Immensee

by Theodor Storm

  So the children lived together. She was often too quiet for him, andhe was often too head-strong for her, but for all that they stuck toone another. They spent nearly all their leisure hours together: inwinter in their mothers' tiny rooms, during the summer in wood andfield.

  Once when Elisabeth was scolded by the teacher in Reinhard's hearing,he angrily banged his slate upon the table in order to turn uponhimself the master's wrath. This failed to attract attention.

  But Reinhard paid no further attention to the geography lessons, andinstead he composed a long poem, in which he compared himself to ayoung eagle, the schoolmaster to a grey crow, and Elisabeth to a whitedove; the eagle vowed vengeance on the grey crow, as soon as his wingshad grown.

  Tears stood in the young poet's eyes: he felt very proud of himself.When he reached home he contrived to get hold of a littleparchment-bound volume with a lot of blank pages in it; and on the firstpages he elaborately wrote out his first poem.

  Soon after this he went to another school. Here he made many newfriendships among boys of his own age, but this did not interrupt hiscomings and goings with Elisabeth. Of the stories which he hadformerly told her over and over again he now began to write down theones which she had liked best, and in doing so the fancy often tookhim to weave in something of his own thoughts; yet, for some reason hecould not understand, he could never manage it.

  So he wrote them down exactly as he had heard them himself. Then hehanded them over to Elisabeth, who kept them carefully in a drawer ofher writing-desk, and now and again of an evening when he was presentit afforded him agreeable satisfaction to hear her reading aloud toher mother these little tales out of the notebooks in which he hadwritten them.

  Seven years had gone by. Reinhard was to leave the town in order toproceed to his higher education. Elisabeth could not bring herself tothink that there would now be a time to be passed entirely withoutReinhard. She was delighted when he told her one day that he wouldcontinue to write out stories for her as before; he would send them toher in the letters to his mother, and then she would have to writeback to him and tell him how she liked them.

  The day of departure was approaching, but ere it came a good deal morepoetry found its way into the parchment-bound volume. This was the onesecret he kept from Elisabeth, although she herself had inspired thewhole book and most of the songs, which gradually had filled up almosthalf of the blank pages.

  It was the month of June, and Reinhard was to start on the followingday. It was proposed to spend one more festive day together andtherefore a picnic was arranged for a rather large party of friends inan adjacent forest.

  It was an hour's drive along the road to the edge of the wood, andthere the company took down the provision baskets from the carriagesand walked the rest of the way. The road lay first of all through apine grove, where it was cool and darksome, and the ground was allstrewed with pine needles.

  After half an hour's walk they passed out of the gloom of the pinetrees into a bright fresh beech wood. Here everything was light andgreen; every here and there a sunbeam burst through the leafybranches, and high above their heads a squirrel was leaping frombranch to branch.

  The party came to a halt at a certain spot, over which the topmostbranches of ancient beech trees interwove a transparent canopy ofleaves. Elisabeth's mother opened one of the baskets, and an oldgentleman constituted himself quartermaster.

  "Round me, all of you young people," he cried, "and attend carefullyto what I have to say to you. For lunch each one of you will now gettwo dry rolls; the butter has been left behind at home. The extrasevery one must find for himself. There are plenty of strawberries inthe wood--that is, for anyone who knows where to find them. Unless youare sharp, you'll have to eat dry bread; that's the way of the worldall over. Do you understand what I say?"

  "Yes, yes," cried the young folks.

  "Yes, but look here," said the old gentleman, "I have not done yet. Weold folks have done enough roaming about in our time, and therefore wewill stay at home now, here, I mean, under these wide-spreading trees,and we'll peel the potatoes and make a fire and lay the table, and bytwelve o'clock the eggs shall be boiled.

  "In return for all this you will be owing us half of yourstrawberries, so that we may also be able to serve some dessert. Sooff you go now, east and west, and mind be honest."

  The young folks cast many a roguish glance at one another.

  "Wait," cried the old gentleman once again. "I suppose I need not tellyou this, that whoever finds none need not produce any; but takeparticular note of this, that he will get nothing out of us old folkseither. Now you have had enough good advice for to-day; and if yougather strawberries to match you will get on very well for the presentat any rate."

  The young people were of the same opinion, and pairing off in couplesset out on their quest.

  "Come along, Elisabeth," said Reinhard, "I know where there is a clumpof strawberry bushes; you shan't eat dry bread."

  Elisabeth tied the green ribbons of her straw hat together and hung iton her arm. "Come on, then," she said, "the basket is ready."

