Das landhaus am Rhein. English

by Berthold Auerbach

  CHAPTER XII.

  WHAT IS STIRRING BY NIGHT.

  The roses in the garden, and in the youth's soul, all opened during thenight.

  To Eric! Roland's open mouth would have said, but no sound was uttered,he said it only to himself. It was a clear starlight-night, the waningmoon, in its third quarter, hung in the heavens, giving a soft light,and Roland was penetrated with such a feeling of gladness, that heoften threw out his arms, as if they were wings with which he couldeasily fly. He went at a quick pace, as if he were pursued; he heardsteps behind him, and stopped; it was only the echo of his ownfootsteps.

  At a distance a group of men, standing still, were waiting for him. Hecame nearer; they were wooden posts, painted black, intended to fencein a vineyard. He moderated his pace, and would have sung, but hefeared to betray himself by any sound. He stood still upon anelevation, and heard far below upon the river the wheezy puffing of atow-boat; he saw the lights upon the masts of the boats in tow, andthey moved along so wonderfully! He counted them, and there were seven.

  "They are also awake," he said to himself, and it occurred to him, forthe first time, that people were obliged to be awake, and to labor atnight to earn their living, as the engineers there on the tow-boat, thehelmsmen, and the boatmen on the boats in tow.

  Why is this? What forces men to this? The boy angrily shook his head.Why did this trouble him? He walked on over the high level plain, andthen ascended a hill behind it. He took a childlike pleasure that hisshadow accompanied him. He kept always the middle of the road; theditches by the wayside looked dismal and haunted. He was startled atthe shadows which the trees cast in the light of the moon, and was gladwhen he came where it was clear and bright. When he drew near to avillage, he felt secure, for although everybody was asleep, yet he wasin the midst of human beings. The boy had been told that, by night,thieves and murderers go about on all the roads to rob and to murder.What did he have about him for them to rob? His watch and chain. Hetook out his watch, wanting to conceal it.

  "For shame!" he suddenly cried. He became conscious how afraid he wasin the depth of his soul; he would not be afraid. He boldly summoned upthe dangers which he wanted to encounter, rejoiced over them, and criedaloud,--

  "Come on! Here am I, and here is Devil too! Isn't it so, Devil? Justlet them come on!" he said to the dog caressingly. The dog leaped up tohim.

  He passed through a village. All were asleep, except that here andthere a dog barked, scenting Devil's proximity. Roland ordered him tobe quiet, and he obeyed. The boy recognized the village as the onewhere he had been with the doctor and Eric on Sunday: here was thehouse where the man had died; here on the opposite side was thegymnastic ground, where he had exercised with Eric. At last he came tothe house of Sevenpiper, where the entire orchestra were now asleep. Hestood awhile, considering whether he should not wake up some one in thehouse, either to go with him, or to be sent to his father. He rejectedboth suggestions and went on.

  The night was perfectly still; the only sound was the occasionalbarking of a dog at a distance, as if disturbed in his sleep. A brookrippled by the wayside, and he was glad to hear its strange sound; itwent as if chatting with him for a while, and then disappeared, and allwas silent. He passed through a ravine, where it was so dark from thehigh trees on both sides that he could not see the path; quietlycomposing himself, he went forward, thinking how beautiful it must bethere in the clear daylight. He emerged from the ravine, and wasrejoiced to be in the highway again. Over the ridge of a mountain shonea star, so large, so brilliant, always, going up higher, and gleamingso brightly! Does Manna know what star this is?

  There was a light in the first house of a village; he stopped. He heardvoices. The woman inside was mourning and lamenting, that, on themorrow, her only cow was to be sold. Taking his resolution quickly,Roland placed several gold pieces upon the window-sill of the lowerroom, and knocked on the window-pane, crying,--

  "You people! there is, some money for the cow upon the sill."

  He ran breathlessly away, a sort of trouble coming over him, as if hewere a thief; he did not stop until he had gone some distance,crouching down in a ditch. He could not tell why he had run from there.As he now lay there and hearkened whether the people followed him, helaughed merrily to himself, to think that it must seem to them to havebeen some spirit that goes about healing men's sorrows, and making themgrateful. No one came. He went on vigorously, happy in the thought ofwhat he had done, and thinking that when he had a great deal ofmoney--as he would have at some time--he would go about secretly in theworld, and thus make everybody happy wherever his footsteps went.

  When he fixed his gaze again upon the path, he saw a strange-lookingman in the field by the wayside, who was aiming a gun directly at him.Roland, trembling, stood still, and asked the man what he wanted; theman did not move. Roland set the dog upon him, and the dog came back,shaking his head. Roland went up to the form, and laughed and trembledat the same time, to find that it was nothing but a scarecrow.

