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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6650-8.txt b/6650-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4edfabb --- /dev/null +++ b/6650-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1990 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Immensee, by Theodore W. Storm + +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: Immensee + +Author: Theodore W. Storm + +Posting Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #6650] +Release Date: October, 2004 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMMENSEE *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +IMMENSEE + +BY THEODOR W. STORM + +TRANSLATED BY C. W. BELL M. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + + +We are at the beginning of a new era which will, it is to be hoped, be +marked by a general _rapprochement_ between the nations. The need to +know and understand one another is being felt more and more. It follows +that the study of foreign languages will assume an ever-increasing +importance; indeed, so far as language, literature, and music are +concerned, one may safely assert that _fas est et ab hoste doceri_. + +All those who wish to make acquaintance with the speech of their +neighbours, or who have allowed their former knowledge to grow rusty, +will welcome this edition, which will enable them, independently of +bulky dictionaries, to devote to language study the moments of leisure +which offer themselves in the course of the day. + +The texts have been selected from the double point of view of their +literary worth and of the usefulness of their vocabulary; in the +translations, also, the endeavour has been to unite qualities of style +with strict fidelity to the original. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + +Theodor W. Storm, poet and short-story writer (1817-1888), was born in +Schleswig. He was called to the Bar in his native town, Husum, in +1842, but had his licence to practise cancelled in 1853 for +'Germanophilism,' and had to remove to Germany. It was only in 1864 +that he was able to return to Husum, where in 1874 he became a judge +of the Court of Appeals. + +As early as 1843 he had made himself known as a lyrical poet of the +Romantic School, but it was as a short-story writer that he first took +a prominent place in literature, making a most happy _début_ with +the story entitled _Immensee_. + +There followed a long series of tales, rich in fancy and in humour, +although their inspiration is generally derived from the humble town +and country life which formed his immediate environment; but he wrote +nothing that excels, in depth and tenderness of feeling, the charming +story of _Immensee_; and taking his work all in all, Storm still +ranks to-day as a master of the short story in German literature, rich +though it is in this form of prose-fiction. + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +One afternoon in the late autumn a well-dressed old man was walking +slowly down the street. He appeared to be returning home from a walk, +for his buckle-shoes, which followed a fashion long since out of date, +were covered with dust. + +Under his arm he carried a long, gold-headed cane; his dark eyes, in +which the whole of his long-lost youth seemed to have centred, and +which contrasted strangely with his snow-white hair, gazed calmly on +the sights around him or peered into the town below as it lay before +him, bathed in the haze of sunset. He appeared to be almost a +stranger, for of the passers-by only a few greeted him, although many +a one involuntarily was compelled to gaze into those grave eyes. + +At last he halted before a high, gabled house, cast one more glance +out toward the town, and then passed into the hall. At the sound of +the door-bell some one in the room within drew aside the green curtain +from a small window that looked out on to the hall, and the face of an +old woman was seen behind it. The man made a sign to her with his +cane. + +"No light yet!" he said in a slightly southern accent, and the +housekeeper let the curtain fall again. + +The old man now passed through the broad hall, through an inner hall, +wherein against the walls stood huge oaken chests bearing porcelain +vases; then through the door opposite he entered a small lobby, from +which a narrow staircase led to the upper rooms at the back of the +house. He climbed the stairs slowly, unlocked a door at the top, and +landed in a room of medium size. + +It was a comfortable, quiet retreat. One of the walls was lined with +cupboards and bookcases; on the other hung pictures of men and places; +on a table with a green cover lay a number of open books, and before +the table stood a massive arm-chair with a red velvet cushion. + +After the old man had placed his hat and stick in a corner, he sat down +in the arm-chair and, folding his hands, seemed to be taking his rest +after his walk. While he sat thus, it was growing gradually darker; and +before long a moonbeam came streaming through the window-panes and upon +the pictures on the wall; and as the bright band of light passed slowly +onward the old man followed it involuntarily with his eyes. + +Now it reached a little picture in a simple black frame. "Elisabeth!" +said the old man softly; and as he uttered the word, time had changed: +_he was young again_. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE CHILDREN + + + +Before very long the dainty form of a little maiden advanced toward +him. Her name was Elisabeth, and she might have been five years old. +He himself was twice that age. Round her neck she wore a red silk +kerchief which was very becoming to her brown eyes. + +"Reinhard!" she cried, "we have a holiday, a holiday! No school the +whole day and none to-morrow either!" + +Reinhard was carrying his slate under his arm, but he flung it behind +the front door, and then both the children ran through the house into +the garden and through the garden gate out into the meadow. The +unexpected holiday came to them at a most happily opportune moment. + +It was in the meadow that Reinhard, with Elisabeth's help, had built a +house out of sods of grass. They meant to live in it during the summer +evenings; but it still wanted a bench. He set to work at once; nails, +hammer, and the necessary boards were already to hand. + +While he was thus engaged, Elisabeth went along the dyke, gathering +the ring-shaped seeds of the wild mallow in her apron, with the object +of making herself chains and necklaces out of them; so that when +Reinhard had at last finished his bench in spite of many a crookedly +hammered nail, and came out into the sunlight again, she was already +wandering far away at the other end of the meadow. + +"Elisabeth!" he called, "Elisabeth!" and then she came, her hair +streaming behind her. + +"Come here," he said; "our house is finished now. Why, you have got +quite hot! Come in, and let us sit on the new bench. I will tell you a +story." + +So they both went in and sat down on the new bench. Elisabeth took the +little seed-rings out of her apron and strung them on long threads. +Reinhard began his tale: "There were once upon a time three +spinning-women..."[1] + +[1] The beginning of one of the best known of Grimm's fairy tales. + +"Oh!" said Elisabeth, "I know that off by heart; you really must not +always tell me the same story." + +Accordingly Reinhard had to give up the story of the three +spinning-women and tell instead the story of the poor man who was cast +into the den of lions. + +"It was now night," he said, "black night, you know, and the lions +were asleep. But every now and then they would yawn in their sleep and +shoot out their red tongues. And then the man would shudder and think +it was morning. All at once a bright light fell all about him, and +when he looked up an angel was standing before him. The angel beckoned +to him with his hand and then went straight into the rocks." + +Elisabeth had been listening attentively. "An angel?" she said. "Had +he wings then?" + +"It is only a story," answered Reinhard; "there are no angels, you +know." + +"Oh, fie! Reinhard!" she said, staring him straight in the face. + +He looked at her with a frown, and she asked him hesitatingly: "Well, +why do they always say there are? mother, and aunt, and at school as +well?" + +"I don't know," he answered. + +"But tell me," said Elisabeth, "are there no lions either?" + +"Lions? Are there lions? In India, yes. The heathen priests harness +them to their carriages, and drive about the desert with them. When +I'm big, I mean to go out there myself. It is thousands of times more +beautiful in that country than it is here at home; there's no winter +at all there. And you must come with me. Will you?" + +"Yes," said Elisabeth; "but mother must come with us, and your mother +as well." + +"No," said Reinhard, "they will be too old then, and cannot come with +us." + +"But I mayn't go by myself." + +"Oh, but you may right enough; you will then really be my wife, and +the others will have no say in the matter." + +"But mother will cry!" + +"We shall come back again of course," said Reinhard impetuously. "Now +just tell me straight out, will you go with me? If not, I will go all +alone, and then I shall never come back again." + +The little girl came very near to crying. "Please don't look so +angry," said she; "I will go to India with you." + +Reinhard seized both her hands with frantic glee, and rushed out with +her into the meadow. + +"To India, to India!" he sang, and swung her round and round, so that +her little red kerchief was whirled from off her neck. Then he +suddenly let her go and said solemnly: + +"Nothing will come of it, I'm sure; you haven't the pluck." + +"Elisabeth! Reinhard!" some one was now calling from the garden gate. +"Here we are!" the children answered, and raced home hand in hand. + + * * * * * + + + + +IN THE WOODS + + + +So the children lived together. She was often too quiet for him, and +he was often too head-strong for her, but for all that they stuck to +one another. They spent nearly all their leisure hours together: in +winter in their mothers' tiny rooms, during the summer in wood and +field. + +Once when Elisabeth was scolded by the teacher in Reinhard's hearing, +he angrily banged his slate upon the table in order to turn upon +himself the master's wrath. This failed to attract attention. + +But Reinhard paid no further attention to the geography lessons, and +instead he composed a long poem, in which he compared himself to a +young eagle, the schoolmaster to a grey crow, and Elisabeth to a white +dove; the eagle vowed vengeance on the grey crow, as soon as his wings +had grown. + +Tears stood in the young poet's eyes: he felt very proud of himself. +When he reached home he contrived to get hold of a little +parchment-bound volume with a lot of blank pages in it; and on the first +pages he elaborately wrote out his first poem. + +Soon after this he went to another school. Here he made many new +friendships among boys of his own age, but this did not interrupt his +comings and goings with Elisabeth. Of the stories which he had +formerly told her over and over again he now began to write down the +ones which she had liked best, and in doing so the fancy often took +him to weave in something of his own thoughts; yet, for some reason he +could not understand, he could never manage it. + +So he wrote them down exactly as he had heard them himself. Then he +handed them over to Elisabeth, who kept them carefully in a drawer of +her writing-desk, and now and again of an evening when he was present +it afforded him agreeable satisfaction to hear her reading aloud to +her mother these little tales out of the notebooks in which he had +written them. + +Seven years had gone by. Reinhard was to leave the town in order to +proceed to his higher education. Elisabeth could not bring herself to +think that there would now be a time to be passed entirely without +Reinhard. She was delighted when he told her one day that he would +continue to write out stories for her as before; he would send them to +her in the letters to his mother, and then she would have to write +back to him and tell him how she liked them. + +The day of departure was approaching, but ere it came a good deal more +poetry found its way into the parchment-bound volume. This was the one +secret he kept from Elisabeth, although she herself had inspired the +whole book and most of the songs, which gradually had filled up almost +half of the blank pages. + +It was the month of June, and Reinhard was to start on the following +day. It was proposed to spend one more festive day together and +therefore a picnic was arranged for a rather large party of friends in +an adjacent forest. + +It was an hour's drive along the road to the edge of the wood, and +there the company took down the provision baskets from the carriages +and walked the rest of the way. The road lay first of all through a +pine grove, where it was cool and darksome, and the ground was all +strewed with pine needles. + +After half an hour's walk they passed out of the gloom of the pine +trees into a bright fresh beech wood. Here everything was light and +green; every here and there a sunbeam burst through the leafy +branches, and high above their heads a squirrel was leaping from +branch to branch. + +The party came to a halt at a certain spot, over which the topmost +branches of ancient beech trees interwove a transparent canopy of +leaves. Elisabeth's mother opened one of the baskets, and an old +gentleman constituted himself quartermaster. + +"Round me, all of you young people," he cried, "and attend carefully +to what I have to say to you. For lunch each one of you will now get +two dry rolls; the butter has been left behind at home. The extras +every one must find for himself. There are plenty of strawberries in +the wood--that is, for anyone who knows where to find them. Unless you +are sharp, you'll have to eat dry bread; that's the way of the world +all over. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Yes, yes," cried the young folks. + +"Yes, but look here," said the old gentleman, "I have not done yet. We +old folks have done enough roaming about in our time, and therefore we +will stay at home now, here, I mean, under these wide-spreading trees, +and we'll peel the potatoes and make a fire and lay the table, and by +twelve o'clock the eggs shall be boiled. + +"In return for all this you will be owing us half of your +strawberries, so that we may also be able to serve some dessert. So +off you go now, east and west, and mind be honest." + +The young folks cast many a roguish glance at one another. + +"Wait," cried the old gentleman once again. "I suppose I need not tell +you this, that whoever finds none need not produce any; but take +particular note of this, that he will get nothing out of us old folks +either. Now you have had enough good advice for to-day; and if you +gather strawberries to match you will get on very well for the present +at any rate." + +The young people were of the same opinion, and pairing off in couples +set out on their quest. + +"Come along, Elisabeth," said Reinhard, "I know where there is a clump +of strawberry bushes; you shan't eat dry bread." + +Elisabeth tied the green ribbons of her straw hat together and hung it +on her arm. "Come on, then," she said, "the basket is ready." + +Off into the wood they went, on and on; on through moist shady glens, +where everything was so peaceful, except for the cry of the falcon +flying unseen in the heavens far above their heads; on again through +the thick brushwood, so thick that Reinhard must needs go on ahead to +make a track, here snapping off a branch, there bending aside a +trailing vine. But ere long he heard Elisabeth behind him calling out +his name. He turned round. + +"Reinhard!" she called, "do wait for me! Reinhard!" + +He could not see her, but at length he caught sight of her some way +off struggling with the undergrowth, her dainty head just peeping out +over the tops of the ferns. So back he went once more and brought her +out from the tangled mass of briar and brake into an open space where +blue butterflies fluttered among the solitary wood blossoms. + +Reinhard brushed the damp hair away from her heated face, and would +have tied the straw hat upon her head, but she refused; yet at his +earnest request she consented after all. + +"But where are your strawberries?" she asked at length, standing still +and drawing a deep breath. + +"They were here," he said, "but the toads have got here before us, or +the martens, or perhaps the fairies." + +"Yes," said Elisabeth, "the leaves are still here; but not a word +about fairies in this place. Come along, I'm not a bit tired yet; let +us look farther on." + +In front of them ran a little brook, and on the far side the wood +began again. Reinhard raised Elisabeth in his arms and carried her +over. After a while they emerged from the shady foliage and stood in a +wide clearing. + +"There must be strawberries here," said the girl, "it all smells so +sweet." + +They searched about the sunny spot, but they found none. "No," said +Reinhard, "it is only the smell of the heather." + +Everywhere was a confusion of raspberry-bushes and holly, and the air +was filled with a strong smell of heather, patches of which alternated +with the short grass over these open spaces. + +"How lonely it is here!" said Elisabeth "I wonder where the others +are?" + +Reinhard had never thought of getting back. + +"Wait a bit," he said, holding his hand aloft; "where is the wind +coming from?" But wind there was none. + +"Listen!" said Elisabeth, "I think I heard them talking. Just give a +call in that direction." + +Reinhard hollowed his hand and shouted: "Come here!" + +"Here!" was echoed back. + +"They answered," cried Elisabeth clapping her hands. + +"No, that was nothing; it was only the echo." + +Elisabeth seized Reinhard's hand. "I'm frightened!" she said. + +"Oh! no, you must not be frightened. It is lovely here. Sit down there +in the shade among the long grass. Let us rest awhile: we'll find the +others soon enough." + +Elisabeth sat down under the overhanging branch of a beech and +listened intently in every direction. Reinhard sat a few paces off on +a tree stump, and gazed over at her in silence. + +The sun was just above their heads, shining with the full glare of +midday heat. Tiny, gold-flecked, steel-blue flies poised in the air +with vibrating wings. Their ears caught a gentle humming and buzzing +all round them, and far away in the wood were heard now and again the +tap-tap of the woodpecker and the screech of other birds. + +"Listen," said Elisabeth, "I hear a bell." + +"Where?" asked Reinhard. + +"Behind us. Do you hear it? It is striking twelve o'clock." + +"Then the town lies behind us, and if we go straight through in this +direction we are bound to fall in with the others." + +So they started on their homeward way; they had given up looking for +strawberries, for Elisabeth had become tired. And at last there rang +out from among the trees the laughing voices of the picnic party; then +they saw too a white cloth spread gleaming on the ground; it was the +luncheon-table and on it were strawberries enough and to spare. + +The old gentleman had a table-napkin tucked in his button-hole and was +continuing his moral sermon to the young folks and vigorously carving +a joint of roast meat. + +"Here come the stragglers," cried the young people when they saw +Reinhard and Elisabeth advancing among the trees. + +"This way," shouted the old gentleman. "Empty your handkerchiefs, +upside down, with your hats! Now show us what you have found." + +"Only hunger and thirst," said Reinhard. + +"If that's all," replied the old man, lifting up and showing them the +bowl full of fruit, "you must keep what you've got. You remember the +agreement: nothing here for lazybones to eat." + +But in the end he was prevailed on to relent; the banquet proceeded, +and a thrush in a juniper bush provided the music. + +So the day passed. But Reinhard had, after all, found something, and +though it was not strawberries yet it was something that had grown in +the wood. When he got home this is what he wrote in his old +parchment-bound volume: + + Out on the hill-side yonder + The wind to rest is laid; + Under the drooping branches + There sits the little maid. + + She sits among the wild thyme, + She sits in the fragrant air; + The blue flies hum around her, + Bright wings flash everywhere. + + And through the silent woodland + She peers with watchful eyen, + While on her hazel ringlets + Sparkles the glad sunshine. + + And far, far off the cuckoo + Laughs out his song. + I ween Hers are the bright, the golden + Eyes of the woodland queen. + +So she was not only his little sweetheart, but was also the expression +of all that was lovely and wonderful in his opening life. + + * * * * * + + + + +BY THE ROADSIDE THE CHILD STOOD + + + +The time is Christmas Eve. Before the close of the afternoon Reinhard +and some other students were sitting together at an old oak table in the +Ratskeller.[2] + +[2] The basement of the Rathaus or Town Hall. This, in almost every +German town of importance, has become a restaurant and place of +refreshment. + +The lamps on the wall were lighted, for down here in the basement it was +already growing dark; but there was only a thin sprinkling of customers +present, and the waiters were leaning idly up against the pillars let +into the walls. + +In a corner of the vaulted room sat a fiddler and a fine-featured +gipsy-girl with a zither; their instruments lay in their laps, and +they seemed to be looking about them with an air of indifference. + +A champagne cork popped off at the table occupied by the students. +"Drink, my gipsy darling!" cried a young man of aristocratic +appearance, holding out to the girl a glass full of wine. + +"I don't care about it," she said, without altering her position. + +"Well, then, give us a song," cried the young nobleman, and threw a +silver coin into her lap. The girl slowly ran her fingers through her +black hair while the fiddler whispered in her ear. But she threw back +her head, and rested her chin on her zither. + +"For him," she said, "I'm not going to play." + +Reinhard leapt up with his glass in his hand and stood in front of +her. + +"What do you want?" she asked defiantly. + +"To have a look at your eyes." + +"What have my eyes to do with you?" + +Reinhard's glance flashed down on her. "I _know_ they are false." + +She laid her cheek in the palm of her hand and gave him a searching +look. Reinhard raised his glass to his mouth. + +"Here's to your beautiful, wicked eyes!" he said, and drank. + +She laughed and tossed her head. + +"Give it here," she said, and fastening her black eyes on his, she +slowly drank what was left in the glass. Then she struck a chord and +sang in a deep, passionate voice: + + To-day, to-day thou think'st me + Fairest maid of all; + To-morrow, ah! then beauty + Fadeth past recall. + While the hour remaineth, + Thou art yet mine own; + Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +While the fiddler struck up an allegro finale, a new arrival joined +the group. + +"I went to call for you, Reinhard," he said, "You had already gone +out, but Santa Claus had paid you a visit." + +"Santa Claus?" said Reinhard. "Santa Claus never comes to me now." + +"Oh, yes, he does! The whole of your room smelt of Christmas tree and +ginger cakes." + +Reinhard dropped the glass out of his hand and seized his cap. + +"Well, what are you going to do now?" asked the girl. + +"I'll be back in a minute." + +She frowned. "Stay," she said gently, casting an amorous glance at +him. + +Reinhard hesitated. "I can't," he said. + +She laughingly gave him a tap with the toe of her shoe and said: "Go +away, then, you good-for-nothing; you are one as bad as the other, all +good-for-nothings." And as she turned away from him, Reinhard went +slowly up the steps of the Ratskeller. + +Outside in the street deep twilight had set in; he felt the cool +winter air blowing on his heated brow. From some window every here and +there fell the bright gleam of a Christmas tree all lighted up, now +and then was heard from within some room the sound of little pipes and +tin trumpets mingled with the merry din of children's voices. + +Crowds of beggar children were going from house to house or climbing +up on to the railings of the front steps, trying to catch a glimpse +through the window of a splendour that was denied to them. Sometimes +too a door would suddenly be flung open, and scolding voices would +drive a whole swarm of these little visitors away out into the dark +street. In the vestibule of yet another house they were singing an old +Christmas carol, and little girls' clear voices were heard among the +rest. + +But Reinhard heard not; he passed quickly by them all, out of one +street into another. When he reached his lodging it had grown almost +quite dark; he stumbled up the stairs and so gained his apartment. + +A sweet fragrance greeted him; it reminded him of home; it was the +smell of the parlour in his mother's house at Christmas time. With +trembling hand he lit his lamp; and there lay a mighty parcel on the +table. When he opened it, out fell the familiar ginger cakes. On some +of them were the initial letters of his name written in sprinkles of +sugar; no one but Elisabeth could have done that. + +Next came to view a little parcel containing neatly embroidered linen, +handkerchiefs and cuffs; and finally letters from his mother and +Elisabeth. Reinhard opened Elisabeth's letter first, and this is what +she wrote: + +"The pretty sugared letters will no doubt tell you who helped with the +cakes. The same person also embroidered the cuffs for you. We shall +have a very quiet time at home this Christmas Eve. Mother always puts +her spinning-wheel away in the corner as early as half-past nine. It +is so very lonesome this winter now that you are not here. + +"And now, too, the linnet you made me a present of died last Sunday. +It made me cry a good deal, though I am sure I looked after it well. + +"It always used to sing of an afternoon when the sun shone on its +cage. You remember how often mother would hang a piece of cloth over +the cage in order to keep it quiet when it sang so lustily. + +"Thus our room is now quieter than ever, except that your old friend +Eric now drops in to see us occasionally. You told us once that he was +just like his brown top-coat. I can't help thinking of it every time +he comes in at the door, and it is really too funny; but don't tell +mother, it might easily make her angry. + +"Guess what I am giving your mother for a Christmas present! You can't +guess? Well, it is myself! Eric is making a drawing of me in black +chalk; I have had to give him three sittings, each time for a whole +hour. + +"I simply loathed the idea of a stranger getting to know my face so +well. Nor did I wish it, but mother pressed me, and said it would very +much please dear Frau Werner. + +"But you are not keeping your word, Reinhard. You haven't sent me any +stories. I have often complained to your mother about it, but she +always says you now have more to do than to attend to such childish +things. But I don't believe it; there's something else perhaps." + +After this Reinhard read his mother's letter, and when he had read +them both and slowly folded them up again and put them away, he was +overcome with an irresistible feeling of home-sickness. For a long +while he walked up and down his room, talking softly to himself, and +then, under his breath, he murmured: + + I have err'd from the straight path, + Bewildered I roam; + By the roadside the child stands + And beckons me home. + +Then he went to his desk, took out some money, and stepped down into +the street again. During all this while it had become quieter out +there; the lights on the Christmas trees had burnt out, the +processions of children had come to an end. The wind was sweeping +through the deserted streets; old and young alike were sitting +together at home in family parties; the second period of Christmas Eve +celebrations had begun. + +As Reinhard drew near the Ratskeller he heard from below the scraping +of the fiddle and the singing of the zither girl. The restaurant door +bell tinkled and a dark form staggered up the broad dimly-lighted +stair. + +Reinhard drew aside into the shadow of the houses and then passed +swiftly by. After a while he reached the well-lighted shop of a +jeweller, and after buying a little cross studded with red corals, he +returned by the same way he had come. + +Not far from his lodgings he caught sight of a little girl, dressed in +miserable rags, standing before a tall door, in a vain attempt to open +it. + +"Shall I help you?" he said. + +The child gave no answer, but let go the massive door-handle. Reinhard +had soon opened the door. + +"No," he said; "they might drive you out again. Come along with me, +and I'll give you some Christmas cake." + +He then closed the door again and gave his hand to the little girl, +who walked along with him in silence to his lodgings. + +On going out he had left the light burning. + +"Here are some cakes for you," he said, pouring half of his whole +stock into her apron, though he gave none that bore the sugar letters. + +"Now, off you go home, and give your mother some of them too." + +The child cast a shy look up at him; she seemed unaccustomed to such +kindness and unable to say anything in reply. Reinhard opened the +door, and lighted her way, and then the little thing like a bird flew +downstairs with her cakes and out of the house. + +Reinhard poked the fire in the stove, set the dusty ink-stand on the +table, and then sat down and wrote and wrote letters the whole night +long to his mother and Elisabeth. + +The remainder of the Christmas cakes lay untouched by his side, but he +had buttoned on Elisabeth's cuffs, and odd they looked on his shaggy +coat of undyed wool. And there he was still sitting when the winter +sun cast its light on the frosted window-panes, and showed him a pale, +grave face reflected in the looking-glass. + + * * * * * + + + + +HOME + + + +When the Easter vacation came Reinhard journeyed home. On the morning +after his arrival he went to see Elisabeth. + +"How tall you've grown," he said, as the pretty, slender girl advanced +with a smile to meet him. She blushed, but made no reply; he had taken +her hand in his own in greeting, and she tried to draw it gently away. +He looked at her doubtingly, for never had she done that before; but +now it was as if some strange thing was coming between them. + +The same feeling remained, too, after he had been at home for some +time and came to see her constantly day after day. When they sat alone +together there ensued pauses in the conversation which distressed him, +and which he anxiously did his best to avoid. In order to have a +definite occupation during the holidays, he began to give Elisabeth +some instruction in botany, in which he himself had been keenly +interested during the early months of his university career. + +Elisabeth, who was wont to follow him in all things and was moreover +very quick to learn, willingly entered into the proposal. So now +several times in the week they made excursions into the fields or the +moors, and if by midday they brought home their green field-box full +of plants and flowers, Reinhard would come again later in the day and +share with Elisabeth what they had collected in common. + +With this same object in view, he entered the room one afternoon while +Elisabeth was standing by the window and sticking some fresh chick-weed +in a gilded birdcage which he had not seen in the place before. In the +cage was a canary, which was flapping its wings and shrilly chirruping +as it pecked at Elisabeth's fingers. Previously to this Reinhard's bird +had hung in that spot. + +"Has my poor linnet changed into a goldfinch after its death?" he +asked jovially. + +"Linnets are not accustomed to do any such thing," said Elizabeth's +mother, who sat spinning in her arm-chair. "Your friend Eric sent it +this noon from his estate as a present for Elisabeth." + +"What estate?" + +"Why, don't you know?" + +"Know what?" + +"That a month ago Eric took over his father's second estate by the +Immensee."[3] + +[3] _i.e._ the 'Lake of the Bees' + +"But you have never said a word to me about it." + +"Well," said the mother, "you haven't yet made a single word of +inquiry after your friend. He is a very nice, sensible young man." + +The mother went out of the room to make the coffee. Elisabeth had her +back turned to Reinhard, and was still busy with the making of her +little chick-weed bower. + +"Please, just a little longer," she said, "I'll be done in a minute." + +As Reinhard did not answer, contrary to his wont, she turned round and +faced him. In his eyes there was a sudden expression of trouble which +she had never observed before in them. