You are really very good, [14] said she, with a more serene face. She
brought her packet, and Hans hid it so nicely that a cat couldn’t have
seen it.
Shall I push, or help you to pull? asked the young girl, as if it had
been a matter of course that she should also do her part in the work.
As you like best, though you needn’t mind; it isn’t a pair or two of
shoes that will make my cart much heavier. The young girl began by
pushing; but that did not last long. Presently she found herself [15]
in front, pulling also by the pole.
It seems to me that the cart goes better so, said she. As one ought to
suppose, she pulled with all her strength; that which nevertheless did
not put her out of breath, nor hinder her from relating all she had in
her head, or heart.
They got to the top of the hill of Stalden without Hansli’s knowing how
that had happened: the long alley [16] seemed to have shortened itself
by half.
There, one made one’s dispositions; the young girl stopped behind,
while Hansli, with her bag and his brooms, entered the town without the
least difficulty, where he remitted her packet to the young girl, also
without any accident; but they had scarcely time to say a word to each
other before the press [17] of people, cattle, and vehicles separated
them. Hansli had to look after his cart, lest it should be knocked to
bits. And so ended the acquaintanceship for that day. This vexed Hansli
not a little; howbeit he didn’t think long about it. We cannot (more’s
the pity) affirm that the young girl had made an ineffaceable
impression upon him,—and all the less, that she was not altogether made
for producing ineffaceable impressions. She was a stunted little girl,
with a broad face. That which she had of best was a good heart, and an
indefatigable ardour for work; but those are things which, externally,
are not very remarkable, and many people don’t take much notice of
them.
Nevertheless, the next Tuesday, when Hansli saw himself [18] at his
cart again, he found it extremely heavy.
I wouldn’t have believed, said he to himself, what a difference there
is between two pulling, and one.
Will she be there again, I wonder, thought he, as he came near the
little wood of Muri. I would take her bag very willingly if she would
help me to pull. Also the road is nowhere so ugly as between here and
the town. [19]
And behold that it precisely happened that the young girl was sitting
there upon the same bench, all the same as eight days before; only with
the difference that she was not crying.
Have you got anything for me to carry to-day? asked Hansli, who found
his cart at once became a great deal lighter at the sight of the young
girl.
It is not only for that that I have waited, answered she; even if I had
had nothing to carry to the town, I should have come, all the same; for
eight days ago I wasn’t able to thank you; nor to ask if that cost
anything.
A fine question! said Hansli. Why, you served me for a second donkey;
and yet I never asked how much I owed you for helping me to pull! So,
as all that went of itself, the young girl brought her bundle, and
Hansli hid it, and she went to put herself at the pole as if she had
known it all by heart. I had got a little way from home, said she,
before it came into my head that I ought to have brought a cord to tie
to the cart behind, and that would have gone better; but another time,
if I return, I won’t forget.
This association for mutual help found itself, then, established,
without any long diplomatic debates, and in the most simple manner.
And, that day, it chanced that they were also able to come back
together as far as the place where their roads parted; all the same,
they were so prudent as not to show themselves together before the
gens-d’armes at the town gates.
And now for some time Hansli’s mother had been quite enchanted with her
son. It seemed to her he was more gay, she said. He whistled and sang,
now, all the blessed day; and tricked himself up, so that he could
never have done. [20] Only just the other day he had bought a
great-coat of drugget, in which he had nearly the air of a real
counsellor. But she could not find any fault with him for all that; he
was so good to her that certainly the good God must reward him;—as for
herself, she was in no way of doing it, but could do nothing but pray
for him. Not that you are to think, said she, that he puts everything
into his clothes; he has some money too. If God spares his life, I’ll
wager that one day he’ll come to have a cow:—he has been talking of a
goat ever so long; but it’s not likely I shall be spared to see it.
And, after all, I don’t pretend to be sure it will ever be.
Mother, said Hans one day, I don’t know how it is; but either the cart
gets heavier, or I’m not so strong as I was; for some time I’ve
scarcely been able to manage it. It is getting really too much for me;
especially on the Berne road, where there are so many hills.
