“Dance and stamp
Till the shoe-soles drop!”
--Danish Popular Song.
On the following day should the much-talked-of mowing-festival take
place. It was the hay-harvest which occasioned all this merriment.
[Author’s Note: It is true that serfdom is abolished, but the peasant
is still not quite free; neither can he be so. For his house and land he
must pay a tribute, and this consists in labor. His own work must give
way to that of his lord. His wagon, which he has had prepared to bring
home his own harvest, must, if such be commanded, go to the nobleman’s
land, and there render service. This is, therefore, a kind of tax which
he pays, and for the faithful payment of which he is rewarded by a
harvest and mowing-feast; at the latter he receives a certain quantity
of brandy, and as much ale as he can drink. The dance generally takes
place in the middle of the court-yard, and the dancers themselves must
pay their musicians.]
During three afternoons in succession, in the inner court and under free
heaven, should a ball be held. Along the walls, rough planks, laid upon
logs of wood, formed a row of benches. At both ends of the court lay
two barrels of the newly brewed ale, which had received more malt than
usual, and which, besides, through the silver skilling, and the magic
dance of the maidens round the tub, had acquired extraordinary strength.
A large wooden tankard, containing several measures of brandy, stood
upon a table; the man who watched the bleaching-ground was placed as
a kind of butler to preside at this sideboard. A bread-woman, with new
white bread from Nyborg upon her barrow, wheeled into the court, and
there established her stall for every one; for it was only liquors the
guests received gratis.
The guests now entered the court by pairs; the men, part in jackets,
part in long coats which hung down to their ankles. Out of the
waistcoat-pocket protruded a little nosegay of sweet-williams and musk.
The girls carried their “posies,” as they called them, in their neatly
folded pocket-handkerchiefs. Two musicians--one quite a young blade,
in a laced coat with a stiff cravat, mid the other the well-known Peter
Cripple, “Musikanti” as he was called--led the procession. They both
played one and the same piece, but each according to his own manner. It
was both good and old.
They now began to draw lots, who should dance before the door of the
family and who before that of the steward; after which the two parties
drew lots for the musicians. The girls seated themselves in a row upon
the bench, from whence they were chosen. The gallantry accorded with the
ball-room,--the hard stone pavement. Not even had the grass been pulled
up, but that would be all right after dancing there the first day. “Nay,
why art thou sitting there?” spoken with a kind of morose friendliness,
was the invitation to dance; and this served for seven dances. “Only
don’t be melancholy!” resounded from the company, and now the greater
portion moved phlegmatically along, as if in sleep or in a forced dance:
the girl with her eyes staring at her own feet, her partner with his
head bent toward one side, and his eyes in a direct line with the girl’s
head-dress. A few of the most active exhibited, it is true, a kind of
animation, by stamping so lustily upon the stone pavement that the dust
whirled up around them. That was a joy! a joy which had occupied them
many weeks, but as yet the joy had not reached its height; “but that
will soon come!” said Wilhelm, who, with his sister and Otto, had taken
his place at an open window.
The old people meanwhile kept to the ale-barrels, and the brandy. The
latter was offered to the girls, and they were obliged, at least, to
sip. Wilhelm soon discovered the prettiest, and threw them roses. The
girls immediately sprang to the spot to collect the flowers: but the
cavaliers also wished to have them, and they were the stronger;
they, therefore, boldly pushed the ladies aside, so that some seated
themselves on the stone pavement and got no roses: that was a merry bit
of fun! “Thou art a foolish thing! It fell upon thy shoulder and thou
couldst not catch it!” said the first lover to his lady, and stuck the
rose into his waistcoat-pocket.
