The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol 08 (page 6)

dug; if all of them had to follow soon, think what a lot of deaths there’d be.”

“Oh, forgive me,” said Freneli; “but the more important a journey is the more alarmed the poor soul gets and wants to know what will be the outcome, and so takes every encounter as an omen, bad or good; do you remember when you did the like?”

Then Uli pressed her hand and said, “You’re right; but let us put our trust in God and not worry. What He shall do to us, or give or take, is well done.”

They entered the church softly and hesitatingly; went separately to left and right; saw a child taken into the covenant of the Lord; thought how beautiful it was to be permitted to commend such a tender and feeble being, body and soul, to the especial care of its Saviour, and how great a load it must take from the parents’ breasts, when they received in the baptism the assurance that the Lord would be with them and let them feed the child with His spirit, as the mother fed it with her milk. They joined very reverently in the prayers, and thought how seriously they would take it when they should have to promise as godparents to see to it that a child should be brought to the Lord. The customary collect was lost upon them in the importance of the serious moment that came nearer and nearer. When the pastor stepped forward from behind the baptismal fount, when Uli had taken Freneli by the hand, and they had stepped forward to the bench, both sank to their knees, far anticipating the ceremony, held their hands in fervent clasp, and with all their soul and all their heart and all their strength they prayed and promised what the words bid them–yes, and much more that gushed forth from their true hearts. And when they arose, they felt exceedingly firm and cheerful; both felt that they had won a great treasure for their whole life, which must make them happy, which none could take from them by force or guile, and with which they must remain united to all eternity.

When outside, Uli begged his bride to go with him to the pastor, to get the certificate. Abashed, Freneli tried to decline, under the pretext that she did not know him, that it was unnecessary, and so on. But she went none the less, and no longer timorous, like a thief in the night, but as well becomes a happy woman at the side of an honest man. Freneli knew how to take herself in hand.

With kindness they were received by the pastor, a venerable, tall, lean gentleman. There were not many who, like him, knew how to mingle seriousness and graciousness, so that hearts opened before him as if touched with a magic wand.

When he had looked at Freneli, he asked, “What do you think, Uli? Was it due to luck or God’s guidance that you got this little wife?”

“Your Reverence,” said Uli, “you are right; I think her a gift of God.”

“And you, little wife, of what mind are you?”

“I too have no other thought but that the dear God brought us together,” said Freneli.

“I think so too,” said the pastor; “God willed it; never forget that. But why did He bring you two together? That one should make the other happy, not only here, but also yonder–don’t forget that either. Marriage is God’s sanctuary on earth, in which men are to consecrate and purify themselves for Heaven. You are good people; be pious and upright; but you both have faults. In you, Uli, I know one which steadily gains power over you; it is avarice. You, Freneli, must have some too, but I do not know them. These faults will appear little by little, and when a fault becomes visible in you, Uli, your wife will be the first to see it, and you can tell that by her face; and, on the other hand, you can see what comes out in Freneli, and she can read it in your expression. One almost becomes the other’s mirror. In this mirror, Uli, you should recognize your faults, and try to put them from you out of love for your wife, because she suffers most from them; and you, wife, should assist him in all gentleness, but should recognize your own faults too and try to conquer them for Uli’s sake, and he will help you too. If this labor becomes too heavy for love, then God gives us child after child, and each is an angel come to sanctify us; each brings us new lessons of how to appear rightly before God, and new desires, to the end that the child be prepared for a sacrifice that shall be holy and well-pleasing to God. And the more you live together in this spirit, the happier you shall be in Heaven and on earth; for, believe me, true worldly happiness and heavenly happiness are to be found on exactly the same road. Believe me: the dear God has brought you together to help each other gain Heaven, to be prop and staff to each other on the narrow, toilsome way that leads to eternal life, to level and lighten that way for each other through love, meekness, and long-suffering–for it is rough and thorny. Now when gloomy days come, when faults break out in one or the other, or both, then think not of bad luck, as if that made you unhappy, but of the dear God, who has long seen all these faults and who has brought you together just so that one should cure the other and help him to mend his ways; that is the purpose and the task of your marriage. And as love sent the Saviour and led Him to the cross, so love must be active in you too; that is the power which exceeds all others, which cures and betters. With cursing and scolding, with threats and blows one can put down the other, but not better him so that he can be well-pleasing to God. Usually, the worse one grows, the worse the other becomes too, and so they help each other down to hell. So never forget: God has brought you together, and He will demand each of the other. Man, He will say, where is your wife’s soul? Woman, He will say, where is your husband’s soul? Act so that you can answer with one voice: Lord, here are we both, here at Thy right hand. Forgive me, little wife, that I have spoken so seriously to you this morning. But it is better that you be so talked to now, than later, after Uli is dead, and men think him ruined by your fault; and for Uli too it is better now than later, when he should have brought you to the grave. But this I think neither of you would have done, for you both look to me as if God and men might take pleasure in you.”

When Freneli heard him speak of dying, the tears rushed to her eyes, and with agitated voice she said, “O, Your Reverence, there is no thought of offense. I give you a hundred thousand thanks for your beautiful lesson; I’ll think of it as long as I live. And it would make me very glad if you would some time come into our district and visit us, to see how your words bear fruit in us, and that we haven’t forgotten them.”

The pastor said he would surely do so as soon as he came into their district, and that might very easily happen. He considered them, although they did not live in his parish, as quite half his sheep, and they might depend upon it that if they prospered and were happy, nobody would rejoice more than he. And if he could serve them in any way, let it be what it would, and if it were in his power, they must surely come to him; it would be a pleasure to him.

Thereupon they took their leave and all felt very happy and cheerful at heart. A comforting, warming feeling had been aroused such as all people ought to feel for each other at every meeting; then it would be beautiful on God’s fair earth. “Isn’t that the friendliest gentleman?” said Freneli as they went away; “he takes things seriously and still he is so kind; I could listen to him all day long and never get tired of it.”

When they reached the inn the guests had not arrived, only the message that Johannes would come soon, but that his wife could not very well get away. Then Freneli cried, “You must go for her; drive up there, it’s not so very far; if you drive fast, you can be back in half an hour.”

“I don’t like to overwork Blackie; he has enough trotting to do today,” answered Uli. “The host will probably lend a horse for that little distance.”

So it was done, and quite fortunately. Johannes had not yet started, and his wife was very dubious about sitting in the tavern on a work-day, unless there were a christening; what would folks say? He should have come to them with his wife, instead of running up a bill there in the tavern; they would have had enough for them to eat and drink. He knew that well, said Uli; but that would have been presuming, and the distance was too great beside, for they were going back today; he had his hands full now. But he begged that they would come; otherwise he would have to think they were ashamed of them.

“What are you thinking of, Uli?” exclaimed the mistress; “why, you know how much we think of you. I ought to stay away now, just because you could think such a thing.” At the same time she was getting ready, however, but would not permit her daughter to go along, whom Uli would have liked to invite too. “I should think so!” said she; “and the cat and the dog to boot; that would be fine! It’s presuming enough for me to come. Just wait, you’ll be able to use your money in other ways–housekeeping has a pretty big maw.”

With eagerness Freneli had watched for them from the corner of the inn. All that passed could not take their eyes from her, and when they were past they would ask, “Whose bride is that? I haven’t seen a prettier girl in along time.” Through the whole village went the news of the pretty bride, and whoever could take the time or had any pretext, went by the inn.

At last Uli came driving up and with great friendliness Freneli welcomed them. “Well, here you’ve got to be wife, haven’t you?” cried the old mistress; “God bless you!” and stretched out her plump hand to Freneli. “I just thought you’d make a couple; no two could have suited each other better.”

“Yes, but there wasn’t anything at the time; only on the way home they began to torment me, and I believe that was your fault, too,” said Freneli, turning to Johannes and offering him her hand. “But you just wait; I’ll make war on you, for discussing me so behind my back. Nice customers you are! And if you do that to me any more, I’ll pay you back; just wait. We’ll talk about you behind your backs, too.”

Johannes answered, and Freneli met him again with well-chosen playful words. When she had gone out for a moment, the old mistress said, “Uli, you’ve got an amazingly well-mannered wife; she can talk well enough to suit a manor-house, and the best of it is that she understands her work just as well; you don’t always find the two together. Look out for her; you’ll never get her match again!” Then Uli too began to sing her praises with tears in his eyes, until Freneli came back.

As the conversation suddenly halted at her entrance, she looked roguishly at them all in turn, and said, “There you’ve been talking about me again behind my back and my left ear tingled; you just wait! Uli, is it nice to begin accusing me that way, when I turn my back for just a minute?”

“He didn’t accuse you,” said the old mistress, “just the opposite; but I told him to look out for you, for he’d never get your match again. Oh, if men only knew how the second wife often turns out, they’d be more careful of the first! Not that I can complain. My husband I love and value; I couldn’t get a better one, and he allows me all I want; but I see how it goes elsewhere.”

“I was listening hard,” answered Johannes; “but you ended up all right. You’re right! In some places the women have a hard time, in others the men; it always depends on where there’s understanding and then the belief that there’s a God in Heaven. Where there’s no belief, evil is king.”

Hereupon they were invited into the back room. There the soup was already served, a quart of wine was on the table, and beside it a little pot of sweet, tea. She thought she’d make tea right off, said the hostess; then anybody could take it that wanted to; some liked it, some didn’t. With unfeigned friendliness Freneli played the hostess, filled the glasses, passed them around, and urged her guests to empty them; all felt comfortable and at home. Uli sat down near the master and asked him this and that–how to arrange his stables; what he thought it paid best to plant; when he sowed this and that; what this or that soil was best for. Johannes answered like a father, then asked in his turn, and Uli gave his experience.

At first the women listened; but then Freneli’s heart overflowed with questions and she sought advice about the hundred and one things in which a farmer’s wife ought to be past-master; told how she had done things heretofore, but wondered whether they could not be done better and more profitably. Joyfully the old mistress revealed her secrets, but often said, “I think you do it better; I must try that too.” The comfortable homeliness of the party lured in host and hostess, sensible people, and both helped to advise and discuss what was best, and showed their pleasure in much that they heard. And the more they heard the more desire to learn did Uli and Freneli display and the more humble did they become; they harkened to the experiences of the older people and impressed them upon their memories, not burdened with useless things.

The afternoon passed by without their knowing it. All at once the sun cast a golden beam into the room, and all that was in it floated transfigured in its light. They started up in alarm at the unexpected light, which almost seemed to come from a sudden conflagration. But the hostess bade them to be at ease; that was only the sunlight; the sun always shone in there in the spring before it set.

“Mercy, is it so late?” cried Freneli; “we must go, Uli.”

“I didn’t want to hurry you,” said the hostess; “the moon will come up before it’s dark.”

“How fast this afternoon went by?” said Johannes’ wife. “I don’t know as I ever remember time going so fast.”

“I feel the same way,” said the hostess. “This wedding was something different from that of so many young couples who are so bored they don’t know what to do except drink and play cards, and make you so tired that you’re glad when you see their backs. Why, sometimes I feel, when I see a lad who can’t do anything but curse on his wedding-day, and who sticks out his borrowed pipe as if he wanted to pull down the moon, that I’d like to give him a punch in the head, so that he’d have it where other folks have it, and learn to talk like other folks.”

The old mistress gave Freneli her hand and said, “You’ve grown very dear to me, as God lives, and I won’t let you go away until you promise me to come back to us real soon.”

“Very gladly,” said Freneli, “if it’s possible. I’ve been feeling, too, as if I was talking to a mother; and if we only lived nearer, I’d come only too often. But we have a big place and shan’t be able to leave it much, Uli and I. But you come to see us–you must promise me that; you have grown-up children and you know your house will be all right even if you are away.”

“Yes, I’ll come to see you, I promise. I’ve often said to Johannes that I wondered what Slough Farm was like. And listen, if you should want a godmother some time, don’t take the trouble to go a long ways for one. I know one that won’t refuse.”

“That would be good news,” said Freneli, and plucked at a ribbon; “I won’t forget it, and will think of it if the time ever comes; you can never know what may happen.”

“Oh, yes, just about,” laughed the other, “and then we’ll see whether you care for us or not.”

Meanwhile Uli had paid the account, ordered the horse hitched up, and now filled all the glasses and pressed them to drink a farewell glass. Now the host came in with an extra bottle and said he wanted to do something too and not have his drinks all paid for. He was glad that they had been with him and he would be willing to put up a bottle of his best every Friday if such couples would come to be married; he had had his joy of them. When he heard that the bill had been paid, Johannes insisted that the host bring another bottle at his expense; and the stars were shining in the sky when, after a most affectionate farewell, such as unrelated people seldom bid one another, the spirited Blackie swiftly pulled a happy couple away–toward Paradise.

Yes, dear Reader, Freneli and Uli are in Paradise–that is, they live in unclouded love, blessed by God with four boys and two girls; they live in growing prosperity, for the blessing of God is their luck; their name has good repute in the land, and far and wide they stand in high esteem; for their aspiration is high, so high as to try to write their names in Heaven. But not in a day, but after many a severe conflict did they reach the level road and become certain of the goal.