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she said, drawing nearer to +him. + +"With me?" he said, his thoughts far away and his eyes resting +dreamily on hers. + +"You look so sad." + +"Elisabeth," he said, "I cannot bear that yellow bird." + +She looked at him in astonishment, without understanding his meaning. +"You are so strange," she said. + +He took both her hands in his, and she let him keep them there. Her +mother came back into the room shortly after; and after they had drunk +their coffee she sat down at her spinning-wheel, while Reinhard and +Elisabeth went off into the next room to arrange their plants. + +Stamens were counted, leaves and blossoms carefully opened out, and +two specimens of each sort were laid to dry between the pages of a +large folio volume. + +All was calm and still this sunny afternoon; the only sounds to be +heard were the hum of the mother's spinning-wheel in the next room, +and now and then the subdued voice of Reinhard, as he named the orders +of the families of the plants, and corrected Elisabeth's awkward +pronunciation of the Latin names. + +"I am still short of that lily of the valley which I didn't get last +time," said she, after the whole collection had been classified and +arranged. + +Reinhard pulled a little white vellum volume from his pocket. "Here is +a spray of the lily of the valley for you," he said, taking out a +half-pressed bloom. + +When Elisabeth saw the pages all covered with writing, she asked: +"Have you been writing stories again?" + +"These aren't stories," he answered, handing her the book. + +The contents were all poems, and the majority of them at most filled +one page. Elisabeth turned over the leaves one after another; she +appeared to be reading the titles only. "When she was scolded by the +teacher." "When they lost their way in the woods." "An Easter story." +"On her writing to me for the first time." Thus ran most of the +titles. + +Reinhard fixed his eyes on her with a searching look, and as she kept +turning over the leaves he saw that a gentle blush arose and gradually +mantled over the whole of her sweet face. He would fain have looked +into her eyes, but Elisabeth did not look up, and finally laid the +book down before him without a word. + +"Don't give it back like that," he said. + +She took a brown spray out of the tin case. "I will put your favourite +flower inside," she said, giving back the book into his hands. + +At length came the last day of the vacation and the morning of his +departure. At her own request Elisabeth received permission from her +mother to accompany her friend to the stage-coach, which had its +station a few streets from their house. + +When they passed out of the front door Reinhard gave her his arm, and +thus he walked in silence side by side with the slender maiden. The +nearer they came to their destination the more he felt as if he had +something he must say to her before he bade her a long farewell, +something on which all that was worthy and all that was sweet in his +future life depended, and yet he could not formulate the saving word. +In his anguish, he walked slower and slower. + +"You'll be too late," she said; "it has already struck ten by St +Mary's clock." + +But he did not quicken his pace for all that. At last he stammered +out: + +"Elisabeth, you will not see me again for two whole years. Shall I be +as dear to you as ever when I come back?" + +She nodded, and looked affectionately into his face. + +"I stood up for you too," she said, after a pause. + +"Me? And against whom had you to stand up for me?" + +"Against my mother. We were talking about you a long time yesterday +evening after you left. She thought you were not so nice now as you +once were." + +Reinhard held his peace for a moment: then he took her hand in his, +and looking gravely into her childish eyes, he said: + +"I am still just as nice as I ever was; I would have you firmly +believe that. Do you believe it, Elisabeth?" + +"Yes," she said. + +He freed her hand and quickly walked with her through the last street. +The nearer he felt the time of parting approach, the happier became +the look on his face; he went almost too quickly for her. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she asked. + +"I have a secret, a beautiful secret," said Reinhard, looking at her +with a light in his eyes. "When I come back again in two years' time, +then you shall know it." + +Meanwhile they had reached the stage-coach; they were only just in +time. Once more Reinhard took her hand. "Farewell!" he said, +"farewell, Elisabeth! Do not forget!" + +She shook her head. "Farewell," she said. Reinhard climbed up into the +coach and the horses started. As the coach rumbled round the corner of +the street he saw her dear form once more as she slowly wended her way +home. + + * * * * * + + + + +A LETTER + + + +Nearly two years later Reinhard was sitting by lamplight with his +books and papers around him, expecting a friend with whom he used to +study in common. Some one came upstairs. "Come in." It was the +landlady. "A letter for you, Herr Werner," and she went away. + +Reinhard had never written to Elisabeth since his visit home, and he +had received no letter from her. Nor was this one from her; it was in +his mother's handwriting. + +Reinhard broke the seal and read, and ere long he came to this +paragraph: + +"At your time of life, my dear boy, nearly every year still brings its +own peculiar experience; for youth is apt to turn everything to the +best account. At home, too, things have changed very much, and all +this will, I fear, cause you much pain at first, if my understanding +of you is at all correct. + +"Yesterday Eric was at last accepted by Elisabeth, after having twice +proposed in vain during the last three months. She had never been able +to make up her mind to it, but now in the end she has done so. To my +mind she is still far too young. The wedding is to take place soon, +and her mother means to go away with them." + + * * * * * + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + +Again years have passed. One warm afternoon in spring a young man, +whose sunburnt face was the picture of health, was walking along a +shady road through the wood leading down to the valley below. + +His grave dark eyes looked intently into the distance, as though he +was expecting to find every moment some change in the monotony of the +road, a change however which seemed reluctant to come about. At length +he saw a cart slowly coming up from below. + +"Hullo! my friend," shouted the traveller to the farmer, who was +walking by the side of the cart, "is this the right road to Immensee?" + +"Yes, straight on," answered the man touching his slouch hat. + +"Is it still far off?" + +"You are close to the place, sir. In less time than it takes to smoke +half a pipe of tobacco you'll be at the lake side, and the manor is +hard by." + +The farmer passed on while the other quickened his pace as he went +along under the trees. After a quarter of an hour's walk the shade to +the left of him suddenly came to an end; the road led along a steep +slope from which the ancient oaks growing below hardly reared their +topmost branches. + +Away over their crests opened out a broad, sunny landscape. Far below +lay the peaceful, dark-blue lake, almost entirely surrounded by green +sun-lit woods, save where on one spot they divided and afforded an +extensive view until it closed in the distant blue mountains. + +Straight opposite, in the middle of all this forest verdure, there lay +a patch of white, like driven snow. This was an expanse of blossoming +fruit-trees, and out of them, up on the high lake shore, rose the +manor-house, shining white, with tiles of red. A stork flew up from +the chimney, and circled slowly above the waters. + +"Immensee!" exclaimed the traveller. + +It almost seemed as if he had now reached the end of his journey, for +he stood motionless, looking out over the tops of the trees at his +feet, and gazing at the farther shore, where the reflection of the +manor-house floated, rocking gently, on the bosom of the water. Then +he suddenly started on his way again. + +His road now led almost steeply down the mountain-side, so that the +trees that had once stood below him again gave him their shade, but at +the same time cut off from him the view of the lake, which only now +and then peeped out between the gaps in the branches. + +Soon the way went gently upwards again, and to left and right the +woods disappeared, yielding place to vine-clad hills stretching along +the pathway; while on either side stood fruit-trees in blossom, filled +with the hum of the bees as they busily pried into the blossoms. A +tall man wearing a brown overcoat advanced to meet the traveller. When +he had almost come up to him, he waved his cap and cried out in a loud +voice: + +"Welcome, welcome, brother Reinhard! Welcome to my Immensee estate!" + +"God's greeting to you[4], Eric, and thank you for +your welcome," replied the other. + +[4] This form of salutation is especially common in the south of +Germany. + +By this time they had come up close to one another, and clasped hands. + +"And is it really you?" said Eric, when he at last got a near sight of +the grave face of his old school-fellow. + +"It is I right enough, Eric, and I recognize you too; only you almost +look cheerier than you ever did before." + +At these words a glad smile made Eric's plain features all the more +cheerful. + +"Yes, brother Reinhard," he said, as he once more held out his hand to +him, "but since those days, you see, I have won the great prize; but +you know that well enough." + +Then he rubbed his hands and cried cheerily: "This _will_ be a +surprise! You are the last person she expects to see." + +"A surprise?" asked Reinhard. "For whom, pray?" + +"Why, for Elisabeth." + +"Elisabeth! You haven't told her a word about my visit?" + +"Not a word, brother Reinhard; she has no thought of you, nor her +mother either. I invited you entirely on the quiet, in order that the +pleasure might be all the greater. You know I always had little quiet +schemes of my own." + +Reinhard turned thoughtful; he seemed to breathe more heavily the +nearer they approached the house. + +On the left side of the road the vineyards came to an end, and gave +place to an extensive kitchen-garden, which reached almost as far as +the lake-shore. The stork had meanwhile come to earth and was striding +solemnly between the vegetable beds. + +"Hullo!" cried Eric, clapping his hands together, "if that long-legged +Egyptian isn't stealing my short pea-sticks again!" + +The bird slowly rose and flew on to the roof of a new building, which +ran along the end of the kitchen-garden, and whose walls were covered +with the branches of the peach and apricot trees that were trained +over them. + +"That's the distillery," said Eric. "I built it only two years ago. My +late father had the farm buildings rebuilt; the dwelling-house was +built as far back as my grandfather's time. So we go ever forward a +little bit at a time." + +Talking thus they came to a wide, open space, enclosed at the sides by +farm-buildings, and in the rear by the manor-house, the two wings of +which were connected by a high garden wall. Behind this wall ran dark +hedges of yew trees, while here and there syringa trees trailed their +blossoming branches over into the courtyard. + +Men with faces scorched by the sun and heated with toil were walking +over the open space and gave a greeting to the two friends, while Eric +called out to one or another of them some order or question about +their day's work. + +By this time they had reached the house. They entered a high, cool +vestibule, at the far end of which they turned to the left into a +somewhat darker passage. + +Here Eric opened a door and they passed into a spacious room that +opened into a garden. The heavy mass of leafage that covered the +opposite windows filled this room at either end with a green twilight, +while between the windows two lofty wide-open folding-doors let in the +full glow of spring sunshine, and afforded a view into a garden, laid +out with circular flower-beds and steep hedgerows and divided by a +straight, broad path, along which the eye roamed out on to the lake +and away over the woods growing on the opposite shore. + +As the two friends entered, a breath of wind bore in upon them a +perfect stream of fragrance. + +On a terrace in front of the door leading to the garden sat a girlish +figure dressed in white. She rose and came to meet the two friends as +they entered, but half-way she stood stock-still as if rooted to the +spot and stared at the stranger. With a smile he held out his hand to +her. + +"Reinhard!" she cried. "Reinhard! Oh! is it you? It is such a long +time since we have seen each other." + +"Yes, a long time," he said, and not a word more could he utter; for +on hearing her voice he felt a keen, physical pain at his heart, and +as he looked up to her, there she stood before him, the same slight, +graceful figure to whom he had said farewell years ago in the town +where he was born. + +Eric had stood back by the door, with joy beaming from his eyes. + +"Now, then, Elisabeth," he said, "isn't he really the very last person +in the world you would have expected to see?" + +Elisabeth looked at him with the eyes of a sister. "You are so kind, +Eric," she said. + +He took her slender hand caressingly in his. "And now that we have +him," he said, "we shall not be in a hurry to let him go. He has been +so long away abroad, we will try to make him feel at home again. Just +see how foreign-looking he has become, and what a distinguished +appearance he has!" + +Elisabeth shyly scanned Reinhard's face. "The time that we have been +separated is enough to account for that," she said. + +At this moment in at the door came her mother, key-basket on arm. + +"Herr Werner!" she cried, when she caught sight of Reinhard; "ah! you +are as dearly welcome as you are unexpected." + +And so the conversation went smoothly on with questions and answers. +The ladies sat over their work, and while Reinhard enjoyed the +refreshment that had been prepared for him, Eric had lighted his huge +meerschaum pipe and sat smoking and conversing by his side. + +Next day Reinhard had to go out with him to see the fields, the +vineyards, the hop-garden, the distillery. It was all well appointed; +the people who were working on the land or at the vats all had a +healthy and contented look. + +For dinner the family assembled in the room that opened into the +garden, and the day was spent more or less in company just according +to the leisure of the host and hostess. Only during the hours +preceding the evening meal, as also during the early hours of the +forenoon, did Reinhard stay working in his own room. + +For some years past, whenever he could come across them, he had been +collecting the rhymes and songs that form part of the life of the +people, and now set about arranging his treasure, and wherever +possible increasing it by means of fresh records from the immediate +neighbourhood. + +Elisabeth was at all times gentle and kind. Eric's constant attentions +she received with an almost humble gratitude, and Reinhard thought at +whiles that the gay, cheerful child of bygone days had given promise +of a somewhat less sedate womanhood. + +Ever since the second day of his visit he had been wont of an evening +to take a walk along the shore of the lake. The road led along close +under the garden. At the end of the latter, on a projecting mound, +there was a bench under some tall birch trees. Elisabeth's mother had +christened it the Evening Bench, because the spot faced westward, and +was mostly used at that time of the day in order to enjoy a view of +the sunset. + +One evening Reinhard was returning from his walk along this road when +he was overtaken by the rain. He sought shelter under one of the +linden trees that grew by the water-side, but the heavy drops were +soon pelting through the leaves. Wet through as he was he resigned +himself to his fate and slowly continued his homeward way. + +It was almost dark; the rain fell faster and faster. As he drew near +to the Evening Bench he fancied he could make out the figure of a +woman dressed in white standing among the gleaming birch tree trunks. +She stood motionless, and, as far as he could make out on approaching +nearer, with her face turned in his direction, as if she was expecting +some one. + +He thought it was Elisabeth. But when he quickened his pace in order +that he might catch up to her and then return together with her +through the garden into the house, she turned slowly away and +disappeared among the dark side-paths. + +He could not understand it; he was almost angry with Elisabeth, and yet +he doubted whether it had really been she. He was, however, shy of +questioning her about it--nay, he even avoided going into the +garden-room on his return to the house for fear he should happen to see +Elisabeth enter through the garden-door. + + * * * * * + + + + +BY MY MOTHER'S HARD DECREE + + + +Some days later, as evening was already closing in, the family was, as +usual at this time of the day, sitting all together in their +garden-room. The doors stood wide open, and the sun had already sunk +behind the woods on the far side of the lake. + +Reinhard was invited to read some folk-songs which had been sent to +him that afternoon by a friend who lived away in the country. He went +up to his room and soon returned with a roll of papers which seemed to +consist of detached neatly written pages. + +So they all sat down to the table, Elisabeth beside Reinhard. "We +shall read them at random," said the latter, "I have not yet looked +through them myself." + +Elisabeth unrolled the manuscript. "Here's some music," she said, "you +must sing it, Reinhard." + +To begin with he read some Tyrolese ditties[5] and as he read on he +would now and then hum one or other of the lively melodies. A general +feeling of cheeriness pervaded the little party. + +[5] Dialectal for _Schnitterhüpfen_, _i.e._ 'reapers' dances,' sung +especially in the Tyrol and in Bavaria. + +"And who, pray, made all these pretty songs?" asked Elisabeth. + +"Oh," said Eric, "you can tell that by listening to the rubbishy +things--tailors' apprentices and barbers and such-like merry folk." + +Reinhard said: "They are not made; they grow, they drop from the clouds, +they float over the land like gossamer, hither and thither, and are sung +in a thousand places at the same time.[6] We discover in these songs our +very inmost activities and sufferings: it is as if we all had helped to +write them." + +[6] These fine cobwebs, produced by field-spiders, have always in the +popular mind been connected with the gods. After the advent of +Christianity they were connected with the Virgin Mary. The shroud in +which she was wrapped after her death was believed to have been woven of +the very finest thread, which during her ascent to Heaven frayed away +from her body. + +He took up another sheet: "I stood on the mountain height..."[7] + +[7] An ancient folk-song which treats of a beautiful but poor maiden, +who, being unable to marry 'the young count,' retired to a convent. + +"I know that one," cried Elisabeth; "begin it, do, Reinhard, and I +will help you out." + +So they sang that famous melody, which is so mysterious that one can +hardly believe that it was ever conceived by the heart of man, +Elisabeth with her slightly clouded contralta taking the second part +to the young man's tenor. + +The mother meanwhile sat busy with her needlework, while Eric listened +attentively, with one hand clasped in the other. The song finished, +Reinhard laid the sheet on one side in silence. Up from the lake-shore +came through the evening calm the tinkle of the cattle bells; they +were all listening without knowing why, and presently they heard a +boy's clear voice singing: + + I stood on the mountain height + And viewed the deep valley beneath.... + +Reinhard smiled. "Do you hear that now? So it passes from mouth to +mouth." + +"It is often sung in these parts," said Elisabeth. + +"Yes," said Eric, "it is Casper the herdsman; he is driving the heifers +home."[8] + +[8] _Starke_ is the southern dialect word for _Färse_, 'young cow,' +'heifer.' + +They listened a while longer until the tinkle of the bells died away +behind the farm buildings. "These melodies are as old as the world," +said Reinhard; "they slumber in the depths of the forest; God knows +who discovered them." + +He drew forth a fresh sheet. + +It had now grown darker; a crimson evening glow lay like foam over the +woods in the farther side of the lake. Reinhard unrolled the sheet, +Elisabeth caught one side of it in her hand, and they both examined it +together. Then Reinhard read: + + By my mother's hard decree + Another's wife I needs must be; + Him on whom my heart was set, + Him, alas! I must forget; + My heart protesting, but not free. + + Bitterly did I complain + That my mother brought me pain. + What mine honour might have been, + That is turned to deadly sin. + Can I ever hope again? + + For my pride what can I show, + And my joy, save grief and woe? + Oh! could I undo what's done, + O'er the moor scorched by the sun + Beggarwise I'd gladly go. + +During the reading of this Reinhard had felt an imperceptible +quivering of the paper; and when he came to an end Elisabeth gently +pushed her chair back and passed silently out into the garden. Her +mother followed her with a look. Eric made as if to go after, but the +mother said: + +"Elisabeth has one or two little things to do outside," so he remained +where he was. + +But out of doors the evening brooded darker and darker over garden and +lake. Moths whirred past the open doors through which the fragrance of +flower and bush floated in increasingly; up from the water came the +croak of the frogs, under the windows a nightingale commenced his song +answered by another from within the depths of the garden; the moon +appeared over the tree-tops. + +Reinhard looked for a little while longer at the spot where +Elisabeth's sweet form had been lost to sight in the thick-foliaged +garden paths, and then he rolled up his manuscript, bade his friends +good-night and passed through the house down to the water. + +The woods stood silent and cast their dark shadow far out over the +lake, while the centre was bathed in the haze of a pale moonlight. Now +and then a gentle rustle trembled through the trees, though wind there +was none; it was but the breath of summer night. + +Reinhard continued along the shore. A stone's throw from the land he +perceived a white water-lily. All at once he was seized with the +desire to see it quite close, so he threw off his clothes and entered +the water. It was quite shallow; sharp stones and water plants cut his +feet, and yet he could not reach water deep enough for him to swim in. + +Then suddenly he stepped out of his depth: the waters swirled above +him; and it was some time before he rose to the surface again. He +struck out with hands and feet and swam about in a circle until he had +made quite sure from what point he had entered the water. And soon too +he saw the lily again floating lonely among the large, gleaming +leaves. + +He swam slowly out, lifting every now and then his arms out of the +water so that the drops trickled down and sparkled in the moonlight. +Yet the distance between him and the flower showed no signs of +diminishing, while the shore, as he glanced back at it, showed behind +him in a hazy mist that ever deepened. But he refused to give up the +venture and vigorously continued swimming in the same direction. + +At length he had come so near the flower that he was able clearly to +distinguish the silvery leaves in the moonlight; but at the same time +he felt himself entangled in a net formed by the smooth stems of the +water plants which swayed up from the bottom and wound themselves +round his naked limbs. + +The unfamiliar water was black all round about him, and behind him he +heard the sound of a fish leaping. Suddenly such an uncanny feeling +overpowered him in the midst of this strange element that with might +and main he tore asunder the network of plants and swam back to land +in breathless haste. And when from the shore he looked back upon the +lake, there floated the lily on the bosom of the darkling water as far +away and as lonely as before. + +He dressed and slowly wended his way home. As he passed out of the +garden into the room he discovered Eric and the mother busied with +preparations for a short journey which had to be undertaken for +business purposes on the morrow. + +"Where ever have you been so late in the dark?" the mother called out +to him. + +"I?" he answered, "oh, I wanted to pay a call on the water-lily, but I +failed." + +"That's beyond the comprehension of any man," said Eric. "What on +earth had you to do with the water-lily?" + +"Oh, I used to be friends with the lily once," said Reinhard; "but +that was long ago." + + * * * * * + + + + +ELISABETH + + + +The following afternoon Reinhard and Elisabeth went for a walk on the +farther side of the lake, strolling at times through the woodland, at +other times along the shore where it jutted out into the water. +Elisabeth had received injunctions from Eric, during the absence of +himself and her mother to show Reinhard the prettiest views in the +immediate neighbourhood, particularly the view toward the farm itself +from the other side of the lake. So now they proceeded from one point +to another. + +At last Elisabeth got tired and sat down in the shade of some +overhanging branches. Reinhard stood opposite to her, leaning against +a tree trunk; and as he heard the cuckoo calling farther back in the +woods, it suddenly struck him that all this had happened once before. +He looked at her and with an odd smile asked: + +"Shall we look for strawberries?" + +"It isn't strawberry time," she said. + +"No, but it will soon be here." + +Elisabeth shook her head in silence; then she rose and the two +strolled on together. And as they wandered side by side, his eyes ever +and again were bent toward her; for she walked gracefully and her step +was light. He often unconsciously fell back a pace in order that he +might feast his eyes on a full view of her. + +So they came to an open space overgrown with heather where the view +extended far over the country-side. Reinhard bent down and plucked a +bloom from one of the little plants that grew at his feet. When he +looked up again there was an expression of deep pain on his face. + +"Do you know this flower?" he asked. + +She gave him a questioning look. "It is an erica. I have often +gathered them in the woods." + +"I have an old book at home," he said; "I once used to write in it all +sorts of songs and rhymes, but that is all over and done with long +since. Between its leaves also there is an erica, but it is only a +faded one. Do you know who gave it me?" + +She nodded without saying a word; but she cast down her eyes and fixed +them on the bloom which he held in his hand. For a long time they +stood thus. When she raised her eyes on him again he saw that they +were brimming over with tears. + +"Elisabeth," he said, "behind yonder blue hills lies our youth. What +has become of it?" + +Nothing more was spoken. They walked dumbly by each other's side down +to the lake. The air was sultry; to westward dark clouds were rising. +"There's going to be a storm," said Elisabeth, hastening her steps. +Reinhard nodded in silence, and together they rapidly sped along the +shore till they reached their boat. + +On the way across Elisabeth rested her hand on the gunwale of the +boat. As he rowed Reinhard glanced along at her, but she gazed past +him into the distance. And so his glance fell downward and rested on +her hand, and the white hand betrayed to him what her lips had failed +to reveal. + +It revealed those fine traces of secret pain that so readily mark a +woman's fair hands, when they lie at nights folded across an aching +heart. And as Elisabeth felt his glance resting on her hand she let it +slip gently over the gunwale into the water. + +On arriving at the farm they fell in with a scissors grinder's cart +standing in front of the manor-house. A man with black, loosely-flowing +hair was busily plying his wheel and humming a gipsy melody between his +teeth, while a dog that was harnessed to the cart lay panting hard by. +On the threshold stood a girl dressed in rags, with features of faded +beauty, and with outstretched hand she asked alms of Elisabeth. + +Reinhard thrust his hand into his pocket, but Elisabeth was before +him, and hastily emptied the entire contents of her purse into the +beggar's open palm. Then she turned quickly away, and Reinhard heard +her go sobbing up the stairs. + +He would fain have detained her, but he changed his mind and remained +at the foot of the stairs. The beggar girl was still standing at the +doorway, motionless, and holding in her hand the money she had +received. + +"What more do you want?" asked Reinhard. + +She gave a sudden start: "I want nothing more," she said; then, +turning her head toward him and staring at him with wild eyes, she +passed slowly out of the door. He uttered a name, but she heard him +not; with drooping head, with arms folded over her breast, she walked +down across the farmyard: + + Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +An old song surged in Reinhard's ears, he gasped for breath; a little +while only, and then he turned away and went up to his chamber. + +He sat down to work, but his thoughts were far afield. After an hour's +vain attempt he descended to the parlour. Nobody was in it, only cool, +green twilight; on Elisabeth's work-table lay a red ribbon which she +had worn round her neck during the afternoon. He took it up in his +hand, but it hurt him, and he laid it down again. + +He could find no rest. He walked down to the lake and untied the boat. +He rowed over the water and trod once again all the paths which he and +Elisabeth had paced together but a short hour ago. When he got back +home it was dark. At the farm he met the coachman, who was about to +turn the carriage horses out into the pasture; the travellers had just +returned. + +As he came into the entrance hall he heard Eric pacing up and down the +garden-room. He did not go in to him; he stood still for a moment, and +then softly climbed the stairs and so to his own room. Here he sat in +the arm-chair by the window. He made himself believe that he was +listening to the nightingale's throbbing music in the garden hedges +below, but what he heard was the throbbing of his own heart. +Downstairs in the house every one went to bed, the night-hours passed, +but he paid no heed. + +For hours he sat thus, till at last he rose and leaned out of the open +window. The dew was dripping among the leaves, the nightingale had +ceased to trill. By degrees the deep blue of the darksome sky was +chased away by a faint yellow gleam that came from the east; a fresh +wind rose and brushed Reinhard's heated brow; the early lark soared +triumphant up into the sky. + +Reinhard suddenly turned and stepped up to the table. He groped about +for a pencil and when he had found one he sat down and wrote a few +lines on a sheet of white paper. Having finished his writing he took +up hat and stick, and leaving the paper behind him, carefully opened +the door and descended to the vestibule. + +The morning twilight yet brooded in every corner; the big house-cat +stretched its limbs on the straw mat and arched its back against +Reinhard's hand, which he unthinkingly held out to it. Outside in the +garden the sparrows were already chirping their patter from among the +branches, and giving notice to all that the night was now past.[9] + +[9] Literally, "sang out pompously, like priests." The word seems to +have been coined by the author. The English 'patter' is derived from +_Pater noster_, and seems an appropriate translation. + +Then within the house he heard a door open on the upper floor; some +one came downstairs, and on looking up he saw Elisabeth standing +before him. She laid her hand upon his arm, her lips moved, but not a +word did he hear. + +Presently she said: "You will never come back. I know it; do not deny +it; you will never come back." + +"No, never," he said. + +She let her hand fall from his arm and said no more. He crossed the +hall to the door, then turned once more. She was standing motionless +on the same spot and looking at him with lifeless eyes. He advanced +one step and opened his arms toward her; then, with a violent effort, +he turned away and so passed out of the door. + +Outside the world lay bathed in morning light, the drops of pearly dew +caught on the spiders' webs glistened in the first rays of the rising +sun. He never looked back; he walked rapidly onward; behind him the +peaceful farmstead gradually disappeared from view as out in front of +him rose the great wide world. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +The moon had ceased to shine in through the window-panes, and it had +grown quite dark; but the old man still sat in his arm-chair with +folded hands and gazed before him into the emptiness of the room. + +Gradually, the murky darkness around him dissolved away before his +eyes and changed into a broad dark lake; one black wave after another +went rolling on farther and farther, and on the last one, so far away +as to be almost beyond the reach of the old man's vision, floated +lonely among its broad leaves a white water-lily. + +The door opened, and a bright glare of light filled the room. + +"I am glad that you have come, Bridget," said the old man. "Set the +lamp upon the table." + +Then he drew his chair up to the table, took one of the open books and +buried himself in studies to which he had once applied all the +strength of his youth. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Immensee, by Theodore W. Storm + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMMENSEE *** + +***** This file should be named 6650-8.txt or 6650-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/6/5/6650/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Immensee + +Author: Theodore W. Storm + +Posting Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #6650] +Release Date: October, 2004 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMMENSEE *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +IMMENSEE + +BY THEODOR W. STORM + +TRANSLATED BY C. W. BELL M. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + + +We are at the beginning of a new era which will, it is to be hoped, be +marked by a general _rapprochement_ between the nations. The need to +know and understand one another is being felt more and more. It follows +that the study of foreign languages will assume an ever-increasing +importance; indeed, so far as language, literature, and music are +concerned, one may safely assert that _fas est et ab hoste doceri_. + +All those who wish to make acquaintance with the speech of their +neighbours, or who have allowed their former knowledge to grow rusty, +will welcome this edition, which will enable them, independently of +bulky dictionaries, to devote to language study the moments of leisure +which offer themselves in the course of the day. + +The texts have been selected from the double point of view of their +literary worth and of the usefulness of their vocabulary; in the +translations, also, the endeavour has been to unite qualities of style +with strict fidelity to the original. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + +Theodor W. Storm, poet and short-story writer (1817-1888), was born in +Schleswig. He was called to the Bar in his native town, Husum, in +1842, but had his licence to practise cancelled in 1853 for +'Germanophilism,' and had to remove to Germany. It was only in 1864 +that he was able to return to Husum, where in 1874 he became a judge +of the Court of Appeals. + +As early as 1843 he had made himself known as a lyrical poet of the +Romantic School, but it was as a short-story writer that he first took +a prominent place in literature, making a most happy _debut_ with +the story entitled _Immensee_. + +There followed a long series of tales, rich in fancy and in humour, +although their inspiration is generally derived from the humble town +and country life which formed his immediate environment; but he wrote +nothing that excels, in depth and tenderness of feeling, the charming +story of _Immensee_; and taking his work all in all, Storm still +ranks to-day as a master of the short story in German literature, rich +though it is in this form of prose-fiction. + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +One afternoon in the late autumn a well-dressed old man was walking +slowly down the street. He appeared to be returning home from a walk, +for his buckle-shoes, which followed a fashion long since out of date, +were covered with dust. + +Under his arm he carried a long, gold-headed cane; his dark eyes, in +which the whole of his long-lost youth seemed to have centred, and +which contrasted strangely with his snow-white hair, gazed calmly on +the sights around him or peered into the town below as it lay before +him, bathed in the haze of sunset. He appeared to be almost a +stranger, for of the passers-by only a few greeted him, although many +a one involuntarily was compelled to gaze into those grave eyes. + +At last he halted before a high, gabled house, cast one more glance +out toward the town, and then passed into the hall. At the sound of +the door-bell some one in the room within drew aside the green curtain +from a small window that looked out on to the hall, and the face of an +old woman was seen behind it. The man made a sign to her with his +cane. + +"No light yet!" he said in a slightly southern accent, and the +housekeeper let the curtain fall again. + +The old man now passed through the broad hall, through an inner hall, +wherein against the walls stood huge oaken chests bearing porcelain +vases; then through the door opposite he entered a small lobby, from +which a narrow staircase led to the upper rooms at the back of the +house. He climbed the stairs slowly, unlocked a door at the top, and +landed in a room of medium size. + +It was a comfortable, quiet retreat. One of the walls was lined with +cupboards and bookcases; on the other hung pictures of men and places; +on a table with a green cover lay a number of open books, and before +the table stood a massive arm-chair with a red velvet cushion. + +After the old man had placed his hat and stick in a corner, he sat down +in the arm-chair and, folding his hands, seemed to be taking his rest +after his walk. While he sat thus, it was growing gradually darker; and +before long a moonbeam came streaming through the window-panes and upon +the pictures on the wall; and as the bright band of light passed slowly +onward the old man followed it involuntarily with his eyes. + +Now it reached a little picture in a simple black frame. "Elisabeth!" +said the old man softly; and as he uttered the word, time had changed: +_he was young again_. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE CHILDREN + + + +Before very long the dainty form of a little maiden advanced toward +him. Her name was Elisabeth, and she might have been five years old. +He himself was twice that age. Round her neck she wore a red silk +kerchief which was very becoming to her brown eyes. + +"Reinhard!" she cried, "we have a holiday, a holiday! No school the +whole day and none to-morrow either!" + +Reinhard was carrying his slate under his arm, but he flung it behind +the front door, and then both the children ran through the house into +the garden and through the garden gate out into the meadow. The +unexpected holiday came to them at a most happily opportune moment. + +It was in the meadow that Reinhard, with Elisabeth's help, had built a +house out of sods of grass. They meant to live in it during the summer +evenings; but it still wanted a bench. He set to work at once; nails, +hammer, and the necessary boards were already to hand. + +While he was thus engaged, Elisabeth went along the dyke, gathering +the ring-shaped seeds of the wild mallow in her apron, with the object +of making herself chains and necklaces out of them; so that when +Reinhard had at last finished his bench in spite of many a crookedly +hammered nail, and came out into the sunlight again, she was already +wandering far away at the other end of the meadow. + +"Elisabeth!" he called, "Elisabeth!" and then she came, her hair +streaming behind her. + +"Come here," he said; "our house is finished now. Why, you have got +quite hot! Come in, and let us sit on the new bench. I will tell you a +story." + +So they both went in and sat down on the new bench. Elisabeth took the +little seed-rings out of her apron and strung them on long threads. +Reinhard began his tale: "There were once upon a time three +spinning-women..."[1] + +[1] The beginning of one of the best known of Grimm's fairy tales. + +"Oh!" said Elisabeth, "I know that off by heart; you really must not +always tell me the same story." + +Accordingly Reinhard had to give up the story of the three +spinning-women and tell instead the story of the poor man who was cast +into the den of lions. + +"It was now night," he said, "black night, you know, and the lions +were asleep. But every now and then they would yawn in their sleep and +shoot out their red tongues. And then the man would shudder and think +it was morning. All at once a bright light fell all about him, and +when he looked up an angel was standing before him. The angel beckoned +to him with his hand and then went straight into the rocks." + +Elisabeth had been listening attentively. "An angel?" she said. "Had +he wings then?" + +"It is only a story," answered Reinhard; "there are no angels, you +know." + +"Oh, fie! Reinhard!" she said, staring him straight in the face. + +He looked at her with a frown, and she asked him hesitatingly: "Well, +why do they always say there are? mother, and aunt, and at school as +well?" + +"I don't know," he answered. + +"But tell me," said Elisabeth, "are there no lions either?" + +"Lions? Are there lions? In India, yes. The heathen priests harness +them to their carriages, and drive about the desert with them. When +I'm big, I mean to go out there myself. It is thousands of times more +beautiful in that country than it is here at home; there's no winter +at all there. And you must come with me. Will you?" + +"Yes," said Elisabeth; "but mother must come with us, and your mother +as well." + +"No," said Reinhard, "they will be too old then, and cannot come with +us." + +"But I mayn't go by myself." + +"Oh, but you may right enough; you will then really be my wife, and +the others will have no say in the matter." + +"But mother will cry!" + +"We shall come back again of course," said Reinhard impetuously. "Now +just tell me straight out, will you go with me? If not, I will go all +alone, and then I shall never come back again." + +The little girl came very near to crying. "Please don't look so +angry," said she; "I will go to India with you." + +Reinhard seized both her hands with frantic glee, and rushed out with +her into the meadow. + +"To India, to India!" he sang, and swung her round and round, so that +her little red kerchief was whirled from off her neck. Then he +suddenly let her go and said solemnly: + +"Nothing will come of it, I'm sure; you haven't the pluck." + +"Elisabeth! Reinhard!" some one was now calling from the garden gate. +"Here we are!" the children answered, and raced home hand in hand. + + * * * * * + + + + +IN THE WOODS + + + +So the children lived together. She was often too quiet for him, and +he was often too head-strong for her, but for all that they stuck to +one another. They spent nearly all their leisure hours together: in +winter in their mothers' tiny rooms, during the summer in wood and +field. + +Once when Elisabeth was scolded by the teacher in Reinhard's hearing, +he angrily banged his slate upon the table in order to turn upon +himself the master's wrath. This failed to attract attention. + +But Reinhard paid no further attention to the geography lessons, and +instead he composed a long poem, in which he compared himself to a +young eagle, the schoolmaster to a grey crow, and Elisabeth to a white +dove; the eagle vowed vengeance on the grey crow, as soon as his wings +had grown. + +Tears stood in the young poet's eyes: he felt very proud of himself. +When he reached home he contrived to get hold of a little +parchment-bound volume with a lot of blank pages in it; and on the first +pages he elaborately wrote out his first poem. + +Soon after this he went to another school. Here he made many new +friendships among boys of his own age, but this did not interrupt his +comings and goings with Elisabeth. Of the stories which he had +formerly told her over and over again he now began to write down the +ones which she had liked best, and in doing so the fancy often took +him to weave in something of his own thoughts; yet, for some reason he +could not understand, he could never manage it. + +So he wrote them down exactly as he had heard them himself. Then he +handed them over to Elisabeth, who kept them carefully in a drawer of +her writing-desk, and now and again of an evening when he was present +it afforded him agreeable satisfaction to hear her reading aloud to +her mother these little tales out of the notebooks in which he had +written them. + +Seven years had gone by. Reinhard was to leave the town in order to +proceed to his higher education. Elisabeth could not bring herself to +think that there would now be a time to be passed entirely without +Reinhard. She was delighted when he told her one day that he would +continue to write out stories for her as before; he would send them to +her in the letters to his mother, and then she would have to write +back to him and tell him how she liked them. + +The day of departure was approaching, but ere it came a good deal more +poetry found its way into the parchment-bound volume. This was the one +secret he kept from Elisabeth, although she herself had inspired the +whole book and most of the songs, which gradually had filled up almost +half of the blank pages. + +It was the month of June, and Reinhard was to start on the following +day. It was proposed to spend one more festive day together and +therefore a picnic was arranged for a rather large party of friends in +an adjacent forest. + +It was an hour's drive along the road to the edge of the wood, and +there the company took down the provision baskets from the carriages +and walked the rest of the way. The road lay first of all through a +pine grove, where it was cool and darksome, and the ground was all +strewed with pine needles. + +After half an hour's walk they passed out of the gloom of the pine +trees into a bright fresh beech wood. Here everything was light and +green; every here and there a sunbeam burst through the leafy +branches, and high above their heads a squirrel was leaping from +branch to branch. + +The party came to a halt at a certain spot, over which the topmost +branches of ancient beech trees interwove a transparent canopy of +leaves. Elisabeth's mother opened one of the baskets, and an old +gentleman constituted himself quartermaster. + +"Round me, all of you young people," he cried, "and attend carefully +to what I have to say to you. For lunch each one of you will now get +two dry rolls; the butter has been left behind at home. The extras +every one must find for himself. There are plenty of strawberries in +the wood--that is, for anyone who knows where to find them. Unless you +are sharp, you'll have to eat dry bread; that's the way of the world +all over. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Yes, yes," cried the young folks. + +"Yes, but look here," said the old gentleman, "I have not done yet. We +old folks have done enough roaming about in our time, and therefore we +will stay at home now, here, I mean, under these wide-spreading trees, +and we'll peel the potatoes and make a fire and lay the table, and by +twelve o'clock the eggs shall be boiled. + +"In return for all this you will be owing us half of your +strawberries, so that we may also be able to serve some dessert. So +off you go now, east and west, and mind be honest." + +The young folks cast many a roguish glance at one another. + +"Wait," cried the old gentleman once again. "I suppose I need not tell +you this, that whoever finds none need not produce any; but take +particular note of this, that he will get nothing out of us old folks +either. Now you have had enough good advice for to-day; and if you +gather strawberries to match you will get on very well for the present +at any rate." + +The young people were of the same opinion, and pairing off in couples +set out on their quest. + +"Come along, Elisabeth," said Reinhard, "I know where there is a clump +of strawberry bushes; you shan't eat dry bread." + +Elisabeth tied the green ribbons of her straw hat together and hung it +on her arm. "Come on, then," she said, "the basket is ready." + +Off into the wood they went, on and on; on through moist shady glens, +where everything was so peaceful, except for the cry of the falcon +flying unseen in the heavens far above their heads; on again through +the thick brushwood, so thick that Reinhard must needs go on ahead to +make a track, here snapping off a branch, there bending aside a +trailing vine. But ere long he heard Elisabeth behind him calling out +his name. He turned round. + +"Reinhard!" she called, "do wait for me! Reinhard!" + +He could not see her, but at length he caught sight of her some way +off struggling with the undergrowth, her dainty head just peeping out +over the tops of the ferns. So back he went once more and brought her +out from the tangled mass of briar and brake into an open space where +blue butterflies fluttered among the solitary wood blossoms. + +Reinhard brushed the damp hair away from her heated face, and would +have tied the straw hat upon her head, but she refused; yet at his +earnest request she consented after all. + +"But where are your strawberries?" she asked at length, standing still +and drawing a deep breath. + +"They were here," he said, "but the toads have got here before us, or +the martens, or perhaps the fairies." + +"Yes," said Elisabeth, "the leaves are still here; but not a word +about fairies in this place. Come along, I'm not a bit tired yet; let +us look farther on." + +In front of them ran a little brook, and on the far side the wood +began again. Reinhard raised Elisabeth in his arms and carried her +over. After a while they emerged from the shady foliage and stood in a +wide clearing. + +"There must be strawberries here," said the girl, "it all smells so +sweet." + +They searched about the sunny spot, but they found none. "No," said +Reinhard, "it is only the smell of the heather." + +Everywhere was a confusion of raspberry-bushes and holly, and the air +was filled with a strong smell of heather, patches of which alternated +with the short grass over these open spaces. + +"How lonely it is here!" said Elisabeth "I wonder where the others +are?" + +Reinhard had never thought of getting back. + +"Wait a bit," he said, holding his hand aloft; "where is the wind +coming from?" But wind there was none. + +"Listen!" said Elisabeth, "I think I heard them talking. Just give a +call in that direction." + +Reinhard hollowed his hand and shouted: "Come here!" + +"Here!" was echoed back. + +"They answered," cried Elisabeth clapping her hands. + +"No, that was nothing; it was only the echo." + +Elisabeth seized Reinhard's hand. "I'm frightened!" she said. + +"Oh! no, you must not be frightened. It is lovely here. Sit down there +in the shade among the long grass. Let us rest awhile: we'll find the +others soon enough." + +Elisabeth sat down under the overhanging branch of a beech and +listened intently in every direction. Reinhard sat a few paces off on +a tree stump, and gazed over at her in silence. + +The sun was just above their heads, shining with the full glare of +midday heat. Tiny, gold-flecked, steel-blue flies poised in the air +with vibrating wings. Their ears caught a gentle humming and buzzing +all round them, and far away in the wood were heard now and again the +tap-tap of the woodpecker and the screech of other birds. + +"Listen," said Elisabeth, "I hear a bell." + +"Where?" asked Reinhard. + +"Behind us. Do you hear it? It is striking twelve o'clock." + +"Then the town lies behind us, and if we go straight through in this +direction we are bound to fall in with the others." + +So they started on their homeward way; they had given up looking for +strawberries, for Elisabeth had become tired. And at last there rang +out from among the trees the laughing voices of the picnic party; then +they saw too a white cloth spread gleaming on the ground; it was the +luncheon-table and on it were strawberries enough and to spare. + +The old gentleman had a table-napkin tucked in his button-hole and was +continuing his moral sermon to the young folks and vigorously carving +a joint of roast meat. + +"Here come the stragglers," cried the young people when they saw +Reinhard and Elisabeth advancing among the trees. + +"This way," shouted the old gentleman. "Empty your handkerchiefs, +upside down, with your hats! Now show us what you have found." + +"Only hunger and thirst," said Reinhard. + +"If that's all," replied the old man, lifting up and showing them the +bowl full of fruit, "you must keep what you've got. You remember the +agreement: nothing here for lazybones to eat." + +But in the end he was prevailed on to relent; the banquet proceeded, +and a thrush in a juniper bush provided the music. + +So the day passed. But Reinhard had, after all, found something, and +though it was not strawberries yet it was something that had grown in +the wood. When he got home this is what he wrote in his old +parchment-bound volume: + + Out on the hill-side yonder + The wind to rest is laid; + Under the drooping branches + There sits the little maid. + + She sits among the wild thyme, + She sits in the fragrant air; + The blue flies hum around her, + Bright wings flash everywhere. + + And through the silent woodland + She peers with watchful eyen, + While on her hazel ringlets + Sparkles the glad sunshine. + + And far, far off the cuckoo + Laughs out his song. + I ween Hers are the bright, the golden + Eyes of the woodland queen. + +So she was not only his little sweetheart, but was also the expression +of all that was lovely and wonderful in his opening life. + + * * * * * + + + + +BY THE ROADSIDE THE CHILD STOOD + + + +The time is Christmas Eve. Before the close of the afternoon Reinhard +and some other students were sitting together at an old oak table in the +Ratskeller.[2] + +[2] The basement of the Rathaus or Town Hall. This, in almost every +German town of importance, has become a restaurant and place of +refreshment. + +The lamps on the wall were lighted, for down here in the basement it was +already growing dark; but there was only a thin sprinkling of customers +present, and the waiters were leaning idly up against the pillars let +into the walls. + +In a corner of the vaulted room sat a fiddler and a fine-featured +gipsy-girl with a zither; their instruments lay in their laps, and +they seemed to be looking about them with an air of indifference. + +A champagne cork popped off at the table occupied by the students. +"Drink, my gipsy darling!" cried a young man of aristocratic +appearance, holding out to the girl a glass full of wine. + +"I don't care about it," she said, without altering her position. + +"Well, then, give us a song," cried the young nobleman, and threw a +silver coin into her lap. The girl slowly ran her fingers through her +black hair while the fiddler whispered in her ear. But she threw back +her head, and rested her chin on her zither. + +"For him," she said, "I'm not going to play." + +Reinhard leapt up with his glass in his hand and stood in front of +her. + +"What do you want?" she asked defiantly. + +"To have a look at your eyes." + +"What have my eyes to do with you?" + +Reinhard's glance flashed down on her. "I _know_ they are false." + +She laid her cheek in the palm of her hand and gave him a searching +look. Reinhard raised his glass to his mouth. + +"Here's to your beautiful, wicked eyes!" he said, and drank. + +She laughed and tossed her head. + +"Give it here," she said, and fastening her black eyes on his, she +slowly drank what was left in the glass. Then she struck a chord and +sang in a deep, passionate voice: + + To-day, to-day thou think'st me + Fairest maid of all; + To-morrow, ah! then beauty + Fadeth past recall. + While the hour remaineth, + Thou art yet mine own; + Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +While the fiddler struck up an allegro finale, a new arrival joined +the group. + +"I went to call for you, Reinhard," he said, "You had already gone +out, but Santa Claus had paid you a visit." + +"Santa Claus?" said Reinhard. "Santa Claus never comes to me now." + +"Oh, yes, he does! The whole of your room smelt of Christmas tree and +ginger cakes." + +Reinhard dropped the glass out of his hand and seized his cap. + +"Well, what are you going to do now?" asked the girl. + +"I'll be back in a minute." + +She frowned. "Stay," she said gently, casting an amorous glance at +him. + +Reinhard hesitated. "I can't," he said. + +She laughingly gave him a tap with the toe of her shoe and said: "Go +away, then, you good-for-nothing; you are one as bad as the other, all +good-for-nothings." And as she turned away from him, Reinhard went +slowly up the steps of the Ratskeller. + +Outside in the street deep twilight had set in; he felt the cool +winter air blowing on his heated brow. From some window every here and +there fell the bright gleam of a Christmas tree all lighted up, now +and then was heard from within some room the sound of little pipes and +tin trumpets mingled with the merry din of children's voices. + +Crowds of beggar children were going from house to house or climbing +up on to the railings of the front steps, trying to catch a glimpse +through the window of a splendour that was denied to them. Sometimes +too a door would suddenly be flung open, and scolding voices would +drive a whole swarm of these little visitors away out into the dark +street. In the vestibule of yet another house they were singing an old +Christmas carol, and little girls' clear voices were heard among the +rest. + +But Reinhard heard not; he passed quickly by them all, out of one +street into another. When he reached his lodging it had grown almost +quite dark; he stumbled up the stairs and so gained his apartment. + +A sweet fragrance greeted him; it reminded him of home; it was the +smell of the parlour in his mother's house at Christmas time. With +trembling hand he lit his lamp; and there lay a mighty parcel on the +table. When he opened it, out fell the familiar ginger cakes. On some +of them were the initial letters of his name written in sprinkles of +sugar; no one but Elisabeth could have done that. + +Next came to view a little parcel containing neatly embroidered linen, +handkerchiefs and cuffs; and finally letters from his mother and +Elisabeth. Reinhard opened Elisabeth's letter first, and this is what +she wrote: + +"The pretty sugared letters will no doubt tell you who helped with the +cakes. The same person also embroidered the cuffs for you. We shall +have a very quiet time at home this Christmas Eve. Mother always puts +her spinning-wheel away in the corner as early as half-past nine. It +is so very lonesome this winter now that you are not here. + +"And now, too, the linnet you made me a present of died last Sunday. +It made me cry a good deal, though I am sure I looked after it well. + +"It always used to sing of an afternoon when the sun shone on its +cage. You remember how often mother would hang a piece of cloth over +the cage in order to keep it quiet when it sang so lustily. + +"Thus our room is now quieter than ever, except that your old friend +Eric now drops in to see us occasionally. You told us once that he was +just like his brown top-coat. I can't help thinking of it every time +he comes in at the door, and it is really too funny; but don't tell +mother, it might easily make her angry. + +"Guess what I am giving your mother for a Christmas present! You can't +guess? Well, it is myself! Eric is making a drawing of me in black +chalk; I have had to give him three sittings, each time for a whole +hour. + +"I simply loathed the idea of a stranger getting to know my face so +well. Nor did I wish it, but mother pressed me, and said it would very +much please dear Frau Werner. + +"But you are not keeping your word, Reinhard. You haven't sent me any +stories. I have often complained to your mother about it, but she +always says you now have more to do than to attend to such childish +things. But I don't believe it; there's something else perhaps." + +After this Reinhard read his mother's letter, and when he had read +them both and slowly folded them up again and put them away, he was +overcome with an irresistible feeling of home-sickness. For a long +while he walked up and down his room, talking softly to himself, and +then, under his breath, he murmured: + + I have err'd from the straight path, + Bewildered I roam; + By the roadside the child stands + And beckons me home. + +Then he went to his desk, took out some money, and stepped down into +the street again. During all this while it had become quieter out +there; the lights on the Christmas trees had burnt out, the +processions of children had come to an end. The wind was sweeping +through the deserted streets; old and young alike were sitting +together at home in family parties; the second period of Christmas Eve +celebrations had begun. + +As Reinhard drew near the Ratskeller he heard from below the scraping +of the fiddle and the singing of the zither girl. The restaurant door +bell tinkled and a dark form staggered up the broad dimly-lighted +stair. + +Reinhard drew aside into the shadow of the houses and then passed +swiftly by. After a while he reached the well-lighted shop of a +jeweller, and after buying a little cross studded with red corals, he +returned by the same way he had come. + +Not far from his lodgings he caught sight of a little girl, dressed in +miserable rags, standing before a tall door, in a vain attempt to open +it. + +"Shall I help you?" he said. + +The child gave no answer, but let go the massive door-handle. Reinhard +had soon opened the door. + +"No," he said; "they might drive you out again. Come along with me, +and I'll give you some Christmas cake." + +He then closed the door again and gave his hand to the little girl, +who walked along with him in silence to his lodgings. + +On going out he had left the light burning. + +"Here are some cakes for you," he said, pouring half of his whole +stock into her apron, though he gave none that bore the sugar letters. + +"Now, off you go home, and give your mother some of them too." + +The child cast a shy look up at him; she seemed unaccustomed to such +kindness and unable to say anything in reply. Reinhard opened the +door, and lighted her way, and then the little thing like a bird flew +downstairs with her cakes and out of the house. + +Reinhard poked the fire in the stove, set the dusty ink-stand on the +table, and then sat down and wrote and wrote letters the whole night +long to his mother and Elisabeth. + +The remainder of the Christmas cakes lay untouched by his side, but he +had buttoned on Elisabeth's cuffs, and odd they looked on his shaggy +coat of undyed wool. And there he was still sitting when the winter +sun cast its light on the frosted window-panes, and showed him a pale, +grave face reflected in the looking-glass. + + * * * * * + + + + +HOME + + + +When the Easter vacation came Reinhard journeyed home. On the morning +after his arrival he went to see Elisabeth. + +"How tall you've grown," he said, as the pretty, slender girl advanced +with a smile to meet him. She blushed, but made no reply; he had taken +her hand in his own in greeting, and she tried to draw it gently away. +He looked at her doubtingly, for never had she done that before; but +now it was as if some strange thing was coming between them. + +The same feeling remained, too, after he had been at home for some +time and came to see her constantly day after day. When they sat alone +together there ensued pauses in the conversation which distressed him, +and which he anxiously did his best to avoid. In order to have a +definite occupation during the holidays, he began to give Elisabeth +some instruction in botany, in which he himself had been keenly +interested during the early months of his university career. + +Elisabeth, who was wont to follow him in all things and was moreover +very quick to learn, willingly entered into the proposal. So now +several times in the week they made excursions into the fields or the +moors, and if by midday they brought home their green field-box full +of plants and flowers, Reinhard would come again later in the day and +share with Elisabeth what they had collected in common. + +With this same object in view, he entered the room one afternoon while +Elisabeth was standing by the window and sticking some fresh chick-weed +in a gilded birdcage which he had not seen in the place before. In the +cage was a canary, which was flapping its wings and shrilly chirruping +as it pecked at Elisabeth's fingers. Previously to this Reinhard's bird +had hung in that spot. + +"Has my poor linnet changed into a goldfinch after its death?" he +asked jovially. + +"Linnets are not accustomed to do any such thing," said Elizabeth's +mother, who sat spinning in her arm-chair. "Your friend Eric sent it +this noon from his estate as a present for Elisabeth." + +"What estate?" + +"Why, don't you know?" + +"Know what?" + +"That a month ago Eric took over his father's second estate by the +Immensee."[3] + +[3] _i.e._ the 'Lake of the Bees' + +"But you have never said a word to me about it." + +"Well," said the mother, "you haven't yet made a single word of +inquiry after your friend. He is a very nice, sensible young man." + +The mother went out of the room to make the coffee. Elisabeth had her +back turned to Reinhard, and was still busy with the making of her +little chick-weed bower. + +"Please, just a little longer," she said, "I'll be done in a minute." + +As Reinhard did not answer, contrary to his wont, she turned round and +faced him. In his eyes there was a sudden expression of trouble which +she had never observed before in them. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she said, drawing nearer to +him. + +"With me?" he said, his thoughts far away and his eyes resting +dreamily on hers. + +"You look so sad." + +"Elisabeth," he said, "I cannot bear that yellow bird." + +She looked at him in astonishment, without understanding his meaning. +"You are so strange," she said. + +He took both her hands in his, and she let him keep them there. Her +mother came back into the room shortly after; and after they had drunk +their coffee she sat down at her spinning-wheel, while Reinhard and +Elisabeth went off into the next room to arrange their plants. + +Stamens were counted, leaves and blossoms carefully opened out, and +two specimens of each sort were laid to dry between the pages of a +large folio volume. + +All was calm and still this sunny afternoon; the only sounds to be +heard were the hum of the mother's spinning-wheel in the next room, +and now and then the subdued voice of Reinhard, as he named the orders +of the families of the plants, and corrected Elisabeth's awkward +pronunciation of the Latin names. + +"I am still short of that lily of the valley which I didn't get last +time," said she, after the whole collection had been classified and +arranged. + +Reinhard pulled a little white vellum volume from his pocket. "Here is +a spray of the lily of the valley for you," he said, taking out a +half-pressed bloom. + +When Elisabeth saw the pages all covered with writing, she asked: +"Have you been writing stories again?" + +"These aren't stories," he answered, handing her the book. + +The contents were all poems, and the majority of them at most filled +one page. Elisabeth turned over the leaves one after another; she +appeared to be reading the titles only. "When she was scolded by the +teacher." "When they lost their way in the woods." "An Easter story." +"On her writing to me for the first time." Thus ran most of the +titles. + +Reinhard fixed his eyes on her with a searching look, and as she kept +turning over the leaves he saw that a gentle blush arose and gradually +mantled over the whole of her sweet face. He would fain have looked +into her eyes, but Elisabeth did not look up, and finally laid the +book down before him without a word. + +"Don't give it back like that," he said. + +She took a brown spray out of the tin case. "I will put your favourite +flower inside," she said, giving back the book into his hands. + +At length came the last day of the vacation and the morning of his +departure. At her own request Elisabeth received permission from her +mother to accompany her friend to the stage-coach, which had its +station a few streets from their house. + +When they passed out of the front door Reinhard gave her his arm, and +thus he walked in silence side by side with the slender maiden. The +nearer they came to their destination the more he felt as if he had +something he must say to her before he bade her a long farewell, +something on which all that was worthy and all that was sweet in his +future life depended, and yet he could not formulate the saving word. +In his anguish, he walked slower and slower. + +"You'll be too late," she said; "it has already struck ten by St +Mary's clock." + +But he did not quicken his pace for all that. At last he stammered +out: + +"Elisabeth, you will not see me again for two whole years. Shall I be +as dear to you as ever when I come back?" + +She nodded, and looked affectionately into his face. + +"I stood up for you too," she said, after a pause. + +"Me? And against whom had you to stand up for me?" + +"Against my mother. We were talking about you a long time yesterday +evening after you left. She thought you were not so nice now as you +once were." + +Reinhard held his peace for a moment: then he took her hand in his, +and looking gravely into her childish eyes, he said: + +"I am still just as nice as I ever was; I would have you firmly +believe that. Do you believe it, Elisabeth?" + +"Yes," she said. + +He freed her hand and quickly walked with her through the last street. +The nearer he felt the time of parting approach, the happier became +the look on his face; he went almost too quickly for her. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she asked. + +"I have a secret, a beautiful secret," said Reinhard, looking at her +with a light in his eyes. "When I come back again in two years' time, +then you shall know it." + +Meanwhile they had reached the stage-coach; they were only just in +time. Once more Reinhard took her hand. "Farewell!" he said, +"farewell, Elisabeth! Do not forget!" + +She shook her head. "Farewell," she said. Reinhard climbed up into the +coach and the horses started. As the coach rumbled round the corner of +the street he saw her dear form once more as she slowly wended her way +home. + + * * * * * + + + + +A LETTER + + + +Nearly two years later Reinhard was sitting by lamplight with his +books and papers around him, expecting a friend with whom he used to +study in common. Some one came upstairs. "Come in." It was the +landlady. "A letter for you, Herr Werner," and she went away. + +Reinhard had never written to Elisabeth since his visit home, and he +had received no letter from her. Nor was this one from her; it was in +his mother's handwriting. + +Reinhard broke the seal and read, and ere long he came to this +paragraph: + +"At your time of life, my dear boy, nearly every year still brings its +own peculiar experience; for youth is apt to turn everything to the +best account. At home, too, things have changed very much, and all +this will, I fear, cause you much pain at first, if my understanding +of you is at all correct. + +"Yesterday Eric was at last accepted by Elisabeth, after having twice +proposed in vain during the last three months. She had never been able +to make up her mind to it, but now in the end she has done so. To my +mind she is still far too young. The wedding is to take place soon, +and her mother means to go away with them." + + * * * * * + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + +Again years have passed. One warm afternoon in spring a young man, +whose sunburnt face was the picture of health, was walking along a +shady road through the wood leading down to the valley below. + +His grave dark eyes looked intently into the distance, as though he +was expecting to find every moment some change in the monotony of the +road, a change however which seemed reluctant to come about. At length +he saw a cart slowly coming up from below. + +"Hullo! my friend," shouted the traveller to the farmer, who was +walking by the side of the cart, "is this the right road to Immensee?" + +"Yes, straight on," answered the man touching his slouch hat. + +"Is it still far off?" + +"You are close to the place, sir. In less time than it takes to smoke +half a pipe of tobacco you'll be at the lake side, and the manor is +hard by." + +The farmer passed on while the other quickened his pace as he went +along under the trees. After a quarter of an hour's walk the shade to +the left of him suddenly came to an end; the road led along a steep +slope from which the ancient oaks growing below hardly reared their +topmost branches. + +Away over their crests opened out a broad, sunny landscape. Far below +lay the peaceful, dark-blue lake, almost entirely surrounded by green +sun-lit woods, save where on one spot they divided and afforded an +extensive view until it closed in the distant blue mountains. + +Straight opposite, in the middle of all this forest verdure, there lay +a patch of white, like driven snow. This was an expanse of blossoming +fruit-trees, and out of them, up on the high lake shore, rose the +manor-house, shining white, with tiles of red. A stork flew up from +the chimney, and circled slowly above the waters. + +"Immensee!" exclaimed the traveller. + +It almost seemed as if he had now reached the end of his journey, for +he stood motionless, looking out over the tops of the trees at his +feet, and gazing at the farther shore, where the reflection of the +manor-house floated, rocking gently, on the bosom of the water. Then +he suddenly started on his way again. + +His road now led almost steeply down the mountain-side, so that the +trees that had once stood below him again gave him their shade, but at +the same time cut off from him the view of the lake, which only now +and then peeped out between the gaps in the branches. + +Soon the way went gently upwards again, and to left and right the +woods disappeared, yielding place to vine-clad hills stretching along +the pathway; while on either side stood fruit-trees in blossom, filled +with the hum of the bees as they busily pried into the blossoms. A +tall man wearing a brown overcoat advanced to meet the traveller. When +he had almost come up to him, he waved his cap and cried out in a loud +voice: + +"Welcome, welcome, brother Reinhard! Welcome to my Immensee estate!" + +"God's greeting to you[4], Eric, and thank you for +your welcome," replied the other. + +[4] This form of salutation is especially common in the south of +Germany. + +By this time they had come up close to one another, and clasped hands. + +"And is it really you?" said Eric, when he at last got a near sight of +the grave face of his old school-fellow. + +"It is I right enough, Eric, and I recognize you too; only you almost +look cheerier than you ever did before." + +At these words a glad smile made Eric's plain features all the more +cheerful. + +"Yes, brother Reinhard," he said, as he once more held out his hand to +him, "but since those days, you see, I have won the great prize; but +you know that well enough." + +Then he rubbed his hands and cried cheerily: "This _will_ be a +surprise! You are the last person she expects to see." + +"A surprise?" asked Reinhard. "For whom, pray?" + +"Why, for Elisabeth." + +"Elisabeth! You haven't told her a word about my visit?" + +"Not a word, brother Reinhard; she has no thought of you, nor her +mother either. I invited you entirely on the quiet, in order that the +pleasure might be all the greater. You know I always had little quiet +schemes of my own." + +Reinhard turned thoughtful; he seemed to breathe more heavily the +nearer they approached the house. + +On the left side of the road the vineyards came to an end, and gave +place to an extensive kitchen-garden, which reached almost as far as +the lake-shore. The stork had meanwhile come to earth and was striding +solemnly between the vegetable beds. + +"Hullo!" cried Eric, clapping his hands together, "if that long-legged +Egyptian isn't stealing my short pea-sticks again!" + +The bird slowly rose and flew on to the roof of a new building, which +ran along the end of the kitchen-garden, and whose walls were covered +with the branches of the peach and apricot trees that were trained +over them. + +"That's the distillery," said Eric. "I built it only two years ago. My +late father had the farm buildings rebuilt; the dwelling-house was +built as far back as my grandfather's time. So we go ever forward a +little bit at a time." + +Talking thus they came to a wide, open space, enclosed at the sides by +farm-buildings, and in the rear by the manor-house, the two wings of +which were connected by a high garden wall. Behind this wall ran dark +hedges of yew trees, while here and there syringa trees trailed their +blossoming branches over into the courtyard. + +Men with faces scorched by the sun and heated with toil were walking +over the open space and gave a greeting to the two friends, while Eric +called out to one or another of them some order or question about +their day's work. + +By this time they had reached the house. They entered a high, cool +vestibule, at the far end of which they turned to the left into a +somewhat darker passage. + +Here Eric opened a door and they passed into a spacious room that +opened into a garden. The heavy mass of leafage that covered the +opposite windows filled this room at either end with a green twilight, +while between the windows two lofty wide-open folding-doors let in the +full glow of spring sunshine, and afforded a view into a garden, laid +out with circular flower-beds and steep hedgerows and divided by a +straight, broad path, along which the eye roamed out on to the lake +and away over the woods growing on the opposite shore. + +As the two friends entered, a breath of wind bore in upon them a +perfect stream of fragrance. + +On a terrace in front of the door leading to the garden sat a girlish +figure dressed in white. She rose and came to meet the two friends as +they entered, but half-way she stood stock-still as if rooted to the +spot and stared at the stranger. With a smile he held out his hand to +her. + +"Reinhard!" she cried. "Reinhard! Oh! is it you? It is such a long +time since we have seen each other." + +"Yes, a long time," he said, and not a word more could he utter; for +on hearing her voice he felt a keen, physical pain at his heart, and +as he looked up to her, there she stood before him, the same slight, +graceful figure to whom he had said farewell years ago in the town +where he was born. + +Eric had stood back by the door, with joy beaming from his eyes. + +"Now, then, Elisabeth," he said, "isn't he really the very last person +in the world you would have expected to see?" + +Elisabeth looked at him with the eyes of a sister. "You are so kind, +Eric," she said. + +He took her slender hand caressingly in his. "And now that we have +him," he said, "we shall not be in a hurry to let him go. He has been +so long away abroad, we will try to make him feel at home again. Just +see how foreign-looking he has become, and what a distinguished +appearance he has!" + +Elisabeth shyly scanned Reinhard's face. "The time that we have been +separated is enough to account for that," she said. + +At this moment in at the door came her mother, key-basket on arm. + +"Herr Werner!" she cried, when she caught sight of Reinhard; "ah! you +are as dearly welcome as you are unexpected." + +And so the conversation went smoothly on with questions and answers. +The ladies sat over their work, and while Reinhard enjoyed the +refreshment that had been prepared for him, Eric had lighted his huge +meerschaum pipe and sat smoking and conversing by his side. + +Next day Reinhard had to go out with him to see the fields, the +vineyards, the hop-garden, the distillery. It was all well appointed; +the people who were working on the land or at the vats all had a +healthy and contented look. + +For dinner the family assembled in the room that opened into the +garden, and the day was spent more or less in company just according +to the leisure of the host and hostess. Only during the hours +preceding the evening meal, as also during the early hours of the +forenoon, did Reinhard stay working in his own room. + +For some years past, whenever he could come across them, he had been +collecting the rhymes and songs that form part of the life of the +people, and now set about arranging his treasure, and wherever +possible increasing it by means of fresh records from the immediate +neighbourhood. + +Elisabeth was at all times gentle and kind. Eric's constant attentions +she received with an almost humble gratitude, and Reinhard thought at +whiles that the gay, cheerful child of bygone days had given promise +of a somewhat less sedate womanhood. + +Ever since the second day of his visit he had been wont of an evening +to take a walk along the shore of the lake. The road led along close +under the garden. At the end of the latter, on a projecting mound, +there was a bench under some tall birch trees. Elisabeth's mother had +christened it the Evening Bench, because the spot faced westward, and +was mostly used at that time of the day in order to enjoy a view of +the sunset. + +One evening Reinhard was returning from his walk along this road when +he was overtaken by the rain. He sought shelter under one of the +linden trees that grew by the water-side, but the heavy drops were +soon pelting through the leaves. Wet through as he was he resigned +himself to his fate and slowly continued his homeward way. + +It was almost dark; the rain fell faster and faster. As he drew near +to the Evening Bench he fancied he could make out the figure of a +woman dressed in white standing among the gleaming birch tree trunks. +She stood motionless, and, as far as he could make out on approaching +nearer, with her face turned in his direction, as if she was expecting +some one. + +He thought it was Elisabeth. But when he quickened his pace in order +that he might catch up to her and then return together with her +through the garden into the house, she turned slowly away and +disappeared among the dark side-paths. + +He could not understand it; he was almost angry with Elisabeth, and yet +he doubted whether it had really been she. He was, however, shy of +questioning her about it--nay, he even avoided going into the +garden-room on his return to the house for fear he should happen to see +Elisabeth enter through the garden-door. + + * * * * * + + + + +BY MY MOTHER'S HARD DECREE + + + +Some days later, as evening was already closing in, the family was, as +usual at this time of the day, sitting all together in their +garden-room. The doors stood wide open, and the sun had already sunk +behind the woods on the far side of the lake. + +Reinhard was invited to read some folk-songs which had been sent to +him that afternoon by a friend who lived away in the country. He went +up to his room and soon returned with a roll of papers which seemed to +consist of detached neatly written pages. + +So they all sat down to the table, Elisabeth beside Reinhard. "We +shall read them at random," said the latter, "I have not yet looked +through them myself." + +Elisabeth unrolled the manuscript. "Here's some music," she said, "you +must sing it, Reinhard." + +To begin with he read some Tyrolese ditties[5] and as he read on he +would now and then hum one or other of the lively melodies. A general +feeling of cheeriness pervaded the little party. + +[5] Dialectal for _Schnitterhuepfen_, _i.e._ 'reapers' dances,' sung +especially in the Tyrol and in Bavaria. + +"And who, pray, made all these pretty songs?" asked Elisabeth. + +"Oh," said Eric, "you can tell that by listening to the rubbishy +things--tailors' apprentices and barbers and such-like merry folk." + +Reinhard said: "They are not made; they grow, they drop from the clouds, +they float over the land like gossamer, hither and thither, and are sung +in a thousand places at the same time.[6] We discover in these songs our +very inmost activities and sufferings: it is as if we all had helped to +write them." + +[6] These fine cobwebs, produced by field-spiders, have always in the +popular mind been connected with the gods. After the advent of +Christianity they were connected with the Virgin Mary. The shroud in +which she was wrapped after her death was believed to have been woven of +the very finest thread, which during her ascent to Heaven frayed away +from her body. + +He took up another sheet: "I stood on the mountain height..."[7] + +[7] An ancient folk-song which treats of a beautiful but poor maiden, +who, being unable to marry 'the young count,' retired to a convent. + +"I know that one," cried Elisabeth; "begin it, do, Reinhard, and I +will help you out." + +So they sang that famous melody, which is so mysterious that one can +hardly believe that it was ever conceived by the heart of man, +Elisabeth with her slightly clouded contralta taking the second part +to the young man's tenor. + +The mother meanwhile sat busy with her needlework, while Eric listened +attentively, with one hand clasped in the other. The song finished, +Reinhard laid the sheet on one side in silence. Up from the lake-shore +came through the evening calm the tinkle of the cattle bells; they +were all listening without knowing why, and presently they heard a +boy's clear voice singing: + + I stood on the mountain height + And viewed the deep valley beneath.... + +Reinhard smiled. "Do you hear that now? So it passes from mouth to +mouth." + +"It is often sung in these parts," said Elisabeth. + +"Yes," said Eric, "it is Casper the herdsman; he is driving the heifers +home."[8] + +[8] _Starke_ is the southern dialect word for _Faerse_, 'young cow,' +'heifer.' + +They listened a while longer until the tinkle of the bells died away +behind the farm buildings. "These melodies are as old as the world," +said Reinhard; "they slumber in the depths of the forest; God knows +who discovered them." + +He drew forth a fresh sheet. + +It had now grown darker; a crimson evening glow lay like foam over the +woods in the farther side of the lake. Reinhard unrolled the sheet, +Elisabeth caught one side of it in her hand, and they both examined it +together. Then Reinhard read: + + By my mother's hard decree + Another's wife I needs must be; + Him on whom my heart was set, + Him, alas! I must forget; + My heart protesting, but not free. + + Bitterly did I complain + That my mother brought me pain. + What mine honour might have been, + That is turned to deadly sin. + Can I ever hope again? + + For my pride what can I show, + And my joy, save grief and woe? + Oh! could I undo what's done, + O'er the moor scorched by the sun + Beggarwise I'd gladly go. + +During the reading of this Reinhard had felt an imperceptible +quivering of the paper; and when he came to an end Elisabeth gently +pushed her chair back and passed silently out into the garden. Her +mother followed her with a look. Eric made as if to go after, but the +mother said: + +"Elisabeth has one or two little things to do outside," so he remained +where he was. + +But out of doors the evening brooded darker and darker over garden and +lake. Moths whirred past the open doors through which the fragrance of +flower and bush floated in increasingly; up from the water came the +croak of the frogs, under the windows a nightingale commenced his song +answered by another from within the depths of the garden; the moon +appeared over the tree-tops. + +Reinhard looked for a little while longer at the spot where +Elisabeth's sweet form had been lost to sight in the thick-foliaged +garden paths, and then he rolled up his manuscript, bade his friends +good-night and passed through the house down to the water. + +The woods stood silent and cast their dark shadow far out over the +lake, while the centre was bathed in the haze of a pale moonlight. Now +and then a gentle rustle trembled through the trees, though wind there +was none; it was but the breath of summer night. + +Reinhard continued along the shore. A stone's throw from the land he +perceived a white water-lily. All at once he was seized with the +desire to see it quite close, so he threw off his clothes and entered +the water. It was quite shallow; sharp stones and water plants cut his +feet, and yet he could not reach water deep enough for him to swim in. + +Then suddenly he stepped out of his depth: the waters swirled above +him; and it was some time before he rose to the surface again. He +struck out with hands and feet and swam about in a circle until he had +made quite sure from what point he had entered the water. And soon too +he saw the lily again floating lonely among the large, gleaming +leaves. + +He swam slowly out, lifting every now and then his arms out of the +water so that the drops trickled down and sparkled in the moonlight. +Yet the distance between him and the flower showed no signs of +diminishing, while the shore, as he glanced back at it, showed behind +him in a hazy mist that ever deepened. But he refused to give up the +venture and vigorously continued swimming in the same direction. + +At length he had come so near the flower that he was able clearly to +distinguish the silvery leaves in the moonlight; but at the same time +he felt himself entangled in a net formed by the smooth stems of the +water plants which swayed up from the bottom and wound themselves +round his naked limbs. + +The unfamiliar water was black all round about him, and behind him he +heard the sound of a fish leaping. Suddenly such an uncanny feeling +overpowered him in the midst of this strange element that with might +and main he tore asunder the network of plants and swam back to land +in breathless haste. And when from the shore he looked back upon the +lake, there floated the lily on the bosom of the darkling water as far +away and as lonely as before. + +He dressed and slowly wended his way home. As he passed out of the +garden into the room he discovered Eric and the mother busied with +preparations for a short journey which had to be undertaken for +business purposes on the morrow. + +"Where ever have you been so late in the dark?" the mother called out +to him. + +"I?" he answered, "oh, I wanted to pay a call on the water-lily, but I +failed." + +"That's beyond the comprehension of any man," said Eric. "What on +earth had you to do with the water-lily?" + +"Oh, I used to be friends with the lily once," said Reinhard; "but +that was long ago." + + * * * * * + + + + +ELISABETH + + + +The following afternoon Reinhard and Elisabeth went for a walk on the +farther side of the lake, strolling at times through the woodland, at +other times along the shore where it jutted out into the water. +Elisabeth had received injunctions from Eric, during the absence of +himself and her mother to show Reinhard the prettiest views in the +immediate neighbourhood, particularly the view toward the farm itself +from the other side of the lake. So now they proceeded from one point +to another. + +At last Elisabeth got tired and sat down in the shade of some +overhanging branches. Reinhard stood opposite to her, leaning against +a tree trunk; and as he heard the cuckoo calling farther back in the +woods, it suddenly struck him that all this had happened once before. +He looked at her and with an odd smile asked: + +"Shall we look for strawberries?" + +"It isn't strawberry time," she said. + +"No, but it will soon be here." + +Elisabeth shook her head in silence; then she rose and the two +strolled on together. And as they wandered side by side, his eyes ever +and again were bent toward her; for she walked gracefully and her step +was light. He often unconsciously fell back a pace in order that he +might feast his eyes on a full view of her. + +So they came to an open space overgrown with heather where the view +extended far over the country-side. Reinhard bent down and plucked a +bloom from one of the little plants that grew at his feet. When he +looked up again there was an expression of deep pain on his face. + +"Do you know this flower?" he asked. + +She gave him a questioning look. "It is an erica. I have often +gathered them in the woods." + +"I have an old book at home," he said; "I once used to write in it all +sorts of songs and rhymes, but that is all over and done with long +since. Between its leaves also there is an erica, but it is only a +faded one. Do you know who gave it me?" + +She nodded without saying a word; but she cast down her eyes and fixed +them on the bloom which he held in his hand. For a long time they +stood thus. When she raised her eyes on him again he saw that they +were brimming over with tears. + +"Elisabeth," he said, "behind yonder blue hills lies our youth. What +has become of it?" + +Nothing more was spoken. They walked dumbly by each other's side down +to the lake. The air was sultry; to westward dark clouds were rising. +"There's going to be a storm," said Elisabeth, hastening her steps. +Reinhard nodded in silence, and together they rapidly sped along the +shore till they reached their boat. + +On the way across Elisabeth rested her hand on the gunwale of the +boat. As he rowed Reinhard glanced along at her, but she gazed past +him into the distance. And so his glance fell downward and rested on +her hand, and the white hand betrayed to him what her lips had failed +to reveal. + +It revealed those fine traces of secret pain that so readily mark a +woman's fair hands, when they lie at nights folded across an aching +heart. And as Elisabeth felt his glance resting on her hand she let it +slip gently over the gunwale into the water. + +On arriving at the farm they fell in with a scissors grinder's cart +standing in front of the manor-house. A man with black, loosely-flowing +hair was busily plying his wheel and humming a gipsy melody between his +teeth, while a dog that was harnessed to the cart lay panting hard by. +On the threshold stood a girl dressed in rags, with features of faded +beauty, and with outstretched hand she asked alms of Elisabeth. + +Reinhard thrust his hand into his pocket, but Elisabeth was before +him, and hastily emptied the entire contents of her purse into the +beggar's open palm. Then she turned quickly away, and Reinhard heard +her go sobbing up the stairs. + +He would fain have detained her, but he changed his mind and remained +at the foot of the stairs. The beggar girl was still standing at the +doorway, motionless, and holding in her hand the money she had +received. + +"What more do you want?" asked Reinhard. + +She gave a sudden start: "I want nothing more," she said; then, +turning her head toward him and staring at him with wild eyes, she +passed slowly out of the door. He uttered a name, but she heard him +not; with drooping head, with arms folded over her breast, she walked +down across the farmyard: + + Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +An old song surged in Reinhard's ears, he gasped for breath; a little +while only, and then he turned away and went up to his chamber. + +He sat down to work, but his thoughts were far afield. After an hour's +vain attempt he descended to the parlour. Nobody was in it, only cool, +green twilight; on Elisabeth's work-table lay a red ribbon which she +had worn round her neck during the afternoon. He took it up in his +hand, but it hurt him, and he laid it down again. + +He could find no rest. He walked down to the lake and untied the boat. +He rowed over the water and trod once again all the paths which he and +Elisabeth had paced together but a short hour ago. When he got back +home it was dark. At the farm he met the coachman, who was about to +turn the carriage horses out into the pasture; the travellers had just +returned. + +As he came into the entrance hall he heard Eric pacing up and down the +garden-room. He did not go in to him; he stood still for a moment, and +then softly climbed the stairs and so to his own room. Here he sat in +the arm-chair by the window. He made himself believe that he was +listening to the nightingale's throbbing music in the garden hedges +below, but what he heard was the throbbing of his own heart. +Downstairs in the house every one went to bed, the night-hours passed, +but he paid no heed. + +For hours he sat thus, till at last he rose and leaned out of the open +window. The dew was dripping among the leaves, the nightingale had +ceased to trill. By degrees the deep blue of the darksome sky was +chased away by a faint yellow gleam that came from the east; a fresh +wind rose and brushed Reinhard's heated brow; the early lark soared +triumphant up into the sky. + +Reinhard suddenly turned and stepped up to the table. He groped about +for a pencil and when he had found one he sat down and wrote a few +lines on a sheet of white paper. Having finished his writing he took +up hat and stick, and leaving the paper behind him, carefully opened +the door and descended to the vestibule. + +The morning twilight yet brooded in every corner; the big house-cat +stretched its limbs on the straw mat and arched its back against +Reinhard's hand, which he unthinkingly held out to it. Outside in the +garden the sparrows were already chirping their patter from among the +branches, and giving notice to all that the night was now past.[9] + +[9] Literally, "sang out pompously, like priests." The word seems to +have been coined by the author. The English 'patter' is derived from +_Pater noster_, and seems an appropriate translation. + +Then within the house he heard a door open on the upper floor; some +one came downstairs, and on looking up he saw Elisabeth standing +before him. She laid her hand upon his arm, her lips moved, but not a +word did he hear. + +Presently she said: "You will never come back. I know it; do not deny +it; you will never come back." + +"No, never," he said. + +She let her hand fall from his arm and said no more. He crossed the +hall to the door, then turned once more. She was standing motionless +on the same spot and looking at him with lifeless eyes. He advanced +one step and opened his arms toward her; then, with a violent effort, +he turned away and so passed out of the door. + +Outside the world lay bathed in morning light, the drops of pearly dew +caught on the spiders' webs glistened in the first rays of the rising +sun. He never looked back; he walked rapidly onward; behind him the +peaceful farmstead gradually disappeared from view as out in front of +him rose the great wide world. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +The moon had ceased to shine in through the window-panes, and it had +grown quite dark; but the old man still sat in his arm-chair with +folded hands and gazed before him into the emptiness of the room. + +Gradually, the murky darkness around him dissolved away before his +eyes and changed into a broad dark lake; one black wave after another +went rolling on farther and farther, and on the last one, so far away +as to be almost beyond the reach of the old man's vision, floated +lonely among its broad leaves a white water-lily. + +The door opened, and a bright glare of light filled the room. + +"I am glad that you have come, Bridget," said the old man. "Set the +lamp upon the table." + +Then he drew his chair up to the table, took one of the open books and +buried himself in studies to which he had once applied all the +strength of his youth. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Immensee, by Theodore W. Storm + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMMENSEE *** + +***** This file should be named 6650.txt or 6650.