WHEN HEARTS ARE YOUNG
Come, Corinna, let me kiss thee!
Come, my dearest, to me here!
I would know why joy should miss thee,
I would have thine answer clear.
Smiling sweetly said she, "No,"
Then demurely yielded so.
--Francis Daniel Pastorius (of Germantown).
How the years slipped by! Twenty years ago my Sonnlein had come to me a
little toddler. Now he was a tall youth--even taller than I--strong and
straight as the pine under which I found him; full of healthful animal
spirits that sometimes in their exuberance give me vague fears as to
what his active, enthusiastic nature might lead him to. Thus far he had
done naught to shake my confidence in him. He was a constant solace to
me. Brother Obed, with unwearying patience for Sonnlein's lively ways,
was exceedingly proud of his acquirements, for between Brother Obed and
me Sonnlein had not only learned to speak our mother tongue like one of
us, but even in Latin and Greek he was no indifferent scholar. We had
also taught him the arts of rhetoric and logic and mathematics, and had
versed him in literature and history, poetry and music.
But above all mathematics, history, language, and literature, Brother
Obed and I had taught Sonnlein what we knew and what we could teach him
to find out for himself about this world of ours, this delightful book
of nature our Creator gave us to read and search with no less diligence
than his written word, and so the moon and the stars by night, the sun
by day, the ever-recurring seasons, calm and tempest, the sparkling
streams, waving trees, the sweet and lovely flowers, the creatures that
fill God's earth, man, bird, and beast--all these were taught so that
our boy understood them as so many manifestations of his power and
beauty and love and tenderness for us who were created in his image. And
that our boy might have the best of all guides for the interpretation of
this visible life and the unseen world beyond the gates of death, we
taught him gently but persistently God's holy word, for in our simple
view of life it seemed a great shame that one should know all about the
kings and princes of this fleeting earth but know naught of the Prince
of princes and the King of kings. Thus our boy, we fondly trusted, was
prepared to fill any place in this world according to his gifts, happily
for himself and others.
But I dare not pretend that he was a youthful saint, for frequently to
my poorly concealed amusement and the evident chagrin of our
superintendent, Sonnlein often put the former to utter rout in the
discussion of some of his finespun interpretations of holy writ. Indeed,
I fear there was no love lost between our estimable leader and my boy,
for Sonnlein had that inexorable logic, that sure keenness of mind that
pierces a sophistry as a skillful archer wings his arrow to the center
of the mark. At times Sonnlein's apparent want of reverence, his seeming
irreligion, his lack of deference for Brother Beissel's peculiar views,
threatened to disrupt the brotherly relations that ever existed between
our superintendent and me, his associate; for with all his sternness,
his austerity, his unbending will and ambition, I recognized that our
leader was no ordinary man, and while not a scholar he was a man of
great and many talents--all in all, just the one to hold together our
little community.
The trouble was that while Sonnlein had much of the sweet reasonableness
and charity that comes from the study and contemplation of the
humanities, he added to his poetic, philosophical temperament the energy
and will that mark the man of action. An ardent, impetuous, positive
nature like his was bound to clash with one like the superintendent's,
and more than once it called forth all my wits to prevent actual rupture
between the two, which would have scandalized us sorely. Thus it was
that while I frequently reproached Sonnlein for his irreverence for
Brother Beissel, I just as often placated the latter by pleading
Sonnlein's youth and inexperience.
I recall especially one occasion when our leader had delivered a long
discourse on one of his pet theories, that in heaven we should have the
same occupations we had followed here. Sonnlein's brief comment, so it
was brought to mine ears, was he pitied grave-diggers and the like if
that was all the reward they were to receive. In our Kloster there were
tattlers and talebearers, just as in more worldly places, and our leader
hearing of the thing, which I knew Sonnlein had said more in jest than
in disrespect, came to me in high dudgeon and demanded Sonnlein make
open apology before all the Brotherhood. This I knew full well Sonnlein
would not do and I besought our worthy leader to overlook the matter and
forgive him. I shall never forget how he almost yelled at me, his small
frame quivering with righteous indignation beneath my towering stature.
"Forgive him! So sayest thou ever. I verily believe thou couldst forgive
the devil!"
"In truth, dear brother, I oft have done so," I replied, smiling quietly
and looking down into his angry eyes meaningly.
He straightened up and, as he walked savagely away, delivered this
parting shot: "No doubt; thou hast had abundant opportunity in thy
precious Sonnlein!"
It was my turn to flush now, but happily I controlled myself and said
nothing, consoling myself with the reflection that our superintendent's
witty retort would go far to appease his indignation and that by the
morrow he would greet me with his accustomed affection and good-will,
for in order to make others love us it is only necessary to make them
love themselves, and many a rascal by this knowledge hath overcome many
a wise man.