* * * *

THE BRAeSIG EPISODES FROM UT MINE STROMTID[4]

TRANSLATED BY M.W. MACDOWALL

EDITED AND ABRIDGED BY EDMUND VON MACH, PH.D.

[UT MIND STROMTID: A story of my youth, depicts the joys and sorrows of a North German country community during the lean years of the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Human passions rent the hearts of men then as now. Nobility of soul distinguished some, and was lacking in many. Education was not universal, but common sense perhaps rather frequent. The best road to a happy life, however, was then as always, a kindly heart, a strict sense of justice, and a dash of unconscious humor. This lucky combination endeared Uncle Braesig to everyone, and enabled him to make his blustering way cheerfully, yet serenely conscious of all joys and sorrows, amid the vicissitudes of life. He understood the human heart, whether it beat in the breast of a child or a tired old man, of a villain or of a loving wife. Nobody, however, was dearer to him than Mina and Lina Nuessler, his god-children. And naughty little girls these angelic twins were too, without respect for grandfather’s peruke or grandmother’s Sunday cap. They placed them on their own curly locks, and danced the “Kringelkranz-Rosendanz,” and in so doing broke Mina’s favorite toy-jar. In their eagerness to have it mended they ran from the house.]

* * * * *

Just as the children entered the yard a little man came in at the gate. And this little man had a red face, and a very imposing red nose which he always held cocked up in the air. He wore a square cap of no particular color with a tassel in front, and a long-tailed, loose, gray linen-coat. He always kept his feet turned out in an exaggerated first position which made his short legs look as if they were fastened to his body in the wrong way. He had striped trousers and long boots with yellow tops. He was not stout, and yet he was by no means thin, in fact his figure was beginning to lose its youthful proportions.

The children walked on, and when they had got near enough for the farm-bailiff–for such was the calling of the little man–to see what they were wearing, he stood still, and raised his bushy yellow eye-brows till they were quite hidden under his pointed cap, treating them as if they were the most beautiful part of his face, and must therefore be put away in a safe place out of all danger: “Bless me!” cried he. “What’s the matter? What on earth have you been about? Why you’ve got the whole of your old grandparent’s Sunday-finery on your heads!” The two little girls allowed themselves to be deprived of their borrowed plumes without remonstrance, and showing the broken jar, said that the wheel-wright was to mend it. “What!” exclaimed Mr. farm-bailiff Braesig–that was the way he liked to be addressed–“is it possible that there is such insummate folly in the world? Lina, you are the eldest and ought to have been wiser; and, Mina, don’t cry any more, you are my little god-child, and so I’ll give you a new jar at the summer-fair. And now get away with you into the house.” He drove the little girls before him, and followed carrying the peruke in one hand and the cap in the other.

When he found the sitting-room empty, he said to himself: “Of course, every one’s out at the hay. Well, I ought to be looking after my hay too, but the little round-heads have made such a mess of these two bits of grandeur, that they’d be sure to get into a scrape if the old people were to see what they’ve been after; I must stay and repair the mischief that has been done.”

[Illustration: FRITZ REUTER]

With that he pulled out the pocket-comb that he always carried about with him to comb his back-hair over to the front of his head, and so cover the bald place that was beginning to show. He then set to work at the peruke, and soon got that into good order again. But how about the cap? “What in the name of wonder have you done to this, Lina? It’s morally impossible to get it back to the proper _fassong_. Ah–let me think. What’s the old lady like on Sunday afternoons? She has a good bunch of silk curls on each side of her face, then the front of the cap rises about three inches higher than the curls; so the thing must be drawn more to the front. She hasn’t anything particular in the middle, for her bald head shows through, but it always goes into a great bunch at the back where it sticks out in a mass of frills. The child has crushed that part frightfully, it must be ironed out.” He put his clenched fist into the cap and pulled out the frills, but just as he thought he was getting them into good order, the string that was run through a caser at the back of the frilled mass gave way, and the whole erection flattened out. “Faugh!” he cried, sending his eye-brows right up in the air. “It wasn’t half strong enough to keep it firm. Only a bit of thread! And the ends won’t knot together again! God bless my soul! whatever induced me to meddle with a cap? But, wait a bit, I’ll manage it yet.” He thrust his hand into his pocket, and drew out a quantity of string of different sizes, for like every farm-bailiff who was worth anything he always carried a good supply of such things about with him. He searched amongst his store for some thing that would suit the case in hand. “Whip-cord is too thick; but this will do capitally,” and then he began to draw a piece of good strong pack-thread through the caser. It was a work of time, and when he had got about half of it done, there was a knock at the door; he threw his work on the nearest chair, and called out: “Come in.”

The door opened, and Hawermann entered with his little girl in his arms. Braesig started up. “What in the–” he began solemnly, then interrupting himself, he went on eagerly: “Charles Hawermann, where have you come from?” “From a place, Braesig, where I have nothing more to look for,” said his friend. “Is my sister at home?” “Every one’s out at the hay; but what do you mean?” “That it’s all up with me. All the goods that I possessed were sold by auction the day before yesterday, and yesterday morning”–here he turned away to the window–“I buried my wife.” “What? what?” cried the kind-hearted old farm-bailiff, “good God! your wife. Your dear little wife?” and the tears ran down his red face. “Dear old friend, tell me how it all happened.” “Ah, how it all happened?” repeated Hawermann, and seating himself, he told the whole story of his misfortunes as shortly as possible.

Meanwhile, Lina and Mina approached the strange child slowly and shyly, stopping every now and then, and saying nothing, and then they went a little nearer still. At last Lina summoned courage to touch the sleeve of the stranger’s frock, and Mina showed her the bits of her jar: “Look, my jar is broken.” But the little girl looked round the room uneasily, till at last she fixed her great eyes on her father.

“Yes,” said Hawermann, concluding his short story, “things have gone badly with me, Braesig; I still owe you thirty pounds, don’t ask for it now, only give me time, and if God spares my life, I’ll pay you back every farthing honestly.” “Charles Hawermann, Charles Hawermann,” said Braesig, wiping his eyes, and blowing his imposing nose, “you’re–you’re an ass! Yes,” he continued, shoving his handkerchief into his pocket with an emphatic poke, and holding his nose even more in the air than usual, “you’re every bit as great an ass as you used to be!” And then, as if thinking that his friend’s thoughts should be led into a new channel, he caught Lina and Mina by the waist-band and put them on Hawermann’s knee, saying “There, little round-heads, that’s your uncle.” Just as if Lina and Mina were playthings and Hawermann were a little child who could be comforted in his grief by a new toy. He, himself, took Hawermann’s little Louisa in his arms and danced about the room with her, his tears rolling down his cheeks the while. After a short time he put the child down upon a chair, upon the very chair on which he had thrown his unfinished work, and right on the top of it too.

In the meanwhile the household had come back from the hay-field, and a woman’s clear voice could be heard outside calling to the maids to make haste: “Quick, get your hoop and pails, it’ll soon be sunset, and this year the fold’s[5] rather far off. We must just milk the cows in the evening. Where’s your wooden-platter, girl? Go and get it at once. Now be as quick as you can, I must just go and have look at the children.” A tall stately woman of five-and-twenty came into the room. She seemed full of life and energy, her cheeks were rosy with health, work, and the summer air, her hair and eyes were bright, and her forehead, where her chip-hat had sheltered it from the sun, was white as snow. Any one could see the likeness between her and Hawermann at first sight; still there was a difference, she was well-off, and her whole manner showed that she would work as hard from temperament as he did from honor and necessity.

To see her brother and to spring to him were one and the same action: “Charles, brother Charles, my second father,” she cried throwing her arms round his neck; but on looking closer at him, she pushed him away from her, saying: “What’s the matter? You’ve had some misfortune! What is it?”

Before he had time to answer his sister’s questions, her husband, Joseph Nuessler, came in, and going up to Hawermann shook hands with him, and said, taking as long to get out his words as dry weather does to come: “Good day, brother-in-law; won’t you sit down?” “Let him tell us what’s wrong,” interrupted his wife impatiently. “Yes,” said Joseph, “sit down and tell us what has happened. Good-day, Braesig; be seated, Braesig.” Then Joseph Nuessler, or as he was generally called, young Joseph, sat down in his own peculiar corner beside the stove. He was a tall, thin man, who never could hold himself erect, and whose limbs bent in all sorts of odd places whenever he wanted to use them in the ordinary manner. He was nearly forty years old, his face was pale, and almost as long as his way of drawling out his words, his soft blond hair, which had no brightness about it, hung down equally long over his forehead and his coat collar. He had never attempted to divide or curl it. When he was a child his mother had combed it straight down over his brow, and so he had continued to do it, and whenever it had looked a little rough and unkempt, his mother used to say: “Never mind, Josy, the roughest colt often makes the finest horse.” Whether it was that his eyes had always been accustomed to peer through the long hair that overhung them, or whether it was merely his nature cannot be known with any certainty, but there was something shy in his expression, as if he never could look anything full in the face, or come to a decision on any subject, and even when his hand went out to the right, his mouth turned to the left. That, however, came from smoking, which was the only occupation he carried out with the slightest perseverance, and as he always kept his pipe in the left corner of his mouth, he, in course of time, had pressed it out a little, and had drawn it down to the left, so that the right side of his mouth looked as if he were continually saying “prunes and prism,” while the left side looked as if he were in the habit of devouring children.

There he was now seated in his own particular corner by the stove, and smoking out of his own particular corner of his mouth, and while his lively wife wept in sympathy with her brother’s sorrow, and kissed and fondled him and his little daughter alternately, he kept quite still, glancing every now and then from his wife and Hawermann at Braesig, and muttering through a cloud of tobacco smoke: “It all depends upon what it is. It all depends upon circumstances. What’s to be done now in a case like this?”

Braesig had quite a different disposition from young Joseph, for instead of sitting still like him, he walked rapidly up and down the room, then seated himself upon the table, and in his excitement and restlessness swung his short legs about like weaver’s shuttles. When Mrs. Nuessler kissed and stroked her brother, he did the same; and when Mrs. Nuessler took the little child and rocked it in her arms, he took it from her and walked two or three times up and down the room with it, and then placed it on the chair again, and always right on the top of the grandmother’s best cap.

“Bless me!” cried Mrs. Nuessler at last, “I quite forgot. Braesig, _you_ ought to have thought of it. You must all want something to eat and drink!” She went to the blue cupboard, and brought out a splendid loaf of white household bread and some fresh butter, then she went out of the room and soon returned with sausages, ham and cheese, a couple of bottles of the strong beer that was brewed on purpose for old Mr. Nuessler, and a jug of milk for the children. When everything was neatly arranged on a white table cloth, she placed a seat for her brother, and lifting her little niece, chair and all, put her beside her father. Then she set to work and cut slices of bread, and poured out the beer, and saw that there was enough for everybody.

“I’ll be ready to give you something presently,” she said, stroking her little girls’ flaxen heads fondly, “but I must see to your little cousin first. Here’s a chair for you, Braesig–Come, Joseph.” “All right,” said Joseph, blowing a last long cloud of smoke out of the left corner of his mouth, and then dragging his chair forward, half sitting on it all the time. “Charles,” said Braesig, “I can recommend these sausages. Your sister, Mrs. Nuessler, makes them most capitally, and I’ve often told my housekeeper that she ought to ask for the receipt, for you see the old woman mixes up all sorts of queer things that oughtn’t to go together at all; in short, the flavor is very extraordinary and not in the least what it ought to be, although each of the ingredients separately is excellent, and made of a pig properly fattened on peas.” “Mother, give Braesig some more beer,” said Joseph. “No more, thank you, Mrs. Nuessler. May I ask for a little kuemmel instead? Charles, since the time that I was learning farming at old Knirkstaedt with you, and that rascal Pomuchelskopp, I’ve always been accustomed to drink a tiny little glass of kuemmel at breakfast and supper, and it agrees with me very well, I am thankful to say. But, Charles, whatever induced you to have any business transactions with such a rascal as Pomuchelskopp? I told you long ago that he was not to be trusted, he’s a regular old Venetian, he’s a cunning dog, in short, he’s a–Jesuit.” “Ah, Braesig,” said Hawermann, “we won’t talk about it. He might have treated me differently; but still it was my own fault, I oughtn’t to have agreed to his terms. I’m thinking of something else now. I wish I could get something to do!” “Of course, you must get a situation as soon as possible. The Count, my master, is looking out for a steward for his principal estate, but don’t be angry with me for saying so Charles, I don’t think that it would do for you. You see, you’d have to go to the Count every morning with laquered boots, and a cloth coat, and you’d have to speak High-German, for he considers our provincial way of talking very rude and uncultivated. And then you’d have all the women bothering you, for they have a great say in all the arrangements. You might perhaps manage with the boots, and the coat, and the High-German–though you’re rather out of practice–but you’d never get on with the women. The Countess is always poking about to see that all’s going on rightly in the cattle-sheds and pig-sties,–in short–it’s, it’s as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah.” “Bless me!” cried Mrs. Nuessler, “I remember now. The farm-bailiff at Puempelhagen left at the midsummer-term, and that would just be the place for you, Charles.” “Mrs. Nuessler is right, as usual,” said Braesig. “As for the _Councillor[6]_ at Puempelhagen”–he always gave the squire of Puempelhagen his professional title, and laid such an emphasis on the word councillor that one might have thought that he and Mr. von Rambow had served their time in the army together, or at least had eaten their soup out of the same bowl with the same spoon–“as for the _Councillor_ at Puempelhagen, he is very kind to all his people, gives a good salary, and is quite a gentleman of the old school. He knows all about you too. It’s just the very thing for you, Charles, and I’ll go with you tomorrow. What do you say, young Joseph?” “Ah!” said Mr. Nuessler meditatively, “it all depends upon circumstances.” “Good gracious!” exclaimed Mrs. Nuessler with a look of anxiety on her pretty face. “I’m forgetting everything today. If grandfather and grandmother ever find out that we’ve been having a supper-party here without their knowledge, they’ll never forgive me as long as I live. Sit a little closer children. You might have reminded me, Joseph.” “What shall I do now?” asked Joseph, but she had already left the room.

