach, and began:
+
+"The Frogs of Aristop-Hannes--I read 'Hannes,' Karl, for I think
+'Hanes' must be a mistake in the printing; for it told about
+'Schinder-Hannes,' in a book I read once, and if this is only half as
+dreadful, we may be well contented, Karl." Then he began, and read on,
+in Schoolmaster Strull's style, and Habermann sat there, as if he were
+paying close attention, but soon his old thoughts slipped in, and when
+Braesig moistened his finger, to turn over the fourth leaf, he saw, with
+righteous anger, that his old friend had closed his eyes. Braesig stood
+up, and placed himself before him, and looked at him. It is an old
+story, that the miller wakes when the mill stops grinding, and the
+listeners wake when the sermon is at an end, and so it was with
+Habermann; he opened his eyes, took a couple of puffs at his pipe, and
+said, "Fine, Zachary, very fine!"
+
+"How? you say 'fine,' and you are fast asleep."
+
+"Don't take it unkindly," said the old man, coming, for the first time,
+to full consciousness, "but I havn't understood a word. The book must
+be very dry, or do you understand any of it?"
+
+"Not much, Karl, but I have paid a groschen for it, and when I pay a
+groschen, I want to get my money's worth."
+
+"Yes; but if you don't understand it?"
+
+"People read for other things than understanding, Karl; people read
+_pour paster la tante_, with the books. Just see," and he was going to
+explain this remark, when some one rapped at the door, and Moses came
+in.
+
+Habermann went up to him: "This is good, Moses! And how fresh you look,
+really handsome!"
+
+"So my Bluemchen tells me, but she has said that for these fifty years."
+
+"Well, how did you like it, at the bath?"
+
+"Do you want to hear some news, Habermann. One is pleased twice at the
+bath, first, when one arrives, and secondly, when one goes away. It is
+just as it is with a horse and a garden and a house, one is glad to get
+them, and glad to get rid of them."
+
+"Yes, you are not used to being idle, you had too much business in your
+head."
+
+"Well, what is business? I am an old man. My business is not to get
+into new affairs, and to get my money out of the old. And I came to
+talk to you about that; I am going to give notice of my seven thousand
+thalers at Pumpelhagen."
+
+"Oh, Moses, not yet! You would throw the Herr von Rambow into great
+embarrassment."
+
+"Well, I don't know, he must have money, he must have a great deal of
+money. David and the notary and Pomuchelskopp have been at him, and
+wanted to clear him out of his nest, this last New-year, but he paid
+them eleven thousand thalers, at one time. I made it out from David. I
+also heard it from Zodick. 'Where did you go yesterday?' I asked him.
+'To the court,' he said. 'Zodick, you lie,' I told him. Then he swore
+it, till he grew black in the face. But I kept saying 'Zodick, you
+lie.' At last I said, 'I will tell you something,' said I. 'The horses
+are mine, and the carriage is mine, and the coachman is mine; if you
+don't tell the truth, I will send you away, and then you will be a
+beggar.' Then he thought better of it, and told me about the eleven
+thousand thalers, and yesterday he told me Pomuffelskopp had given him
+notice of the eight thousand thalers, on St. Anthony's day. Now,
+Pomuffelskopp is a shrewd man, he must know how he stands."
+
+"God bless me!" cried Habermann, and his hatred was forgotten, and the
+old attachment struck through him, without his being conscious of it
+himself, "and do you mean to give notice, too? Moses, your money is
+safe."
+
+"Well, suppose it is safe. But I know many places where it would be
+safer," and, looking sharply at the two old inspectors, one after the
+other, he added, with a singular expression, "I have seen him, I have
+also spoken with him."
+
+"Whom? the Herr von Rambow? Where then?" asked Habermann.
+
+"At Doberau, at the gaming-table I saw him," said Moses, venomously,
+"and I spoke with him at my lodgings."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Habermann, "he never did that in his life before.
+How has the unhappy young man come to that?"
+
+"I always said," remarked Braesig, "this Herr Lieutenant was going to
+the devil with his eyes open."
+
+"Just heavens!" exclaimed Moses, "how they threw the gold about! They
+had great heaps of louis-d'ors before them, and put them down here, and
+put them down there, and shoved them here, and shoved them there, and
+is that a business? and do you call that an amusement? A thing to make
+one's hair stand on end! And there he was among them. 'Zodick,' said
+I,--for Zodick had come with my carriage, I was going away the next
+day,--'Zodick, place yourself here, and pay attention to the
+Pumpelhagen Herr, how it goes with him,'--it made me sick to look on.
+And in the evening Zodick came, and he said he had lost, and in the
+morning the young Herr came to me, and wanted a thousand thalers. 'I
+will tell you something,' I said, 'if you want me to be like a father
+to you, then come with me; my Zodick is waiting with the carriage
+before the door, I will take you with me; it shall not cost you a
+shilling.' But he would'nt do it, he stayed there."
+
+"The poor, unhappy man!" cried Habermann.
+
+"This boy!" exclaimed Braesig, indignantly, "who has a wife and child!
+Oh, if you were mine, I would teach you a lesson!"
+
+"But, Moses, Moses!" cried Habermann, "I beg you, by everything in the
+world, don't demand your money. He will come to his senses, and your
+money is safe."
+
+"Habermann," said Moses, "you are a shrewd man, too, but listen to me:
+when I began the money business, I said to myself, when a man comes
+cutting a great swell, with carriage and horses, and costly furniture,
+then lend money, the man has something to pay it with; when one comes,
+gay and merry and drinking champagne,--now, young folks will be young
+folks! what they spend to-day, they can earn tomorrow,--then lend, too;
+but when one comes with cards in his pocket, and bills in his pocket,
+and throws his money by heaps into the gutter,--take care, I said, the
+gambler doesn't get his money again out of the gutter. And then,
+Habermann, what would the people say? The Jew, they would say, has laid
+in wait for the young man, he has advanced him money for his play, that
+he should ruin himself, and the Jew can find good fishing in the
+troubled waters." And Moses rose to his feet: "No, the Jew, also, has
+his honor! and no one shall come, and point to my grave, and say, 'They
+tell bad stories about him.' And I am not going to lose my good name,
+in my old age, for the sake of a young puppy like this. Has he not
+stolen your honest name from you? and yet you are a good man, and a
+sure man. No, sit down," said he, as Habermann sprang up, and strode up
+and down the room, "I am not going to talk about that; but people are
+different; you suffer it, and you have your reasons; I will not suffer
+it, and I also have my reasons. And now, adieu, Habermann, adieu, Herr
+Inspector,"--going out of the door,--"but I shall give him notice on
+St. Anthony's day."
+
+So from this side also, a storm was rising in Axel's sky, of which he
+little dreamed; dark clouds gathered round him, and when the storm
+should burst, who could tell if a shower of hail might not fall, which
+should destroy all his springing hopes for ever. He, indeed, never
+allowed himself to think that he might be playing a losing game, he
+comforted himself with the good harvest, with the advances he should
+receive from the grain and wool dealers, and also with other unforeseen
+happy chances, which might possibly occur. But if such chances
+sometimes come to a man's help, unfortunate chances often come, which
+tax the courage of the strongest, and make him feel as if he were the
+plaything of destiny. And so it happened in the year 1848.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+This is not the place, of course, to describe what the year brought
+with it, of good or evil, for the world, every one may do that, after
+his own fashion; nor shall I undertake to relate the consequences, or
+investigate the causes of its events in the rest of the world; but only
+to tell what it brought with it for the company with whom I have
+especially to do, is more than I can do off-hand; or my book would come
+to an end in a very unsatisfactory way.
+
+When the uproar broke out in Paris, in February, it was as far off from
+Mecklenburg as Turkey itself, and was to most people rather amusing
+than otherwise; they were pleased to have something going on in the
+world. A great taste for politics was developed in Rahnstadt, and the
+postmaster said, if it went on like that, it would be too much
+for them, he had been obliged to order eleven new papers,--four
+Hamburg-Correspondents, and seven "Tanten-Vossen,"--and this proportion
+was itself a bad sign, for the "Tanten-Vossen" had a tendency to
+undermine all the conditions of society; they might not _mean_ any harm
+by their nonsense, but they _did_ it.
+
+So four and forty Rahnstadt politicians were provided for, since at
+least four, on an average, read the same newspaper, and the juvenile
+offspring of the Rahnstadt grandees ran about the streets with the
+papers, and took them punctually from house to house, as if their
+worthy parents were training them for post-boys. But what were eleven
+papers, in such a town as Rahnstadt? The majority of the citizens had
+nothing of the sort, and some provision must be made for them, and so
+there was.
+
+"Johann," said Hanne Bank's wife, "where are you going again?"
+
+"Eh, Dolly, over to Grammelin's a little while."
+
+"You go to the ale-house altogether too much, of late."
+
+"Eh, Dolly, only one glass of beer! Rein, the advocate is going to read
+us the papers again this evening; a man must know what is going on in
+the world."
+
+And Hanne Bank and fifty others went after their beer. The advocate
+Rein sat by the table, holding a newspaper in his hand; he looked along
+the table once or twice, and cleared his throat. "Quiet!" "Quiet!"
+"Grammelin, another glass of beer!" "Karl, hold your tongue! he is
+going to read." "Thunder and lightning! can't I be served with a glass
+of beer first?" "Well, now keep still!" and the advocate began to read.
+He read about Lyons and Milan and Munich; revolutions were breaking out
+everywhere, and spreading all over the world. "Come, here is
+something," said he. "'Island of Ferro, the 5th inst. The island is in
+great excitement; they intend taking away our meridian, which we have
+had over three hundred years, and transferring it to Greenwich, in
+England. Great animosity to the English. The people take up arms; our
+two regiments of hussars are ordered to the defence of the Meridian.'"
+
+"Just think of that, how they are going on!" "Yes, neighbor, that is no
+small matter; when one has had a thing three hundred years, it must be
+hard to do without it." "Neighbor, do you know what a meridian is?"
+"Eh, what should it be? It must be something the English can make a
+good use of. You see, you wouldn't believe me, yesterday, that the
+English were at the bottom of the whole trouble, now you hear it for
+yourself."
+
+Advocate Rein laid the paper on the table, and said, "The business is
+getting serious; one may well feel anxious and disturbed."
+
+"Good heavens, what is the matter now?" "Has anything serious happened?"
+
+"Serious? I should think so! Just listen! 'North pole, 27th February.
+An extremely dangerous and serious outbreak has occurred among the
+Esquimaux; they obstinately refuse to turn the earth's axis any longer,
+and they pretend there is a lack of train-oil, for greasing, since the
+whale-fisheries have been so bad, during the last year. The
+consequences of this disturbance, for the whole world, are not to be
+reckoned.'"
+
+"Thunder and lightning! what is that? Will the whole concern stand
+still?"
+
+"Eh, the government must do something about it!"
+
+"Eh, neighbor, the nobility will not suffer that."
+
+"I don't believe a word of it," said Hanne Bank.
+
+"You don't believe it? Well, as a shoemaker, you should know something
+about it. Hasn't train-oil gone up since last year?"
+
+"Well, children," said Wimmersdorf, the tailor, "so much I say, no good
+can come of it."
+
+"Well," cried another, "it is all one to me! If the skies fall, the
+sparrows will drop dead. But so much I say, _we_ have to work, and
+shall those lazy dogs at the north pole sit with their hands in their
+laps? Grammelin, another glass of beer!"
+
+From these stories one may perceive three things; first, that the
+advocate, Rein, read not merely out of the papers, but occasionally out
+of his head, and that he was a waggish fellow, and, secondly, that the
+Rahnstadt burghers were not yet quite ripe for the newspapers, and,
+thirdly, that men, as a general thing, look at a matter very coolly,
+when it does not affect their own interests.
+
+But it was coming nearer to us. One fine day, the Berlin post did not
+arrive, and the Rahnstadters stood in a great crowd before the
+post-office, asking themselves, what was the meaning of this? and the
+grooms who had come to fetch the post-bags for the country places,
+asked themselves whether they should wait or not; and the only
+contented man, in all this disturbance, was the Herr Postmaster, who
+stood before the door, with his hands folded on his stomach, twirling
+his thumbs, and saying, for thirty years he had not had such a quiet
+time, between eleven and twelve o'clock in the morning, as to-day. The
+next day, instead of the little newsboys, came the grandees themselves,
+and instead of the grooms the gentlemen themselves rode in, but that
+did not help the matter, for still the post did not come; but instead,
+it began to be whispered about that a revolution had broken out at
+Berlin. One knew this, and another that, and old Duesing, the potter,
+who lived by the gate, said he had heard cannon firing distinctly, all
+the morning, which all the people honestly believed, although Rahnstadt
+is twenty-four miles from Berlin. Only his neighbor, Hagen, the
+wheelwright, said, "Gossip, that cannon firing was done by me; I have
+been splitting beechen-logs all the morning in my wood-shed."
+
+The third day a post came; but not from Berlin, only from Oranienburg;
+and they brought along a man, who could have told everything, since he
+was himself in Berlin at the time, if he had not talked himself so
+hoarse that by the time he reached Rahnstadt he could not speak a loud
+word. He was a clerical candidate belonging in the region, and the
+Rahnstadters knew him and nourished him with egg-nog to clear his
+throat; he drank a considerable quantity of the stuff, but it
+did no good; he pointed to his throat and chest, shook his head
+and was going away. But it was asking too much of the Rahnstadters to
+expect them to submit to such a disappointment, they wouldn't let him
+off, and the candidate was obliged to give a representation of the
+Berlin revolution, in pantomime. So he constructed a couple of
+barricades,--in the air, so to speak, for, if he had taken hold of the
+Rahnstadt paving stones literally, the police would have been after
+him,--he shot, with his cane, behind the barricades, he stormed
+them,--still with his cane,--from in front, he ran about wildly among
+the people to represent the dragoons, and succeeded in imitating the
+thunder of the cannon, for he was just able to say "Bumm!"
+
+So the Rahnstadters knew, now, how a revolution looked, and how it
+should be conducted, and they sat together and drank beer and disputed,
+and things began to look so serious that even our friend Rein did not
+try to get off any more of his North pole stories. Sometimes, now,
+also, the grandees would come and drink beer, to earn popularity
+against the time when the revolution should begin here.
+
+And it was seriously thought of. There were wide-awake people in
+Rahnstadt, as well as in other places, and although the citizens had no
+great common grievance, each had his little individual difficulty upon
+which to hang his discontent, one had this, another that, and Kurz had
+the stadtbullen. So it came about that all were united in the opinion
+that things must be different, and it would come to no good, if they
+did not have their revolution also,--that is to say, a little one.
+
+Out of the indefinite reading of newspapers, came a definite
+Reformverein, with a president and a bell; and the irregular running up
+and down became regular, and the number of visitors became so large
+that the company adjourned, one evening, from the beer-house to the
+hall; but they took their beer-mugs along with them. All this happened
+in the greatest order, which is rather astonishing when one considers
+that the company was made up of discontented people, for the only
+contented member of the union was the landlord, Grammelin. They had
+speech-making in the hall, at first from the tables and benches; but
+that was to be altered. Thiel, the joiner, made a round sort of thing,
+which should serve for the speaker's stand, and the first speech made
+from it was by Dreiern, the cooper, against Thiel himself, since he
+considered the thing to be rather cooper's work than joiner's work, and
+begged of the assembly protection for his trade. He did not carry it
+through, however, although it was apparent to all that the thing bore a
+striking resemblance to a cooling-vat for a brandy-still. The old stout
+baker, Wredow, also failed in carrying his motion that the cask should
+be made larger, since there was no room to move about in it; for, as
+Wimmersdorf the tailor told him, the thing was not made for stout
+people; they had had enough of folks who cared merely for their own
+comfort. The thing was meant for those who had nothing on their ribs,
+and it was large enough for them. And so it happened that only the lean
+people got a chance to speak, and the stout folks in their anger and
+vexation stayed away, at which the others declared themselves to be
+well pleased. But it was a mistake, for in this way they expelled "the
+quiet element"--as it was called--from the union, and in their stead
+the day-laborers crowded in, and now they were ready for the
+revolution. The only two people of comfortable dimensions who still
+remained in the Reformverein, were Schultz the carpenter and Uncle
+Braesig.
+
+No one could be more contented, in these restless times, than Uncle
+Braesig; he was always on the street; he was like a bee, or rather a
+humble-bee, and looked upon every house-door and every window in
+Rahnstadt as a flower whence he could suck news, and when his appetite
+was satisfied he flew back to his place, and fed his friend Karl with
+his bee-bread: "Karl, they have driven away Louis Philippe."
+
+"Is that in the papers?"
+
+"I read it myself. Karl, he must have been an old coward. How is it
+possible a king could let himself be driven away?"
+
+"Eh, Braesig, such things have happened before. Don't you remember about
+the Swedish Gustavus? When a people are all united against him, a king
+stands entirely alone."
+
+"You are fight there, Karl; but yet I wouldn't have run away. Thunder
+and lightning! I would sit on my throne and put the crown on my head,
+and kick and thrash with my arms and legs, if any one touched me."
+
+He came later, saying, "Karl, the post has not come again from Berlin,
+to-day, and your young Herr rode in splashing through the streets, up
+to the post-office, to make inquiries himself, and why not? But it came
+near going badly with him, for some of the burghers were already
+plotting together there, and asking themselves, by way of example,
+whether they ought to allow a nobleman to go splashing through the mud
+like that. Well, he rode off, afterwards, in quite a different manner,
+towards Moses' house, and then the matter was dropped. I had a word to
+say to Moses, and went there shortly after, and as I came up he was
+just coming out of the door; he looked at me, but did not know me; not
+that I take it unkindly of him, for his head was full of his own
+affairs, for I could hear Moses saying, 'What I have said, I have said:
+I will lend no money to a gambler.' Moses is coming here, this
+afternoon."
+
+So, in the afternoon, Moses came. "Habermann, it is correct, it is all
+correct about Berlin."
+
+"What? has it broken out there?"
+
+"It has broken out,--but don't say anything about it; this morning the
+son of Manasseh came to me from Berlin, travelling post; he is going to
+make a business of buying up old flint-locks, he has got some thirty
+thousand, left from the year '15."
+
+"What can he do with his flint-locks?" cried Braesig; "every educated
+person uses percussion locks, now-a-days."
+
+"What do I know?" said Moses. "I know a good deal, and I know nothing
+at all. He thinks, when it begins, there will be a demand for the old
+muskets with the flint-locks, too, and he told me at Berlin they shot
+with flint-locks and sabres and pistols and cannon on the people, and
+it went 'Puh! puh!' the whole night, and the cuirassiers rode through
+the streets, and the people threw stones, and shot out of windows, and
+from behind the barricades. Terrible! terrible! but don't say anything
+about it."
+
+"So there was a regular cannonization?" inquired Braesig.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Habermann, "what times these are! what dreadful
+times!"
+
+"Why, what do you call dreadful times? It is always bad times for the
+foolish, and always good for the wise. When we had good times, I had no
+reason for drawing in my money, and giving notice here and there. For
+an old man like me, these are good times."
+
+"But, Moses, have you no anxiety, when everything seems going to
+destruction? You are well known to be a rich man."
+
+"Well, I am not afraid; my Bluemchen came and whispered to me, and David
+came,--he trembled like that,--and said, 'Father, what shall we do with
+our money?' 'Do with it?' said I, 'do as we have done. Lend, where it
+is safe, do business where it is safe; we can be "people" too, if it is
+necessary. Let your beard grow, David,' I said, 'the times require it.'
+'Well, and when other times come?' he asked me. 'Then you can cut it
+off again,' I said, 'the times will not require it then.'"
+
+The talk then turned upon Axel, and his difficulties, and the fact that
+money and credit were nowhere to be had, and there was much to say on
+that point, for if credit fell property must fall with it, and many a
+one would not be able to keep his estate. And when Moses was gone the
+two old farmers sat together through the evening, with the Frau
+Pastorin, and the talk wandered sadly, hither and thither, and the Frau
+Pastorin clasped her hands, once and again. Over the wicked world, and,
+for the first time, thanked her Creator that her pastor had been taken
+away before these evil times, and had not lived to see such unchristian
+behavior; and Habermann felt like a man who has given up a fine
+business, which had grown very dear to him, and now sees his successor
+going to destruction. Braesig, however, did not allow himself to be
+dismayed; he held up his head, and said these agitations, which were
+spreading over the whole world, were not merely the result of human
+invention, our Lord had his hand in the business as much as ever; at
+least. He had allowed it, and after the storm the air would be clear
+again. "And, Karl," he added,--"I say nothing about you, Frau
+Pastorin,--but if I may advise you, Karl, you should come with me,
+tomorrow evening, to Grammelin's, for we are not mere rebels, and do
+you know how it seems to me? Just as it is in a stormy day; if you
+stand in the house and look out, you shudder and shrink, but once out
+in the midst of the rain, you scarcely notice it."
+
+So Braesig attended the Reformverein at Rahnstadt, and every evening
+came back to the house, and told what had happened there. One evening,
+he came home later than usual: "They have gone crazy, today, Karl, and
+I have drank a couple of glasses more beer than usual, merely
+on account of the great importance of the matter. You see, the
+day-laborers have all become members of the union, and why not? we are
+all brothers. And the cursed fools have been planning that the whole
+limits of the town of Rahnstadt must be measured over again, and cut up
+into equal sections, and every one is to have just so much land, and
+every one is to have the right to cut down a beech-tree, from the town
+forest, for the winter; then there will be regular equality among men.
+Then all who owned land got up; they were for equality, but they wished
+to keep their property, and Kurz made a long speech about fields and
+meadows, and introduced the stadtbullen into them; and when he had
+finished they reviled him for an aristocrat, and turned him out. And
+then the tailor, Wimmersdorf, stepped up, and discoursed about the
+freedom of the trades, and the other tailors attacked him, and
+belabored him unmercifully, they wanted equality, they said, but they
+must have guilds for all that. And a young man got up, and asked,
+mockingly, how it should be with the tailoresses? Should they be
+admitted to the guilds, or not? And the old master tailors would have
+nothing of the kind, and then the young people declared themselves for
+the tailoresses, and turned out the old tailors, and there was a great
+uproar outside; and, in the hall, Rector Baldrian made a long, long
+speech, in which there was a great deal about the emanzipulation--or
+something else--of the female sex, and he made the proposition, that if
+the master tailors would not admit the tailoresses into their guild,
+the tailoresses should establish a guild of their own, for they were as
+good human sisters as any other guild; and that was passed, and the
+tailoresses are a guild now, and I was told, as I was going out, the
+tailoresses would be out to-morrow, in white dresses, with their
+forewomen at the head. Karl, that old, yellow old maid who goes by here
+every day, that they always call a Tartar, should lead them to the
+rector's house, and thank him, and in token of gratitude for his speech
+should present him with a woolen under-jacket and drawers, on a
+cushion."
+
+"Braesig! Braesig!" exclaimed Habermann, "what nonsense you are talking!
+One would think you had nobody above you, and that you could decide
+everything for yourselves."
+
+"Why not, Karl? Who is to hinder us? We make our resolutions, as well
+as we know how, and if nothing comes of it, why, nothing comes of it;
+and nothing ever will come of it, in my opinion, for you see, Karl, the
+whole story comes to one point; all will have something, and nobody
+will give up anything."
+
+"So it is, to be sure, Zachary, and I do not think, in this little
+city, there will be much harm done, for one party will always oppose
+the other; but, just think, if the day-laborers, in the country, should
+get the idea of dividing the estates, what would become of us then?"
+
+"Eh, Karl, but they won't do it!"
+
+"Braesig, it lies deep in human nature, this desire to call a little bit
+of our earth one's own, and they are not the worst men who care the
+most for it. Look around you! When the mechanic has laid up something,
+then he buys himself a little garden, a little field, and has his
+pleasure as well as his profit in it, and the laboring man in the city
+may do the same, for he has the possibility; and for that reason, I do
+not believe the discontent of the laborers, here in the city, is of
+much consequence. But it is different with the laborers in the country;
+they have no property, and, with all their industry and frugality, can
+never acquire any. If these opinions should spread among them, and
+ignorant men should attempt to carry them into effect, you would see,
+the consequences would be bad. Yes," he cried, "at first, it would
+begin merely among the bad masters, but who will be security that it
+shall not extend to the good also?"
+
+"Karl, you may be right, Karl, for this evening Kurz told me,--that is
+to say, before he was turned out,--that, last Sunday, a couple of
+Gurlitz laborers used very singular expressions at his counter."
+
+"Do you see," said Habermann, and took up his candle to go to bed, "I
+wish no evil to any one, though many may have deserved it, but it is
+sad that the good masters should suffer with the bad, and that the
+punishment, which falls justly here and there, should fall upon the
+whole country."
+
+With that he went off, and Braesig said to himself, "Truly! Karl may be
+right, in the country it might go badly, I must go immediately to look
+after young Jochen and Pastor Gottlieb. Well, there is no danger about
+young Jochen, he has never said a word to his laborers, and they will
+say nothing to him, and the pastor's Juern is decidedly no rebel."
+
+Habermann's opinion of the people, with whom he had so long been
+connected, was just; through the whole country spread a restlessness,
+like a fever. The most well-founded complaints, and the most
+unreasonable and shameless demands went from mouth to mouth, among the
+people, and what was at first lightly whispered was soon loudly spoken
+out. The masters were mostly to blame for it, themselves; they had lost
+their heads, each one acted on his own hook, and selfishness became
+very evident, when each cared merely for his own interests, and,
+provided he could live in peace with his people, did not trouble
+himself about his neighbor. Instead of going forward, with a good
+conscience, in the old, friendly intercourse with the people, some
+masters cringed before their own laborers, and granted all their
+unreasonable demands; others mounted the high horse, and would compel
+them with sword and pistol, and I have known some who would not ride
+about their own fields without a couple of rifles in the wagon. And
+why? Because they had not a good conscience, and had long ceased to
+have any friendly feelings towards their people. Of course, this was
+not true of all masters, nor was it true of Axel; he had never been
+unkind to his people, nor was he generally hard, but he could become
+so, if he believed his position as master to be in danger. Under such
+circumstances as the present, every one showed his true character, and
+it required a very cool and experienced head to look over the whole
+tumult and trouble, hold oneself in readiness for action, and decide
+what was good and what was evil, and how one should steer his ship
+safely through these swelling waves.
+
+This was not the case with Axel, he sat in the midst of the whole
+confusion, and groped blindly about him for resources which he should
+have found in himself, and so it happened, that he committed both
+follies of the masters, now he would yield unwisely, and again the
+lieutenant of cuirassiers would get the ascendancy, and he would seize
+his pistols and sabre. The people were not what they had been, and that
+was his own fault; for at one time he would deprive them of little
+things, which, from old custom, were dear to the heart of the small
+folk, and again, in a fit of good nature, he would give liberally all
+sorts of favors, and that made the people greedy, for he did not
+understand human nature, especially that of the small folk, in the
+country. He would praise the people when they had been idle, and scold
+them when they had been industrious, for he did not know how much they
+could bear. In short, he had not treated them in accordance with right
+and justice, but merely according to his own caprices, and because
+these had not lately been favorable, discontent had increased among the
+day-laborers, and against such solid old oaks as would not easily burn,
+or let the flame kindle, was piled one dry fir-branch after another,
+until, at last, they begin to take fire.
+
+Every one knows that only diseased firs afford such dry branches, and
+in Axel's neighborhood stood such a diseased fir-tree, which was full
+of splinters, and that was Gurlitz. This tree had formerly been quite
+sound; but, in spite of all Pastor Behrens could do to preserve it,
+it had decayed, for each of the several masters, whom they had
+exchanged for another, had taken away branch after branch, and the old
+tar-barrel, Pomuchelskopp, was really glad that it was diseased, and
+thought merely of the fat he could roast out of it; for there are
+masters,--sad to say,--who prefer a bad state of things, among their
+day-laborers, to a sound one, and rejoice when they have their people
+at a disadvantage, because they can skin them the better. But
+Pomuchelskopp had not taken it into account that, when the lightning
+strikes such a dry tree, it will burn quicker and brighter than a sound
+one; and the neighbors of our Herr Proprietor, who knew very well that
+the Gurlitz people were in a bad way, and often jested about it, never
+thought that the fire which Pomuchelskopp--of course without meaning
+it--had kindled for his own destruction, might also happen to scorch
+themselves, and Gurlitz might be the bonfire, from which the whole
+region should be kindled. The Gurlitz laborers had taken to drinking
+brandy, because there was a distillery at the court, and they could
+have brandy on credit, through the week, to be deducted from their
+wages on pay-day, and they were in the habit of running to the city, to
+spend every shilling--spare or not,--at the shops in Rahnstadt, and
+here they had learned what was going on in the world, and the shopmen
+had also instructed them how it ought to go on in the world, and then
+they came home, and put their besotted ignorance together, and kindled
+it with their greedy wishes, till it rose up in blue flames, and their
+half-starved wives and children stood behind them, like ghosts, and
+they thrust in the splinters of the dry fir-tree,--that is, their
+poverty and distress,--and ran with them about the neighborhood, and so
+they had kindled even the honest, tough old oaks.
+
+It did not blaze out openly, at first, there was much opposition to be
+overcome; there were well-meant words of intelligent people, there was
+the old dependence, there was the recollection of former benefits,
+there was the eternal justice, which holds out long, even in a diseased
+soul, and presses its sting into the conscience, and all this fell like
+cold rain on the glowing embers, and kept the fire from blazing out,
+even in Gurlitz. Had they been able to read the souls of their masters,
+however, it would have blazed up merrily, for in Pomuchelskopp's heart
+the common hatred and the most pitiable cowardice strove for the
+mastery, for his good conscience had long ago taken leave of him, and
+he could not rely upon his former kind treatment. At one moment he
+would cry cut in rage, "Oh, these wretches! I should only---- There
+must be new laws made! What have I to do with a government that has
+troops, and will not let them march? What! My property is in danger, my
+government must protect my property." And the next moment he would call
+his Gustaving in from the yard: "Gustaving, you blockhead, why are you
+running about among the threshers, let them thresh as they please, I
+will have no quarrel with my people," and he turned to his Haeuning, who
+sat there, stiff as a stake, her sharp nose and her sharp eyes turned
+steadily in one direction, and not even shaking her head, "Haeuning," he
+said, "I know what you think, you mean I should let them see that I am
+the master; but it won't do, it really won't do, Kluecking! we must be
+careful, we must be careful, with great caution we may possibly pull
+through."
+
+Haeuning said nothing to this advice, but she looked as if, for her
+part, she had no intention of acting upon it, and Pomuchelskopp turned
+to Malchen and Salchen: "Children, I beg of you, not a word of what is
+spoken here! Not a word to the servants! and be friendly to the people,
+and beg your dear mama to be friendly also. Lord knows, I have always
+been for friendliness!"
+
+And then Malchen and Salchen began upon Haeuning: "Mama, you have'nt
+heard, you don't know what is going on everywhere. Johann Jochen told
+in the kitchen how the laborers' wives have scourged the proprietor Z.
+of X. with nettles. Mama, we must give in to them; it won't do."
+
+"You are all fools," said Haeuning, going out of the room. "Shall I be
+afraid of such a pack?" and she closed the door. But in this condition
+of supernatural, heroic courage, she stood quite alone, and without
+other help it was quite useless, for Muchel in his distress for the
+future, would neither stir nor move, and the remaining members of this
+simple family, for once, sided with their father.
+
+"Children," cried the father, "every one must be treated kindly. The
+confounded wretches! Who would have thought of this, three months ago?
+Philipping and Nanting, you must not beat the village children any
+more, and don't draw an ass's head on the back of old Brinkman's coat
+again! These rascals! But they are set on by that cursed Rahnstadt
+Reformverein, and by the Jews and the shopkeepers; but wait a bit!"
+
+"Yes, father," said Salchen, "and Ruhrdanz the weaver has already
+joined the Reformverein, and the rest of the villagers will all follow
+his example; and it may be a bad thing."
+
+"Good heavens, I should think so! But wait, I must get the start of
+them, I will join it myself."
+
+"You?" cried the two girls, in one breath, as if their father had
+proposed to sit fire to his house and home, with his own hands.
+
+"I must, I must! It will make me popular among the burghers, so that
+they will not excite the canaille against me; I will pay up the
+tradesmen's bills, and--yes, it must be done,--I will advance something
+to my day-laborers."
+
+Malchen and Salchen were astonished, never in their lives had they
+heard father talk like that; but they were still more astonished when
+father went on to say, "And let me tell you one thing, you must be
+very civil to the Herr Pastor and the Frau Pastorin,--good heavens,
+yes! Mother won't do it--Haeuning, what trouble you make me! The
+parsonage people can do us a great deal of good, or a great deal of
+harm. Ah, what can not a proprietor and a pastor accomplish, if they
+stand faithfully by each other, in these bad times! We must send them a
+friendly invitation; by and by, when it is quiet again, we can drop the
+intercourse, if it does not suit us."
+
+And sure enough! After a few days Pastor Gottlieb received a note
+containing the compliments of the Herr and the Frau Pomuchelskopp--for
+old Haeuning had given in on this point--to the Herr Pastor and the Frau
+Pastorin, and requesting the honor of their company to dinner. The man
+waited for an answer. Braesig happened to be there, having come over to
+look after things a little. When Gottlieb read the invitation, he stood
+there, looking as if he had received a summons to the Ecclesiastical
+Consistory, to answer to charges of false doctrine, or immoral conduct.
+"What?" he exclaimed, "an invitation from our proprietor? Where is
+Lining? Lining!" he called, out at the door. Lining came, read the
+letter, and looked at Gottlieb, who stood before her without a word,
+then she looked at Braesig, who sat in the sofa-corner, grinning like a
+Whitsun ox. "Well," she said at last, "we cannot go, of course?"
+
+"Dear wife," said Pastor Gottlieb,--he always called her "dear wife,"
+when he wished to throw the weight of his clerical dignity into the
+balance, at other times he said merely "Lining,"--"dear wife, you
+should not refuse the hand that your brother offers."
+
+"Gottlieb," said Lining, "this is not a hand, it is a dinner, and the
+brother is Pomuchelskopp. Am I not right, Uncle Braesig?" Braesig said
+nothing, he only grinned, he sat there like Moses' David, when he had
+staked a louis-d'or, and waited to see whether clerical dignity, or
+good, sound common sense would turn the scale.
+
+"Dear wife," continued Gottlieb, "it is written, 'Let not the sun
+go down upon your wrath,' and 'If thy brother smite thee on one
+cheek,'----"
+
+"Gottlieb, that does not apply to this affair; we have no wrath against
+him, and as for smiting on the cheek, I am of Braesig's opinion. God
+forgive me the sin! it may have been different in old times, but if it
+were the fashion now, there would be a great deal of grumbling in the
+world, for we should all go about with swollen cheeks."
+
+"But, dear wife----"
+
+"Gottlieb, you know I never interfere in your clerical affairs; but a
+dinner is a worldly affair, and one at the Pomuchelskopps is more than
+worldly. And then, you quite forget, we have company. Isn't Uncle
+Braesig here? And wouldn't you rather dine here to-day, with Uncle
+Braesig, on pea soup and pigs' ears than at Pomuchelskopp's grand
+dinner? And they have not invited Mining either," she added, as Mining
+entered the room, "and they know that Mining lives with us."
+
+This decided Gottlieb, he liked pea soup and was particularly fond of
+pigs' ears; and I must say that he thought highly of Uncle Braesig, who
+had helped him so much and stood by him so faithfully, and one of his
+greatest clerical grievances was that such a man as Uncle Braesig, whose
+life was so honest and honorable, had yet so little the outward
+demeanour of a Christian and churchman. So he declined Pomuchelskopp's
+invitation, but when they had sat down to their pea soup, and Braesig
+came out recklessly with the information that he was really a member of
+the Rahnstadt Reformverein, Pastor Gottlieb sprang to his feet,
+regardless of the pigs'-ears, and delivered a regular sermon against
+the Reformverein. Lining pulled him by the coat, now and then, telling
+him that his soup would be cold; but Gottlieb was not to be diverted:
+"Yes," he cried, "the vengeance of God has come upon the world; but woe
+to the men whom he chooses as the instruments of his vengeance!"
+
+Since they were not in church Braesig ventured to interrupt him,
+inquiring whom the Lord had chosen for the purpose.
+
+"That is in the hand of the Lord!" cried Gottlieb. "He may choose me,
+he may choose Lining, he may choose you."
+
+"He will not choose Lining and me," said Braesig, wiping his mouth,
+"Lining fed the poor, in the year '47, and I have, for several weeks,
+declared for equality and fraternity in the Reformverein; I am no
+avenger, I wouldn't harm any man; but if I could get hold of Zamel
+Pomuchelskopp, then----"
+
+Gottlieb was too excited to listen longer, and went on with his
+discourse: "Oh, the devil is going about the world like a roaring lion,
+and every speaker's stand, in these cursed Reformvereins, is an altar,
+on which sacrifice is offered to him; but I will oppose to this altar
+another; in the House of God I will preach against this sacrificing to
+devils, against these Reformvereins, against those false gods and their
+altars!"
+
+With that, he resumed his seat, and ate, hastily, a couple of spoonfuls
+of pea-soup. Braesig left him in quiet for a while; but when he saw that
+the young clergyman had come back to worldly affairs sufficiently to
+attack the pigs' ears, he said, "Herr Pastor, you are right in one
+point, the speaker's stand at Rahnstadt looks uncommonly like a devil's
+altar, that is to say, a cooling-vat from a distillery; but I can't say
+that sacrifices are offered to him upon it, unless Wimmersdorf the
+tailor does it, or Kurz, or your respected father, for he always makes
+the longest speeches,--no, don't interrupt me!--I was only going to
+say, so far as I am acquainted with the devil, and that is now a good
+many years, he would not meddle with the Rahnstadt Reformverein, for he
+is not so stupid."
+
+"Gottlieb," said Lining, "you know I never interfere with your clerical
+affairs, but you would surely not bring such a worldly matter as the
+Reformverein into the pulpit?"
+
+Yes, he would, Gottlieb said.
+
+"Well, then, go ahead!" said Braesig, "but what people say, that of all
+men the pastors understand their business the best, is not true, for,
+instead of preaching in the people who don't go to church, you will
+preach out those who do go."
+
+And Uncle Braesig proved to be in the right, for when Gottlieb, one
+Sunday, preached with terrible zeal against the new times--of which, by
+the way, he understood about as much as if he had come into the world
+yesterday,--and against the Reformverein, and, the next Sunday, was
+going on with the business, only Lining and Mining and the sexton were
+there to hear him, for a few old spinning women, who sat here and
+there, were not to be reckoned in the audience, since they did not come
+on account of the sermon, but only for the soup, which they got on
+Sunday noons at the parsonage. So he went home, with his sermon and his
+womenkind, the old women followed with their soup-kettles, the sexton
+locked up the church, and Gottlieb felt like a soldier, who in his zeal
+has thrust his sword into the thick buckler of his enemy, and stands
+there without defence.
+
+So the times were bad, all over the country, every one's hand was
+against his neighbor, the world was turned round, those who had
+something and had been boasters were become humble, those who had been
+counted wise were now thought foolish, and fools grew into wise men
+over night; the distinguished were of no account, noble men gave up
+their nobility, and day-laborers were called "Herr."
+
+But two things ran like a thread through all this confusion of
+cowardice and insolence, which had power to comfort and cheer. One
+thread was gay-colored, and when one came near enough, and could free
+himself from the common anxiety and the common greediness, he could
+find much amusement in it, that was the ludicrous side of human nature,
+which turned up so clearly; the other thread was rose-colored, and upon
+it hung everything with which one human being could make others happy,
+pity and compassion, sound common sense and reason, honest labor and
+self-denial, and this thread was love, pure human love, which is woven
+through the dull gray web of selfishness by helpful hands, as a token
+from God, that shall remain in the worst of times; and who knows but
+this stripe may grow broader and broader till the whole gray web turn
+rosy red, for this thread,--thank God!--is never cut off.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+Rexow was quiet. That means the day-laborers, Frau Nuessler and Rudolph;
+young Jochen and young Bauschan were not so well off. Young Bauschan
+had taken a stroll through the cow-shed, and had observed there, under
+the care of old Flasskopf, the cow-herd, a droll little beast, which
+seemed to him almost like a photograph of himself, and was also named
+Bauschan; he could remember, from his childish years, the circumstances
+under which he had succeeded Bauschan the sixth upon the Rexow throne,
+and he at last came upon the gloomy thought that this copy of himself,
+so carefully brought up on sweet milk, by Jochen Flasskopf, was in
+training for some high destiny, and might possibly, under the name of
+Bauschan the eighth, be his own successor; it would be in accordance
+with the times. He was greatly troubled, and could not decide what to
+do, whether, under the pretext that he could not accommodate himself to
+the times, and preferred to associate Bauschan the eighth with himself,
+under the title of co-regent, he should share with him the rule of
+Rexow; or whether he should treat him as a pretender, eat up his sweet
+milk, put fleas in his skin, and drive him out of the Rexow country, in
+short, declare war against him.
+
+He kept watch of Jochen, to see what should be the upshot of the
+matter; but young Jochen, in these days, had enough to think about in
+his own affairs, he also was in the greatest agitation, and the times
+were so bad, that these two old friends were no longer united, but were
+agitated from wholly different causes; Bauschan looked upon a pretender
+to the crown as a great nuisance, Jochen positively wished for one;
+Bauschan looked with great disgust upon a private condition, with
+gnawed bones, which he could no longer bite; Jochen looked upon it as a
+golden cup, which Mining should fill for him with coffee in the
+morning, mother with strong beer at noon, and chocolate in the evening,
+and, when Braesig was there, with punch; he wished to be rid of the
+sovereignty, especially in such times as these, when one could not
+smoke his pipe in peace. He always read the "Rostock Times," but always
+threw it aside with vexation, saying to his wife, "Mother, they say
+nothing yet about the geese."
+
+He imagined he was counted all over the country as a hard-hearted
+master, because, upon Rudolph's advice, he had exchanged the geese his
+day-laborers were accustomed to raise for a good piece of money, and he
+considered it the sacred obligation of the "Rostock Times," which he
+had read now for over forty years, to take his part on the goose
+question. And in my opinion, the "Rostock Times" might very well have
+done so, but they may have forgotten the matter, or possibly never
+heard of it at all. But he came near going distracted over it; if two
+girls stood together chattering about their cap-ribbons, he believed
+they were talking about the fact that no goose-eggs had been set in
+Rexow that year, and if two day-laborers, threshing oats on the
+barn-floor, talked about their wages, he thought they were grumbling,
+because they had no geese at harvest-time, to eat the oats. He could
+not accommodate himself to these new times, and new methods of farming,
+and was positively decided to rule no longer; Bauschan, on the
+contrary, was quite unwilling to abdicate, and so, between these two
+old friends, the egg was broken, and the bond was severed.
+
+Frau Nuessler was, in spite of these wild times, very quiet, as I have
+said; but Jochen's condition made her anxious, and she often looked out
+for Braesig. "I cannot imagine," she said to Rudolph, "why Braesig does
+not come. He has nothing in the world to do, yet he does not look after
+me at all."