  A wagon, groaning under its heavy load, came nearer and nearer. It wasa strange creaking and clattering, as the wagon swayed upon its axle,and the wheels grated upon and crushed the stones. Roland came to theconclusion that the wagon had only two wheels, and was drawn by onehorse. He kept still, in order to determine this, and then he heard thesound of several hoofs. He awaited the approach of the wagon, and sawthat there were two horses harnessed tandem to a wagon with only twowheels. Roland went on one side, and waited for the wagon to go by; thedriver walked near it, whistling and cracking his whip. Roland walkedon, keeping at a little distance behind the wagon. A fearfulness hadtaken possession of the youthful wanderer by night, and now he felthimself near a human being who was awake; if any danger threatened hecould call upon him. "Yes," he said inwardly to himself, "this is how Iwould call out,--

  "'Help! help!'"

  But no danger presented itself. And he said to his dog, as if inderision,--

  "Shame that nobody assails us, to give us both a chance to show howcourageous we are."

  But he was terrified when all at once he heard nothing more of thewagon; it had stopped at the toll-gate. When it again creaked he was ingood spirits once more. The wagon halted at the first house of the nextvillage. The hostler, who seemed to have been expecting the driver, wasnot a little amazed to see, by the light of the lantern which he hadwith him, a handsome boy with sparkling eyes. "Hi! who may this be?"the servant cried, leaving his mouth wide open with astonishment andterror, for the great dog sniffed about his legs, then placed himselfin front of the terrified fellow, showing all his teeth, and blinkingback to his master, as if waiting for the watchword, "Seize him!"

  Roland ordered the dog to come away. There must have been something inhis voice that produced a feeling of respect in the driver and in theservant.

  They asked him whether he would not also take a drink. Roland said yes.And he sat now at table, touching glasses with the teamster by thelight of a solitary oil lamp. The servant was inquisitive, and saidwith a smirk, pointing to Roland's delicate hand,--

  "That's a splendid finger-ring; how that stone does shine! That isworth ever so much, isn't it? You! make me a present of that."

  The landlord, in the sleeping-room adjoining, hearing this, came in,ghostlike, in his shirt and drawers. Roland was now asked who he was,whence he came, and where he was going. He gave an evasive answer.

  The teamster left, and Roland, keeping by his side, listened to thenarration of his way of life. He learned that the wagon was loaded withnew stone bottles, which were carried to a neighboring mineral-spring,and thence were sent into all the world, even as far as Holland. Rolandwas astonished to find how many kinds of occupation were requisite,before the mineral-water was drunk at his father's table. For theteamster, Holland was the end of the world; he was amazed when Rolandtold him that there were many countries, even whole divisions of theearth, much farther off than Holland. The teamster was surprised atRoland's
extensive knowledge, and inquired if he had ever been so faraway.

  Roland gave an indirect reply. And now the teamster told him that hehimself was an honest fellow, that he had earned by hard workeverything which he had upon his back, and he would go hungry and beg,before he would get anything by dishonest means. He advised Roland, ifhe had done anything which made him afraid of being punished--ifperhaps he had stolen the ring--he had better return and giveeverything up. Roland set the man at rest.

  The road led through a small forest of handsome oak-trees. Thescreeching of an owl was heard, Sounding like a mocking laugh.

  "Thank God," said the teamster, "that you are with me; did you hearthat laugh?"

  "That is no laugh, that was a screech-owl."

  "Yes, screech-owl--that's the laughing spirit."

  "The laughing-spirit? Tell me what that is."

  "Yes; my mother heard it once in broad daylight, when she was just alittle girl. The children were at one time out there in the wood, toget acorns. You perhaps know that they shake down the acorns and placea white cloth under the tree, and catch them in that; it makes the bestfood for hogs. Well, the children are in the woods on a fine afternoonin autumn, the boys get up into the tree and shake down the acorns, andthere is such a rattling! Then they hear, all at once, in the thicket aloud laugh. 'What is that?'--'O,' says my mother, 'that is a spirit.''What!' says a saucy fellow there, 'if it's a spirit, then I will justfor once take a look at him.' He goes into the thicket, and when heonce gets into the thicket, there sits a mighty little dwarf upon atree-stump; his head is almost bigger than his whole body, he is grayall over, and he has a long gray beard. And the boy asks, 'Is't youthat laughed so?' 'Nobody else,' says the dwarf, and laughs once more,exactly as before. 'You have shaken down the acorns, but there is onefallen down under the cloth, deep into the moss, that you will notfind, and out of that acorn will grow up a tree, and when it is largeenough it will be cut down, and out of one part of the boards a cradlewilt be made, and out of the other part a door, and a child will belaid in the cradle, and when that child shall open that door for thefirst time, I shall be released. Until that time I must wander about,because I have been a forest-trespasser, and lived on dishonest means.'The little dwarf laughs again, and then vanishes into the tree-stumpSince then he's been heard many a time, but nobody's seen him again.Everybody knows the oak-tree in the forest, but no one disturbs it."

