forester's armory where he kept his weapons. And there hung seven
magnificent crossbows and arquebuses, and spears and javelins for the
chase, hangers and dirks, and also the long sword of the master of the
house which stood in the corner by itself. Dietegen examined all this,
silently but with gleaming eyes, and Kuengolt mounted a chair to take
down several of the finest crossbows from the wall, which she handed
him so that he could look them over more at leisure, and he was
delighted with these, for they showed ornaments inlaid in ivory or
mother-of-pearl, daintily done by some expert artisan. The boy admired
it all, in a silent sort of ecstasy, about as would a rather talented
prentice in the studio of a great master painter while the latter might
be absent from home. But Kuengolt's quick proposal to have him try his
marksmanship outside in a meadow could not be realized at the time,
because the bolts and arrows were locked away in a separate receptacle.
But to make up for that she gave him a fine hunting spear to hold so
that he should have a weapon of some kind to take along into the
greenwoods. Near the house she showed him a hedged-in space full of
deer and game, in which the town constantly kept its reserve of stock,
so that at no time there should be lack of venison and other fine
roasts for public or private banquets. The girl coaxed several roes and
stags to come to her at the hedge, and this was astonishing to
Dietegen, for so far he had seen such animals only when dead. With his
spear, therefore, he stood attentive, his eyes fixed on these pretty
denizens of the woods, and could not get his fill of watching them.
Eagerly he held out his hand to fondle a finely antlered stag, and when
the latter shyly bounded aside and leisurely trotted off, the boy
scurried after him with a joyous halloo, and ran and jumped with the
animal around in a wide circle. It was perhaps the first time in his
life that he could use his young limbs in this way, and when he felt
how his tendons stretched with the violent exercise and how he was able
to race with the swift stag, the latter apparently taking as much
pleasure in the sport as Dietegen himself, a feeling of untried
strength and agility first woke within him.
But as they later on stepped into the domain of the deep forest, high
up on the hill, the boy resumed once more his usual air of thoughtful
quiet and deliberation. Up there mighty trees grew closer together,
leaving hardly a fragment of sky to discover from below--tall pine and
gnarled oak, spreading lindens, beeches, maple and spruce, all growing
in a semidarkness where the sunlight seldom pierced. Red squirrels
glided spectrelike from trunk to trunk, woodpeckers hammered
incessantly for their fare, high up birds of prey shrilly pursued their
quarry in the open, and a thousand forest mysteries were dimly at work.
Below, in the dense underbrush, hares and foxes, deer and smaller game
were waging war, and song birds twittered or warbled in a chorus of
multiform sound. Kuengolt laughed and laughed because the boy knew
nothing of all these secret doings in the forest, although he had grown
up in a mountain fastness surrounded by the very life of the woods, but
she at once began to explain to him these things of which he was so
profoundly ignorant. She showed him the hawk and his nest, the cuckoo
in his retreat, and the gay-clad woodpecker as he was just clambering
up a thick trunk with bark promising him rich harvest. And about all
these things he was highly amazed, and wondered that trees and bushes
should bear so many names, and that each should differ from the next.
For he had not even known the hazelnut bush or the whortleberry in
their haunts. They came to a rushing brook, and disturbed by their
steps, a snake made off into the water, and the girl seized the spear
in the boy's hand and wanted to stick it into the rocky nook. But when
Dietegen saw that she was going to blunt or break the edge of the
finely tempered weapon, he at once took it out of her fingers, saying
that she might damage the spear.
"That is well done," suddenly came the voice of the chief forester, his
patron; "you will prove a help to me." With a gamekeeper he stood
behind the two children. For the noise of the rushing water had drowned
in their ears all other noise. The gamekeeper bore in his hand a
woodcock, just shot, for the two had gone forth early in the morning.
Dietegen was permitted to hang the stately bird to the tip of his
spear, flinging it over his shoulder, so that the spread wings of the
bird enveloped him, and the forester gazed with approval upon the
handsome youngster, and made up his mind to make an all-around woodsman
of him.
Just now, though, he was to learn somewhat the difficult arts of
reading and writing, and for that purpose was obliged to walk every day
to town with the little girl; there in a convent and in a monastery the
two were taught as much of these mysteries as seemed good for them. But
his chief lessons Dietegen had from the little girl herself when coming
and going from town, Kuengolt delighting in informing him as to all
that was going on in the world, so far at least as she herself knew,
and more particularly as to the ordinary things of life, as to which
Dietegen had been left in deplorable ignorance by his former
taskmaster, the beadle.