+
+"Well, mother," said Rudolph, "you know what he is; if he has nothing
+to do, he makes something to do. However, he is coming to-morrow."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Well, mother," said Rudolph, hesitating a little, "I was over in our
+rye this morning, near the Gurlitz boundary, and I ran over to the
+parsonage a minute; he was there, and he will come to-morrow."
+
+"Rudolph, you are not to go running over there so, I will not have it;
+when I go with you on Sundays, that is another thing. There you go
+chattering and chattering, and putting all sorts of nonsense about
+weddings and marriage into Mining's head, and nothing can come of it
+yet."
+
+"Eh, mother, if we don't get married before long, we shall both be old
+and cold."
+
+"Rudolph," said Frau Nuessler, as she left the room, "what is to become,
+then, of Jochen and me? We are still young, and able to work, shall we
+be laid on the shelf?"
+
+"Well," said Rudolph to himself, when she had gone out, "you are not so
+very young, after all. These old people can give themselves no rest!
+The old man might be willing, but the old woman would work three young
+ones dead. Well, Braesig is coming to-morrow; I will have Braesig on my
+side."
+
+And Braesig came. "Good morning! Sit still, Jochen! Well, have you had a
+little rebellion here, already?"
+
+"Eh!" said Jochen, smoking furiously, "what shall I do about it,
+Bauschan?" for he must ask Bauschan, since Braesig was already out of
+the room, and calling after Frau Nuessler.
+
+"Good gracious, Braesig!" said she, drying her hands on her apron, for
+she had washed them hastily, not wishing to offer him a pair of doughy
+hands, for she had just been kneading bread, "why do you never come
+near us, and in these dreadful times? How is my brother Karl?"
+
+"'Bonus!' as the Herr Advocate Rein says, or 'bong' as the greyhound
+says, or he is doing well, as I say; only that he is always thinking of
+the destruction of his honest name, and the separation of his little
+Louise from Franz, and these inward wounds injure him, in every
+relation, so that he will have nothing to do with the Reformverein, and
+Parliament, and political matters."
+
+"Thank God!" said Frau Nuessler, "I know my brother Karl well enough to
+be sure he would have nothing to do with such fool's play."
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Braesig, drawing himself up before his old
+sweetheart, "you have spoken a very serious word, as Rector Baldrian
+said, lately, when we were talking about the potato-land of the
+day-laborers; but one must look well to his words, in these days,--they
+have already turned Kurz out,--and I am really a member of the
+Reformverein at Rahnstadt, and have no pleasure in 'fool's play.'"
+
+"Well, I believe you will turn me out of my own kitchen yet!" said Frau
+Nuessler, putting her hands on her sides.
+
+"Did I say that?" asked Braesig. "They have turned out Ludwig Philippe,
+they have turned out the Bavarian Ludwig, they have turned out Ludwig
+Kurz; is your name Ludwig? No, I came here to look after you, and if
+anything breaks out here, then I will come with the Reformverein, and
+with the Burgher-guard,--we have all got pikes, and some of us
+flint-locks,--and we will protect you."
+
+"Do you think I will have people coming into my house, with pikes and
+muskets?" cried Frau Nuessler. "You may tell your infamous pack, they
+must first provide themselves with an extra set of arms and legs, for
+those they have now would get broken here."
+
+With that, she turned away, went into her buttery, and locked the door
+behind her. Yes, it was a sad time! even between this honest old pair,
+the devil had sowed his weeds, and when Braesig had stood a little while
+before the buttery door, as Bauschan often did, he felt very much like
+Bauschan when he was turned out, and he went back to the living-room
+with a downcast air, and said to Jochen, "Yes, these are truly bad
+times! And you sit there, and never stir hand nor foot? And the
+rebellion has broken out in your own house!"
+
+"Yes, Braesig, I know," said Jochen. "That is on account of the
+geese; but what can I do about it? Braesig, help yourself to a little
+kuemmel!"--and he pointed with his foot to the lowest shelf in the
+cup-board,--"there is the bottle."
+
+Braesig approved of a little kuemmel. Then he placed himself at the
+window, and looked out at the weather, and as the spring wind drove the
+April showers across the sky, and then the sun shone out again, so all
+sorts of dark stormy thoughts chased through his head: "How?" said he,
+"shall all that come to an end? She thrusts me away, when I would help
+her?" and then again the sun shone out, but with a brief and mocking
+glance, which gave no warmth, and he laughed: "Ha, ha! I wish I could
+see her fighting against the Rahnstadt Burgher-guard, with the tailor
+Wimmersdorf at the head, and the shrewd old dyer, with his 'Meins
+wegens;' how they would scatter!"
+
+Rudolph passed through the yard, and seeing Braesig at the window, came
+in, as he wished to speak to him.
+
+"Good day. Uncle Braesig!"
+
+"Good day, Rudolph. Well, how goes it? I mean with the day-laborers.
+All quiet?"
+
+"Oh, yes! Nobody has made any disturbance as yet."
+
+"You shall see, about the geese," interposed young Jochen.
+
+"Eh, father, never mind the geese!" said Rudolph.
+
+"What is it about the confounded geese?" inquired Braesig.
+
+"Oh, nothing," said Rudolph. "You see, last year, I got so provoked,
+first with keeping them in bounds, then with their plucking the grass
+in the meadow, and afterward they got into the grain, so I called all
+the laborers together, and promised every one four thalers, at harvest,
+if he would give up the goose business, and they accepted the offer,
+and now father has got it into his head that the people consider him a
+tyrant, and that a rebellion will break out, on account of the old
+geese."
+
+"You shall see, Rudolph, the geese----"
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Frau Nuessler, coming into the room, "always at
+the geese!" and, throwing herself into a chair, she put her apron to
+her face, and began to weep bitterly.
+
+"Good heavens, mother, what is the matter?" exclaimed Rudolph, running
+up to her. "What has disturbed you so?"
+
+"What shall I do about it?" asked Jochen, and he also stood up.
+
+Braesig was going to say something, but restrained himself, for he knew
+better than the others what was going on in Frau Nuessler's heart; he
+turned to the window, elevated his eyebrows, and stared out stiffly at
+the April weather. Frau Nuessler sprang up, dried her eyes, pushed
+Rudolph and Jochen aside,--rather hastily,--went right up to Braesig,
+throw her arms about him, and said, "Braesig, I know you meant it all
+right; I won't break anybody's arms and legs."
+
+"Oh, Frau Nuessler!" cried Braesig, and the April showers and sunshine
+were reflected in his eyes, for his whole face laughed, while his eyes
+were dropping tears, "Tailor Wimmersdorf and the old crafty dyer,
+'Meins wegens,' may get their deserts from you, for all I care."
+
+"What does this mean?" cried Rudolph.
+
+"I will tell you," said Braesig, gently freeing himself from Frau
+Nuessler's arms, and taking her by the hand. "It means, that you have a
+real angel for a mother-in-law. Not one of the kind that you see at the
+balls, and promenading the streets of Rahnstadt. No! but an actual
+angel, out of the Old Testament, such a valiant, brave old angel, who
+is not afraid of the devil himself, contending in a good cause, and can
+put you, sir, in her pocket, three times over!" and he looked at
+Rudolph, as if he was the cause of all Frau Nuessler's distress.
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Rudolph, "I have done nothing!" and he
+looked at Jochen, and Jochen looked at Bauschan; but Bauschan did'nt
+know, and Jochen did'nt know, and Rudolph cried out, "I truly have not
+the least idea----"
+
+"There is no necessity that you should," said Braesig, and turned
+abruptly to Jochen; "and you, young Jochen, with your confounded
+goose-business, you will bring your whole household into a dangerous
+revolution. You had better sit down, and keep quiet, and you, Rudolph,
+come with me, I will make a brief examination of your management, and
+see what you have learned with Hilgendorf."
+
+That was a suitable employment for Jochen, and Rudolph obtained a fine
+opportunity to urge Uncle Braesig's assistance in his plans for a speedy
+marriage. It is possible that both of these reflections had occurred to
+Braesig.
+
+In the afternoon, Fritz Triddelsitz came riding up the yard. This time,
+he was mounted on a dapple-gray, which had a most singular gait, in
+front, he stepped out like a man, and as a general thing, went on only
+three legs; from which one may perceive, that nature, in her
+intelligent way, often creates superfluities; for instance, the tail of
+a piuscher,[10] the ears of a mastiff, and the left hind-leg of a
+schreiber koppel. Fritz's dapple-gray was not handsome to look at,
+particularly when he was in motion; but he was a courteous beast, he
+bowed all along the street, and he harmonized with Fritz, for _he_ had
+grown very courteous, with his nobleman, and when some of his comrades
+joked him about his dapple-gray, he laughed in his sleeve: "You
+blockheads! I have profited finely by my trading, with the chestnut
+mare for the black, the black for the brown, and the brown for the
+dapple-gray; I have made money every time by the bargain." The
+dapple-gray came very courteously up the Rexow yard, Fritz dismounted
+courteously, entered the house courteously, and courteously said, "Good
+day!"
+
+"Mother," said young Jochen, "help Herr Triddelsitz,"--for they were
+just sitting down to coffee.
+
+"God preserve us!" thought Braesig, "and is he called 'Herr' already?"
+
+Fritz took off his overcoat, pulled something out of his pocket, and
+sat down to the table, laying down by his coffee-cup a pair of
+revolvers, which were just coming into use.
+
+"Herr," cried Braesig, "are you possessed with a devil? What are you
+doing with those infernal shooting-machines among the coffee-cups?"
+
+Frau Nuessler got up quietly, took the two pistols in one hand, and the
+tea-kettle in the other, poured hot water into the barrels, and said,
+very considerately:
+
+"So! they won't go off, now!"
+
+"For God's sake!" cried Fritz, "the only protection that we have----"
+
+"Herr," interposed Braesig, "do you think you are in a den of robbers,
+here at young Jochen's?"
+
+"The whole world is a den of robbers now," said Fritz, "the Herr von
+Rambow said that very distinctly yesterday, in his speech to the
+day-laborers; and therefore I have been obliged to go to Rahnstadt, and
+buy these two revolvers,--one is for him,--we will defend ourselves to
+the last drop of our blood."
+
+Frau Nuessler looked at Braesig, and laughed a little bashfully; Braesig
+laughed heartily: "And with these things, and with a speech from Herr
+von Rambow, you expect to stop the mouths of the day-laborers, and turn
+them to other thoughts?"
+
+"Yes, we mean to do it; my gracious Herr has spoken well to the people;
+he will govern them mildly, but firmly, they may rely upon that."
+
+"Well, it is all as true as leather," interrupted Jochen.
+
+"You are right, this time, Jochen; the tanning must be according to the
+leather, but the young nobleman is not the man, you shall see, to treat
+the timid with mildness, and the fainthearted with firmness."
+
+"And he has made another speech?" asked young Jochen.
+
+"A capital one!" cried Fritz. "How in the world he does it, I cannot
+imagine."
+
+"That is of no consequence," said Braesig, "but what do the day-laborers
+say to their expectations?"
+
+"That pack," said Fritz, who had learned something besides politeness
+from his master, "are not worth their salt, for, as I was crossing the
+yard afterwards, they were standing in groups together, and I heard
+them talking about 'flatterers,' and 'gee and haw management'----"
+
+"They meant that for you," said Braesig, grinning.
+
+"Yes, only think of it!" said Fritz innocently. "And in the afternoon;
+five of them came to the Herr, just the ones I had thought the most
+reasonable of all, and old Flegel, the wheelwright, was the spokesman,
+and said they had been informed that Herr Pomuchelskopp had given his
+people an advance, and had promised them more potato-land, and other
+things besides, but they would say nothing about that, for they had
+never been so badly off as the Gurlitz people, and they were contented
+with what they got: but they were not contented with the way they were
+treated, for they were blamed unjustly, and scolded when they did not
+deserve it, and they were driven back and forth, from the yard to the
+fields, so that they had no idea what they were to do, and it would be
+the best thing for the Herr von Rambow to let me go, for I did not
+understand how to manage the farm or superintend the people, I was too
+young. And if they might make a request, it was this, that they might
+have their old Inspector Habermann back again. Now, just think of it,
+such a set!"
+
+"Hm!" said Braesig, grinning all over his face. "Well, what did the
+young Herr say?"
+
+"Oh, he blew them a fine blast, and told them if _he_ were contented
+with me,--and then he motioned toward me, whereupon I made a courteous
+bow,--then his masters the day-laborers might very well be contented
+also. You see, that old fellow, Johann Egel, stepped up,--you know him,
+he is one of the oldest, with the white hair,--and said they were not
+_masters_, no one knew that better than they, and in coming to him as
+their master, they had acted from good intentions, and not because they
+wished to use hard words. The Herr von Rambow was master, and he could
+do it or not, as he pleased."
+
+"He is a devilish cunning old fellow," said Braesig, grinning more than
+ever.
+
+"Yes, only think of it! But that was not all, by a long way; the butt
+end came afterwards. Towards evening, I noticed one after another of
+the day-laborers going to the riding-stables, and as I knew that
+Krischan Daesel, our groom, had a pique against me, I thought, 'What can
+be going on there?' and I went into the stables, and there is a hole
+between the riding-stable and the other stables, and I could hear
+Krischan Daesel exciting the others."
+
+"That is to say," interrupted Braesig, "that you listened a little."
+
+"Why, yes," replied Fritz.
+
+"Very well," said Braesig, "go ahead!"
+
+"Well, I must tell you, Krischan Daesel is positively bent upon marrying
+Fika Degel, and has been betrothed to her several years, and the Herr
+will not have a married groom, for he thinks a married groom would care
+more for his own children than he would for the colts, which is all
+right enough, but he will not dismiss him, either, because he thinks he
+does well for the beasts; though for my part, I don't agree with him.
+And now Krischan Daesel has got it into his head, that if he can break
+up the raising of thorough-breds, and do away with the paddocks, the
+Herr will let him marry Fika Degel, and so he was stirring up the
+day-laborers to demand the paddocks for potato-land."
+
+"Well, you ran directly to the Herr, and told him that?" inquired
+Braesig.
+
+"Of course," said Fritz, "he ought to know it beforehand, so as to be
+prepared for them. And when they came, and began about the paddocks and
+potato-land, and were of the opinion that their wives and children were
+just as good as the Herr's mares and foals, and ought to be cared for
+first, then he scolded them finely, and packed them off immediately.
+Krischan Daesel, of course, was paid up and sent off at once."
+
+"Well, what does the gracious Frau say to all this?" asked Uncle
+Braesig.
+
+"Eh," said Fritz, shrugging his shoulders, "what shall I say? she says
+nothing to it. I don't know what has come over her. She used to greet
+me,--rather ceremoniously but still politely,--but now she never looks
+at me, ever since that stupid book-business with Marie Moeller. _She_
+has been gone, this long time, and it is just as well, for she was an
+old goose; and now the gracious Frau attends to the housekeeping,
+herself, and, I must say, she is a good housekeeper, although she
+does'nt speak to me; and Korlin Kegel says she does it only to divert
+her mind from other thoughts, and she often sits down, and writes
+letters, but tears them all up, and sits with her hands in her lap,
+gazing at the little gracious Fraeulein. 'It is a pity,' says Korlin
+Kegel. 'But the housekeeping goes on all right, and without any
+scolding and storming round; no, so it shall be, and so it is done. If
+she only had a friend or a companion,' says Korlin Kegel,--well it is
+none of my business,--and he has no friends either."
+
+"But it _is_ some of my business," cried Frau Nuessler, springing up,
+"and I will go and see her to-morrow, and you, Jochen, may as well go
+also and see that poor, foolish young man, and advise him for his good;
+such times as these should bring neighbors together.
+
+"Yes, mother," said Jochen, "what shall I do about it? And then this
+old goose-business here; but Gottlieb and Lining----"
+
+"To be sure," cried Frau Nuessler, "he helped them to their living, and
+we must not forget it of him."
+
+"Well, but _he_," said Braesig, looking like a sly old rascal, "has _he_
+no friends? What would the Herr Zamwell Pomuchelskopp say to that?"
+
+"Pomuchelskopp?" said Fritz. "We have nothing more to do with _him_,"
+bringing out the word with great contempt, and bending down to Braesig
+he whispered, "he has sued us, he has sent us notice for the money; I
+know it from Zodick, from Moses' Zodick. Yes, that pot is broken, and
+Slusuhr is coming constantly, now by letter, now in person; but we have
+got one on our side, too, the advocate Rein, do you know him?"
+
+"Oh, yes," whispered Braesig, "I know him, with his North pole, and
+Island of Ferro."
+
+"A confoundedly smart fellow, isn't he?" asked Fritz.
+
+"Yes indeed," said Braesig, "he can lead people by the nose finely.
+But," he asked aloud, "what has the young Herr decided about the
+day-laborers?"
+
+"I will tell you," said Fritz. "We have both decided to defend our
+lives to the last extremity, and he sent me to Rahnstadt, to get these
+revolvers."
+
+"Well, and if the day-laborers come again?"
+
+"Then we shall shoot," said Fritz.
+
+"Right!" said Braesig, taking one of the revolvers in his hand, and
+playing with it, rather absently, "but Frau Nuessler, you have made it
+all wet, it might get rusty," and he wiped it on his coat-tails, and
+went to the window, as if to examine it more closely, while Fritz,
+meantime, explained to Jochen Nuessler the construction of the other.
+
+"Jochen, where is your tool-chest," asked Braesig.
+
+Jochen pointed, with his foot, to the lower part of the cupboard.
+
+Fritz heard a sort of clattering behind him, and then a sharp noise, as
+if something hard was broken, and, as he looked round, Braesig held out
+to him his revolver, without any cock, for he held that in the pincers,
+in the other hand: "There!"
+
+"Thunder and lightening!" cried Fritz springing up.
+
+"So!" said Braesig, "now you can't shoot anybody with the thing."
+
+"Herr, how did you dare to ruin my revolver?"
+
+"Because you are a foolish boy, and children should not play with
+fire-arms."
+
+"You are an old----"
+
+"You want to say 'jackass?' And it is possible that I am, in meddling
+with you; but, Herr, I stand to you in the place of your aunt, and I
+have done this on her account."
+
+"My Herr gave me orders to buy these revolvers, and I do as he tells
+me."
+
+"That is all right, and here is one for your Herr; he can shoot with
+it, if he pleases, he is accustomed to the business,--but you----" and
+as the thought of Habermann came into his mind he added, "Infamous
+greyhound, have you not caused misery enough already?"
+
+Frau Nuessler came to the rescue.
+
+"Hush! Braesig, hush! Not a word of that! But you ought to be ashamed,
+Triddelsitz, to talk so lightly of shooting your fellow-creatures."
+
+"What!" cried Jochen, springing to his feet. "Mother, is he going to
+shoot people dead?"
+
+And Bauschan also sprang up, with a couple of emphatic barks, and Fritz
+was so confused by this combined attack on all sides, that he forgot
+his politeness, threw on his overcoat, thrust the mutilated revolver
+into his pocket, with the other, and only turned round at the door to
+remark, with great emphasis, that no ten horses should ever drag him
+over that threshold again.
+
+"It will not be necessary," observed Braesig, very quietly. But if he
+had heard Fritz's figures of speech, as he rode bowing along the
+street, on old dapple-gray, and examined his ruined revolver, he would
+not have been so composed, for, compared with the titles of honor which
+Fritz generously bestowed upon him, those of the Emperor of Austria
+were of no account whatever.
+
+Fortunately he did not hear, and on the whole he did not care much that
+Fritz had placed the Nuesslers' house under the ban; but he had made the
+discovery this morning that the oldest friendships might be broken in
+such times as these, and he registered a solemn vow never, under any
+circumstances, to retreat upon the Rexow farm, with the Rahnstadt
+Burgher-guard. His confounded whims often ran away with him; but his
+good heart kept close behind, and seized the reins directly; Strife and
+confusion were very far from his intentions, he really wanted nothing
+but joy and peace; although, by his peculiar conduct, strife and
+confusion were often produced.
+
+Towards evening, when Jochen and Bauschan had fallen comfortably asleep
+in the twilight, and it was a fine opportunity for a few sensible
+words, he began about Rudolph and Mining: "Frau Nuessler, there is an
+old proverb, that says: 'He who loves long, his love grows old, and he
+who'----"
+
+"Leave your stupid proverbs alone, Braesig, they are not suited to me,
+or to you! I know what you want to say, and I understand that this
+cannot go on much longer; but what is to become of him and of me?"
+
+"Frau Nuessler, you mean young Jochen----"
+
+"Hush, Braesig, name no names! You might, for all _him_,"--pointing to
+Jochen--"but on _his_ account," and she pointed to Bauschan, "you must
+be very careful, for he is cleverer than all of us put together. Just
+see, how he pricks up his ears."
+
+"Hm!" said Braesig, looking under Jochen's chair, "truly! but that need
+not hinder us. Frau Nuessler, this business must come to a happy
+ending."
+
+"Yes, Braesig, I say so, myself, every day, but only tell me, what is to
+become of me, and of him?" pointing again to Jochen. "When Mining and
+Rudolph get the control, what shall I do, what shall he do?"
+
+"Frau Nuessler, you will have quiet days, and enjoy yourself in your
+descendants."
+
+"That may be, Braesig, and one gets accustomed to everything, even to
+idleness; but look at me, with all my housekeeping I grow stouter,
+every day, and if I should sit still in my chair I should soon be
+unable to move, and be a perfect monster."
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said Uncle Braesig, standing before her, while the
+recollection of his youth came over him, "you were always handsome, and
+you always will be," and he made a bow, and grasped her hand.
+
+"Braesig, that is a stupid joke!" said Frau Nuessler, drawing her hand
+away, "and just look at that old dog! Hasn't he sense enough to
+understand it? But we are not talking about me, now; what shall become
+of him? I can do all sorts of handiwork; but he, if he has nothing more
+to do?"
+
+"He smokes tobacco, and sleeps," said Braesig.
+
+"Yes," said she, "just at present, but he has altered fearfully, of
+late. I say nothing about the foolish old goose-business, for I can
+talk him out of that, but he has become so contrary, of late, he is
+always disputing, and since he has had nothing to occupy his mind, he
+imagines the most foolish things."
+
+"Jochen?" asked Braesig, with much emphasis.
+
+"Yes," said Frau Nuessler, "but it is all over now. Look!"
+
+And Braesig, looking, saw Bauschan stand up, and whisk his rough tail
+across Jochen's face, a couple of times, and Jochen raised himself up,
+and asked, quite distinctly, "Mother, what o'clock is it?" Then he
+recollected himself, and perceiving Braesig, said, "Braesig, that is a
+clever fellow, that Herr von Rambow, he has been making a speech
+again."
+
+Rudolph came in then, and candles were brought, and Braesig made a
+frightful grimace, across the table, at Rudolph; but it was not meant
+badly, it was merely confidential, and signified, "Keep perfectly
+quiet, rely wholly upon me, your business is going on well."
+
+The evening passed slowly, for each had his own thoughts, and when it
+was bedtime Braesig was the only one who soon fell asleep; Rudolph was
+thinking of Mining and the wedding, Frau Nuessler of the dreadful times
+of idleness which awaited her, and Jochen of the geese, and Herr von
+Rambow's speech. This last thought kept him waking all night, and when
+Frau Nuessler, towards morning, turned over on the other side, for a
+little nap, she saw Jochen fully dressed, going out of the door, with
+Bauschan at his heels. That this meant something, she was sure, but
+what, no mortal could tell.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+Young Jochen went with Young Bauschan up and down the yard, and stopped
+frequently to rub his head, as if there were something he did not
+rightly understand. Bauschan also stood still, looked at Jochen, wagged
+his tail rather doubtfully, and sank back into his own gloomy thoughts
+about the co-regency. Rudolph came out.
+
+"God bless you, father, are you up already?"
+
+"Yes, Rudolph, it is because of the old geese,"--he had something more
+to say, but was not quite ready with it, and Rudolph said:
+
+"Well, father, never mind the old story; but I am glad you are up so
+early this morning, you can tell the bailiff what the people are to do;
+I did not go over to the Pumpelhagen boundary yesterday, I will run
+over, and see how they are getting on with the ploughing. We are to do
+just as we did yesterday, manuring the potato-land."
+
+"Yes, Rudolph, but----"
+
+"Yes, father, you will find it all right; I must hurry, to get back in
+time," and he was off.
+
+Jochen walked up and down again; the day-laborers, meanwhile, were
+coming into the yard, and the bailiff, Kalsow, came up to Jochen.
+
+"Kalsow," said he, "let the people all come together here, in a heap,"
+and with that he and Bauschan went into the house. The day-laborers,
+the housewives, and the farm-people all stood in a group before the
+house, and asked, "What are we to do?"
+
+"_I_ don't know," said Kalsow, the bailiff.
+
+"Well, go in and ask him then!" Kalsow went in. Young Jochen was
+walking up and down the room, with Bauschan at his heels, for young
+Jochen had kept on his cap, and that was a token to Bauschan that his
+attendance was required.
+
+"Herr," said Kalsow, "the people are all there."
+
+"Good!" said Jochen.
+
+"What shall we do?" asked Kalsow.
+
+"Wait," said Jochen.
+
+Kalsow went out, gave the people orders, and they waited. After a
+little while, he came in again.
+
+"Herr, they are waiting."
+
+"Good!" said Jochen. "Tell them to wait a little longer, I am going to
+make them a speech presently."
+
+Kalsow went back, and said they must keep waiting, the Herr would make
+them a speech presently.
+
+The people waited; but, as nothing came of it, Krischan the coachman
+said, "Kalsow, I know him, go in and remind him of it."
+
+So Kalsow went in again; and said, "Well, Herr, how is it about the
+speech?"
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" cried Jochen, "do you suppose thoughts grow on
+my shoulders?"
+
+Bailiff Kalsow was frightened; he went back to the people, saying,
+"That was of no use, he was angry with me; we must wait."
+
+"God bless me!" said Frau Nuessler to herself, in her store-room, where
+she was putting things in order, "what does it mean, that the people
+are all standing before the house?" and opening the window she called
+out, "what are you standing here for?"
+
+"Eh, Frau, we are standing here waiting."
+
+"What are you waiting for?"
+
+"Eh, Frau, we don't know; the Herr is going to make us a speech."
+
+"Who?" asked Frau Nuessler.
+
+"The Herr," said Kalsow.
+
+"_What_ is he going to make?" asked Frau Nuessler.
+
+"A speech," said Kalsow.
+
+"He must be going crazy," exclaimed Fran Nuessler, dropping the window,
+and, running in to Jochen, she seized him by the arm, and shook him, as
+if to bring him to his senses.
+
+"What do you want to do? Make a speech? What are you going to make a
+speech about? About me, or about Rudolph and Mining?"
+
+"Mother," said Jochen,--but he said it firmly,--"about the geese."
+
+"God have mercy on you," said Frau Nuessler, quite beside herself, "if
+you say another word to me about the geese!"
+
+"What?" cried Jochen, setting himself up, far the first time in his
+life, against his wife. "Cannot I make a speech? They all make
+speeches, Herr von Rambow makes speeches, Pomuchelskopp, Braesig talks
+in the Reform-what? am I not good enough?"--and he brought down his
+fist on the table,--"wife, am I not master? And shall I not talk about
+my geese?"
+
+Frau Nuessler turned quite pale, stood there stiffly, looking Jochen in
+the eye, but said not a word, pressed one hand against her heart, and
+felt with the other after the door-latch behind her, and when she found
+it opened the door, and went out backwards, still with her eyes
+fastened upon Jochen,--as a lion-tamer does, when he sees that the
+beast has lost its respect for him. But, when she was outside, she
+threw herself down on a bench in the hall, and began to cry and sob
+terribly. Yes, the year 1848 was a dreadful year, no government was
+secure; even in this, open revolt had broken out.
+
+Braesig came down stairs, singing and whistling; but how suddenly he
+ceased, when he saw his old treasure in her grief!
+
+"May you keep the nose on your face! What has happened? At this time of
+day, Frau Nuessler, half-past six, do you sit down and cry?" With that
+he threw himself on the bench beside her, and tried to pull away the
+apron from her face. Frau Nuessler pushed away his hands. "Frau Nuessler,
+I beg you, for God's sake, tell me what is the matter."
+
+At last Frau Nuessler said, with a heavy sigh, "Jochen!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Braesig, "he was perfectly well yesterday. Is he
+dead?"
+
+"No indeed;" cried Frau Nuessler, taking away the apron, and turning her
+red eyes upon Braesig, "but he has gone crazy!"
+
+"God forbid!" exclaimed Braesig, springing to his feet, "what has he
+been doing?"
+
+"He is going to make a speech."
+
+"What? Young Jochen make a speech? That is a bad sign!"
+
+"Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!" lamented Frau Nuessler, "and the laborers are all
+standing out in the yard, and he has turned me out of the room, I don't
+know how I came here."
+
+"This is going to extremes!" cried Braesig, "but compose yourself, Frau
+Nuessler, I am not afraid of him, I will venture to go in." And he
+entered the room.
+
+Jochen was walking up and down, rubbing his head. Braesig sat down near
+the door, and followed him with his eyes, but did not speak; on the
+other side of the room sat Bauschan, who also followed his master with
+his eyes, but did not speak,--it was a very serious business, at least
+for Jochen and for Braesig; Bauschan was tolerably composed. At last,
+Braesig asked very gently:
+
+"What is the matter, Jochen?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jochen, "my head is so confused; my thoughts are
+running every way, as when one shakes up a bushel of oats."
+
+"I believe you, Jochen, I believe you," said Braesig, and looked after
+him again, as he walked up and down. All at once Jochen stood still,
+and exclaimed angrily, "How the devil can I think of a speech, with
+both of you looking at me like that!"
+
+"So! Do you want to make a speech? What do you want to make a speech
+for?"
+
+"Braesig, am I any worse than other people? Are my laborers worse than
+other people's laborers? They want their satisfaction, in these hard
+times; but I am not exactly fitted for it, the business is too much for
+me; you are quicker-witted, do me a favor, and make one for me."
+
+"Why not?" said Braesig, "if it is to do you a favor; but you mustn't
+disturb me!" and now Braesig walked up and down the room, and Jochen sat
+still, and looked at him.
+
+Suddenly the Herr Inspector opened the window, and called: "All come up
+here!" The day-laborers came up.
+
+"Fellow-citizens!" began Braesig; but--bang!--he shut down the window:
+"Thunder and lightning, that won't do! They are only day-laborers, one
+can't talk to them as if they were burghers! And now you see, Jochen,
+how difficult it is to make a speech, and will you meddle with a
+business, for which even I am not prepared?"
+
+"Yes, Braesig, but----"
+
+"Be still, Jochen, I know what you are going to say." He went to the
+window, opened it again, and said, "Children, each one go to his work,
+for to-day; there will be no speech to-day."
+
+"Well, that is all the same to us," said Kalsow, "but the Herr---"
+
+"He has been thinking about it," interrupted Braesig, "and he has
+decided that the spring is too early for it; by and by, at harvest, he
+will make you a fine one."
+
+"Yes," said Kalsow, "that is the best way. Come then, people!" and they
+went to their labor.
+
+But now, as the coast was clear, Braesig turned towards Jochen, and all
+the dignity, which his body was capable of expressing, was shown in his
+manner to Jochen, and all the influence he had exercised upon Jochen,
+in years past, now centered upon the poor kammerpaechter, as he said,
+"What? They call _you_ crazy? You are no more _crazy_ than Bauschan and
+I; but you are _foolish_. Why did your dear--I mean blessed--I mean
+cursed--parents bring you into the world? To make speeches, and
+frighten your dear wife out or her wits, who has nourished you at her
+bosom this five and twenty years, like a new-born child? Come with me,
+this moment, and beg her pardon, and tell her you will never do so
+again!"
+
+And Jochen would have done so; but he was spared the apology, at least
+in the manner which Braesig demanded, for Frau Nuessler entered the room:
+
+"Jochen, Jochen! How you distress me!"
+
+"Eh, mother----"
+
+"Jochen, you will be the death of me!"
+
+"With your good-for-nothing speeches," interposed Braesig.
+
+"Mother, I will not---"
+
+"Ah, Jochen, I believe you will not do it this morning; but you have
+set yourself up, you shall see, it will happen again."
+
+Jochen said no, he had had enough of it.
+
+"God grant it!" said Frau Nuessler, "and that you may see that I can
+give up, too; for all me, Rudolph may be married to-morrow."
+
+"So," said Braesig, "now there is peace in the house again! now
+everything is in order, now give each other a kiss! One more, Jochen,
+that the left side of your mouth need not come short."
+
+This was done, and Uncle Braesig trotted off directly to Gurlitz, that
+he might inform his little goddaughter Mining of her happy prospects.
+He took the nearest foot-path, and that was the one which the Herr
+Proprietor Muchel had stopped up, that it might not be public any
+longer; but he had not succeeded in his design, for Gottlieb, at
+Braesig's suggestion, had opposed it, and had gained the suit.
+
+As Braesig went along this path, he met the Herr Proprietor coming
+towards him, with a very friendly face in the distance, and as he came
+nearer he said, "Good-morning, my dear----" but he got no further, for
+Braesig turned upon him, and without looking him in the face said, "A
+certain person was going to have my boots pulled off, and let me hop
+about with bare legs, like a crow;" and with that, he passed on,
+without looking round.
+
+And when he had discharged his errand to Mining, at Gurlitz, and, after
+great rejoicing with his little rogues, Lining begged him to spend the
+day with them, although he must excuse Gottlieb, since it was Saturday,
+and he must write his sermon, he said, "Frau Pastorin Lining, every one
+has his business, and if the Herr Pastor Gottlieb has a sermon to make,
+why shouldn't I have one, too? For I must go to the Reform this
+evening;" and so he went back to Rahnstadt.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+When Braesig had opened his budget of news from Rexow and Gurlitz, and
+the Frau Pastorin and Habermann had no more questions to ask, he took
+flight again.
+
+"You won't take it unkindly, Frau Pastorin, or you either, Karl, but as
+soon as I can change my boots I must go to the Reform. You ought to
+come with me, Karl, we are going to elect a new president to-day,
+because the old one, as he says, can't stand it any longer. I shall
+vote for the advocate Rein,--do you know him? A capital man, a
+thoroughly good fellow,--but he makes jokes, to be sure; and then we
+have a very important question for discussion, to-day,--Rector Baldrian
+says it is demanded by the spirit of the times,--we are going to find
+out how there comes to be such great poverty in the world. You ought to
+come with me, Karl."
+
+But Karl would not go, and Braesig went alone.
+
+The first person upon whom his eyes fell, as he entered the hall of the
+Reformverein, was--Zamel Pomuchelskopp, who, as he perceived Braesig,
+came right up to him, saying, "Good-evening, dear brother, how are you,
+dear Zachary?"
+
+There were not many who observed how Braesig received this salutation,
+and those who saw it did not comprehend it clearly; but shoemaker Bank
+had seen it, and told me about it. "Fritz," said he, "see here, if you
+should look at the Herr Inspector's face in a shoemaker's glass, he
+looked like that; the mouth was so broad, and the nose so thick, and
+his whole face looked like fire and fat, and as he put out one foot
+before him and said, 'Herr Zamwell Pomuchelskopp, I am no brother of
+yours,' do you know what he looked like? Exactly like the old Sandwirth
+Hofer, of Tyrol, when he is to be hung on the wall by Landlord Voss, at
+Ivenach, only that he had no musket in his hand. And then he turned his
+back to him, and such a back! and went up to the election-table, and
+gave his vote for the new president, and said aloud, through the hall,
+'I vote for the Herr Advocate Rein, for our business must be pure
+(rein), and if any dirty fellows come in here they must be turned out.'
+No body understood what he meant; but they were all still as mice, for
+they knew something had happened; and as he went through the hall they
+all made room for him, for he looked like a mad bull; but he seated
+himself quietly at the other end of the hall, and all the members of
+the Reformverein know what happened afterwards."
+
+This is what Hanne Bank told me, and I believe him, for he was a good
+friend of mine, and an honest man, although he was only a shoemaker; he
+was sent to a bloody grave, in his best years, by a good-for-nothing
+scoundrel, because he stood up for the right, and although it may be
+out of place here, I will write it, that the memory of such an honest
+man and good friend may be honored elsewhere than on his tombstone.
+
+So Zachary Braesig seated himself at the farther end of the hall, and
+sat there like a thunder-storm, ready at any moment to break loose. The
+advocate Rein was made president, he touched the bell, crawled into the
+cask, and returned thanks for the honor, and finally said,--
+
+"Gentlemen, before we begin our discussion of the poverty-question, I
+have the pleasure to announce to you that the Herr Proprietor of
+Gurlitz proposes himself as a member of our Reformverein. I believe
+there is no one who will oppose his admission."
+
+"So?" cried a terribly spiteful voice behind him, "are you so sure of
+that? I beg for a word or two," and as the new president turned round,
+there stood Uncle Braesig, by the cooling-vat.
+
+"Herr Inspector Braesig has the floor," said the president, and Uncle
+Braesig stuffed himself into the cooling-vat.
+
+"Fellow-citizens," he began, "how long is it, since we declared for
+Liberty, Equality and Fraternity here at Grammelin's? I will say
+nothing about Liberty, although I cannot stir my body in this
+confounded cask; nor will I speak of Equality, for our new president
+gives us a good example of that, since he always goes about in a gray
+coat, and not, like certain people, in a blue dress-coat with gilt
+buttons; but I wish to speak of Fraternity. Fellow-citizens! I ask you,
+is that Fraternity, when a man wants to pull off his brother's boots?
+and when a man will let his fellow-creature run about in the snow, like
+a crow, or if the snow is gone, in the mud? and a man boasts himself
+against another, and makes game of him? I ask you, is that Fraternity?
+and I tell you Herr Zamwell is such a brother as that. And I have
+nothing more to say."
+
+He came down from the speaker's stand, and blew his nose, as if he were
+sounding a trumpet over his speech.
+
+Tailor Wimmersdorf then took the floor, and said the Rahnstadt Reform
+must consider it a great honor to have a proprietor among them; so far
+as he knew, it was the only one, for the Herr von Zanzel, although he
+owned an estate, and was a member, was not to be counted, for he made
+no purchases in Rahnstadt, and had nothing to do with them. He voted
+for the Herr Proprietor.
+
+"Bravo!" resounded through the hall. "Wimmersdorf is right! Neighbor,
+you are right! How shall we live, if we don't keep on good terms with
+such people?"
+
+"That is not my opinion," said Schultz, the carpenter, creeping softly
+up into the cask, like a fat snail, out of its shell, and he looked
+like one, for all the world. "Stuff and nonsense, tailor Wimmersdorf,
+stuff and nonsense! Did the Gurlitz potentate trouble himself about us,
+did he pay up our bills, before he needed us? Why does he stand here in
+the hall, when his admission has been opposed? Hasn't he modesty enough
+to go out? But no! And why? Because he is a Great Mogul. I say, out
+with him, out!" and the snail crept into its shell again.
+
+"Out! out!" cried several voices, and others cried, "Speak again! Go
+on!" and a rascally shoemaker sung out in a clear voice,--
+
+
+     "Snail, snail, come out of your shell!
+      Stick out your horns, we know you well!"
+
+
+But Schultz the carpenter would not come, he knew very well that he
+should only weaken the impression his speech had made; he preferred to
+strengthen it, he stood with Braesig, behind the scenes, and both
+called, "Out! out!" and they would certainly have gained their point,
+had not the devil pushed forward David and Slusuhr, into the
+cooling-vat, each with a moustache, to signify that they were
+excessively liberal. They sung Pomuchelskopp's praises with psaltery
+and harp; he was a helpful angel, said Slusuhr,--"Yes, a fat angel,"
+cried that rogue of a shoemaker,--he had helped many a poor family here
+in Rahnstadt,--he said nothing about the ten per cent. interest,--and
+he would do much more for the city. David began the same song, a little
+colored with saffron and spiced with garlic. "Gentlemen!" said he,
+making a low bow to the roguish shoemaker, who received it very
+quietly, "bethink yourselves, think of the good of the whole city! In
+the first place, there is the Herr Pomuchelskopp himself, in person,
+then there is the gracious Frau Pomuchelskopp,--a fearfully clever
+woman,--then there are the Fraeuleins Salchen and Malchen, and the Herr
+Gustaving and the Herr Nanting and the Herr Philipping, and then come
+the Fraeulein Mariechen and the Fraeulein Sophiechen and the Fraeulein
+Melaniechen, and then come the little Herr Krischaning and the little
+Herr Joching, and then comes the youngest of all,--well, wait a moment,
+I am not through yet,--and then come the house-maids, and the
+kitchen-maids, and the nurse-maids, and the swine-maids,--and I don't
+know how many more,--and then come the coachman and the grooms, and the
+herdsmen, and they all want something. Why should they not want
+something? Everybody has his wants. And they need coats and they need
+trousers, and they need shoes and boots, and they need stockings and
+shirts and jackets; and when it is cold they need warm coats, and when
+it is warm, they need cool ones, and when Palm Sunday comes, and they
+go to be confirmed, they must have nice coats, and on Christmas--good
+heavens! I have always said this Christ must have been a great man,
+what an amount of business has he introduced into the world by
+Christmas! And all these things we make, and sell in our shops. But who
+buys them of us? The Herr Pomuchelskopp buys them of us. I have nothing
+more to say."
+
+And it was not necessary, for, as he finished his speech, all the
+tailors and shoemakers were, in imagination, making boots and shoes and
+trousers and jackets for the little Pomuchelskopps, and the shopkeepers
+were disposing of their remnants to Muchel, and Kurz had, in
+anticipation, sold him half his stock in trade.
+
+But in spite of this, Braesig and the carpenter Schultz still cried,
+"Out with him! Out!" and the other side cried; "Let him stay!" "Out
+with him!" "Let him stay!" And there was a dreadful uproar. The
+material interests represented by the Pomuchelskopp's boots and
+trousers, rose up in opposition to the ideal fraternity; it was a hard
+fight. At last the bell from the president's desk quieted them
+sufficiently for the Herr President Rein to make himself heard.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he--"Out with him!" "Out with him!" "Let him
+stay!"--"Gentlemen," he began again, "Thank God!"--"Out! out!" "Let him
+stay!"--"Thank God! the opinion of the assembly has expressed itself so
+decidedly, that we can proceed to a vote. So; let all those who are in
+favor of admission go to the musician's gallery; those who are opposed,
+go to the speaker's stand."
+
+The Rahnstadt Reformverein put itself in motion; every one trotted off
+as fast as he could, to show his decided opinion, and it sounded, from
+a distance, as if a fulling-mill were in full progress at Grammelin's,
+and the result of this quiet proceeding was soon manifest, for
+Grammelin rushed into the room, crying, "Herr President! Children! I
+beg of you go to some other place, or vote in a more quiet way!"
+
+"Eh, what?" said Thiel, the joiner; "we must vote! Else it is no
+Reform."
+
+"I know that, Thiel, but you are voting so hard, that the plaster is
+all tumbling down from the ceiling."
+
+They perceived by this that they were going a little too fast; and from
+that time, they did not attempt to vote with their feet; but only with
+their hands.
+
+The votes were counted; Pomuchelskopp was admitted as a regular member
+of the Reformverein. Schultz the carpenter turned to Braesig, and asked,
+over, his shoulder, "Well, if it comes to this, Herr Inspector, what
+will become of Germany?"