  Roland shuddered. He did not believe in the story, but he gaveattention while the teamster continued to relate to him how hard it wasto get rid of possessions dishonestly acquired.

  Gradually it began to be twilight. Roland extended his hand to theteamster, and bade him good-bye, as he wished to stay here and waitawhile. The teamster seated himself upon the wagon-shafts, and fixedhimself comfortably, as it was now day, and he could doze a little.

  The boy sat down upon a pile of stones, gazing into vacancy, andlistening to the gradual dying away in the distance of the rattling andcreaking wagon. For the first time in his life, he represented tohimself in imagination the way in which a human being lives. He saw, asin a dream, the teamster arriving at his place of destination, he sawhim lying in the shed upon the bundle of hay which he afterwards threwto his horses.

  Roland had never yet been so alone, so without attendance, so consciousthat no one could call to him; it seemed that he now saw, for the firsttime, the world and all that is in it. He followed the path of a littlebeetle, which crept swiftly along the ground and scrambled up a stalk.

  Incomprehensible thoughts were stirring in his youthful spirit. What aninfinite fulness of existence is the world! In the hedges of wildroses, just opening their buds by the roadside, sat motionless beetlesand insects of all kinds, and a great buzzing and humming came from oneopen flower-cup to another. Here had beetles, butterflies, flies, andspiders spent the night, and the well-roofed snails were quietly housedupon the twigs.

  He saw a field-mouse come out of its hole; first it remained restingupon the edge, listening, looking round, moving its chaps, and finallyit slipped out, and quickly disappeared into another hole among thegrass. A variegated beetle, in the early morning, ran across thefield-path, fearing the public road, and feeling perfectly safe onlyamong the thicket of the grain.

  A hare ran out, and Devil sprang after him; Roland involuntarily feltat his side to seize hold of his gun.

  As if emerging from beneath the surface of an overwhelming flood ofimpressions, Roland rose up. The sun had risen; he could not endure itssplendor, and with eyes fixed upon the ground he went on. But his steplagged, for a voice spoke in him:--

  "Turn back to father and mother!" But suddenly he cried aloud,--

  "Eric!"

  "Eric!" was repeated again in multiple echoes, and Roland walked onnow, as if called by the mountains themselves. It seemed to him, not asif he walked, but as if he were lifted up and carried along. The nightwithout sleep, the wine, all that he had experienced, excited hisimagination, and it seemed as if he must now meet with somethingwhich no one else had ever met with--something inexpressible,incomprehensible, miraculous. He looked round, expecting to see it;something must certainly come to him and say, "For thee have I waited;art thou here at last?" And as he thus looked round, he noticed thatthe dog had left him. The wood yonder was near, the dog had evidentlyrun after a hare or a wild rabbit. Roland whistled, he wished to callaloud, "Devil! Devil!" but he did not utter the word. He called the oldname, "Griffin!" The dog bounded towards him, his tongue lolling fromhis mouth; he was wet with the dew of the corn-field through which hehad run. Roland found it difficult to keep the dog off, for he seemedperfectly happy to have his name again; he looked up intelligently,panting quickly.

  "Yes, your name is Griffin!" Roland cried to him. "Now down!" The dogkept close to his feet.

  As the road now led through the forest, Roland turned aside, and laidhimself down on the moss under a fir-tree; the birds sang over hishead, and the cuckoo called. The dog sat near him, and seemed almostjealous that Roland did not vouchsafe him a single glance. Rolandparted his jaws, and took delight in the magnificent teeth; then hesaid,--his own hunger might have made him think of it,--

  "The next place we come to where there's a butcher, you shall have asausage."

  The dog licked his chaps, jumped round and round as if he understoodthe words, chased the crows which were that early looking for theirfood in the field, and barked at the rising sun.

  The tired boy was soon asleep; the dog placed himself by his side, buthe knew his duty, and did not lie down; he remained sitting, andresisted sleep. Occasionally he winked, however, as if it were hardwork to keep his weary eyes open; then he shook his head, and keptfaithful watch by his master. Suddenly Roland awoke. A child's voiceawakened him.