But the little instructress was in her way a ruthless practical joker,
and followed a unique method of her own in teaching the boy. She
exaggerated, distorted or plainly misstated the facts as to most things
in talking to her pupil, and abused grossly the credulity and
trustfulness of the boy, merely for her amusement, and she did this as
to most things. In this she showed a wonderful gift of invention, an
exuberant fancy of the rarest. When Dietegen then had accepted her
fictions, and would perhaps express his wonder at them, she would shame
him with the cool statement that not a single word had been true. She
would scornfully blame him for believing such palpable untruths, and
then, with a show of infinite wisdom, she would tell him the real
facts. Then he would redden under her sarcastic remarks, and would
endeavor to avoid her pitfalls, but only until she saw fit to make
sport of him once more. However, in the course of time Dietegen's
powers of judging facts began to widen, and he ceased to be so
gullible, and this another boy who attempted to emulate Kuengolt's
example found out to his sorrow. For Dietegen simply slapped his face
when he came out with a particularly outrageous whopper.
Kuengolt, rather taken aback at witnessing this castigation, was
curious to ascertain whether this wrath under given circumstances would
also turn against herself. She made a test on the spot, feeding him
with some of her choicest fairy tales. But from her he accepted
everything without a murmur, and so she continued her peculiar method
of instruction. At last, though, she discovered that he had acquired
enough independence of thought and a large enough stock of knowledge to
enable him to play with her himself. He would answer her inventions
with counterinventions, and would argue from her nonsensical statements
in such shrewd fashion as to turn her first doctrines into ridicule,
and he would do this in perfect good-nature, proving the untenableness
of her own theories. Then she came to the conclusion that it was time
to give up her nonsense. But in place of that amusement she now
indulged in another. Namely, she began to tyrannize over him most
unmercifully. It grew so that it was almost worse than things had been
with the beadle's wife. His servitude was deplorable. She made him
fetch and carry during all his spare time. He had to haul and hoist and
labor for her in a truly ridiculous manner. She constantly required his
presence about her; he had to bring her water, shake the trees, dig in
the garden, crack open nuts after getting them for her, hold her little
basket, and even to brush and comb her hair she wanted to train
him--only that is where he drew a line. But then he was scolded by her
for refusing this, and when her mother took sides against her she
became quite obstreperous with the latter as well.
But Dietegen did not pay her back in her own coin, never lost his
patience with her, and was always equally submissive and indulgent with
her. Her mother saw that with vast pleasure, and to reward him for his
fine conduct she treated the boy like her own son, and gave him all
those finer hints and that almost imperceptible guidance and advice
which else are only saved for children of one's own, and by means of
which children finally acquire without knowing it those habits and
better manners which are commonly comprised under the name of a careful
education. Of course, she herself gained in a way from this; for her
own daughter thus acquired unconsciously many of her lessons, Dietegen
being there as a sort of mirror of what was expected of her. Truly, it
was almost comical how little Kuengolt in her restless temperament
veered and shifted constantly between imitating her better model or
else becoming jealous and wroth and scorning it for the time. On one
occasion she became so excited as to stab at him with all her might
with a sharp pair of scissors. But Dietegen caught her wrist quickly,
and without hurting her or showing any anger he made her drop them.
This little scene which her mother had espied from a hiding-place,
moved the latter so strongly that she came forth, took the boy in her
arms, and kissed him. Pale and excited the girl herself left the room
with out a word. "Go, follow her, my son," whispered the mother, "and
reconcile her. You are her good angel."
Dietegen did as bidden. He found her behind the house and under a lilac
bush. She was weeping wildly and tearing her amber necklace, trying, in
fact, to throttle herself by means of it, and stamping on the scattered
beads on the ground. When Dietegen approached her and wanted to seize
her hands, she cried with a great sob: "Nobody but I may kiss you. For
you belong to me alone. You are mine, my property. I alone have freed
you from that horrid coffin, in which without me you would have
remained forever."