+
+"It is all one to me," said Braesig; "but don't talk to me of your
+Fraternity!"
+
+Now the poverty-question came upon the carpet, and after the president
+had explained the question, the Rahnstadt Reformverein took it up for
+discussion: "How poverty came to be in the world, and why it remains
+here."
+
+The first who rose was Rector Baldrian. He came up from behind, like
+all the rest, into the speaker's stand, but piled up a great heap of
+books before him, as high as his shoulders, to create a favourable
+opinion of himself, in the minds of the audience. As he had arranged
+the Bible and Xenophon, and Plato and Aristotle, and Livy and Tacitus,
+and all that he had on hand of Cicero, he made a bow, and said those
+were his reserves.
+
+"Gossip," said Johann Bank to the shoemaker, Deichert, "this will be
+tedious; we know what he is, come and have a glass of beer."
+
+Then the rector began, and proved first, from the Bible, that in very
+old times there was poverty among the Jews.
+
+"That is not so!" cried an eager voice from the crowd, "the confounded
+Jews have all the money there is; they know well how a poor man feels."
+
+The rector did not let himself be disturbed, he proved the matter from
+the Bible, and then took up Xenophon, and told about the Helots in
+Sparta, but the assembly did not seem quite to understand it. Upon
+that, he opened Plato, and began on him, that is, on the "Republic,"
+and said that if the Rahnstadters had such a state of things as Plato
+had planned for the Athenians, every laborer in Rahnstadt could have
+roast beef and potatoes for dinner every day, and could ride in a coach
+Sunday afternoons, and the children, who now went begging about the
+streets, would go with gold chains around their necks, instead of
+beggars' sacks.
+
+"Let him tell us more about that!" "Three cheers for Plato!" sounded
+through the hall. "Gossip, is that the old Jew-grinder Platow, who is
+blind of one eye?"
+
+"Eh, gossip, I knew him well enough; he has bought many a piece of beef
+of me," said Kraeuger, the butcher.
+
+The president's bell produced quiet, and that rogue of an advocate Rein
+turned to the rector, and begged, in the name of the assembly, that he
+would have the kindness to give the Rahnstadt Reformverein a particular
+account of the Platonic Republic.
+
+That was a hard request, and the sweat ran down the poor old rector's
+face, as he began three times, and three times broke down, for he was
+far from having a clear idea of it himself. He finally said, in his
+distress, the Platonic Republic was a republic, and what a republic was
+his hearers, so well educated in political matters, knew very well.
+Well, everybody knew that; and then the rector got off among the
+Romans, and told something quite different, how sometimes the old
+Romans got hungry, and how they clamored loudly for _panem et
+circenses_. "Panem, my dear hearers," said he, "signifies bread, and
+circenses, open air plays."
+
+All at once, shoemaker Deichert sprang up on a bench, and cried, "That
+is what I say! The old Romans were no fools; and what they did, we
+Rahnstadters can do, any day! What? when I and Bokel and Juerendt and
+all the others are sitting at Pfeifers, playing vingt-et-un, shall the
+burgomeister come and take away our cards, and send us and Gossip
+Pfeifer to the Rath-house, and make us pay a fine and costs? What? I
+say, like the old Romans, free, open play for all!"
+
+"You are right, there, gossip," cried Juerendt, "three cheers for the
+old Romans and the Herr Rector!" And the others echoed: "Hurrah!
+hurrah!"
+
+The rector acknowledged the compliment to himself and the Romans by a
+bow, and as he noticed that the president glanced frequently at the
+clock, he hastened to finish his speech, and concluded with these
+words: "My respected hearers, if we consider poverty at the present
+time, we shall find that it is only the children of poor people, and of
+the mechanics, who go begging in our city." With that he retired,
+carrying off his "reserves" under his arm.
+
+He was followed by Johann "Meinswegens." "Gentlemen," said he, "I am,
+meinswegens,[11] a dyer," and thereupon he extended his two hands over
+the cask with so much emphasis that the whole Reformverein was
+astonished,--"I used to go to school to the Herr Rector, and he is
+right, we must have a republic, meinswegens Plato's, meinswegens
+somebody's else; but what the Herr Rector said about the mechanics,
+that is a sin and a shame; I mean, meinswegens, the mechanics and not
+the Herr Rector. Gentlemen, I have, meinswegens, travelled into strange
+countries as a journeyman mechanic--"
+
+"You sat in the chimney-corner, with your mother," cried a voice from
+the crowd.
+
+"What? I have been as far as Birnbaum in Poland, and, meinswegens,
+farther still, ever so far! as true as the sky is blue, and on the word
+of an honest blue dyer," and he smote on his breast. "And, gentlemen, I
+could, meinswegens, keep two journeymen, only that, unfortunately,
+indigo is so dear."
+
+"Oh, you rascal! You color with logwood!" cried shoemaker Deichert.
+
+"That is a stupid joke!" cried Johann.
+
+"What, indigo? Hear!" cried several voices, "he colors with logwood!"
+
+"Yes," cried the roguish shoemaker, "one can easily tell the women-folk
+that he colors for, they look like tar-barrels, the old logwood gives
+such a strong color."
+
+"Young man," asked Johann, in a very superior way, "have you,
+meinswegens, ever looked into my dye-tub?"
+
+"You should hold your tongue, when we are talking about poverty; you
+are well enough off," cried another.
+
+"Gentlemen, meinswegens, that is a stupid joke! It is true, I have
+built myself a new house----"
+
+"Of logwood," cried the shoemaker. "Of logwood!" repeated the others.
+
+"No! no!" cried the dyer, "of fir wood, with oaken beams!"
+
+"Of logwood!" cried the others.
+
+"Gentlemen," began Johann once more, very impressively, raising himself
+up, and striking his breast with his blue fist, "I am, meinswegens, a
+Rahnstadt burgher, and I have no more to say."
+
+"That is enough!" cried several.
+
+"Then do as you ought!" cried the day-laborers, "down with the
+blockhead, he tells us nothing but what we know already."
+
+And Johann "Meinswegens" was obliged to come down from the platform.
+
+Then came Kurz: "Fellow-citizens! We are to discuss poverty, and my
+honored predecessor has been speaking of indigo. That is a pretty
+business! Why should we poor merchants pay taxes, if every dyer may get
+his own indigo, and my honored Herr Predecessor can only do this,
+because no one can overlook his cards, and see how much indigo he uses,
+and how much logwood!"
+
+"You look at the cards, yourself!" cried a voice behind him,--he looked
+round, right into Braesig's face, but was not disconcerted, and went on:
+"For he can buy his indigo cheaper of me than even at Rostock. But,
+fellow-citizens, about poverty--if it goes on like this, we shall all
+become poor."
+
+"He is right there, gossip," said shoemaker Deichert to Johann Bank.
+
+"Fellow-citizens, I purchased myself an express wagon and a horse, to
+send home my goods, and also to make a little profit."
+
+"We common people don't care about your little profits!" interrupted
+Fritz Siebert, the carrier.
+
+"But," Kurz went on, "what happened? They laid an attachment on my
+wagon, last year, at Teterow----"
+
+"Because you had not paid the tax," again interrupted Fritz Siebert.
+
+Kurz did not mind such little interruptions as these, for he had been
+turned out once, and he was a persevering character, so he went on:
+"Our Herr Burgomeister sent for me, and asked me what sort of a wagon I
+sent my goods home in. 'In my own wagon,' I said. 'So, _per se_?' said
+he. 'No,' I said, 'not per sea, Rahnstadt is not a seaport; per
+land-carriage.' Then he laughed, and said he had expressed himself in
+Latin. Fellow-citizens, What are we coming to, when the magistrates
+express themselves in Latin, and attachments are levied on horses and
+wagons? That is the way to poverty. How shall we merchants live on the
+small profits we get on coffee and sugar, tobacco and snuff?"
+
+"Don't talk about your cursed snuff!" cried shoemaker Deichert, "it has
+given me a nose like that!" and he held up his fist before his face;
+but he did not have a chance to say more, for everybody laughed, as
+they saw his natural nose peeping out on both sides of his fist.
+
+"Fellow-citizens!" said Kurz, again, "I know, very well, there must be
+poverty, but it should be of a reasonable kind; I mean, so that every
+one may be able to take care of himself, and not be a burden to other
+people. But is that possible, under the sad state of things in our
+city? Fellow-citizens! for some years, I have been striving against the
+unjust privileges which certain people have obtained, and in which they
+have been protected."
+
+"Gossip," said Thiel, the joiner, to Juerendt, "you see, he is
+coming to the stadtbullen. There he must stop, baker Wredow is my
+brother-in-law."
+
+He was right. "Fellow-citizens!" cried Kurz, "I mean the stadtbullen,
+these----"
+
+"Down with him!" cried Thiel, the joiner.
+
+"Yes, down with him!" echoed through the hall.
+
+"We will hear nothing of bulls and cattle!" cried several voices.
+
+"He grudges everybody the least profit!" cried Fritz Siebert.
+
+"He wants it all for himself, even the stadtbullen!"
+
+The president struck his bell emphatically, Kurz drew himself up in the
+stand, and made one more attempt: "Fellow-citizens!"
+
+"Eh, what, fellow-citizens?" cried Thiel the joiner and Deichert the
+shoemaker, and pulled the unlucky tradesman down backwards, by the
+skirts of his coat, out of the cooling-vat, so that he gradually
+disappeared, and only his two hands trembled for a moment on the rim of
+the cask, as if he were drowning, and smothered sounds arose,
+"Stadtbullen--bullen--bullen--bullen?" Then all was silent, and Kurz
+fell half fainting into Braesig's arms. Braesig and the carpenter carried
+him out.
+
+"I wish you would hold your confounded tongue!" said Uncle Braesig, as
+he dragged Kurz into the next room, and got him into a corner, "do you
+want to be turned out again?" and the two old fellows planted
+themselves to the right and left of Kurz, and stood there like the two
+men in the "Wild Man's gulden," who keep watch over a springing lion,
+lest he should attack the people; only the two old boys went more
+sensibly to work than the wild men, and each had a pipe in his hand,
+instead of a club.
+
+Meanwhile, Fritz Siebert was showing that poverty came from the
+turnpike toll; the turnpike tolls must be given up; and tailor
+Wimmersdorf made a very reasonable proposition; something must be done
+for the poor, and he could think of nothing better at the moment, than
+to write down the grand-duke's castle, at Rahnstadt, as "national
+property;" if that could be sold, a good bit of poverty might be
+remedied, this was carried, and seven men went off to the castle, with
+Grammelin's stable lantern, and a piece of chalk, to attend to the
+business.
+
+"Krischan," said a voice behind Pomuchelskopp, "I like that. You can
+write,--you shall write, to-morrow evening, on the door of our master's
+house."
+
+Pomuchelskopp looked round--the voice struck him as familiar--right
+into the face of one of his own Reform day-laborers, and the cursed
+rascal had the impudence to nod. He had very peculiar feelings; he had
+no idea what to do; whether to play his trump of master, or to try
+fraternity again. Something must be done, he must at least get the
+Reformverein on his side; and when Braesig and Schultz returned to the
+hall, after having frightened Kurz into going home, the president was
+saying:
+
+"Herr Pomuchelskopp has the floor."
+
+Pomuchelskopp pressed slowly through the crowd, shaking Thiel's hand by
+the way, clapping Wimmersdorf on the shoulder, and speaking a few
+friendly words to the roguish shoemaker's apprentice. When he had
+squeezed himself into the cask, he began: "Gentlemen!"
+
+Well, that always makes a great impression, when a blue dress-coat with
+bright buttons addresses a laborer's frock, and a mechanic's soiled
+coat, as "Gentlemen!" and a murmur went through the hall: "The man is
+right! He knows how to treat us!"
+
+"Gentlemen!" said Pomuchelskopp, once more, when the murmurs ceased,
+"I am no orator, I am a simple farmer; I have heard better speakers
+here,"--and he bowed to the rector and Johann "Meinswegens," and tailor
+Wimmersdorf, Fritz Siebert also came in for a share, on account of the
+turnpike tolls,--"I have also heard worse,"--and he glanced at the door
+where Kurz had been carried out,--"but, gentlemen, I have not been
+drawn to you by the _speeches_, so much as by the _sentiments_ which I
+find here."
+
+"Bravo, bravo!"
+
+"Gentlemen! I am all for Liberty, all for Equality, all for Fraternity!
+I thank you for admitting me into this noble union." Here he drew a
+white handkerchief from his pocket, and laid it down before him.
+"Gentlemen, you have been talking about poverty. Many a silent hour
+have I spent in thinking upon this subject, through many a sleepless
+night have I wearied myself with the question how this evil could be
+averted,"--here he wiped the sweat from his face with the handkerchief,
+probably to show what a difficult matter ne had found it,--"that is to
+say, gentlemen, poverty in our small towns, for our day-laborers in the
+country know nothing of poverty."
+
+"So?" cried a voice from the rear. "Krischan, it is time now, speak
+up!"
+
+"Our day-laborers," continued Pomuchelskopp, not allowing himself to be
+disturbed, although he knew the voice well enough, "receive a free
+dwelling and garden, free pasturage for a cow, hay and straw for the
+same, wood and peat, and land for potatoes and flax, as much as they
+need; once a week, alternately, a bushel of barley, a bushel of rye, or
+a thaler, and all the chaff from the threshing-floor, and the
+housewives can earn five shillings a day. Now, I ask you, gentlemen, is
+any day-laborer in the city as well off? Ought a day-laborer to require
+any more?"
+
+"No, no!" cried the city laborers.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Stosse Rutschow, "I am a journeyman carpenter, and I
+never get more than nine groschen a day, the summer through, and one
+groschen of that goes to the master; I would rather be a day-laborer
+with Herr Pomuchelskopp."
+
+"Donkey!" cried Schultz the carpenter, "have you worked at all, this
+whole spring? You have been loafing about!"
+
+"Quiet! quiet!" cried the people.
+
+"Gentlemen!" Pomuchelskopp went on, "this is the way our day-laborers
+are situated, and look at their treatment! Any day-laborer can give
+notice at any time, and seek another place; isn't that honest? isn't
+that satisfactory?"
+
+"Krischan, speak, it is time!" again cried the voice in the rear.
+
+"Gentlemen!" said Pomuchelskopp, drawing to a close, "I am heartily
+agreed with this noble union in its sentiments, and on this subject of
+poverty in the small towns, and you shall see--I am not a rich man, but
+what I can do shall be done. And now, gentlemen, I ask your assistance
+and protection; if city and country are true to each other there will
+be order, and we can arrange and settle everything in a peaceable
+manner, in this noble Reformverein. Long live the Rahnstadt
+Reformverein!"
+
+"Hurrah! Hurrah! Long live the Reformverein!" echoed from every corner
+of the hall.
+
+"Long live Herr Pomuchelskopp!" cried several voices, and Muchel, with
+a bow and a very friendly demeanor, went back to his place.
+
+As he turned round, the speaker's stand was already occupied, and
+Zachary Braesig's red face shone upon him, not like a peaceful sun or
+moon, but like a fiery meteor, which the Lord sends into the world as a
+sign of his righteous judgments.
+
+"Fellow-citizens!" he cried, and made a grimace at his fellow-citizens,
+as if he had devoured two of them for breakfast that morning, and would
+now select a nice, fat one for his supper,--"Fellow-citizens! if the
+Herr Zamwell Pomuchelskopp had stayed quietly at home in Gurlitz, I
+would not have said a word; if he had not pretended to be friends with
+me, here in this very hall, and had not on this grand father-land
+platform," here he struck on the cooling-vat, "told such confounded
+lies, I would not say a word."
+
+"You must not talk like that!" cried tailor Wimmersdorf, "that is all
+nonsense!"
+
+"If tailor Wimmersdorf considers my speech nonsense," said Braesig, "he
+can stop his ears, for all I care; he is much too stupid for me to
+notice; and now he can go and complain of me if he likes, I am
+Inspector Braesig."
+
+"You are right! Go on!" cried the people.
+
+"Fellow-citizens, I should have said nothing at all, for I hold it for
+a very unsuitable thing, in an agriculturist or any other man, to stir
+up the laborers against their master; but when such a--" "Great Mogul,"
+interposed Schultz,--"stands up on this altar of fraternity to deceive
+this Reform with lies, and glorify himself, and make false
+representations of the happiness of his laborers, then I will speak
+out. Fellow-citizens! my name is Inspector Zachary Braesig."
+
+"Bravo! bravo!"
+
+"The Herr Zamwell Pomuchelskopp has told you that there is no poverty
+to be found in the country, he has regulated all the conditions of the
+day-laborer so wisely--bonus! as our honored Herr President Rein says;
+but, fellow-citizens, these day-laborers' conditions are something like
+roast beef and plum pudding; they are very nice, but we can't get them.
+For example, and merely _praeter propter_, take the houses! Close by
+Gurlitz is a sort of pig-pen, which passes for a house, and Willgans
+lives there,--is Willgans here?"
+
+Willgans was not there.
+
+"No matter. The roof has not been mended these three years, and the
+rain runs in overhead, and when there is a hard storm, the living-room
+is flooded, and the poor little children must wade round like frogs,
+while their father and mother are away at work, and when he complained
+about it Herr Pomuchelskopp said his name was Willgans (Wild-goose),
+and water was suitable for geese."
+
+"Fie! fie! He ought not to say that!"
+
+"And now about the free pasturage, and the hay for the cow! _Where_ is
+the pasturage? Half a mile from the village, on the out-field, where
+nothing grows but goat's-beard, and among the fir-trees, and can the
+women go back and forth three times a day to milk? Well they don't need
+to go so often as that, for eighteen laborers, out of the one and
+twenty, have lost their cows, from one complaint or another, and the
+three that are left are real dancing-masters."
+
+"The fellow is a Great Mogul!" cried the carpenter, "out with him!
+out!"
+
+"Quiet, quiet! Go on again!"
+
+"Yes, fellow-citizens, I will go on. About the wood and peat! The peat
+is moss-peat from the bog, and crumbles apart, and gives no heat, and
+the wood is fir-brush, and scattered branches, which the children carry
+home on their shoulders; and then the potato and flax land! Where is
+it? In the out-fields, on the worn-out soil. How is it manured? Only by
+the birds, and when one looks at his few potatoes, at harvest, he
+clasps his hands above his head, and says, 'God preserve us! Shall the
+family and the pig live on those all winter!' But they do not live on
+them, they steal. They don't steal from Pomuchelskopp, for they would
+pay too dear for it, but they steal in the neighborhood, and a good
+friend of mine, Frau Nuessler, has given orders that, if the Gurlitz
+laborers are caught stealing potatoes there, they shall let them go,
+for they do it from necessity, and they are to be pitied!"
+
+"Hurrah for Frau Nuessler!" said Johann Bank, and "Hurrah!" was
+repeated, again and again.
+
+"And the flax!" continued Braesig, "so long!"--measuring about a foot on
+his arm,--"so that even the Herr Notary Slusuhr himself, who is a
+particular friend of Herr Pomuchelskopp's, once made the bad joke in my
+presence, that the womenfolk at Gurlitz wear such short dresses,
+because the flax is too short to make long ones."
+
+"He is an infamous donkey," cried the carpenter, "to be cracking his
+jokes at the poor! Out with him!"
+
+"Fellow-citizens!" began Braesig afresh, "I will only say, the house,
+the cow-pasture, and the wood and peat, and flax and potato land are,
+for the laborers in the country, their roast beef and plum pudding,
+they are very nice; but they can't get them, and therefore there is
+poverty in the country. But how does it come about in the city?
+Fellow-citizens, I will tell you, for I have lived here long enough,
+and have studied human nature: the great poverty in the city comes from
+the great destitution here!"
+
+With that, he made a bow, and took his leave, and "Bravo!" resounded
+through the hall: "The man is right!" "Long live Inspector Braesig!"
+
+And then President Rein dismissed the assembly, saying that after such
+a speech no one could have anything more to say; and they all came up
+and congratulated Braesig, and shook hands with him all at once, all
+except Pomuchelskopp and the city musician, David Berger; the one had
+stolen away quietly, and the other had run home to call together his
+fellow-musicians, and when Braesig stepped out of Grammelin's door,
+there stood seven brass instruments before him, in a semi-circle, and
+opened fire on him at once, with "Hail to the chief!" and David Berger
+had his spectacles on, and was conducting with Grammelin's billiard
+cue, so that Uncle Braesig must look out for his head. And the Gurlitz
+laborers stood around him, in a body, and weaver Ruhrdanz said, "Don't
+be afraid, Herr Inspector, you have stood by us, and we will stand by
+you." And as Braesig was escorted by this festive procession, across the
+market, and through the streets of Rahnstadt, these poor, despised
+people followed him in trust and reverence, for it was the first time
+that the world had troubled itself about their distress and sorrow, and
+the feeling that one is not wholly forsaken works more good in the
+human soul than any amount of admonitions.
+
+Before the Frau Pastorin's house, Braesig made a short speech to his
+guard of honor: he regretted that he could not invite them in, but it
+would be unsuitable in a clerical house, for he lived with the Frau
+Pastorin; but he hoped they would all meet him at Grammelin's,
+to-morrow evening, over a bowl of punch. They received this with a
+"Hurrah!" and when Braesig had gone to bed, after telling Karl the whole
+story, the Rahnstadt glee-club sang under window,
+
+
+                "Laurels wave where the warrior sleeps,"
+
+
+and on the road to Gurlitz went the day-laborers, in serious mood; and
+old weaver Ruhrdanz said, "Children, listen to me! We will get rid of
+him; but not by force, no! in all moderation, for what would the
+grand-duke and the Herr Inspector Braesig say, if we should show our
+gratitude for his speech by making fools of ourselves?"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+After church next day, for it was Sunday, Kurz came in to see Habermann
+and Braesig:
+
+"Good day! good day! I am angry; nothing but vexations the whole day!
+What? Such a set of people! Won't let a man speak at all! Eh, one might
+better keep swine than be a democrat! They listen to the stupidest
+speeches, and cry 'Bravo,' and give serenades, disturbing people out of
+their sleep, and when one tries to make an important subject clear to
+them, do they drum and pipe then? and they call that a Reformverein!"
+
+"Listen to me, Herr Kurz," said Braesig, stepping up to him, fully two
+inches taller than usual, "it is very unbecoming in you, to sneer at
+that serenade, for that serenade was given to _me_, and _you_ would
+have been turned out again, if the well-meaning Herr Schultz and I had
+not taken you under our protection. What? What does the old proverb
+say? 'When it is the fashion, one rides to the city on a bull;' but it
+is not the fashion in the Reformverein, and if one persists in riding
+in and rampaging about on a bull, the people won't stand it, and they
+turn him out, with his bull, for the Reformverein is not designed for
+such purposes."
+
+"It is all one to me!" cried Kurz, "other people rode in on donkeys,
+and were treated with great distinction."
+
+"You are a rude fellow!" cried Uncle Braesig, "you are an impertinent
+rascal! If this were not Karl Habermann's room, I would kick you down
+stairs, and you might carry your bones home in a bag."
+
+"Hush, Braesig, hush!" interposed Habermann, "and you, Kurz, ought to be
+ashamed of yourself, to come here stirring up strife and contention."
+
+"I had strife and contention last evening; I have had strife and
+contention all day long. This morning, when I had hardly opened my
+eyes, my wife began with strife and contention; she is not willing I
+should go to the Reformverein."
+
+"She is quite right, there," said Habermann, seriously, "you are not a
+fit person to go, for, with your hasty, inconsiderate behavior, you do
+nothing but mischief;" and leaving him he went over to Braesig, who was
+running up and down the room, puffed up like an adder: "Braesig, he
+couldn't have meant it so."
+
+"It is no consequence to me, Karl, what such an uncouth, malicious,
+miserable beast thinks of me. Riding in on a donkey? Fie, it is nothing
+but the meanest envy."
+
+"I did'nt mean _you_!" cried Kurz, running up and down the other side
+of the room, "I meant my brother-in-law, Baldrian, and the dyer, and
+the other blockheads. And is'nt it enough to drive one crazy? First,
+the quarrel with my wife, about the Reformverein, then a quarrel with
+my shopman,--he slept till nine o'clock this morning, was out singing
+on the streets last night, and at the beer-house, till four o'clock;
+then a quarrel with the stable-boy and the horse-doctor,--my
+saddle-horse has got the influenza,--then another quarrel with my wife,
+she don't want me to have anything to do with farming."
+
+"There she is right again," interrupted Habermann. "All your farming
+amounts to nothing, because you don't understand it."
+
+"So! I don't understand it? Nothing but vexations! Afterwards the
+stupid servant maid, she put on a table-cloth for dinner that came down
+to the floor; well, we sit there, a customer rings, I am provoked with
+the shopman because he doesn't start up immediately, start up myself,
+catch the table-cloth between my feet, and pull off the soup-tureen,
+and the whole concern, on the floor. Do you see, then my wife comes,
+and holds me fast, and says, 'Kurz, go to bed, you are unlucky to-day;'
+and every time that I get angry, she says, 'Kurz, go to bed!' It is
+enough to drive one crazy."
+
+"And your wife was right again," said Habermann, "if you had stayed in
+bed, you would not have come here to make trouble."
+
+"So?" cried Kurz, "did you ever lie in bed all day, with sound limbs,
+merely because it was an unlucky day? I will never do it again, no
+matter how much my wife begs me. One worries himself to death! She took
+away my boots and my trousers, and I lay there and fretted, because I
+could not get up, if I wanted to."
+
+Uncle Braesig began to laugh heartily.
+
+"Well," said Habermann, "then you came over here, and got vexed again."
+
+"Eh, how?" said Kurz, "I did'nt mean that at all, I only came over to
+ask you two Herr Inspectors if you would go with me to my field, and
+see if it was ready for ploughing."
+
+Through Habermann's persuasions the quarrel was made up, and the three
+farmers went to the field, Kurz making close calculations, and reeling
+off his agricultural phrases, while Braesig said to himself, "Who is
+riding on the donkey now?"
+
+"I have a piece of ground here," said Kurz, "measuring a hundred and
+fifty square rods, and I have bought ten cartloads of manure from
+Kraenger the butcher, real, fat, slaughter-house manure; I am going to
+plant beets; I had it strewed yesterday; is'nt that enough, gentlemen?
+Look here!" and he turned out of the road into the field.
+
+"Very badly strewed!" said Braesig. "A properly manured field should
+look like a velvet cover," and he began to poke the lumps apart with
+his stick.
+
+"Never mind," said Kurz, "something will grow, it is good
+slaughter-house manure, cost me ten thalers."
+
+All at once he stood stock still, caught at the air with his hands, and
+looked wildly around him.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Braesig, "what is the matter?"
+
+"Thunder and lightening!" cried Kurz, "the devil is in it! This is not
+my field, this next one is mine, and that confounded rascal has gone
+and put my manure on another field! And I told him to do it! Ten
+thalers! And the carting! And the strewing! Isn't it enough to make one
+crazy?"
+
+"Eh, Kurz, that is not so bad," said Habermann, "that can be settled,
+your neighbor will be good-natured, and pay for the manure."
+
+"That is the very thing!" cried Kurz. "This is baker Wredow's field,
+whom I have such a quarrel with about the stadtbullen; he had better
+take care!"
+
+"There's a farmer for you," said Braesig very quietly, "carting his
+manure into other people's fields!"
+
+"It is enough to drive one crazy!" cried Kurz, "but I will save what I
+can," and he ran to the boundary of the field, and began tossing the
+lumps of manure over into his field with his stick, and worked away,
+until he was out of breath with exercise and rage, and then he threw
+his stick across the field, and panted out the words: "I will have
+nothing more to do with it! Why didn't I stay in bed! When I get home,
+and get hold of that rascal of a boy,--children, I beg you, hold me
+fast, or something dreadful will happen!"
+
+"Rely upon me," said Braesig, "I will hold you," and he caught him by
+the coat-collar at once.
+
+"But what was the stick to blame for?" said Habermann, going to pick it
+up. Something stuck fast to the stick, Kurz had thrust it through, with
+his working, and thrown it away with the stick; the old man was going
+to shake it off, but as he looked at it, he stood still. Braesig had
+been occupied with Kurz, and had not paid attention to his old friend,
+and he now called.
+
+"Come, Karl, we are going! There is nothing to be made of this
+business."
+
+He got no answer, and as he looked at his friend, he saw him standing,
+with something black in his hand, which he regarded with fixed
+attention, not turning nor moving.
+
+"Good heavens, Karl, what have you there?" cried Zachary Braesig, going
+towards him. Still he got no answer, Habermann, pale as death, was
+looking at that which he held in his hand, and which made his features
+quiver with agitation.
+
+"Karl, Karl! What have you found, what is the matter?"
+
+And at last the words burst from Habermann's struggling breast: "That
+packet! This is that packet!" and he held out to Braesig a piece of
+waxed cloth.
+
+"What? What sort of a packet?"
+
+"Oh, I have held it in my hand, I have seen it for years, waking and
+dreaming! See, here is the von Rambow coat of arms, here are the marks
+on the cloth. It was put together like that, it was of that size! It
+was put up so, with the two thousand thalers in gold! This is the
+packet, which Regel was sent to Rostock with."
+
+AH this came out as disjointedly, anxiously and confusedly, as when one
+talks in a dream, and the old man seemed to be so overpowered by
+excitement that Braesig sprang towards him, and held him, but he held
+the cloth fast, as if it had grown into his heart, and Braesig raised
+himself, to look at it nearer,--Kurz came up also, without noticing any
+thing remarkable, for he was not yet over his vexation: "Well," he
+exclaimed, "now, tell me, isn't it enough to drive me crazy? There lies
+my manure, there lies my ten thalers, on baker Wredow's field."
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" cried Braesig, "do leave your confounded manure
+in peace! Your talk is as bad as the stuff itself. There is your
+cane,--we must go home. Come, Karl, recollect yourself."
+
+And when Habermann had taken a few steps, the color returned to his
+face, and a restless agitation and a driving haste came over him, he
+began to ask after this thing and that; of whom Kurz had bought the
+manure, when it was loaded, how it was loaded, what sort of a man the
+butcher Kraeuger was, and then he stood still, and folded the packet
+together, and looked at the creases in the cloth, and at the seal,
+while Kurz quite forgot his anger, and wondered what had came over the
+old inspector, that he should take so much interest in his manure and
+his ten thalers. At last Braesig told him about the matter, but he made
+him promise with a fearful oath, that he would not repeat a word of it,
+to any one; "For," said he, "you are one of the people whose tongues
+run away with them."
+
+And then they stood together in the street, and deliberated how the
+wrapper of the packet could have come into the butcher's yard, and
+Kurz, as well as Braesig, was of the opinion, that it was impossible the
+butcher could have anything to do with the business,--he was too
+respectable a man.
+
+"Yes," said Habermann, and the old energy and decision and judgment,
+which he had seemed to lose in his trouble and grief, had quite come
+back to him, "yes, but a neighbor might have thrown it over there. Does
+the butcher live alone in the house?"
+
+He had tenants in the back part of the house, Kurz said, but he did not
+know who they were.
+
+"I must go to the burgomeister," said Habermann, and as they came back
+into the town, he went to his house. Kurz would have gone with him, but
+Braesig held him back: "We two have lost nothing." And as he said
+farewell to him, at his own door, he added, "You belied me to-day in
+the most shameful manner; I have forgiven you, however, the 'riding on
+a donkey;' but if you breathe a word about Karl Habermann's business, I
+will wring your neck for you,--you confounded old syrup-prince, you!"
+
+Habermann found the burgomeister at home; he told him about his
+discovery and laid the waxed cloth together in the previous folds,
+while the burgomeister grew more and more attentive, and finally said:
+
+"Yes, to be sure, to be sure! I had the packet in my hand, also, when I
+gave the messenger his pass; the examination, that followed
+immediately, fixed it clearly in my memory, and if I were called as a
+witness, I must testify that it is the same, or one exactly like it.
+But, my dear Herr Habermann, the trace is still too indistinct; for
+example, the butcher certainly can have nothing to do with the
+business, he is one of our best citizens; it is not to be thought of."
+
+"But there are other people in the back of the house."
+
+"That is true, yes! Do you know who lives there? Well, we can soon find
+out," and he touched the bell. The waiting-maid came in.
+
+"Fika, who lives in the back part of the house with Kraeuger the
+butcher?"
+
+"Eh, Herr, widow Kaehlert lives there, and then Schmidt the weaver,"
+said Fika.
+
+"Schmidt? Schmidt? Is that the weaver Schmidt, who is divorced from his
+wife?"
+
+"Yes, Herr, and people say he is going to be married again, to the
+widow Kaehlert."
+
+"So? so? Do people say that? Well, you may go;" and the burgomeister
+walked up and down, thinking and thinking, and then stopped before
+Habermann, and said, "It is really a remarkable coincidence; that is
+the divorced husband of the woman, whom we took up once for
+examination; you know, she claimed to have found the Danish double
+louis-d'ors."
+
+Habermann said nothing, fear and hope were struggling too powerfully in
+his breast.
+
+The burgomeister touched the bell again; Fika came: "Fika, go round to
+butcher Kraeuger's, and tell him I want him to come here, in a quarter
+of an hour."
+
+Fika went; and the burgomeister said to Habermann, "Herr Inspector,
+these are very significant indications; yet it is possible we may come
+to a dead halt; I can give you very little encouragement. But even if
+we arrive at no certainty, what does it matter? No reasonable being can
+have any suspicion of you. I have been really troubled to see that you
+have taken such utterly groundless suspicions so much to heart. But I
+must ask you to go now; people will certainly think you are concerned
+in the matter. Say nothing about it, and take care that Kurz and Braesig
+are silent also. Yes--and--yes, that will do! You can send Inspector
+Braesig to me, to-morrow morning at nine o'clock."
+
+Habermann went, and Kraeuger the butcher came.
+
+"Dear Herr Kraeuger," said the burgomeister, "I sent for you, that you
+might give me information on a few points. The widow Kaehlert and the
+weaver Schmidt live with you?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Burgomeister, they live in the back of my house."
+
+"As I hear, weaver Schmidt is going to marry widow Kaehlert. Does the
+woman know that there are some legal hindrances in the way of Schmidt's
+contracting a second marriage?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Burgomeister; I don't know about that last; I don't trouble
+myself about the people; but, you know, these women folks! if these is
+a courtship in the air, they are like the bees, and bring the news into
+the house,--well, Herr Burgomeister, you won't take it ill, mine is
+naturally no better than the rest; well, she came in lately, and said
+the business was so far settled that Kaehlertsch was quite determined
+about it, but the weaver wasn't ready yet. And Frau Kaehlert told Frau
+Bochert, she had cooked and washed for him over a year, and it was time
+he were making his preparations; but it was all the fault of that
+baggage his divorced wife, who came and teased the weaver to take her
+back again. If she should come again, however, she would trip her up,
+and the weaver might cook and wash for himself."
+
+"The widow Kaehlert must be very foolish," said the burgomeister, "to
+want to marry that man. She has a little something, enough to live on;
+but he has nothing in the world but his loom; that came out in the
+evidence, at the divorce."
+
+"Yes, it was so _then_. But, you see, Herr Burgomeister, I don't
+trouble myself about him,--if he pays his rent, I have no further
+business with him, and he has always done that honestly; and he has
+rented, for this year past, a little room of mine, that opens into his,
+and my wife says she went in there once, with Frau Kaehlert, and it was
+very nicely fitted up, with a sofa, and pictures on the wall."
+
+"He must have had a good deal to do then, and have earned a good deal."
+
+"Eh, Herr Burgomeister, a weaver! and it is such a noisy business, they
+can tell, all over the neighborhood, when the old loom stands still,
+and there are a good many days, when I don't hear its music. No, he
+must have something laid up."
+
+"Then he lives very comfortably?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! He has his fresh meat every day, and I told my wife, 'You
+shall see,' I said, 'it is only because of the nice mutton and beef
+that Kaehlertsch wants to marry him.'"
+
+"Well, Herr Kraeuger, just tell me plainly,--I ask you in
+confidence,--do you think the man is really an honest man?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Burgomeister, I think he is. Now in some things I am very
+observant, I have had some tenants who would run a splinter into their
+fingers, in the yard, and when they pulled it out, in their kitchen, it
+would be a four-foot log of my beechen timber, and when they went
+through the shop, a pound of beef would jump into their coat-pockets,
+and the apples from my trees were always falling at their feet. Well,
+it isn't so with him; I say to you, don't meddle with him!"
+
+The burgomeister was an honorable man, and a man of the best
+intentions; but at this moment such good testimony in behalf of one of
+his fellow-men, was not agreeable to him; he would rather have heard
+that people thought the weaver a rascal. Some things are hard to
+explain; but so much is certain, there are dark abysses in human
+nature, and when such an abyss has opened in the office of the judge,
+it has swallowed up thousands of innocent men. "Judge, judge justly!
+God is thy master, and thou his servant!" is a fine old proverb, which
+my father taught me when I was a little boy, but the weakness of human
+nature does not always suffer us to act up to it, to say nothing of the
+openly wicked, who seek their advantage in injustice.
+
+The butcher had gone, and the burgomeister walked up and down the room,
+thinking over the matter, and contriving how he could find out how the
+waxed cloth came into the butcher's yard. Two things urged him
+powerfully to this investigation, one was his deep compassion for
+Habermann's troubles, the other, his firm persuasion that this was the
+wrapper of the gold-packet which he had held in his own hand. But he
+knew, also, that he had not yet a firm clue, which he could follow; yet
+he was sure of so much, that the weaver's divorced wife still held
+intercourse with him.
+
+Habermann, also, was walking up and down in his room, hastily,
+restlessly. Ah, how strongly he was impelled to share his hopes and his
+prospects with his child, and the Frau Pastorin! But unrest for both?
+And he had enough to do, to control his own.
+
+Braesig sat in a chair, turning his head back and forth as Habermann
+walked up and down the room, and looking at him; like Bauschan when
+Jochen Nuessler had his cap on.
+
+"Karl," said he, finally, "I am very glad to see you are growing so
+active, and you shall see, it will have a good effect upon you. But, I
+tell you, you must have an advocate. Take the Herr Advocate Rein; he is
+a good fellow, who knows how to turn and twist, in spite of his length.
+You can't go through with it alone, Karl; but he can help you, and, if
+it is necessary, I can bring the matter before the Reformverein, and
+your fellow-citizens can help you to your rights."
+
+"Braesig, for mercy's sake! what are you thinking of? You might as well
+tell it to the town-crier! I am dreadfully afraid Kurz will let it
+out."
+
+"Kurz? No, Karl, don't be afraid, he can't talk about it to-day, for I
+have been to him and scolded him till he can scarcely see or hear, and
+to-morrow you shall see he will have the croup, so that he cannot speak
+a word."
+
+"Braesig, I beg of you; Kurz have the croup?" and Habermann laughed in
+spite of his agitation, "what are you talking about?"
+
+"Karl, you needn't laugh at me! See, his saddle-horse has the
+inflorentia,--the horse-doctor said so, and he ordered that the old
+mare should be separated from the other horses, on account of the
+infection, and there was Kurz running about the sick horse in his
+cotton-wadded dressing-gown, feeling her here, and feeling her there,
+and then he ran back to the sound ones, to see if they had caught it
+already, and so he has infected the sound ones, for the infectious
+matter would get into the cotton wool of the dressing-gown,--cotton
+wool is the best thing in the world to carry infection,--and, you shall
+see, he has caught it himself, and to-morrow he will have the croup.
+The glanders is catching, why shouldn't the inflorentia be?"
+
+Habermann passed a very restless night; but although he had not closed
+an eye, he was full of energy next morning; a beam of hope had fallen
+into the darkness, and gilded his prospects; but he could not stay in
+the house, the four walls oppressed him, he must have room for his
+restlessness, and long before Braesig went to the Rathhaus to keep his
+appointment with the burgomeister, Habermann was wandering along the
+quiet footpaths through the green spring fields. And what a lovely
+spring it was! It was just as if heaven were saying to earth, "Hope
+confidently!" and earth again to man, "Hope confidently!" and to the
+old inspector also, she cried, with her green springing leaves and
+bird-voices, "Hope confidently!"
+
+Heaven did not keep her promise to earth, the next year was a year of
+want; earth did not keep her promise to man, the next year was a year
+of misery; would she keep her promise to the old man? He knew not, but
+he trusted the message. He walked on, and on, he came to Gurlitz, he
+went along the same pathway where he had walked with Franz, that
+Palm-Sunday morning, when his daughter was to be confirmed. He knew
+that it was on this day that love had first stirred in the young man's
+heart,--Franz had written him so, he often wrote to him,--and a great
+bitterness arose in him that the happiness, which had grown so silently
+and purely in two innocent hearts, should be disturbed and destroyed by
+the foolishness and injustice of another person, and be turned off,
+abruptly, into another path which led to Rexow, that he need not go
+through the Pumpelhagen garden.
+
+A girl came towards him with a child on her arm, and as she came nearer
+she stood still, exclaiming:
+
+"Herr Inspector! Herr Inspector! How long it is since I have seen you!"
+
+"Good day, Fika," said Habermann, and looked at the child, "how goes it
+with you?"
+
+"Ah, Herr, very badly; Krischan Daesel mixed himself up in that business
+against the Herr, that we might be able to get married, and the Herr
+has sent him away, and I should have gone too, but the gracious Frau
+would not permit it. Well, if you want to get down, run then!" she said
+to the child, who was struggling in her arms.
+
+"I always have to take her out about this time," she added, "for the
+gracious Frau is busy about the housekeeping, and the little one frets
+after her."
+
+Habermann looked at the child. She plucked flowers at the roadside, and
+coming up to him with "Da! man!" she put a marigold blossom into his
+hand, and through Habermann's heart shot the recollection of such a
+flower, which another child--his own child--had put into his hand years
+ago, and he lifted the child in his arms, and kissed her, and the child
+stroked this white hair: "Ei! ei!" and he let her down, and turned to
+go, saying, "Fika Degel, take her home, it will rain soon."
+
+And as he went his way, the spring rain fell to the earth in gentle
+drops, and his heart shone beneath it, like the fresh grain. What had
+become of his hatred?
+
+When Habermann reached Rexow, his sister sprang to meet him, as quickly
+as her stoutness would allow:
+
+"Karl! God bless you! Karl! Have you come at last! And how bright you
+look! And so handsome! Dear brother, has anything happened? Has
+something good happened to you?"
+
+"Yes, child, yes; I will tell you by and by. Where is Jochen?"
+
+"Jochen? Dear heart, you may well ask. Where he is, no mortal knows; he
+comes and goes like a bird on the fence. Since the time when it was
+settled that Rudolph and Mining are to be married next week, on
+Friday,--you are coming to the wedding?--he has no rest, day nor night,
+and busies himself about the farming, and now that the spring seed is
+all planted and he has nothing in the world to do, he runs about the
+fields, and when he comes home, he makes us all miserable. It is just
+as if he would make up, in the eight days between now and the wedding,
+what he has neglected for five and twenty years."
+
+"Oh, let him work! It will do him no harm."
+
+"So I say, but Rudolph is vexed because he follows him round so."
+
+"Well, that won't last long. Is everything quiet here?"