A few minutes later she came back, accompanied by the two old people. There was an expression of anxious watchfulness and aimless attention in both faces, such as deaf people often have, and which is apt to degenerate into a look of inanity and distrust. It is a very true saying that when a husband and wife have lived many years together, and have shared each other’s thoughts and interests, they at last grow to be like one another in appearance, and even when the features are different the expression becomes the same. Old Mr. and Mrs. Nuessler looked thoroughly soured, and as if they had never had the least bit of happiness or enjoyment all their lives long, such things being too expensive for them; their clothes were threadbare and dirty, as if they must always be saving, saving, and even found water a luxury that cost too much money. There was nothing comfortable about their old age, not a single gleam of kindliness shone in their lack-lustre eyes, for they had never had but _one_ joy, and that was their son Joseph, and his getting on in the world. They were now worn out, and everything was tiresome to them, even their one joy, their son Joseph, was tiresome, but they were still anxious and troubled about his getting on in the world, that was the only thing they cared for now. The old man had become a little childish, but his wife had still all her wits about her, and could spy and pry into every hole and corner, to see that everything was going on as she wished.

Hawermann rose and shook hands with the old people, while his sister stood close by looking at them anxiously, to see what they thought of the visitor. She had already explained to them in a few words, why her brother had come, and that may have been the reason that the old faces looked even sourer than usual, but still it might be because she had provided a better supper than she generally did. They seated themselves at table. The old woman caught sight of Hawermann’s little girl: “Is that his child?” she asked. Her daughter-in-law nodded. “Is she going to remain here?” she asked. Her daughter-in-law nodded again. “O–h!” said the old woman, drawing out the word till it was long enough to cover all the harm she thought the cost of the child’s keep would bring upon her Joseph. “Yes, these _are_ hard times,” she continued, as though she thought speaking of the times would best settle the question, “_very_ hard times, and every man has enough to do to get on in the world himself.” Meanwhile the old man had done nothing but stare at the bottle of beer and at Braesig’s glass: “Is that my beer?” he asked. “Yes,” shouted Braesig in his ear, “and most excellent beer it is that Mrs. Nuessler brews, it’s a capital _rajeunissimang_ for a weak stomach!” “What extravagance! What extravagance!” grumbled the old man. His wife ate her supper, but never took her eyes off the oak chest opposite. Young Mrs. Nuessler, who must have studied the peculiarities of her mother-in-law with great care, looked to see what was the matter, and found to her horror and dismay that the cap was gone from its stand. Good gracious! what had become of it? She had plaited it up that very morning, and hung it on the stand. “Where’s my cap?” the old woman at last inquired. “Never mind, mother,” said her daughter-in-law bending toward her, “I’ll get it directly.” “Is it done up yet?” The young woman nodded, and thought, surely grandmother will be satisfied now, but the old woman glanced into every corner of the room to see what she could find out. Braesig’s countenance changed when he heard the cap spoken of, and he looked about him hastily to see where the “beastly thing” could have got to, but in another moment old Mrs. Nuessler pointed at little Louisa Hawermann, and said with a venomous smile, like a stale roll dipped in fly-poison: “It must be plaited all over again.” “What’s the matter?” cried her daughter-in-law, and starting up as she spoke, she saw the ends of the cap ribbons hanging down below the hem of the child’s frock; she lifted her niece off the chair, and was going to have picked up the cap, but the old woman was too quick for her. She seized her crumpled head-gear, and when she saw the flattened puffs, and Braesig’s bit of pack-thread hanging half in and half out of the caser, her wrath boiled over, and holding up her cap so that every one might see it, exclaimed: “Good for nothing chit!” and was going to have struck the little girl over the head with her cap.

But Braesig caught her by the arm and said: “The child had nothing to do with it,” and then growled out in a half whisper: “The old cat!” At the same moment loud crying was to be heard behind the grandmother’s chair, and Mina sobbed: “I’ll never, never do it again,” and Lina sobbed: “And I’ll never do it again.” “Bless me!” cried young Mrs. Nuessler, “it was the little girls who did all the mischief. Mother, it was our own children that did it.” But the old woman had been too long accustomed to turn everything to her own advantage, not to know how to make a judicious use of her deafness; she never heard what she did not want to hear; and she did not want to hear now. “Come,” she shouted, and signed to her husband. “Mother, mother,” cried her daughter-in-law, “give me your cap, and I’ll set it to rights.” “Who’s at the fold?” asked the old woman as she left the room with old Joseph. Young Joseph lighted his pipe again. “Good gracious!” said Mrs. Nuessler, “she’s quite right there, I ought to be at the fold. Ah well, grandmother won’t be civil to me again for a month.” “Crusty,” said Braesig, “was an old dog, and Crusty had to give in at last.” “Don’t cry any more, my pets,” said the mother, wiping her little girls’ eyes. “You didn’t know what harm you were doing, you are such stupid little things. Now be good children, and go and play with your cousin, I must go to my work. Joseph, just keep an eye on the children, please,” and then Mrs. Nuessler put on her chip-hat, and set off to the fold where the cows were milked.

“A mother-in-law’s the very devil!” said Braesig. “But you, young Joseph,” he continued, turning to Mr. Nuessler, who was smoking as calmly as if what had happened was nothing to him, “ought to be ashamed of yourself for allowing your mother to bully your wife.” “But,” said young Joseph, “how can I interfere? I am her son.” “You needn’t actually _strike_ her,” said Braesig, “because your parents are given you by God, but you might give her a little filial advice now and then, such as befits an obedient son, and so prevent the devil of dispeace getting into the house. And as for you, Charles Hawermann, don’t take a little tiff like this to heart, for your sister has a cheerful disposition, and an affectionate nature, so she’ll soon be on good terms with the old skin-flints again, and they can’t get on without her, she’s the mainstay of the household.”

“But now,” and he pulled an enormous watch out of his pocket, the kind of watch that is called a warming-pan, “it’s seven o’clock, and I must go and look after my work-people.” “Wait,” said Hawermann, “I’ll go part of the way with you. Good-by for the present, Joseph.” “Good-by, brother-in-law,” said young Joseph from his corner.

As soon as they were out of doors Hawermann asked “I say, Braesig, how could you speak of the old people in such a way before their son?” “He’s quite accustomed to it, Charles. No one has a good word for the two old misers, they’ve quarreled with all the neighbors, and as for the servants, _they_ take very good care to keep out of the old wretches’ sight.” “My poor sister!” sighed Hawermann; “she used to be such a merry light-hearted girl, and now, shut up in a house with such people, and such a Nuss (slow) of a man.” “You’re right enough there, Charles, he is an old Nuss, and Nuessler (slow-coach) is his name; but _he_ never bullies your sister, and although he is such an ass that he can manage nothing himself, he has sense enough to see that your sister is quite able to keep everything straight.” “Poor girl! She married that man for my sake, to make my way easier for me, she said; and for our old mother’s sake, to give her a comfortable home with one of her children in her latter days.” “I know, I know, Charles. I know it from my own experience. Don’t you remember it was during the rye-harvest, and you said to me, Zachariah, you said, you must be in love, for you’re leading in your rye quite wet. And I said; how so? On the Sunday before that we had had spruce-beer, and your sister was one of the party, or else I shouldn’t have led in the rye in such weather. And then I told you that if I didn’t change my mind your sister was the only one of my three sweethearts that I’d marry. Then you laughed heartily, and said, she was too young. What has being young to do with it? I asked. And then you said that my other two sweethearts came first, and so they ought to have the preference. And then you laughed again, and didn’t seem to believe that I was in earnest. A short time afterward my lord the Count changed _his_ mind, and said he wouldn’t have a married bailiff. And then a little more time passed, and it was too late. Young Joseph made her an offer, and your mother begged her so hard to take him, that she consented. Ah well, that marriage ought never to have been,” and Braesig looked down gravely. After a moment’s silence he went on–“When I saw the twins I felt drawn to them, and thought that they might have been my own, and I almost wished that the old woman, old Joseph, and young Joseph were in their graves. It was indeed a happy day for the old Jesuits when your sister brought her loving heart and cheerful nature into their house, if it had been any one else there would have been murder done long ago.”

While they were talking they had left the village behind them, and were now beside the large garden. Suddenly Hawermann exclaimed: “Look there, the two old people are on the top of the hill yonder.” “Yes,” said Braesig with a derisive chuckle, “there they are, the hypocritical old Jesuits, standing in their hiding-place.” “Hiding-place?” asked Hawermann, astonished. “Up there on the hill?” “Even so, Charles, the old creatures can trust no one, not even their own children, and when they want to say anything to each other that they can’t explain by their usual signs, they always go to the very top of the hill where they can see that there are no eavesdroppers, and shout their secrets in one another’s ears. Look at them cackling away, the old woman has laid another dragon’s egg, and now they’re both going to hatch it.” “How eagerly they’re talking,” said Hawermann. “Do you see how the old woman is gesticulating? What can it all be about?” “I know what they are laying down the law about, for I know them well. And Charles,” he continued after a short silence, “it is better that you should understand the whole state of the case at once, and then you’ll know how to act.”

“They’re talking about you, and your little girl.” “About me, and my little girl!” repeated Hawermann in astonishment. “Yes, Charles–don’t you see. If you had come with a great purse full of money, they would have received you with open arms, for money is the only thing for which they have the slightest respect; but as it is they regard you and the child in the light of beggarly poor relations who will take the very bread out of the mouth of their unfortunate son.” “Oh!” sighed Hawermann, “why didn’t I leave the child with the Rassows? Who is to take care of her? Can you advise me what to do? I can’t leave her here in my sister’s charge for my sister’s sake.” “Of course you’d like to have her near you. Well, Charles, I’ll tell you something. You must remain at the Nuesslers tonight. Tomorrow we’ll go and see the _Councillor_ at Puempelhagen: if we succeed there we’ll look out for a good place for the child in the neighborhood; and if we don’t succeed, we’ll go to the town and board her for the present with Kurz, the shopkeeper. And now good-night, Charles! Don’t be down-hearted, everything will look brighter soon.” And so he went away.

Braesig arrived in good time next morning to go to Puempelhagen with Hawermann. Mrs. Nuessler was sitting in the porch paying the farm-servants, and Joseph was sitting beside her smoking while she worked. Neither of the old people had come down yet, for the grandmother had said to her daughter-in-law, she, at least, could not join them in the parlor, for she had nothing to put on her head; and the grandfather had said, they could all be quite happy without him. “That’s really kind of them,” said Braesig. “There’s no fear of our dinner being spoilt now by their bad temper, for, Mrs. Nuessler, I’m going to spend the day with Charles. Come, Charles, we must be off. Good-by little round-heads.”

When they were out in the yard Braesig stood still, and said: “Look, Charles, did you ever see anything more like the desert of Sahara? One heap of manure here and another there! And look, that’s the drain old Joseph cut from the farm-yard to the village horse-pond. And as for the roofs,” he continued, “they have enough straw to make new ones, but the old people think money expended on thatching sheer waste. I come here often, and for two reasons; firstly because of my stomach, and secondly because of my heart. I’ve always found that well-cooked food is not only pleasant to the taste, but also produces a wholesome exhilaration when followed by one of the little rages I generally get into here. And I come here for the sake of your sister and the little round-heads. I know that I am of use to her, for young Joseph just rolls on smoothly like the wheel of the coach that runs every winter from here to Rostock. How I should like to have him as leader in a three-horse team, harnessed into a farm cart, and then drive him with my whip!” “Ah!” said Hawermann as they came to a field, “they’ve got very good wheat here.” “Yes, it’s pretty fair, but what do you think they were going to have had there instead? Rye! And for what reason? Simply because old Joseph had sown rye in that field every year for twenty-one years!” “Does their farm extend to the other side of the hill?” “No, Charles, it isn’t quite such a fat morsel as all that, like bacon fried in butter and eaten with a spoon! No, no, the wheat on the top of the hill is mine.” “Ah, well, it’s odd how soon one forgets. Then your land comes down as far as this?” “Yes, Charles; Warnitz is a long narrow estate, it extends from here on the one side as far as Haunerwiem on the other. Now stand still for a moment, I can show you the whole lie of the country from this point. Where we are standing belongs to your brother-in-law, his land reaches from my wheat-field up there to the right, as far as that small clump of fir-trees to the left. You see, Rexow is quite a small farm, there are only a few more acres belonging to it on the other side of the village. To the right up there is Warnitz; and in front of us, where the fallow ground begins, is Puempelhagen; and down there to the left, behind the little clump of firs, is Guerlitz.”