That night I spake to Sonnlein kindly but firmly, reminding him how
poorly it accorded with his manhood's estate to indulge in such levity;
that even if he could not always agree with the hair-splitting
speculations of our worthy superintendent, it were surely wiser to hold
one's tongue lest that unruly member poison all our peace.
"But," replied he gently, as was ever his way toward me, "_Vaterchen_,
Brother Beissel hath something about him that everything he says and
does irritates me. It passeth my understanding why he alone of all our
Brothers and Sisters so affects me. I sometimes fear I hate him and
that he returns the same feeling, yet I know not that he hath ever
harmed me. I promise thee to curb this tongue of mine. Good night,
_Vaterchen_; _schlafen Sie wohl_," and so saying he went meekly to his
_Kammer_, from whence I could soon tell by his deep, regular breathing
what I had said was not greatly disturbing his sleep.
Late in the afternoon of the following day, being now in the wane of
what we have since learned to call the "Indian summer," I was wandering,
somewhat aimlessly I confess, along the borders of the Sisters' close,
when suddenly, on lifting mine eyes from the earth, I perceived one of
the Sisterhood directly in my pathway, but a short distance ahead,
sitting quietly on a projecting root, which, springing from the base of
a towering chestnut tree, formed a comfortable seat.
She had not observed me, I felt sure, and thinking not to disturb her
meditations, for I doubted not she was rapt in contemplation of the
heavenly Bridegroom, I stepped quietly aside into the cover of a near-by
thicket. I hardly had done so when, not far beyond the Sister, a rich,
deep voice rang out in an old German hunting song:
"Out into the woods three hunters went,
On the white deer's chase their wishes bent."
From my hiding-place I saw the form at the foot of the tree sit more
erect in listening posture, and as the face was uplifted, the fair
features of Sister Genoveva met my gaze, such a pensive wistfulness and
tenderness informing every feature of the lovely face turned unwittingly
toward me, I somehow thought of my Bernice, who so soon was called to
her celestial Bridegroom.
Again the fine, strong voice rang out, still nearer:
"Down under the fir-trees' shade they lay,
The same strange dream came to each that day.
"THE FIRST.
"'I dreamt I beat on a sheltering bush,
From out its fold sprang the deer, husch, husch!'"
And now I caught occasional glimpses of the gray fox-skin hunter's cap
Sonnlein wore when on the chase, for I had recognized his voice full
well. Some one else too seemed to know, for I could not help seeing,
e'en though I never have known much of the signs and symptoms of love,
that Sister Genoveva's pensiveness had given way to a gentle smile that
brought an added charm to the wonderful loveliness of the most beautiful
woman I have ever seen.
Still nearer came the trumpet tones:
"THE SECOND.
"'And as he sprang from the hound's hoarse laugh,
I branded him deep on the hide, piff, paff!'"
Where had the scamp learned to sing with such faithfulness to the sense?
I heard plainly the "hound's hoarse laugh," the "piff, paff!" And again
I wondered where he had learned to sing so true. Surely not from our
leader; no Æolian harp about these manly, resounding notes:
"THE THIRD.
"'And as on the earth him slain I saw,
Lustily into the horn I blew, trara!'"
That "trara," like the blast of a hunting horn, transported me to my
boyhood days in the _Vaterland_, where often I had heard the huntsmen
call to each other in the thick forests and mountain glens.
And then mockingly came the stanza:
"So there they lay and bragged these three--
And there, ran by them the white deer--free!"
Surely the light-hearted boy, for boy he always has been to me, was
meant for a minnesinger.
And now he was so nigh only a thin wall of brush separated him, all
unconscious, from Sister Genoveva and me, as she sat in the little
clearing at the foot of the tree. Her eyes were now sparkling with
merriment; delicate dimples of mirthfulness played hide and seek over
chin and cheeks, despite the dignified efforts to maintain a sober mien
as became one of the holy Sisterhood. Surely she was thinking of the
surprise in store for him when he should burst the bushy barriers--and
see her. It seemed to me she might have left the spot, for certain it
was there was no lack of opportunity. Once, in faith, I was about to
call to her sternly, but I could not, for verily I believe we both were
held by the witchery of his song.
Then came the last verse, still strong and clear, with its vein of
mockery:
"But hardly was he within their sight
He was gone again over deep and height
Husch, husch! piff, paff! trara!"
The echoes of his stentorian tones had hardly died away when he was on
us. Rather, I should say, he was in the presence of Sister Genoveva, for
I was safely ensconced in the thicket, resolved now to see the meeting
to its conclusion. And what a picture they made in that leaf-strewn
clearing, all red and brown and gold with the jewels of the dying year,
the chestnut stretching its arms out over the two forms as if in a
blessing!