+
+"Oh, yes, and if Jochen had not wanted to make that speech about the
+geese, we should have known nothing about the troubles, but at Gurlitz
+and Pumpelhagen it looks badly."
+
+"At Pumpelhagen, too?"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes! They say nothing about it; he doesn't speak, and she
+doesn't speak, but the whole region knows that it may break out, any
+day. He has so many debts, now the day-laborers demand their wages, and
+he has been letting them run up, and then they want you again for
+inspector."
+
+"Oh, that last is all nonsense!"
+
+"So I said. No, I told the gracious Frau, my brother Karl will never
+come to this place again."
+
+"What?" asked Habermann, hastily, "have you been to see her?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Karl. Didn't Braesig tell you we were going?"
+
+"He said you were going, but I did not know that you had been there."
+
+"Yes, Karl, it happened this way; Triddelsitz came here with his
+new-fashioned pistols, and said they would greet the day-laborers with
+them, and I said to Jochen we must go to those people. Well, they had
+affronted us, to be sure, and there was no need of our going; but,
+Karl, the times! If one will not stretch out his hand to help a
+neighbor in such times as these, I would, not give much for him! Well,
+we rode over there, but what Jochen said to the young Herr, of course
+no mortal knows. 'Jochen,' said I, 'what did he say to you?' 'Nothing
+at all,' said he. 'What did you talk about?' I asked. 'Eh, what should
+we talk about?' said he. 'What did he say to you at last?' said I. 'He
+said adieu,' said he, 'but, mother, I shall not go there again.'"
+
+"Well, how did she receive you?" asked Habermann.
+
+"Eh, Karl, I believe if she had allowed herself she would have fallen
+upon my neck and wept. She took me into her room, and looked so
+friendly and natural, and when I told her that being a neighbor and a
+friend, I had come to see if I could be useful to her in any way, she
+looked at me kindly and quietly, and said, 'Tell me, how is your
+brother?' and when I had told her you were pretty well,--thank
+God!--she asked after Louise, and when I had told her good news of her,
+she became quite cheerful, and began to tell me about her housekeeping;
+but it was not as when a couple of housewives, like me, sit down
+together to have a little sensible talk over their housekeeping; it was
+a little too quick for me; but one could see very well she understood
+it thoroughly. Dear heart, she may have need of it yet! See, Karl, I
+plucked up courage, and stood up and took her hand in both mine, and
+said she must not repulse me,--no one should throw away dirty water
+until he was sure of clean; she might be in trouble,--of course she had
+friends, but they might not be near at hand,--and then she must come to
+me, for, as her neighbor, I was the nearest to her, as the Frau
+Pastorin says, and whatever I could do should be done. Karl, the tears
+stood in her eyes, and she turned away, and pressed them back, and when
+she turned round to me again, her face was full of friendliness and
+sweetness, and she took me by the hand, and said I should have my
+reward, and she took me into another room, and lifted her little child
+in her arms, and reached her towards me, and the little thing must give
+me a kiss. What a dear sweet girl it is!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Habermann, "I have seen her this morning. But did she
+make no complaint?"
+
+"Not a word, Karl. She said nothing of him, and nothing of their
+troubles, and when we came away, we were as wise as before, at least I
+was; for Jochen told me nothing, if he had really heard anything from
+the young Herr."
+
+"Well, sister, it is all the same. Every body knows that the young Herr
+is in great pecuniary embarrassment; Pomuchelskopp gave him notice for
+his money, and did not get it at St. Anthony's day, and has now sued
+him; Moses has given him notice for St. John's day, and will not get
+his money either, for in such times, and under such circumstances, he
+can raise nothing, and then his estate must be sold, and it will go
+very cheap, and Pomuchelskopp will buy it. In better times, and under
+the right sort of management, the estate would bring a good price. You
+will help the gracious Frau and so will I, I will gladly give up my
+little capital, if the young Herr will consent to a sensible
+management; but that would not go far. You must do something also; and
+I will talk seriously to Moses, and it will be a sin and a shame if we
+honest people cannot get the better of that old rascal, who muddied the
+water in the first place, that he might catch his carp the easier!"
+
+"Yes, Karl, if he would manage sensibly, and have you for inspector
+again, then--"
+
+"No, child," interposed Habermann, decidedly, "I shall never go there
+again. But there are plenty of skilful farmers in the country,--thank
+God!--and he must get such an one, and leave the management to him, we
+will make that a condition."
+
+"Yes, Karl, that is all very well; but now we have the outfit for
+Mining,--Kurz might have done more about it, and for his only son, but
+he is always filling one's ears with complaints, and, Karl, it might
+make us trouble with Rudolph; and we must take care that we have
+something to live upon, in our old age, and then our money is all tied
+up in mortgages."
+
+"Moses can arrange all that. You see, sister, you have promised the
+Frau you would help her, and I know you meant what you said; now is the
+time for you to help!"
+
+"Yes, Karl, but Jochen! what will Jochen say?"
+
+"Eh, Jochen! Jochen has done whatever you wanted for this five and
+twenty years, he will do so still."
+
+"Karl, you are right; he must do so. I have always managed for his
+good, and would he set himself against me now? But he is always making
+trouble; it is very hard to control him," and Frau Nuessler sprang up
+from her chair, and struck her fist against the table, as if that were
+Jochen.
+
+"My dear child," said Habermann, "you have brought about a great deal
+of good, in these long years; you will bring this about too. May God
+help you! and now, adieu!" and he gave his sister a kiss, and departed.
+
+What a pleasant walk he had! His restlessness of yesterday and that
+morning were quite gone, such a sure hope had sprung up in him, and all
+that he saw, the blue sky and the green earth, harmonized with his
+mood, harmonized with the peace which had entered his heart. And as he
+arrived at home, and his daughter scolded him, and the Frau Pastorin
+wondered why he had not come home to dinner, which they had kept
+waiting for him, he looked so bright and cheerful, that Braesig gazed at
+him in astonishment, and said to himself, "Karl must have found out
+some new indicium," for he had learned several new Latin phrases that
+morning. And he sat there, and made the most frightful faces at
+Habermann, until the old man finally understood them as signs that he
+should go out, and went with him up-stairs to his room.
+
+"Braesig," cried Habermann, in some excitement, "do you know anything
+about the business? Has anything come out?"
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, walking up and down with his long pipe, and
+tugging at a high shirt-collar, which sat very uncomfortably, as he did
+not usually wear one, "Karl, don't you see anything unusual about me?"
+
+"Yes, Braesig," said Habermann, "your shirt-collar, and it seems to
+scratch you dreadfully."
+
+"That is nothing. Higher up!"
+
+"Eh, then I don't know."
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, standing before him, "so as you see me here, I am
+appointed assessor at the criminal court, and get, by the hour's
+sitting, eight shillings, Prussian currency."
+
+"Oh, leave that alone! But tell me, is there any prospect that anything
+can come of the matter?"
+
+Braesig looked his friend right in the eye, shook his head a little, and
+said; "Karl, I dare not tell you anything, and I will not, the Herr
+Burgomeister has expressly forbidden me to say anything here in town,
+and especially to you, for the Herr Burgomeister says it will only be a
+useless torment for you, and we must have more indiciums, for he can do
+nothing without indiciums, and these confounded things can only be
+obtained by the greatest secrecy, says the Herr Burgomeister, and, if
+the whole city knows it, it would only give opportunity for all sorts
+of confusions among the rascals. But so much I can tell you, they have
+lied already, and they will keep on lying, till they fix themselves in
+a trap."
+
+There was a knock at the door; it was the letter-carrier, bringing
+Habermann a letter: "From Paris," he said, and went away.
+
+"Lord preserve us, Karl! You have very distinguished acquaintances! Who
+the devil can it be? From Paris!"
+
+"It is from Franz," said Habermann, and his hand trembled, as he
+hastily broke the seal. Franz had often written to him, and every time
+he had been in doubt whether to mention the correspondence to his child
+or not,--until now, he had said nothing to her about it. He read; the
+letter was full of friendship, and the old attachment; every word
+expressed the recollection of old times; but not a single one referred
+to his love. At the close, he said that he should remain in Paris until
+St. John's day, and then return home. This last Habermann told Braesig,
+as he put the letter in his pocket.
+
+Braesig was walking back and forth meanwhile, thinking, and, if
+Habermann had not been occupied with his letter, he must have heard
+what he was saying to himself.
+
+"Remarkable! quite remarkable! It seems to me like the finger of God!
+The Herr Burgomeister can have no objection to that, Paris has nothing
+to do with the indiciums, this is a purely private affair. Karl," he
+said at last, standing before Habermann, and looking at him, as he had
+seen the burgomeister look at the weaver that morning, "Karl, tell me
+the real truth; does your young Herr von Rambow know,--your old pupil,
+I mean,--that I know, that you and the Frau Pastorin know, that
+something has happened between him and Louise, that nobody is to know?"
+
+"Eh, Braesig, I don't know----"
+
+"Good, Karl, I see I have not expressed my meaning clearly enough, I
+mean, is he of the" opinion that you and the Frau Pastorin think that I
+think well of his love for Louise, and that you have told me? That is
+my opinion, and now tell me yours."
+
+"Eh, Braesig, he knows that you know about it, and he knows that you
+think well of it; but what of that?"
+
+"Good, Karl; lose no words! But I must go now, I have invited David
+Berger and his trumpeters and the whole glee club to Grammelin's this
+evening, to a bowl of punch, and I must go and look after it. So,
+adieu, Karl!" and he went, but came back again: "Karl, tell the Frau
+Pastorin, I shall not be home to supper. If I should say anything to
+her about the punch, she would preach me a little sermon; and you,
+Karl, don't be alarmed if I come home late to-night. I have the key."
+But he came back once more to say: "Karl, what can be done, shall be
+done."
+
+"I believe it," said Habermann, who thought he referred to the punch,
+"you will do your business thoroughly." Braesig nodded, as if to say he
+might rely upon him with confidence, and went.
+
+Habermann sat there, and read his letter a second time, and who would
+have thought that from this manuscript so many fair hopes would
+blossom? The warm friendship, which spoke in the letter, soothed him
+like the spring weather, and the trusting tone echoed sweetly in his
+ears, as the song of birds. Should his hopes be again deceived? Time
+would show!
+
+Ah, time and hope! They stand over against each other, like the cuckoo
+and the seven stars; a man who, after long darkness, ventures to hope
+again, and sees the first faint gleams of happiness in the dark sky,
+must yet wait patiently the time when the sun stands full in the
+heavens.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+The next morning, when Zachary Braesig arose, he took hold of his head
+with both hands, saying:
+
+"Karl, you may congratulate yourself that I haven't a worse headache
+than I really have: for who could play assessor to-day? If I had
+followed Grammelin's cursed punch receipt I should have a whole nest of
+sparrows in my head this morning. But I made it after my own fashion."
+
+"Well, were you very jolly?" asked Habermann.
+
+"Oh, yes! the younger part of the company were quite lively; as for me,
+I kept myself very quiet. I sat by the town-musician, David Berger,
+and, by the way, Karl! what an amount that fellow can stand! I thought
+to myself, that belongs to his business; but one glass after another,
+incessantly! and at last he became what they call sentimental, he
+embraced me, and, with tears in his eyes, told me how little he could
+earn in these political times, till Herr Suessmann, who is Kurz's
+shopman, and I really pitied him. And Herr Suessmann proposed to the
+company that we should get up a fraternity ball, for David Berger's
+benefit; that is, a political one, where all ranks, nobility, and
+ritter-proprietors, and paechters and burghers and their wives and
+children, should come together, and shake hands, and dance with, and,
+for aught I know, kiss each other. And this indicium was resolved upon,
+and it is to be a week from Sunday. And Herr Suessmann drew up a
+subscription paper, and I subscribed for you and me and the Frau
+Pastorin and Louise."
+
+"Braesig, I beg of you, what would the Frau Pastorin and Louise do at a
+ball, or I, either?"
+
+"But you must, for it is a noble cause."
+
+"And you couldn't go either, Zachary, for a week from Friday is
+Mining's wedding day, and the next Sunday the going to church, and
+what would my sister say if you were absent, and at your stupid
+Reform-ball?"
+
+"That alters the matter, we must have it put off, and so adieu, Karl, I
+will go at once to Herr Suessmann, and see about it, and then I must go
+to the Rathhaus, you know, to sit for four groschen an hour."
+
+He went directly to Kurz's shop, but Herr Suessmann was not there, Kurz
+himself was running about, opening the drawers and looking in, and then
+shutting them again.
+
+"Good morning, Kurz, where is your young Herr?"
+
+"I have no young Herr; I am Herr[12] myself."
+
+"Kurz, take care of your words, we live in democratic times, since----"
+
+"Ah, what? Here? Take care! I despise the whole democracy, when my
+shopman goes out drinking punch over night, and cannot get up in the
+morning; and old people should be ashamed----"
+
+"Hold, Kurz, you are beginning again with your flatteries, like last
+Sunday, but I cannot allow it at present, on account of my situation at
+the court. And adieu, Kurz! But I am sorry for you, for you have caught
+the inflorentia, you should go to bed, there is something in your
+bones, and if you will feel under your gaiters, you will find you are
+beginning to get the rheumatism. But adieu, Kurz!"
+
+He went off, but Kurz raved about his shop, and stormed at the whole
+world, until his wife, as soon as the shopman was out of bed, got him
+into bed, and put him under arrest for the time.
+
+After this little interview, Braesig went to the Rathhaus, and earned
+there without any further trouble, and in all quiet, five times four
+groschen, for the sitting lasted five hours. When he came home they had
+finished dinner, and as the table was spread again, expressly for him,
+the Frau Pastorin made some pointed remarks about irregularity in one's
+habits of life, and coming home at two o'clock in the morning, and
+sitting down to dinner at two o'clock in the afternoon; and Uncle
+Braesig sat there, and grinned, looking very well contented with
+himself, as if he would say, "Ah, if you knew what hard work I have
+been doing, and in what place I went through with it, you would stroke
+me and pet me, you would kiss me, and do more than you have ever done
+for me;" and when he rose from the table, he said, solemnly, "Frau
+Pastorin, it will all come to light, as the Herr Burgomeister says,"
+and he nodded to Habermann, "Bonus! as the Herr President Rein says,"
+and going up to Louise, he put his arms round her and kissed her, and
+said, "Louise, get me the finest sheet of writing paper that you can
+find, for I want to pack up a little--well, I will say indicium,--so
+that it may not be injured, for it is to go a long way."
+
+And as he went out with the sheet in his hand, he turned round again to
+remark:
+
+"Karl, as I said before, what can be done shall be done."
+
+And he came back once more to say: "Frau Pastorin, I shall come home to
+supper to-night."
+
+He went to the post-office. The postmaster was at home, he was always
+at home; for a hundred and fifty thalers salary, he had imprisoned
+himself for life, not in a room, no, in a bird-cage, which he called
+his "comptoir," and when he had no postal business, he sat there and
+played the flute, and sung, like the finest canary-bird. He was engaged
+in this agreeable business, when Braesig entered:
+
+"Good-day, Herr Postmaster. You are a man of honor, therefore I wish to
+ask your assistance in a delicate matter. Of course, it isn't necessary
+for you to know the thing itself, that must remain a secret, and what I
+tell you must also remain a secret. I am going to write to Paris."
+
+"To Paris? What the devil are you writing to Paris for?"
+
+"To Paris," said Braesig, drawing himself up.
+
+"What in the world!" said the postmaster, "one of you inspectors gets a
+letter from Paris, and the other will send one. Well, we will see how
+much it costs." He turned his books over, and said at last, "I can't
+find it here, I will reckon it up; it cannot be done under sixteen
+groschen."
+
+"No matter, I have earned twenty groschen this morning, at the court."
+
+"Whom is the letter for?"
+
+"The young Herr Franz von Rambow."
+
+"Do you know his address, where he lives?"
+
+"Why, in Paris."
+
+"But Paris is a great city. You must know the street, and the number of
+the house."
+
+"God bless me!" said Braesig, "all that! I don't know it."
+
+"Ask Habermann."
+
+"That is just the thing, he mustn't know of it."
+
+"Well, I know no other way, then, than for you to write your letter,
+and enclose it to the Mecklenburg ambassador, Dr. Urtlingen, he may be
+able to find him."
+
+"He must," said Braesig, "for the business is of great importance, and
+that is what he gets his salary for. But what I was going to say, will
+you allow me to write the letter here? Because it must be kept a secret
+from Habermann."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the postmaster, "come right in here, before my wife
+sees you, for, though it is the regular room for passengers, my wife
+will allow no one under a count to go in there. And you must let
+yourself be locked in."
+
+Braesig had no objections to that, and so he sat there, from three
+o'clock in the afternoon, until it grew dark, and wrote his letter; the
+postmaster fluted and sung, in his bird-cage; he wrote; the Frau
+Postmaster came and rattled the door, she wanted to get into her
+sanctum, and scolded because the key was gone; the Herr Postmaster had
+it in his pocket, and fluted and sung; Braesig wrote his letter. Finally
+he finished it; he read it over, and we can look over his shoulder.
+Here it is.
+
+
+"Highly well-born young Herr von Rambow:
+
+"A very remarkable thing has happened here, since Kurz the merchant had
+his manure carted on to baker Wredow's field, who is his rival in
+respect to the stadtbullen. Habermann found a piece of black waxed
+cloth there, with the Rambow coat of arms on it, which was a great
+relief to him, on account of the suspicion about the theft of the
+louis-d'ors, in the year '45, and the Herr Burgomeister also says that
+it is an indicium. The Herr Burgomeister has made me assessor at the
+court; there is a little something to be earned in that way, but it is
+very hard for me, being an old farmer, and accustomed to exercise, and
+also on account of the gout; it is not much trouble to be sure, but one
+gets sleepy in the long sittings. But the good of it is that I can know
+all about the business, which Habermann must know nothing about,
+because the Herr Burgomeister has forbidden it. Since you are in Paris,
+and not in Rahnstadt, I can talk with you freely, as a friend, about
+the business, and the business is this: the weaver, he lies, that he
+has no more intercourse with his wife, and the Herr Burgomeister says
+that is another indicium. We have a great many indiciums already. The
+principal business is still to come, however, namely, Kaehlertsch.
+Kaehlertsch is positively determined to marry the weaver, and is of the
+opinion that the weaver will not have her, because his divorced wife
+wants him to marry her again. This has caused bad feelings in
+Kaehlertsch,--what is called jealousy,--and she has come out with a lot
+of new indiciums, as the Herr Burgomeister says, very important and
+elevant, or, as I express myself in German, nearly connected with the
+matter. But the Herr Burgomeister says, one must be very careful, for
+the women-folks are spiteful when they are jealous, and tell lies
+sometimes. Meanwhile her lies have proved themselves, since she has
+come out with the whole truth, that the weaver was always getting
+Danish double louis-d'ors, as also the butcher Kraenger testified, in
+two compertinent cases. And while the weaver was before the court,
+telling us new lies and new indiciums, they searched the weaver's
+house, with Hoppner at the head, and found nine Danish double
+louis-d'ors, in his cupboard, in a secret place. Which he tried to
+contend against, later, but did not succeed. She, the weaver's wife,
+who is the worst of the lot, was also caught, this morning, since they
+found, in searching her house, a snuff-box, which had belonged to the
+blessed Herr Pastor himself, and was kept by the Pastor's family like a
+relic, in a glass case, for which shameful deed she has been furnished
+with free lodgings. Kaehlertsch has also been taken up, since in her
+wickedness she has belied the court, the Herr Burgomeister, and myself,
+as assessor. They all lie, till they are black in the face, but what
+good does that do them? The Herr Burgomeister says he is morally
+persuaded that they have done it, and it must come out, and it will
+come out. What a triumph it will be for my Karl Habermann, when he
+stands in his old age, like an angel of innocence tried in the fire,
+and goes about among the people, with his white hair, in the white
+robes of innocence. They must be as ashamed as drowned poodles for all
+they have done to him, I mean--to speak with respect--Pomuchelskopp and
+the Pumpelhagener, who have fallen out with each other, because Zamwell
+has sued the other, of which I will say nothing more, since I told
+Pomuchelskopp my opinion of him at the Reformverein, and your Herr
+Cousin of Pumpelhagen has given me the cold shoulder. He is going on in
+a bad way, for he is dreadfully disturbed because Moses has given him
+notice for the money on St. John's day, and he has no money and no
+grain, and how can they live? He is an utterly incapable man. You must
+never, while I live, let Habermann know of this letter; because it is a
+secret between us. But I thought it would be interesting for you to
+know who the real rascals were, and that Karl Habermann,--thank
+God!--is not among them. He is very much cheered up by these
+occurrences, and strikes out with his heels, like a young colt, when
+the saddle is taken off. I think this is an encouraging sign for the
+future. As for news of your old acquaintances in the region, I can only
+tell you that, next week Friday, Mining and Rudolph expect to be united
+in marriage. Frau Nuessler, whom you will remember as a very beautiful
+young woman, is still--no need to say--very handsome, but has grown a
+little stouter; Jochen also is very well, and is training up, for his
+future establishment, a new crown prince. Your Herr Colleague, of old
+times, is now the Totum at Pumpelhagen; Habermann says he will yet
+do well; I say he is a greyhound, who goes among people with his
+fire-arms, on account of which he has put Frau Nuessler and me formally
+under the ban. We have a Reform at present in Rahnstadt; the young
+Pastor Gottlieb preached against it, but the young Frau Pastorin knows
+how to manage him. Rector Baldrian brought the tailoresses, and a
+certain Platow or Patow or some such person, into the Reform; but Kurz
+has been repeatedly turned out; his four horses have the inflorentia;
+it began with his old saddle-horse, and it will end with himself, for
+he has already got the rheumatism. The old Frau Pastorin Behrends is
+still our honored hostess, also with eating and drinking, for Habermann
+and I lodge and sleep, and take our daily meals with her; she, as well
+as Habermann, would send greetings to you, but they cannot, for they
+know nothing about it. But we often speak about you, since you are
+always like an ever-present picture before our eyes. I cannot think of
+more to tell at present,--but one thing occurs to me. Pomuchelskopp got
+himself voted into the Reformverein; the master carpenter Shultz is a
+brave man, he stood by me, at that time. Krischan Daesel has been sent
+away by your Herr Cousin, and there is no definite trace of Regel; but
+Louise Habermann is--thank God!--very well indeed.
+
+"In the hope that my humble writing may not be disagreeable or
+inconvenient, I have the honor to subscribe myself, with the deepest
+reverence, and greeting you from the heart as an old friend,
+
+           "Your most obedient humble servant,
+
+                               "Zachary Braesig.
+
+ "_Immeriter Inspector, and temporary Assessor_.
+
+     "Rahnstadt, 13 May, 1848.
+
+"Postscript.--Apropos! I write this letter in the Frau Postmaster's
+sanctum, since the Herr Postmaster has locked me in expressly for the
+purpose, and has sworn not to say a word. This is all because of the
+secrecy, for Habermann and the Frau Pastorin and Louise know nothing
+about it; Louise has given me this sheet of letter paper, it belonged
+to her, and I believe it will be a little gratification to you, for I
+remember my youthful days, when I had three sweethearts at once. She is
+devoted, in love and sadness, to her old father, and for others she is
+a precious pearl of the human race. If I receive an answer from you,
+that you have no objections, I will write again about the rascals they
+have caught. If you should be in our region again a week from Sunday, I
+invite you to our fraternity ball; the seamstresses and tailoresses are
+all to be invited.
+
+                                   "The Aforesaid."
+
+
+When Braesig had finished this difficult piece of work, he rapped and
+pounded on the door, and as the postmaster unlocked it and let him out,
+he stood there, with the sweat dripping from his face.
+
+"Bless me!" said the postmaster, "how you look! It is true, isn't it?
+Unaccustomed labor is painful!"
+
+With that, he took the letter from him, and put it in an envelope, and
+directed it to the Herr Ton Rambow, and then enclosed it in another
+envelope, to the address of the Mecklenburg ambassador in Paris. Braesig
+paid his sixteen groschen, and the letter was now ready to start on its
+journey, for the postman, who should take it, that moment stopped at
+the door. And the postmaster sung, in his bower:
+
+
+   "Ein Leipziger Student hat jungst nach haus geschrieben,
+    Frau Mutter, sagen Sie, darf denn kein Maedchen lieben?"
+
+
+And as Braesig went out of the door he sung:
+
+
+   "Custine schickt eine schnelle Post,
+    Die nach Paris reiten muss:
+    Die Sachsen and Preussen marschiren ins Feld,
+    Um Mainz zu bombardiren,
+    Und wenn ich keinen Succurs bekomm,
+    Denn muss ich capituliren."
+
+
+"You may capituliren, as much as you please, for all me; only hold your
+tongue, as you have promised," said our old friend, and he went home,
+not only with the agreeable feeling that he had done a good action, but
+also with the equally agreeable feeling that he had accomplished a
+difficult task very skilfully, since he considered it pure finesse, as
+he said to himself, to have introduced Louise into the letter, so
+delicately, so _praeter propter_ and so _circa_, that one must have keen
+scent, to suspect anything.
+
+Well, when one indulges such a delightful consciousness of his good and
+skilful performances, and, so to say, warms himself at its blaze as at
+a cosy fire, on a winter's evening, it must be doubly vexatious to be
+driven out in the wind and rain, with all manner of scolding and
+reproaches; and this happened to Braesig, when he entered the Frau
+Pastorin's room, where she was sitting with the little assessor; Louise
+was not there. Frau Pastorin was just trying to light a lamp, and the
+matches would not catch, firstly, because Kurz did not supply them with
+the best quality, and secondly, because Frau Pastorin--perhaps from
+economy--had the habit of putting the broken matches, and those that
+would not light, back into the box, so that such a match, in the course
+of its short life, had the satisfaction of being tried at least twenty
+times, which may have been very agreeable to the match, but was very
+provoking to other people.
+
+"Well, there you are!" cried the Frau Pastorin angrily, trying a match.
+"There you are, at last,"--the second match. "You are running about the
+town all day,"--another match; "but you go with blind eyes,"--two
+matches at once,--"and with deaf ears!"--another match. "You always
+know everything,"--a match--"and when anything happens, then you know
+nothing,"--three matches together.
+
+Braesig went up to the Frau Pastorin very politely and pleasantly,
+and took the match-box from her hand, saying, "By your leave!"--a
+match--"what do you mean by that?"--the second match. "Have I done
+anything to harm you?"--the third match. "Kurz ought to be paid with
+his own wares!"--two matches, "His things that ought to catch don't
+catch, and what ought not to catch, catches,"--three matches. "The
+confounded things have got the inflorentia!" and with that he threw the
+whole box on the table, pulled his own match-safe out of his pocket,
+and struck a light.
+
+"Braesig," said the Frau Pastorin, putting all the tried matches
+carefully into the box, "I am very much vexed with you. I am not
+inquisitive, but, when anything happens that concerns Habermann and
+Louise, I am certainly the nearest, and ought to know it. Why must our
+little Anna first come out with what you ought to have told me long
+ago, for you knew it. I see it in your face, you knew it."
+
+"How so?" asked Braesig, and was going to pretend great ignorance; but
+the Frau Pastorin was too much provoked with him, for she thought he
+had treated her shamefully, and she said:
+
+"You need not pretend; I know that you know everything, and you tell me
+nothing!" and now she began to tap the old man, and the little assessor
+also bored away at the Herr Assessor; finer and finer the two women
+drew their threads, and got everything out of Braesig that he knew, for
+silence was by no means a special gift of his, and when he at last
+cried out in sheer despair: "So, now I know nothing more," then the
+little round Frau Pastorin placed herself before him, saying, "Braesig,
+I know you, I see it in your face, you know something more. Out with
+it! What else do you know?"
+
+"Frau Pastorin, it is a private affair."
+
+"That is all the same; out with it!"
+
+And Braesig shoved about in his chair and looked right and left, but
+there was no help for it, he must surrender, and he said finally, "I
+have written about it to Herr Franz von Rambow, at Paris; but Karl
+Habermann must never know it."
+
+"To Paris!" cried the Frau Pastorin, putting her hands on her sides,
+"to the young Herr von Rambow! What have you written to him? You have
+written something about Louise, I see it in your face! Yes, you have
+written something, and what I would hardly dream of, you have done!"
+She rang the bell violently: "Fika, run to the post-office, the Herr
+Postmaster shall give you back, immediately, the letter that Herr
+Braesig has written to Paris."
+
+Tereng-tereng-tereng-tentereng! blew the postillion, and the post with
+Braesig's letter drove by, with flourish of trumpets, before the Frau
+Pastorin's nose, express for Paris, and the Frau Pastorin in, great
+vexation, sank back in her sofa-corner, sent Fika back to the kitchen,
+and--alas! that we should have to confess it--she was almost ready to
+murmur against providence, that, perhaps for the first time, the
+Rahnstadt post had started at the right moment, to take Braesig's stupid
+letter to Paris.
+
+Braesig declared, most solemnly, that he had managed the business with
+the greatest delicacy, so that there was not the least indicium to be
+perceived.
+
+"Did you send greeting from her?" asked the Frau Pastorin.
+
+"No," said Braesig, "I only said she was very well."
+
+"Have you written nothing else about her?"
+
+"I only wrote that the sheet of paper belonged to her, and that she was
+a precious pearl of the human race."
+
+"So she is," interposed the Frau Pastorin.
+
+"And then I closed in a very friendly way, by inviting the young Herr
+to our fraternity ball."
+
+"That was foolish," cried the Frau Pastorin, "he will notice that, he
+will think you have the intention to bring him and Louise together
+again."
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, placing himself before her, "with all
+respect for your words, _is_ it foolish and wicked, if one has the
+intention of bringing two people together again, who have been
+separated by the wickedness and meanness of other people? I had this
+intention, and therefore I wrote that letter; Habermann could not have
+done it; for why? He is her father, and it would not have been fitting.
+You could not have done it; for why? Because they have called you
+already, here in Rahnstadt, all sorts of scandalous names. It is
+nothing to me, however, if people do call me an old go-between; I don't
+trouble myself about it; I will fetch and carry between here and Paris,
+and if I am only considered in Paris to be an honest man and a faithful
+friend to Karl Habermann and Louise, it is nothing to me if all
+Rahnstadt calls me an old matchmaker."
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin, yes!" cried the little assessor, falling upon the
+Frau Pastorin's neck, "the Herr Inspector is right. Who cares for the
+gossips of Rahnstadt? What matters the stupid judgment of the world, if
+two people can be made happy? Franz must come, and Louise must be
+happy," and in her delight she ran up to Braesig, and put her arms round
+his neck, and kissed him, right on his mouth. "You are a dear, old
+Uncle Braesig!"
+
+And Braesig returned the kiss, and said, "Yes, you little
+clavier-mamsell, you dear little lark, you! You ought to try your
+happiness also, in such relations. But hold! We mustn't cackle too
+soon, the business is not settled yet, the rascals are not yet
+convicted, and, if I know Karl Habermann, he must be perfectly cleared
+in that affair, before he will consent to such an arrangement, and
+therefore I have said nothing about the matter, that he and Louise
+might not be disturbed. And it is a great blessing that Kurz has the
+inflorentia, for he could never have held his tongue so long
+otherwise."
+
+"Braesig," said the Frau Pastorin, "taking it all together, I believe
+you have done right."
+
+"Haven't I, Frau Pastorin? And you were only vexed, because you didn't
+write first. But you shall have the honor of writing to the young Herr,
+when it is all settled."
+
+Three days after this interview, Braesig came home, and met the Frau
+Pastorin in the hall. Her right hand was in a bandage, for she had just
+sprained it, falling down the cellar-stairs.
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said he, with great earnestness and expression, "I
+shall come down again immediately, and have something to tell you."
+
+With that, he went up-stairs to Habermann. He said neither "Good day"
+nor anything else, as he entered the room, but, looking very solemn,
+went through into the bedroom. There he poured out a glass of water,
+and returned with it to Habermann.
+
+"Here, Karl, drink!"
+
+"What? Why should I drink?"
+
+"Because it is good for you. What you will need afterward, will not
+hurt you before."
+
+"Braesig, what ails you?" cried Habermann, pushing away the water; but
+he noticed that something unusual was coming.
+
+"Well, Karl, if you won't take it, you won't; but collect yourself,
+collect yourself quickly;" and he walked up and down, while Habermann
+followed him with his eyes, and turned pale, as he felt that this
+moment was to influence his destiny.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, standing before him, "have you collected
+yourself?"
+
+He had really done so; he stood up and exclaimed:
+
+"Braesig, say what you have to say! What I have borne so long, I can
+bear yet longer, if need be."
+
+"That is not my meaning," said Braesig. "It is all out, the rascals are
+convicted, and we have the money; not all, but some of it."
+
+The old man had dreamed what it would be to be delivered from his
+troubles, for a ray of hope had gleamed upon his horizon; but when the
+sun was fairly risen upon this new day, and shone brightly in his face,
+his eyes were blinded by the sudden splendor, and a thousand suns
+floated around him.
+
+"Braesig! Braesig! My honest name! My child's happiness!" and he sank
+back in his chair, and Braesig held him the glass of water, and the old
+man drank, and recovered himself a little, and grasped Braesig, who
+stood before him, about the knees: "Zachary, you have never in your
+life deceived me!"
+
+"No, Karl, it is the pure truth, and it stands in the protocol, and the
+rascals will be sent to Dreiberg, the Herr Burgomeister says; but first
+to Buetzow, to the criminal court."
+
+"Braesig," said Habermann, and he stood up, and went into his sleeping
+room, "leave me alone, and say nothing to Louise! Yes, tell her to come
+up."
+
+"Yes, Karl," said Braesig, walking to the window, and looking out, and
+wiping the tears from his eyes, and as he went through the door he saw
+his Karl, in the bedroom, upon his knees.
+
+Louise went to her father, Braesig told her nothing; but to the Frau
+Pastorin he was not so silent.
+
+"Bless me," said the little Frau, "now Louise has gone away, and
+Habermann does not come, and you, Braesig, don't come at the right time,
+the dinner will be cold, and we have such nice fish. What were you
+going to tell me, Braesig?"
+
+"Oh, nothing much," said Uncle Braesig, looking as if the rascals had
+infected him with all sorts of roguery, and he must exercise it now
+upon the Frau Pastorin, because she had abused him so about the letter;
+"only that Habermann and Louise are not coming to dinner. But we two
+can begin."
+
+"Eh, Braesig, why are they not coming?"
+
+"Well, because of the apron."
+
+"The apron?"
+
+"Yes, because it was wet."
+
+"Whose apron was wet?"
+
+"Why, Frau Kaehlert's. But we will eat our dinner, the fish will get
+cold."
+
+"Not a morsel!" cried the Frau Pastorin, and put a couple of plates
+over the fish, and over those a napkin, and over that her plump hands,
+and looked so wildly at Braesig with her round eyes, that he could no
+longer persist in his _role_, but burst out: "It is all out, Frau
+Pastorin, and they are convicted, and we have most of the money again."
+
+"And do you tell me that now, first?" cried the little Frau, and jumped
+up from the table, and was running up to Habermann. Braesig would not
+allow that, and, by promising to tell her everything, brought her back
+to the sofa.
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said he, "the chief thing that is, the principal
+indicium, came out through Kaehlertsch, that is to say, not properly, of
+her own accord, but through her wicked jealousy, which is a dreadfully
+powerful feeling in many women, and produces the most terrible
+consequences. I don't mean you, by that, I only mean Kaehlertsch. You
+see the woman had made up her mind to marry the weaver, and the weaver
+would'nt have her. Now, she is rightly of the opinion that the weaver's
+divorced wife wishes to marry him again, herself, and she lies
+in wait for them, and so it happened once that her apron--I mean
+Kaehlertsch's--was wet, and she was going to dry it on the garden fence.
+While she was there, half concealed behind the fence, she saw the
+weaver and his divorced wife, holding a _rendezvous_,--well, you know
+what that is, Frau Pastorin----"
+
+"Braesig, I tell you----"
+
+"Quiet, Frau Pastorin! and they were not sitting in a ditch, they were
+standing among the pole-beans, so that the woman must have got into the
+garden from over the fence, in the rear, since she had not gone through
+the house. Kaehlertsch in her wicked jealousy, called Frau Kraeuger, the
+butcher's wife, to come and look also, and they two watched the other
+two, till they disappeared among the beans, and after a little the
+woman got over the fence, and the weaver busied himself in the garden,
+whereupon the two women quietly retired. So far we had got, and this
+was true, for the butcher's wife swore to it.
+
+"Then the Herr Burgomeister says, if Kaehlertsch would only speak out,
+we might learn more. Then I say, 'Herr Burgomeister, woman's jealousy!'
+then he says, 'But how?' Then I say, 'Herr Burgomeister, I knew
+something about it, when I had three sweethearts at once,--jealousy is
+a terrible passion, and it knows neither mercy nor pity. Let me try
+her.' and when Kaehlertsch came again I said, in an off-hand way, 'Well,
+if the weaver had not married any body else, meantime, I suppose he
+could marry his divorced wife again.' And the Herr Burgomeister took my
+hint, and said yes, if he wanted to, the clerical consistory could give
+him a desperation. You see, that put the woman, herself into a
+desperation, and she burst out, if it was coming to that, she would
+tell something, the weaver had brought money with him out of the
+garden, for before that he had had no money in his cupboard, but
+afterwards she had looked, and had found money there, several double
+louis-d'ors. You see, she had trapped herself, showing that she had
+been, with a night-key, into other people's cupboards. The Herr
+Burgomeister had her arrested and put in prison, so we now had the
+three rogues fast.
+
+"When the weaver came in again, and lied again, as to how he had come
+by the money, and lied to the very face of the butcher's wife, that he
+had not been with his wife in the garden, you see, the butcher's wife
+got angry too, and said she had seen the calves of her legs, as she was
+climbing over the fence,--don't take it amiss, Frau Pastorin,--but she
+said so. And then the weaver was sentenced to have ten on his jacket,
+for our laws,--thank God!--still have penalties for infamous lying, and
+the Herr Burgomeister talked to him very solemnly, and told him he was
+a master weaver, and he should be degraded from his trade; but would he
+confess? not a bit of it. But so soon as he had had his first three on
+the jacket, he fell on his knees,--which was a dreadful sight to me, so
+that I turned away,--and said he would confess everything, and he did
+so, since he had not stolen it himself, but his wife. The woman had
+stolen the money from the day-laborer, Regel, taking the black packet
+from his waistcoat pocket, when he was intoxicated, and hid it in the
+woods, under the moss and bushes, and there it had lain for two years,
+and whenever she went to get wood, she would take out a couple of
+pieces, which she would get changed by the help of some of the old Jew
+women,--she has been to Kurz, also. And then, perhaps a year and a half
+ago, she met the weaver, and asked him if he would not marry her again,
+for she was no longer poor, she had something now, and she gave him a
+double louis-d'or; he would'nt listen to her then, however, because at
+that time he was in love with Kaehlertsch,--I beg you, Frau Pastorin,
+with Kaehlertsch! They might offer me Kaehlertsch on a silver salver, I
+should never fall in love with her. But he took the louis-d'or, and she
+teased him again, and made him other presents, till at last his
+inclination began to return to her, and he wanted nothing more to do
+with Kaehlertsch. And she showed him all her treasure, and they changed
+it about, now here and now there, to keep it concealed, and finally,
+this spring, they locked it up in a box, and he threw the black cloth
+into the butcher's compost heap, and they buried the treasure in the
+garden. And we went there with the weaver, and found fourteen hundred
+thalers, among the potatoes. Just think of it--fourteen hundred thalers
+among the potatoes! They had spent the rest of it."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried the Frau Pastorin, "how clever you and the Herr
+Burgomeister must have been, to get so much out of them."
+
+"So we are, Frau Pastorin," said Uncle Braesig, quietly.
+
+"But the woman?" cried the little Frau. "She was the nearest to it."
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin, that was an exciting moment, for the Herr
+Burgomeister had concealed the indicium of the box and the gold, under
+his every-day hat, and when the weaver's wife was confronted with her
+husband, and once more admonished to tell the truth, and persisted in
+lying, then the Herr Burgomeister lifted his hat, and said, 'It is no
+matter. We have the money already.' You see, when she saw the box, she
+flew at the weaver, like a fury, and in a moment she had torn his whole
+face, just with her nails, and screamed, 'Cursed wretch! I would have
+made him happy, and he has made me unhappy!' Frau Pastorin, love is
+madder than jealousy. Kaehlertsch never would have done that! But, Frau
+Pastorin, our fish must be quite cold."
+
+"Ah, Braesig, how can you think of anything like that. But I must go to
+Habermann, I must tell him--"
+
+"That you are very glad he is so triumphantly cleared." said Braesig,
+drawing her down on the sofa again; "so you shall, but not yet. For,
+you see, I believe Habermann has something to tell the Lord, and Louise
+will help him, and that is right too, but she is enough; for, Frau
+Pastorin,--as Pastorin you should know,--our Lord is a jealous God, and
+when He communes with a thankful soul he does not suffer that others
+should approach, but draws back, and, where the presence of God has
+shone, human sympathy must wait till afterwards."
+
+The little Frau Pastorin looked at him in astonishment, and finally
+broke out:
+
+"God bless you, Braesig! I always called you an old heathen; but you are
+a Christian, after all!"
+
+"I don't know, Frau Pastorin, I don't know what I am. But I know that
+the little I have done, in this matter, I have not accomplished as a
+Christian, but as assessor at the criminal court. But Frau Pastorin,
+our fish is spoiled by this time, and I don't feel at all hungry. The
+house seems too narrow for me,--adieu, Frau Pastorin, I must go out in
+the fresh air a little while."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+The Friday, on which Rudolph and Mining were to be married, had come,
+and the loveliest Whitsuntide weather shone upon Rexow, and on the
+singular edifice which Jochen, with the aid of Schultz the carpenter,
+had constructed near his modest farm-house. From the outside, the
+affair was not very distinguished looking, it was only of boards and
+laths hammered together, and looked uncommonly like a building in which
+wild beasts are exhibited, at the Leipsic fair. Inside, the work of art
+presented a more stately appearance, for the boards were covered with
+blue and yellow cloth, half of one color, and half of the other, since
+there was not enough of one kind, in Rahnstadt, to cover so large a
+hall; and secondly, it was adorned with six notched beams, for on no
+other condition would carpenter Schultz undertake the job. There ought,
+properly, he said, to be nine, in such a building as a wedding-hall,
+but the expense would be too great, and since Jochen did not understand
+much about architecture, and Frau Nuessler had enough to do with the
+eating and drinking for the wedding, and Braesig was his friend, and
+would not oppose him, because he had helped him at the Reformverein,
+carpenter Schultz had his own way, like a moth in a rug, and built in
+the notched beams to his heart's content; and upon each of them Braesig
+hung a sort of contrivance, intended to represent a chandelier, and
+Krischan the coachman climbed about on them for a week, in his buckskin
+breeches, adorning them with oak-leaves; which he did very finely, but
+to the detriment of his apparel, since the beams, with their splinters,
+little by little devoured his buckskin breeches.
+
+Jochen put his hand in his purse, and paid the money for the new house,
+for he wanted everything done, for his Mining, in the finest manner,
+and he got Krischan a new pair of breeches.
+
+"Mother," he cried to his wife, "come! look! What shall we do about
+it?"