As the boy grew up marvelously, becoming handsomer and more manly with
every day, the forester declared at breakfast one morning that the time
was now ripe to take him along into the woods and let him learn the
difficult craft of the huntsman. Thus he was taken from the side of
Kuengolt, and spent now all his time, from dawn until nightfall, with
the men, in forest, moor and heath. And now indeed his limbs began to
stretch that it was a pleasure to watch him. Swift and limber like a
stag, he obeyed each word or hint, and ran whither he was sent. Silent
and docile, he was forever where wanted; carried weapons and tackle,
gear and utensils, helped spread the nets, leaped across trenches and
morass, and spied out the whereabouts of the game. Soon he knew the
tracks of all the animals, knew how to imitate the call of the birds,
and before any one expected it, he had a young wildboar run into his
spear. Now, too, the forester gave him a crossbow. With it he was every
day, every hour almost, exercising his skill, aiming at the target,
shooting at living objects as well. In a word, when Dietegen was but
sixteen, he was already an expert woodsman who might be placed
anywhere, and it would happen now and then that his patron sent him out
with a number of his men to guard the municipal woods and head the
chase.
Dietegen, therefore, might be seen not alone with the crossbow on his
back, but also with pen and ink-horn in his girdle upon the mountain
side, and with his keen watchful eyes and his unfailing memory he was a
great help to his fosterfather. And since with every day he became more
reliable and useful, the master forester learned to love him better
all along, and used to say that the boy must in the end become a
full-fledged, an honorable and martial citizen.
It could under these circumstances not be otherwise than that Dietegen
on his part was devoted soul and body to the forester. For there is no
attachment like that of the youth for the mature man of whom he knows
that he is doing his best to teach him all the secrets of his craft,
and whom he holds to be his unapproached model.
The chief forester was a man of about forty; tall and well-built, with
broad shoulders and of handsome appearance and noble carriage. His hair
of golden sheen was already lightly sprinkled with silver, but his
complexion was ruddy, and his blue eyes shone frank, open and full of
fire. In his younger days, too, he had been among the wildest and
merriest of Seldwyla's choice spirits, and many were the quaint and
original quips he had perpetrated at that time of his life. But when he
had won his young wife, he altered instantly, and since then he had
been the soberest and the most sensible man in the world. For his dear
wife was of a most delicate habit, and of a kindness of heart that
could not defend itself, and although by no means without a spirit and
a wit of her own, she would have been unable to meet unkindness with a
sharp tongue. A wife of ready wit and pugnacity would probably have
spurred this naturally sprightly man on to further doings, but in
contest with the graceful feebleness of this delicate wife of his he
behaved like the truly strong. He watched over her as over the apple of
his eye, did only those things which gave her pleasure, and after his
busy day's work remained gladly at his own hearth.
At the most important festivities of the town only, three or four times
a year, he went among the councilmen and other citizens, led them with
his fresh vigor in deliberation and at the festive board, and after
drinking one after the other of the great guzzlers under the table, he
would, as the last of the doughty champions, rise upright from his
seat, stride quietly out of the council chamber, and then with a jolly
smile walk uphill to his forest home.
But the chief comedy would always come the next day. For then he would
waken, after all, with a head that hummed like a beehive, and then he
would rouse himself fully, half morosely, half with a leonine jovial
humor that indeed had the dimensions of a lion when compared with the
proverbial distemper of the average toper. Early he would then show up
at breakfast, the sun shining with strength upon his naked scalp, and
ignoring his symptoms, he would jest and make fun of himself and his
achievements of the previous night. His wife, then, always hungering
after her husband's humor, he being usually rather reticent, would then
answer his sallies with a merry laughter, so bell-like and wholesouled
as one would never have suspected in a being so demure as she. His
children would laugh, also his gamekeepers and huntsmen, and lastly his
servants. And in that way the whole day would pass. Everything that day
would be done with a bright smile and a salvo of hearty laughter. And
always the chief forester leading them all, handling his axe, lifting
heavy weights, doing the work of three ordinary men. On such a day it
was once that fire broke out in the town. High above burning roofs a
poor old woman, in her frail wooden balcony, forgotten and disregarded,
was shrilly crying and moaning for help from a fiery death, and above
her shoulder her tame starling went through the drollest of antics,
likewise claiming attention. Nobody could think of a way to save
mistress and bird. The flames came nearer and ever nearer. But our
chief forester climbed up to a protruding coping on a high wall facing
the old woman's nook, a spot where he stood like a rock. Then with
herculean strength he pulled up a long ladder to him, turned it over
and balanced it neatly until it touched the window where the old hag
was struggling for breath. He placed it securely within the opening, on
the sill, and then he strode across it, firm and unafraid, back and
forth, carrying the ancient woman safely across his shoulder, and the
stuttering starling on his head, the greedily licking flames and the
swirling clouds of smoke beneath his feet. And all this he did, not by
any means in a heroic pose, as something dangerous or praiseworthy, but
as though it were a harmless joke, smiling and laughing.