“Then Warnitz is the largest!” “No, Charles, you’ve mistaken me there. Puempelhagen is the best estate in the neighborhood, the wheat-land there produces forty-two loads, and that is eight more than Warnitz can show. It would be a blessing if all the other places were like it. The _Councillor_ is a good man, and understands farming, but you see his profession obliges him to live in Schwerin, so he can’t attend to Puempelhagen. He has had a good many bailiffs of one kind or another. He came into the estate when everything was very dear, and there are a considerable number of apothecaries[7] on it, so that he must often feel in want of money, and all the more so that his wife is extravagant, and likes to live in a constant whirl of gaiety. He is a worthy man and kind to his people, and although the von Rambows are of very old family–my master, the Count, often asks him to dinner, and _he_ will not admit any but members of the nobility to the honor of his acquaintance–he goes about quite _doucimang_, and makes no fuss about his position.”

Hawermann listened attentively to all that was said, for if he succeeded in getting the place of bailiff, these things would all be of importance to him, but his thoughts soon returned to the subject of his greatest present anxiety. “Braesig,” he said, “who is the best person to take charge of my little girl?” “I can’t think of any one. I’m afraid that we must take her to the town to Kurz. Mrs. Kurz is an excellent woman, and he, well he is a good hand at a bargain like all tradesmen. Only think, he sold me a pair of trousers last year. I wanted them for Sundays–they were a sort of chocolate color: well listen: the first morning I put them on, I went through the clover-field, and when I came out of it, my trousers were as red as lobsters, as high as the knee–bright scarlet I assure you. And then he sent me some kuemmel, it was Prussian made, wretched sweet stuff, and very bad. I returned it, and told him a bit of my mind. But he won’t take the trousers back, and tells me he never wore them. Does the fellow imagine that _I_ will wear red trousers? Look, Charles, that’s Guerlitz down there to the left.” “And that, I suppose, is Guerlitz church-steeple?” asked Hawermann. “Yes!” said Braesig, raising his eye-brows till they were hidden by the brim of his hat–he always wore a hat on Sunday–and opening his mouth as wide as he could, he stared at Hawermann as if he wanted to look him through and through. “Charles,” he exclaimed, “you spoke of Guerlitz church-steeple, and as sure as your nose is in the middle of your face the parson at Guerlitz must take your child.” “Parson Behrens?” asked Hawermann. “Yes, the same Parson Behrens who taught you and me at old Knirkstaedt.” “Ah, Braesig, I was just wishing last night that such a thing were possible.” “Possible? He must do it. It would be the best thing in the world for him to have a little child toddling about his knees, and growing up under his care, for he has no children of his own, has let all the glebe land, and has nothing whatever to do but to read his books and study, till any other man would see green and yellow specks dancing before his eyes even with looking at him from a distance. It would be a capital thing for him, and Mrs. Behrens is so fond of children that the little ones in the village cling to her skirts whenever she goes there. She is also a most excellent worthy woman, and so cheerful that she and your sister get on capitally together.”

“If it could only be,” cried Hawermann. “What do we not both owe that man, Zachariah, don’t you remember that when he was assistant to the clergyman at Knirkstaedt, he held an evening class during the winter, and taught reading and writing, and how kind he always was to us stupid boys?” “Yes, Charles, and how Samuel Pomuchelskopp used to get behind the stove and snore till he nearly took the roof off, while we were learning the three R’s. Don’t you remember when we got to the rule of three in our sums, and tried to get the fourth unknown quantity?

“Ah yes, in quickness I had the best of it, but in correctness, you had. You got on better than I did in o’thography, but in _style_, in writing letters, and in High German, I was before you. And in these points I’m much improved since then, for I’ve made them my study, and of course every one has his own _speshialitee_. Whenever I see the parson I feel bound to thank him for having educated me so well, but he always laughs and says he owes me far more for letting his glebe at such a good rent for him. He is on very friendly terms with me, and if you settle down here, I’ll take you to call and then you’ll see it for yourself.”

Meanwhile they had reached Puempelhagen, and Braesig took Hawermann quite under his protection as they crossed the court-yard, and addressing the old butler, asked if his master was at home and able to see them. He would announce the gentlemen, was the servant’s reply, and say that Mr. Farm-bailiff Braesig was there. “Yes,” said Braesig. “You see, Charles, that he knows me, and the _Councillor_ knows me also–and–did you notice?–announce! That’s what the nobility always have done when any one calls on them. My lord the Count has three servants to announce his visitors; that is to say, one servant announces to another who it is that has called, and the valet tells his lordship. Sometimes queer mistakes are made, as with the huntsman the other day. The first foot man announced to the second: ‘The chief huntsman,’ and the second added the word ‘master,’ and the third announced the arrival of a ‘grandmaster of the huntsmen.’ So the Count came forward very cordially to receive the strange gentleman who had come to see him, and–he found no one but. old Tibaeul the rat-catcher.”

The butler now returned and showed the two friends into a good-sized room, tastefully, but not luxuriously furnished, and in the centre of the room was a large table covered with papers and accounts. A tall thin man was standing beside the table when they entered; he was a thoughtful-looking, gentle-mannered man, and the same simplicity was observable in his dress as in the furniture of his room. He appeared to be about fifty-two or three, and his hair was of an iron gray color; he was perhaps shortsighted, for, as he went forward to receive his visitors, he picked up an eye-glass that was lying on the table, but without using it: “Ah, Mr. Braesig,” he said quietly, “what can I do for you?” Uncle Braesig now involved himself in such a labyrinth of words in his desire to speak grandly as befitted his company, that he would never have extricated himself if the squire had not come to the rescue. Looking more attentively at Hawermann he said: “You want * * *? but,” he interrupted himself, “I ought to know you. Wait a moment. Were you not serving your apprenticeship twelve years ago on my brother’s estate?” “Yes, Sir, and my name is Hawermann.” “Of course it is. And to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here?” “I heard that you were looking out for a farm-bailiff, and as I was in want of just such a place * * *.” “But I thought you had a farm in Pomerania?” interrupted the squire. Now was the time for Braesig to speak if he was going to say anything of importance, so he exclaimed: “It’s quite true, Mr. Councillor von Rambow, that he had one, _had_ it, but has it no longer, and it’s no use crying over spilt milk. Like many other farmers he met with reverses, and the hardness and wickedness of his landlord ruined him. What do you think of that, Sir?”

At this moment there was a loud shout of laughter behind Braesig’s back, and when he turned round to see who it was he found himself face to face with a boy of ten or twelve years old. Mr. von Rambow also smiled, but fortunately it never occurred to Braesig that their amusement could mean anything but satisfaction with a well delivered speech, so he went on seriously: “And then he came a regular cropper.” “I’m very sorry to hear it,” said Mr. von Rambow. “Yes,” he continued with a, sigh, “these are very hard times for farmers, I only hope they’ll change soon. But now to business–Alick, just run upstairs and see if breakfast is ready. It is quite true that I am looking out for a new bailiff, as I have been obliged to part with the last man, because of–well, his carelessness in keeping accounts–but,” said he, as his son opened the door and announced that breakfast was ready, “you hav’n’t had breakfast yet, we can finish our talk while we eat it.” He went to the door, and standing there signed to his guests to precede him. “Charles,” whispered Braesig, “didn’t I tell you? Quite like one of ourselves?” But when Hawermann quietly obeyed the squire’s sign and went out first, he raised his eyebrows up to his hair, and stretched out his hand as though to pull his friend back by his coat-tails. Then sticking out one of his short legs and making a low bow, he said, “Pardon me–I couldn’t think of it–the _Councillor_ always has the _paw_.” His way of bowing was no mere form, for as he had a long body and short legs it was both deep and reverential.

Mr. von Rambow went on first to escape his guest’s civilities, and Braesig brought up the rear. The whole business was talked over in all its bearings during breakfast; Hawermann got the place of bailiff with a good salary to be raised in five or six years, and only one condition was made, and that was that he should enter on his duties at once. The new bailiff promised to do so, and the following day was fixed for taking stock of everything in and about the farm, so that both he and his employer might know how matters stood before the squire had to leave Puempelhagen. Then Braesig told the “sad life-story” of the old thoroughbred, which had come down to being odd horse about the farm, and which he “had had the honor of knowing from its birth,” and told how it “had spavin, grease and a variety of other ailments, and so had been reduced to dragging a cart for its sins.” After that he and Hawermann took leave of Mr. von Rambow.

“Braesig,” said Hawermann, “a great load has been taken off my heart. Thank God, I shall soon be at work again, and that will help me to bear my sorrow. Now for Guerlitz–Ah, if we are only as fortunate there.” “Yes, Charles, you may well say you are fortunate, for you are certainly wanting in the knowledge of life and fine tact that are necessary for any one to possess who has to deal with the nobility. How _could_ you, how _could_ you go out of the room before the _Councillor_?” “I only did as he desired me, Braesig, and I was his guest, not his servant then. I wouldn’t do so _now_, and believe me, he’ll never ask me to do it again.” “Well, Charles, let me manage the whole business for you at the parsonage. I’ll do it with the greatest _finesse_.” “Certainly Braesig, it will be very kind of you to do it for me; if it were not for my dear little girl, I should never have the courage to ask such a favor. If you will take the task off my shoulders, I shall look upon it as the act of a true friend.”

When they passed Guerlitz church they heard from the singing that service was still going on, so they determined to wait in the parsonage till it was over, but on entering the sitting-room, a round active little woman about forty years old came forward to receive them. Everything about her was round, arms and fingers, head, cheeks and lips; and her round eyes twinkled so merrily in her round smiling face that one would at once jump to the conclusion that she had never known sorrow, and her every action was so cheery and full of life that one could easily see that she had a warm heart in her breast. “How d’ye do, Mr. Braesig, sit down, sit down. My pastor is still in church, but he would scold me if I allowed you to go away. Sit down, Sir–who are you? I should have liked to have gone to church today, but only think, the clergyman’s seat broke down last Sunday; lots of people go to it, you see, and one can’t say ‘no,’ and old Pruesshawer, the carpenter, who was to have mended it this week, is down with a fever.” Her words poured out smoothly like polished billiard-balls rolled by a happy child over the green cloth.

Braesig now introduced Hawermann as Mrs. Nuessler’s brother. “And so you are her brother Charles. _Do_ sit down, my pastor will be delighted to see you. Whenever Mrs. Nuessler comes here she tells us something about you, and always in your praise–Mr. Braesig can vouch for that. Good gracious, Braesig, what have _you_ got to do with my hymn-book? Just put it down, will you. _You_ never read such things, you are nothing but an old heathen. These are hymns for the dying, and what are hymns for the dying to you? _You_ are going to live for ever. You’re not a whit better than the wandering Jew! One has to think of death sometimes, and as our seat is broken, and the old carpenter has a fever, I have been reading some meditations for the dying.” While saying this she quickly picked up her books and put them away, carefully going through the unnecessary ceremony of dusting a spotless shelf before laying them down on it. Suddenly she went to the door leading to the kitchen, and stood there listening; then exclaiming: “I was sure I heard it–the soup’s boiling over,” hastened from the room. “Well, Charles–wasn’t I right? Isn’t she a cheery, wholesome-natured woman? I’ll go and arrange it all for you,” and he followed Mrs. Behrens to the kitchen.

Hawermann looked round the room, and admired the cleanly, comfortable, home-like, and peaceful look of everything around him. Over the sofa was a picture of our Saviour, and encircling it, above and below, were portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Behrens’ relations, some colored, some black, some large, and some small. In the picture of our Lord, His hands were raised in blessing, so Mrs. Behrens had hung the portraits of her relatives beneath it that they might have the best of the blessing, for she always regarded herself as the “nearest.” She had hung her own portrait, taken when she was a girl, and that of her husband in the least prominent place over against the window, but God’s sun, which shone through the white window-curtains, and gilded the other pictures, lighted up these two first of all. There was a small book-case containing volumes of sacred and profane literature all mixed up together, but they looked very well indeed, for they were arranged more in accordance with the similarity of their bindings than with that of their contents. Let no one imagine that Mrs. Behrens did not care for reading really good standard works, because she spoke the Provincial German of her neighborhood. Whoever took the trouble to open one of the books, which had a mark in it, would see that she was quite able to appreciate good writing, and her cookery-book showed that she studied her own subjects as thoroughly as her husband did his, for the book was quite full of the notes and emendations she had written at the sides of the pages in the same way as Mr. Behrens made notes in his books. As for her husband’s favorite dishes she “knew them,” she said, “by heart, and had not to put in a mark to show where they were to be found.”