+
+"Yes, Jochen, it is all very well. But there ought to be lights in the
+chandeliers!"
+
+She was going out, when a voice spoke to her from the clouds, that is,
+the oak-leaf-clouds, and a face full of light, candlelight, bent down
+to her and said solemnly, "It shall all be attended to, Frau Nuessler,"
+and as she looked nearer into the clouds, she saw the honest, red
+face of her old angel, Braesig, looking out from the oak-leaves and
+tallow-candles, which he had strung around his neck, like a clergyman's
+bands, that he might have his hands free to fasten them in their
+places.
+
+When this was done, the three stood together, and contemplated the
+effect, and Braesig said, "Truly, Jochen! 'Tis like a fairy palace, out
+of the 'Arabian Nights,' which I read last winter from the circulating
+library!"
+
+And Jochen said, "Yes, Braesig; it is all as true as leather; but it is
+only for one night; for, day after to-morrow, we must tear it down."
+
+"That would be barbarous!" said the carpenter, "the six notched beams
+would last ages, and the fairies might walk in as if they were born and
+bred there."
+
+And the next day came the fairies, not, indeed, exactly as Herr Schultz
+had represented, no, they came, at that time, all in crinoline, that is
+to say, the half-grown, horse-hair variety, not with bells and springs
+and bee-hives, and steel bird-cages, as at present; but they were
+beginning, even then, and Auntie Klein, from Rostock, had put a regular
+barrel-hoop of tough oaken wood, into her petticoat, which grazed her
+sister's shins so unmercifully on the way, that the poor woman had to
+stand on one foot through the whole wedding. But the fairies came, and
+they had wreaths in their hair, of natural flowers, and not artificial,
+which was a pity, for towards the close of the wedding, when the feet
+were weary, and the lovely eyes drooped, and the bright clouds of hair
+were tumbled about as if a storm-wind had blown through them, then the
+weary flowers drooped their heads and whispered to each other, "I wish
+it were over; nothing gives one such a longing for the quiet night, as
+all this gaiety." How much better we do things at present! The
+artificial flowers stand up brisk and lively, and say, "Always ready!
+Our stems and strings hold out, and when this is over, they will lay us
+away in a box; and we shall get rested, and when another time comes we
+are always ready!" Ah, how the world has improved! If they could only
+keep fresh and bright the youthful limbs and the fresh lungs and the
+innocent hearts,--well, for all me, the whole pretty fairies
+themselves,--with their wires and threads and steel springs!
+
+Braesig distributed invitations for Frau Nuessler and Jochen with a free
+hand, and had selected from Rahnstadt and the vicinity a fine company
+of neat, willing and active dancers, and although there was now and
+then a crooked stick among the men, it was no matter, said Uncle
+Braesig, for you could see a man's legs distinctly enough, and could
+beware of them. Besides the Rahnstadters and a few others in the
+region, Jochen Nuessler had, through Rudolph, invited all his relations,
+a very wide-spreading race. Not that they themselves were so
+wide-spreading, I only mean the relationship, and they were scattered
+widely over all Mecklenburg and Pommerania.
+
+There sat uncle Luting, there Uncle Krischaning, there Uncle Hanning,
+and there Cousin Wilhelming,--"who is my own second cousin, and a very
+witty fellow, when it comes to eating and drinking," said Jochen,--and
+there sat Aunt Dining, and Aunt Stining, and Aunt Mining, and Aunt
+Lining, and Aunt Rining,--"and Aunt Zaphie is coming too," said Jochen,
+"who was an extremely fine woman in her day." "She has been here this
+great while," said Braesig. And as one stately equipage after another
+drove up to the Rexow court, and the whole Nuessler family in a company
+stood around Jochen, welcoming each other, and inquiring how things had
+gone for the last sixteen or twenty years,--for it was as long as that
+since they had seen each other, and those who knew how to write never
+did,--Braesig said to Frau Nuessler:
+
+"A very constant race, these Nuesslers! Regular thorough-bred Nuesslers!
+Only Jochen is a little different from the rest, since he has grown so
+thin, and so talkative." And going into the "temple of art," as
+carpenter Schultz called his edifice, and finding the architect sitting
+there, absorbed in admiration of his work and a bottle of Bavarian
+beer, he said, "Schultz, you have done your part, and I have done mine;
+but, you shall see, Jochen will spoil the whole performance, with his
+stupid relations, so that it will turn out like a mess of sour
+porridge."
+
+"I have nothing to say about it, being only a guest here," said Herr
+Schultz, "but if they are what you say, then, out with them!"
+
+And Braesig walked up and down the garden, like a tree-frog, not that he
+had on a green coat, for he wore his nice brown one, with the yellow
+vest, no, he was like a tree-frog only because he prophesied foul
+weather before night. All at once, he looked over the garden fence, and
+saw Jochen's own "phantom" approaching, not driven by Krischan, but by
+a day-laborer, and looking nearer he saw two women sitting in it, and
+when he looked nearer still, there sat his own sister the widow of the
+dairy-farmer Korthals, with her only daughter, who lived far away, in
+straitened circumstances, in a village in Pomerania.
+
+"God preserve us!" he cried, "my own sister! And her little Lotting,
+too! This is _her_ doing!" and running through the kitchen to the hall,
+he met Frau Nuessler, and cried, "You have done this for me! Oh, you
+are----"
+
+Just then two ladies entered the hall, very simply dressed, but both of
+them lovely as pictures; the older, with tears of emotion and gratitude
+running down her friendly, true-hearted face, the younger, with her
+fresh, innocent soul shining out of great blue eyes, under a cloud of
+golden hair, and asking, "Where is my dear, good Uncle Zachary?" for it
+was long years since she had seen him.
+
+"Here! here!" he cried, and pulled and pushed his dear relations
+through the hall, till he got them up to Frau Nuessler, and said, "There
+she is; now thank her!" And when the two had expressed their gratitude,
+and turned round again to look for him, he was gone. Like a miller, who
+has started his mill, and poured the corn into the hopper, he had
+crowded his way through the stout meal-bags of the Nuessler family, and
+now sat in the arbor, in the garden, blowing and trumpeting at his
+nose, until Schultz the carpenter decamped with his beer-bottle from
+the temple of art, believing that the musicians had arrived.
+
+But they did not come yet; first came Kurz and the rector, each with
+his good old advocate at his side, and when they had been presented,
+and had crowded about, for a while, in the room with the Nuessler
+family, old Uncle Luting Nuessler came up to Kurz, in a pompous,
+overbearing way, and said, in a deep voice, "You can congratulate
+yourself upon being connected afresh with such a rich and noble
+relationship. Do you see," and he pointed to Uncle Krischan, who had
+just thrown himself upon the sofa, "there tumbles a hundred thousand
+thalers."
+
+"I don't do it for that," said Uncle Krischan.
+
+Well, that made Kurz angry, but he restrained himself; but when Uncle
+Luting went on to ask, "Have you ever in your life seen so many rich
+people together in one company?" then Kurz's wrath broke out, and he
+replied, "No! nor ever in my life so many blockheads!"
+
+He turned away, and his wife, who had heard it, followed him and said,
+"Kurz, I beg you, for God's sake, don't begin again with your
+democracy! It would be much better for you to go to bed at once."
+
+He would not do that, but he was placed under the ban, for the whole
+evening, by all the Nuessler family.
+
+And Pastor Gottlieb came with Lining, and they were treated with great
+respect by their elders, because they were to perform the marriage
+ceremony. Don't misunderstand me! Not that Lining herself was to marry
+them, not at all! but, for once in her life, she had interfered in
+Gottlieb's professional affairs, and had altered his marriage ceremony
+a little, so that Gottlieb said it was not like a Christian minister's
+speech, it was more like a family speech; but she remained firm in her
+position that as Mining's twin she ought to know what would go most to
+her heart, and Gottlieb had to yield to her.
+
+And now came Habermann, with the Frau Pastorin and Louise and the
+little assessor, driving up in a glass coach, for the Frau Pastorin had
+said, "So, and in no other way!" She had once been compelled to decline
+a wedding invitation from Frau Nuessler, in her great sorrow, and now
+she would make up for it in her great pleasure at this second wedding,
+and then she pressed the hands of Habermann and Louise and the little
+assessor, saying, "Isn't it so? We are all happy to-day." So they came
+to Rexow, and when they arrived Habermann saw Braesig's sister, whom he
+had known years ago, and it was not long before they sat together,
+talking of old times, and every other word was "Zachary," and Louise
+and the little assessor had Lotting between them, and every other word
+was "Uncle Braesig."
+
+Then came a great harvest wagon, with flowers and wreaths, Krischan the
+coachman driving the four horses, in the saddle, in his new yellow
+buckskins, his whip ornamented with red and blue ribbons, and he
+himself with a wreath of roses around his hat, which looked uncommonly
+as if the old hat were celebrating its fiftieth golden wedding,
+upon this occasion, and on the front seat, sat David Berger, the
+town-musician, playing on his clarionet:
+
+
+           "Wer niemals sinen Rausch gehabt,
+            Das ist kein braver Mann,"
+
+
+and behind him sat his companions, blowing the same tune, though not in
+the same time, for since they sat on the second, third and fourth seats
+they could not possibly keep it, since he was always three ahead of
+them; and when he turned round angrily, or Krischan would go faster and
+used his whip, he always got his hair pulled, for one of his
+mischievous companions had fastened the handle of the whip to his back
+hair, and when Krischan touched the whip, or when he stirred himself,
+he was in constant torment.
+
+And behind this wagon came another harvest wagon, full of white
+dresses, and from under the white dresses peeped pretty little dancing
+feet, and above them, on the round heads, nodded roses and pinks, which
+looked out modestly from the curly locks, as if they were too bashful
+to glance at the pretty faces. These were the little fairies. And right
+in the midst of the fairies sat the Herr Postmaster, in his new
+uniform, the only one Rahnstadt had to show,--otherwise he would not
+have arrived at such an honor,--and sung, gay as a finch, his finest
+song in this garden of roses. Behind this wagon came yet another
+harvest wagon, loaded with gentlemen, with dancers, the best dancers in
+Rahnstadt, and Kurz's Herr Suessmann danced along the wagon pole in
+front, and the Herr Rector's youngest pupil sat, with his legs dangling
+in the air, behind.
+
+The guests all looked very joyous, but the Frau Hostess was in the
+greatest perplexity, for she was not acquainted with a single one of
+them, since Braesig had selected them merely with reference to their
+capacities for dancing, and she called for Braesig; but when he finally
+came Krischan the coachman had brought them all in, and undertook to
+dispose of them. He opened the doors of the kitchen and dining-room,
+and shoved them all in: "In with you, there! Take it easy! Get a little
+something to eat and drink; they are not ready yet!"
+
+And the advice was good, for the marriage was delayed a little, because
+one of the groomsmen had not yet arrived, namely Fritz Triddelsitz, who
+at Rudolph's request had been persuaded to remove the ban from the
+Nuessler house, and to officiate in that capacity. At last he came,
+riding up the court on his dapple-gray and in full state, and mingled
+among the guests with so much dignity, and bowed right and left with so
+much elegance, that the rector's foolish little pupil whispered in Herr
+Suessmann's ear: "What a pity that we are all ready, he might have
+helped us." Whereupon Herr Suessmann regarded him with a look of
+compassion, and turning to Braesig, who stood at his other side, said,
+"Herr Inspector, have you heard that I am chosen dance-director for our
+fraternity ball, day after tomorrow?"
+
+Braesig was going to tell him that he would be a blockhead if he
+undertook it, for Kurz would discharge him, but he did not have time to
+say it, for just then the bridal pair entered the room.
+
+Rudolph was truly a fine looking bridegroom. His fresh, joyous demeanor
+was hidden, to-day, under a quiet earnestness, and only the firm
+resolve under all circumstances to fight for his wife and himself, like
+an honest fellow, shone in his brown eyes. Yes, he was a handsome
+bridegroom, for when does a man look handsomer than when, full of
+courage and hope, he goes out to his first conflict? Who could blame
+his mother, the good old advocate, for going up to him at this moment,
+and kissing him, and stroking his brown curls, and secretly pulling out
+his ruffle a little, from the dress coat, so that people might see it?
+
+And now Mining! Mining looked, in her white satin dress and myrtle
+wreath, like a Bauersdorf apple, freshly plucked from the tree, and
+laid in its green leaves on a silver salver. Fresh and cool outside, as
+the ripe fruit, but her heart was glowing, and before Gottlieb had
+uttered a word of the ceremony, there was a pair betrothed,--confident
+hope and quiet blessedness had joined hands. And Frau Nuessler was
+crying quietly behind her handkerchief, and saying to Braesig, "I cannot
+help it, she is my last, my youngest." And Braesig looked at her, full
+of friendliness, and said, "Frau Nuessler, control yourself! It will
+soon be over;" and going up to Louise Habermann, he made a bow, saying,
+"My Fraeulein, if you are ready, it is time,"--usually he called her
+"Louise," but to-day he was a groomsman, and must do what was proper.
+And Fritz Triddelsitz went up to the little assessor, for she was the
+other bride's maid, and Kurz and Rector Baldrian placed themselves as
+leaders by Rudolph, and when young Jochen after some delay was shoved
+forward, he stood by his Mining, and on his other side stood Habermann,
+for they were the two leaders for the bride,--and then the procession
+moved to carpenter Schultz's temple of art, where Gottlieb stood behind
+a green and white altar, and began to read Lining's marriage ceremony.
+
+I know very well that a marriage at home is not thought much
+of,--now-a-days all marriages must be celebrated in church, and I have
+nothing against it, for I was married in church myself about that time,
+since my wife was a minister's daughter, and would not have it
+otherwise; but, as I was saying, at that time this kind of marriage
+ceremony had not been established in Mecklenburg by the ecclesiastical
+consistory, and the old modes were still in fashion, and children were
+married as their parents had been. New modes were in fashion too, as
+Krischan Schultz said, when he fastened his horse by the tail; but
+Gottlieb knew nothing about them, and if he had known about them, and
+had wished to fasten his horse in the new mode. Lining would not have
+allowed it; Lining was a married woman, but she would not allow her
+other half to disgrace himself before these rich, stout, stupid
+Nuesslers, and the Rahnstadt shopmen and school-boys, or that her twin
+sister should have her marriage feast spoiled by an ecclesiastical
+consistory, although she was the most dignified of pastors' wives, that
+is, after the Frau Pastorin, who was always the nearest.
+
+After the ceremony, the two little twin-apples lay in each other's
+arms, in full, untroubled blessedness, and Rudolph embraced them both
+together, and Frau Nuessler stood a little aside, looking over her
+handkerchief, with her head turned over our shoulder, as if she were
+listening to something,--possibly the angel's song,--and as the stout,
+rich, stupid Nuesslers pressed around, with their congratulations, young
+Jochen stood among them and bowed to this one and that, as if it were
+his own wedding-day over again: "Uncle Luting, it is my Mining! Cousin
+Wilhelming, it is our little governess! Aunt Zaphie, what shall we do
+about it!" These people crowded up, the men with their bright
+waistcoats, and gold watch-chains across their breasts, and the women
+with whole flower-pots on their caps, and some of them with dropping
+eyes, as if the flowerpots had been watered too plentifully, and were
+running over. And the men and the women of Jochen's family kissed,
+alternately, Rudolph and Mining, as if before all things they must be
+taken into this rich, stout, stupid relationship, so that Kurz
+at last grew terribly angry, because he could not reach his new
+daughter-in-law, and for once his good old advocate agreed with him,
+because she could not reach her own son. And the Rahnstadt dancers also
+crowded about and wandered around the pair, and what else could they
+do? they could not have their kisses yet; and among this company stood
+Fritz Triddelsitz with the little assessor, tall and slender and
+imposing, not as a groomsman, no, as commander of the whole, and behind
+him stood the rector's little pupil, imitating with his short body and
+black woolen stockings all the motions that Fritz made with his long
+body and black silk stockings. He was Fritz's natural shadow, that is,
+at noon-day, when shadows are short.
+
+Near by stood two other couples, who were not crowding up, for they
+were sufficiently occupied with themselves, and had time to spare;
+these were Habermann and his Louise, and Uncle Braesig and the Frau
+Pastorin. Louise lay with her head on her father's breast, looking up
+to him, as if she had been long ill, and had been brought out from her
+couch, for the first time, into the free air, and the blue sky seemed
+to say: "Better days! better days!" and her face looked as peaceful and
+happy as the blue sky, and sun and moon and stars might wander there,
+and dew and rain might fall, to refresh and rejoice and enlighten
+mankind. Close to this pair stood Zachary Braesig, with his arm round
+the little Frau Pastorin, and his eyebrows elevated, and he blew his
+nose, and said, "My little Mining! My little goddaughter! How happy she
+is!" and every time that one of the old, stout Nuesslers gave Mining a
+kiss, he bent down to the Frau Pastorin, and gave her a kiss, as if he
+must make up to this good old lady what the stupid old people were
+inflicting upon Mining. "You see, because!" as our servant maid,
+Lisette, says, here in Eisenach, when she can think of no other reason.
+And so Braesig kissed the Frau Pastorin, and the Frau Pastorin suffered
+it, without thinking any harm; but when Aunt Zaphie, who had formerly
+been very handsome, and a sort of Venus among the Nuesslers, gave
+Rudolph three or four kisses, the little Frau Pastorin was startled,
+and when Braesig approached his lips again, in such a friendly way, she
+said, "Braesig, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! What have you
+particularly to do with me?"
+
+And Braesig drew back embarrassed, and said, "Frau Pastorin, don't take
+it unkindly, but my feelings ran away with me," and he brought the Frau
+Pastorin to Habermann, saying, "Karl, you must exchange. Louise is my
+bride's maid, and I am a bachelor, and you and the Frau Pastorin are
+both widowers, and that is suitable."
+
+Mining had taken her Rudolph by the hand, and, when she saw her dearest
+and oldest friends standing a little on one side, had made various
+efforts to penetrate the sand-bags of stout, rich, stupid Nuesslers, and
+the wooden palisades of shopmen and school-boys, but without success;
+but when her brand new husband saw her futile man[oe]uvres, he came to
+her assistance, shoved aside sand-bag No. 1, the rich Uncle Luting, and
+sand-bag No. 2, the witty cousin Wilhelming, grasped the longest
+palisade, Fritz Triddelsitz himself, in the short ribs, and moved him
+gently to another place, and neatly sent his pupil-shadow after him,
+and having thus made a breach through obstinacy, stupidity and
+tedium,--certainly no easy thing to do,--he brought his brand new bride
+to the people, who instead of congratulating her with flower-pots, and
+gay waistcoats and gold watch-chains, did it with what lies beneath
+them, their heads and their hearts. And when Frau Nuessler came up, and
+pressed her children, alternately, to her heart, Rudolph wiped the
+tears from his eyes, and said, "Let us all come out into the garden,
+and be by ourselves a little while."
+
+And the carpenter, Schultz, who stood near and heard him, said; "Yes,
+out with you! All of you, out! We must set the tables here!" and he
+began to shove the rich Nuesslers about as if they were blocks and
+lumber. And when our company,--I say _our_--had come to the famous
+arbor, Braesig pointed to the cherry-tree, and said, "Mining, this tree
+must be an indicium and a token to you, all your life, since your
+future was decided under it, and under me that time; and since we are
+talking about tokens, Mining, bring me a blue larkspur again, there is
+one!"
+
+And when Mining had gone for it Uncle Braesig said, "Rudolph, have you
+always remembered the blue larkspur?" And when Rudolph said he had,
+Braesig looked in his clear eyes, and then examined him from head to
+foot, and said, "I believe you!" and when Mining came back with the
+flower he said, "Thank you, Mining! And now I will give you my wedding
+present for it," and he pulled out an old thick, black pocket-book from
+his brown coat, and rummaged among his old milk and corn accounts, and
+took out a withered flower, saying, "See, my little godchild, this is
+the flower of that time,"--and he held it towards her with the fresh
+blossom,--"and if, after long years, Rudolph can look at you with the
+same clear eyes, and give you this new flower, then you may say, 'I
+have been a happy wife.' I have nothing more to say, nothing! and I
+have nothing else to give you, nothing at all!" and with that he walked
+away, and our company heard him saying to himself, "Nothing at all! but
+this indicium, Rudolph's indicium!" And when they found him again, he
+was walking with his sister and his niece Lotting, and the two women
+were caressing and thanking him, because he had never forgotten or
+forsaken them.
+
+Then Frau Nuessler came up to our company: "Come children, all is ready.
+But don't take it ill! Jochen's family are the most distinguished, and
+I cannot offend Jochen to-day,--he is master for this once,--they must
+sit nearest the bridal pair. Kurz and his wife, of course, will sit
+among them, for, as you say, Frau Pastorin, they are the nearest, and
+Gottlieb and Lining must also sit there, he as clergyman, and she as
+twin, and Jochen, too, because they are his friends. But we, Frau
+Pastorin, Karl, Louise, and you, Braesig! we will sit together at one
+end, and it shall be a merry wedding."
+
+"A la bong koer!" said Braesig, "but where is the shopman, Suessmann? I
+must speak to him about the fraternity ball."
+
+"Oh, bless you! the poor fellow is sitting in the back kitchen; he
+and Triddelsitz were performing some kind of antics over a heap of
+pea-straw, and he fell, and something split, and Krischan had to get
+him Jochen's old blue trousers, and he will not let himself be seen by
+daylight, but is waiting until evening, when they will not noticed."
+
+"And he wants to be dance-director!" said Braesig, as he followed our
+company to the hall.
+
+Then the feast began, and Frau Nuessler's little waiting-maids, with
+their fresh faces and three-cornered caps, and white bib-aprons,
+ran about the temple of art, and turned and whirled like humming
+tops,--for the old waiters with their shabby black dress-coats, and
+white neck-ties _a la_ turkey-cock, and white cotton gloves which are
+always dipping into the gravy, were not the fashion then,--and the
+stout Nuesslers sat there and ate, as if there were a French commissary
+in their stomachs, provisioning an army for a Russian campaign, and
+when they had finished the fricassee they began on the pudding, and
+when they had disposed of the pudding they attacked the roasted pigeons
+and sparrows, and wondered that the pigeons in Mecklenburg were not as
+large as the geese, and murmured against providence because sparrows
+were not as thick as hops, and when the roast meat came, Cousin
+Wilhelming, the wit of the Nuessler family, stood up and clinked his
+glass, and cried, "Quiet!" three times, and holding up his glass said,
+"To the health of the old General Knusemong (que nous aimons), who has
+been a very distinguished general, and is so to this day!" and with
+that he looked towards the young pair, blinking with his left eye at
+Mining, and with his right at Rudolph. And Uncle Luting--understand me,
+the rich Uncle Luting--stood up expressly for the purpose, and said,
+"Wilhelming, you are a devilish fellow!" And Braesig said to the Frau
+Pastorin, "Frau Pastorin, I know you are opposed to the Reform, but I
+assure you the witty shoemaker in the Reform would have done it much
+better!" And Frau Nuessler sat on thorns and thistles, in distress lest
+Jochen should take it into his head to make a speech; but Jochen
+restrained himself, his speeches were not for the world at large, they
+were only for the neighborhood, and all he said was, "Wilhelming, fill
+Luting's glass! Luting, help Wilhelming!"
+
+And when the punch-bowls were placed on the table, and the champagne
+came, the old Nuesslers looked at the labels, and said they had just
+such in their cellars, and Fritz Triddelsitz and the Herr Shopmen and
+the Herr Pupils drank one glass after another, losing no time, until
+the left wing of the wedding-army became so uproarious that the little
+assessor remarked to the commander of these light troops, to Fritz
+Triddelsitz, that if they were to attack the enemy in that condition
+they would be obliged to retreat, and when Fritz was making
+arrangements to withdraw his forces, then there happened a diversion,
+for him and for the whole company. Well, just to think what clever
+things an ignorant beast will do sometimes! Bauschan, Jochen's
+Bauschan, our old Bauschan was sitting with a green wreath about his
+neck, and another about his tail,--for Krischan the coachman had
+dressed him up for the occasion,--on the green and white altar, which
+was behind the bridal pair, and where Gottlieb and Lining had married
+them, and he thrust his dignified autocratic face between their heads
+and licked Mining with his tongue, and struck Rudolph with his tail,
+and then licked Rudolph, and struck Mining. And when he had done this,
+the old fellow settled down again upon the altar with the greatest
+dignity, looking as if he were well contented with the whole affair,
+but meant to sit there a little longer, for his own pleasure. Jochen
+sprang up: "Bauschan, for shame! Down with you!" But Uncle Braesig
+sprang up also, saying; "Jochen, do you treat your best friend like
+that, on this solemn occasion?" and turning to Pastor Gottlieb, he
+added: "Herr Pastor, let Bauschan alone! When the beast shows his
+affection, here on this Christian altar, the beast knows something that
+we don't. And Bauschan is a clever dog! I know it; for when I heard
+about the love-affairs, up in the cherry-tree, he heard them from
+below, for he was lying in the arbor, under the bench. Herr Pastor,
+this Bauschan is certainly a marriage witness, for he was there when
+they were betrothed."
+
+Gottlieb turned pale at the scandalous idea, but did not break out into
+a sermon this time, for there was suddenly a humming and buzzing, as of
+a swarm of bees; everybody had risen, and began to remove chairs and
+tables,--"Out! out!" cried carpenter Schultz,--and dishes and platters,
+and the rector's youngest pupil tumbled down with a great pile of Frau
+Nuessler's china plates, and the fragments clattered through the hall,
+and he stood looking at his work, and feeling in his vest-pocket for
+treasures which were as much concealed from his own eyes as from those
+of other people, and as Frau Nuessler passed by and saw the performance
+he turned very red, and said he would gladly pay for them, but he
+hadn't so much by him. And Frau Nuessler patted him kindly on the
+shoulder and said, "Oh, nonsense! But you must be punished!" and she
+took him by the hand and led him to Braesig's niece Lotting, and said,
+"You shall dance out my plates here, this evening." And he paid his
+debt honestly.
+
+Then the dancing began. First the Polonaise. Fritz Triddelsitz had the
+lead for Herr Suessmann was not yet visible, and what a dance he led
+them! Through the hall, and through the garden, and through the
+kitchen, and the entry, and the living room and the sleeping rooms, and
+back into the garden again, and into the hall went the procession,
+until Jochen's stout relations were quite out of breath, and Braesig
+called out to him, why didn't he take the barn-yard by the way? And
+Jochen Nuessler danced, third couple, with Aunt Zaphie in her flower-pot
+on one side, and Bauschan in his wreath on the other, and he looked
+between them like a pearl in a golden setting, or an ass between two
+bundles of hay. And when the Polonaise was over, David Berger played
+the slowest of waltzes, "Thou, thou reign'st in this bosom, There,
+there, hast thou thy throne," and another band answered out of the
+distance: "Our cat has nine kits," and as he played on: "Speak, speak,
+Love, I implore thee! Say, say, hope shall be mine!"--came the answer
+from the distance: "Son and daughter, Into the water!"--and so on, for
+Frau Nuessler had given orders that there should be dancing in the
+milk-cellar also, and there sat old Hartloff, with his one eye, and
+Wichmann the joiner, and Ruhrdanz the weaver, and all the rest; and
+Hartloff had helped them all to a good drink, and told them not to be
+discouraged, they could cope with such a city band as that, any day,
+and so they did their best, and Krischan the coachman kept them
+supplied with liquor. And when the fun was at its height, Rudolph and
+Mining came into the milk-cellar, and Mining danced with Krischan, and
+Rudolph with the cook, and the bailiff got up a hurrah for the married
+pair, and Hartloff fiddled so madly that Ruhrdanz tried in vain to keep
+up with him on the clarionet, and finally gave up in despair. And when
+the bridal pair had gone, Krischan stood behind the door with the cook,
+arguing the matter.
+
+"Duert, what must be, must."
+
+"Eh, Krischan, what do you want?"
+
+"Duert, we are a bridal pair too, and what is sauce for the goose is
+sauce for the gander; we must show ourselves on this occasion, they
+cannot take it ill of us."
+
+And Duert said it was very disagreeable to her, and, if she must do it,
+she would rather dance with Inspector Braesig, for she knew him; and
+Krischan said, for all he cared, and he would dance with the Frau. And
+nobody thought it anything out of the way, in the temple of art, when
+Krischan stood up with Frau Nuessler and Braesig with Duert, and danced as
+merrily as the rest. So it was, in those times, and 'tis a pity it is
+so no longer,--at least not in many places. Great joy and profound
+grief bring high and low together: why should a master who wishes his
+laborers to mourn at his funeral not share his pleasures with them
+also?
+
+It was a joyful occasion, and I could not possibly describe the
+pleasure which filled every heart, as the young feet danced merrily
+about, and hands silently pressed each other. I only know that Fritz
+Triddelsitz stood there as commander-in-chief, and that the little
+assessor at his side very often blushed, and after the dance ran to
+Louise, as if to seek her protection. I only know that the little pupil
+got knocked over several times, in the dance, because he was lost in
+arithmetical calculations, how he, when his predecessor came to be
+sexton, and he should be appointed school-master, might live with the
+greatest economy, and rent a bit of potato-land from the shoemaker at
+four shillings the square rood, and if the rich Uncle Braesig could help
+them with a few thalers, perhaps he might marry the lovely blue eyes
+and the golden hair which looked up to him so joyously, and in the
+confusion of the dance got entangled in his black coat, which was about
+one third paid for at Kurz's shop. I only know that the only unhappy
+being, in the whole company, was Herr Suessmann, and he only when his
+eyes happened to fall upon Jochen's old blue trousers.
+
+Yes, it was a joyful occasion; but everything has its end; the little
+fairies and the shopmen and school-boys and the dancers, and David
+Berger with the musicians, drove off home,--the old people had gone
+before,--and Jochen placed himself at the head of his relations, and
+showed them to their quarters, and Frau Nuessler took the ladies to
+their rooms, and every married lady had her nice bed; but the unmarried
+ones, with Aunt Zaphie at their head, had to sleep in the great blue
+room, _en table d'hote_.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+The Sunday after the wedding the young Frau von Rambow was busy in the
+morning with her housekeeping, and wrote down her expenses in her
+account book, and then sat in deep thought, till she was wholly
+disheartened with vague distress and anxiety, for she felt certain that
+things were going badly with Axel; but she had no idea of the desperate
+condition at which they had really arrived, through his unwise
+management, for her worst suspicions and anxieties fell far short of
+the truth. She merely inferred from his unsteady, hasty demeanor, and
+the restlessness which drove him hither and thither, that he was in
+great difficulty. That it was the most extreme difficulty, that the
+knife was at his throat, and a slight accident, a little maliciousness,
+might finish the business, she truly did not dream. He had told her
+nothing; he had ordered horses to be put to the carriage that morning,
+and had gone off for three days. Where? Why? Those were questions that
+no longer passed her lips, for why should she knock at a door from
+which issued only falsehood and evasion? She closed her account book
+with a sigh, and said to herself, "What is the use? A woman's hands
+cannot prop up a falling house." And as she saw Fritz Triddelsitz,
+through the window, strolling wearily and sleepily across the yard, she
+let her hands fall in her lap, saying, "And all the management depends
+on _him_; and it is fortunate too, for he is honest, and has been
+brought up by Habermann. Ah, Habermann! Habermann!" she cried, and
+mournful and remorseful thoughts overcame her, and enclosed her in
+their grasp. Who has not, some time in his life, passed such an hour,
+when one thought crowds upon the heels of another, like the ghosts of
+by-gone days, and all point with their fingers to the weak places in
+our hearts? They will not stir nor move, they stand like wall and
+mortar, ever pointing to the place, and connecting our present trouble
+with that place, and calling in our ears, this is the consequence, why
+hast thou acted thus? And what she had done, had been only out of love;
+but the ghosts did not turn any for that,--what does a ghost know of
+love?
+
+As she sat there, Daniel Sadenwater came in, and announced the Herr
+Proprietor Pomuchelskopp. The Herr was not at home, Frida said. He had
+told him so, said Daniel, but the Herr Pomuchelskopp had said
+expressly, he wished to speak with the gracious Frau. "I will come
+directly," said Frida. She would not have said that usually, but at the
+moment she was glad to escape from her gloomy thoughts; she had a great
+aversion to Pomuchelskopp, but still he was a flesh and blood man, he
+was none of her grisly ghosts.
+
+But she would not have done it, if she had known what awaited her.
+Pomuchel had previously, and at last on that very morning, held wise
+counsel with David and Slusuhr, and they were agreed in this
+conclusion: that it would be best for him to buy the estate of Axel, at
+private sale; "For" said Pomuchelskopp, "if it comes to an auction,
+they will put it up too high for me. Ah, how they would drive it up!
+the old nobility would come together, and some of them have a great
+deal of money,--and they stick to each other, like burs,--and they
+would pay his debts, if it came to the hammer, or buy it in for him."
+
+"You must look out for them," said Slusuhr.
+
+"No! no!" cried Pomuchelskopp. "If I can get it quietly, that is the
+best way. He is as mellow, as mellow as a rotten apple, and I know him,
+he never looks over the fence, he only reaches after the nearest thing,
+and if I offer him a good bit of money, enough to pay his debts and
+have a little left over, he will take it."
+
+"You forget one thing," said the notary, "she is there still."
+
+"Oh, she knows nothing about it," said Muchel. "Fortunate for us, else
+it would not have gone so far. She looked at me once,--when they had
+that fuss about the stolen money,--with a pair of eyes that I shall
+never forget, so long as I live."
+
+"Well," said David, "what of that? she is a woman,--not such a woman as
+Frau Pomuchelskopp, for _she_ is a dreadfully clever woman,--she is a
+noble lady, she knows a great deal about some things, and nothing at
+all about others. If he is mellow, well, she must be made mellow too."
+
+David's advice prevailed; yes, when the poor lady should learn all,
+blow upon blow, then she must become pliable in their hands, then she
+would not oppose the sale of the estate; and it was decided that
+Pomuchelskopp should make a beginning, and the others should follow
+him, that very morning; they knew that Axel was not at home.
+
+When the Frau von Rambow went down to Pomuchelskopp, he looked as
+gentle and compassionate as if he were a clergyman, come to condole
+with her upon her mother's death; he stretched out both hands with a
+cordial gesture, as if he would take her hand in his, and press it
+warmly. Not getting her hand, however, he folded his own together, and
+regarded her with such a fatherly expression, in his old fat eyes, as a
+crocodile assumes when he is just ready to cry.
+
+He had come, he said, as an old friend, as a true neighbor, to speak
+with the Herr von Rambow; the business was very pressing, and since the
+young Herr was not at home, it was necessary that he should speak with
+the gracious lady. It would be a great grief to him, if he, as a
+neighbor, could not help, when there was such a misfortune in prospect
+as the public auction sale of Pumpelhagen.
+
+Frida started back, exclaiming, "Sale of Pumpelhagen!"
+
+And now Pomuchelskopp looked like an unfortunate, innocent mother, who
+has overlaid her child in sleep; "God bless me!" he cried, "what have I
+done! I believed, gracious Frau, that you knew already----"
+
+"I know nothing," said Frida, pale, but firm, and looking at the old
+sinner as if she would look him through; "I know nothing, but I wish to
+know all. Why should Pumpelhagen be sold?"
+
+"Gracious lady," said the Herr Proprietor, almost wringing his hands,
+"the many debts----"
+
+"Whom is my husband indebted to?"
+
+"I believe, to many people."
+
+"To yourself, also?"
+
+And now it seemed as if a sluice were drawn up in Pomuchelskopp's
+heart, and the streams of friendliness, which had been accumulating for
+long years, were poured out at once upon the house of Pumpelhagen. Yes,
+he said, he had also demands upon him, but the money which he had
+loaned had been given out of friendship, and so it should remain. He
+had merely come over, this morning, to give the young Herr good advice,
+how the business might be managed, and if possible to help him out of
+his difficulties. So far as he knew, it was Moses who insisted on the
+sale, and if his mouth could be stopped everything might be settled.
+And as he took leave, he said, very kindly, with such a dignified
+shaking of the head, and much blinking of the eyes, as if to repress
+tears, if he had known that the gracious lady knew nothing about it, he
+would rather have pulled out his tongue than have uttered a word on the
+subject.
+
+If it had been a matter with which she was less nearly connected, she
+must have perceived the falseness of Pomuchelskopp's behavior; but she
+had only a vague feeling of it, for distress and terror prevented her
+from seeing clearly. She felt as if the house had been shaken by an
+earthquake, as if the walls, which had hitherto protected from the
+storm, were ready to fall upon her and her child, and bury, beneath
+themselves, the little happiness she still hoped for in the future, she
+must get out into the open air, into the garden; and there she walked
+up and down in the cool shade, thinking and thinking, and it seemed to
+her as if the very shadows cast by the trees were hers no longer, or
+even the flowers blooming at her feet, which she herself had planted.
+She sat down on the same bench where her father-in-law, the old
+Kammerrath, had sat, when he told Habermann of his troubles; Habermann
+had helped then,--where was Habermann now? The same tree shadowed her,
+which she had first seen from the distance when Axel had so proudly
+pointed out to her his fair estate; where was this pride? where was the
+estate? To whom did this tree belong?
+
+She sat there for a moment, as she thought, but the moment lasted two
+hours. She heard steps approaching on the Gurlitz pathway, and started
+to go; but before she could get away the notary and David stood before
+her. Slusuhr was a little startled, coming unawares upon the woman whom
+he was about to put to the torture; but David grinned like a monkey,
+into whose hand an apple had fallen unexpectedly. The notary went up to
+the gracious lady with great respect, and with a low bow inquired if
+they could speak with the gracious Herr.
+
+"He is away from home," said Frida.
+
+"It is very necessary that we should see him," said David. Slusuhr
+looked at David over his shoulder, as if to say, "Will you hold your
+stupid tongue?" but he repeated the same words:
+
+"Yes, gracious lady, it is necessary that we should see him."
+
+"Then you must come again on Wednesday; Herr von Rambow is coming back
+on Tuesday," and she turned to go.
+
+The notary stepped before her, saying, "The business is not so much
+ours, as the Herr von Rambow's; perhaps a messenger might be sent after
+him. It is really a very pressing case. We know of a purchaser for
+Pumpelhagen, a thoroughly safe man, who wishes, however, a definite
+answer, within three days, whether Herr von Rambow will dispose of the
+estate at private sale, or let it come to an auction, at the end of the
+term. The Herr, here, is the son of Moses, who has given notice of his
+money for St. John's day, and through me, as his man of business, urges
+the private sale."
+
+Of course this was all a tissue of lies. The fair young Frau stood
+still and looked at the two rascals; her first fright was over, and all
+the pride of her innocent soul rose against this undeserved misfortune.
+
+"Gracious lady," said David, after he had fumbled at his watch-chain a
+while, in great embarrassment under her steady gaze, "bethink yourself;
+there is my father with the seven thousand thalers,--with the interest
+and costs, it amounts to eight,--there is Herr Pomuchelskopp's eight
+thousand thalers, there are the trades-people at Rahnstadt,--we have
+the accounts by us,--three thousand, then there are the bills of
+exchange, and, here and there, ten thousand more, owing,--well, what do
+I know? perhaps to Israel at Schwerin. If you should sell, now, to a
+safe man, and you could sell the furniture, and the beds, and the
+linen, you would have ten thousand thalers over, or perhaps eleven, or,
+for all I know, even twelve thousand. And then, if you should move to
+Rahnstadt, and rent a house there, you would have nothing to do, and
+could live like a countess."
+
+Frida said nothing, but bowed coldly to the two companions, and went
+into the house. Nothing drives a high spirit to defend itself and to
+present a brave front to the world, like the rude intrusion of the
+world into one's private affairs. Then the foot advances to tread upon
+the head of the adder, and pride and honor and a good conscience turn
+out all other emotions which have restlessly worked in the heart, and
+there is no longer strife, there is calm repose; but it is like the
+repose of death.
+
+"There she goes, like a princess!" said David.
+
+"You blockhead, you!" cried Slusuhr. "Well, I will never, in my life,
+go on any business again with such a dunce."
+
+"Why, what is the matter?" asked David. "Didn't we do just that way with
+the peasant at Kanin, and the matter was settled at once?"
+
+"Yes, with a peasant. But did you come into the world yesterday, that
+you don't know that a noble lady is no peasant? We wanted to make her
+mellow and pliable--well, much good may it do you! we have only
+stiffened her neck. If it had come over him in that way, he would have
+said yes to everything; but," he added, rather to himself than to
+David, "there are men,--yes, and women, truly,--who are really strong,
+for the first time, under misfortune."
+
+As they returned to the Herr Proprietor, and he learned how the young
+Frau had received them, he was greatly enraged.
+
+"Good heavens!" said he to David, "how is it possible you could go
+about such a critical business in such a rough way? You should merely
+have bored and pricked and teased her, instead of setting her whole
+future life before her. God bless me! I had it all so nicely in train;
+and now, you shall see, when he comes home she will stiffen his back up
+as well, and the end will be, it will come to an auction."
+
+"Then you can buy it," said Slusuhr.
+
+"No, no! They will drive it up too high for me, and it joins so finely
+to my estate!" So the worthy Herr complained and disputed with the
+others, and consulted what should be done, and how they could manage
+it.
+
+In another part of Gurlitz, there were also consultations going on. In
+weaver Ruhrdanz's room, day-laborers and day-laborers wives were
+sitting together, and the talk that went round was not hasty and
+reckless, but thoughtful and deliberate, though venomous.
+
+"Well, what do you say, brother?"
+
+"Eh, what should one say? He must be got rid of, he is a regular
+skinner! Well, now you, Ruhrdanz?"
+
+"You are right there, I say so, too; he must be got rid of! But,
+friends, you should see, they would send him back to us again. If we
+only had papers about it, so that he dare not come back."
+
+"Oh, your stupid papers!" cried a great rough woman, from behind the
+stove, "when you come home, in the evenings, from the city, with your
+heads full of brandy, you are ready to do great things, and afterwards
+you flop together, like a dish-cloth. What? Must I send my children
+about the country, begging? I have had no bread, for three days, but
+such as the children have brought home."
+
+"Things are a little better than they were, though," said old father
+Brinkman.
+
+"Yes," cried Willgans, "but from fear, not from kindness. We will go up
+to the court, each with a good staff, and there we will teach him to
+know the Lord, and then we will lead him over the boundary, and give
+him a start on the way: 'There! now travel!'"
+
+"What?" cried Kapphingst, "and that Satan of a woman, who almost killed
+my girl about an old chicken, will you let her stay?"
+
+"And the old girls," cried a young woman, "who tormented us so, when we
+were servants at the court, and seemed like merciful angels in the
+parlor, when there was company, and knocked us round in the kitchen,
+like regular devils,--shall they stay too?"
+
+"We must get rid of the whole concern," said Willgans.
+
+"No, children, no!" said old Brinkman. "Do not meddle with the innocent
+children!"
+
+"Yes," said Ruhrdanz's old wife, who sat by herself, peeling potatoes
+for dinner, "you are right, Brinkman, and Gustaving must stay too; I
+saw him bringing old Schultz a measure of potatoes, secretly; and when
+he measures the land for potatoes and flax, he always gives a couple of
+rods more than _he_ does; and, Willgans, see! your oldest boy wears a
+pair of his outgrown breeches, at this moment. He cannot do as he
+would, the old man looks after him too closely. No, against Gustaving
+and the little ones, nobody must lift a hand."