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/6/5/6650/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Immensee + +Author: Theodore W. Storm + +Posting Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #6650] +Release Date: October, 2004 +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, IMMENSEE *** + + + + +Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +IMMENSEE + +BY THEODOR W. STORM + +TRANSLATED BY C. W. BELL M. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + + +We are at the beginning of a new era which will, it is to be hoped, be +marked by a general <i>rapprochement</i> between the nations. The need +to know and understand one another is being felt more and more. It +follows that the study of foreign languages will assume an ever- +increasing importance; indeed, so far as language, literature, and +music are concerned, one may safely assert that <i>fas est et ab hoste +doceri</i>. + +All those who wish to make acquaintance with the speech of their +neighbours, or who have allowed their former knowledge to grow rusty, +will welcome this edition, which will enable them, independently of +bulky dictionaries, to devote to language study the moments of leisure +which offer themselves in the course of the day. + +The texts have been selected from the double point of view of their +literary worth and of the usefulness of their vocabulary; in the +translations, also, the endeavour has been to unite qualities of style +with strict fidelity to the original. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + +Theodor W. Storm, poet and short-story writer (1817-1888), was born in +Schleswig. He was called to the Bar in his native town, Husum, in +1842, but had his licence to practise cancelled in 1853 for +'Germanophilism,' and had to remove to Germany. It was only in 1864 +that he was able to return to Husum, where in 1874 he became a judge +of the Court of Appeals. + +As early as 1843 he had made himself known as a lyrical poet of the +Romantic School, but it was as a short-story writer that he first took +a prominent place in literature, making a most happy <i>debut</i> with +the story entitled <i>Immensee</i>. + +There followed a long series of tales, rich in fancy and in humour, +although their inspiration is generally derived from the humble town +and country life which formed his immediate environment; but he wrote +nothing that excels, in depth and tenderness of feeling, the charming +story of <i>Immensee</i>; and taking his work all in all, Storm still +ranks to-day as a master of the short story in German literature, rich +though it is in this form of prose-fiction. + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +0ne afternoon in the late autumn a well-dressed old man was walking +slowly down the street. He appeared to be returning home from a walk, +for his buckle-shoes, which followed a fashion long since out of date, +were covered with dust. + +Under his arm he carried a long, gold-headed cane; his dark eyes, in +which the whole of his long-lost youth seemed to have centred, and +which contrasted strangely with his snow-white hair, gazed calmly on +the sights around him or peered into the town below as it lay before +him, bathed in the haze of sunset. He appeared to be almost a +stranger, for of the passers-by only a few greeted him, although many +a one involuntarily was compelled to gaze into those grave eyes. + +At last he halted before a high, gabled house, cast one more glance +out toward the town, and then passed into the hall. At the sound of +the door-bell some one in the room within drew aside the green curtain +from a small window that looked out on to the hall, and the face of an +old woman was seen behind it. The man made a sign to her with his +cane. + +"No light yet!" he said in a slightly southern accent, and the +housekeeper let the curtain fall again. + +The old man now passed through the broad hall, through an inner hall, +wherein against the walls stood huge oaken chests bearing porcelain +vases; then through the door opposite he entered a small lobby, from +which a narrow staircase led to the upper rooms at the back of the +house. He climbed the stairs slowly, unlocked a door at the top, and +landed in a room of medium size. + +It was a comfortable, quiet retreat. One of the walls was lined with +cupboards and bookcases; on the other hung pictures of men and places; +on a table with a green cover lay a number of open books, and before +the table stood a massive arm-chair with a red velvet cushion. + +After the old man had placed his hat and stick in a corner, he sat +down in the arm-chair and, folding his hands, seemed to be taking his +rest after his walk. While he sat thus, it was growing gradually +darker; and before long a moonbeam came streaming through the window- +panes and upon the pictures on the wall; and as the bright band of +light passed slowly onward the old man followed it involuntarily with +his eyes. + +Now it reached a little picture in a simple black frame. "Elisabeth!" +said the old man softly; and as he uttered the word, time had changed: +<i>he was young again</i>. + +* * * * * + + + + +THE CHILDREN + + + +Before very long the dainty form of a little maiden advanced toward +him. Her name was Elisabeth, and she might have been five years old. +He himself was twice that age. Round her neck she wore a red silk +kerchief which was very becoming to her brown eyes. + +"Reinhard!" she cried, "we have a holiday, a holiday! No school the +whole day and none to-morrow either!" + +Reinhard was carrying his slate under his arm, but he flung it behind +the front door, and then both the children ran through the house into +the garden and through the garden gate out into the meadow. The +unexpected holiday came to them at a most happily opportune moment. + +It was in the meadow that Reinhard, with Elisabeth's help, had built a +house out of sods of grass. They meant to live in it during the summer +evenings; but it still wanted a bench. He set to work at once; nails, +hammer, and the necessary boards were already to hand. + +While he was thus engaged, Elisabeth went along the dyke, gathering +the ring-shaped seeds of the wild mallow in her apron, with the object +of making herself chains and necklaces out of them; so that when +Reinhard had at last finished his bench in spite of many a crookedly +hammered nail, and came out into the sunlight again, she was already +wandering far away at the other end of the meadow. + +"Elisabeth!" he called, "Elisabeth!" and then she came, her hair +streaming behind her. + +"Come here," he said; "our house is finished now. Why, you have got +quite hot! Come in, and let us sit on the new bench. I will tell you a +story." + +So they both went in and sat down on the new bench. Elisabeth took the +little seed-rings out of her apron and strung them on long threads. +Reinhard began his tale: "There were once upon a time three spinning- +women..." [Footnote: The beginning of one of the best known of Grimm's +fairy tales.] + +"Oh!" said Elisabeth, "I know that off by heart; you really must not +always tell me the same story." + +Accordingly Reinhard had to give up the story of the three spinning- +women and tell instead the story of the poor man who was cast into the +den of lions. + +"It was now night," he said, "black night, you know, and the lions +were asleep. But every now and then they would yawn in their sleep and +shoot out their red tongues. And then the man would shudder and think +it was morning. All at once a bright light fell all about him, and +when he looked up an angel was standing before him. The angel beckoned +to him with his hand and then went straight into the rocks." + +Elisabeth had been listening attentively. "An angel?" she said. "Had +he wings then?" + +"It is only a story," answered Reinhard; "there are no angels, you +know." + +"Oh, fie! Reinhard!" she said, staring him straight in the face. + +He looked at her with a frown, and she asked him hesitatingly: "Well, +why do they always say there are? mother, and aunt, and at school as +well?" + +"I don't know," he answered. + +"But tell me," said Elisabeth, "are there no lions either?" + +"Lions? Are there lions? In India, yes. The heathen priests harness +them to their carriages, and drive about the desert with them. When +I'm big, I mean to go out there myself. It is thousands of times more +beautiful in that country than it is here at home; there's no winter +at all there. And you must come with me. Will you?" + +"Yes," said Elisabeth; "but mother must come with us, and your mother +as well." + +"No," said Reinhard, "they will be too old then, and cannot come with +us." + +"But I mayn't go by myself." + +"Oh, but you may right enough; you will then really be my wife, and +the others will have no say in the matter." + +"But mother will cry!" + +"We shall come back again of course," said Reinhard impetuously. "Now +just tell me straight out, will you go with me? If not, I will go all +alone, and then I shall never come back again." + +The little girl came very near to crying. "Please don't look so +angry," said she; "I will go to India with you." + +Reinhard seized both her hands with frantic glee, and rushed out with +her into the meadow. + +"To India, to India!" he sang, and swung her round and round, so that +her little red kerchief was whirled from off her neck. Then he +suddenly let her go and said solemnly: + +"Nothing will come of it, I'm sure; you haven't the pluck." + +"Elisabeth! Reinhard!" some one was now calling from the garden gate. +"Here we are!" the children answered, and raced home hand in hand. + +* * * * * + + + + +IN THE WOODS + + + +So the children lived together. She was often too quiet for him, and +he was often too head-strong for her, but for all that they stuck to +one another. They spent nearly all their leisure hours together: in +winter in their mothers' tiny rooms, during the summer in wood and +field. + +Once when Elisabeth was scolded by the teacher in Reinhard's hearing, +he angrily banged his slate upon the table in order to turn upon +himself the master's wrath. This failed to attract attention. + +But Reinhard paid no further attention to the geography lessons, and +instead he composed a long poem, in which he compared himself to a +young eagle, the schoolmaster to a grey crow, and Elisabeth to a white +dove; the eagle vowed vengeance on the grey crow, as soon as his wings +had grown. + +Tears stood in the young poet's eyes: he felt very proud of himself. +When he reached home he contrived to get hold of a little parchment- +bound volume with a lot of blank pages in it; and on the first pages +he elaborately wrote out his first poem. + +Soon after this he went to another school. Here he made many new +friendships among boys of his own age, but this did not interrupt his +comings and goings with Elisabeth. Of the stories which he had +formerly told her over and over again he now began to write down the +ones which she had liked best, and in doing so the fancy often took +him to weave in something of his own thoughts; yet, for some reason he +could not understand, he could never manage it. + +So he wrote them down exactly as he had heard them himself. Then he +handed them over to Elisabeth, who kept them carefully in a drawer of +her writing-desk, and now and again of an evening when he was present +it afforded him agreeable satisfaction to hear her reading aloud to +her mother these little tales out of the notebooks in which he had +written them. + +Seven years had gone by. Reinhard was to leave the town in order to +proceed to his higher education. Elisabeth could not bring herself to +think that there would now be a time to be passed entirely without +Reinhard. She was delighted when he told her one day that he would +continue to write out stories for her as before; he would send them to +her in the letters to his mother, and then she would have to write +back to him and tell him how she liked them. + +The day of departure was approaching, but ere it came a good deal more +poetry found its way into the parchment-bound volume. This was the one +secret he kept from Elisabeth, although she herself had inspired the +whole book and most of the songs, which gradually had filled up almost +half of the blank pages. + +It was the month of June, and Reinhard was to start on the following +day. It was proposed to spend one more festive day together and +therefore a picnic was arranged for a rather large party of friends in +an adjacent forest. + +It was an hour's drive along the road to the edge of the wood, and +there the company took down the provision baskets from the carriages +and walked the rest of the way. The road lay first of all through a +pine grove, where it was cool and darksome, and the ground was all +strewed with pine needles. + +After half an hour's walk they passed out of the gloom of the pine +trees into a bright fresh beech wood. Here everything was light and +green; every here and there a sunbeam burst through the leafy +branches, and high above their heads a squirrel was leaping from +branch to branch. + +The party came to a halt at a certain spot, over which the topmost +branches of ancient beech trees interwove a transparent canopy of +leaves. Elisabeth's mother opened one of the baskets, and an old +gentleman constituted himself quartermaster. + +"Round me, all of you young people," he cried, "and attend carefully +to what I have to say to you. For lunch each one of you will now get +two dry rolls; the butter has been left behind at home. The extras +every one must find for himself. There are plenty of strawberries in +the wood--that is, for anyone who knows where to find them. Unless you +are sharp, you'll have to eat dry bread; that's the way of the world +all over. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Yes, yes," cried the young folks. + +"Yes, but look here," said the old gentleman, "I have not done yet. We +old folks have done enough roaming about in our time, and therefore we +will stay at home now, here, I mean, under these wide-spreading trees, +and we'll peel the potatoes and make a fire and lay the table, and by +twelve o'clock the eggs shall be boiled. + +"In return for all this you will be owing us half of your +strawberries, so that we may also be able to serve some dessert. So +off you go now, east and west, and mind be honest." + +The young folks cast many a roguish glance at one another. + +"Wait," cried the old gentleman once again. "I suppose I need not tell +you this, that whoever finds none need not produce any; but take +particular note of this, that he will get nothing out of us old folks +either. Now you have had enough good advice for to-day; and if you +gather strawberries to match you will get on very well for the present +at any rate." + +The young people were of the same opinion, and pairing off in couples +set out on their quest. + +"Come along, Elisabeth," said Reinhard, "I know where there is a clump +of strawberry bushes; you shan't eat dry bread." + +Elisabeth tied the green ribbons of her straw hat together and hung it +on her arm. "Come on, then," she said, "the basket is ready." + +Off into the wood they went, on and on; on through moist shady glens, +where everything was so peaceful, except for the cry of the falcon +flying unseen in the heavens far above their heads; on again through +the thick brushwood, so thick that Reinhard must needs go on ahead to +make a track, here snapping off a branch, there bending aside a +trailing vine. But ere long he heard Elisabeth behind him calling out +his name. He turned round. + +"Reinhard!" she called, "do wait for me! Reinhard!" + +He could not see her, but at length he caught sight of her some way +off struggling with the undergrowth, her dainty head just peeping out +over the tops of the ferns. So back he went once more and brought her +out from the tangled mass of briar and brake into an open space where +blue butterflies fluttered among the solitary wood blossoms. + +Reinhard brushed the damp hair away from her heated face, and would +have tied the straw hat upon her head, but she refused; yet at his +earnest request she consented after all. + +"But where are your strawberries?" she asked at length, standing still +and drawing a deep breath. + +"They were here," he said, "but the toads have got here before us, or +the martens, or perhaps the fairies." + +"Yes," said Elisabeth, "the leaves are still here; but not a word +about fairies in this place. Come along, I'm not a bit tired yet; let +us look farther on." + +In front of them ran a little brook, and on the far side the wood +began again. Reinhard raised Elisabeth in his arms and carried her +over. After a while they emerged from the shady foliage and stood in a +wide clearing. + +"There must be strawberries here," said the girl, "it all smells so +sweet." + +They searched about the sunny spot, but they found none. "No," said +Reinhard, "it is only the smell of the heather." + +Everywhere was a confusion of raspberry-bushes and holly, and the air +was filled with a strong smell of heather, patches of which alternated +with the short grass over these open spaces. + +"How lonely it is here!" said Elisabeth "I wonder where the others +are?" + +Reinhard had never thought of getting back. + +"Wait a bit," he said, holding his hand aloft; "where is the wind +coming from?" But wind there was none. + +"Listen!" said Elisabeth, "I think I heard them talking. Just give a +call in that direction." + +Reinhard hollowed his hand and shouted: "Come here!" + +"Here!" was echoed back. + +"They answered," cried Elisabeth clapping her hands. + +"No, that was nothing; it was only the echo." + +Elisabeth seized Reinhard's hand. "I'm frightened!" she said. + +"Oh! no, you must not be frightened. It is lovely here. Sit down there +in the shade among the long grass. Let us rest awhile: we'll find the +others soon enough." + +Elisabeth sat down under the overhanging branch of a beech and +listened intently in every direction. Reinhard sat a few paces off on +a tree stump, and gazed over at her in silence. + +The sun was just above their heads, shining with the full glare of +midday heat. Tiny, gold-flecked, steel-blue flies poised in the air +with vibrating wings. Their ears caught a gentle humming and buzzing +all round them, and far away in the wood were heard now and again the +tap-tap of the woodpecker and the screech of other birds. + +"Listen," said Elisabeth, "I hear a bell." + +"Where?" asked Reinhard. + +"Behind us. Do you hear it? It is striking twelve o'clock." + +"Then the town lies behind us, and if we go straight through in this +direction we are bound to fall in with the others." + +So they started on their homeward way; they had given up looking for +strawberries, for Elisabeth had become tired. And at last there rang +out from among the trees the laughing voices of the picnic party; then +they saw too a white cloth spread gleaming on the ground; it was the +luncheon-table and on it were strawberries enough and to spare. + +The old gentleman had a table-napkin tucked in his button-hole and was +continuing his moral sermon to the young folks and vigorously carving +a joint of roast meat. + +"Here come the stragglers," cried the young people when they saw +Reinhard and Elisabeth advancing among the trees. + +"This way," shouted the old gentleman. "Empty your handkerchiefs, +upside down, with your hats! Now show us what you have found." + +"Only hunger and thirst," said Reinhard. + +"If that's all," replied the old man, lifting up and showing them the +bowl full of fruit, "you must keep what you've got. You remember the +agreement: nothing here for lazybones to eat." + +But in the end he was prevailed on to relent; the banquet proceeded, +and a thrush in a juniper bush provided the music. + +So the day passed. But Reinhard had, after all, found something, and +though it was not strawberries yet it was something that had grown in +the wood. When he got home this is what he wrote in his old parchment- +bound volume: + +Out on the hill-side yonder + The wind to rest is laid; + Under the drooping branches + There sits the little maid. + +She sits among the wild thyme, + She sits in the fragrant air; +The blue flies hum around her, + Bright wings flash everywhere. + +And through the silent woodland + She peers with watchful eyen, +While on her hazel ringlets + Sparkles the glad sunshine. + +And far, far off the cuckoo + Laughs out his song. +I ween Hers are the bright, the golden + Eyes of the woodland queen. + +So she was not only his little sweetheart, but was also the expression +of all that was lovely and wonderful in his opening life. + +* * * * * + + + + +BY THE ROADSIDE THE CHILD STOOD + + + +The time is Christmas Eve. Before the close of the afternoon Reinhard +and some other students were sitting together at an old oak table in +the Ratskeller. [Footnote: The basement of the Rathaus or Town Hall. +This, in almost every German town of importance, has become a +restaurant and place of refreshment.] The lamps on the wall were +lighted, for down here in the basement it was already growing dark; +but there was only a thin sprinkling of customers present, and the +waiters were leaning idly up against the pillars let into the walls. + +In a corner of the vaulted room sat a fiddler and a fine-featured +gipsy-girl with a zither; their instruments lay in their laps, and +they seemed to be looking about them with an air of indifference. + +A champagne cork popped off at the table occupied by the students. +"Drink, my gipsy darling!" cried a young man of aristocratic +appearance, holding out to the girl a glass full of wine. + +"I don't care about it," she said, without altering her position. + +"Well, then, give us a song," cried the young nobleman, and threw a +silver coin into her lap. The girl slowly ran her fingers through her +black hair while the fiddler whispered in her ear. But she threw back +her head, and rested her chin on her zither. + +"For him," she said, "I'm not going to play." + +Reinhard leapt up with his glass in his hand and stood in front of +her. + +"What do you want?" she asked defiantly. + +"To have a look at your eyes." + +"What have my eyes to do with you?" + +Reinhard's glance flashed down on her. "I <i>know</i> they are false." + +She laid her cheek in the palm of her hand and gave him a searching +look. Reinhard raised his glass to his mouth. + +"Here's to your beautiful, wicked eyes!" he said, and drank. + +She laughed and tossed her head. + +"Give it here," she said, and fastening her black eyes on his, she +slowly drank what was left in the glass. Then she struck a chord and +sang in a deep, passionate voice: + +To-day, to-day thou think'st me + Fairest maid of all; +To-morrow, ah! then beauty + Fadeth past recall. +While the hour remaineth, + Thou art yet mine own; +Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +While the fiddler struck up an allegro finale, a new arrival joined +the group. + +"I went to call for you, Reinhard," he said, "You had already gone +out, but Santa Claus had paid you a visit." + +"Santa Claus?" said Reinhard. "Santa Claus never comes to me now." + +"Oh, yes, he does! The whole of your room smelt of Christmas tree and +ginger cakes." + +Reinhard dropped the glass out of his hand and seized his cap. + +"Well, what are you going to do now?" asked the girl. + + "I'll be back in a minute." + +She frowned. "Stay," she said gently, casting an amorous glance at +him. + +Reinhard hesitated. "I can't," he said. + +She laughingly gave him a tap with the toe of her shoe and said: "Go +away, then, you good-for-nothing; you are one as bad as the other, all +good-for-nothings." And as she turned away from him, Reinhard went +slowly up the steps of the Ratskeller. + +Outside in the street deep twilight had set in; he felt the cool +winter air blowing on his heated brow. From some window every here and +there fell the bright gleam of a Christmas tree all lighted up, now +and then was heard from within some room the sound of little pipes and +tin trumpets mingled with the merry din of children's voices. + +Crowds of beggar children were going from house to house or climbing +up on to the railings of the front steps, trying to catch a glimpse +through the window of a splendour that was denied to them. Sometimes +too a door would suddenly be flung open, and scolding voices would +drive a whole swarm of these little visitors away out into the dark +street. In the vestibule of yet another house they were singing an old +Christmas carol, and little girls' clear voices were heard among the +rest. + +But Reinhard heard not; he passed quickly by them all, out of one +street into another. When he reached his lodging it had grown almost +quite dark; he stumbled up the stairs and so gained his apartment. + +A sweet fragrance greeted him; it reminded him of home; it was the +smell of the parlour in his mother's house at Christmas time. With +trembling hand he lit his lamp; and there lay a mighty parcel on the +table. When he opened it, out fell the familiar ginger cakes. On some +of them were the initial letters of his name written in sprinkles of +sugar; no one but Elisabeth could have done that. + +Next came to view a little parcel containing neatly embroidered linen, +handkerchiefs and cuffs; and finally letters from his mother and +Elisabeth. Reinhard opened Elisabeth's letter first, and this is what +she wrote: + +"The pretty sugared letters will no doubt tell you who helped with the +cakes. The same person also embroidered the cuffs for you. We shall +have a very quiet time at home this Christmas Eve. Mother always puts +her spinning-wheel away in the corner as early as half-past nine. It +is so very lonesome this winter now that you are not here. + +"And now, too, the linnet you made me a present of died last Sunday. +It made me cry a good deal, though I am sure I looked after it well. + +"It always used to sing of an afternoon when the sun shone on its +cage. You remember how often mother would hang a piece of cloth over +the cage in order to keep it quiet when it sang so lustily. + +"Thus our room is now quieter than ever, except that your old friend +Eric now drops in to see us occasionally. You told us once that he was +just like his brown top-coat. I can't help thinking of it every time +he comes in at the door, and it is really too funny; but don't tell +mother, it might easily make her angry. + +"Guess what I am giving your mother for a Christmas present! You can't +guess? Well, it is myself! Eric is making a drawing of me in black +chalk; I have had to give him three sittings, each time for a whole +hour. + +"I simply loathed the idea of a stranger getting to know my face so +well. Nor did I wish it, but mother pressed me, and said it would very +much please dear Frau Werner. + +"But you are not keeping your word, Reinhard. You haven't sent me any +stories. I have often complained to your mother about it, but she +always says you now have more to do than to attend to such childish +things. But I don't believe it; there's something else perhaps." + +After this Reinhard read his mother's letter, and when he had read +them both and slowly folded them up again and put them away, he was +overcome with an irresistible feeling of home-sickness. For a long +while he walked up and down his room, talking softly to himself, and +then, under his breath, he murmured: + +I have err'd from the straight path, + Bewildered I roam; +By the roadside the child stands + And beckons me home. + +Then he went to his desk, took out some money, and stepped down into +the street again. During all this while it had become quieter out +there; the lights on the Christmas trees had burnt out, the +processions of children had come to an end. The wind was sweeping +through the deserted streets; old and young alike were sitting +together at home in family parties; the second period of Christmas Eve +celebrations had begun. + +As Reinhard drew near the Ratskeller he heard from below the scraping +of the fiddle and the singing of the zither girl. The restaurant door +bell tinkled and a dark form staggered up the broad dimly-lighted +stair. + +Reinhard drew aside into the shadow of the houses and then passed +swiftly by. After a while he reached the well-lighted shop of a +jeweller, and after buying a little cross studded with red corals, he +returned by the same way he had come. + +Not far from his lodgings he caught sight of a little girl, dressed in +miserable rags, standing before a tall door, in a vain attempt to open +it. + +"Shall I help you?" he said. + +The child gave no answer, but let go the massive door-handle. Reinhard +had soon opened the door. + +"No," he said; "they might drive you out again. Come along with me, +and I'll give you some Christmas cake." + +He then closed the door again and gave his hand to the little girl, +who walked along with him in silence to his lodgings. + +On going out he had left the light burning. + +"Here are some cakes for you," he said, pouring half of his whole +stock into her apron, though he gave none that bore the sugar letters. + +"Now, off you go home, and give your mother some of them too." + +The child cast a shy look up at him; she seemed unaccustomed to such +kindness and unable to say anything in reply. Reinhard opened the +door, and lighted her way, and then the little thing like a bird flew +downstairs with her cakes and out of the house. + +Reinhard poked the fire in the stove, set the dusty ink-stand on the +table, and then sat down and wrote and wrote letters the whole night +long to his mother and Elisabeth. + +The remainder of the Christmas cakes lay untouched by his side, but he +had buttoned on Elisabeth's cuffs, and odd they looked on his shaggy +coat of undyed wool. And there he was still sitting when the winter +sun cast its light on the frosted window-panes, and showed him a pale, +grave face reflected in the looking-glass. + +* * * * * + + + + +HOME + + + +When the Easter vacation came Reinhard journeyed home. On the morning +after his arrival he went to see Elisabeth. + +"How tall you've grown," he said, as the pretty, slender girl advanced +with a smile to meet him. She blushed, but made no reply; he had taken +her hand in his own in greeting, and she tried to draw it gently away. +He looked at her doubtingly, for never had she done that before; but +now it was as if some strange thing was coming between them. + +The same feeling remained, too, after he had been at home for some +time and came to see her constantly day after day. When they sat alone +together there ensued pauses in the conversation which distressed him, +and which he anxiously did his best to avoid. In order to have a +definite occupation during the holidays, he began to give Elisabeth +some instruction in botany, in which he himself had been keenly +interested during the early months of his university career. + +Elisabeth, who was wont to follow him in all things and was moreover +very quick to learn, willingly entered into the proposal. So now +several times in the week they made excursions into the fields or the +moors, and if by midday they brought home their green field-box full +of plants and flowers, Reinhard would come again later in the day and +share with Elisabeth what they had collected in common. + +With this same object in view, he entered the room one afternoon while +Elisabeth was standing by the window and sticking some fresh chick- +weed in a gilded birdcage which he had not seen in the place before. +In the cage was a canary, which was flapping its wings and shrilly +chirruping as it pecked at Elisabeth's fingers. Previously to this +Reinhard's bird had hung in that spot. + +"Has my poor linnet changed into a goldfinch after its death?" he +asked jovially. + +"Linnets are not accustomed to do any such thing," said Elizabeth's +mother, who sat spinning in her armchair. "Your friend Eric sent it +this noon from his estate as a present for Elisabeth." + +"What estate?" + +"Why, don't you know?" + +"Know what?" + +"That a month ago Eric took over his father's second estate by the +Immensee." [Footnote: <i>I.e.</i> the 'Lake of the Bees'] + +"But you have never said a word to me about it." + +"Well," said the mother, "you haven't yet made a single word of +inquiry after your friend. He is a very nice, sensible young man." + +The mother went out of the room to make the coffee. Elisabeth had her +back turned to Reinhard, and was still busy with the making of her +little chickweed bower. + +"Please, just a little longer," she said, "I'll be done in a minute." + +As Reinhard did not answer, contrary to his wont, she turned round and +faced him. In his eyes there was a sudden expression of trouble which +she had never observed before in them. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she said, drawing nearer to +him. + +"With me?" he said, his thoughts far away and his eyes resting +dreamily on hers. + +"You look so sad." + +"Elisabeth," he said, "I cannot bear that yellow bird." + +She looked at him in astonishment, without understanding his meaning. +"You are so strange," she said. + +He took both her hands in his, and she let him keep them there. Her +mother came back into the room shortly after; and after they had drunk +their coffee she sat down at her spinning-wheel, while Reinhard and +Elisabeth went off into the next room to arrange their plants. + +Stamens were counted, leaves and blossoms carefully opened out, and +two specimens of each sort were laid to dry between the pages of a +large folio volume. + +All was calm and still this sunny afternoon; the only sounds to be +heard were the hum of the mother's spinning-wheel in the next room, +and now and then the subdued voice of Reinhard, as he named the orders +of the families of the plants, and corrected Elisabeth's awkward +pronunciation of the Latin names. + +"I am still short of that lily of the valley which I didn't get last +time," said she, after the whole collection had been classified and +arranged. + +Reinhard pulled a little white vellum volume from his pocket. "Here is +a spray of the lily of the valley for you," he said, taking out a +half-pressed bloom. + +When Elisabeth saw the pages all covered with writing, she asked: +"Have you been writing stories again?" + +"These aren't stories," he answered, handing her the book. + +The contents were all poems, and the majority of them at most filled +one page. Elisabeth turned over the leaves one after another; she +appeared to be reading the titles only. "When she was scolded by the +teacher." "When they lost their way in the woods." "An Easter story." +"On her writing to me for the first time." Thus ran most of the +titles. + +Reinhard fixed his eyes on her with a searching look, and as she kept +turning over the leaves he saw that a gentle blush arose and gradually +mantled over the whole of her sweet face. He would fain have looked +into her eyes, but Elisabeth did not look up, and finally laid the +book down before him without a word. + +"Don't give it back like that," he said. + +She took a brown spray out of the tin case. "I will put your favourite +flower inside," she said, giving back the book into his hands. + +At length came the last day of the vacation and the morning of his +departure. At her own request Elisabeth received permission from her +mother to accompany her friend to the stage-coach, which had its +station a few streets from their house. + +When they passed out of the front door Reinhard gave her his arm, and +thus he walked in silence side by side with the slender maiden. The +nearer they came to their destination the more he felt as if he had +something he must say to her before he bade her a long farewell, +something on which all that was worthy and all that was sweet in his +future life depended, and yet he could not formulate the saving word. +In his anguish, he walked slower and slower. + +"You'll be too late," she said; "it has already struck ten by St +Mary's clock." + +But he did not quicken his pace for all that. At last he stammered +out: + +"Elisabeth, you will not see me again for two whole years. Shall I be +as dear to you as ever when I come back?" + +She nodded, and looked affectionately into his face. + +"I stood up for you too," she said, after a pause. + +"Me? And against whom had you to stand up for me?" + +"Against my mother. We were talking about you a long time yesterday +evening after you left. She thought you were not so nice now as you +once were." + +Reinhard held his peace for a moment: then he took her hand in his, +and looking gravely into her childish eyes, he said: + +"I am still just as nice as I ever was; I would have you firmly +believe that. Do you believe it, Elisabeth?" + +"Yes," she said. + +He freed her hand and quickly walked with her through the last street. +The nearer he felt the time of parting approach, the happier became +the look on his face; he went almost too quickly for her. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she asked. + +"I have a secret, a beautiful secret," said Reinhard, looking at her +with a light in his eyes. "When I come back again in two years' time, +then you shall know it." + +Meanwhile they had reached the stage-coach; they were only just in +time. Once more Reinhard took her hand. "Farewell!" he said, +"farewell, Elisabeth! Do not forget!" + +She shook her head. "Farewell," she said. Reinhard climbed up into the +coach and the horses started. As the coach rumbled round the corner of +the street he saw her dear form once more as she slowly wended her way +home. + +* * * * * + + + + +A LETTER + + + +Nearly two years later Reinhard was sitting by lamplight with his +books and papers around him, expecting a friend with whom he used to +study in common. Some one came upstairs. "Come in." It was the +landlady. "A letter for you, Herr Werner," and she went away. + +Reinhard had never written to Elisabeth since his visit home, and he +had received no letter from her. Nor was this one from her; it was in +his mother's handwriting. + +Reinhard broke the seal and read, and ere long he came to this +paragraph: + +"At your time of life, my dear boy, nearly every year still brings its +own peculiar experience; for youth is apt to turn everything to the +best account. At home, too, things have changed very much, and all +this will, I fear, cause you much pain at first, if my understanding +of you is at all correct. + +"Yesterday Eric was at last accepted by Elisabeth, after having twice +proposed in vain during the last three months. She had never been able +to make up her mind to it, but now in the end she has done so. To my +mind she is still far too young. The wedding is to take place soon, +and her mother means to go away with them." + +* * * * * + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + +Again years have passed. One warm afternoon in spring a young man, +whose sunburnt face was the picture of health, was walking along a +shady road through the wood leading down to the valley below. + +His grave dark eyes looked intently into the distance, as though he +was expecting to find every moment some change in the monotony of the +road, a change however which seemed reluctant to come about. At length +he saw a cart slowly coming up from below. + +"Hullo! my friend," shouted the traveller to the farmer, who was +walking by the side of the cart, "is this the right road to Immensee?" + +"Yes, straight on," answered the man touching his slouch hat. + +"Is it still far off?" + +"You are close to the place, sir. In less time than it takes to smoke +half a pipe of tobacco you'll be at the lake side, and the manor is +hard by." + +The farmer passed on while the other quickened his pace as he went +along under the trees. After a quarter of an hour's walk the shade to +the left of him suddenly came to an end; the road led along a steep +slope from which the ancient oaks growing below hardly reared their +topmost branches. + +Away over their crests opened out a broad, sunny landscape. Far below +lay the peaceful, dark-blue lake, almost entirely surrounded by green +sun-lit woods, save where on one spot they divided and afforded an +extensive view until it closed in the distant blue mountains. + +Straight opposite, in the middle of all this forest verdure, there lay +a patch of white, like driven snow. This was an expanse of blossoming +fruit-trees, and out of them, up on the high lake shore, rose the +manor-house, shining white, with tiles of red. A stork flew up from +the chimney, and circled slowly above the waters. + +"Immensee!" exclaimed the traveller. + +It almost seemed as if he had now reached the end of his journey, for +he stood motionless, looking out over the tops of the trees at his +feet, and gazing at the farther shore, where the reflection of the +manor-house floated, rocking gently, on the bosom of the water. Then +he suddenly started on his way again. + +His road now led almost steeply down the mountain-side, so that the +trees that had once stood below him again gave him their shade, but at +the same time cut off from him the view of the lake, which only now +and then peeped out between the gaps in the branches. + +Soon the way went gently upwards again, and to left and right the +woods disappeared, yielding place to vine-clad hills stretching along +the pathway; while on either side stood fruit-trees in blossom, filled +with the hum of the bees as they busily pried into the blossoms. A +tall man wearing a brown overcoat advanced to meet the traveller. When +he had almost come up to him, he waved his cap and cried out in a loud +voice: + +"Welcome, welcome, brother Reinhard! Welcome to my Immensee estate!" + +"God's greeting to you, [Footnote: This form of salutation is +especially common in the south of Germany.] Eric, and thank you for +your welcome," replied the other. + +By this time they had come up close to one another, and clasped hands. + +"And is it really you?" said Eric, when he at last got a near sight of +the grave face of his old school-fellow. + +"It is I right enough, Eric, and I recognize you too; only you almost +look cheerier than you ever did before." + +At these words a glad smile made Eric's plain features all the more +cheerful. + +"Yes, brother Reinhard," he said, as he once more held out his hand to +him, "but since those days, you see, I have won the great prize; but +you know that well enough." + +Then he rubbed his hands and cried cheerily: "This <i>will</i> be a +surprise! You are the last person she expects to see." + +"A surprise?" asked Reinhard. "For whom, pray?" + +"Why, for Elisabeth." + +"Elisabeth! You haven't told her a word about my visit?" + +"Not a word, brother Reinhard; she has no thought of you, nor her +mother either. I invited you entirely on the quiet, in order that the +pleasure might be all the greater. You know I always had little quiet +schemes of my own." + +Reinhard turned thoughtful; he seemed to breathe more heavily the +nearer they approached the house. + +On the left side of the road the vineyards came to an end, and gave +place to an extensive kitchen-garden, which reached almost as far as +the lake-shore. The stork had meanwhile come to earth and was striding +solemnly between the vegetable beds. + +"Hullo!" cried Eric, clapping his hands together, "if that long-legged +Egyptian isn't stealing my short pea-sticks again!" + +The bird slowly rose and flew on to the roof of a new building, which +ran along the end of the kitchen-garden, and whose walls were covered +with the branches of the peach and apricot trees that were trained +over them. + +"That's the distillery," said Eric. "I built it only two years ago. My +late father had the farm buildings rebuilt; the dwelling-house was +built as far back as my grandfather's time. So we go ever forward a +little bit at a time." + +Talking thus they came to a wide, open space, enclosed at the sides by +farm-buildings, and in the rear by the manor-house, the two wings of +which were connected by a high garden wall. Behind this wall ran dark +hedges of yew trees, while here and there syringa trees trailed their +blossoming branches over into the courtyard. + +Men with faces scorched by the sun and heated with toil were walking +over the open space and gave a greeting to the two friends, while Eric +called out to one or another of them some order or question about +their day's work. + +By this time they had reached the house. They entered a high, cool +vestibule, at the far end of which they turned to the left into a +somewhat darker passage. + +Here Eric opened a door and they passed into a spacious room that +opened into a garden. The heavy mass of leafage that covered the +opposite windows filled this room at either end with a green twilight, +while between the windows two lofty wide-open folding-doors let in the +full glow of spring sunshine, and afforded a view into a garden, laid +out with circular flower-beds and steep hedgerows and divided by a +straight, broad path, along which the eye roamed out on to the lake +and away over the woods growing on the opposite shore. + +As the two friends entered, a breath of wind bore in upon them a +perfect stream of fragrance. + +On a terrace in front of the door leading to the garden sat a girlish +figure dressed in white. She rose and came to meet the two friends as +they entered, but half-way she stood stock-still as if rooted to the +spot and stared at the stranger. With a smile he held out his hand to +her. + +"Reinhard!" she cried. "Reinhard! Oh! is it you? It is such a long +time since we have seen each other." + +"Yes, a long time," he said, and not a word more could he utter; for +on hearing her voice he felt a keen, physical pain at his heart, and +as he looked up to her, there she stood before him, the same slight, +graceful figure to whom he had said farewell years ago in the town +where he was born. + +Eric had stood back by the door, with joy beaming from his eyes. + +"Now, then, Elisabeth," he said, "isn't he really the very last person +in the world you would have expected to see?" + +Elisabeth looked at him with the eyes of a sister. "You are so kind, +Eric," she said. + +He took her slender hand caressingly in his. "And now that we have +him," he said, "we shall not be in a hurry to let him go. He has been +so long away abroad, we will try to make him feel at home again. Just +see how foreign-looking he has become, and what a distinguished +appearance he has!" + +Elisabeth shyly scanned Reinhard's face. "The time that we have been +separated is enough to account for that," she said. + +At this moment in at the door came her mother, key-basket on arm. + +"Herr Werner!" she cried, when she caught sight of Reinhard; "ah! you +are as dearly welcome as you are unexpected." + +And so the conversation went smoothly on with questions and answers. +The ladies sat over their work, and while Reinhard enjoyed the +refreshment that had been prepared for him, Eric had lighted his huge +meerschaum pipe and sat smoking and conversing by his side. + +Next day Reinhard had to go out with him to see the fields, the +vineyards, the hop-garden, the distillery. It was all well appointed; +the people who were working on the land or at the vats all had a +healthy and contented look. + +For dinner the family assembled in the room that opened into the +garden, and the day was spent more or less in company just according +to the leisure of the host and hostess. Only during the hours +preceding the evening meal, as also during the early hours of the +forenoon, did Reinhard stay working in his own room. + +For some years past, whenever he could come across them, he had been +collecting the rhymes and songs that form part of the life of the +people, and now set about arranging his treasure, and wherever +possible increasing it by means of fresh records from the immediate +neighbourhood. + +Elisabeth was at all times gentle and kind. Eric's constant attentions +she received with an almost humble gratitude, and Reinhard thought at +whiles that the gay, cheerful child of bygone days had given promise +of a somewhat less sedate womanhood. + +Ever since the second day of his visit he had been wont of an evening +to take a walk along the shore of the lake. The road led along close +under the garden. At the end of the latter, on a projecting mound, +there was a bench under some tall birch trees. Elisabeth's mother had +christened it the Evening Bench, because the spot faced westward, and +was mostly used at that time of the day in order to enjoy a view of +the sunset. + +One evening Reinhard was returning from his walk along this road when +he was overtaken by the rain. He sought shelter under one of the +linden trees that grew by the water-side, but the heavy drops were +soon pelting through the leaves. Wet through as he was he resigned +himself to his fate and slowly continued his homeward way. + +It was almost dark; the rain fell faster and faster. As he drew near +to the Evening Bench he fancied he could make out the figure of a +woman dressed in white standing among the gleaming birch tree trunks. +She stood motionless, and, as far as he could make out on approaching +nearer, with her face turned in his direction, as if she was expecting +some one. + +He thought it was Elisabeth. But when he quickened his pace in order +that he might catch up to her and then return together with her +through the garden into the house, she turned slowly away and +disappeared among the dark side-paths. + +He could not understand it; he was almost angry with Elisabeth, and +yet he doubted whether it had really been she. He was, however, shy of +questioning her about it--nay, he even avoided going into the garden- +room on his return to the house for fear he should happen to see +Elisabeth enter through the garden-door. + +* * * * * + + + + +BY MY MOTHER'S HARD DECREE + + + +Some days later, as evening was already closing in, the family was, as +usual at this time of the day, sitting all together in their garden- +room. The doors stood wide open, and the sun had already sunk behind +the woods on the far side of the lake. + +Reinhard was invited to read some folk-songs which had been sent to +him that afternoon by a friend who lived away in the country. He went +up to his room and soon returned with a roll of papers which seemed to +consist of detached neatly written pages. + +So they all sat down to the table, Elisabeth beside Reinhard. "We +shall read them at random," said the latter, "I have not yet looked +through them myself." + +Elisabeth unrolled the manuscript. "Here's some music," she said, "you +must sing it, Reinhard." + +To begin with he read some Tyrolese ditties [Footnote: Dialectal for +<i>Schnitterhuepfen</i>, <i>i.e.</i> 'reapers' dances,' sung especially +in the Tyrol and in Bavaria.] and as he read on he would now and then +hum one or other of the lively melodies. A general feeling of +cheeriness pervaded the little party. + +"And who, pray, made all these pretty songs?" asked Elisabeth. + +"Oh," said Eric, "you can tell that by listening to the rubbishy +things--tailors' apprentices and barbers and such-like merry folk." + +Reinhard said: "They are not made; they grow, they drop from the +clouds, they float over the land like gossamer, [Footnote: These fine +cobwebs, produced by field-spiders, have always in the popular mind +been connected with the gods. After the advent of Christianity they +were connected with the Virgin Mary. The shroud in which she was +wrapped after her death was believed to have been woven of the very +finest thread, which during her ascent to Heaven frayed away from her +body.] hither and thither, and are sung in a thousand places at the +same time. We discover in these songs our very inmost activities and +sufferings: it is as if we all had helped to write them." + +He took up another sheet: "I stood on the mountain height [Footnote: +An ancient folk-song which treats of a beautiful but poor maiden, who, +being unable to marry 'the young count,' retired to a convent.]..." + +"I know that one," cried Elisabeth; "begin it, do, Reinhard, and I +will help you out." + +So they sang that famous melody, which is so mysterious that one can +hardly believe that it was ever conceived by the heart of man, +Elisabeth with her slightly clouded contralta taking the second part +to the young man's tenor. + +The mother meanwhile sat busy with her needlework, while Eric listened +attentively, with one hand clasped in the other. The song finished, +Reinhard laid the sheet on one side in silence. Up from the lake-shore +came through the evening calm the tinkle of the cattle bells; they +were all listening without knowing why, and presently they heard a +boy's clear voice singing: + +I stood on the mountain height + And viewed the deep valley beneath.... + +Reinhard smiled. "Do you hear that now? So it passes from mouth to +mouth." + +"It is often sung in these parts," said Elisabeth. + +"Yes," said Eric, "it is Casper the herdsman; he is driving the +heifers [Footnote: <i>Starke</i> is the southern dialect word for +<i>Faerse</i>, 'young cow,' 'heifer.'] home." + +They listened a while longer until the tinkle of the bells died away +behind the farm buildings. "These melodies are as old as the world," +said Reinhard; "they slumber in the depths of the forest; God knows +who discovered them." + +He drew forth a fresh sheet. + +It had now grown darker; a crimson evening glow lay like foam over the +woods in the farther side of the lake. Reinhard unrolled the sheet, +Elisabeth caught one side of it in her hand, and they both examined it +together. Then Reinhard read: + +By my mother's hard decree +Another's wife I needs must be; +Him on whom my heart was set, +Him, alas! I must forget; +My heart protesting, but not free. + +Bitterly did I complain +That my mother brought me pain. +What mine honour might have been, +That is turned to deadly sin. +Can I ever hope again? + +For my pride what can I show, +And my joy, save grief and woe? +h! could I undo what's done, +O'er the moor scorched by the sun +Beggarwise I'd gladly go. + +During the reading of this Reinhard had felt an imperceptible +quivering of the paper; and when he came to an end Elisabeth gently +pushed her chair back and passed silently out into the garden. Her +mother followed her with a look. Eric made as if to go after, but the +mother said: + +"Elisabeth has one or two little things to do outside," so he remained +where he was. + +But out of doors the evening brooded darker and darker over garden and +lake. Moths whirred past the open doors through which the fragrance of +flower and bush floated in increasingly; up from the water came the +croak of the frogs, under the windows a nightingale commenced his song +answered by another from within the depths of the garden; the moon +appeared over the tree-tops. + +Reinhard looked for a little while longer at the spot where +Elisabeth's sweet form had been lost to sight in the thick-foliaged +garden paths, and then he rolled up his manuscript, bade his friends +good-night and passed through the house down to the water. + +The woods stood silent and cast their dark shadow far out over the +lake, while the centre was bathed in the haze of a pale moonlight. Now +and then a gentle rustle trembled through the trees, though wind there +was none; it was but the breath of summer night. + +Reinhard continued along the shore. A stone's throw from the land he +perceived a white water-lily. All at once he was seized with the +desire to see it quite close, so he threw off his clothes and entered +the water. It was quite shallow; sharp stones and water plants cut his +feet, and yet he could not reach water deep enough for him to swim in. + +Then suddenly he stepped out of his depth: the waters swirled above +him; and it was some time before he rose to the surface again. He +struck out with hands and feet and swam about in a circle until he had +made quite sure from what point he had entered the water. And soon too +he saw the lily again floating lonely among the large, gleaming +leaves. + +He swam slowly out, lifting every now and then his arms out of the +water so that the drops trickled down and sparkled in the moonlight. +Yet the distance between him and the flower showed no signs of +diminishing, while the shore, as he glanced back at it, showed behind +him in a hazy mist that ever deepened. But he refused to give up the +venture and vigorously continued swimming in the same direction. + +At length he had come so near the flower that he was able clearly to +distinguish the silvery leaves in the moonlight; but at the same time +he felt himself entangled in a net formed by the smooth stems of the +water plants which swayed up from the bottom and wound themselves +round his naked limbs. + +The unfamiliar water was black all round about him, and behind him he +heard the sound of a fish leaping. Suddenly such an uncanny feeling +overpowered him in the midst of this strange element that with might +and main he tore asunder the network of plants and swam back to land +in breathless haste. And when from the shore he looked back upon the +lake, there floated the lily on the bosom of the darkling water as far +away and as lonely as before. + +He dressed and slowly wended his way home. As he passed out of the +garden into the room he discovered Eric and the mother busied with +preparations for a short journey which had to be undertaken for +business purposes on the morrow. + +"Where ever have you been so late in the dark?" the mother called out +to him. + +"I?" he answered, "oh, I wanted to pay a call on the water-lily, but I +failed." + +"That's beyond the comprehension of any man," said Eric. "What on +earth had you to do with the water-lily?" + +"Oh, I used to be friends with the lily once," said Reinhard; "but +that was long ago." + +* * * * * + + + + +ELISABETH + + + +The following afternoon Reinhard and Elisabeth went for a walk on the +farther side of the lake, strolling at times through the woodland, at +other times along the shore where it jutted out into the water. +Elisabeth had received injunctions from Eric, during the absence of +himself and her mother to show Reinhard the prettiest views in the +immediate neighbourhood, particularly the view toward the farm itself +from the other side of the lake. So now they proceeded from one point +to another. + +At last Elisabeth got tired and sat down in the shade of some +overhanging branches. Reinhard stood opposite to her, leaning against +a tree trunk; and as he heard the cuckoo calling farther back in the +woods, it suddenly struck him that all this had happened once before. +He looked at her and with an odd smile asked: + +"Shall we look for strawberries?" + +"It isn't strawberry time," she said. + +"No, but it will soon be here." + +Elisabeth shook her head in silence; then she rose and the two +strolled on together. And as they wandered side by side, his eyes ever +and again were bent toward her; for she walked gracefully and her step +was light. He often unconsciously fell back a pace in order that he +might feast his eyes on a full view of her. + +So they came to an open space overgrown with heather where the view +extended far over the country-side. Reinhard bent down and plucked a +bloom from one of the little plants that grew at his feet. When he +looked up again there was an expression of deep pain on his face. + +"Do you know this flower?" he asked. + +She gave him a questioning look. "It is an erica. I have often +gathered them in the woods." + +"I have an old book at home," he said; "I once used to write in it all +sorts of songs and rhymes, but that is all over and done with long +since. Between its leaves also there is an erica, but it is only a +faded one. Do you know who gave it me?" + +She nodded without saying a word; but she cast down her eyes and fixed +them on the bloom which he held in his hand. For a long time they +stood thus. When she raised her eyes on him again he saw that they +were brimming over with tears. + +"Elisabeth," he said, "behind yonder blue hills lies our youth. What +has become of it?" + +Nothing more was spoken. They walked dumbly by each other's side down +to the lake. The air was sultry; to westward dark clouds were rising. +"There's going to be a storm," said Elisabeth, hastening her steps. +Reinhard nodded in silence, and together they rapidly sped along the +shore till they reached their boat. + +On the way across Elisabeth rested her hand on the gunwale of the +boat. As he rowed Reinhard glanced along at her, but she gazed past +him into the distance. And so his glance fell downward and rested on +her hand, and the white hand betrayed to him what her lips had failed +to reveal. + +It revealed those fine traces of secret pain that so readily mark a +woman's fair hands, when they lie at nights folded across an aching +heart. And as Elisabeth felt his glance resting on her hand she let it +slip gently over the gunwale into the water. + +On arriving at the farm they fell in with a scissors grinder's cart +standing in front of the manor-house. A man with black, loosely- +flowing hair was busily plying his wheel and humming a gipsy melody +between his teeth, while a dog that was harnessed to the cart lay +panting hard by. On the threshold stood a girl dressed in rags, with +features of faded beauty, and with outstretched hand she asked alms of +Elisabeth. + +Reinhard thrust his hand into his pocket, but Elisabeth was before +him, and hastily emptied the entire contents of her purse into the +beggar's open palm. Then she turned quickly away, and Reinhard heard +her go sobbing up the stairs. + +He would fain have detained her, but he changed his mind and remained +at the foot of the stairs. The beggar girl was still standing at the +doorway, motionless, and holding in her hand the money she had +received. + +"What more do you want?" asked Reinhard. + +She gave a sudden start: "I want nothing more," she said; then, +turning her head toward him and staring at him with wild eyes, she +passed slowly out of the door. He uttered a name, but she heard him +not; with drooping head, with arms folded over her breast, she walked +down across the farmyard: + +Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +An old song surged in Reinhard's ears, he gasped for breath; a little +while only, and then he turned away and went up to his chamber. + +He sat down to work, but his thoughts were far afield. After an hour's +vain attempt he descended to the parlour. Nobody was in it, only cool, +green twilight; on Elisabeth's work-table lay a red ribbon which she +had worn round her neck during the afternoon. He took it up in his +hand, but it hurt him, and he laid it down again. + +He could find no rest. He walked down to the lake and untied the boat. +He rowed over the water and trod once again all the paths which he and +Elisabeth had paced together but a short hour ago. When he got back +home it was dark. At the farm he met the coachman, who was about to +turn the carriage horses out into the pasture; the travellers had just +returned. + +As he came into the entrance hall he heard Eric pacing up and down the +garden-room. He did not go in to him; he stood still for a moment, and +then softly climbed the stairs and so to his own room. Here he sat in +the arm-chair by the window. He made himself believe that he was +listening to the nightingale's throbbing music in the garden hedges +below, but what he heard was the throbbing of his own heart. +Downstairs in the house every one went to bed, the night-hours passed, +but he paid no heed. + +For hours he sat thus, till at last he rose and leaned out of the open +window. The dew was dripping among the leaves, the nightingale had +ceased to trill. By degrees the deep blue of the darksome sky was +chased away by a faint yellow gleam that came from the east; a fresh +wind rose and brushed Reinhard's heated brow; the early lark soared +triumphant up into the sky. + +Reinhard suddenly turned and stepped up to the table. He groped about +for a pencil and when he had found one he sat down and wrote a few +lines on a sheet of white paper. Having finished his writing he took +up hat and stick, and leaving the paper behind him, carefully opened +the door and descended to the vestibule. + +The morning twilight yet brooded in every corner; the big house-cat +stretched its limbs on the straw mat and arched its back against +Reinhard's hand, which he unthinkingly held out to it. Outside in the +garden the sparrows were already chirping their patter [Footnote: +Literally, "sang out pompously, like priests." The word seems to have +been coined by the author. The English 'patter' is derived from +<i>Pater noster</i>, and seems an appropriate translation.] from among +the branches, and giving notice to all that the night was now past. + +Then within the house he heard a door open on the upper floor; some +one came downstairs, and on looking up he saw Elisabeth standing +before him. She laid her hand upon his arm, her lips moved, but not a +word did he hear. + +Presently she said: "You will never come back. I know it; do not deny +it; you will never come back." + +"No, never," he said. + +She let her hand fall from his arm and said no more. He crossed the +hall to the door, then turned once more. She was standing motionless +on the same spot and looking at him with lifeless eyes. He advanced +one step and opened his arms toward her; then, with a violent effort, +he turned away and so passed out of the door. + +Outside the world lay bathed in morning light, the drops of pearly dew +caught on the spiders' webs glistened in the first rays of the rising +sun. He never looked back; he walked rapidly onward; behind him the +peaceful farmstead gradually disappeared from view as out in front of +him rose the great wide world. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +The moon had ceased to shine in through the window-panes, and it had +grown quite dark; but the old man still sat in his arm-chair with +folded hands and gazed before him into the emptiness of the room. + +Gradually. the murky darkness around him dissolved away before his +eyes and changed into a broad dark lake; one black wave after another +went rolling on farther and farther, and on the last one, so far away +as to be almost beyond the reach of the old man's vision, floated +lonely among its broad leaves a white water-lily. + +The door opened, and a bright glare of light filled the room. + +"I am glad that you have come, Bridget," said the old man. "Set the +lamp upon the table." + +Then he drew his chair up to the table, took one of the open books and +buried himself in studies to which he had once applied all the +strength of his youth. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, IMMENSEE *** + +This file should be named 7imme10.txt or 7imme10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7imme11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7imme10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Immensee + +Author: Theodore W. Storm + +Posting Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #6650] +Release Date: October, 2004 +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, IMMENSEE *** + + + + +Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +IMMENSEE + +BY THEODOR W. STORM + +TRANSLATED BY C. W. BELL M. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + + +We are at the beginning of a new era which will, it is to be hoped, be +marked by a general <i>rapprochement</i> between the nations. The need +to know and understand one another is being felt more and more. It +follows that the study of foreign languages will assume an ever- +increasing importance; indeed, so far as language, literature, and +music are concerned, one may safely assert that <i>fas est et ab hoste +doceri</i>. + +All those who wish to make acquaintance with the speech of their +neighbours, or who have allowed their former knowledge to grow rusty, +will welcome this edition, which will enable them, independently of +bulky dictionaries, to devote to language study the moments of leisure +which offer themselves in the course of the day. + +The texts have been selected from the double point of view of their +literary worth and of the usefulness of their vocabulary; in the +translations, also, the endeavour has been to unite qualities of style +with strict fidelity to the original. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + +Theodor W. Storm, poet and short-story writer (1817-1888), was born in +Schleswig. He was called to the Bar in his native town, Husum, in +1842, but had his licence to practise cancelled in 1853 for +'Germanophilism,' and had to remove to Germany. It was only in 1864 +that he was able to return to Husum, where in 1874 he became a judge +of the Court of Appeals. + +As early as 1843 he had made himself known as a lyrical poet of the +Romantic School, but it was as a short-story writer that he first took +a prominent place in literature, making a most happy <i>début</i> with +the story entitled <i>Immensee</i>. + +There followed a long series of tales, rich in fancy and in humour, +although their inspiration is generally derived from the humble town +and country life which formed his immediate environment; but he wrote +nothing that excels, in depth and tenderness of feeling, the charming +story of <i>Immensee</i>; and taking his work all in all, Storm still +ranks to-day as a master of the short story in German literature, rich +though it is in this form of prose-fiction. + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +0ne afternoon in the late autumn a well-dressed old man was walking +slowly down the street. He appeared to be returning home from a walk, +for his buckle-shoes, which followed a fashion long since out of date, +were covered with dust. + +Under his arm he carried a long, gold-headed cane; his dark eyes, in +which the whole of his long-lost youth seemed to have centred, and +which contrasted strangely with his snow-white hair, gazed calmly on +the sights around him or peered into the town below as it lay before +him, bathed in the haze of sunset. He appeared to be almost a +stranger, for of the passers-by only a few greeted him, although many +a one involuntarily was compelled to gaze into those grave eyes. + +At last he halted before a high, gabled house, cast one more glance +out toward the town, and then passed into the hall. At the sound of +the door-bell some one in the room within drew aside the green curtain +from a small window that looked out on to the hall, and the face of an +old woman was seen behind it. The man made a sign to her with his +cane. + +"No light yet!" he said in a slightly southern accent, and the +housekeeper let the curtain fall again. + +The old man now passed through the broad hall, through an inner hall, +wherein against the walls stood huge oaken chests bearing porcelain +vases; then through the door opposite he entered a small lobby, from +which a narrow staircase led to the upper rooms at the back of the +house. He climbed the stairs slowly, unlocked a door at the top, and +landed in a room of medium size. + +It was a comfortable, quiet retreat. One of the walls was lined with +cupboards and bookcases; on the other hung pictures of men and places; +on a table with a green cover lay a number of open books, and before +the table stood a massive arm-chair with a red velvet cushion. + +After the old man had placed his hat and stick in a corner, he sat +down in the arm-chair and, folding his hands, seemed to be taking his +rest after his walk. While he sat thus, it was growing gradually +darker; and before long a moonbeam came streaming through the window- +panes and upon the pictures on the wall; and as the bright band of +light passed slowly onward the old man followed it involuntarily with +his eyes. + +Now it reached a little picture in a simple black frame. "Elisabeth!" +said the old man softly; and as he uttered the word, time had changed: +<i>he was young again</i>. + +* * * * * + + + + +THE CHILDREN + + + +Before very long the dainty form of a little maiden advanced toward +him. Her name was Elisabeth, and she might have been five years old. +He himself was twice that age. Round her neck she wore a red silk +kerchief which was very becoming to her brown eyes. + +"Reinhard!" she cried, "we have a holiday, a holiday! No school the +whole day and none to-morrow either!" + +Reinhard was carrying his slate under his arm, but he flung it behind +the front door, and then both the children ran through the house into +the garden and through the garden gate out into the meadow. The +unexpected holiday came to them at a most happily opportune moment. + +It was in the meadow that Reinhard, with Elisabeth's help, had built a +house out of sods of grass. They meant to live in it during the summer +evenings; but it still wanted a bench. He set to work at once; nails, +hammer, and the necessary boards were already to hand. + +While he was thus engaged, Elisabeth went along the dyke, gathering +the ring-shaped seeds of the wild mallow in her apron, with the object +of making herself chains and necklaces out of them; so that when +Reinhard had at last finished his bench in spite of many a crookedly +hammered nail, and came out into the sunlight again, she was already +wandering far away at the other end of the meadow. + +"Elisabeth!" he called, "Elisabeth!" and then she came, her hair +streaming behind her. + +"Come here," he said; "our house is finished now. Why, you have got +quite hot! Come in, and let us sit on the new bench. I will tell you a +story." + +So they both went in and sat down on the new bench. Elisabeth took the +little seed-rings out of her apron and strung them on long threads. +Reinhard began his tale: "There were once upon a time three spinning- +women..." [Footnote: The beginning of one of the best known of Grimm's +fairy tales.] + +"Oh!" said Elisabeth, "I know that off by heart; you really must not +always tell me the same story." + +Accordingly Reinhard had to give up the story of the three spinning- +women and tell instead the story of the poor man who was cast into the +den of lions. + +"It was now night," he said, "black night, you know, and the lions +were asleep. But every now and then they would yawn in their sleep and +shoot out their red tongues. And then the man would shudder and think +it was morning. All at once a bright light fell all about him, and +when he looked up an angel was standing before him. The angel beckoned +to him with his hand and then went straight into the rocks." + +Elisabeth had been listening attentively. "An angel?" she said. "Had +he wings then?" + +"It is only a story," answered Reinhard; "there are no angels, you +know." + +"Oh, fie! Reinhard!" she said, staring him straight in the face. + +He looked at her with a frown, and she asked him hesitatingly: "Well, +why do they always say there are? mother, and aunt, and at school as +well?" + +"I don't know," he answered. + +"But tell me," said Elisabeth, "are there no lions either?" + +"Lions? Are there lions? In India, yes. The heathen priests harness +them to their carriages, and drive about the desert with them. When +I'm big, I mean to go out there myself. It is thousands of times more +beautiful in that country than it is here at home; there's no winter +at all there. And you must come with me. Will you?" + +"Yes," said Elisabeth; "but mother must come with us, and your mother +as well." + +"No," said Reinhard, "they will be too old then, and cannot come with +us." + +"But I mayn't go by myself." + +"Oh, but you may right enough; you will then really be my wife, and +the others will have no say in the matter." + +"But mother will cry!" + +"We shall come back again of course," said Reinhard impetuously. "Now +just tell me straight out, will you go with me? If not, I will go all +alone, and then I shall never come back again." + +The little girl came very near to crying. "Please don't look so +angry," said she; "I will go to India with you." + +Reinhard seized both her hands with frantic glee, and rushed out with +her into the meadow. + +"To India, to India!" he sang, and swung her round and round, so that +her little red kerchief was whirled from off her neck. Then he +suddenly let her go and said solemnly: + +"Nothing will come of it, I'm sure; you haven't the pluck." + +"Elisabeth! Reinhard!" some one was now calling from the garden gate. +"Here we are!" the children answered, and raced home hand in hand. + +* * * * * + + + + +IN THE WOODS + + + +So the children lived together. She was often too quiet for him, and +he was often too head-strong for her, but for all that they stuck to +one another. They spent nearly all their leisure hours together: in +winter in their mothers' tiny rooms, during the summer in wood and +field. + +Once when Elisabeth was scolded by the teacher in Reinhard's hearing, +he angrily banged his slate upon the table in order to turn upon +himself the master's wrath. This failed to attract attention. + +But Reinhard paid no further attention to the geography lessons, and +instead he composed a long poem, in which he compared himself to a +young eagle, the schoolmaster to a grey crow, and Elisabeth to a white +dove; the eagle vowed vengeance on the grey crow, as soon as his wings +had grown. + +Tears stood in the young poet's eyes: he felt very proud of himself. +When he reached home he contrived to get hold of a little parchment- +bound volume with a lot of blank pages in it; and on the first pages +he elaborately wrote out his first poem. + +Soon after this he went to another school. Here he made many new +friendships among boys of his own age, but this did not interrupt his +comings and goings with Elisabeth. Of the stories which he had +formerly told her over and over again he now began to write down the +ones which she had liked best, and in doing so the fancy often took +him to weave in something of his own thoughts; yet, for some reason he +could not understand, he could never manage it. + +So he wrote them down exactly as he had heard them himself. Then he +handed them over to Elisabeth, who kept them carefully in a drawer of +her writing-desk, and now and again of an evening when he was present +it afforded him agreeable satisfaction to hear her reading aloud to +her mother these little tales out of the notebooks in which he had +written them. + +Seven years had gone by. Reinhard was to leave the town in order to +proceed to his higher education. Elisabeth could not bring herself to +think that there would now be a time to be passed entirely without +Reinhard. She was delighted when he told her one day that he would +continue to write out stories for her as before; he would send them to +her in the letters to his mother, and then she would have to write +back to him and tell him how she liked them. + +The day of departure was approaching, but ere it came a good deal more +poetry found its way into the parchment-bound volume. This was the one +secret he kept from Elisabeth, although she herself had inspired the +whole book and most of the songs, which gradually had filled up almost +half of the blank pages. + +It was the month of June, and Reinhard was to start on the following +day. It was proposed to spend one more festive day together and +therefore a picnic was arranged for a rather large party of friends in +an adjacent forest. + +It was an hour's drive along the road to the edge of the wood, and +there the company took down the provision baskets from the carriages +and walked the rest of the way. The road lay first of all through a +pine grove, where it was cool and darksome, and the ground was all +strewed with pine needles. + +After half an hour's walk they passed out of the gloom of the pine +trees into a bright fresh beech wood. Here everything was light and +green; every here and there a sunbeam burst through the leafy +branches, and high above their heads a squirrel was leaping from +branch to branch. + +The party came to a halt at a certain spot, over which the topmost +branches of ancient beech trees interwove a transparent canopy of +leaves. Elisabeth's mother opened one of the baskets, and an old +gentleman constituted himself quartermaster. + +"Round me, all of you young people," he cried, "and attend carefully +to what I have to say to you. For lunch each one of you will now get +two dry rolls; the butter has been left behind at home. The extras +every one must find for himself. There are plenty of strawberries in +the wood--that is, for anyone who knows where to find them. Unless you +are sharp, you'll have to eat dry bread; that's the way of the world +all over. Do you understand what I say?" + +"Yes, yes," cried the young folks. + +"Yes, but look here," said the old gentleman, "I have not done yet. We +old folks have done enough roaming about in our time, and therefore we +will stay at home now, here, I mean, under these wide-spreading trees, +and we'll peel the potatoes and make a fire and lay the table, and by +twelve o'clock the eggs shall be boiled. + +"In return for all this you will be owing us half of your +strawberries, so that we may also be able to serve some dessert. So +off you go now, east and west, and mind be honest." + +The young folks cast many a roguish glance at one another. + +"Wait," cried the old gentleman once again. "I suppose I need not tell +you this, that whoever finds none need not produce any; but take +particular note of this, that he will get nothing out of us old folks +either. Now you have had enough good advice for to-day; and if you +gather strawberries to match you will get on very well for the present +at any rate." + +The young people were of the same opinion, and pairing off in couples +set out on their quest. + +"Come along, Elisabeth," said Reinhard, "I know where there is a clump +of strawberry bushes; you shan't eat dry bread." + +Elisabeth tied the green ribbons of her straw hat together and hung it +on her arm. "Come on, then," she said, "the basket is ready." + +Off into the wood they went, on and on; on through moist shady glens, +where everything was so peaceful, except for the cry of the falcon +flying unseen in the heavens far above their heads; on again through +the thick brushwood, so thick that Reinhard must needs go on ahead to +make a track, here snapping off a branch, there bending aside a +trailing vine. But ere long he heard Elisabeth behind him calling out +his name. He turned round. + +"Reinhard!" she called, "do wait for me! Reinhard!" + +He could not see her, but at length he caught sight of her some way +off struggling with the undergrowth, her dainty head just peeping out +over the tops of the ferns. So back he went once more and brought her +out from the tangled mass of briar and brake into an open space where +blue butterflies fluttered among the solitary wood blossoms. + +Reinhard brushed the damp hair away from her heated face, and would +have tied the straw hat upon her head, but she refused; yet at his +earnest request she consented after all. + +"But where are your strawberries?" she asked at length, standing still +and drawing a deep breath. + +"They were here," he said, "but the toads have got here before us, or +the martens, or perhaps the fairies." + +"Yes," said Elisabeth, "the leaves are still here; but not a word +about fairies in this place. Come along, I'm not a bit tired yet; let +us look farther on." + +In front of them ran a little brook, and on the far side the wood +began again. Reinhard raised Elisabeth in his arms and carried her +over. After a while they emerged from the shady foliage and stood in a +wide clearing. + +"There must be strawberries here," said the girl, "it all smells so +sweet." + +They searched about the sunny spot, but they found none. "No," said +Reinhard, "it is only the smell of the heather." + +Everywhere was a confusion of raspberry-bushes and holly, and the air +was filled with a strong smell of heather, patches of which alternated +with the short grass over these open spaces. + +"How lonely it is here!" said Elisabeth "I wonder where the others +are?" + +Reinhard had never thought of getting back. + +"Wait a bit," he said, holding his hand aloft; "where is the wind +coming from?" But wind there was none. + +"Listen!" said Elisabeth, "I think I heard them talking. Just give a +call in that direction." + +Reinhard hollowed his hand and shouted: "Come here!" + +"Here!" was echoed back. + +"They answered," cried Elisabeth clapping her hands. + +"No, that was nothing; it was only the echo." + +Elisabeth seized Reinhard's hand. "I'm frightened!" she said. + +"Oh! no, you must not be frightened. It is lovely here. Sit down there +in the shade among the long grass. Let us rest awhile: we'll find the +others soon enough." + +Elisabeth sat down under the overhanging branch of a beech and +listened intently in every direction. Reinhard sat a few paces off on +a tree stump, and gazed over at her in silence. + +The sun was just above their heads, shining with the full glare of +midday heat. Tiny, gold-flecked, steel-blue flies poised in the air +with vibrating wings. Their ears caught a gentle humming and buzzing +all round them, and far away in the wood were heard now and again the +tap-tap of the woodpecker and the screech of other birds. + +"Listen," said Elisabeth, "I hear a bell." + +"Where?" asked Reinhard. + +"Behind us. Do you hear it? It is striking twelve o'clock." + +"Then the town lies behind us, and if we go straight through in this +direction we are bound to fall in with the others." + +So they started on their homeward way; they had given up looking for +strawberries, for Elisabeth had become tired. And at last there rang +out from among the trees the laughing voices of the picnic party; then +they saw too a white cloth spread gleaming on the ground; it was the +luncheon-table and on it were strawberries enough and to spare. + +The old gentleman had a table-napkin tucked in his button-hole and was +continuing his moral sermon to the young folks and vigorously carving +a joint of roast meat. + +"Here come the stragglers," cried the young people when they saw +Reinhard and Elisabeth advancing among the trees. + +"This way," shouted the old gentleman. "Empty your handkerchiefs, +upside down, with your hats! Now show us what you have found." + +"Only hunger and thirst," said Reinhard. + +"If that's all," replied the old man, lifting up and showing them the +bowl full of fruit, "you must keep what you've got. You remember the +agreement: nothing here for lazybones to eat." + +But in the end he was prevailed on to relent; the banquet proceeded, +and a thrush in a juniper bush provided the music. + +So the day passed. But Reinhard had, after all, found something, and +though it was not strawberries yet it was something that had grown in +the wood. When he got home this is what he wrote in his old parchment- +bound volume: + +Out on the hill-side yonder + The wind to rest is laid; + Under the drooping branches + There sits the little maid. + +She sits among the wild thyme, + She sits in the fragrant air; +The blue flies hum around her, + Bright wings flash everywhere. + +And through the silent woodland + She peers with watchful eyen, +While on her hazel ringlets + Sparkles the glad sunshine. + +And far, far off the cuckoo + Laughs out his song. +I ween Hers are the bright, the golden + Eyes of the woodland queen. + +So she was not only his little sweetheart, but was also the expression +of all that was lovely and wonderful in his opening life. + +* * * * * + + + + +BY THE ROADSIDE THE CHILD STOOD + + + +The time is Christmas Eve. Before the close of the afternoon Reinhard +and some other students were sitting together at an old oak table in +the Ratskeller. [Footnote: The basement of the Rathaus or Town Hall. +This, in almost every German town of importance, has become a +restaurant and place of refreshment.] The lamps on the wall were +lighted, for down here in the basement it was already growing dark; +but there was only a thin sprinkling of customers present, and the +waiters were leaning idly up against the pillars let into the walls. + +In a corner of the vaulted room sat a fiddler and a fine-featured +gipsy-girl with a zither; their instruments lay in their laps, and +they seemed to be looking about them with an air of indifference. + +A champagne cork popped off at the table occupied by the students. +"Drink, my gipsy darling!" cried a young man of aristocratic +appearance, holding out to the girl a glass full of wine. + +"I don't care about it," she said, without altering her position. + +"Well, then, give us a song," cried the young nobleman, and threw a +silver coin into her lap. The girl slowly ran her fingers through her +black hair while the fiddler whispered in her ear. But she threw back +her head, and rested her chin on her zither. + +"For him," she said, "I'm not going to play." + +Reinhard leapt up with his glass in his hand and stood in front of +her. + +"What do you want?" she asked defiantly. + +"To have a look at your eyes." + +"What have my eyes to do with you?" + +Reinhard's glance flashed down on her. "I <i>know</i> they are false." + +She laid her cheek in the palm of her hand and gave him a searching +look. Reinhard raised his glass to his mouth. + +"Here's to your beautiful, wicked eyes!" he said, and drank. + +She laughed and tossed her head. + +"Give it here," she said, and fastening her black eyes on his, she +slowly drank what was left in the glass. Then she struck a chord and +sang in a deep, passionate voice: + +To-day, to-day thou think'st me + Fairest maid of all; +To-morrow, ah! then beauty + Fadeth past recall. +While the hour remaineth, + Thou art yet mine own; +Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +While the fiddler struck up an allegro finale, a new arrival joined +the group. + +"I went to call for you, Reinhard," he said, "You had already gone +out, but Santa Claus had paid you a visit." + +"Santa Claus?" said Reinhard. "Santa Claus never comes to me now." + +"Oh, yes, he does! The whole of your room smelt of Christmas tree and +ginger cakes." + +Reinhard dropped the glass out of his hand and seized his cap. + +"Well, what are you going to do now?" asked the girl. + + "I'll be back in a minute." + +She frowned. "Stay," she said gently, casting an amorous glance at +him. + +Reinhard hesitated. "I can't," he said. + +She laughingly gave him a tap with the toe of her shoe and said: "Go +away, then, you good-for-nothing; you are one as bad as the other, all +good-for-nothings." And as she turned away from him, Reinhard went +slowly up the steps of the Ratskeller. + +Outside in the street deep twilight had set in; he felt the cool +winter air blowing on his heated brow. From some window every here and +there fell the bright gleam of a Christmas tree all lighted up, now +and then was heard from within some room the sound of little pipes and +tin trumpets mingled with the merry din of children's voices. + +Crowds of beggar children were going from house to house or climbing +up on to the railings of the front steps, trying to catch a glimpse +through the window of a splendour that was denied to them. Sometimes +too a door would suddenly be flung open, and scolding voices would +drive a whole swarm of these little visitors away out into the dark +street. In the vestibule of yet another house they were singing an old +Christmas carol, and little girls' clear voices were heard among the +rest. + +But Reinhard heard not; he passed quickly by them all, out of one +street into another. When he reached his lodging it had grown almost +quite dark; he stumbled up the stairs and so gained his apartment. + +A sweet fragrance greeted him; it reminded him of home; it was the +smell of the parlour in his mother's house at Christmas time. With +trembling hand he lit his lamp; and there lay a mighty parcel on the +table. When he opened it, out fell the familiar ginger cakes. On some +of them were the initial letters of his name written in sprinkles of +sugar; no one but Elisabeth could have done that. + +Next came to view a little parcel containing neatly embroidered linen, +handkerchiefs and cuffs; and finally letters from his mother and +Elisabeth. Reinhard opened Elisabeth's letter first, and this is what +she wrote: + +"The pretty sugared letters will no doubt tell you who helped with the +cakes. The same person also embroidered the cuffs for you. We shall +have a very quiet time at home this Christmas Eve. Mother always puts +her spinning-wheel away in the corner as early as half-past nine. It +is so very lonesome this winter now that you are not here. + +"And now, too, the linnet you made me a present of died last Sunday. +It made me cry a good deal, though I am sure I looked after it well. + +"It always used to sing of an afternoon when the sun shone on its +cage. You remember how often mother would hang a piece of cloth over +the cage in order to keep it quiet when it sang so lustily. + +"Thus our room is now quieter than ever, except that your old friend +Eric now drops in to see us occasionally. You told us once that he was +just like his brown top-coat. I can't help thinking of it every time +he comes in at the door, and it is really too funny; but don't tell +mother, it might easily make her angry. + +"Guess what I am giving your mother for a Christmas present! You can't +guess? Well, it is myself! Eric is making a drawing of me in black +chalk; I have had to give him three sittings, each time for a whole +hour. + +"I simply loathed the idea of a stranger getting to know my face so +well. Nor did I wish it, but mother pressed me, and said it would very +much please dear Frau Werner. + +"But you are not keeping your word, Reinhard. You haven't sent me any +stories. I have often complained to your mother about it, but she +always says you now have more to do than to attend to such childish +things. But I don't believe it; there's something else perhaps." + +After this Reinhard read his mother's letter, and when he had read +them both and slowly folded them up again and put them away, he was +overcome with an irresistible feeling of home-sickness. For a long +while he walked up and down his room, talking softly to himself, and +then, under his breath, he murmured: + +I have err'd from the straight path, + Bewildered I roam; +By the roadside the child stands + And beckons me home. + +Then he went to his desk, took out some money, and stepped down into +the street again. During all this while it had become quieter out +there; the lights on the Christmas trees had burnt out, the +processions of children had come to an end. The wind was sweeping +through the deserted streets; old and young alike were sitting +together at home in family parties; the second period of Christmas Eve +celebrations had begun. + +As Reinhard drew near the Ratskeller he heard from below the scraping +of the fiddle and the singing of the zither girl. The restaurant door +bell tinkled and a dark form staggered up the broad dimly-lighted +stair. + +Reinhard drew aside into the shadow of the houses and then passed +swiftly by. After a while he reached the well-lighted shop of a +jeweller, and after buying a little cross studded with red corals, he +returned by the same way he had come. + +Not far from his lodgings he caught sight of a little girl, dressed in +miserable rags, standing before a tall door, in a vain attempt to open +it. + +"Shall I help you?" he said. + +The child gave no answer, but let go the massive door-handle. Reinhard +had soon opened the door. + +"No," he said; "they might drive you out again. Come along with me, +and I'll give you some Christmas cake." + +He then closed the door again and gave his hand to the little girl, +who walked along with him in silence to his lodgings. + +On going out he had left the light burning. + +"Here are some cakes for you," he said, pouring half of his whole +stock into her apron, though he gave none that bore the sugar letters. + +"Now, off you go home, and give your mother some of them too." + +The child cast a shy look up at him; she seemed unaccustomed to such +kindness and unable to say anything in reply. Reinhard opened the +door, and lighted her way, and then the little thing like a bird flew +downstairs with her cakes and out of the house. + +Reinhard poked the fire in the stove, set the dusty ink-stand on the +table, and then sat down and wrote and wrote letters the whole night +long to his mother and Elisabeth. + +The remainder of the Christmas cakes lay untouched by his side, but he +had buttoned on Elisabeth's cuffs, and odd they looked on his shaggy +coat of undyed wool. And there he was still sitting when the winter +sun cast its light on the frosted window-panes, and showed him a pale, +grave face reflected in the looking-glass. + +* * * * * + + + + +HOME + + + +When the Easter vacation came Reinhard journeyed home. On the morning +after his arrival he went to see Elisabeth. + +"How tall you've grown," he said, as the pretty, slender girl advanced +with a smile to meet him. She blushed, but made no reply; he had taken +her hand in his own in greeting, and she tried to draw it gently away. +He looked at her doubtingly, for never had she done that before; but +now it was as if some strange thing was coming between them. + +The same feeling remained, too, after he had been at home for some +time and came to see her constantly day after day. When they sat alone +together there ensued pauses in the conversation which distressed him, +and which he anxiously did his best to avoid. In order to have a +definite occupation during the holidays, he began to give Elisabeth +some instruction in botany, in which he himself had been keenly +interested during the early months of his university career. + +Elisabeth, who was wont to follow him in all things and was moreover +very quick to learn, willingly entered into the proposal. So now +several times in the week they made excursions into the fields or the +moors, and if by midday they brought home their green field-box full +of plants and flowers, Reinhard would come again later in the day and +share with Elisabeth what they had collected in common. + +With this same object in view, he entered the room one afternoon while +Elisabeth was standing by the window and sticking some fresh chick- +weed in a gilded birdcage which he had not seen in the place before. +In the cage was a canary, which was flapping its wings and shrilly +chirruping as it pecked at Elisabeth's fingers. Previously to this +Reinhard's bird had hung in that spot. + +"Has my poor linnet changed into a goldfinch after its death?" he +asked jovially. + +"Linnets are not accustomed to do any such thing," said Elizabeth's +mother, who sat spinning in her armchair. "Your friend Eric sent it +this noon from his estate as a present for Elisabeth." + +"What estate?" + +"Why, don't you know?" + +"Know what?" + +"That a month ago Eric took over his father's second estate by the +Immensee." [Footnote: <i>I.e.</i> the 'Lake of the Bees'] + +"But you have never said a word to me about it." + +"Well," said the mother, "you haven't yet made a single word of +inquiry after your friend. He is a very nice, sensible young man." + +The mother went out of the room to make the coffee. Elisabeth had her +back turned to Reinhard, and was still busy with the making of her +little chickweed bower. + +"Please, just a little longer," she said, "I'll be done in a minute." + +As Reinhard did not answer, contrary to his wont, she turned round and +faced him. In his eyes there was a sudden expression of trouble which +she had never observed before in them. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she said, drawing nearer to +him. + +"With me?" he said, his thoughts far away and his eyes resting +dreamily on hers. + +"You look so sad." + +"Elisabeth," he said, "I cannot bear that yellow bird." + +She looked at him in astonishment, without understanding his meaning. +"You are so strange," she said. + +He took both her hands in his, and she let him keep them there. Her +mother came back into the room shortly after; and after they had drunk +their coffee she sat down at her spinning-wheel, while Reinhard and +Elisabeth went off into the next room to arrange their plants. + +Stamens were counted, leaves and blossoms carefully opened out, and +two specimens of each sort were laid to dry between the pages of a +large folio volume. + +All was calm and still this sunny afternoon; the only sounds to be +heard were the hum of the mother's spinning-wheel in the next room, +and now and then the subdued voice of Reinhard, as he named the orders +of the families of the plants, and corrected Elisabeth's awkward +pronunciation of the Latin names. + +"I am still short of that lily of the valley which I didn't get last +time," said she, after the whole collection had been classified and +arranged. + +Reinhard pulled a little white vellum volume from his pocket. "Here is +a spray of the lily of the valley for you," he said, taking out a +half-pressed bloom. + +When Elisabeth saw the pages all covered with writing, she asked: +"Have you been writing stories again?" + +"These aren't stories," he answered, handing her the book. + +The contents were all poems, and the majority of them at most filled +one page. Elisabeth turned over the leaves one after another; she +appeared to be reading the titles only. "When she was scolded by the +teacher." "When they lost their way in the woods." "An Easter story." +"On her writing to me for the first time." Thus ran most of the +titles. + +Reinhard fixed his eyes on her with a searching look, and as she kept +turning over the leaves he saw that a gentle blush arose and gradually +mantled over the whole of her sweet face. He would fain have looked +into her eyes, but Elisabeth did not look up, and finally laid the +book down before him without a word. + +"Don't give it back like that," he said. + +She took a brown spray out of the tin case. "I will put your favourite +flower inside," she said, giving back the book into his hands. + +At length came the last day of the vacation and the morning of his +departure. At her own request Elisabeth received permission from her +mother to accompany her friend to the stage-coach, which had its +station a few streets from their house. + +When they passed out of the front door Reinhard gave her his arm, and +thus he walked in silence side by side with the slender maiden. The +nearer they came to their destination the more he felt as if he had +something he must say to her before he bade her a long farewell, +something on which all that was worthy and all that was sweet in his +future life depended, and yet he could not formulate the saving word. +In his anguish, he walked slower and slower. + +"You'll be too late," she said; "it has already struck ten by St +Mary's clock." + +But he did not quicken his pace for all that. At last he stammered +out: + +"Elisabeth, you will not see me again for two whole years. Shall I be +as dear to you as ever when I come back?" + +She nodded, and looked affectionately into his face. + +"I stood up for you too," she said, after a pause. + +"Me? And against whom had you to stand up for me?" + +"Against my mother. We were talking about you a long time yesterday +evening after you left. She thought you were not so nice now as you +once were." + +Reinhard held his peace for a moment: then he took her hand in his, +and looking gravely into her childish eyes, he said: + +"I am still just as nice as I ever was; I would have you firmly +believe that. Do you believe it, Elisabeth?" + +"Yes," she said. + +He freed her hand and quickly walked with her through the last street. +The nearer he felt the time of parting approach, the happier became +the look on his face; he went almost too quickly for her. + +"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she asked. + +"I have a secret, a beautiful secret," said Reinhard, looking at her +with a light in his eyes. "When I come back again in two years' time, +then you shall know it." + +Meanwhile they had reached the stage-coach; they were only just in +time. Once more Reinhard took her hand. "Farewell!" he said, +"farewell, Elisabeth! Do not forget!" + +She shook her head. "Farewell," she said. Reinhard climbed up into the +coach and the horses started. As the coach rumbled round the corner of +the street he saw her dear form once more as she slowly wended her way +home. + +* * * * * + + + + +A LETTER + + + +Nearly two years later Reinhard was sitting by lamplight with his +books and papers around him, expecting a friend with whom he used to +study in common. Some one came upstairs. "Come in." It was the +landlady. "A letter for you, Herr Werner," and she went away. + +Reinhard had never written to Elisabeth since his visit home, and he +had received no letter from her. Nor was this one from her; it was in +his mother's handwriting. + +Reinhard broke the seal and read, and ere long he came to this +paragraph: + +"At your time of life, my dear boy, nearly every year still brings its +own peculiar experience; for youth is apt to turn everything to the +best account. At home, too, things have changed very much, and all +this will, I fear, cause you much pain at first, if my understanding +of you is at all correct. + +"Yesterday Eric was at last accepted by Elisabeth, after having twice +proposed in vain during the last three months. She had never been able +to make up her mind to it, but now in the end she has done so. To my +mind she is still far too young. The wedding is to take place soon, +and her mother means to go away with them." + +* * * * * + + + + +IMMENSEE + + + +Again years have passed. One warm afternoon in spring a young man, +whose sunburnt face was the picture of health, was walking along a +shady road through the wood leading down to the valley below. + +His grave dark eyes looked intently into the distance, as though he +was expecting to find every moment some change in the monotony of the +road, a change however which seemed reluctant to come about. At length +he saw a cart slowly coming up from below. + +"Hullo! my friend," shouted the traveller to the farmer, who was +walking by the side of the cart, "is this the right road to Immensee?" + +"Yes, straight on," answered the man touching his slouch hat. + +"Is it still far off?" + +"You are close to the place, sir. In less time than it takes to smoke +half a pipe of tobacco you'll be at the lake side, and the manor is +hard by." + +The farmer passed on while the other quickened his pace as he went +along under the trees. After a quarter of an hour's walk the shade to +the left of him suddenly came to an end; the road led along a steep +slope from which the ancient oaks growing below hardly reared their +topmost branches. + +Away over their crests opened out a broad, sunny landscape. Far below +lay the peaceful, dark-blue lake, almost entirely surrounded by green +sun-lit woods, save where on one spot they divided and afforded an +extensive view until it closed in the distant blue mountains. + +Straight opposite, in the middle of all this forest verdure, there lay +a patch of white, like driven snow. This was an expanse of blossoming +fruit-trees, and out of them, up on the high lake shore, rose the +manor-house, shining white, with tiles of red. A stork flew up from +the chimney, and circled slowly above the waters. + +"Immensee!" exclaimed the traveller. + +It almost seemed as if he had now reached the end of his journey, for +he stood motionless, looking out over the tops of the trees at his +feet, and gazing at the farther shore, where the reflection of the +manor-house floated, rocking gently, on the bosom of the water. Then +he suddenly started on his way again. + +His road now led almost steeply down the mountain-side, so that the +trees that had once stood below him again gave him their shade, but at +the same time cut off from him the view of the lake, which only now +and then peeped out between the gaps in the branches. + +Soon the way went gently upwards again, and to left and right the +woods disappeared, yielding place to vine-clad hills stretching along +the pathway; while on either side stood fruit-trees in blossom, filled +with the hum of the bees as they busily pried into the blossoms. A +tall man wearing a brown overcoat advanced to meet the traveller. When +he had almost come up to him, he waved his cap and cried out in a loud +voice: + +"Welcome, welcome, brother Reinhard! Welcome to my Immensee estate!" + +"God's greeting to you, [Footnote: This form of salutation is +especially common in the south of Germany.] Eric, and thank you for +your welcome," replied the other. + +By this time they had come up close to one another, and clasped hands. + +"And is it really you?" said Eric, when he at last got a near sight of +the grave face of his old school-fellow. + +"It is I right enough, Eric, and I recognize you too; only you almost +look cheerier than you ever did before." + +At these words a glad smile made Eric's plain features all the more +cheerful. + +"Yes, brother Reinhard," he said, as he once more held out his hand to +him, "but since those days, you see, I have won the great prize; but +you know that well enough." + +Then he rubbed his hands and cried cheerily: "This <i>will</i> be a +surprise! You are the last person she expects to see." + +"A surprise?" asked Reinhard. "For whom, pray?" + +"Why, for Elisabeth." + +"Elisabeth! You haven't told her a word about my visit?" + +"Not a word, brother Reinhard; she has no thought of you, nor her +mother either. I invited you entirely on the quiet, in order that the +pleasure might be all the greater. You know I always had little quiet +schemes of my own." + +Reinhard turned thoughtful; he seemed to breathe more heavily the +nearer they approached the house. + +On the left side of the road the vineyards came to an end, and gave +place to an extensive kitchen-garden, which reached almost as far as +the lake-shore. The stork had meanwhile come to earth and was striding +solemnly between the vegetable beds. + +"Hullo!" cried Eric, clapping his hands together, "if that long-legged +Egyptian isn't stealing my short pea-sticks again!" + +The bird slowly rose and flew on to the roof of a new building, which +ran along the end of the kitchen-garden, and whose walls were covered +with the branches of the peach and apricot trees that were trained +over them. + +"That's the distillery," said Eric. "I built it only two years ago. My +late father had the farm buildings rebuilt; the dwelling-house was +built as far back as my grandfather's time. So we go ever forward a +little bit at a time." + +Talking thus they came to a wide, open space, enclosed at the sides by +farm-buildings, and in the rear by the manor-house, the two wings of +which were connected by a high garden wall. Behind this wall ran dark +hedges of yew trees, while here and there syringa trees trailed their +blossoming branches over into the courtyard. + +Men with faces scorched by the sun and heated with toil were walking +over the open space and gave a greeting to the two friends, while Eric +called out to one or another of them some order or question about +their day's work. + +By this time they had reached the house. They entered a high, cool +vestibule, at the far end of which they turned to the left into a +somewhat darker passage. + +Here Eric opened a door and they passed into a spacious room that +opened into a garden. The heavy mass of leafage that covered the +opposite windows filled this room at either end with a green twilight, +while between the windows two lofty wide-open folding-doors let in the +full glow of spring sunshine, and afforded a view into a garden, laid +out with circular flower-beds and steep hedgerows and divided by a +straight, broad path, along which the eye roamed out on to the lake +and away over the woods growing on the opposite shore. + +As the two friends entered, a breath of wind bore in upon them a +perfect stream of fragrance. + +On a terrace in front of the door leading to the garden sat a girlish +figure dressed in white. She rose and came to meet the two friends as +they entered, but half-way she stood stock-still as if rooted to the +spot and stared at the stranger. With a smile he held out his hand to +her. + +"Reinhard!" she cried. "Reinhard! Oh! is it you? It is such a long +time since we have seen each other." + +"Yes, a long time," he said, and not a word more could he utter; for +on hearing her voice he felt a keen, physical pain at his heart, and +as he looked up to her, there she stood before him, the same slight, +graceful figure to whom he had said farewell years ago in the town +where he was born. + +Eric had stood back by the door, with joy beaming from his eyes. + +"Now, then, Elisabeth," he said, "isn't he really the very last person +in the world you would have expected to see?" + +Elisabeth looked at him with the eyes of a sister. "You are so kind, +Eric," she said. + +He took her slender hand caressingly in his. "And now that we have +him," he said, "we shall not be in a hurry to let him go. He has been +so long away abroad, we will try to make him feel at home again. Just +see how foreign-looking he has become, and what a distinguished +appearance he has!" + +Elisabeth shyly scanned Reinhard's face. "The time that we have been +separated is enough to account for that," she said. + +At this moment in at the door came her mother, key-basket on arm. + +"Herr Werner!" she cried, when she caught sight of Reinhard; "ah! you +are as dearly welcome as you are unexpected." + +And so the conversation went smoothly on with questions and answers. +The ladies sat over their work, and while Reinhard enjoyed the +refreshment that had been prepared for him, Eric had lighted his huge +meerschaum pipe and sat smoking and conversing by his side. + +Next day Reinhard had to go out with him to see the fields, the +vineyards, the hop-garden, the distillery. It was all well appointed; +the people who were working on the land or at the vats all had a +healthy and contented look. + +For dinner the family assembled in the room that opened into the +garden, and the day was spent more or less in company just according +to the leisure of the host and hostess. Only during the hours +preceding the evening meal, as also during the early hours of the +forenoon, did Reinhard stay working in his own room. + +For some years past, whenever he could come across them, he had been +collecting the rhymes and songs that form part of the life of the +people, and now set about arranging his treasure, and wherever +possible increasing it by means of fresh records from the immediate +neighbourhood. + +Elisabeth was at all times gentle and kind. Eric's constant attentions +she received with an almost humble gratitude, and Reinhard thought at +whiles that the gay, cheerful child of bygone days had given promise +of a somewhat less sedate womanhood. + +Ever since the second day of his visit he had been wont of an evening +to take a walk along the shore of the lake. The road led along close +under the garden. At the end of the latter, on a projecting mound, +there was a bench under some tall birch trees. Elisabeth's mother had +christened it the Evening Bench, because the spot faced westward, and +was mostly used at that time of the day in order to enjoy a view of +the sunset. + +One evening Reinhard was returning from his walk along this road when +he was overtaken by the rain. He sought shelter under one of the +linden trees that grew by the water-side, but the heavy drops were +soon pelting through the leaves. Wet through as he was he resigned +himself to his fate and slowly continued his homeward way. + +It was almost dark; the rain fell faster and faster. As he drew near +to the Evening Bench he fancied he could make out the figure of a +woman dressed in white standing among the gleaming birch tree trunks. +She stood motionless, and, as far as he could make out on approaching +nearer, with her face turned in his direction, as if she was expecting +some one. + +He thought it was Elisabeth. But when he quickened his pace in order +that he might catch up to her and then return together with her +through the garden into the house, she turned slowly away and +disappeared among the dark side-paths. + +He could not understand it; he was almost angry with Elisabeth, and +yet he doubted whether it had really been she. He was, however, shy of +questioning her about it--nay, he even avoided going into the garden- +room on his return to the house for fear he should happen to see +Elisabeth enter through the garden-door. + +* * * * * + + + + +BY MY MOTHER'S HARD DECREE + + + +Some days later, as evening was already closing in, the family was, as +usual at this time of the day, sitting all together in their garden- +room. The doors stood wide open, and the sun had already sunk behind +the woods on the far side of the lake. + +Reinhard was invited to read some folk-songs which had been sent to +him that afternoon by a friend who lived away in the country. He went +up to his room and soon returned with a roll of papers which seemed to +consist of detached neatly written pages. + +So they all sat down to the table, Elisabeth beside Reinhard. "We +shall read them at random," said the latter, "I have not yet looked +through them myself." + +Elisabeth unrolled the manuscript. "Here's some music," she said, "you +must sing it, Reinhard." + +To begin with he read some Tyrolese ditties [Footnote: Dialectal for +<i>Schnitterhüpfen</i>, <i>i.e.</i> 'reapers' dances,' sung especially +in the Tyrol and in Bavaria.] and as he read on he would now and then +hum one or other of the lively melodies. A general feeling of +cheeriness pervaded the little party. + +"And who, pray, made all these pretty songs?" asked Elisabeth. + +"Oh," said Eric, "you can tell that by listening to the rubbishy +things--tailors' apprentices and barbers and such-like merry folk." + +Reinhard said: "They are not made; they grow, they drop from the +clouds, they float over the land like gossamer, [Footnote: These fine +cobwebs, produced by field-spiders, have always in the popular mind +been connected with the gods. After the advent of Christianity they +were connected with the Virgin Mary. The shroud in which she was +wrapped after her death was believed to have been woven of the very +finest thread, which during her ascent to Heaven frayed away from her +body.] hither and thither, and are sung in a thousand places at the +same time. We discover in these songs our very inmost activities and +sufferings: it is as if we all had helped to write them." + +He took up another sheet: "I stood on the mountain height [Footnote: +An ancient folk-song which treats of a beautiful but poor maiden, who, +being unable to marry 'the young count,' retired to a convent.]..." + +"I know that one," cried Elisabeth; "begin it, do, Reinhard, and I +will help you out." + +So they sang that famous melody, which is so mysterious that one can +hardly believe that it was ever conceived by the heart of man, +Elisabeth with her slightly clouded contralta taking the second part +to the young man's tenor. + +The mother meanwhile sat busy with her needlework, while Eric listened +attentively, with one hand clasped in the other. The song finished, +Reinhard laid the sheet on one side in silence. Up from the lake-shore +came through the evening calm the tinkle of the cattle bells; they +were all listening without knowing why, and presently they heard a +boy's clear voice singing: + +I stood on the mountain height + And viewed the deep valley beneath.... + +Reinhard smiled. "Do you hear that now? So it passes from mouth to +mouth." + +"It is often sung in these parts," said Elisabeth. + +"Yes," said Eric, "it is Casper the herdsman; he is driving the +heifers [Footnote: <i>Starke</i> is the southern dialect word for +<i>Färse</i>, 'young cow,' 'heifer.'] home." + +They listened a while longer until the tinkle of the bells died away +behind the farm buildings. "These melodies are as old as the world," +said Reinhard; "they slumber in the depths of the forest; God knows +who discovered them." + +He drew forth a fresh sheet. + +It had now grown darker; a crimson evening glow lay like foam over the +woods in the farther side of the lake. Reinhard unrolled the sheet, +Elisabeth caught one side of it in her hand, and they both examined it +together. Then Reinhard read: + +By my mother's hard decree +Another's wife I needs must be; +Him on whom my heart was set, +Him, alas! I must forget; +My heart protesting, but not free. + +Bitterly did I complain +That my mother brought me pain. +What mine honour might have been, +That is turned to deadly sin. +Can I ever hope again? + +For my pride what can I show, +And my joy, save grief and woe? +h! could I undo what's done, +O'er the moor scorched by the sun +Beggarwise I'd gladly go. + +During the reading of this Reinhard had felt an imperceptible +quivering of the paper; and when he came to an end Elisabeth gently +pushed her chair back and passed silently out into the garden. Her +mother followed her with a look. Eric made as if to go after, but the +mother said: + +"Elisabeth has one or two little things to do outside," so he remained +where he was. + +But out of doors the evening brooded darker and darker over garden and +lake. Moths whirred past the open doors through which the fragrance of +flower and bush floated in increasingly; up from the water came the +croak of the frogs, under the windows a nightingale commenced his song +answered by another from within the depths of the garden; the moon +appeared over the tree-tops. + +Reinhard looked for a little while longer at the spot where +Elisabeth's sweet form had been lost to sight in the thick-foliaged +garden paths, and then he rolled up his manuscript, bade his friends +good-night and passed through the house down to the water. + +The woods stood silent and cast their dark shadow far out over the +lake, while the centre was bathed in the haze of a pale moonlight. Now +and then a gentle rustle trembled through the trees, though wind there +was none; it was but the breath of summer night. + +Reinhard continued along the shore. A stone's throw from the land he +perceived a white water-lily. All at once he was seized with the +desire to see it quite close, so he threw off his clothes and entered +the water. It was quite shallow; sharp stones and water plants cut his +feet, and yet he could not reach water deep enough for him to swim in. + +Then suddenly he stepped out of his depth: the waters swirled above +him; and it was some time before he rose to the surface again. He +struck out with hands and feet and swam about in a circle until he had +made quite sure from what point he had entered the water. And soon too +he saw the lily again floating lonely among the large, gleaming +leaves. + +He swam slowly out, lifting every now and then his arms out of the +water so that the drops trickled down and sparkled in the moonlight. +Yet the distance between him and the flower showed no signs of +diminishing, while the shore, as he glanced back at it, showed behind +him in a hazy mist that ever deepened. But he refused to give up the +venture and vigorously continued swimming in the same direction. + +At length he had come so near the flower that he was able clearly to +distinguish the silvery leaves in the moonlight; but at the same time +he felt himself entangled in a net formed by the smooth stems of the +water plants which swayed up from the bottom and wound themselves +round his naked limbs. + +The unfamiliar water was black all round about him, and behind him he +heard the sound of a fish leaping. Suddenly such an uncanny feeling +overpowered him in the midst of this strange element that with might +and main he tore asunder the network of plants and swam back to land +in breathless haste. And when from the shore he looked back upon the +lake, there floated the lily on the bosom of the darkling water as far +away and as lonely as before. + +He dressed and slowly wended his way home. As he passed out of the +garden into the room he discovered Eric and the mother busied with +preparations for a short journey which had to be undertaken for +business purposes on the morrow. + +"Where ever have you been so late in the dark?" the mother called out +to him. + +"I?" he answered, "oh, I wanted to pay a call on the water-lily, but I +failed." + +"That's beyond the comprehension of any man," said Eric. "What on +earth had you to do with the water-lily?" + +"Oh, I used to be friends with the lily once," said Reinhard; "but +that was long ago." + +* * * * * + + + + +ELISABETH + + + +The following afternoon Reinhard and Elisabeth went for a walk on the +farther side of the lake, strolling at times through the woodland, at +other times along the shore where it jutted out into the water. +Elisabeth had received injunctions from Eric, during the absence of +himself and her mother to show Reinhard the prettiest views in the +immediate neighbourhood, particularly the view toward the farm itself +from the other side of the lake. So now they proceeded from one point +to another. + +At last Elisabeth got tired and sat down in the shade of some +overhanging branches. Reinhard stood opposite to her, leaning against +a tree trunk; and as he heard the cuckoo calling farther back in the +woods, it suddenly struck him that all this had happened once before. +He looked at her and with an odd smile asked: + +"Shall we look for strawberries?" + +"It isn't strawberry time," she said. + +"No, but it will soon be here." + +Elisabeth shook her head in silence; then she rose and the two +strolled on together. And as they wandered side by side, his eyes ever +and again were bent toward her; for she walked gracefully and her step +was light. He often unconsciously fell back a pace in order that he +might feast his eyes on a full view of her. + +So they came to an open space overgrown with heather where the view +extended far over the country-side. Reinhard bent down and plucked a +bloom from one of the little plants that grew at his feet. When he +looked up again there was an expression of deep pain on his face. + +"Do you know this flower?" he asked. + +She gave him a questioning look. "It is an erica. I have often +gathered them in the woods." + +"I have an old book at home," he said; "I once used to write in it all +sorts of songs and rhymes, but that is all over and done with long +since. Between its leaves also there is an erica, but it is only a +faded one. Do you know who gave it me?" + +She nodded without saying a word; but she cast down her eyes and fixed +them on the bloom which he held in his hand. For a long time they +stood thus. When she raised her eyes on him again he saw that they +were brimming over with tears. + +"Elisabeth," he said, "behind yonder blue hills lies our youth. What +has become of it?" + +Nothing more was spoken. They walked dumbly by each other's side down +to the lake. The air was sultry; to westward dark clouds were rising. +"There's going to be a storm," said Elisabeth, hastening her steps. +Reinhard nodded in silence, and together they rapidly sped along the +shore till they reached their boat. + +On the way across Elisabeth rested her hand on the gunwale of the +boat. As he rowed Reinhard glanced along at her, but she gazed past +him into the distance. And so his glance fell downward and rested on +her hand, and the white hand betrayed to him what her lips had failed +to reveal. + +It revealed those fine traces of secret pain that so readily mark a +woman's fair hands, when they lie at nights folded across an aching +heart. And as Elisabeth felt his glance resting on her hand she let it +slip gently over the gunwale into the water. + +On arriving at the farm they fell in with a scissors grinder's cart +standing in front of the manor-house. A man with black, loosely- +flowing hair was busily plying his wheel and humming a gipsy melody +between his teeth, while a dog that was harnessed to the cart lay +panting hard by. On the threshold stood a girl dressed in rags, with +features of faded beauty, and with outstretched hand she asked alms of +Elisabeth. + +Reinhard thrust his hand into his pocket, but Elisabeth was before +him, and hastily emptied the entire contents of her purse into the +beggar's open palm. Then she turned quickly away, and Reinhard heard +her go sobbing up the stairs. + +He would fain have detained her, but he changed his mind and remained +at the foot of the stairs. The beggar girl was still standing at the +doorway, motionless, and holding in her hand the money she had +received. + +"What more do you want?" asked Reinhard. + +She gave a sudden start: "I want nothing more," she said; then, +turning her head toward him and staring at him with wild eyes, she +passed slowly out of the door. He uttered a name, but she heard him +not; with drooping head, with arms folded over her breast, she walked +down across the farmyard: + +Then when death shall claim me, + I must die alone. + +An old song surged in Reinhard's ears, he gasped for breath; a little +while only, and then he turned away and went up to his chamber. + +He sat down to work, but his thoughts were far afield. After an hour's +vain attempt he descended to the parlour. Nobody was in it, only cool, +green twilight; on Elisabeth's work-table lay a red ribbon which she +had worn round her neck during the afternoon. He took it up in his +hand, but it hurt him, and he laid it down again. + +He could find no rest. He walked down to the lake and untied the boat. +He rowed over the water and trod once again all the paths which he and +Elisabeth had paced together but a short hour ago. When he got back +home it was dark. At the farm he met the coachman, who was about to +turn the carriage horses out into the pasture; the travellers had just +returned. + +As he came into the entrance hall he heard Eric pacing up and down the +garden-room. He did not go in to him; he stood still for a moment, and +then softly climbed the stairs and so to his own room. Here he sat in +the arm-chair by the window. He made himself believe that he was +listening to the nightingale's throbbing music in the garden hedges +below, but what he heard was the throbbing of his own heart. +Downstairs in the house every one went to bed, the night-hours passed, +but he paid no heed. + +For hours he sat thus, till at last he rose and leaned out of the open +window. The dew was dripping among the leaves, the nightingale had +ceased to trill. By degrees the deep blue of the darksome sky was +chased away by a faint yellow gleam that came from the east; a fresh +wind rose and brushed Reinhard's heated brow; the early lark soared +triumphant up into the sky. + +Reinhard suddenly turned and stepped up to the table. He groped about +for a pencil and when he had found one he sat down and wrote a few +lines on a sheet of white paper. Having finished his writing he took +up hat and stick, and leaving the paper behind him, carefully opened +the door and descended to the vestibule. + +The morning twilight yet brooded in every corner; the big house-cat +stretched its limbs on the straw mat and arched its back against +Reinhard's hand, which he unthinkingly held out to it. Outside in the +garden the sparrows were already chirping their patter [Footnote: +Literally, "sang out pompously, like priests." The word seems to have +been coined by the author. The English 'patter' is derived from +<i>Pater noster</i>, and seems an appropriate translation.] from among +the branches, and giving notice to all that the night was now past. + +Then within the house he heard a door open on the upper floor; some +one came downstairs, and on looking up he saw Elisabeth standing +before him. She laid her hand upon his arm, her lips moved, but not a +word did he hear. + +Presently she said: "You will never come back. I know it; do not deny +it; you will never come back." + +"No, never," he said. + +She let her hand fall from his arm and said no more. He crossed the +hall to the door, then turned once more. She was standing motionless +on the same spot and looking at him with lifeless eyes. He advanced +one step and opened his arms toward her; then, with a violent effort, +he turned away and so passed out of the door. + +Outside the world lay bathed in morning light, the drops of pearly dew +caught on the spiders' webs glistened in the first rays of the rising +sun. He never looked back; he walked rapidly onward; behind him the +peaceful farmstead gradually disappeared from view as out in front of +him rose the great wide world. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE OLD MAN + + + +The moon had ceased to shine in through the window-panes, and it had +grown quite dark; but the old man still sat in his arm-chair with +folded hands and gazed before him into the emptiness of the room. + +Gradually. the murky darkness around him dissolved away before his +eyes and changed into a broad dark lake; one black wave after another +went rolling on farther and farther, and on the last one, so far away +as to be almost beyond the reach of the old man's vision, floated +lonely among its broad leaves a white water-lily. + +The door opened, and a bright glare of light filled the room. + +"I am glad that you have come, Bridget," said the old man. "Set the +lamp upon the table." + +Then he drew his chair up to the table, took one of the open books and +buried himself in studies to which he had once applied all the +strength of his youth. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, IMMENSEE *** + +This file should be named 8imme10.txt or 8imme10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8imme11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8imme10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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