And it, was in this quiet home that Hawermann’s little daughter was to spend her childhood, if God let him have his wish. The raised hands in the Saviour’s picture would seem to bless his little girl, and the sunlight would shine upon her through these windows, and in those books she would read what great and good men had written, and by their help would gradually waken from childish dreams into the life and thoughts of womanhood.

As he was sitting there full of alternating hopes and fears, Mrs. Behrens came back, her eyes red with weeping: “Don’t say another word, Mr. Hawermann, don’t say another word. Braesig has told me all, and though Braesig is a heathen, he is a good man, and a true friend to you and yours. And my pastor thinks the same as I do, I know that, for we have always been of one mind about everything. My goodness, what hard-hearted creatures the old Nuesslers are,” she added, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor. “The old woman,” said Braesig, “is a perfect harpy.” “You’re right, Braesig, that’s just what she is. My pastor must try to touch the conscience of the two old people; I don’t mean about the little girl, she will come here and live with us, or I know nothing of my pastor.”

Whilst Hawermann was expressing his deep gratitude to Mrs. Behrens her husband came in sight. She always talked of him as “_her_” pastor, because he belonged to her soul and body, and “_pastor_” because of his personal and official dignity. He had nothing on his head, for those high soft caps that our good protestant clergy now wear in common with the Russian popes were not the fashion at that time, in the country at least, and instead of wide bands, resembling the white porcelain plate on which the daughter of Herodias received the head of John the Baptist from her stepfather, he wore little narrow bands, which his dear wife Regina had sewed, starched and ironed for him in all Christian humility, and these little bits of lawn she rightly held to be the true insignia of his office, and not the gown, which was fastened to his collar with a small square piece of board. “For, my dear Mrs. Nuessler,” she said, “the clerk has a gown exactly the same as that, but he dar’n’t wear bands, and when I see my pastor in the pulpit with these signs of his office on, and watch them rising and falling as he speaks, I sometimes think that they look like angels’ wings upon which one might go straight away up to heaven, except that the angels wear their wings behind, and my pastor’s are in front.”

The parson was not an angel by any means, and was the last man in the world to think himself one, but still his conduct was so upright, and his face so expressive of love and good-will, that any one could see in a moment that he was a good man, and that his was a serious, thoughtful mode of life, and yet–when his wife had taken off his gown and bands–there was a bright sparkle in his eye that showed he did not at all disdain innocent mirth. He was a man who could give good counsel in worldly matters as well as in spiritual, and he was always ready to stretch out a helping hand to those in need of it.

He recognized Hawermann the moment he saw him, and welcomed him heartily. “How d’ye do, dear old friend, what an age it is since I saw you last. How are you getting on? Good morning, Mr. Braesig.” Just as Braesig was about to explain the reason of his and Hawermann’s visit, Mrs. Behrens, who had begun to take off her husband’s clerical garments, called out: “Don’t speak, Mr. Hawermann; Braesig be quiet, leave it all to me. I’ll tell you all about it,” she continued, turning to her husband, “for the story is a sad one–yes, Mr. Hawermann, terribly sad–and so it will be better for me to speak. Come,” and she carried her pastor off to his study, saying in apology for doing so as she left the room: “I am the nearest to him, you know.”

[Illustration: BIBLE LESSON BENJAMIN VAUTIER]

When Mr. Behrens returned to the parlor with his wife, he went straight up to Hawermann, and taking his hand, said: “Yes, dear Hawermann, yes, we’ll do it. We’ll do all that lies in our power with, very great pleasure. We have had no experience in the management of children, but we will learn–won’t we, Regina?” He spoke lightly, for he saw how deeply Hawermann felt his kindness, and therefore wished to set him at ease. “Reverend Sir,” he exclaimed at last, “you did much for me in the old days, but this * * *.” Little Mrs. Behrens seized her duster, her unfailing recourse in great joy or sorrow, and rubbed now this, and now that article of furniture vigorously, indeed there is no saying whether she might not have dried Hawermann’s tears with it, had he not turned away. She then went to the door and called to Frederika: “Here, Rika, just run down to the weaver’s wife, and ask her to send me her cradle, for,” she added, addressing Braesig, “she doesn’t require it.” And Braesig answered gravely: “But Mrs. Behrens, the child isn’t quite a baby.” So the clergyman’s wife went to the door again, and called to the servant “Rika, Rika, not the cradle. Ask her to lend me a crib instead, and then go to the parish-clerk’s daughter, and see if she can come this afternoon. Good gracious! I forgot it was Sunday! But if thine ass falls into a pit, and so on–yes, ask her if she will come and help me to stuff a couple of little mattresses. It isn’t a bit heathenish of me to do this, Braesig, for it’s a work of necessity, as much so as when you have to save the Count’s wheat on a Sunday afternoon. And, my dear Mr. Hawermann, the little girl must come to us this very day, for Frank,” turning to her husband, “the old Nuesslers will grudge the child her food, and Braesig, bread that is grudged * * *” she stopped for breath, and Braesig put in: “Yes, Mrs. Behrens, bread that is grudged maketh fat, but the devil take that kind of fatness!” “You old heathen! How _dare_ you swear so in a Christian parsonage,” cried Mrs. Behrens. “But the short and the long of it is that the child must come here today.” “Yes, Mrs. Behrens,” said Hawermann, “I’ll bring her to you this afternoon. My poor sister will be sorry; but it’s better for her and her household peace that it should be so, and for my little girl * * *.” He then thanked the clergyman and his wife gratefully and heartily, and when he had said good-by, and he and Braesig were out of doors, he drew a long breath of relief, and said “Everything looked dark to me this morning, but now the sun has begun to shine again, and though I have a disagreeable bit of business before me, it is a happy day.” “What is it that you have to do?” asked Braesig. “I must go to Rahnstaedt to see old Moses. He has held a bill of mine for seventy-five pounds for the last eighteen months. He took no part in my bankruptcy, and I want to arrange matters with him.” “Yes, Charles, you ought to make everything straight with him as soon as you can, for old Moses is by no means the worst of his kind. Now then, let’s lay out our plan of operations for today. We must return to Rexow at once, dine there, and after dinner young Joseph must get the carriage ready for you to take your little girl to Guerlitz; from Guerlitz you should drive on to Rahnstaedt, and then in the evening come over to Warnitz and spend the night with me, and early next morning you can be at Puempelhagen with the Councillor, who expects to see you in good time.” “That will do very well,” said Hawermann.

[Wheat was again growing in the field by the mill, as when Hawermann came to Puempelhagen eleven years before. The same people still lived in the various villages and estates, only the manor house of Guerlitz had changed hands, for Pomuchelskopp, the man who had brought about Hawermann’s failure in Pomerania, lived there now. His was the only house which uncle Braesig shunned, everywhere else he was the welcome guest bringing sunshine whenever he arrived. His breezy common sense often recalled his friends from useless trains of thought. “Braesig,” said Hawermann, “I don’t know what other people may think of it, but life and work always seem to me to be one and the same thing.” “Oh, ho! Charles, I have you now! You learnt that from pastor Behrens. But, Charles, that is a wrong way of looking at it, it goes clean against Scripture. The Bible tells us of the lilies of the field, how they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet our Heavenly Father feeds them. And if God feeds them, they are alive, and yet they do not work. And when I have that confounded gout, and can do nothing–absolutely nothing, except flap the beastly flies away from my face–can I be said to work? And yet I am alive, and suffer horrible torture into the bargain.” Gradually this torture grew so unbearable that uncle Braesig had to submit to treatment at a watering place.]

Spring was gone, and summer had come, when one Sunday morning Hawermann received a letter from Braesig dated from Warnitz, in which his friend requested him to remain at home that day, for he had returned and intended to call on him that afternoon. When Braesig arrived, he sprang from his saddle with so much force that one might have thought he wanted to go through the road with both legs. “Oho!” cried Hawermann, “how brisk you are! You’re all right now, ar’n’t you?” “As right as a trivet, Charles. I’ve renewed my youth.” “Well, how have you been getting on, old boy?” asked Hawermann, when they were seated on the sofa and their pipes were lighted. “Listen, Charles. Cold, damp, watery, clammy-that’s about what it comes to. It’s just turning a human being into a frog, and before a man’s nature is so changed, he has such a hard time of it that he begins to wish that he had come into the world a frog: still, it isn’t a bad thing! You begin the day with the common packing, as they call it. They wrap you up in cold, damp sheets, and then in woollen blankets, in which they fasten you up so tight that you can’t move any part of your body except your toes. In this condition they take you to a bath-room, and a man goes before you ringing a bell to warn the ladies to keep out of your way. Then they place you, just as God made you, in a bath, and dash three pails of water over your bald head, if you happen to have one, and after that they allow you to go away. Well, do you think that that’s the end of it? Nay, Charles, there’s more to follow; but it’s a good thing all the same. Now you’ve got to go for a walk in a place where you’ve nothing earthly to do. I’ve been accustomed all my life to walk a great deal, but then it was doing something, ploughing or harrowing, spreading manure or cutting corn, and there I’d no occupation whatever. While walking you are expected to drink ever so many tumblers of water, ever so many. Some of the people were exactly like sieves, they were always at it, and they used to gasp out ‘What splendid water it is!’ Don’t believe them, Charles, it is nothing but talk. Water applied externally is bad enough in all conscience, but internally it’s still more horrible. Then comes the sitz-bath. Do you know what a bath at four degrees below zero is like? It’s very much what you would feel if you were in hell, and the devil had tied you down to a glowing iron chair, under which he kept up a roaring fire; still it’s a good thing! Then you’ve to walk again till dinner-time. And now comes dinner. Ah, Charles, you have no idea what a human being goes through at a water-cure place! You’ve got to drink no end of water. Charles, I’ve seen ladies, small and thin as real angels, drink each of them three caraffes as large as laundry-pails at a sitting–and then the potatoes! Good gracious, as many potatoes were eaten in a day as would have served to plant an acre of ground! These water-doctors are much to be pitied, their patients must eat them out of house and home. In the afternoon the water-drinking goes on as merrily as before, and you may now talk to the ladies if you like; but in the morning you may not approach them, for they are not then dressed for society. Before dinner some of them are to be seen running about with wet stockings, as if they had been walking through a field of clover, others have wet bandages tied round their heads, and all of them let their hair hang down over their shoulders, and wear a Venus’ girdle round their waists, which last, however, is not visible. But in the afternoon, as I said, you may talk to them as much as you like, but will most likely get short answers unless you speak to them about their health, and ask them how often they have been packed, and what effect it had on them, for that is the sort of conversation that is most approved of at a water-cure establishment. After amusing yourself in this way for a little you must have a touche (douche), that is a great rush of ice-cold water–and that’s a good thing too. Above all, Charles, you must know that what every one most dislikes, and whatever is most intensely disagreeable is found to be wholesome and good for the constitution.” “Then you ought to be quite cured of your gout,” said Hawermann, “for of all things in the world cold water was what you always disliked the most.” “It’s easy to see from that speech that you’ve never been at the water-cure, Charles. Listen–this is how the doctor explained the whole thing to me. That confounded gout is the chief of all diseases–in other words, it is the source of them all, and it proceeds from the gouty humor which is in the bones, and which simply tears one to pieces with the pain, and this gouty substance comes from the poisonous matter one has swallowed as food–for example, kuemmel or tobacco–or as medicine at the apothecary’s. Now you must understand that any one who has gout must, if he wishes to be cured, be packed in damp sheets, till the water has drawn all the tobacco he has ever smoked, and all the kueimmel he has ever drunk out of his constitution. First the poisonous matter goes, then the gouty matter, and last of all the gout itself.” “And has it been so with you?” “No.” “Why didn’t you remain longer then? I should have stayed on, and have got rid of it once for all if I had been you.” “You don’t know what you are talking about, Charles. No one could stand it, and no one has ever done it all at once. * * * But now let me go on with my description of our daily life. After the touche you are expected to walk again, and by the time that is finished it has begun to grow dusk. You may remain out later if you like, and many people do so, both gentlemen and ladies, or you may go into the house and amuse yourself by reading. I always spent the evening in studying the water-books written by an author named Franck, who is, I understand, at the head of his profession. These books explain the plan on which the water-doctors proceed, and give reasons for all they do; but it’s very difficult to understand. I could never get further than the two first pages, and these were quite enough for me, for when I’d read them I felt as light-headed and giddy as if I had been standing on my head for half an hour. You imagine, no doubt, Charles, that the water in your well is water? He does not think so! Listen, fresh air is divided into three parts: oxygen, nitrogen, and black carbon; and water is divided into two parts: carbon and hydrogen. Now the whole water-cure the’ry is founded on water and air. And listen, Charles, just think of the wisdom of nature: when a human being goes out into the fresh air he inhales both black carbon and nitrogen through his windpipe, and as his constitution can’t stand the combination of these two dreadful things, the art of curing by water steps in, and drives them out of his throat. And the way that it does so is this the oxygen grapples with the carbon, and the hydrogen drives the nitrogen out of your body. Do you understand me, Charles?” “No,” said Hawermann, laughing heartily, “you can hardly expect me to do that.” “Never laugh at things you don’t understand, Charles. Listen–I have smelt the nitrogen myself, but as for the black carbon, what becomes of it? That is a difficult question, and I didn’t get on far enough with the water-science to be able to answer it. Perhaps you think that parson Behrens could explain the matter to me, but no, when I asked him yesterday he said that he knew nothing about it. And now, Charles, you’ll see that I’ve still got the black carbon in me, and that I shall have that beastly gout again.”