+
+"Mother, I say so, too," said Ruhrdanz. "And, let me tell you
+something, we must do everything regularly! The others are not here
+now; this evening we will talk about it again. He will not be at home;
+Johann Jochen had to get the glass coach ready, they are going to the
+ball, in the city, this evening; then we can talk it over."
+
+"Yes," cried the great rough woman, "yes, talk and talk! You drink your
+heads full of brandy, and we are starving. If _you_ don't get rid of
+these people, _we_ shall do it, for we can do as other women have done,
+all over the country; thorn-bushes and nettle-stalks are not far to
+seek." With that, she went out of the door, and the company dispersed.
+
+"Bernhard," said Ruhrdanz's wife to him, "the matter may turn out
+badly."
+
+"So I say, mother, and you are quite right; but if the business is only
+conducted with regularity, the grand-duke can have nothing against it.
+The only trouble is that we have no proper papers to show; but if he
+should have to show _his_ papers, fine papers they would be."
+
+Ruhrdanz was right; as for the grand-duke, I don't know about that; but
+he was right about the glass coach, and Pomuchelskopp's journey to the
+ball; for towards evening the Herr Proprietor sat in the coach, in his
+blue dress-coat, and his brave, old Haeuning sat by him, looking, in her
+yellow-brown silk, like one of her own cookies, with all sorts of
+scalloped flourishes, though the soapy flavor was lacking; she was as
+dry and tough as a leather strap, and her bones clattered over the
+rough roads, like a bunch of hazelnuts, hung in the chimney-corner.
+Opposite sat the two fair daughters, sumptuously arrayed; but greatly
+vexed, because their father positively insisted upon taking them to
+_this_ ball, a _burgher_ ball. To punish him for it, they made no
+effort to amuse him, and talked of the burghers as _canaille_, and also
+wrought vengeance upon his shins, by the way, by means of the new hoops
+in their crinoline, which the wheelwright had put in freshly, that
+morning, of stout hazel stock. Gustaving sat by the coachman, Johann
+Jochen, on the box.
+
+I cannot think of dancing, this evening, with my pretty readers, at the
+fraternity ball, I am too old, and besides, it is only three days since
+Rudolph's wedding, where I did my utmost. I will merely go as a
+spectator, and enjoy the pleasant summer evening, on the bench before
+Grammelin's door; I can look into the hall for a few moments, later in
+the evening, and drink a glass of punch, and fraternize a little, like
+the rest.
+
+There were great doings at Grammelin's. All the grandees of Rahnstadt
+were there, the burghers, head and tail and neck and crop, a few
+proprietors, Pomuchelskopp at the head, a few noblemen and their
+sons,--their wives were not there, they were all troubled with corns
+that afternoon, and the daughters were absent from home,--the paechters
+in the neighborhood, and the young country people came in crowds. Very
+few of our friends were to be seen, for it was church-going with Jochen
+Nuessler's family, and the Frau Pastorin and Habermann and Louise had
+gone out there, and Rector Baldrian and Kurz, with their wives and
+Braesig, had also gone, but had returned in time to go to the ball. Kurz
+did not go, however, for he had been so provoked over Jochen's stout
+relations, that his wife put him to bed, which was a good thing, not
+only for himself, but for Herr Suessmann and the ball, for the young
+Herr could manage his affairs as dance-director without disturbance. He
+had got himself a new pair of trousers, and had put so much lard on his
+hair, that there was plenty to spare to grease his joints with. The
+little assessor went with her parents, and Fritz Triddelsitz, who was
+aware that she was coming, appeared as a proprietor of the highest
+rank, connected with the nobility. The little pupil, whose groschens
+were all gone, and who had discovered that Braesig's niece would not be
+there, sat just across the street from Grammelin's, before a forlorn
+old piano, which he belabored, while he sung:
+
+
+     "Mich fliehen alle Freuden, ich sterb vor Ungeduld,"
+
+
+and so forth, only he mispronounced, in his distress, and said:
+
+
+     "Mich freuen alle Fliegen!"
+
+
+Rector Baldrian came, with his wife, and Braesig with Schultz the
+carpenter, and Slusuhr and David. David had on two gold rings more than
+usual, which had been given him in pawn, and chewed cinnamon bark, to
+counteract the odor of the produce business.
+
+And when they were all there, and they were ready to begin, David
+Berger played the "Mamsell jaes"--as the dyer Meinswegens called the
+thing,--and Herr Suessmann sang out, quite loud:
+
+
+                     "Allons enfant de la partie!"
+
+
+At first, all seemed very good-natured, but, as a whole, there wasn't
+much fraternity. On one side it was all right, the young gentlemen
+among the grandees, and those from the country, were very brotherly
+towards the pretty little burghers' daughters; but the young ladies
+from the country, and the grandees' daughters, were positively
+determined not to fraternize with the burghers' sons, and the first
+open quarrel began with Malchen Pomuchelskopp. The shoemaker, the wit
+of the Reformverein, who was a burgher's son in Rahnstadt, asked her to
+dance, and she thanked him, but she was engaged; and then she sat
+there, and waited for Fritz Triddelsitz or Herr Suessmann, or some other
+helping angel, whom providence might send to dance the next hop waltz
+with her. But there were no angels of the kind ready, and she remained
+sitting. The rogue of a shoemaker cracked his jokes over it, and at
+last said, quite aloud, that if the distinguished ladies would not
+dance with them, they ought not to let the distinguished gentlemen
+dance with their women-folks, for they had not come there to look at
+each other. And then the storm broke upon the poor, pretty, innocent,
+little burghers' daughters, and their brothers and lovers attacked
+them: "Fika, don't you dance any more with that long-legged
+apothecary's son!" and "Duert, wait, I shall tell mother!" and "Stine,
+another dance with the advocate, and we are parted!" So it went through
+the hall, and at last it came to Father Pomuchelskopp's ears, how the
+trouble originated, and it disturbed him so much that he went to
+Malchen, and represented to her in the most pathetic terms the mischief
+she had done. The shoemaker, he said, was a very worthy young man, he
+was counted equal to any ten in the Reformverein, on account of his
+terrible wit, and it must be made up, and in spite of all her
+opposition Father Pomuchelskopp took his educated daughter upon his
+arm, and led her through the hall to the shoemaker, and said it was a
+great mistake, his daughter would consider it a special honor to dance
+with such a distinguished member of the Reformverein. And, behold! the
+shoemaker and Malchen were dancing together!
+
+Father Pomuchel had now, so to speak, sacrificed his first born upon
+the altar of fraternity, but it did not avail much, the discordant
+elements would not harmonize. Uncle Braesig was doing his utmost, on the
+other side, he puffed about in his brown dress-coat, introduced Herr
+von So and So to the wife of Thiel the joiner, and compelled himself to
+walk arm-in-arm, about the hall, with his worst enemy in the
+Reformverein, the tailor Wimmersdorf, and at last, before everybody,
+gave the wife of Johann Meinswegens, the dyer, a couple of fraternity
+kisses on her red face; but it was a hopeless task, what could one man
+accomplish, though with the best will in the world? "Herr Schultz," he
+said, at last, quite worn out with his labors, "when it comes to the
+eating and drinking, I hope we may be a little more brotherly; the
+dancing only seems to bring us farther apart."
+
+But even the eating and drinking did not help the matter; the people of
+rank sat at one end of the table, the burghers at the other; at one end
+they drank champagne, at the other a frightful tipple, which Grammelin
+sold, with the greatest impudence, as fine red wine, at twelve
+shillings the bottle. The shoemaker, indeed, was invited by
+Pomuchelskopp to be his guest at table, he sat by Malchen, and Father
+Pomuchel filled his glass assiduously; the dyer, Meinswegens, had sat
+down with his wife between two proprietors, and ordered "Panschamber,"
+for he had filled his pocket with four-groschen pieces; but when he
+went to pay he became aware that he had made a mistake, in the
+twilight, for he brought out a handful of dyer's tickets. Braesig had
+seated himself between a couple of the dearest little burghers'
+daughters, whom he treated in such a fatherly way that the Frau
+Pastorin, if she had seen it, would not have given him a good word for
+a week, and Gottlieb would certainly have preached him a sermon; but
+what good did it all do? Grammelin's sour wine did not suit well with
+his champagne, and so at supper they were farther asunder than ever.
+
+"Herr Schultz," said Braesig to his old friend, who sat opposite, "now
+it is time to play our last trump, you speak to Herr Suessmann, I will
+tell David Berger."
+
+Herr Schultz went round to Herr Suessmann. "Have you your song-books
+ready?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Go ahead, then! Now is the time!"
+
+Herr Suessmann distributed the songbooks, while Braesig went up to David
+Berger, and inquired:
+
+"Herr Berger, do you know that air of Schiller's:
+
+
+          "'Schwester mit das Leinwand mieder,
+            Bruder in das Ordensband?'"
+
+
+"Yes, indeed," said David.
+
+"Well, go ahead, then! Begin!" And suddenly resounded through the hall:
+
+
+           "Freude, schoener Gutter funken,"
+
+
+but fewer and fewer voices joined the chorus, weaker and weaker grew
+the song, till, at last, old Uncle Braesig stood there, with the book
+before his nose, and the tears running down his cheeks, and sung:
+
+
+           "Seid umschlungen Millionen,
+            Untergang der Luegenbrut!"
+
+
+That was too strong, they couldn't stand that. "Lying brood!" No, that
+was too much; they all lied, to be sure, but only when it was
+necessary. The company rose from table, very much out of humor. Braesig
+sat down in a corner and began to grumble, he was vexed to his inmost
+heart; the young people began to dance again, and David and Slusuhr sat
+in an adjoining room, drinking champagne, and cracking their jokes over
+Uncle Braesig.
+
+"Herr Inspector," said the carpenter Schultz to Braesig, after a while,
+"there are some people sitting in No. 3, and the notary and David are
+poking fun at you, because you bring your politics into everything, and
+the notary said, if the French should get no king after Louis Philippe,
+then you might become King of France; you had nothing to do, and might
+like the situation."
+
+"Did he say that?" asked Uncle Braesig, rising from the corner, with
+great energy.
+
+"Yes, he said that, and the others laughed at it."
+
+"And he is sitting in Grammelin's No. 3?"
+
+"Yes, he is sitting there."
+
+"Come with me, Herr Schultz."
+
+Braesig was angry, as I have said, he was exceedingly angry; the fine
+fraternity _fete_, from which he had hoped so much for mankind, was
+hopelessly ruined; he felt like the patriarch Abraham, when he offered
+up his darling child, he would have nothing more to do with it, he
+would go home; then providence sent him this scapegoat, upon whom he
+could express his anger, and so much the better, since he was the
+friend and tool of Pomuchelskopp.
+
+"Come along, Herr Schultz," said he, crossing the hall with great
+strides to the dressing room, where he had left his hat and buckthorn
+walking-stick. The hat he left there, but the stick he took with him to
+No. 3.
+
+There were many guests sitting here, over their bottles, and laughing
+at the jokes of the Herr Notary. All at once a great silence fell upon
+the merry company, as they saw a face among them which frightened them
+out of their laughter. That was Braesig's, which looked, in a very
+singular way, first at his buckthorn stick, and then at the notary, so
+that the company, with a suspicion of what might possibly happen,
+hastened to withdraw from the table.
+
+"What rascal wanted to make me King of France?" cried Braesig, in
+such a voice that the plastering fell from the ceiling, and his
+stick seemed like a live thing in his hand: "I will not be made
+King of France!"--whack! came the buckthorn, between the notary's
+shoulder-blades. "Oh Lord!"--"I will not be made King of France!" and a
+second time the buckthorn did its work, and Uncle Braesig and his stick
+alternated in the assurance that they had no ambition for the French
+crown. Candlesticks, lamps and bottles entered actively into the
+battle-royal, and David got under the table, that is to say, he crept
+there for refuge. The notary shrieked for help, but no one stood by
+him; only when the affair was over, David plucked up courage, under the
+table, to inquire: "Begging your pardon, Herr Inspector, is this what
+you call fraternity?"
+
+"Yes!" cried Braesig, "you miserable scamp! Between a man and a dog,
+blows are the best fraternity."
+
+"Out! out!" said Herr Schultz and he grappled David, under the table,
+and dragged him to light.
+
+"Gentlemen," cried Slusuhr, "you are witnesses how I have been treated,
+I shall enter a complaint."
+
+"I have seen nothing," said one.
+
+"I know nothing about it," said another.
+
+"I was looking out of the window," said a third, although it was pitch
+dark.
+
+"Herr Schultz," said Braesig, "you are my witness that I have treated
+the Herr Notary Slusuhr with the greatest forbearance," and with that,
+he left the room, got his hat, and went home.
+
+The blows which Slusuhr had received in No. 3 had echoed by this time
+through the hall, and in no way tended to harmonize the existing
+discords. The two Herrs von So and So with their sons had taken leave
+long before, and some of the grandees had also quietly retreated. The
+little assessor had her hat on, and her cloak wrapped around her,
+though Fritz Triddelsitz was almost on his knees before her, begging
+for one more, just _one_ more little Schottische.
+
+Pomuchelskopp also prepared for departure; he had an indefinite, but
+just, premonition that something was going to happen to him that
+evening, so he went to his family and told them it was time they were
+starting for home. His family afforded a sad picture of the whole
+entertainment, for they were quite divided. Gustaving was still hopping
+about, contentedly, with tailor Wimmersdorf's youngest daughter,
+Salchen was standing a little aside with Herr Suessmann, listening
+attentively while he related how merely by way of joke he had taken the
+stupid situation at Kurz's shop, but he should remain there no longer
+than till he could decide which of the places to accept, which were
+offered to him in Hamburg, Luebeck or Stettin, or possibly he might
+conclude to establish himself in Rostock, for he had a rich uncle
+there, who was constantly urging him to get married and come and live
+with him. Malchen sat in a sofa-corner, crying with vexation over her
+shoemaker. Kluecking, our brave old Haeuning, sat there stiff as a stake;
+however agitated by the events of the evening she may have been, she
+gave no sign, she remained steadfast, even the shoemaker had not moved
+her out of her composure, and when Muchel proposed that they should go
+she merely said, in a very friendly way, "Poeking, will you not invite
+your friend, the shoemaker, to ride with us? You might also invite one
+of your noble acquaintances. And then, if you ask weaver Ruhrdanz, and
+Willgans, and your other brothers of the Reformverein, the company will
+be complete."
+
+And with this matrimonial sting in his great fraternal heart, our
+friend set off on his homeward journey.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+One should never be confident beforehand how a matter will turn out;
+especially, one should never make free with the devil, for he is apt to
+come when he is called, and often appears uninvited. The guests whom
+Haeuning advised Pomuchelskopp to invite, were standing before the gate
+of Gurlitz waiting for their host and hostess. All the villagers and
+Pomuchelskopp's day-laborers stood there together, as the summer
+morning began to dawn, before the court-yard gate, to give their master
+a reception.
+
+"Children," said Ruhrdanz, "what must be, must, but do everything with
+regularity!"
+
+"Out with your regularity!" cried Willgans. "Has he treated us with
+regularity?"
+
+"No matter," said Ruhrdanz, "we cannot get our rights out of hand. That
+is where you are mistaken. When we go to the grand-duke about it
+afterwards, and that is no more than proper, and he asks, 'Willgans,
+what did you do?' and you tell him, 'Why, Herr, we first gave the old
+man and his wife a good beating, and then we took them over the
+boundary,' how will that sound? What will the man say to that?"
+
+"Yes," said old Brinkmann, "Ruhrdanz is right? If we take him over the
+boundary then we are rid of him, and there is no need of our doing
+anything more."
+
+This was finally resolved upon. Behind the men stood the women and
+children, and the great, strong woman of yesterday morning was there
+also, and she said, "Now we have things, so far, as we want them. If
+you don't do it though, and get rid of the fellow and his wife, I will
+beat my man till he cries for mercy."
+
+"Yes, gossip," said another woman, "we must, _we must!_ I went to the
+pastor's yesterday,--well, the Frau Pastorin gave me something, and he
+preached patience. What? Patience? Has hunger patience?"
+
+"Johann Schmidt," said a tall, slender girl, "just run up the hill, and
+see if they are coming. Fika, how will our two mamsells look, when they
+are sent packing?"
+
+"Shall we tell the pastor about the matter?" inquired the day-laborer
+Zorndt of Brinkmann. "It might be well that he should know about it."
+
+"I don't think there is any use in it, Zorndt, he knows nothing about
+business. If the old pastor were only alive!"
+
+"They are coming!" cried Johann Schmidt, running back.
+
+"Come, who is to speak?" said Willgans, "I will hold the horses."
+
+"Eh, Ruhrdanz," went from mouth to mouth.
+
+"Well, if you are contented, why should not I speak?" said Ruhrdanz.
+Then all was quiet.
+
+The coachman, Johann Jochen, drove up, and was going to turn in at the
+gate; then Willgans seized the two leaders by the heads, and turned
+them aside a little, saying, "Johann Jochen, stop here for a moment."
+
+Pomuchelskopp looked out of the carriage, and saw the whole village
+assembled: "What does this mean?"
+
+Ruhrdanz, and the rest of the company, stood at the door of the
+carriage, and he said, "Herr, we have made up our minds that we will
+not consider you our master any longer, for you have not treated us as
+a master ought, and no more have you other people before us, for you
+wear a ring around your neck, and we cannot suffer a master with a ring
+around his neck."
+
+"You robbers! You rascals!" cried Pomuchelskopp, as he became aware of
+the meaning of this performance. "What do you want? Will you lay hands
+on me and mine?"
+
+"No, we will not do that," said old Brinkmann, "we will only take you
+over the boundary."
+
+"Johann Jochen!" cried Pomuchelskopp, "drive on! Cut them with your
+whip!"
+
+"Johann Jochen," said Willgans, "so sure as you touch the whip, I will
+knock you off the horse. Turn about! So! to the right!" and carriage
+and horses were headed towards Rahnstadt. Salchen and Malchen were
+screeching at the top of their voices, Gustaving had sprung down from
+the box, and placed himself between his father and the laborers, to
+keep them off; all was in confusion, only our brave old Haeuning sat
+stiff and stark, and said not a word.
+
+"What do you want of me? You pack of robbers!" exclaimed Pomuchelskopp.
+
+"We are not that," cried Schmidt, "we would not take a pin-head from
+you, and Gustaving can stay here and manage, and tell us what to do."
+
+"But the wife, and the two girls, we cannot stand any longer," said
+Kapphingst, "they must go too."
+
+"Hush, children!" said Ruhrdanz, "everything with regularity. Merely to
+take them over the boundary amounts to nothing; we must give them up to
+our magistrate, the Rahnstadt burgomeister. That is the right thing to
+do."
+
+"Ruhrdanz is right," said the others, "and Gustaving, you go quietly
+home, nobody will hurt you. And you, Johann Jochen, just drive at a
+steady pace," and they placed themselves, some on one side, some on the
+other, and the procession started, at a regular parade step.
+Pomuchelskopp had resigned himself, but he was not resigned to his
+destiny; he sat wringing his hands and lamenting to himself: "Oh, Lord!
+Oh, Lord! what will become of me? what will they do?" and then, putting
+his head out of the door, "Good people, I have always been a kind
+master to you."
+
+"You have been a regular skinner!" cried a voice from the crowd.
+
+Salchen and Malchen wept, Haeuning sat there, stiff as a thermometer
+tube, but if the day-laborers had understood that sort of thermometer,
+they would have seen that the mercury was far above boiling point, and
+Willgans, who was close by the door, would have been more careful, for
+suddenly, without saying a word, she made a grab at him, and got fast
+hold of his curly, chestnut hair, and pulled it to her heart's content,
+and her eyes gleamed and sparkled out of the dusky carriage, as if she
+had been transformed into an owl, and had taken him for a young hare.
+
+"Thunder and lightning! Look at the carrion!" cried Willgans. "Strike
+at her, Duesing! See the devil! Strike her on the knuckles! ye, ya! ye,
+ya!"
+
+Before Duesing could rescue him, Haeuning banged his nose, a couple of
+times, against the door-handle, and the blood ran in streams.
+
+"Thunder and lightning! I say! Such deviltry is not to be put up with!
+Hold on, I will----"
+
+"Hold!" cried Ruhrdanz, "you must not blame her for that, it is only
+her natural wickedness; you must let it go for this time; but you can
+tell the grand-duke about it and show him your nose, if you like, that
+he may see how they have treated you."
+
+Haeuning said nothing, and the procession moved on; at the boundary the
+laborers sent home their wives and children, who had followed so far,
+behind the carriage, and about seven o'clock they marched, slowly and
+solemnly, into Rahnstadt.
+
+Uncle Braesig lay by the window, smoking his pipe, and thinking over his
+heroic deeds of the previous evening. Kurz, although he had not
+attended the fraternity ball, was fearfully cross, and went scolding
+about his shop: "The stupid dunce! the harlequin! Only wait! Only come
+home!" and, although he intended to be in such different circumstances
+afterwards, he must at length come home, that is to say, Herr Suessmann.
+Herr Suessmann danced over the threshold. Kurz braced his two hands
+against the counter, and looked at him, as if he would spring over the
+counter in his wrath, and meet Herr Suessmann in the hall; he let him,
+however, come into the shop first.
+
+"Morning, principal, principaelchen, principaelchen!" cried Herr
+Suessmann, staggering about the shop, and finally seating himself on the
+rim of a herring cask, with his hat cocked on one side: "Morning,
+Kurzchen, Schurzchen, Wurzchen----" but he had not time to finish his
+variations, Kurz had his hands in his hair, knocked off his hat into
+the herring-cask, and began dragging him about the shop by his
+ambrosial locks. Herr Suessmann groped blindly about him for something
+to lay hold of, and caught at the stop-cock of the oil-cask; the cock
+came out, and the oil poured out in a stream.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Kurz, "my oil! my oil!" and he let go of Herr
+Suessmann, and stuck his right fore-finger into the hole. Herr Suessmann
+held up the cock in triumph, and, as it often happens that crazy or
+intoxicated people do uncommonly clever things, the bright idea
+occurred to Herr Suessmann that he would do his work thoroughly. So he
+pulled out the cock from the vinegar barrel.
+
+"Oh, good gracious! my vinegar!" cried Kurz, and he stuck his left
+fore-finger into the vinegar barrel. And as he was now fairly caught,
+and stooping over, the opportunity was too tempting for Herr Suessmann
+to neglect. "Principaelchen! Kurzchen!"--whack! "Leben sie wohl, Tuten
+dreherchen!"--whack, whack! "Johannageht, und nimmer kehrt sie
+wieder!"--whack, whack, whack! Then he fished his hat out of the
+herring-cask, put it on, as much askew as possible, laid the two cocks
+on the counter, about twenty feet from Kurz, and danced, laughing, out
+of the door.
+
+"Help!" screamed Kurz, "help! he-l-p!" But his people were not in the
+house, and his good old advocate was in the back garden, cutting
+asparagus, and the only one who heard him was Uncle Braesig. "Karl,"
+said he, "it seems to me, as if Kurz were yelling. I will go over, and
+see if anything has happened."
+
+"He-l-p!" cried Kurz.
+
+"Preserve us!" said Braesig, "what an uproar you are making here, at
+seven o'clock in the morning!"
+
+"Infamous rascal!"
+
+"How? Is that the way you greet me?"
+
+"Good-for-nothing scamp!"
+
+"You are a rude fellow!"
+
+"Give me those cocks, that lie on the counter!"
+
+"Get your dirty cocks yourself, you donkey, you!"
+
+"I cannot, the oil and the vinegar will run out, and I don't mean you,
+I mean Suessmann."
+
+"That is another thing," said Braesig, perching himself on the counter,
+and swinging his legs, "what is the matter with you?"
+
+Kurz related how he had got into this situation.
+
+"You strike me very comically, Kurz, but let this be a warning to you;
+a man is always punished in the members in which he has sinned."
+
+"I beg you----"
+
+"Quiet, Kurz! You have always sinned in oil and vinegar, since you have
+emptied the quart measure with a jerk, so that often two or three
+spoonfuls would be left in it. Will you always give right measure
+hereafter? Will you never look at the cards again, when we are playing
+Boston?"
+
+"Good heavens! yes, yes!"
+
+"Well, then, I will release you," and with that he brought the cocks.
+
+Hardly was Kurz free when he darted out of the door, as if he expected
+to find Herr Suessmann waiting for him outside. Braesig followed, and
+they came out just as Pomuchelskopp and his escort were passing.
+
+"Preserve us! What is this? Ruhrdanz, what does this mean?"
+
+"Don't take it ill, Herr Inspector, we have turned out our Herr."
+
+Braesig shook his head: "You have done a very foolish thing!" and he
+fell into the procession, and many people who were in the street
+followed to the burgomeister's house. Here the laborers took out the
+horses, and Ruhrdanz and Willgans and Brinkmann, and several others
+went in to see the burgomeister.
+
+"Well, Herr," said Ruhrdanz, "we have got him here."
+
+"Whom?"
+
+"Eh, our Herr Pomuchelskopp."
+
+"What? What is that?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, only that we won't have him for our Herr any longer."
+
+"Good heavens, people, what have you done."
+
+"Nothing but what is right, Herr Burgomeister."
+
+"Have you laid hands on your master?"
+
+"Not a finger; but the old woman there, she laid hands on Willgans, for
+she----"
+
+But the burgomeister had gone out of the room, and stood by the
+carriage, and begged the company to get out; they did so, and he
+brought the family into his living room.
+
+"Oh, what will become of us! what will become of us!" moaned Pomuchel.
+"Herr Burgomeister, you know, I have always been a good master to my
+people."
+
+"Kopp, for shame!" interposed Haeuning.
+
+"No," said the burgomeister, paying no attention to Haeuning, and
+looking the Herr Proprietor firmly in the eye, "you have not been a
+good master. You know I have often remonstrated with you, on this
+account, and you know that, because of your behavior to your people, I
+have declined to act as your magistrate. I have nothing to do with the
+business, and if I were to concern myself in it, merely as a private
+citizen, I should not take your side, but that of your poor, oppressed
+people. You must excuse me, therefore----"
+
+"But you can at least give me your advice," begged Pomuchelskopp. "What
+shall I do?"
+
+"You cannot go back to Gurlitz, at least not at present, it might give
+occasion for violent deeds; you must wait the result, here. But wait a
+moment; I will speak to the people again."
+
+Well, what good could that do? The people were firmly resolved in the
+matter; the bad fellows among them had yielded to the decision of the
+older, more peaceable laborers and villagers, and now they were all so
+fully persuaded that they were in the right, that they were not to be
+moved from their purpose.
+
+"No, Herr," said Ruhrdanz, "we will never take him back; that is
+settled."
+
+"You are guilty of a great offence, and it may go hard with you."
+
+"Yes, that may be; but if you talk of offences, Herr Pomuchelskopp has
+been guilty of worse offences against us."
+
+"Those foolish people at the Reformverein, have filled your heads with
+their silly ideas."
+
+"Don't take it ill, Herr Burgomeister; that is what everybody says, but
+it isn't true. What? Our Herr Pomuchelskopp belongs to the
+Reformverein, and has made a speech there; but, Herr, he told nothing
+but lies, and we know better."
+
+"Well, what do you intend to do?"
+
+"Herr Gustaving is there, and when he tells us to do this or that, we
+shall do it; but Willgans and I will go to the grand-duke, and give him
+an account of the matter, and that is what I wanted to ask you, if you
+would give us some papers to take with us."
+
+"What do you want with papers?"
+
+"Well, Herr Burgomeister, don't take it ill, there is no harm in it.
+You see, I went to the old railroad, without any papers, and they
+turned me out, of course; but the grand-duke is no railroad, and he
+would not act so inconsiderately, and if we have no papers to show you
+can show your nose, Willgans, how the old woman has treated you, and I
+will show my honest hands, which have never been in any unjust
+business."
+
+Upon that, the old man went out, and the laborers crowded around him,
+and felt in their pockets, and produced the few shillings and groschens
+they had by them: "There, now go! The shortest road to Schwerin!" and
+"Neighbor, don't forget Kapphingst's girl!" and "Neighbor, if he asks
+what we have lived on, you may say honestly we have stolen nothing from
+our master; but we have helped ourselves to a few of Frau Nuessler's
+potatoes, because she never minded it."
+
+The two set out for Schwerin, the other day-laborers went home; Johann
+Jochen drove the empty carriage behind them; the people, who had
+assembled in quite a crowd before the burgomeister's door,--for the
+business had spread through the town like wildfire,--dispersed to their
+homes, and Uncle Braesig said to Habermann, "Karl, he is getting his
+deserts. I went in a moment, not on his account, but for those poor
+fellows, the laborers; but when he came in, I went away, for I didn't
+want to see him in his disgrace."
+
+Pomuchelskopp had gone to Grammelin's, with his dear family, and he sat
+now, in misery and distress, by the bedside of the Herr Notary; for
+Slusuhr had gone directly to bed, after his beating, in order that the
+business might appear to be very serious.
+
+"I have sent for the doctor, and shall have myself examined, so that I
+can catch the inspector nicely. Strump is not at home, but the other
+one will be here directly."
+
+"Ah, how fortunate you are!" said Pomuchel.
+
+"I should not have supposed," said the Herr Notary, turning on his
+other side, "that it was a particular piece of good fortune to get a
+jacket full of blows from a buckthorn staff, as thick as your thumb."
+
+"You can avenge yourself, but I,--poor man that I am,--what can I do?"
+
+"You can get a detachment of soldiers, and then you can punish the
+rascals, within an inch of their lives, and if you are too much of a
+milksop to do it yourself, employ your wife, she will do it finely."
+
+"God bless you! no! no! I have enough on my hands! I can do nothing
+about Pumpelhagen yet, and I dare not go back to Gurlitz, they will
+tear my house down over my head. No, no! I shall sell, I shall sell!"
+
+"Shall I tell you some news?" said David, who came into the room, in
+time to hear the last words, "you are right, sell; I will look out for
+you, I know----"
+
+"Infamous Jew rascal!" said Slusuhr, shifting his position again,--"aw!
+thunder!--do you think we cannot manage that for ourselves? Yes, Herr
+Pomuchelskopp, I would sell, for if they don't tear your house down
+they might get at the barns, and the potato middens."
+
+"Well, Herr Notary, what will you do?" asked David. "You have some
+money; you might manage a farm-house, or a mill, but for an estate like
+that? You must come to my father."
+
+"Your father? When he hears that it is for Pomuchelskopp, he will say:
+'Cash down!' We three are not in very high credit with him."
+
+"If I tell him----" began David, but just then the doctor came in, the
+father of the little assessor.
+
+"Good morning! You sent for me?" turning to Slusuhr, "you wanted to see
+me?"
+
+"Ah, Herr Doctor, you were at the ball last night. Oh, my bruises! You
+must surely have heard----"
+
+"He got a beating," said David, "I am a witness he was dreadfully
+abused."
+
+"Will you hold your cursed tongue?" cried Slusuhr. "Herr Doctor, I wish
+you would examine me medically; I fear I shall never recover the use of
+my limbs."
+
+Without more words, the doctor went up to the patient, and removed the
+shirt from his shoulders, and there was much to be read there which is
+not usually seen on a pair of shoulders, and the inscription was
+written in red ink, in the largest capitals. Pomuchelskopp sat there,
+with folded hands, in the deepest melancholy, but when he saw the
+inscription on the notary's back, a very comfortable expression dawned
+in his face, and David sprung up, exclaiming, "Good heavens! How he
+looks! Herr Doctor, I will let you examine me too; carpenter Schultz
+dragged me out from under the table, and tore my new dress-coat."
+
+"Send for the tailor!" said the doctor quietly, and turning to the
+notary: "I will leave a certificate for you, with Grammelin. Good
+morning, gentlemen!"
+
+Then he went down-stairs, and after a little while, Grammelin's
+waiting-maid brought up the paper, which the doctor had left for the
+Herr Notary. Slusuhr opened it, and read:
+
+
+"As in duty bound, I hereby testify that the Herr Notary Slusuhr has
+received a good, sound flogging, as is clearly evident from the
+suggillations upon his back. It has done him no harm, however. So and
+So, Dr. Med."
+
+
+"Has the fellow the insolence to say that?" screamed Slusuhr. "It has
+done him no harm? Well, just wait, we will talk about that, by and by."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried David, "isn't it better that it has done you no
+harm, than if had hurt you?"
+
+"You are an idiot! But what am I lying here for?" said Slusuhr. "You
+will excuse me, I must go out, I must thank the Herr Inspector for his
+flogging--with a little writ."
+
+"Don't forget me, my dear friend," said Pomuchel. "You must write for
+me to Pumpelhagen to-day."
+
+"Rely upon me. I feel spiteful enough, to-day, to get out writs against
+the whole world. Haven't you something to write, David?"
+
+"If I have anything to write, I can write it, if I have nothing to
+write, I shall write nothing," said David, and he went out with
+Pomuchelskopp.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+Gloomy, heavy, leaden hours oppressed the young Frau von Rambow, after
+Pomuchelskopp's visit; slowly, step by step, they passed over her, and
+in their footprints new cares and anxieties sprang up; with firm,
+energetic hands, she pulled up these weeds from her path; but in time
+the most active hand grows weary, and the strongest heart longs for
+rest.
+
+Her husband had not returned on the day appointed; instead there had
+come a messenger, with a letter, bearing Slusuhr's seal, who said he
+had orders to wait, until he could give the letter into the hands of
+the Herr von Rambow himself. What that signified, she could easily
+understand. She sat, in the twilight, in her room, by her child; her
+hands were folded in her lap, and she looked out, in the hazy summer
+evening, at the dark clouds gathering over the sky.
+
+The day had been sultry, and in such weather, the blood flows heavily
+through the veins, not leaping and throbbing, like a living spring of
+clear water, but dragging; sleepily along, like the black water in a
+ditch, and even as Nature sighs and pants for the storm, which shall
+give her fresh life, so the heart longs and sighs, in impatience,
+for the whirlwind and thunderbolt of destiny, which may save it from
+such wearing torture,--come what may, deliver us from this fearful
+suspense. This was Frida's mood, so she longed and sighed for a sturdy
+thunder-bolt which might drive away the foul air in which she was
+stifling, and make everything clear around her; and she did not sigh in
+vain.
+
+Korlin Kegel came in, bringing the post-bag, and stood there as if she
+wanted to do something, then unlocked the bag, and laid a letter on the
+table before her mistress, and again stood still.
+
+"Gracious Frau, shall I light the lamps?"
+
+"No, let them be."
+
+Korlin did not go, she remained standing:
+
+"Gracious Frau, you have forbidden us to come telling tales, but----"
+
+"What is it?" asked Frida, rousing herself from her thoughts.
+
+"Ah, gracious Frau, the Gurlitz people have driven away Herr
+Pomuchelskopp, and his wife and his two daughters."
+
+"Have they done that?" cried Frida.
+
+"Yes, and now all our day-laborers are standing outside, and want to
+speak to you."
+
+"Are they going to drive us away?" asked Frida, rising, very quietly
+and proudly, from her chair.
+
+"No, no! dear, gracious Frau," cried Korlin, throwing herself on the
+floor, and grasping her about the knees, while the tears started from
+her eyes, "no, no! There is no talk of that, and my old father says, if
+any one should propose such a thing, he would beat out his brains with
+a shovel. They only say there is no use in speaking to the Herr, he
+breaks up their talk too shortly. They want lo speak to you, because
+they have confidence in you."
+
+"Where is Triddelsitz?"
+
+"Dear heart! he is going round among them, but they won't listen to
+him, they say they have nothing to do with him, they want to speak to
+the gracious Frau."
+
+"Come!" said Frida, and went down.
+
+"What do you want, good people?" asked the young Frau, as she stepped
+outside the door, before which the laborers were assembled. The
+wheelwright, Fritz Flegel, stepped up, and said:
+
+"Gracious Frau, we have only come to you because we are all
+agreed,--and we told the Herr so before; but nothing came of it. And
+the Herr answered us harshly, and we have no real confidence in Herr
+Triddelsitz, for he is so thoughtless, and doesn't know yet how things
+should be managed, and we thought you might help us, if you would be so
+kind. We are not dissatisfied because we want more, we are contented
+with what we get, and we get what belongs to us;--but never at the
+right time; and poor people like us cannot stand that."
+
+"Yes," interrupted Paesel, "and last year, the famine year, the rye was
+all sold, and you see, gracious Frau, some of us get our pay in grain;
+and I was to have twelve bushels of rye, and live on it, and I got
+none, and they said we must be patient. Oh, patience! And all the
+potatoes bad! How can we live?"
+
+"Gracious Frau," said an old white-haired man, "I will say nothing
+about the means of life, for we have never gone hungry; but for an old
+man like me to stand, all day long, bent over in the ditch, shoveling
+water,--and at evening I am too stiff to move, and cannot sleep at
+night for misery,--it isn't right. We didn't have such doing? when Herr
+Habermann was here; but now it is all commanding and commanding, and
+the commanders know nothing about the work."
+
+"Yes, gracious Frau," said the wheelwright, stepping forward again,
+"and so we wanted to ask you if we couldn't have a regular inspector
+again, if Herr Habermann will not come, then some other; but one that
+would treat us kindly, and listen when we have something to say, and
+not snap us up, and scold us when we haven't deserved it, or knock our
+children about with sticks, as Herr Triddelsitz used to."
+
+"That shall be put a stop to," cried Frida.
+
+"Yes, gracious Frau, he has broken off that habit; about six months ago
+I had a very serious talk with him about it, and since then he is much
+better behaved, and more considerate. And if our gracious Herr would be
+considerate too, and think of his own profit, he would get a capable
+inspector, for he himself understands nothing about farming, and then
+he need not have a whole field of wheat beaten down by the wind, as it
+was last year, and the people would not talk about him so. And,
+gracious Frau, people talk a great deal, and they say the Herr must
+sell the estate, and will sell it to the Herr Pomuchelskopp; but we
+will never take him for our master."
+
+"No!" cried one and another, "we will never take him." "A fellow who
+has been driven off by his own laborers!" "We can't put up with him!"
+
+Blow after blow fell the words of the day-laborers upon Frida's heart.
+The little love and respect which they professed for her husband, the
+knowledge of their embarrassed situation, which was evident even to the
+common people, weighed heavily upon her, and it was with extreme
+difficulty that she controlled herself, and said:
+
+"Be quiet, good people! The Herr must decide all these matters, when he
+comes home. Go quietly home, now, and don't come up to the house again
+in such a crowd. I will join in your petition to the Herr, and I think
+I may safety promise you that there will be a change in the management
+by St. John's day,--in one way or another," she added with a sigh, and
+paused a moment, as if to reflect, or perhaps to swallow something that
+rose in her throat. "Yes, wait until St. John's Day, then there will be
+a change."
+
+"That is all right then."
+
+"That is good, so far."
+
+"And we are very much obliged to you."
+
+"Well, good-night, gracious Frau!"
+
+So they went off.
+
+Frida returned to her room. It was beginning to thunder and lighten,
+the wind blew in gusts over the court-yard, driving sand and straw
+against the window-panes. "Yes," she said, to herself, "it must be
+decided by St. John's Day, I have not promised too much, there must be
+a change of some kind. What will it be?" and before her eyes rose the
+dreary picture which David had so coarsely drawn; she saw herself
+condemned to live in a rented house in a small town, with her husband
+and child, with no occupation, and no brighter prospects for the
+future. She heard the neighborhood gossip; they had seen better days.
+She saw her husband rising in the morning, going into the town, coming
+home to dinner, smoking on the sofa in the afternoon, going out again,
+and going to bed at night. And so on, day after day, with nothing in
+the world to do. She saw herself burdened with household cares,
+comfortless, friendless; she saw herself upon her death-bed, and her
+child standing beside her. Her child; from henceforth a poor, forsaken
+child! A poor, noble young lady! It is a hard thing to occupy a station
+in which one must keep up appearances, without the requisite means. A
+poor young gentleman may fight it through, he can become a soldier; but
+a poor young lady? And though the Lord should look down from heaven,
+and endow her with all the loveliness of an angel, and her parents
+should do for her all of which human love is capable, the world would
+pass her by, and the young Herrs would say, "She is poor," and the
+burghers, "She is proud." So Frida saw her child, who lay meanwhile in
+peaceful child-sleep, undisturbed by the storm and tempest without, or
+by the storm and tempest in her mother's breast.
+
+Korlin Kegel brought a light, and the young Frau reached after the
+letter which lay upon the table, as a person will do, when he wishes to
+prevent another from noticing that he is deeply moved. She looked at
+the address, it was to herself, from her sister-in-law, Albertine; she
+tore open the envelope, and another letter fell into her hand,
+addressed to her husband.
+
+"Put this letter on your master's writing-table," she said to the girl.
+Korlin went.
+
+Her husband's sisters had often written to her, and their letters were
+generally such as ladies write to drive away ennui. Frida opened the
+letter; but ah! this was no letter born of ennui. Albertine wrote:--
+
+
+"Dear Sister:
+
+"I do not know that I am doing right. Bertha advises me to it, and
+Fidelia has twice taken away the paper from under my pen, she thinks it
+will only worry our dear brother Axel. But--I don't know, I cannot help
+myself,--necessity really compels us. We have already written twice to
+Axel, without getting an answer; he may be absent from home a good
+deal, in these hard times, and also very much occupied,--for these
+unhappy political troubles are beginning to reach us, as we have
+evidence enough in Schwerin,--and so I believe I am doing right in
+turning to you; you will give us an answer. You know that Axel borrowed
+the capital which our dear father left us, to invest it on the estate
+at Pumpelhagen; he promised us five percent, interest, instead of four
+and a half, which we got before,--it was not necessary, for we did well
+enough,--but he promised us the interest punctually, every quarter, and
+it is three quarters since he has sent us any. Dear Frida, we should
+certainly have said nothing about it, if we were not in the greatest
+embarrassment. Added to this, our brother-in-law Breitenburg has been
+here, who knew nothing of Axel's having borrowed from us, and when he
+found it out, he spoke of Axel in the most dreadful way, and declared
+that we were three geese. He asked to see our security by mortgage,
+which we could not show him, because Axel has always delayed sending
+it; and then he said, right to our faces, we should never see our money
+again; it was notorious that Axel was so deeply in debt, through his
+bad management, that Pumpelhagen would be sold over his head. We know,
+to be sure, how to make allowance for our brother-in-law's speeches,
+for he was always unfriendly to our dear Axel,--and how could it be
+possible? Pumpelhagen sold? In our family for hundreds of years! The
+Grand-Duke would not allow it, and we told him as much,--Fidelia in her
+lively way,--then he took his hat and stick, and said in his coarse
+way, 'Your brother Axel was always a fool, and now he has become a
+scoundrel,' whereupon Fidelia sprang up, and showed him the door. It
+was a frightful scene, and I never would have written you about it, if
+I had not a secret anxiety lest Axel and Breitenberg should encounter
+each other, and, like the brothers-in-law, Dannenberg and Malzahn,
+out of an exaggerated sense of honor, shoot each other, across a
+pocket-handkerchief. Caution Axel to avoid such a meeting, and, if it
+is possible, take care that he sends us our interest.