  Off into the wood they went, on and on; on through moist shady glens,where everything was so peaceful, except for the cry of the falconflying unseen in the heavens far above their heads; on again throughthe thick brushwood, so thick that Reinhard must needs go on ahead tomake a track, here snapping off a branch, there bending aside atrailing vine. But ere long he heard Elisabeth behind him calling outhis name. He turned round.

  "Reinhard!" she called, "do wait for me! Reinhard!"

  He could not see her, but at length he caught sight of her some wayoff struggling with the undergrowth, her dainty head just peeping outover the tops of the ferns. So back he went once more and brought herout from the tangled mass of briar and brake into an open space whereblue butterflies fluttered among the solitary wood blossoms.

  Reinhard brushed the damp hair away from her heated face, and wouldhave tied the straw hat upon her head, but she refused; yet at hisearnest request she consented after all.

  "But where are your strawberries?" she asked at length, standing stilland drawing a deep breath.

  "They were here," he said, "but the toads have got here before us, orthe martens, or perhaps the fairies."

  "Yes," said Elisabeth, "the leaves are still here; but not a wordabout fairies in this place. Come along, I'm not a bit tired yet; letus look farther on."

  In front of them ran a little brook, and on the far side the woodbegan again. Reinhard raised Elisabeth in his arms and carried herover. After a while they emerged from the shady foliage and stood in awide clearing.

  "There must be strawberries here," said the girl, "it all smells sosweet."

  They searched about the sunny spot, but they found none. "No," saidReinhard, "it is only the smell of the heather."

  Everywhere was a confusion of raspberry-bushes and holly, and the airwas filled with a strong smell of heather, patches of which alternatedwith the short grass over these open spaces.

  "How lonely it is here!" said Elisabeth "I wonder where the othersare?"

  Reinhard had never thought of getting back.

  "Wait a bit," he said, holding his hand aloft; "where is the windcoming from?" But wind there was none.

  "Listen!" said Elisabeth, "I think I heard them talking. Just give acall in that direction."

  Reinhard hollowed his hand and shouted: "Come here!"

  "Here!" was echoed back.

  "They answered," cried Elisabeth clapping her hands.

  "No, that was nothing; it was only the echo."

  Elisabeth seized Reinhard's hand. "I'm frightened!" she said.

  "Oh! no, you must not be frightened. It is lovely here. Sit down therein the shade among the long grass. Let us rest awhile: we'll find theothers soon enough."

  Elisabeth sat down under the overhanging branch of a beech andlistened intently in every direction. Reinhard sat a few paces off ona tree stump, and gazed over at her in silence.

  The sun was
just above their heads, shining with the full glare ofmidday heat. Tiny, gold-flecked, steel-blue flies poised in the airwith vibrating wings. Their ears caught a gentle humming and buzzingall round them, and far away in the wood were heard now and again thetap-tap of the woodpecker and the screech of other birds.

  "Listen," said Elisabeth, "I hear a bell."

  "Where?" asked Reinhard.

  "Behind us. Do you hear it? It is striking twelve o'clock."

  "Then the town lies behind us, and if we go straight through in thisdirection we are bound to fall in with the others."

  So they started on their homeward way; they had given up looking forstrawberries, for Elisabeth had become tired. And at last there rangout from among the trees the laughing voices of the picnic party; thenthey saw too a white cloth spread gleaming on the ground; it was theluncheon-table and on it were strawberries enough and to spare.

  The old gentleman had a table-napkin tucked in his button-hole and wascontinuing his moral sermon to the young folks and vigorously carvinga joint of roast meat.

  "Here come the stragglers," cried the young people when they sawReinhard and Elisabeth advancing among the trees.

  "This way," shouted the old gentleman. "Empty your handkerchiefs,upside down, with your hats! Now show us what you have found."

  "Only hunger and thirst," said Reinhard.

  "If that's all," replied the old man, lifting up and showing them thebowl full of fruit, "you must keep what you've got. You remember theagreement: nothing here for lazybones to eat."

  But in the end he was prevailed on to relent; the banquet proceeded,and a thrush in a juniper bush provided the music.

  So the day passed. But Reinhard had, after all, found something, andthough it was not strawberries yet it was something that had grown inthe wood. When he got home this is what he wrote in his oldparchment-bound volume:

  Out on the hill-side yonder The wind to rest is laid; Under the drooping branches There sits the little maid.

  She sits among the wild thyme, She sits in the fragrant air; The blue flies hum around her, Bright wings flash everywhere.

  And through the silent woodland She peers with watchful eyen, While on her hazel ringlets Sparkles the glad sunshine.

  And far, far off the cuckoo Laughs out his song. I ween Hers are the bright, the golden Eyes of the woodland queen.

  So she was not only his little sweetheart, but was also the expressionof all that was lovely and wonderful in his opening life.

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  BY THE ROADSIDE THE CHILD STOOD