I dare say, said the mother; aussi, why do you go on loading it more
every day? I’ve been fretting about you many a time; for one always
suffers for over-work when one gets old. But you must take care. Put a
dozen or two of brooms less on it, and it will roll again all right.
That’s impossible, mother; I never have enough as it is, and I haven’t
time to go to Berne twice a week.
But, Hansli, suppose you got a donkey. I’ve heard say they are the most
convenient beasts in the world: they cost almost nothing, eat almost
nothing, and anything one likes to give them; and that’s [21] as strong
as a horse, without counting that one can make something of the
milk,—not that I want any, but one may speak of it. [22]
No, mother, said Hansli,—they’re as self-willed as devils: sometimes
one can’t get them to do anything at all; and then what I should do
with a donkey the other five days of the week! No, mother;—I was
thinking of a wife,—hey, what say you?
But, Hansli, I think a goat or a donkey would be much better. A wife!
What sort of idea is that that has come into your head? What would you
do with a wife?
Do! said Hansli; what other people do, I suppose; and then, I thought
she would help me to draw the cart, which goes ever so much better with
another hand:—without counting that she could plant potatoes between
times, and help me to make my brooms, which I couldn’t get a goat or a
donkey to do.
But, Hansli, do you think to find one, then, who will help you to draw
the cart, and will be clever enough to do all that? asked the mother,
searchingly.
Oh, mother, there’s one who has helped me already often with the cart,
said Hansli, and who would be good for a great deal besides; but as to
whether she would marry me or not, I don’t know, for I haven’t asked
her. I thought that I would tell you first.
You rogue of a boy, what’s that you tell me there? I don’t understand a
word of it, cried the mother. You too!—are you also like that? The good
God Himself might have told me, and I wouldn’t have believed Him.
What’s that you say?—you’ve got a girl to help you to pull the cart! A
pretty business to engage her for! Ah well,—trust men after this!
Thereupon Hansli put himself to recount the history; and how that had
happened quite by chance; and how that girl was just expressly made for
him: a girl as neat as a clock,—not showy, not extravagant,—and who
would draw the cart better even than a cow could. But I haven’t spoken
to her of anything, however. All the same, I think I’m not disagreeable
to her. Indeed, she has said to me once or twice that she wasn’t in a
hurry to marry; but if she could manage it, so as not to be worse off
than she was now, she wouldn’t be long making up her mind. She knows,
for that matter, very well also why she is in the world. Her little
brothers and sisters are growing up after her; and she knows well how
things go, and how the youngest are always made the most of, for one
never thinks of thanking the elder ones for the trouble they’ve had in
bringing them up.
All that didn’t much displease the mother; and the more she ruminated
over these unexpected matters, the more it all seemed to her very
proper. Then she put herself to make inquiries, and learned that nobody
knew the least harm of the girl. They told her she did all she could to
help her parents; but that with the best they could do, there wouldn’t
be much to fish for. Ah, well: it’s all the better, thought she; for
then neither of them can have much to say to the other.
The next Tuesday, while Hansli was getting his cart ready, his mother
said to him,
Well, speak to that girl: if she consents, so will I; but I can’t run
after her. Tell her to come here on Sunday, that I may see her, and at
least we can talk a little. If she is willing to be nice, it will all
go very well. Aussi, it must happen some time or other, I suppose.
But, mother, it isn’t written anywhere that it must happen, whether or
no; and if it doesn’t suit you, nothing hinders me from leaving it all
alone.
Nonsense, child; don’t be a goose. Hasten thee to set out; and say to
that girl, that if she likes to be my daughter-in-law, I’ll take her,
and be very well pleased.
Hansli set out, and found the young girl. Once that they were pulling
together, he at his pole, and she at her cord, Hansli put himself to
say,
That certainly goes as quick again when there are thus two cattle at
the same cart. Last Saturday I went to Thun by myself, and dragged all
the breath out of my body.