+
+"We think of visiting you this summer; we have taken a childish
+pleasure in the thought of seeing you and the dear old place again,
+where we played as children, and dreamed as maidens, and--alas!--where
+we parted from our dear father. Yes, Frida, I rejoice in thinking of it
+all, and Bertha and Fidelia with me, for we live only in recollection;
+the present is dreary and comfortless. Only now and then some friend of
+our father's comes in, and tells us what is passing in the world, and
+it is really touching for Bertha and me to see how our little Fidelia,
+with her natural vivacity, will throw aside her sewing and interest
+herself in everything. She is very much interested in the court. Now,
+farewell, dear Frida, pardon my gossip, and give the enclosed letter to
+Axel. I have written him very earnestly and trustingly; but have spared
+him, as much as possible, anything disagreeable. We shall see you in
+August.
+
+                       "Yours,
+
+                            "Albertine von Rambow.
+
+"Schwerin, June 11, 1848."
+
+
+Frida read the letter, but she did not read it through; when she came
+to the place, "Your brother Axel was always a fool, and now he has
+become a scoundrel," she threw the letter on the floor, and wrung her
+hands, then sprang to her feet, and walked up and down the room,
+crying, "That he is! that he is!" Her child lay sleeping before her;
+she threw herself down in the chair, and took up the letter again, and
+read over the terrible words, and the dark picture she had been making
+to herself of her child's future was gone like a shadow, and before her
+eyes another shone, in livid colors; on it stood the three sisters, and
+underneath was written: "Betrayed! betrayed by a brother!" And in the
+back-ground stood her husband; but, dimly seen, she could not tell what
+was truth and what was falsehood, and underneath was written:
+"Scoundrel!" Horrible! horrible! Now all was lost,--doubly lost! For it
+was not her own loss merely, it was the loss of one whom she had loved,
+dearer than her own soul. That was fearful! Oh, for help, to remove
+this glowing brand from the brow she had so often lovingly kissed! But
+how? Who could help her? Name after name shot through her head, but
+these names all seemed inscribed on a distant, inaccessible, rocky
+wall, where she could find no footing. She wrung her hands in distress,
+and the prospect grew darker and darker, when, all at once, there
+beamed upon her in her anguish and torment an old, friendly, woman's
+face. It was Frau Nuessler's face, and she looked just as she had when
+she had kissed Frida's child.
+
+The young Frau sprang up, exclaiming, "There is a heart! there is a
+human heart!" It thundered and lightened, and the rain poured in
+torrents; but the young Frau caught up a shawl, and rushed out into the
+storm.
+
+"Gracious Frau! For God's sake!" cried Korlin Kegel, "in the rain? in
+the night?"
+
+"Let me alone!"
+
+"No, that I will not!" said the girl, as she followed her mistress.
+
+"A human heart, a human heart," murmured the poor young Frau to
+herself; the rain beat in her face,--onward! onward!--she had the shawl
+in her hand, and never thought of it, her feet slipped in the muddy
+path, she did not know it, there was a voice in her ears crying ever,
+"Onward! onward!"
+
+"If you must go, gracious Frau, then come along!" cried Korlin Kegel,
+taking the shawl and wrapping it about her head and shoulders, and
+encircling her waist with a strong arm. "Which way?"
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said the young Frau, and murmured again, "a human
+heart!" And a human heart was beating close beside her, and she never
+thought of it; nothing keeps hearts asunder like the words, "Command
+and obey." She had always been good to her people, and had received
+every kindness from her servants with acknowledgments; but at this
+moment she did not think of Korlin Kegel, her whole heart was absorbed
+in the thought that Axel must be saved from shame and dishonor; and the
+friendly face of Frau Nuessler shone upon her through the rain and the
+darkness, like the nearest, and the only star. "Thither! thither!"
+
+"Good heavens!" said Frau Nuessler, going to the window, "Jochen, what a
+storm!"
+
+"Yes, mother, what shall we do about it!"
+
+"Dear heart!" said Frau Nuessler, sitting down again, in her arm-chair,
+"suppose one were out in it! I should be frightened almost to death."
+
+Frau Nuessler went on knitting, and Jochen smoked, and everything was
+quiet and comfortable in the room, when Bauschan, under Jochen's chair,
+uttered a short bark, such as signifies, in canine language: "What is
+that?" Receiving no answer, he lay still, but all at once he started
+up, and went with his old stiff legs, to the door, and began to whine
+vehemently.
+
+"Bauschan!" cried Frau Nuessler, "What ails the old fellow? What do you
+want!"
+
+"Mother," said Jochen, who knew Bauschan as well as Bauschan knew him,
+"Somebody is coming." And the door was thrown open, and a pale, female
+form tottered in and a strong girl supported her, and seated her on
+Frau Nuessler's divan.
+
+"Dear heart!" cried Frau Nuessler, starting up, and seizing the young
+Frau's hands, "what is this? What does it mean? Good gracious! wet
+through and through!"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said Korlin.
+
+"Jochen, what are you sitting there for? Run and call Mining! Tell
+Mining to come, and bid Duert to make camomile tea."
+
+And Jochen also sprang up, and ran out, as fast as he could, and Frau
+Nuessler took off the young Frau's shawl, and wiped the rain from her
+face and her fair hair, with her handkerchief, and Mining shot into the
+room like a pistol-ball, and was full of questions; but Frau Nuessler
+cried, "Mining, there is no time for looking and questioning; bring
+some of your clothes and linen, quickly, into my bedroom." And when
+Mining was gone, she herself asked:
+
+"Korlin Kegel, what does this mean?"
+
+"Ah, Madam, I don't know; to be sure, she got a long letter this
+evening."
+
+Mining returned quickly, and Frau Nuessler and Korlin took the young
+Frau into the bedroom, and when she was undressed, and had drunk the
+tea, and lay in Frau Nuessler's bed, her senses returned, for it was
+mere physical weakness which had overpowered her, and if the first
+shock, and the dreadful feeling that there was no creature who could
+help her, had turned her brain a little, here by this friendly face,
+and this friendly treatment, she was herself again. She sat up in bed,
+and looked confidingly into Frau Nuessler's eyes: "You told me once, if
+I were ever in trouble, you would help me."
+
+"And so I will," said Frau Nuessler, quite overcome, and stroking her
+hands she said "Tell me, what is it?"
+
+"Ah, much!" cried the young Frau, "our laborers are discontented, we
+are in debt, deeply in debt, they are going to sell the estate----"
+
+"Preserve us!" cried Frau Nuessler, "but there is time enough for that!"
+
+"I could have borne that," said the young Frau, "but another trouble
+has driven me to you, and I cannot and dare not tell you----"
+
+"Don't speak of it, then, gracious Frau. But this isn't business for
+women; we ought to have a man's counsel, and if you feel able, we might
+drive over to see my brother Karl, at Rahnstadt."
+
+"Ah, I could go; but how should I look the man in the face, whom----"
+
+"That is where you are mistaken, gracious Frau, you don't know him.
+Jochen!" she cried at the door, "let Krischan harness up, but let him
+make haste, and do you make haste, too! Mining!" she cried at another
+door, "bring your new Sunday mantle and hat, and a shawl; we are going
+out."
+
+All was quickly ready, and as she got into the carriage, Frau Nuessler
+said to Krischan:
+
+"Krischan, you know I don't like fast driving; but drive fast to-night!
+We must be in Rahnstadt in half an hour. Else they will have gone to
+bed," she added to the young Frau.
+
+The little assessor had just gone home from the Frau Pastorin's,
+Habermann and Braesig had said "Good-night!" and gone up-stairs, and
+Braesig opened the window and looked out, to observe the weather:
+"Karl," said he, "what a fragrance there is after the storm! The whole
+air is full of atmosphere." Just then a carriage stopped at the Frau
+Pastorin's, and the light from the house shone directly upon it.
+"Preserve us!" cried Braesig. "Karl, there are your sister and Mining,
+at this time of night!"
+
+"Can any misfortune have happened!" exclaimed Habermann, snatching the
+candle, and running down to the door.
+
+"Sister," he asked hastily, as Frau Nuessler met him at the foot of the
+stairs, "why have you come here, in the night? Mining,"--but he stopped
+abruptly,--"gracious Frau! You here, at this time?"
+
+"Karl, quick!" said Frau Nuessler, "the gracious Frau wishes to speak
+with you alone. Make haste, before the others come!"
+
+Habermann opened the Frau Pastorin's best room, and led the young Frau
+in; he followed her, just catching, as he shut the door, the beginning
+of Braesig's speech, on the stairs:
+
+"May you keep the nose on your face! What have you come here for?
+Excuse me, for coming down in my shirt sleeves; Karl very
+inconsiderately took away the light, and I couldn't find my coat, in
+the dark. But where is he, and where is Mining?"
+
+Frau Nuessler was not obliged to answer these questions, for Louise came
+out of the Frau Pastorin's room with a light.
+
+"Bless me! aunt!"
+
+"Louise, come in here, and you, Braesig, put your coat on, and come down
+to the Frau Pastorin's room!" They did so, and Frau Pastorin came in
+also, and the hall was left empty and still, and if one had put his ear
+to the door on the right, he would have heard the honest, touching
+confession, which the young Frau, at first with embarrassment and
+bitter tears, but afterwards with entire confidence and secret hope in
+her heart, poured out to the old inspector; and if he had listened at
+the door on the left, he would have heard the most frightful lying from
+Frau Nuessler, for it had occurred to the good lady that, since they had
+taken the gracious Frau for Mining, she might as well pass for Mining,
+till she had finished her business, so that they need not torment her
+with questions, and so she told them that Mining had a dreadful
+toothache, and that her brother Karl knew of a remedy, a sort of
+magnetism, which must be applied between twelve and one o'clock at
+night, in perfect silence; and Frau Pastorin said she thought that was
+an unchristian proceeding, and Braesig remarked, "I never knew that Karl
+had any taste for magnetism and doctoring." And after a little,
+Habermann put his head in at the door, and said, "Frau Pastorin, leave
+the door unlocked, I have an errand out, but I shall be back soon," and
+before Frau Pastorin could say a word, he was gone, and he went to the
+street where Moses lived.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Moses had become a very old man, but his health was still quite good,
+only that he was rather lame, and sleep would not come at his call; so
+he used to sit up late into the night, in his arm-chair, with a cushion
+under his head, hours after his Bluemchen was asleep, and think over his
+old business affairs; with new ones he would have nothing to do. David
+lay on the sofa, and talked, or slept, as he felt inclined; but I must
+do David the justice to say he was not an exception to the general rule
+of his fellow-believers, he took good care of his old father, and this
+Jewish fashion is one which many Christians would do well to follow.
+
+This evening they were chatting together.
+
+"David," said the old man, "what did I tell you? You should not
+entangle yourself with Pomuffelskopp."
+
+"Well? If I have entangled myself, I am well paid for it."
+
+"You have strewed dust on your head, you have eaten filth."
+
+"Are louis-d'ors filth?"
+
+"Pomuffelskopp's are."
+
+"Father, if you were willing, we could do a great business;
+Pomuffelskopp is going to sell Gurlitz."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well, he wants to sell."
+
+"I will tell you, David, because he isn't sure of his day-laborers,
+that they won't set fire to his barns, or knock him on the head. I will
+tell you further: I shall not do the business, nor will you; but your
+friend the notary will do it, he is too shrewd for you, and you are too
+young."
+
+"Father, I----"
+
+"Hush, David! I will tell you something more; you want to be rich, rich
+all at once. See, there is a pitcher with a narrow neck, half full of
+louis-d'ors, you reach in, take up a handful, and cannot get it out,
+you reach in and take one, and get it out easily, and so on, again and
+again, till you have them all."
+
+"Have I taken too large a handful?"
+
+"Hush, David, I have not done yet. You see two people, one throws a
+louis-d'or into clean water, and the other throws a handful into the
+gutter; you go into the cold water and get the louis-d'or, and it is
+bright and clean; you go into the gutter and get out the whole handful,
+and people turn away from you, for you are a stench in their nostrils.
+Pomuffelskopp has thrown his louis-d'ors into the gutter."
+
+"Well, they don't smell of it."
+
+"If men do not smell them, they smell to heaven; but men do, that is to
+say, honest men; but they are not offensive to Pomuffelskopp and the
+notary, their odor is like myrrh and frankincense."
+
+David was going to say something, when there was a rap at the
+house-door. "What is that?" asked David.
+
+The old man was silent; then there came a louder rap.
+
+"David, go and open the door!"
+
+"What? at this time of night?"
+
+"David, open it! When I was young, and went about with my pack, I often
+knocked at the door, and the door was opened to me, and now I am old,
+and shall soon stand before a door and knock, and the God of Abraham
+will say, 'Let him in, it is a man!' This is a man, also. Open the
+door, David!"
+
+David obeyed, and Habermann entered.
+
+"Wonder of wonders!" cried the old man, "the inspector!"
+
+"Yes, Moses, you must not take it ill. I could not help it, I must
+speak with you confidentially about a matter of business."
+
+"Go out, David!"
+
+David made a sour face, but went.
+
+"It isn't of much use," said Moses, "he will stand at the door, and
+listen."
+
+"Never mind, Moses, I cannot say to you what I would here. Can you not
+come with me to my house?"
+
+"Habermann, I am an old man."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I know it; but the air is mild, the moon is risen; I will
+take you by the arm; yes, Moses, I will carry you, if you say so."
+
+"Well, what is it, then?"
+
+"Moses, I cannot tell you here; you must hear with your own ears, and
+see with your own eyes. You can do a good work."
+
+"Habermann, you are an honest man, you have always been a friend to me,
+you will do what is right. Call David."
+
+Habermann opened the door; to be sure, there he stood:
+
+"Herr Inspector, you must not take my father out tonight, he is an old
+man."
+
+"David!" cried the old man, "bring me my fur boots!"
+
+"Father! you mustn't go! I will call mother."
+
+"Call mother, if you want to, I shall go."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Transact important business."
+
+"Then I will go too."
+
+"David, you are too young; bring me the boots."
+
+There was no help for it, David must bring them and put them on;
+Habermann took the old man firmly by the arm, Moses took his usual grip
+in his left coat-pocket, on account of the lacking suspender, and,
+leaning on Habermann's arm, hobbled slowly over to the Frau Pastorin's
+house.
+
+As Habermann and old Moses crossed the Frau Pastorin's threshold, they
+made something of a noise, for Moses stumbled at the door, and came
+near falling. Frau Pastorin, of course, heard the commotion, as did the
+whole company with her; "Ah, there comes Habermann with poor Mining,"
+said she, and running to the door put out her head; but when she
+expected to see Mining, though perhaps with a swelled cheek, there
+stood old Moses in his dressing-gown, and fur boots, with his old face
+full of wrinkles, and looking at her with his great black eyes:
+
+"Good evening, Frau Pastorin!"
+
+The little Frau Pastorin started back, almost to the middle of the
+room; "Preserve us!" cried she, "Habermann is carrying on all sorts of
+magic and unchristian preformances; now he is bringing his old Jew into
+the house, at midnight; is this on account of Mining's toothache?"
+
+Frau Nuesssler felt as if she were standing in her kitchen, dressing
+fish, and had just taken hold of a great pike, and the creature had
+snapped at her thumb, and was pressing his teeth deeper and deeper into
+her flesh, and she must keep still, else he would tear open her whole
+thumb. What had possessed Frau Nuessler to tell a story, and such a
+story, which might come out any moment!
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, "as for Moses, that was only an
+appearance; it could not have been himself, for I was there yesterday,
+and he told, me expressly, he was not able to go out any longer."
+
+"Ah!" interposed Louise, "father has certainly some important business
+with the old man, and aunt knows about it, and so she has told us that
+story about Mining. What, should father be doing with such nonsense?"
+
+The pike pressed his teeth deeper into Frau Nuessler's flesh; but she
+set her own teeth together, and held out.
+
+"Eh, see!" cried she, "Louise, you are dreadfully clever! Clever
+children are a blessing for their parents, but"--here she suddenly
+pulled her thumb from the pike's teeth;--"I wish you had been a good
+deal more stupid. I will tell you; Mining isn't there, it is the
+gracious Frau from Pumpelhagen, who has some business to attend to with
+Karl and Moses."
+
+The little Frau Pastorin was quite vexed, partly because she was not
+sooner informed, for, in her own house, she was surely the nearest,
+partly because, after long years, she had, for the first time,
+discovered that her good neighbour Frau Nuessler was capable of the most
+horrible, unchristian lying.
+
+"And that story was all a lie then?" she inquired.
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin," said Frau Nuessler, looking like one of the
+condemned.
+
+"Frau Nuessler," said the Frau Pastorin, and it seemed as if an
+invisible hand had dropped upon her shoulders the little black mantle
+of her sainted pastor, "lying is a horrible, unchristian vice."
+
+"I know it, Frau Pastorin; I never lied for myself, in my life. When I
+tell lies, it is only for the benefit of other people. I thought it
+would be too bad for the poor Frau, who is in such trouble, to be
+plagued with questions, and since you all took her for Mining I merely
+said yes, and made up a little story."
+
+It seemed now as if the invisible hand had endowed the Frau Pastorin
+with her blessed Pastor's bands also, and she began:
+
+"Dear, you are in a dreadful state, you are lying at this very moment,
+you think that is right which is wrong, you lie----"
+
+"With your gracious permission, Frau Pastorin," interrupted Zachary
+Braesig, taking the side of his old treasure, "I must interrupt your
+discourse; I am quite of Frau Nuessler's opinion. Do you see, last week
+the Frau Syndic called to me, and asked me, very kindly, 'Herr
+Inspector, is it true that the Frau Pastorin once held a rendezvous in
+a ditch----'"
+
+"Braesig!" screamed the little Frau Pastorin, and mantle and bands were
+gone directly.
+
+"Don't be troubled!" said Uncle Braesig, throwing a glance at Louise, "I
+can be discreet, upon occasion. 'No,' I said to the Frau Syndic, 'it is
+an abominable lie.' And so I told a lie for you, Frau Pastorin, and, if
+I must be roasted in hell for it, I beg that you will look down from
+heaven sometimes and afford me a little relief."
+
+The Frau Pastorin had something to say, but Habermann looked in at the
+door: "Oh, Braesig, come here a moment!"
+
+"Habermann----" began the little Frau.
+
+"Frau Pastorin, I shall come back directly."
+
+Braesig went.
+
+On the other side of the hall they were as much excited, but in a
+different way. When Habermann entered the room with Moses, the young
+Frau rose from the sofa, with a pang in her heart, and Moses stood
+astonished.
+
+"The gracious Frau von Rambow," said Habermann, and, turning to the
+lady, "This is my old friend Moses; but he is much fatigued from the
+walk. You will excuse me, gracious Frau;" and he brought him to the
+sofa, and laid him down, and took cushions and pillows and put them
+under his head.
+
+When the old man had recovered a little, Habermann asked, "Moses, do
+you know the gracious Frau?"
+
+"I have seen her riding past my house, I have also seen her walking
+near Pumpelhagen; I greeted her, and she kindly returned the old Jew's
+greeting."
+
+"Moses, do you know that the Herr von Rambow is deeply in debt?"
+
+"I know it."
+
+"You have sued him."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Moses, you must withdraw your suit; your money is safely invested."
+
+"What do you call safe? I spoke to you about it last spring. In such
+times as these property is not safe, a man is safer; but Herr von
+Rambow is not a man whom I can trust, he is a bad manager, he is a fool
+about horses, he is a----"
+
+"Hold! Remember his wife is here."
+
+"Well, I remember."
+
+Frida was suffering tortures. They were silent for awhile; then
+Habermann began again:
+
+"If there was a prospect that the estate could be rented----"
+
+"Who would rent in such times?" said Moses.
+
+"Or the Herr von Rambow would agree to engage a regular inspector, and
+leave the management to him----"
+
+"Habermann," interrupted Moses, "you are an old man, and you are a
+shrewd man. You know the world, and you know the Herr von Rambow; did
+you ever know a Herr who said, 'I will be master no longer, I will let
+another be master?'"
+
+Habermann was rather taken aback by this question, he looked
+inquiringly at the young Frau, and Frida dropped her eyes, and said:
+
+"I am afraid Herr Moses is right; my husband does not understand it."
+
+Moses looked at her approvingly, and muttered to himself, "She is a
+clever woman, she is an honest woman."
+
+Habermann was perplexed; he sat in deep thought, and finally said:
+
+"Well, Moses, if the Frau von Rambow, or I, or circumstances, should
+influence the young Herr to consent to this plan, and if, for the
+security of the creditors, he should give a promise to resign the
+management, and engage a competent inspector, would you withdraw your
+suit?"
+
+"I would withdraw it for a year; well, say two years."
+
+"Well, then you will leave your money in the estate; but there are
+other debts which must be paid; there are Pomuchelskopp's eight
+thousand thalers."
+
+"I know it," said Moses to himself.
+
+"Then there the debts owing to tradesmen and mechanics, which have not
+been paid for a year; and the people's wages must be paid and repairs
+attended to; it will take about six thousand thalers."
+
+"I know it," said Moses.
+
+"Then there is a note for thirteen thousand thalers, in Schwerin, which
+must be paid immediately."
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Moses, "I did not know a word of it."
+
+"Yes, and then," continued Habermann, without noticing this remark, "we
+must have two or three thousand thalers over, to carry on the estate
+properly."
+
+"Let me go! It is a bad business, a very bad business!" cried Moses,
+making a motion as if he would rise from the sofa.
+
+"Hold on, Moses! I have not done yet."
+
+"Let me go! Let me go! I am an old man, I cannot involve myself in such
+a business," and with that he rose to his feet, and made preparations
+to go.
+
+"Hear me first, Moses! I do not ask you to lend the money,--it would be
+about thirty-one thousand thalers,--there are other people, safe
+people, who will lend it; you shall merely advance it until St. John's
+day."
+
+"God of Abraham! Advance in these times, in fourteen days, _thirty-one
+thousand thalers_! And that for fools who involve themselves in a
+business like that!"
+
+"Well, Moses, just listen to me. Write down the names and the amounts
+as I mention them. You know the Frau Pastorin? Write down the Frau
+Pastorin for five thousand thalers."
+
+"Well, I know her, she is a good woman, she helps the poor; but why
+should I write?"
+
+"Come, just write."
+
+Moses took a pencil out of his pocket, moistened the point, and wrote:
+
+"Well, there it is; five thousand thalers."
+
+"You know Braesig, too?"
+
+"Why shouldn't I know Braesig? Who does not know Braesig? He is a good
+man, an entertaining man; always visited me when I was sick, tried to
+make a democrat of me, wanted me to make speeches in the Reformverein,
+but he is a good man."
+
+"Put him down for six thousand thalers. You know my brother-in-law
+Nuessler?"
+
+"I have always bought his wool. He is a quiet man, and a good man,
+smokes tobacco; but he isn't the man of the house, his wife is."
+
+"Well, then put my sister down for thirteen thousand thalers."
+
+"No, I'll not do it. She is a woman, she is a very cautious woman;
+bargained with me for two groschen more the stone."
+
+"Write it! My sister will tell you, herself, this very night. So! and
+now write, for me, seven thousand thalers, and there are the thirty-one
+thousand."
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Moses, "he will give his hard-earned money,
+that he has laid up for his old age, and for his only child! And for
+whom? For a young man who has tried to shoot him, who has defamed his
+honest name, who has treated him like a dog!"
+
+"That doesn't concern you, Moses, that is my affair. I----"
+
+The young Frau had been sitting in torment, repressing the bitterest
+feelings in her soul; but she could bear it no longer, she started up,
+and running to Habermann laid her hands on his shoulders, crying, "No,
+no! that must not be! Neither these good people, nor you, shall be
+involved in our misfortunes. If we are to blame, we must suffer for it.
+I will bear--oh, and Axel would much rather bear misfortune and
+disgrace! but--but"--she broke out involuntarily--"the poor sisters!"
+
+Habermann took hold of her gently, and replaced her in her chair,
+whispering, "Control yourself! You have trusted the business in my
+hands; I will bring it to a happy issue."
+
+A flood of tears burst from Frida's eyes.
+
+"Good heavens!" said Moses to himself, laying his pencil back in his
+pocketbook, "Now she is going to be magnanimous, too. Do you call this
+business? This is no business. And yet it is all honest! It makes the
+old man cry, too," and he wiped the tears from his eyes, with the skirt
+of his dressing-gown. "Well, we will see what the Jew can do."
+
+Habermann had gone out and called Braesig, and told him, hastily, in the
+hall, what was in the wind, and now he came in with him.
+
+Braesig came in with rather a distracted expression on his face, at
+which Habermann was secretly annoyed; he looked half as if he had
+something to sell at the fair, and half as if he were going to make a
+Christmas gift. He marched up to Moses, with his head in the air:
+"Moses, what Habermann has put down for me, I will subscribe to,
+Zachary Braesig; it is all the same to me, cash or bonds, but not before
+St. Anthony's."
+
+"Good," said Moses. "You are a safe man, Herr Inspector, I will advance
+it."
+
+Braesig went up to the gracious Frau, who had rested her arm on the
+table and covered her eyes with her hand, as if the light hurt them,
+made a deep bow, and inquired after her health, and when she had
+answered quietly, he asked, "And how is the young Herr von Rambow?"
+
+Frida shrank together, and Habermann, who had intended to call in the
+others, one by one, saw that a diversion must be made, or Braesig, in
+all innocence, would distress the young Frau with his questions and
+remarks.
+
+"Zachary," said he, "do me the favor to bring in the Frau Pastorin and
+my sister; Louise may come, too."
+
+"Very well, Karl," and presently he returned with the women.
+
+Frau Pastorin went up directly to the young Frau, and pressed her to
+her heart, and could not restrain herself from weeping bitterly. Louise
+stood by, with the deepest, though silent, compassion in her heart.
+
+"God of Abraham!" exclaimed Moses, "what a night is this! They want to
+transact a business, and they cry over each other, and press each
+other's hands, and hang about each other's necks, and are magnanimous
+and affectionate, and keep an old man, like me, sitting up till
+morning. Mamselle Habermann," he added aloud, "when you are done with
+your tender feelings, perhaps you can get me a drop of wine; I am an
+old man."
+
+Louise ran and brought a bottle of wine and a glass, and Braesig said,
+"Bring me a glass, too, Louise!" and had possibly the intention of
+having a little frolic with Moses, for he sat down by him, and began to
+touch glasses: "To your good health, Moses!"
+
+But it wasn't successful, Moses did not seem disposed to respond, and
+Habermann brought up his sister; Moses moistened his pencil, and wrote.
+After Frau Nuessler came the Frau Pastorin; Moses wrote again, and
+before the young Frau, who sat in the corner with Louise, knew what was
+going on, it was all settled; and Moses stood up, saying:
+
+"Shall I tell you some news? I will tell you: the thirty-one thousand
+thalers are secured, and the people are all good; but it is no
+business, your magnanimity has run away with you. Well, what will you
+have? I am a Jew, it has run away with me too; I will advance the
+money. But I am an old man, I am a cautious man. If the Herr von Rambow
+will not employ an Inspector, and do as he ought, the business is
+worthless, and I will have nothing to do with it. When they lay me in
+the church-yard, under the fir-trees, where I have built an enclosure,
+then people would say, 'Well, he built that enclosure for himself; what
+is an enclosure of oaken-wood? Shortly before his death he got honest
+people into trouble, only that he might make a speculation.' There is
+Frau Nuessler, there is Frau Pastorin, there is Herr Habermann, and
+there is also Herr Braesig. I have been a man of business, from my
+youth, first with my pack, and then with my produce and wool, and
+finally with my money, and as a man of business I will die; but a
+cautious one. Come, Habermann, take hold of me, and help me home again!
+Good-night, Frau Nuessler, my regards to Herr Jochen, he must come and
+see me. Good-night, Herr Inspector Braesig, you must come and see me
+too; but don't talk about the Reform any more, I am an old man.
+Good-night, Mamselle Habermann, when you pass my house again, greet me
+as kindly as you did last time. Good-night, Frau Pastorin, when you go
+to bed, you can say I have had honest people in my house, tonight, the
+old Jew, also, is an honest man." Then he went up to Frida:
+
+"Good-night, gracious Frau, you have wept to-night, because you are not
+used to it; but never fear, it will all come right; you have a new
+friend, it is the old Jew; but the old Jew has shed tears over you, and
+he will not forget it; he does not weep often now."
+
+He turned away, and, saying "Good-night!" once more, without looking
+round, went out with Habermann, Louise lighting them to the door. All
+was silent in the room; each was busy with his own thoughts. The first
+to recollect herself was Frau Nuessler; she called Krischan, who was
+asleep in the hall, and made him bring around the carriage. Krischan
+obeyed with unusual celerity, for, when Habermann returned from
+convoying Moses home, the young Frau and his sister were already in the
+carriage, and he had barely time to say a few friendly, hopeful words
+to the young Frau, when Frau Nuessler said, "Good-night, Karl! She must
+go back to her child. Krischan, to Pumpelhagen!" and they drove off.
+
+Habermann was still standing in the street, looking after the carriage,
+and was just turning to go into the house, when, another carriage came
+slowly up the street, with a pair of gray horses shining before it, in
+the moonlight. The old man stepped back, and stood in the doorway, his
+daughter had left a candle for him, in the hall, and he stood there
+like a gigantic shadow against the light. He waited to see who was
+driving, so late or so early, through the silent streets; the carriage
+came nearer, it stopped before the house.
+
+"Take the reins!" cried a voice which seemed strangely familiar to him,
+and a man on the front seat threw back the reins to the coachman, and
+jumped down.
+
+"Habermann! Habermann! Don't you know me?"
+
+"Franz! Herr von Rambow!"
+
+"What is going on here, that you are up so late? No misfortune?"
+
+"No,--thank God!--no! I will tell you directly."
+
+The young man threw his arms about the old man, and pressed him to his
+heart, and kissed him, again and again, and it was no misfortune, it
+was the purest happiness, and yet one might have supposed it was
+misfortune, if he had seen the maiden who sat in the next room. The
+color was all gone out of her cheeks, and her great eyes grew larger
+and larger, staring at the door, and she pressed both hands against her
+heart, and when she tried to rise, it seemed as if the earth trembled,
+and thunder rolled above her, and the voice outside struck like,
+lightning to her heart. She did not know, she could not make it clear
+in this brief moment; but the garden, which she had planted years ago,
+with quiet, modest flowers, with shady trees, where she had so often
+watched the evening star, and on which the silent night had fallen,
+stood suddenly revealed before her, in the lightning flashes, and when
+these passed over, and the heart was bowed down, suddenly the sun
+arose, with such blinding radiance, that she must turn away her eyes;
+but yet she could not, for in her quiet garden wonder after wonder was
+bursting into bloom in the sunlight; the modest violets changed into
+red roses, shining like a bridal wreath, and the odor of the fragrant
+blossoms changed into the song of nightingales calling to their mates.
+And her hands sank down from her heart, and her heart beat evenly, and
+full, and when he entered the door, holding Habermann's hand, she threw
+herself on his breast, and the earth no longer trembled, and the
+thunder no longer rolled, and no lightning flashes smote her; but light
+was all around her, pure light! And they spoke to each other, they
+talked much with each other: "Franz!" "Louise!" and no one understood
+their language, and they all stood about her, and could not understand,
+for it was long since they had heard the language, and yet they must
+have had some perception of its meaning, for Uncle Braesig took pity on
+the young people, who were flying away, above the earth, among the
+clouds, and brought them back, with a shock, to terra firma.
+
+"Frau Pastorin," said he, "when I had three sweethearts at once----"
+
+"For shame, Braesig!" cried Frau Pastorin, through her tears of emotion.
+
+"Frau Pastorin, you said the same thing, when I wrote, through Doctor
+Urtlingen, to the young Herr von Rambow, at Paris; but I wasn't, at all
+ashamed, and I am not ashamed to-day; I have never in my life done
+anything to be ashamed of. For, you see, Frau Pastorin," and he placed
+himself before her with great dignity, and blew his nose, but rather,
+above it, as if something had got into his eyes; "you see, Frau
+Pastorin, I have brought about a good many rendezvous lately; first in
+the water-ditch----"
+
+"Braesig!" cried the little Frau Pastorin.
+
+"Be quiet, Frau Pastorin, I shall say nothing about it, and I will tell
+lies for you, if it is necessary. Secondly, Gottlieb and Lining in the
+cherry-tree; thirdly, Rudolph and Mining, also in the cherry-tree; but
+you must not think it strange if a man has a certain feeling of pride,
+at having brought about a rendezvous between Rahnstadt and Paris; and
+that is what I have done."
+
+"Yes," said Franz, coming down to the earth, "you have done that, and I
+thank you heartily for your beautiful letter. It is here, I keep it
+always by me."
+
+"Hm!" said Uncle Braesig, "always by him! Very much obliged! Would you
+have the kindness to tell me, quite sincerely, do you value the letter
+so highly, on account of my style,--you know, Karl, I was always
+ahead of you in style, at Pastor Behrend's,--or is it because the
+letter-paper belonged to Louise?"
+
+"For both reasons!" cried Franz, laughing heartily, "but chiefly
+because of the good news contained in your letter. Yes," he added,
+turning to Habermann, "now these torments, these self-torments, are
+over, the last shadow of reason for our separation has vanished," and
+he went up to Louise, and gave her a kiss; it was a very remarkable
+kiss, it might have been divided by twelve, and each result have been
+an entire kiss.
+
+"Bless me!" said the Frau Pastorin, at last, "the morning is shining in
+at the window."
+
+"Yes, Frau Pastorin," said Braesig, "and you have been watching all
+night, and you are an old lady, and not used to it; you should go to
+bed."
+
+"Braesig is right," said Habermann, "and you, Louise, go to bed, too!"
+
+"Come, child," said the Frau Pastorin, "there will be another day
+to-morrow, and a happy day, too," and she kissed her. "Now your happy
+days are coming, and, in yours, I shall live mine over again." They
+went out.
+
+"Herr von Rambow," said Habermann.
+
+"Why not Franz?" said the young man.
+
+"Well, then, Franz, my dear son, you can sleep in my bed, up-stairs,
+with Braesig, I----"
+
+"I cannot sleep," interposed Franz.
+
+"Karl," said Braesig, "I am not at all sleepy, either, my time for
+sleeping and nightly rest is over." He went to the window, opened it,
+and looked out at the weather: "Karl, it looks to me as if this morning
+would be a good time for the perch to bite. I must go out, I shall get
+too fidgety here; I will go fishing; in the Rexow firs, there
+is a place under the trees, where there is a splendid perch. So,
+good-morning, young Herr von Rambow, good-morning, Karl, entertain
+yourself with your future son-in-law." With that, he went off.
+
+"But how did it happen, dear father," asked Franz, "that I found you
+all up so late? I started from Paris, immediately on receiving Braesig's
+letter, travelled night and day, and arrived at my estate day before
+yesterday. But there was so much to be attended to,--my inspector is
+just leaving, he is going to be married,--that I could not leave, to
+come hither, until about this time yesterday morning. I had sent
+forward relays, however, and when I arrived,--well, I may as well
+confess,--I wanted at least to see the house in which Louise was
+sleeping. And here I found you all stirring."
+
+"Ah," sighed Habermann, "it was a sad occasion. It was on account of
+the young Herr von Rambow of Pumpelhagen, his wife was here herself.
+She has suffered terribly, but there was no help for it; and even yet
+everything is in suspense. Would God you had come half an hour sooner;
+then I believe it could all have been settled." And he related what had
+happened, first and last, and all with such sincere regret and such
+cordial interest, that an earnest wish arose in Franz's heart; he must
+help, also, in the matter, and the best of it was, he could help. He
+had had the fortune to have trustworthy guardians, and honest and
+capable inspectors; his property and estates had increased in value
+under their hands, and, more recently, under his own, for he had not
+made it a ladder, on which to descend to abysses of misfortune and
+ruin, and his good sense had kept him from folly. Now he could render a
+thank-offering for his happiness, for he had not only the will but the
+ability to do good.
+
+The two friends talked of many things, and what seemed good to the one
+was approved by the other; they would both help, and it was settled
+that Franz should have an interview with Moses; but, in spite of all
+their sincerity, each had a secret from the other. Habermann dared say
+nothing of Axel's debt to his sisters, the young Frau had confessed it
+to him with bitter tears and a bleeding heart, the secret was not his
+own property, but that of another, dearly bought and dearly won. Franz
+also had his secret, but it must have been a good one, for his face was
+full of thoughtful joy, and he put one foot up comfortably, on the
+sofa, and then the other, and he nodded to Habermann, in a friendly
+way, as he went on talking, and he kept nodding, and finally nodded
+himself to sleep. Youth and nature must have their rights. Old
+Habermann got up softly, and looked at him. Joyous thoughts were still
+hovering over his face, like the beams of the setting sun over a clear,
+still, transparent lake, and the old man brought a coverlet, and
+wrapped it gently over him, and then he went out into the Frau
+Pastorin's little back-garden, and seated himself in an arbor, which he
+himself had planted, several years before, in his trouble and sorrow,
+and looked at the window of the room where his daughter slept. Ah, did
+she sleep? Who can sleep, with bright sunlight shining in the heart?
+Who can sleep when every sound turns into a melody singing of love and
+happiness? A light step sounded on the gravel in the garden path, and a
+lovely maiden, in a light morning dress, approached, turning up her
+face to the sun-rising, and, with her hands folded on her breast,
+gazing at the morning sun, as if she too longer feared to be blinded by
+its light; but tears ran down her rosy cheeks. Right, Louise! The sun
+is God's sun, and the happiness is God's happiness, and when it shines
+bright and dazzling in our eyes, tears are good, they soften the light.
+She bent down, and lifted a rose, to inhale its fragrance, but did not
+pluck it. Right, Louise! Roses are earthly roses, joys are earthly
+joys, they both blossom in their season, leave them to their season.
+Wilt thou enjoy them before their time, thou hast only a withered rose
+on thy breast, and a withered joy in thy heart.
+
+She walked on slowly, through the garden, and when she came to the
+arbor, where her old father sat, she sprang towards him, threw herself
+into his arms, and nestled her head upon his bosom: "Father! father!"
+Right, Louise! Here is thy rightful place! In thy father's heart beams
+God's sunshine, in thy father's heart bloom earthly roses.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+Frau Nuessler took Frida back to Pumpelhagen, dropping many a comforting
+word, which fell, like the dew upon a scorched field, on the young
+Frau's heart, and if it were not yet quite ready to sprout with fresh
+green, Frau Nuessler would have said, "Never fear! My brother Karl will
+manage that."
+
+So the young Frau entered her room, in the gray morning, in quite a
+different mood from that of the evening before, when she had rushed put
+into the storm; and, with hope, love and faith had returned to her
+heart. She went up softly and kindly to Fika Degel, who sat in an
+arm-chair, watching by her child, and had fallen asleep, and stroking
+her hair gently said:
+
+"Fika, I thank you very much; but you must be weary; go to bed."
+
+"Gracious Frau," said Fika, starting up from a dream of her lover, "she
+has slept very quietly; I had to give her drink only once."
+
+"Good," said the young Frau, "go to bed." And when the maid was gone,
+she stood before her child, and looked at her; no! no! the sad lot of a
+poor noble Fraeulein was not suited to that lovely face, and the
+thoughts of last evening were not suited to the thoughts of this
+morning. Her soul had suffered torments, fearful torments, during the
+night, but in the night, and through the torments, hope had been born
+in her heart, and this child of anguish had fallen upon her neck, and
+nestled closely to her, and kissed her, and stroked her face, and the
+blue eyes were beaming heavenward, and in them shone confidence,--yes,
+and victory.
+
+The young Frau went to bed, and before her rose all the forms of the
+night: Korlin Kegel and Frau Nuessler, the Frau Pastorin and Louise,
+Habermann and Braesig, they all stood, clear and distinct, before her
+eyes, she understood them all, in their true-hearted conduct and
+character; but among these images was another, which she did not
+understand; that was the old Jew. Such clear light fell upon him, and
+such dark shadows lay in the folds of his dressing-gown, and the
+wrinkles of his face,--she had never seen such an image,--that
+all grew indistinct before her eyes, and when she thought of his
+leave-taking, the image grew larger and larger, and even more
+indistinct, and she folded her hands upon her breast, and slept.
+
+She slept, and the old Jew was in her dreams, but they were happy
+dreams; only once she started up, for it seemed to her that a carriage
+drove into the yard. She listened; but body and soul longed for rest;
+her head sank back on the pillow, and the friendly dream again hovered
+over her fair head, and whispered wonderful things in her ears.
+
+But she had not heard falsely; a carriage had really driven into the
+yard, and in the carriage sat her husband. Axel had been driving about
+the country, like a speculator buying up eggs and poultry; he had
+halted before every door, and knocked, like a travelling beggar; he had
+asked help from business acquaintances, he had complained of his
+troubles to old friends, whom he had learned to know at the races, who
+had often borrowed money from him; nobody was at home, and those whom
+he met accidentally had left their purses at home. So long as we go
+about in brand new breeches, we have many friends, but when they are
+worn out, and our others have a patch on each knee, our friends feel
+ashamed of us. This was Axel's bitter experience. Without his sisters'
+knowledge, he had secretly been in Schwerin; he had gone to the Jew,
+who had transacted the business so readily and quickly; but where were
+his securities? From his hotel he had looked over towards the region
+where Franz's estates lay; but where was Franz? He had done the last
+thing possible, he had gone to his brother-in-law, Breitenburg, with
+whom he had always been on bad terms; he had endured his cold
+reception, had told him of his terrible situation, but had said nothing
+about his sisters' money; Breitenburg had looked him sharply in the
+eyes, and turned his back upon him:
+
+"Tu l'as voulu, George Dandin! And do you think I will throw my
+hard-earned savings into this pit, dug by your folly? It was not
+brought me by your sister."
+
+Axel was going to say something about the seven thousand thalers, which
+his father had borrowed for him from Moses; then his brother-in-law
+turned upon him, and asked him, right to his face, "Where are the
+thirteen thousand thalers, out of which you have swindled your
+sisters?"
+
+That struck him dumb,--the brother-in-law knew it would,--he turned
+pale, rushed out of the door, and got into his carriage.
+
+"Where?" asked the coachman.
+
+"Home."
+
+"Where shall we stop to-night?"
+
+"At home."
+
+"Herr, the horses won't hold out."
+
+"They must."
+
+So they drove home, and when he got out Johann stood by the two good
+browns: "So, the two wheel-horses were driven to death before, and now
+the leaders are ruined; we have a span of cripples."
+
+Axel went up to his room with heavy steps, it was broad daylight; in
+his room everything was as usual, and usually he found himself very
+comfortable there, and the old use and wont appealed softly to his
+heart; but his heart was not the old heart, heart and mind were
+changed, and use and wont no longer harmonized with them. He was
+restless and troubled; he opened the window, that the fresh morning air
+might cool his heated brow; he threw himself into the chair, that stood
+before his writing table, and pressed his head in both hands, as if it
+were held in a vice. Then his eyes fell upon a letter, the writing
+seemed familiar, he must have seen it before; he opened it; yes, it was
+from his sister. What had his brother-in-law, Breitenburg, called him?