“But, Zachariah, why didn’t you remain a little longer and get thoroughly cured?” “Because,” and Braesig cast down his eyes, and looked uncomfortable, “I couldn’t. Something happened to me. Charles,” he continued, raising his eyes to his friend’s face, “you’ve known me from my childhood, tell me, did you ever see me disrespectful to a woman?” “No, Braesig, I can bear witness that I never did.” “Well, then, just think what happened. A week ago last Friday the gout was very troublesome in my great toe–you know it always begins by attacking the small end of the human wedge–and the water-doctor said: ‘Mr. Bailiff,’ he said, ‘you must have an extra packing, Dr. Strump’s colchicum is the cause of this, and we must get rid of it.’ Well, it was done; he packed me himself, and so tight that I had hardly room to breathe, telling me for my comfort that water was more necessary for me than air, and then he wanted to shut the window. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I understand the the’ry well enough to know that I must have fresh air, so please leave the window open.’ He did as I asked, and went away.[8] I lay quite still in my compress thinking no evil, when suddenly I heard a great humming and buzzing in my ears, and when I could look up, I saw a swarm of bees streaming in at my window, preceded by their queen. I knew her well, Charles, for as you know I am a bee-keeper. One spring the school-master at Zittelwitz and I got fifty-seven in a field. I now saw that the queen was going to settle on the blanket which the doctor had drawn over my head. What was to be done? I couldn’t move. I blew at her, and blew and blew till my breath was all gone. It was horrible! The queen settled right on the bald part of my head–for I had taken off my wig as usual to save it–and now the whole swarm flew at my face. That was enough for me. Quickly I rolled out of bed, freed myself from the blanket, wriggled out of the wet sheets, and reached the door, for the devil was at my heels. I got out at the door, and striking out at my assailants blindly and madly, shrieked for help. God be praised and thanked for the existence of the water-doctor–his name is Ehrfurcht–he came to my rescue, and, taking me to another room, fetched me my clothes, and so after a few hours’ rest I was able to go down to the dining-room-_salong_ as they call it–but I still had half a bushel of bee-stings in my body. I began to speak to the gentlemen, and they did nothing but laugh. Why did they laugh, Charles? You don’t know, nor do I. I turned to one of the ladies, and spoke to her in a friendly way about the weather; she blushed. What was there in the weather to make her red? I can’t tell, nor can you, Charles. I spoke to the lady who sings, and asked her very politely to let us hear the beautiful song which she sings every evening. What did she do, Charles? She turned her back upon me! I now busied myself with my own thoughts, but the water-doctor came up to me, and said courteously: ‘Don’t be angry with me, Mr. Bailiff, but you’ve made yourself very remarkable this afternoon.’ ‘How?’ I asked. ‘Miss von Hinkefuss was crossing the passage when you ran out of your room, and she has told every one else in strict confidence.’ ‘And so,’ I said, ‘you give me no sympathy, the gentlemen laugh at me, and the ladies turn their pretty backs upon me. No, I didn’t come here for that! If Miss von Hinkefuss had met _me_, if half a bushel of bee-stings had been planted in _her_ body, I should have asked her every morning with the utmost propriety how she was. But let her alone! There is no market where people can buy kind-heartedness! Come away, doctor, and pull the stings out of my body.’ He said he couldn’t do it. ‘What!’ I asked, ‘can’t you pull bee-stings out of a man’s skin?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘that is to say, I _can_ do it, but I dare not, for that is an operation such as surgeons perform, and I have no diploma for surgery from the Mecklenburg government.’ ‘What?’ I asked, ‘you are allowed to draw gout out of my bones, but it is illegal for you to draw a bee-sting out of my skin? You dare not meddle with the outer skin which you can see, and yet you presume to attack my internal maladies which you can’t see? _Thank_ you!’ Well, Charles, from that moment I lost all faith in the water-doctor, and without faith they can do nothing as they themselves tell you when it comes to the point. So I went away quietly and got old Metz, the surgeon at Rahnstaedt, to draw out the stings. That was the end of the water-cure; still it’s a good thing; one gets new ideas in a place like that, and even if one’s gout is not cured, one gains some notion of what a human being can suffer. And now, Charles, this is a water-book I have brought you, you can study it in the winter-evenings.”

[Three more years had passed, and Louisa Hawermann at the parsonage was repaying her father’s and her foster parents’ love and care by growing up the loveliest girl of the neighborhood. Uncle Braesig, to be sure, would have qualified this by saying “next to his two round-heads.” No qualification, however, was justified in the eyes of Frank von Rambow and Fred Triddelfitz, the two young men studying agriculture under Hawermann. They fell in love with her, each after his own fashion. Frank deeply and lastingly, Fred–whom uncle Braesig loved to call the “gray hound”–ardently if not irretrievably. This, however, he did not know, and as he felt his blood seething, he was thoroughly wretched.]

No human being can stand more than a certain amount of pain, after that it becomes unbearable and a remedy must be found; now the only remedy a lover finds effectual is an interview with his sweetheart. Matters had come to such a pass with Fred that he could no longer exist without seeing Louisa, so he began to lie in wait for her in all sorts of holes and corners. Every hollow-tree was a good hiding-place from which he could watch for her coming, every ditch was of use in concealing his advance, every hill was a look-out from which he could sweep the country with his gaze, and every thicket served him for an ambush. He was so much in earnest that he could not fail to succeed in his attempts to see her, and he often gave Louisa a great fright by pouncing out upon her, when she least expected him, and when she was perhaps thinking of * * * we will not say Frank. Sometimes he was to be seen rearing his long slight figure out of a bush like a snake in the act of springing, sometimes his head would appear above the green ears of rye like a seal putting its head above water, and sometimes as she passed under a tree he would drop down at her side from the branches where he had been crouched like a lynx waiting for its prey. At first she did not mind it much, for she looked upon it as a new form of his silly practical joking, and so she only laughed and talked to him about some indifferent subject; but she soon discovered that a very remarkable change had taken place in him. He spoke gravely and solemnly and uttered the merest nothings as if they had been the weightiest affairs of state. He passed his hand meditatively across his forehead as if immersed in profound thought, and when she spoke of the weather, he laid his hand upon his heart as if he were suffering from a sudden pain in the side. When she asked him to come to Guerlitz he shook his head sadly, and said: Honor forbade him to do so. When she asked him about her father, his words poured forth like a swiftly flowing stream: The bailiff was an angel; there never was, and never would be such a man again on the face of the earth; _his_ father was good and kind, but _hers_ was the prince of fathers. When she asked after Miss Fidelia, he said: He never troubled himself about women, and was utterly indifferent to _almost_ all of them; but once when, as ill luck would have it, she asked him about Frank, his eyes flashed and he shouted “Ha!” once or twice with a sort of snort, laughed scornfully, caught hold of her hand, slipped a bit of paper into it, and plunged head foremost into the rye-field, where he was soon lost to sight. When she opened the paper she found that it contained the following effusion:

TO HER.

“When with tender Silvery light
Luna peeps the clouds between,
And ‘spite of dark disastrous night The radiant sun is also seen
When the wavelets murmuring flow
When oak and ivy clinging grow,
Then, O then, in that witching hour Let us meet _in my_ lady’s bow’r.

“Where’er thy joyous step doth go
Love waits upon thee ever,
The spring-flow’rs in my hat do show I’ll cease to love thee never.
When thou’rt gone from out my sight Vanished is my sole delight,
_Alas!_ Thou ne’er canst understand What I’ve suffered at thy hand.

“My _vengeance_ dire! will fall on him, The foe who has hurt me sore,
Hurt _me!_ who writes this poem here; _Revenge!!_ I’ll seek for evermore.

FREDERIC TRIDDELFITZ. _Puempelhagen, July 3d, 1842._”

The first time that Louisa read this effusion she could make nothing of it, when she had read it twice she did not understand it a bit better, and after the third reading she was as far from comprehending it as she had been at first; that is to say, she could not make out who it was on whom the unhappy poet wished to be revenged. She was not so stupid as not to know that the “Her” was intended for herself.

She would have liked to have been able to think that the whole affair was only a silly joke, but when she remembered Fred’s odd manner she was obliged to confess that it was anything but a joke, and so she determined to keep as much as possible out of his way. She was such a tender-hearted little creature that she was full of compassion for Fred’s sufferings. Now pity is a bridge that often leads to the beautiful meadows stretched on the other side of it full of rose-bushes and jasmine-hedges, which are as attractive to a maiden of seventeen as cherries to a bird, and who knows whether Louisa might not have been induced to wander in those pleasant groves, had she not been restrained by the thought of Fred riding amongst the roses on the old sorrel-horse, holding a great slice of bread and butter in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. In spite of her compassion for him she could not help laughing, and so remained safely on this side of the bridge; she liked best to watch Fred from a distance, for the sorrel might have lain down in the pond again, and Fred might have smeared her with the bread and butter. The stupidest lads under the sun may often win the love of girls of seventeen, and even men with only an apology for a heart are sometimes successful, but alas for the young fellow who has ever condescended to wear motley, he can never hope to win his lady’s affection, for nothing is so destructive to young love as a hearty fit of laughter.

Louisa could not restrain her laughter when she thought of the ludicrous scene that had just taken place, but she suddenly stopped in the midst of her merriment, for she felt as if a soft hand had just taken hers, and as if a pair of dark eyes were looking at her affectionately. Perhaps this thought may have come into her head because she caught sight of Frank coming toward her from the distance. The next moment it flashed into her mind that it was Frank on whom Fred wished to be revenged, and so when they met a deep blush overspread her face, and feeling that that was the case made her so angry with herself that she blushed even deeper than before. Frank spoke to her in his usual courteous manner about indifferent things, but she was strangely shy, and answered him at cross-purposes, for her mind was full of Fred and his vows of vengeance.

“Heaven knows what’s the matter,” thought Frank as he was returning home after having walked a short way with her, “she isn’t at all like herself today. Is it my fault? Has she had anything to vex or annoy her? What was that piece of paper she was tearing up?” Meanwhile he had reached the place where he had met her. Some of the bits of paper were still lying on the ground, and he saw on one of them, without picking it up: “_Revenge!_ I’ll seek for evermore. Frederic Triddelfitz.” This made him curious, for he knew Fred’s handwriting, so he looked about and found two more bits of paper, but when he put them together he could make nothing more out of them but “clinging grows * * * that witching hour * * * meet in my lady’s bow’r. * * * Spring flowers. * * * I’ll cease to * * * from out my sight * * * my sole delight. * * * _Alas!_ thou ne’er * * * my _vengeance_ dire! * * * The foe * * * _Revenge!!_ I’ll seek for evermore. Frederic Triddelfitz.” The wind had blown away all the rest.

There was not much to be made out of it, but after a time Frank came to the conclusion that Fred Triddelfitz was in love with Louisa, dogged her footsteps, and wanted to be revenged on her for some reason only known to himself. It was a ridiculous affair altogether, but still when he remembered that Fred Triddelfitz was as full of tricks as a donkey’s hide of gray hair, and that he might easily do something that would be of great annoyance to Louisa, Frank determined to keep watch, and not to let Fred out of his sight when he went in the direction of Guerlitz.

Fred had broken the ice, he had spoken, he had done his part, and it was now Louisa’s turn to speak if anything was to come of it. He waited, and watched, and got no answer. “It’s a horrid shame,” he said to himself. “But she isn’t up to this sort of thing yet, I must show her what she ought to do.” Then he sat down and wrote a letter in a feigned hand.

Address: “To Her that you know of.
Inscription: “Sweet Dream of my soul!

“This letter can tell you nothing, it only contains what is absolutely necessary for you to learn, and you will find it in the _third_ rose-bush in the _second_ row. I’ll tell you the rest by word of mouth, and will only add: Whenever you see a _cross_ drawn in white _chalk_ on the garden-door, you will find the disclosure of my sentiments under the flower-pot beside the third rose-bush in the Second row. The _waving_ of a _pocket-handkerchief_ on the _Guerlitz_ side of the house will be a token of your presence, and of your desiring an interview; _my_ signal, on the other hand, will be _whistling_ three times on the crook of my stick. (Our shepherd taught me how to do it, and love makes everything easy to learn.) _Randyvoo:_ The large ditch to the _right_ of the bridge.

“Ever thine!!

“From Him whom you know of.”