Yes, I’ve often thought, said the young girl, that it was very foolish
of you not to get somebody to help you; all the business would go twice
as easily, and you would gain twice as much.
What would you have? said Hansli. Sometimes one thinks too soon of a
thing, sometimes too late,—one’s always mortal. [23] But now it really
seems to me that I should like to have somebody for a help; if you were
of the same mind, you would be just the good thing for me. If that
suits you, I’ll marry you.
Well, why not,—if you don’t think me too ugly nor too poor? answered
the young girl. Once you’ve got me, it will be too late to despise me.
As for me, I could scarcely fall in with a better chance. One always
gets a husband,—but, aussi, of what sort? You are quite good enough
[24] for me: you take care of your affairs, and I don’t think you’ll
treat a wife like a dog.
My faith, she will be as much master as I; if she is not pleased that
way, I don’t know what more to do, said Hansli. And for other matters,
I don’t think you’ll be worse off with me than you have been at home.
If that suits you, come to see us on Sunday. It’s my mother who told me
to ask you, and to say that if you liked to be her daughter-in-law, she
would be very well pleased.
Liked! But what could I want more? I am used to submit myself, and take
things as they come,—worse to-day, better to-morrow,—sometimes more
sour, sometimes less. I never have thought that a hard word made a hole
in me, else by this time I shouldn’t have had a bit of skin left as big
as a kreutzer. But, all the same, I must tell my people, as the custom
is. For the rest, they won’t give themselves any trouble about the
matter. There are enough of us in the house: if any one likes to go,
nobody will stop them. [25]
And, aussi, that was what happened. On Sunday the young girl really
appeared at Rychiswyl. Hansli had given her very clear directions; nor
had she to ask long before she was told where the broom-seller lived.
The mother made her pass a good examination upon the garden and the
kitchen; and would know what book of prayers she used, and whether she
could read in the New Testament, and also in the Bible, [26] for it was
very bad for the children, and it was always they who suffered, if the
mother didn’t know enough for that, said the old woman. The girl
pleased her, and the affair was concluded.
You won’t have a beauty there, said she to Hansli, before the young
girl; nor much to crow about, in what she has got. But all that is of
no consequence. It isn’t beauty that makes the pot boil; and as for
money, there’s many a man who wouldn’t marry a girl unless she was
rich, who has had to pay his father-in-law’s debts in the end. When one
has health, and work, in one’s arms, one gets along always. I suppose
(turning to the girl) you have got two good chemises and two gowns, so
that you won’t be the same on Sunday and work-days?
Oh yes, said the young girl; you needn’t give yourself any trouble
about that. I’ve one chemise quite new, and two good ones besides,—and
four others which, in truth, are rather ragged. But my mother said I
should have another; and my father, that he would make me my wedding
shoes, and they should cost me nothing. And with that I’ve a very nice
godmother, who is sure to give me something fine;—perhaps a saucepan,
or a frying-stove, [27]—who knows? without counting that perhaps I
shall inherit something from her some day. She has some children,
indeed, but they may die.
Perfectly satisfied on both sides, but especially the girl, to whom
Hansli’s house, so perfectly kept in order, appeared a palace in
comparison with her own home, full of children and scraps of leather,
they separated, soon to meet again and quit each other no more. As no
soul made the slightest objection, and the preparations were
easy,—seeing that new shoes and a new chemise are soon stitched
together,—within a month, Hansli was no more alone on his way to Thun.
And the old cart went again as well as ever.
And they lived happily ever after? You shall hear. The story is not at
an end; note only, in the present phase of it, this most important
point, that Hansli does not think of his wife as an expensive luxury,
to be refused to himself unless under irresistible temptation. It is
only the modern Pall-Mall-pattern Englishman who must ‘abstain from the
luxury of marriage’ if he be wise. Hansli thinks of his wife, on the
contrary, as a useful article, which he cannot any longer get on
without. He gives us, in fact, a final definition of proper wifely
quality,—“She will draw the cart better than a cow could.”