All got partners--all the girls; even the children, they leaped about to
their own singing out upon the bridge. Only ONE stood forlorn,--Sidsel,
with the grown-together eyebrows; she smiled, laughed aloud; no one
would become her partner. Peter Cripple handed his violin to one of the
young men and asked him to play, for he himself wished to stretch his
legs a little. The girls drew back and talked with each other; but Peter
Cripple stepped quietly forward toward Sidsel, flung his arms around
her, and they danced a whirling dance. Sophie laughed aloud at it, but
Sidsel directed her extraordinary glance maliciously and piercingly
toward her. Otto saw it, and the girl was doubly revolting and frightful
in his eyes. With the increasing darkness the assembly became more
animated; the two parties of dancers were resolved into one. At length,
when it was grown quite dark, the ale barrels become empty, the tankard
again filled and once more emptied, the company withdrew in pairs,
singing. Now commenced the first joy, the powerful operation of the ale.
They now wandered through the wood, accompanying each other home, as
they termed it; but this was a wandering until the bright morning.
Otto and Wilhelm were gone out into the avenue, and the peasants shouted
to them a grateful “Good night!” for the merry afternoon.
“Now works the witchcraft!” said Wilhelm; “the magical power of the ale!
Now begins the bacchand! Give your hand to the prettiest girl, and she
will immediately give you her heart!”
“Pity,” answered Otto, “that the Maenades of the north possess only that
which is brutal in common with those of the south!”
“See, there goes the smith’s pretty daughter, to whom I threw the best
rose!” cried Wilhelm. “She has got two lovers, one under either arm!”
“Yes, there she goes!” simpered a female voice close to them. It was
Sidsel, who sat upon the steps of a stile almost concealed in the
darkness, which the trees and the hedge increased still more.
“Has Sidsel no lover?” asked Wilhelm.
“Hi, hi, hi,” simpered she; “the Herr Baron and the other gentleman
seek, doubtless, for a little bride. Am I beautiful enough? At night all
cats are gray!”
“Come!” whispered Otto, and drew Wilhelm away from her. “She sits like
some bird of ill omen there in the hedge.”
“What a difference!” exclaimed Wilhelm, as he followed; “yes, what a
difference between this monster, nay, between the other girls and Eva!
She was, doubtless, born in the same poverty, in similar circumstances,
and yet they are like day and night. What a soul has been given to Eva!
what inborn nobility! It must be, really, more than a mere freak of
Nature!”
“Only do not let Nature play her freaks with you!” said Otto, smiling,
and raised his hand. “You speak often of Eva.”
“Here it was association of ideas,” answered Wilhelm. “The contrast
awoke remembrance.”
Otto entered his chamber--he opened the window; it was a moonlight
night. From the near wood resounded laughter and song. They came from
the young men and girls, who, on their wandering, gave themselves up
to merriment. Otto stood silent and full of thought in the open window.
Perhaps it was the moon which lent her paleness to his countenance.
On what did he reflect? Upon his departure, perhaps? Only one more day
would he remain here, where he felt himself so much at home; but then
the journey was toward his own house, to his grandfather, to Rosalie,
and the old preacher, who all thought so much of him. Otto stood
listening and silent. The wind bore the song more distinctly over from
the wood.
“That is their joy, their happiness!” said he. “It might have been my
joy also, my happiness!” lay in the sigh which he heaved. His lips did
not move, his thoughts alone spoke their silent language. “I might have
stood on a level with these; my soul might have been chained to the
dust, and yet it would have been the same which I now possess, with
which I long to compass all worlds! the same, endowed with this
sentiment of pride, which drives me on to active exertion. My fate
wavered whether I should become one such as these or whether I should
rise into that circle which the world calls the higher. The mist-form
did not sink down into the mire, but rose above into the high refreshing
air. And am I become happy through this?” His eye stared upon the bright
disk of the moon. Two large tears rolled over his pale cheeks. “Infinite
Omnipotence! I acknowledge Thy existence! Thou dost direct all; upon
Thee will I depend!”
A melancholy smile passed over his lips; he stepped back into the
chamber, folded his hands, prayed, and felt rest and peace.