“P.S. Pardon me for having written this in my shirt-sleeves, it is such a frightfully hot day.—-“

This letter fell into the wrong hands, for it was Mrs. Behrens who found it when she went out to water her flowers, whilst Louisa, who was now a notable little housekeeper, was busy indoors making gooseberry jam. The clergyman’s wife had no scruples about opening and reading the letter, and after she had done so she was quite convinced that it was intended for Louisa, and had been written by her nephew Fred.

She could not tell Louisa of her discovery, for that would simply have been playing into Fred’s hands, she had therefore to content herself with talking of letters in general, and trying to find out in a roundabout kind of way whether Louisa had received any epistles such as she had in her pocket, but as the girl did not understand what she meant, she determined not to tell her pastor what had happened. For, she thought, why should she make him angry by telling him of the foolish boy’s love troubles, and besides that, it would have been very painful for her to have to give evidence against her own flesh and blood–and unfortunately Fred was her sister’s son. But she wished with all her heart that she could have had a few minutes’ quiet talk with the culprit himself, and that was impossible, for she never saw him by any chance.

She was very silent and thoughtful for a few days, and took the entire charge of watering the flowers into her own hands. It was just as well that she did so, for soon afterward she found a letter drenched with rain under the third rose-bush in the second row. This letter was still more to the point than the last:

Address: “To _Her_, the _only_ woman I adore. Inscription: “Soul of my existence!!

“We are surrounded by pitfalls; I am aware that our foe watches my every step. Cowardly _spy_, I _scorn_ you! Have no fear, Beloved, I will conquer all difficulties. One bold deed will bring our love _recognition._ At two o’clock tomorrow afternoon, when the _Dragon_ is asleep that guards my _treasure,_ I shall expect to See your signal with the pocket-handkerchief. As for myself, I shall then be hidden behind the manure heap on the bank beside the large ditch, and shall whistle three times on the crook of my stick to entice you to come to me. And–even though the powers of hell should fight against me–I have sworn to be ever

THINE”

Mrs. Behrens was furious when she read this letter. “The * * *! The * * *! Oh you young rascal! ‘When the dragon is asleep!’ The wretch means me by that! But wait a bit! I’ll entice _you_ to come to _me,_ and though the powers of hell won’t touch you, if once I get hold of you, I’ll give you such a box on the ear as you never had before!”

About two o’clock next day, Mrs. Behrens rose from her sofa and went into the garden. The parlor-door creaked and the garden-door banged as she went out, and the parson, hearing the noise, looked out at the window to see what it was that took his wife out at that unusual hour, for as a general rule she did not move from her sofa till three had struck. He saw her go behind a bush and wave her pocket-handkerchief. “She’s making signs to Hawermann, of course,” said he, and then he went and lay down again. But the fact of the matter is that she only wanted to show her sister’s son how much she longed to get within reach of his ears. But he did not come, nor yet were his three whistles to be heard. She returned to her room very crossly, and when her husband asked her at coffee time to whom she had been making signals in the garden, she was so overwhelmed with confusion that in spite of being a clergyman’s wife–I am sorry to have to confess it–she told a lie, and said that she had found it so frightfully close she had been fanning herself a little.

On the third day after that she found another letter:

Address: “To _Her_ who is intended for me by _Fate._ Inscription: “_Sun_ of my dark existence!!

“Have you ever suffered the _pains of hell?_ I have been enduring them since two o’clock in the afternoon of the day before yesterday when I was hidden behind the manure-heap. The weather was lovely, our _foe_ was busy in the clover-field, and your handkerchief was waving in the perfumed air like one of those tumbler pigeons I used to have long ago. I was just about to utter the three _whistles_ we had agreed upon, when that stupid old _ass_ Braesig came up to me, and talked to me for a _whole hour by the clock_ about the farm. As soon as he was gone I hastened to the ditch, but, _oh agony!_ I was terribly disappointed. The time must have seemed very long to you, for you were gone.–But now, _listen._ As soon as I have finished my curds and cream this evening I shall start for the place of _Randyvoo_ where I shall be hidden punctually at _half-past eight._ This is Saturday, so the parson will be writing his sermon, and the _Dragon_ will be busy, so it is a favorable _opportunity_ for us to meet, and the _alder-bushes_ will screen us from every eye. (Schiller!) Wait awhile–thy rest comes presently (Goethe) in the _arms_ of thy _adorer,_ who would _sell_ all that is dear to him, if he could _buy_ what is dear to thee with the proceeds.

“Again to meet! again to meet!
Till then I fain would sleep;
My longings and my thoughts to steep In Lethe’s waters dark and deep.
My loved one I again shall see,
There’s rapture in the thought!
In the hope tomorrow of thee,
My darling, I fear nought.

“(The _beginning_ is by myself, the _middle_ part by Schiller, and the _end_ by a certain person called Anonymous who writes a great deal of poetry, but I have altered his lines to suit the present case.)

“_In an agony of longing to see you, EVER THINE._”

“_No!_” cried little Mrs. Behrens when she had read the letter. “This is really too much of a good thing! Ah, my dear sister, I’m sorry for you! Well, it’s high time for _other_ people to interfere, and I think that being his aunt, I am the proper person to do so. And I will do it,” she exclaimed aloud, stamping her foot emphatically, “and I should like to see who’d dare to prevent me!”

“I promise not to interfere with you, Mrs. Behrens,” said Braesig, coming from behind the bee-hives.

“Have you been listening, Braesig?” asked Mrs. Behrens rather sharply. “‘Listening!’ I never listen! I only keep my ears open, and then I hear what’s going on; and I keep my eyes open, and see what passes before me. For instance, I see that you are very cross.” “Yes, but it’s enough to drive an angel wild.” “Ah, Mrs. Behrens, the angels are wild enough already in all conscience, but we don’t need to speak of them just now, for I believe that the devil himself is going about Puempelhagen.” “Goodness gracious me! Has Fred * * *?” “No,” answered Braesig, “I don’t know what it is, but certainly there’s something up.” “How?” “Mrs. Behrens, Hawermann is in a bad humor, and that is enough to show you that something unpleasant is going on. When I went to Puempelhagen last week I found him busy with the hay and rape-harvest, and said: ‘Good-morning,’ I said. ‘Good-morning,’ said he. ‘Charles,’ I began, and was going to have said something when he interrupted me by asking: ‘Have you seen Triddelfitz anywhere?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘Where?’ he asked. ‘Sitting in the large ditch,’ I said. ‘Did you see young Mr. von Rambow?’ he asked. ‘He’s sitting in the next ditch close behind Fred,’ I replied. ‘What are they doing?’ he asked. ‘Playing,’ I said. ‘You don’t give me much comfort,’ he said, ‘_playing_, when there’s so much to be done!’ ‘Yes, Charles,’ I said, ‘and I played with them.’ ‘What were you playing at?’ he asked. ‘We had a game at ‘I spy,’ Charles. You must understand that your gray-hound was peeping over the edge of the ditch toward Guerlitz, and your young nobleman was watching the gray-hound, so I hid myself in the marl-pit, and watched them both. Whenever one of them turned the others ducked, so there we sat peeping and ducking till at last I found it a very tiresome amusement, and, leaving my hiding-place, went to join Mr. von Rambow.’ ‘Good-day,’ I said. ‘Good-day,’ he replied. ‘Pardon me,’ I said, ‘but which of your farming-operations is it that is occupying your attention just now?’ ‘I,’ he stammered, ‘w–wanted to see how the peas were getting on!’ ‘H’m!’ I said. ‘Ah!’ I said. ‘I understand.’ Then I bade him ‘good-by,’ and went to have a look at the gray-hound. Don’t be angry, Mrs. Behrens, but that’s what I always call your nephew.” “Not at all, not at all!” cried the little lady, though her own name for him was different. Then Braesig continued: “‘Good-day,’ I said, ‘may I ask what you are doing here?’ ‘Oh, nothing in particular,’ he said, looking rather foolish, ‘I’m only looking at the peas.’ ‘Now, Charles,’ I said, ‘if you can get the peas staked by setting those two lads to look at them, why all that I can say is that you’re a deuced lucky fellow.’ ‘The devil take it!’ he said, ‘they’re both up to some folly. Mr. von Rambow is quite changed this summer, he isn’t like the same person. He goes about in a dream, forgets all that I tell him, and so I can’t rely on him as I used to do. And as for that other stupid dolt, he’s worse than ever.’ Now, Mrs. Behrens, pray don’t be angry with Hawermann for calling your nephew a ‘stupid dolt.'” “Certainly not,” replied Mrs. Behrens, “for that’s just what he is.” “Well, you see that all happened a week ago, but this morning I went out early with my fishing-rod to try whether I couldn’t catch a few trout, when just as I was coming in this direction I caught sight of your nephew, the gray-hound. He slipped cautiously into the garden, and after remaining there for a few minutes, came out again. Meanwhile I perceived that the young nobleman was watching him from amongst the thorn-bushes by the side of the ditch; but what was my astonishment when I saw that my good old friend Charles Hawermann was following them on the hill-side. I brought up the rear, and so we all went on in single file quite round the village, and I couldn’t help laughing when I thought that each of us only knew of the presence of the game he was stalking, and was totally unaware that he himself was being stalked in his turn. We’re all to be at it again tomorrow I believe, for Hawermann, who has followed them twice already, is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery; so if either you or the parson has a fancy to join us in the hunt, you can follow me.” “Thanks very much,” said Mrs. Behrens, “but I’ve got my part to play already. Braesig, can you keep a secret?” “Like a safe when the padlock is on,” he answered. “No, no. Do be serious. Can you be silent?” “I beg your pardon,” he said gravely, and clapped his hand on his mouth in token of shame at his ill-timed jesting, though had any one else done it, he would have given him a black eye for his pains. “Why well then, listen,” said Mrs. Behrens, who now proceeded to relate all that she knew of the affair. “Wheugh!” whistled Braesig, “what a fool that nephew of yours is.” Mrs. Behrens then read him the letters she had found. “Hang it,” cried Braesig, “where did the young rascal get that grand way of expressing himself. Stupid as he is in other matters, he can write much better than one would expect.” When she came to the bit about the dragon Braesig laughed heartily, and said:

“That’s you, Mrs. Behrens, that’s you!” “I know,” she answered sharply, “but the ass in the third letter is intended for you, so neither of us need laugh at the other. But now, Braesig, you see that it’s quite necessary that I should get hold of the little wretch, and box his ears well for him.” “You’re quite right, and it’s easily managed. Listen. You and I must hide at the bottom of the garden at eight o’clock this evening; at half past eight, Louisa must take her place in the ditch, and you’ll see that he’ll come like a bear to wild honey; and then we’ll spring out upon him, and take him prisoner before he knows where he is.” “That won’t do at all, Braesig. If I were going to act in that sort of way I shouldn’t require your help. It would be a great misfortune if Louisa were ever to know anything about this, and I’d rather that neither Hawermann nor even my pastor should hear of it.” “H’m, h’m!” said Braesig. “Then * * * then * * * Stop! I have it now. Mrs. Behrens, you must make yourself as thin as possible, put on Louisa’s clothes, and go to the _randyvoo_ in her stead. Then, as soon as he is seated by your side, and is on the point of kissing you, you must seize him by the scruff of the neck, and hold on till I come.” “Nay, Braesig, that would never do!” “Don’t you think so, Mrs. Behrens? You understand that if he doesn’t see his sweet-heart in the ditch, you’ll never manage to inveigle him there; and if we don’t nab him unexpectedly, we’ll never succeed in catching him, for he’s a long-legged, thin-flanked gray-hound, and if it came to a race, we’d be nowhere with our short legs and round bodies.” It was quite true; but no! she go to a _rendezvous_? And Braesig was very stupid, how could she ever get into Louisa’s gown? But Braesig would not be convinced, he maintained that it was the only way in which she could get the interview she wanted with her nephew, and assured her that all she had to do was to put on Louisa’s shawl and Leghorn hat, and then go and sit on the edge of the ditch. “You must remember to sit down,” he continued, “for if you remain standing he will see at once that you’re a foot shorter, and at least a foot broader than Louisa.” At last–at last Mrs. Behrens allowed herself to be persuaded, and when she went out at the back-door about eight o’clock that evening, wearing Louisa’s shawl and hat, the parson who was standing at his study-window thinking over his sermon, said to himself wonderingly: “What on earth is Regina doing with Louisa’s hat and shawl? And there’s Braesig coming out of the arbor. He must want to speak to me about something–but it’s a very odd thing altogether!”

Mrs. Behrens went down the garden path with Braesig feeling ready for anything that might befall. She opened the garden-gate and went out alone, leaving Braesig squatted under the hedge like a great toad, but no sooner was she by herself than her courage oozed away, and she said: “Come to the ditch with me, Braesig, you’re too far away there, and must be close at hand to help me when I’ve caught him.” “All right!” said Braesig, and he accompanied her to the ditch.