After a solid piece of work of that kind he would feast with his family
in jolly style, dishing up the best the house afforded. And at such
times he always was particularly tender to his wife, taking her on his
knee, to the great amusement of the children, and dubbing her his
"little whitebird," and his "swallow," and she, her arms clasped in
pleasurable self-forgetfulness, would laughingly watch his antics.
On a day like that, too, he once arranged for a dance, it being the
first of May. He had a musician fetched from town, and got likewise
some merry young folks to increase the sport. And there was dancing
aplenty on the smooth greensward in front of the house, right under the
blooming trees, and dainty dancing it was. The chief forester opened
the merriment with his smiling young wife, she in her modest finery and
with her girlish shape. As they made the first steps, she looked over
her shoulder at the youngsters, happy as could be, and tipping her foot
on the green sod, impatient to be off. Just then Dietegen, who for much
of the time past had kept to the men entirely, threw a glance at
Kuengolt, and lo! he saw that she also was growing up to be a handsome
woman, as pretty a picture as her mother. Her features indeed strongly
resembled those of her mother, small, regular and charming. But in her
figure she took more after her father, for she was trimly built like a
straight young pine, and although but fourteen her bosom was already
rounded like that of a grown-up damsel. Golden curls fell in a shower
down her back and hid the somewhat angular shoulderblades. She was clad
all in green, wore around her neck her amber beads, and on her head,
according to the fashion of those days, a wreath of rosebuds. Her eyes
shone pleasantly and frankly from a guileless face, but once in a while
they would flash wilfully and glide casually over the row of youths
whose eyes hung on her youthful beauty, with a slightly critical bent,
and at last rest for an instant on Dietegen, then turn away again.
Dietegen looked as though hungering for recognition, but she only once
more glanced back at him. But that glance seemed to have somewhat
embarrassed her, for she stopped to arrange her hair, while he flushed
deeply.
That indeed was the first time when they two felt they were no longer
mere children. But a few minutes later they met and found themselves
partners in a country dance, hand in hand. A new and sweet sensation
pulsed through his veins, and this remained even after the ring of
dancers had again been broken.
Kuengolt, however, had still the same feeling regarding him; she looked
upon the youth as upon something all her own, as something belonging to
her, and of which, therefore, one may be sure and need not guard
closely. Only once in a while she would send a spying glance in his
direction, and when accident would bring him into the close
neighborhood of another maiden, there would also be Kuengolt watching
him.
Thus innocent pleasure reigned until an advanced hour of the evening.
The young people became as sprightly as new-fledged wood pigeons, and
soon even excelled in their merry humor their bounteous host, and the
latter on his part delighted to pleasure his amiable young wife, while
soberly encouraging his youthful guests in amusing themselves. She, the
wife, was serene and happy as sunlight in springtime. And she even
became playful enough to call her brawny husband by intimate nicknames.
But harmless and decorous as all this was, it may be that the citizens
of other towns where merriment was not the natural birthright, as in
the case of the Seldwylians, would have deemed it a trifle beyond the
proper limits. The spiced May wine which was served the guests had been
mingled in its elements according to ancient usage, but just as in
their joy itself there was a bit too much license, so also there was a
trifle too much honey in the drink. The hands of the young girls lay
perhaps somewhat too frequently upon the shoulders of the youths, and
now and then, without meaning any harm, a couple would quickly kiss and
part, and this without playing at blind man's buff, as do the
philistines of our days under similar conditions. In short, what these
young people of Seldwyla lacked in their diversion was the gift of
attracting without seeming to; but with this gift, on the other hand,
Dietegen, as a regulation Ruechensteiner, was plentifully endowed. For
although he was already in love, he fled like fire from the fondling
and caressing which with these Seldwyla couples was by now rather
freely indulged in, and preferred to keep himself out of the danger
line. All the bolder and provoking was Kuengolt who, in her childish
ignorance and after the manner of half-grown girls, did not know how to
control her affections, and who went to look up the frigid youth. She
discovered him seated in the shadow of a group of darksome trees, and
sat down beside him, seizing his hand and playfully twining his
fingers. When he submitted to that and even, gently and almost in a
fatherly way, spun her ringlets in his palm, the girl at once put her
arms around his neck and caressed him with the innocence but also with
the abandon of a child, whereas in truth it was already the maiden that
spoke out of her. Dietegen, however, no longer a child, essayed to use
his maturer judgment for both of them, and thus was strenuously trying
to loosen her hold on him, when his fostermother, the chief forester's
wife, came joyously running up to the bench, and noticed with
particular pleasure how matters stood apparently.