+Yes, that was it! He looked out of the window; behind the Rexow firs
+the sun was rising.
+
+He looked at the letter again; it contained friendly words, but what
+did words avail, he had no money. He looked out of the window again,
+before him lay a field of wheat; ah, if it were ripe and threshed out,
+and had borne twenty-fold, then--no! no! even then it could not help
+him. And again his eyes returned to the letter; friendly words! but
+soon the words became more earnest, and looked at him sternly, he could
+not turn his eyes away; he read them to the end, and there it stood:
+"On this account, I have written to Frida also, for, dear, dear
+brother, if you have not safely invested our capital, we poor girls are
+utterly ruined!"
+
+"Yes, ruined!" he cried, "ruined!" and sprang from the chair, and
+strode about the room, He went to the window; before him lay nature in
+her fullest splendor, and nature has power over every heart, but the
+heart must harmonize with nature, it must open itself fully and freely
+to the sunlight, and receive into itself the green earth and the blue
+heavens and the golden beams. But his heart was not open to these
+influences, his situation had overpowered him, and his thoughts turned
+solely and miserably to the most pitiable human resources. Money,
+money! He could coin no louis-d'ors from the sunbeams.
+
+He threw himself into his chair again; so _she_ knew it, too. He had
+told her many lies, which she could not prove false; there was no use
+in lying now, she knew it. And she seemed to stand before him with her
+child in her arms, and to look at him sternly, and her clear gray eyes
+asked, "Have we deserved this at your hands?" and his three sisters
+stood around him, with sunken cheeks and pale lips, saying, "Yes Axel,
+dear Axel, utterly ruined!" And behind the old maids stood a darker
+form, in guise that was not of this earth, and that was his father, who
+called to him, "Thou shouldst have been a prop for my old house, but
+thou hast taken away stone after stone, and my house is falling to the
+ground." He could endure it no longer, he started up,--the ghosts
+vanished,--he ran up and down, and when he recollected himself, he was
+standing before a closet where he kept his fire-arms. Ah, he knew a
+place, so lonely, so still, it was the Lauban pond in the Rexow firs;
+he had often been there with the chase, when the brave old forester,
+Slang, was hunting; he could do it there. He opened the closet, and
+took out the revolver which Triddelsitz had procured for him, to shoot
+at the day-laborers. He tried it; yes! it was loaded. He went out of
+the door, but as he crossed the landing, he saw the door which led into
+Frida's room, where his wife and his child lay sleeping; he was
+startled, he tottered back; all the joy he had experienced in the
+faithful affection of his wife, in the lovely awakening nature of his
+child, came back to him; he fell upon the threshold before the door,
+and burning tears started from his eyes, and these tears, this earnest
+prayer to God, may have saved him,--we shall see how,--for the Lord
+holds us by slender, invisible threads.
+
+He rose up, the prayer had not been for his own soul, but for others;
+he walked away, he went to the lonely Lauban pond. He threw himself
+down under the firs, behind a bush, took the revolver from his pocket,
+and laid it beside him; he looked once more, eagerly, mournfully, at
+the world around him; he looked once more at the sun, God's beautiful
+sun, for the last time; soon, night would fall upon him forever. The
+sun blinded him, he took out his handkerchief, and covered his eyes,
+and now the last, the most terrible thoughts overcame him. He sighed
+deeply; "It must be!" he exclaimed.
+
+"A fine morning, Herr von Rambow!" cried a friendly, human voice, close
+by. Axel tore the cloth from his eyes, and threw it over the revolver.
+
+"You are up early!" said Zachary Braesig, for it was he, and he threw
+himself down by Axel, on the grass. "Have you come out fishing, too?"
+With that, he laid his hand on the handkerchief and the revolver: "Ah,
+so! You were going to practise pistol-shooting a little. I used to be a
+very good shot, myself, could shoot out the ace of hearts and the ace
+of clubs, without fail."
+
+Then he stood up, with the revolver in his hand: "You see that mark on
+the fir yonder,--they are getting ready to fell timber,--I will wager
+four groschen, I never bet higher,"--bang! the shot went wide of the
+mark,--bang I missed it again, and yet again, and so on with the six
+shots.
+
+"Who would have thought it? All missed! Who would have thought it?
+Well, I have lost. Here are the four groschen. That is such an old fool
+of a pistol!" he cried, and tossed the revolver far out into the pond,
+"children and young people might hurt themselves with it."
+
+Axel was in a strange humor; all at once, between his firm, deliberate
+resolve, to which he had been driven through fierce struggle and
+conflict, and the dark portal he was about to enter, stood this
+familiar, yes, in his eyes even vulgar life, as audacious and
+impertinent as a peasant at a fair, which could be shoved aside,
+neither to the right hand nor the left. He started up:
+
+"Herr!"
+
+"Herr-rr!" cried Braesig in return.
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+"And what do _you_ want here?" asked Braesig back again.
+
+"You are an impertinent fool!" cried Axel.
+
+"You are the greatest fool!" cried Uncle Braesig, "you were about to
+commit the most fearful crime, from a reckless impulse, and you had
+forgotten everything,--your wife, your child. Hm! just touch a little
+spring, then we are out of it all! Wasn't it so? Who is the fool now?"
+
+Axel leaned against a tree, with one hand pressed to his heart, and the
+other shading his eyes from the sun, and before him stood this vulgar
+man, with a fishing-rod in his hand, and had interposed between him and
+the dark portal,--it was life, however!
+
+"Do you see!" continued Uncle Braesig, "if you had come three minutes
+earlier than I,"--those were the three minutes when he lay praying, on
+the threshold, for his wife and child,--"then you would be lying here,
+with a hole in your head, a frightful object; and when you had gone up
+to the throne of God, our Lord would have said to you: 'Thou fool! Thou
+didst not know, what, this very night, thy dear gracious Frau was doing
+for thee, and the Herr Inspector Habermann, and Frau Nuessler, and the
+Frau Pastorin and Moses, and--and the others,'--and when the Lord had
+told you, do you know what you would have suffered? Hell torments!"
+
+Axel removed his hand from his eyes, and stared at Braesig:
+
+"What? what did you say?"
+
+"That thirty-one thousand thalers have been advanced for you, this
+night, and Moses advances it, and your cousin Franz has arrived, who
+may possibly do something more. But you are an ignorant creature, who
+lets that greyhound of a Triddelsitz get revolvers, to shoot the
+day-laborers with, and then goes to shooting himself."
+
+"Franz is here? Franz, did you say?"
+
+"Yes, he is here; but he did not come on your account, he is here
+because he is determined to make Louise Habermann Frau von Rambow; but
+if you want to thank anybody,--Franz will do something, will perhaps do
+something more,--then go to your dear gracious Frau, and to Karl
+Habermann; you can go to Moses also, if you like, and you must not
+forget Frau Nuessler, and the Frau Pastorin, they have all been good to
+you this night."
+
+I never attempted to shoot myself, and cannot tell exactly how a poor
+man would feel, when, between himself and his resolution, ordinary life
+presses in so forcibly. I should think it might be a little vexatious,
+as when a weary, weary traveller is offered a glass of flat, sour
+beer,--and Uncle Braesig looked a little sour, this morning,--which he
+may not refuse; but then comes the love of life, dear, human life, and
+a wife, with a child on her arm, pours him a glass of cool, fresh wine,
+and he drains the glass: "So! now tell me what has happened."
+
+Uncle Braesig related the good news, and Axel tottered from the tree,
+and fell upon the old man's neck.
+
+"Herr Braesig! Dear Herr Braesig! Is it all true?"
+
+"What do you mean? Do you think I would deceive you, at such a moment
+as this?"
+
+Axel turned dizzy before the black abyss, into which, just now, he had
+looked so boldly; he staggered back, and there was a singing and a
+ringing in his ears, and a glowing and shining before his eyes and
+everything to which he was usually indifferent pressed overpoweringly
+upon him,--he pressed his hands over his eyes and began to weep
+bitterly. Uncle Braesig stood and looked at him compassionately, and
+going up to him with the most tender pity took him by the shoulder, and
+shook him gently, saying:
+
+"We all wander, here, in confusion, and you are greatly to blame for
+your misfortunes; but the fault is not wholly yours: what possessed
+your blessed Frau Mother to make a lieutenant of you? How could a
+farmer be made out of a lieutenant? It is just as if the musician,
+David Berger, who has blown half his breath out of his body with his
+trumpet, should set up to be pastor, and preach preach with his
+half-breath; he couldn't hold out. But"--and he took the young man by
+the arm,--"come away from this place, and then you will feel better."
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Axel, "you are right! All my misfortunes arose from
+this unblessed soldier career. I got in debt there, and these first
+debts brought others in their train. But," he added, standing still,
+"what shall I say to my wife?"
+
+"Nothing at all," said Braesig.
+
+"No," said Axel, "I have solemnly resolved to tell her the whole truth,
+henceforth."
+
+"Do you think the young gracious Frau will be likely to ask you--right
+to your face--why you didn't shoot yourself this morning? If you should
+get into any difficulty about it, I will tell fibs for you, I should
+not mind doing it; for it would be too horrible that such a dear young
+Frau should carry the thought with her, through her whole life, that
+the husband who should have cared for her was ready to leave her and
+her child, like a coward. No!" he added firmly, "she must not know it;
+no one need know it, but you and I. And make yourself easy, she is
+still asleep, for she could not have gone to bed before morning, and
+she must have been dreadfully tired."
+
+They came back to Pumpelhagen, and met Daniel Sadenwater in the hall.
+
+"Daniel," said Braesig, "let us have a little breakfast, as soon as
+possible. For," he added, when Daniel was gone, "you must eat a little
+something, so as to have a different feeling in your stomach, for such
+things take away a man's strength." Did he speak entirely from
+benevolence, or a little from self-love? For when the breakfast came,
+Axel ate nothing, but he ate like a thresher.
+
+About ten o'clock, Frida came into the room, and exclaimed:
+
+"Herr Inspector! and you, Axel?"
+
+"Yes, dear Frida: I got home this morning," said the young man in a low
+voice.
+
+"And now you will not go away again, now you will stay here," said
+Frida, decidedly. "Ah, Axel, I have much to tell you,--good news. But
+how do you and the Herr Inspector happen to be together?"
+
+Now, thought Uncle Braesig, it is time to keep my promise about fibbing.
+"I went out for a little fishing, this morning,--you will not take it
+ill, gracious Frau, that I have left my fishing-rod in your hall,--and
+I met the Herr von Rambow, who was out walking, and we looked at his
+wheat together, and he invited me here to breakfast. But, gracious
+Frau, what fine sausage! you must surely have got the recipe from Frau
+Nuessler."
+
+"No," said Frida, absently, looking at Braesig and at Axel, as if it
+seemed very strange to her that Axel should have invited the old
+inspector. "How did it happen, Herr Inspector," she began. Hold!
+thought Braesig, you will fib yourself into a trap, you must give
+another turn to the conversation, so he interrupted:
+
+"With your leave, gracious Frau, you always call me 'inspector,' and so
+I have been; but I have been promoted, I am, now assessor at the court.
+Apohpoh!" turning to Axel, "why don't you take your money, that lies
+ready for you at the court, in Rahnstadt?"
+
+"What money?" inquired Axel.
+
+"Why, the fifteen hundred thalers, that the baggage hadn't spent. You
+must have had a letter about it, several weeks ago, from the court."
+
+"I have had so many letters from the court, of late, that I no longer
+open them."
+
+"I know about the business," cried Frida. "Frau Nuessler told me, on the
+way. I will get the letter," and she ran out of the door.
+
+"Young Herr von Rambow," said Braesig, drawing himself up, "there you
+have done wrong again, for we judges are not only the punishers of
+mankind, we are also the benefactors of mankind."
+
+"But do tell me what money it is!"
+
+"Here is the letter," said Frida, giving it to her husband.
+
+Axel opened it, and with what feelings! "Money, money!" had so long
+been the cry of his soul, always "Money!" Now this sum of money fell
+unexpectedly into his lap, but what money! "Oh, my God!" he cried,
+staggering blindly about the room, like a sleep-walker, "then that was
+not true either! All of it false! In whose hands have I been? Deceived
+in everything,--self-deceived! Bitterly self-deceived!"
+
+He rushed out of the door, Frida would have followed him, but Braesig
+held her back. "Let me go, gracious Frau! I know a way to quiet him."
+He followed him to the garden, where he was raging up and down; the old
+man placed himself in the way:
+
+"Herr, what sort of performances are these?"
+
+"Get out of my way!" cried Axel.
+
+"No," said Braesig, "there is no necessity for it. Aren't you ashamed,
+to frighten your wife to death with your wild behavior?"
+
+"Why did you not let me destroy myself?" cried Axel; "this is a
+thousand times worse than death! To receive benefits, and such
+benefits, from people, whom in better times I have despised and
+slandered, yes, even ruined! Not merely to receive,--no!--if one will
+live,--to be _obliged_ to receive it! Oh, oh!" he cried, striking his
+forehead, "why should I live? How can I live, with this sting in my
+heart?"
+
+So he raged against himself and the world, and Uncle Braesig stood by
+quietly and looked at him. At last he said, "Go on like that a little
+longer; that pleases me uncommonly; the old nobleman's humor must work
+itself out. What? You will have no friendship with honest, burgher
+people? Isn't it so? If the Herr Vons should come, or even the
+Pomuchelskopps and Slusuhrs and Davids, so that nobody need know, of
+it, that would be more agreeable to you; but they won't come any more.
+But that is only a secondary matter; you ought to be ashamed that,
+under the eye of God, who delivered you this morning, you have again
+expressed the wish that you had shot yourself. Why, you are a double
+suicide!"
+
+Axel was silent, and turned pale; he trembled, as he thought of the
+abyss into which he had looked that morning; Braesig took his arm and
+seated him on the bench, where his old father and his young wife had
+sat, in their anguish and distress. Gradually he recovered himself, and
+Zachary Braesig took him again by the arm: "Come! come to your gracious
+Frau! That is the best place for you now," and Axel followed like a
+lamb, and when his dear young wife took him in her arms, and drew him
+down by her on the sofa, and comforted him, then the hot tears
+started from his eyes, the last ice was broken up, and under the warmth
+of her lovely, spring sunshine his whole soul flowed out, open and
+free,--still in swelling waves, but free. And Zachary Braesig stood at
+the window, and drummed the old Dessauer, so that Fritz Triddelsitz,
+who was passing by, came up and asked, "Herr Inspector, do you want
+me?"
+
+"No!" growled Braesig, "go about your business, and attend to your
+farming."
+
+A carriage drove up, and Habermann and Franz got out of it. Franz had
+gone with Habermann, about nine o'clock, to see Moses, and had told him
+that, instead of the other good people, he would pay the thirty-one
+thousand for his cousin, and Moses kept nodding his head, and said,
+"You are good; the others are good, too; but you are rich; better is
+better."
+
+When the business was settled, and Franz had gone a little way along
+the street with Habermann, he said, "Dear father, sit down here a
+moment, on this bench, I will come back directly, I have forgotten
+something I wanted to speak to Moses about." And when he went back to
+Moses he said, "My father-in-law, Habermann, told me, this morning,
+that Pomuchelskopp wants to sell Gurlitz."
+
+"Wonder of wonders!" cried Moses, "Habermann, father-in-law! What does
+it mean?"
+
+"I am going to marry his daughter."
+
+The old Jew rose painfully from his chair, and laid his withered hand
+on the young head of the Christian nobleman:
+
+"The God of Abraham bless you! You marry into a good family."
+
+And after a little, Franz said, "Buy it for me, transact the business
+for me, but my name must not be mentioned, and no one--especially
+Habermann--is to know anything about it. At St. John's, I can raise a
+hundred thousand thalers."
+
+"But how high shall I go?"
+
+"I Leave that to you; but inquire about it to-day. I will come again
+to-morrow, and we can talk it over."
+
+"Well," said Moses, "this is business, this is honest business. Why
+shouldn't I do a little business?"
+
+Franz left him.
+
+When Axel saw the two getting out of the carriage, he tried to control
+himself, and to conceal his agitation, but in vain. Too wild a flood
+was rushing through his soul, the green leaves were torn and scattered,
+and branches and limbs of trees floated down the current; Frida and
+Braesig interposed; and when he was rushing towards Habermann
+impulsively, Frida held him back, saying, "Axel, dear Axel, not now!
+To-morrow, the day after, any time! You can always find him."
+
+And Habermann took his hat, and said he had a message from Fritz
+Triddelsitz's father, and went out. Franz went up to Axel, and embraced
+him, and said, "Come into the other room, Axel, I have much to say to
+you."
+
+And when they had been there awhile, Franz looked in at the door, and
+called Frida. And, a while after, Daniel Sadenwater ran out into the
+yard, to look for the Herr Inspector Habermann, and as he passed in,
+before Braesig's eyes, Braesig began to find it lonely in the room, and
+he went out into the garden, and placed himself on a little elevation,
+and looked over to the Rexow firs, and the Lauban pond, thinking his
+own thoughts, and they began in this wise: "Remarkable! What is life,
+what is human life?" and when his thoughts had lasted about an hour and
+a halt, and he had snapped at innumerable flies, they at last broke out
+into words: "I wish one could get something to eat, by and by, and then
+a quiet place, to recreate one's self a little!"
+
+And his wish was granted, for Daniel came and called him, and when he
+entered the room Habermann stood by Axel, holding his hand, and Franz
+was rubbing his hands, and looking at the dinner-table, and he came up
+to Braesig, saying, "Herr Inspector, we have good appetites to-day!" And
+Frida stood there, with the sweetest smile, and the most blessed
+content in her face, and said:
+
+"Herr Inspector,--Herr Assessor, I would say,--when we first came to
+Pumpelhagen, you were my neighbor at table, now that we are going away,
+you must be so once more."
+
+"Going away?"
+
+"Yes, old friend," said Habermann, "you are a Jack of all trades, and
+know all that is going on; but you never thought of this: the Herr von
+Rambow has exchanged with Franz, he takes Hogen Selchow, and Franz,
+Pumpelhagen."
+
+"That is a good arrangement, Karl, and if you crack your jokes on me,
+because I knew nothing about it, I knew, at least, several years ago,
+that the Herr von Rambow, who was your pupil, would come to something."
+And he went up to Franz, and shook his hand heartily.
+
+After dinner, many things were talked over, and every one could
+perceive, by Axel's demeanor, how much lighter his heart was, now that
+he was no longer indebted to these people, but only to his cousin; and
+in this better mood, he agreed to everything, promised to let the
+inspector manage the estate, and to give Franz proper security.
+
+Our story rapidly approaches its conclusion. After a week or so, Moses
+came to terms with Pomuchelskopp, for Gurlitz. It was sold for a
+hundred and ninety-two thousand thalers. From Moses Franz went straight
+to Schultz, the carpenter:
+
+"Herr Schultz, can you hold your tongue?"
+
+"Trust me for that."
+
+"Well,--I am now owner of Pumpelhagen; send some of your people out
+there, and let them tear down the paddocks you built yonder."
+
+"I have thought, all along, that the beasts would have a short life."
+
+"Well; I am also, after St. John's, the owner of Gurlitz."
+
+"See, see! So with Herr Pomuchelskopp too, it is at last: 'Out! out!'"
+
+"Yes; but now listen to me. I want to have a pastor's-widow-house
+built there, and it must be planned exactly like the parsonage, and
+stand just opposite, close by the church-yard. You can take the measure
+to-morrow."
+
+"No need of that, I have two measures already, one of my own, and one
+that Mamselle Habermann took, with her apron-strings and cap-ribbons."
+
+"Good," said Franz, and a merry smile overspread his face, "use that
+one."
+
+"But it wasn't right."
+
+"No matter! You must build after that measure. Buy your needful timber
+to-morrow, engage carriers here in Rahnstadt, and a good master mason;
+but before all things, don't breathe a word of it to anybody! If you
+want money, apply to Moses."
+
+He went off, and old carpenter Schultz stood in the door, looking after
+him.
+
+"Noblemen, noblemen! Crazy performances! Cap-ribbons! Apron-strings!
+But Pomuchelskopp out! out! Isn't that good news?"
+
+Franz went to Hogen Selchow; Habermann and Inspector Bremer, who had
+been engaged for Axel, went with him. Axel departed, with bag and
+baggage, and the burgomeister from Rahnstadt came in, to superintend
+the transfer of the property, and with him Braesig, as assessor. Three
+weeks were taken up in this business, and in the repairs and
+refurnishing of Pumpelhagen; then all was arranged to satisfaction. The
+Frau Pastorin, also, had completed the preparations for the wedding. I
+shall write about this wedding, exactly as it was; it passed over very
+quietly, and I shall quietly pass it over.
+
+The day after the wedding, Louise and Franz, and the Frau Pastorin and
+Habermann, sat in a great coach, and Braesig was on the box, and they
+drove to Pumpelhagen. As they passed through Gurlitz, there was a great
+display of fir boards and beams, and oaken sills, and a notched beam
+lay all ready, on one side, and the carpenter, Schultz, stood there, in
+his shirt sleeves, superintending his workmen. Franz stopped the
+carriage, and called out to the energetic old man, "Is everything
+ready, Herr Schultz?"
+
+"Everything is ready."
+
+"Then you may speak, Herr Schultz."
+
+"All right!" said Schultz. "But, Mamselle Hab---- I should say,
+gracious Frau, what trouble you have cost me! When I thought I had it,
+I hadn't it by a long way. I shall have to put in another notched
+beam."
+
+"What?" asked Louise, and looked at Franz.
+
+"Only this, dear child," said Franz, putting his arm around her, "that
+I have bought Gurlitz, and am going to build a pastor's-widow-house
+here, just like the parsonage."
+
+"For me?" cried the little Frau Pastorin, and the tears which had risen
+to her eyes, when she looked at the church-yard where her Pastor slept,
+flowed freely, and she grasped his hand, and bathed it with tears of
+joy, for the tears which start in sadness often change to tears of joy.
+
+"And I thought," continued Franz, "that my father-in-law and Braesig
+might live with you, as they have done. And I thought, father, you
+could undertake the management of Gurlitz, and you and Braesig could
+also have an eye to Pumpelhagen, and see if it is managed properly."
+
+"Just the thing!" cried Braesig, from the box, who had heard everything
+because the front was down, "Karl, what did I say to you? He'll do!"
+
+Habermann's eyes glistened with joy. To have occupation and
+responsibility again! to be active and useful! Louise threw herself
+upon her husband's breast: "Franz, what a dear, dear fellow you are!"
+And the carriage drove on, and arrived at Pumpelhagen. No triumphal
+arches this time,--but in every heart was erected a triumphal arch, to
+the glory of the Heavenly Father!
+
+I have now finished my story, and might as well make an end of it; but
+I know how it is: many people would like to be informed of what has
+happened to our friends during the eighteen years since 1848, and so I
+will write one more chapter.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+                              CONCLUSION.
+
+
+A year ago, before I moved from Mecklenburg to Thuringia, I visited the
+old chimney-corner once more, where I had spent so many happy days in
+my youth; and so I came to Rahnstadt, and went from there one
+afternoon, in the month of June, along the road to Gurlitz.
+
+I intended to visit Habermann and Braesig and the Frau Pastorin, whom I
+had known since the time I was an apprentice, and had often visited in
+Rahnstadt; I had known Gottlieb too, at first in his Pietist days,
+and,--strangely,--we came to be very good friends, although we held
+quite different opinions; probably because I was a very sedate youth,
+and Gottlieb liked me on that account.
+
+When I arrived at Gurlitz, I went up to the widow-house, and took hold
+of the handle of the door; the door was fast. "Hm!" said I to myself,
+"it is Sunday afternoon, it is hot, they have all gone to sleep." I
+went to the window, and raised myself on tiptoe, to look in; when a
+voice behind me said:
+
+"Eh, Herr, that will do you no good; there is nobody there."
+
+"Doesn't the Frau Pastorin live here?"
+
+"She is dead."
+
+"And Habermann?" I inquired.
+
+"He has moved to Pumpelhagen, to live with the gracious Frau."
+
+"Is the Herr Pastor at home?"
+
+"Yes, he is at home," said old Juern, for it was he, "yes, he is at
+home, and the Frau Pastorin too; they are just drinking coffee."
+
+I went to the house and knocked at the door. "Come in!" cried a rich
+voice. I entered,--well, in the course of my life, I have met with a
+great deal that I could not explain, and some things that were very
+surprising,--but this time I was not merely surprised, I was really
+startled! There sat Gottlieb, his haircut very reasonably short, and
+instead of resembling the hollow of Frau Nuessler's baking trough his
+form was more like the increasing moon; the white, sunken cheeks had
+become smooth and ruddy, and the red, full lips seemed to say, "We have
+had a good dinner to-day, but we and the stout teeth behind us have
+done our duty." And that was the expression of the whole man, one that
+enjoyed good dinners, and yet did his duty. There was nothing lazy
+about his looks, all was firm and clean, and told of hard work, and
+refreshing rest, and comfortable meals. Well, and now! Of the Frau
+Pastorin Lining there was no trace, she had changed into the exact
+image of the little, round Frau Pastorin Behrends. "Hm!" said I to
+myself, "the wind sits fair in this quarter."
+
+When the first greetings were over, we sat down together, and there
+were many questions to ask, especially on my side. The story that I
+have related I had mostly from Braesig; Habermann also would let a word
+fall, now and then, for I was rather a favourite with the old man, and
+some things I inquired about elsewhere, a little later, and because the
+principal events occurred while I was apprenticed on an estate, I have
+called it, "During my apprenticeship."
+
+Gottlieb told me various things, and Frau Pastorin Lining helped him,
+for she was constantly interrupting; and when I rose, to go to
+Pumpelhagen,--for I had known Franz also, when I was apprenticed in the
+region,--Gottlieb said, "Yes, go! You will find them all together,
+there; we will come by and by, and bring our three children; the oldest
+is absent, he is already at the gymnasium." I went through the Gurlitz
+church-yard, thinking over what I had heard, and it was just what is
+always happening on this earth; joy and sorrow, birth and death.
+
+The first of our friends who had deceased was Bauschan. He did not die
+a natural death,--not that he committed suicide--no! One day weaver
+Ruhrdanz came into the Rexow farm-yard, with a rusty flint-lock,
+took Bauschan by the collar, and led him into the garden; the
+new crown-prince was there as a spectator, and--as appeared
+afterwards--behaved very badly upon the occasion, rushing about, and
+growling. A shot was heard, and soon after Ruhrdanz came in, and
+reported that Bauschan had made a very Christian end. Frau Nuessler
+poured him a glass of schnapps, and when he had drank it, very gravely,
+he said that he and the other Gurlitz people had been before the court
+that morning; they were all sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and
+because he was the head one, or the ringleader, as they called it, he
+must have six months longer. He went out, but came back to say: "Frau,
+you will not forget my old woman! It all happened because we had no
+papers."
+
+The second who died was Jochen himself. Since the time that he had
+given up the control, he had taken to managing; he ran about the fields
+all day, especially in places where there was nothing to do, and would
+stand there, shaking his head, but saying nothing. And one Sunday,
+between Christmas and New-Year's, when the snow lay a foot deep over
+the fields, he was out and happened to fall into a ditch. He came home
+quite chilled; Frau Nuessler gave him camomile tea, by the quart; he
+drank it submissively, but next morning he said, "Mother, what is not
+to be helped, is not. What must be, must. It is all as true as leather,
+and one can do nothing more about it," and with that, he fell asleep.
+He had managed himself to death, and Frau Nuessler thought seriously of
+inscribing on his tombstone:
+
+
+                       "He died in his vocation."
+
+
+Moses was the next; the old man had walked firm and upright through
+life, and firm and upright he went out of it. He died firm in his
+faith, and they did for him according to the customs of the tribe of
+Judah,--for he belonged to the tribe of Judah,---and when he was buried
+David sat in the ashes, with a torn coat, and many Christians followed
+him to the church-yard around which he had built the oaken fence, and I
+believe he is in Abraham's bosom, where Christians are also received.
+And the day after his funeral, there were three people standing at his
+grave, namely, Habermann, and the two young Fraus von Rambow,--Frida
+was come for a visit,--and Habermann wiped his old eyes, and the two
+young Fraus laid a couple of fresh wreaths on the grave of the old Jew,
+and, as they walked thoughtfully away through the Rahnstadt meadows,
+Habermann said, "He was a Jew in faith, and a Christian in deeds."
+
+And now comes Haeuning's turn--our brave old Haeuning. Pomuchelskopp had
+gone off, neck and crop, bag and baggage, in the blue coach with the
+coat of arms, and with as many furniture wagons as he had fat sheep, to
+Rostock. When times got a little better for credit, he earned himself a
+nickname, they called him, "Much too cheap!" for he related his story
+to every one who would listen to him, and lamented his hard fate, and
+the sale of Gurlitz, and always ended with a deep sigh, "Much too
+cheap! Oh, very much too cheap!"
+
+His brave Haeuning pursued her course unterrified, and kept up her
+authority; but, dear knows, what a time she had with those Rostock
+maid-servants! They would not put up with such treatment as the
+Gurlitzers were compelled to endure. Every week, she had a new maid;
+one, indeed, behaved more reasonably, that was an old cook; but when
+she had been there about three months, this worthless creature became
+refractory. Haeuning was very decided, she caught up the fire-tongs, and
+gave her a hard blow on the head. The girl hadn't another word to say,
+for she fell flat on the kitchen hearth. A doctor came and talked a
+great deal about suggillations and fractures; but the end of the story
+was, the poor girl was taken to the hospital. The doctor was an honest
+man, he reported the matter to the rightful authorities, and Haeuning
+was summoned before the court. If she had made use of a pudding-stick,
+of the same length and thickness, they would have done nothing to her;
+but, in her valor, she had seized the tongs! Tongs were not down in the
+Mecklenburg statutes, and so Haeuning was condemned, besides the costs,
+and what she must give the poor girl, to six weeks' imprisonment.
+Pomuchel protested, he appealed, he supplicated; it was of no use;
+Haeuning was imprisoned on account of her great valor. He told his story
+to every one who would listen, he poured out streams of abusive talk
+about the court; at last, one of the judges happened to hear of it, and
+the chancellor made Pomuchel a present of four weeks' imprisonment, for
+himself. He tried to buy off, with money; but it was no go; even the
+Herr Senator Bank said, "No! this time the poltroon should be served
+out." And so those two old brave people were confined in adjoining
+rooms, over Christmas, 1852, and New Year's, 1853; and when they had
+been there a fortnight the jailer remarked to his wife: "Fika, there is
+quite a difference between the two; he runs about his room as if he was
+crazy, berating everybody, and she sits there, stiff and stark, in the
+same place, where she sat down the first evening."
+
+Malchen and Salchen, meanwhile, to the great distress of their elders,
+gave a great tea-party, to which Herr Suessmann was invited, as he had,
+merely out of compassion, accepted a situation in the Maehlenstrasse.
+
+When our old friend were set free, Pomuchelskopp sat down in the living
+room, and bewailed himself to his daughters. Haeuning went straight to
+the kitchen, and there found a day-laborer's wife; for, during their
+imprisonment, there had been a great excitement, and the Rostock
+maid-servants had resolved that no respectable girl should go into
+service at the Pomuchelskopps. So they hired this woman by the day.
+
+"What do you get a day?" asked Haeuning.
+
+"Sixteen groschen," was the reply. Haeuning grasped the tongs, but
+bethought herself in time. But this self-control made the evil overflow
+into her blood, and three days after she was dead; and in three days
+more she was buried. Pomuchelskopp and his daughters do not know where
+she lies, and if any one inquires, they say, "She is buried over
+yonder,--over yonder." But Gustaving, who, in his capacity of
+inspector, often visits the city, knows. He took one of the little ones
+by the hand, and showed him the place: "See, Krischaning, mother is
+buried there."
+
+I have been telling of sorrow, and have yet more to relate; but why not
+also of joy? There was joy in the pastor's-widow-house, for long years.
+Frau Pastorin used to sit, on summer evenings, and look at her Pastor's
+grave. Ah! how glad she would be to die; and then, when Duert brought
+the candles, she would turn round, and look at her old furniture, and
+the picture gallery, and the duster in its old place, and under the
+picture gallery, the two friendly old faces, which she had so often
+seen there in her Pastor's time, and then, how glad she was to live!
+Habermann was constantly active, no longer for strangers, but for his
+children and grandchildren, for Louise had two of the dearest little
+girls; and he had still another gratification. Fritz Triddelsitz walked
+in one day,--of course in a blue dress-coat,--with the little assessor,
+and introduced himself as a proprietor, in Lower Pomerania, and the
+little assessor as his bride; and when he had talked of various matters
+through the evening, and they had gone away, Braesig said, "Karl, this
+time you were right again; but who would have thought it? Your
+greyhound has become quite a reasonable being; but don't plume yourself
+too much upon it; it is not your doing, it is the little assessor's."
+
+Braesig himself scoured the whole region after news. Now he was in
+Rexow, then in Pumpelhagen, then in Rahnstadt, but his chief place of
+resort was Hogen Selchow. He journeyed thither, nearly every quarter,
+and when he came back he would say, "Karl, it goes well; he has quite
+given up the management, and now he sits in his work-shop, and invents.
+Stuff and nonsense, of course; but Bremer says he would not ask for a
+better master, and the gracious Frau looks as happy and blessed as an
+angel in Paradise. But, Karl, he is not so stupid, after all. He has
+made one invention, that I am going to try, myself. You see, you take
+an old hat, cut out a hole in front, and put a lantern in, and when you
+are riding out, in the winter evenings, and have your lantern there,
+you can see, as if it were broad daylight."
+
+Braesig actually brought Axel's invention into practice, and frightened
+all the country people in the region; but once when he had visited
+Hogen Selchow, he had an attack of his old friend the Podagra, and the
+old friend kicked him in the stomach, with both feet, and on the way
+home, he took a severe cold. And so he lay on his death-bed.
+
+The Frau Pastorin and Frau Nuessler and his old Karl Habermann were
+sitting by him, and the Frau Pastorin said, "Dear Braesig, shall I not
+call in the young Herr Pastor?"
+
+"Let it go, Frau Pastorin, you have called me a heathen all my life;
+it may not have been right for me to live as I have done; but the
+pastor-business! No, it is better so. And, Karl, my sister's daughter,
+Lotting, is to have two thousand thalers; and the rest shall go to the
+school in Rahnstadt; for, Karl, the Frau Pastorin has enough to live
+on, and you have enough to live on, but the poor school-children are so
+badly off! And Frau Nuessler has enough to live on, and my godchild,
+Mining, and you, Karl, and you are all going to live, and I am going to
+die." And then his mind began to wander and he was once more in his
+early childhood, keeping sheep for his father, and an old ram made him
+a great deal of trouble, and he called to Frau Nuessler to come and help
+him, and Frau Nuessler sat down on the bed, and put her arms around him,
+and then he began about the three sweethearts, and Frau Nuessler, and
+kept calling out that he had never loved any one but her, and Frau
+Nuessler kissed the words from his lips, saying, "I know it, Braesig, my
+dear, old Zachary, I know it."
+
+And the fancies came thicker and faster, about the time when he was
+assessor at the court, and the indiciums, and the young Herr von
+Rambow, and the Lauban pond, and how he threw the pistol into the pond
+and lost four groschen on the wager. And then a strange lightness came
+over him, and he told his dear old Frau Nuessler the most wonderful
+stories about the little twins, and his godchild, Mining, and Karl
+Habermann and Louise,--all intermingled with each other,--holding Frau
+Nuessler's hand fast in his all the while; but suddenly he raised
+himself, and said, "Frau Nuessler, lay your hand on my head; I have
+always loved you. Karl Habermann, rub my feet, they are cold."
+Habermann did so, and a bright smile flashed across Braesig's face, and
+he said slowly, "I was always ahead of you in style." That was the
+last.
+
+Our little Frau Pastorin soon followed him. There are a few people who
+live very happily on earth, and yet are glad to die. To these few
+belonged the little round Frau. She was very comfortable here below,
+but when she thought of the home above, a dear old face shown upon her,
+and old tones rang in her ears, for she thought of heaven as a little,
+neat, clean village church, where the angels sang and her pastor
+preached. Now she is with him, and can put on his mantle, and tie his
+bands, and sing with him, in the little church, no longer "funeral
+hymns," no! "resurrection songs."
+
+With these thoughts running through my head, I turned the corner near
+the arbor, where so many people had sat in their trouble and distress,
+and saw, playing on the lawn, three little maidens from four to eleven
+years of age. And, as I came nearer, I saw a lady with a friendly,
+contented expression in her face, and she dropped her work in her lap,
+and smiled at the little girls, and shook her finger at them: "Don't
+provoke me too far!" Near her, sat a fresh, healthy-looking man,
+reading the newspaper, and he laid it down and shook his head, as if he
+said, "There is nothing in it." And farther on sat an old man, at whose
+knee a little girl of twelve years was leaning, and chatting with him,
+and he interrupted her lively childish prattle, to say to the young
+Frau: "Let them play, Louise, they will become steady and reasonable
+soon enough." And as I came round the corner, the old man exclaimed:
+"Good heavens! is not that----?" And Franz and Louise came towards me,
+and Franz said, "See! see! That is right, Fritz, to visit us once
+more!"
+
+"Many greetings, gracious Frau," said I, "from my Louise," for my wife
+is a Louise too. And we talked of one thing and another, but our quiet
+did not last long, for a troop came tearing through the garden, like
+the wild hunt, and four boys, with brown eyes, and brown cheeks, and
+gray jackets and trousers, scampered up the path, and a little rogue of
+six years rushed up to Franz and clasped his knees, saying over his
+shoulder to the others, "I am the first!"
+
+"Yes," said another, a boy of about twelve, "I believe you, you ran
+through the meadow; but how you look! Mather will scold finely!" And
+now the little fellow looked down at his stockings and trousers, and,
+truly! if his mother were contented with their condition, he would have
+reason to be thankful.
+
+"Are your father and mother coming soon?"
+
+"Yes," said the eldest boy, "they are close by. And grandmother is
+coming too, and Frau von Rambow, who came yesterday."
+
+"Ah, Frida?" cried Louise, "that is good!" And it was not long before
+Rudolph and Mining came up, and they looked like a fair day in summer,
+when the sunlight lies broad over the fields, and the shadows are
+short, and men are working in their shirt-sleeves. Rudolph has become a
+capable fellow who counts for something among his colleagues, for he
+does not carry on his farming in the old-fashioned, narrow ways, and
+has regard to the welfare of other people, and of the whole country, as
+well as to his own profit. And behind them came Frau Nuessler, and
+Frida. The Frau von Rambow looked to the right, and the left, and her
+face grew sad, and when she came to the arbor and the first greetings
+were over, Louise called to her oldest daughter, "Frida, bring auntie a
+chair!" for Frida had once said, she could never sit again on that
+bench, where she had sat in such anguish.
+
+Frau Nuessler went up to Habermann:
+
+"How are you, Brother Karl?"
+
+"Finely!" cried Habermann, in a loud voice, for Frau Nuessler had grown
+very hard of hearing, "and you?"
+
+"Very well, all but my hearing; that is worse. They say it comes from
+taking cold. Nonsense! how should I take cold? I will tell you, Karl,
+it came from Jochen; for he talked and talked so much, at the last, and
+I was quite worn out. Well, he could not help it, it was in his
+nature."
+
+Then came Pastor Gottlieb and Lining, with three children. And the
+children played together, and their elders talked together, and at
+supper time the tables were laid, out of doors, one for the older
+people by themselves, and one for the children by themselves, and
+Louise's eldest daughter presided at the children's table, and
+Grandfather Habermann at the other, and both with a very different rule
+from our old Haeuning. How friendly and pleasant it was!
+
+And as we old subjects of Habermann were sitting together merrily,
+rejoicing in his government, who came along the garden path? Fritz
+Triddelsitz and the little assessor. What an uproar! How many questions
+were asked and answered, in a few moments!
+
+All at once, Triddelsitz caught sight of me: "Fritz, where did _you_
+come from?"
+
+"Eh, Fritz where did _you_ come from?"
+
+"Fritz I haven't seen you in seven cold winters!"
+
+"Nor I you, Fritz."
+
+So we "Fritzed" each other, back and forth, to the amusement of the
+whole company.
+
+"Fritz," asked he, "do you still write books?"
+
+"Yes, Fritz, I have written a whole heap of them."
+
+"Well, Fritz, do me a single favor, and never put me into any of them."
+
+"Eh!" said I, "there's no help for it; you are in already, Fritz."
+
+"What am I in about?" he asked hastily.
+
+"The rendezvous, at the great water-ditch."
+
+"What is that?" asked Louise, who sat opposite me.
+
+Franz laughed heartily: "I will tell you, another time."
+
+"No, no!" cried Fritz.
+
+"Why, what is it then?" asked the little assessor, looking at me, Fritz
+Reuter, and then at him, Fritz Triddelsitz. I was silent, and he said:
+
+"I will tell you, another time."
+
+Old Grandfather Habermann laughed with all his might.
+
+When we were by ourselves, afterwards, Fritz took my arm, and said:
+
+"Just tell me, who told the story?"
+
+"Braesig," said I.
+
+"I thought so," said he, "Braesig was the chief person in the whole
+story."
+
+"That he was," said I.
+
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+
+Some people may ask the question, Where are Pumpelhagen and Rexow and
+Gurlitz? Well, you will look in vain for them on the map, and yet
+they are situated in our German Fatherland, and I hope they are to be
+found in more places than one. Everywhere, where a nobleman resides,
+who does not think himself better than his fellow-men, and who
+recognizes the lowest of his laborers as his brother, and himself as a
+fellow-worker,--there is Pumpelhagen. Wherever there is a clergyman,
+who does not demand, in his self-conceit, that everybody shall believe
+precisely as he does, who makes no difference between poor and rich,
+who not only preaches, but is ready with kind words, and wise counsel,
+and substantial help, when it is needed,--there is Gurlitz. Wherever a
+burgher is active and energetic, and is driven by an impulse to become
+wiser and more capable, and thinks more of the general welfare than of
+his own pecuniary advantage,--there is Rexow. And wherever these three
+are united, through the love of sweet womanhood, and the hopes of
+fresh, joyous childhood, there are, also, all three villages together.
+
+
+
+                               FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Du (thou) is the common form of address between friends;
+Sie (third person plural) being used with strangers, and on formal
+occasions.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Braesig probably means "Douche." "Tuesche" is Indian-ink.]
+
+[Footnote 3: A Paechter is one who rents a farm.]
+
+[Footnote 4: A Mecklenburg Schilling is equal to an English penny.]
+
+[Footnote 5: "Hug me and kiss me, but don't tumble my curls."]
+
+[Footnote 6: "Cross buns and cracknels."]
+
+[Footnote 7: Mignon's song: "Poor child, what have they done to thee?"]
+
+[Footnote 8: The third person singular is used n addressing inferiors.
+"Hat _Hei_ kein Pappiren."]
+
+[Footnote 9: Muschuken, from Monsieur, is a kind of Mecklenburg
+biscuit.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Species of dog.]
+
+[Footnote 11: "Meinswegens"--"for all I care."]
+
+[Footnote 12: Herr has the meaning of Mr., Sir, gentleman and master.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed-time and Harvest, by Fritz Reuter
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