Canal-like ditches such as this are no longer to be found in all the country-side, for the thorough system of drainage to which the land has been subjected has done away with their use; but every farmer will remember them in the old time. They were from fifteen to twenty feet wide at the top, but tapered away till quite narrow at the bottom, and were fringed with thorns and other bushwood. They were generally dry except in spring and autumn, when there was a foot or a foot and half of water in them, or in summer for a day or two after a thunder-storm. That was the case now. “Braesig hide yourself behind that thorn so that you may come to the rescue at once.” “Very well,” said Braesig. “But, Mrs. Behrens,” he continued after a pause, “you must think of a signal to call me to your help.” “Yes,” she said. “Of course! But what shall it be? Wait! when I say: _’The Philistines be upon thee,’_ spring upon him.” “I understand, Mrs. Behrens!”

“Goodness gracious me!” thought the clergyman’s wife.

[Illustration: BETWEEN DANCES BENJAMIN VAUTIER]

“I feel as if I were quite a Delilah. Going to a _rendezvous_ at half past eight in the evening! At my age too! Ah me, in my old age I’m going to do what I should have been ashamed of when I was a girl.” Then aloud. “Braesig don’t puff so loud any one could hear you a mile off.” Resuming her soliloquy: “And all for the sake of a boy, a mischievous wretch of a boy. Good gracious! If my pastor knew what I was about!” Aloud. “What are you laughing at, Braesig? I forbid you to laugh, it’s very silly of you.” “I didn’t laugh, Mrs. Behrens.” “Yes, you _did,_ I heard you distinctly.” “I only yawned, Mrs. Behrens, it’s such frightfully slow work lying here.” “You oughtn’t to yawn at such a time. I’m trembling all over. Oh, you little wretch, what misery you have caused me! I can’t tell any one what you’ve made me suffer, and must just bear it in silence. It was God who sent Braesig to my help.” Suddenly Braesig whispered in great excitement, his voice sounding like the distant cry of a corn-crake: “Mrs. Behrens, draw yourself out till you’re as long as Lewerenz’s child;[9] make yourself as thin as you possibly can, and put on a pretty air of confusion, for I see him coming over the crest of the hill. His figure stands out clearly against the sky.” Little Mrs. Behrens felt as if her heart had stopped beating and her anger waxed hotter against the boy who had brought her into such a false position. She was so much ashamed of herself for being where she was, that she would most assuredly have run away if Braesig had not laughed again, but as soon as she heard that laugh, she determined to stay and show him that he was engaged in a much more serious undertaking than he seemed to imagine.

It was quite true that Braesig had laughed this time, for he saw a second and then a third black figure following the first down the hill. “Ha, ha, ha!” he chuckled in his hiding-place in the thorn-bush, “there’s Charles Hawermann too! I declare the whole overseeing force of Puempelhagen is coming down here to see how the peas are growing in the dusk of evening. It’s as good as a play!” Mrs. Behrens did not see the others, she only saw her sister’s son who was coming rapidly toward her. He hastened over the bridge, ran along the bank, sprang to her side, and threw his arms round her neck, exclaiming: “Sweet angel!” “Oh you wicked little wretch!” cried his aunt trying to seize him in the way Braesig had desired her, but instead of that she only caught hold of the collar of his coat. Then she called out as loudly as she could: “The Philistines be upon thee!” and immediately Braesig the Philistine started to his feet. Confound it! His foot had gone to sleep! But never mind! He hopped down the bank as quickly as he could, taking into consideration that one leg felt as if it had a hundred-and-eighty pound weight attached to the end of it, but just as he was close upon his prey he tripped over a low thorn-bush and tumbled right into the foot and a half of water. And there he sat as immovably as if he had gone back to the hydropathic establishment, and were in the enjoyment of a sitz-bath! Fred stood as if he had been turned to stone, and felt as though he were suffering from a douche-bath, for his dear aunt was clutching him tightly and scolding him to her heart’s content: “The dragon has caught you now my boy! Yes, the dragon has caught you!” “And here comes the ass,” shouted Braesig picking himself out of the water and running toward him. But Fred had now recovered from his astonishment. He shook himself free from his aunt, and darting up the bank would have escaped had he not at the same moment encountered a new enemy–Frank. In another second Hawermann had joined them, and Mrs. Behrens had scarcely recovered from the shock of seeing him, when her pastor came up, and said: “What’s the matter, Regina? What does all this mean?” The poor little lady’s consternation was indescribable, but Braesig, from whose clothes the water was running in streams, was too angry to hold his tongue, and exclaimed: “You confounded rascal! You gray-hound!” giving Fred a hearty dig in the ribs as he spoke. “It’s all your fault that I shall have another attack of gout. But now, I’ll tell you what, every one shall know what a d—-d Jesuit you are. Hawermann, he * * *” “For God’s sake,” cried Mrs. Behrens, “don’t attend to a single word that Braesig says. Hawermann, Mr. von Rambow, the whole thing is ended and done with. It’s all over now, and what has still to be done or said can quite well be managed by my pastor alone; it’s a family matter and concerns no one but ourselves. Isn’t that the case, my dear Fred? It’s merely a family matter I assure you, and no one has anything to do with it but we two. But now, come away, my boy, we’ll tell my pastor all about it. Good-night, Mr. von Rambow. Good-night, Hawermann, Fred will soon follow you. Come away, Braesig, you must go to bed at once.”

And so she managed to disperse the assembly. The two who were left in ignorance of what had happened, went home separately, shaking their heads over the affair. Hawermann was indignant with his two young people, and put out because he was to have no explanation of their conduct. Frank was mistrustful of everyone; he had recognized Louisa’s hat and shawl in spite of the darkness, and thought that the mystery must have something to do with her, though how he was unable to conjecture.

Fred was much cast down in spirit. The clergyman and his wife went on in front of him, and the latter told her husband the whole story from beginning to end, scolding her hopeful nephew roundly the whole time. The procession moved on toward the parsonage, and as the evil-doer guessed that a bad half-hour awaited him there, he had serious thoughts of making his escape while it was possible, but Braesig came as close up to him as if he had known what he was thinking of, and that only made him rage and chafe the more inwardly. When Braesig asked Mrs. Behrens who it was that had come up in the nick of time, and she had answered that it was Frank, Triddelfitz stood still and shaking his fist in the direction of Puempelhagen, said fiercely “I am betrayed, and _she_ will be sold, sold to that man because of his rank and position!” “Boy!” cried Mrs. Behrens, “will you hold your tongue!” “Hush, Regina,” said her husband, who had now a pretty good idea of what had taken place, “now please go in and see that Braesig’s room is prepared, and get him sent to bed as quickly as you can. I will remain here and speak to Fred.”

This was done. The parson appealed to Fred’s common sense, but his sense of injury far exceeded that other, and his spirit seethed and boiled like wine in the process of fermentation. He put aside all the clergyman’s gentle arguments, and declared passionately that his own aunt had determined to destroy the whole happiness of his life, and that she cared more for the rich aristocrat than for her sister’s son.

Within the house matters were going on in the same unsatisfactory manner; uncle Braesig refused to go to bed in spite of all Mrs. Behren’s entreaties. “I can’t,” he said, “that is to say, I can, but I musn’t do it; for I must go to Rexow. I had a letter from Mrs. Nuessler saying that she wanted my help.” The same yeast which had caused Fred to seethe and boil over was working in him, but more quietly, because it had been a part of his being for a longer time. At last, however, he was persuaded to go to bed as a favor to Mrs. Behrens, and from fear of bringing on an attack of gout by remaining in his wet things, but his thoughts were as full of anxious affection for Mrs. Nuessler as Fred’s were of love for Louisa when on leaving the parsonage he exclaimed passionately: “Give her up, does he say! Give her up! The devil take that young sprig of the nobility!”

Next day–it was Sunday morning–when Braesig awoke, he gave himself a comfortable stretch in the soft bed. “A luxury,” he said to himself, “that I’ve never before enjoyed, but I suppose one would soon get accustomed to it.” Just as he was about to get up the house-maid came in, and taking possession of his clothes, placed a black coat, waistcoat and pair of trousers over the back of a chair in their stead.

“Ho, ho!” he said with a laugh as he examined the black suit, “it’s Sunday, and this is a parsonage; but surely they never think that I’m going to preach today!” He lifted one article of clothing after the other curiously, and then said: “Ah! I see now, it’s because mine were wet through in the ditch last night, so they’ve given me a suit belonging to his Reverence. All right then!–here goes.” But it did not go so easily after all! And as for comfort, that was totally out of the question. The trousers were a very good length, but were frightfully tight. The lower buttons of the waistcoat could neither be coaxed nor forced into the button-holes, and when he put on the coat, there was an ominous cracking somewhere between the shoulders. As for his arms, they stood out from his body as if he were prepared to press the whole world to his faithful heart on this particular Sunday.

After he was dressed he went down stairs, and joined Mrs. Behrens in the parlor. As to his legs, he looked and walked very much as he had done ever since he had received his pension; but as to the upper part of his body! Mrs. Behrens burst out laughing when she saw him, and immediately took refuge behind the breakfast table, for he advanced with his arms outstretched as if he wished to make her the first recipient of his world-embrace. “Keep away from me, Braesig!” she laughed. “If I had ever imagined that my pastor’s good clothes would have looked so ridiculous on you I’d have let you remain in bed till dinner-time, for your own things won’t be washed and dried before that.” “Oh, ho!” laughed Braesig, “that was the reason you sent me these things, was it? I thought perhaps you wanted to dress me up for another _randyvoo_ today.” “Now, just listen to me, Braesig!” said little Mrs. Behrens, blushing furiously. “I forbid you to make such jokes. And when you’re going about in the neighborhood–you have nothing to do now except to carry gossip from one house to another–if you ever tell any one about that wretched _rendezvous_ of last night–I’ll never speak to you again.” “Mrs. Behrens, you may trust me not to do that,” here he went nearer the clergyman’s wife with both arms outstretched, and she once more retreated behind the table. “Indeed, you’ve nothing to fear. I’m not a Jesuit.” “No, Braesig, you’re an old heathen, but you arn’t a Jesuit. But if you say anything about it * * * Oh me! Hawermann must be told, my pastor says so. But if he asks about it, don’t mention my name, please. Oh, dear! If the Pomuchelskopps were ever to hear of it, I should be the most miserable of women. God knows, Braesig, that what I did, I did for the best, and for the sake of that innocent child. I’ve sacrificed myself for her.” “That’s quite true,” answered Braesig with conviction, “and so don’t let fretting over it give you any gray hairs. Look here. If Charles Hawermann asks me how you came to be there, I’ll say–I’ll say–h’m!–I’ll say that you had arranged a _randyvoo_ with me.” “_You!_ Fie, for shame!” “Nay, Mrs. Behrens, I don’t see that. Am I not as good as the young gray-hound any day? And don’t our ages suit better?” And as he spoke he looked as innocently surprised at her displeasure as if he had proposed the best possible way out of the difficulty. Mrs. Behrens looked at him dubiously, and then said, folding her hands on her lap: “Braesig, I’ll trust to you to say nothing you ought not to say. But Braesig–dear Braesig, do nothing absurd. And * * * and * * * come and sit down, and drink a cup of coffee.” She took hold of his stiff arm and drew him to the table, much as a miller draws the sails of a windmill when he wants to set it going.

“Thank you,” said Braesig. He managed to get hold of the handle of the cup after a struggle, and lifted it as if he were a juggler and the cup were at least a hundred pounds in weight, and as if he wanted to make sure that all the audience saw it properly. Then he tried to sit down, but the moment he bent his knees a horrible cracking noise was heard, and he drew himself up again hastily–whether it was the chair or the trousers that cracked he did not know. He therefore drank his coffee standing, and said: it didn’t matter, for he hadn’t time to sit down, he must go to Mrs. Nuessler at once because of her letter. Mrs. Behrens implored him to wait until his clothes were dry, but in vain; Mrs. Nuessler’s slightest wish was regarded by him as a command, and was inscribed as such in the order-book of his conscience. So he set out for Rexow along the Puempelhagen road, the long tails of his clerical garment floating behind him. His progress was as slow and difficult as that of a young rook learning to fly.

As he passed Puempelhagen, Hawermann saw him, and called him to stop, adding: “Bless me, Zachariah, why are you dressed so oddly?” “An accident, nothing but an accident. You remember that I fell into the muddy water in the ditch last night. But I hav’n’t time to stop now, I must go to your sister.” “My sister’s business can wait better than mine, Braesig. I’ve noticed lately that a great many things are going on behind my back that I’m not wanted to know. It wouldn’t have mattered so much, but that I saw last night that both the parson and his wife are better informed than I am, and that these good people want to hide the true state of the case from me out of the kindness of their hearts.” “You’re right, Charles. It is out of kindness.” “Certainly, Braesig, and I am not mistrustful of them, but I can’t help thinking that it’s something that concerns me very nearly, and that I ought to know. What were you doing yesterday evening?” “I, Charles? I was just having a _randyvoo_ with Mrs. Behrens in the ditch.” “And the parson?” “We knew nothing of what brought him, Charles. He took us by surprise when he came.” “What had Mr. von Rambow to do with it?” “He caught your gray-hound by the scruff of the neck, and perhaps threw me into the water by accident.” “_What_ _had Fred Triddelfitz to do with it?_”