"That is right," she cried, "that you, too, are of accord," and she
embraced them both tightly. "I hope and trust, my dearest daughter,
that you will love and cherish Dietegen with all your might. He is
deserving indeed, my child, that he not only has found a new home in
our house, but that you, too, will give him a home in your little
heart. And you, dear Dietegen, will, I know, at all times be a true and
faithful protector and guardian to my little Kuengolt. Never leave her
out of your sight, for your eyes are keen and observant."
"He is nobody's but mine, and has been for long," said Kuengolt to
this, and she kissed him boldly and lightly upon the cheek, half like a
bride and half as a child caresses a kitten which belongs to it. But
now the situation for the poor bashful youth, thus hemmed in between
mother and daughter, became unbearable, and he flushed and awkwardly
loosened their combined hold of him, stepping back a few paces to
escape their blandishments. But Kuengolt, in her wilful mood, pursued
him laughing, and when in his retreat from her he came into close
proximity to the pretty mother, the latter jestingly caught him by the
arm, saying: "Here he is, my little daughter, now come and hold him
fast."
When thus entrapped anew by them, his heart beat excitedly, and while
finding himself thus wooed, so to speak, by both feminine tempters, he
at the same time felt intensely his lonesome condition in the world.
The odd conceit overcame him that he was a lost soul shaken from the
tree of life, which while cherished by soft hands, was nevertheless to
be forever deprived of its own existence and individuality, a state of
mind which with callow youths thus beset may be more frequent than
commonly supposed. Therefore, a prey to two conflicting emotions
equally powerful, of which one necessarily excluded the other, his
strong sense of personal freedom struggling within his breast with the
new-born sentiment of tender regard, he stood mute and trembling, half
in rebellion against the sudden intimate aggression of the two women,
and half strongly inclined to draw the young girl into his arms and to
overwhelm her with caresses. His Ruechenstein blood was against him.
While he loved the mother with a wholesouled and most grateful
devotion, her thoughtless encouragement of him to play a lover's part
towards her daughter seemed to him strange and unbecoming. He looked
upon himself as really Kuengolt's property, as truly belonging to her
by reason of her having saved his forfeited life. But at the same time
he felt himself seriously responsible for her moral conduct, for her
maiden chastity and her correct manners, and when now Kuengolt strove
to kiss him on the mouth, he said to her, in perfect good humor but
withal in the tone of a crabbed schoolmaster: "You are really still too
young for things of that kind. This is not suitable for your age."
At these words the girl paled with shame and annoyance. Without another
syllable she turned away and joined once more the throng of
merrymakers, where she danced and sprang about recklessly a few times,
and then sat down a little distance away by herself, with a face that
betrayed clearly how hurt she was at the rebuff.
The chief forester's wife smilingly stroked the strict young moralist's
cheek, saying: "Well, well, you are certainly very strict. But the more
faithfully you will one day take care of my child. Give me your promise
never to desert her! Only don't forget, we Seldwyla folk are all of us
rather gay and debonair, and it is possible that in being so we
sometimes do not think enough of the future."
Dietegen's eyes grew wet, and he gave her his hand in solemn vow. Then
she conducted him back to the others. But Kuengolt turned her back on
him, and instead in real grief gazed into the mild May night.
He on his part now marveled at himself. Strange, now of a sudden this
girl whom but a minute before he had misnomed a mere child, was old and
grown-up enough to cause him, the moralizing youth, love pangs. For sad
and confused he too stood now aside and felt still more ashamed than
the girl herself.