Not all the studied plainness and cloistral severity of the black dress
could suppress the womanly grace and beauty of the full, rounded form of
Sister Genoveva; nor could the hideous hood, which had fallen on her
shoulders, have hidden from view those sweet features, so delicately
strong and full of noble calmness and serenity--and yet no cold,
marble, nun-like face, for the full red lips, the rosy flush of the
rounded cheeks, the dimpled chin, and the warmth of those luminous, deep
blue eyes betokened an affectionate and loving heart; and now that I saw
her with such opportunity to scan her without myself being seen, I could
understand the reports that had come to me of the wonderful influence
she already exerted over the Sisterhood by reason of her clear vision,
her piety, her strong will, her even temper, and above all that
largeness of heart that made her sought even more than _Mutter_ Maria in
the troubles and fears and temptations that even our simple, secluded
life could not wholly shut out from our little world.
But if she was the perfect Eve in this little paradise under the
spreading chestnut, Sonnlein was no unworthy Adam. I knew not which of
the two most satisfied my carnal eye with their fresh, young, healthful
beauty. From beneath his gray cap his thick black hair hung in heavy,
wavy masses about his neck and shoulders. His ruddy, sunburned face
glowed with the spirit and animation of his song. At first, when he
burst upon her, he started back in surprise, and then he called to her
in gentle gayety, as he dropped on one knee, cap in hand, bowing
gracefully (so that I wondered where he had caught those courtier-like
airs which not at all pleased my plain ways), "Thou queen of the Roses
of Saron, art thou holding court in thy temple of beauty?"
And then, for I could have sworn when he burst upon us she had been
thinking of him in maidenly tenderness, she looked up indifferently,
even coldly, and rebuked him, "Shame on thee to disturb these sacred
grounds with thy worldly, boisterous song, thou noisy reveler. Thou
idle, mighty Nimrod, where are the fruits of thy chase? Perchance" (and
I saw a sly twinkle in her eyes that his abashed face did not observe)
"thou didst dream too long under the fir tree and the white deer escaped
thee? Gay garments torn from innocent beasts to add to vain adornment do
not make one a great hunter."
"Nay, Sister Genoveva," he replied more earnestly, "no white deer ran
through my dreams; no fir trees' shade soothed mine eyes to sleep. Wide
awake was I, and yet I dreamed of a fair, sweet rose that I, even though
it had thorns to prick me, would wear next my heart."
"Indeed, thou poet, thou speakest as though inspired with love. Surely
it is time thou dost take the vow of loyalty to the celestial Virgin and
join the consecrated Brotherhood; why delayest thou so long? In her love
thou wilt find no thorns."
"But, dear sister, I want the rose with the thorns" (how delicately he
emphasized the "with"). "Canst thou not see whom I mean, or dost thou
not care to know?"
And then I saw the delicious mockery leave her face and voice as she
said to him in solemn tones, "Nay, my brother Sonnlein, I dare not know;
for thy sake as well as mine I must not know. Thou art possessed by some
idle fancy the Evil One hath put into thee. Thou must not disrespect me
by making my woman's heart struggle 'gainst my vows of celibacy."
He lifted his head and looking into her eyes that met his so fearlessly,
his passionate heart burst forth into a very torrent of love, so I
wondered she could withstand him. "I do love thee, sister," murmured
tumultuously the low, warm voice, "with all my heart and mind and body
and soul. I do not hold thee lightly in my respect or I had spoken of
this long ago; but my respect for thee, for _Vaterchen_, for our Holy
Order forbade; but I can no longer withhold myself." And then
masterfully he stood erect and in strong, earnest tones declared, "I for
one am not ashamed of human love. I should rather be ashamed of myself
did I not love such as thou art to me." And then, the eloquent diplomat,
"Brother Beissel, whom the Roses of Saron worship as little less than
God himself, hath he not declared, is it not the very foundation of your
vows of celibacy that man was first a spirit containing both the
elements of man and woman; that this spiritual virgin, the _Sophia_,
left him? Then was woman formed from a rib of his side, whereby man lost
his woman's attributes and retained merely man's? Thou must not smile
and shake thy head, my sister. Thou art, I care not if the wide world
know it, my _Sophia_, my angel, my celestial virgin, that left me in my
creating. Canst marvel and deem me mad or blasphemous because I long to
come to mine own other self again, to have thee, mine own sweet rib,
evermore at my side, beneath my heart, caressing it and content to hear
it murmur its undying love for thee--my sister, _mein Liebchen_--tell
me, dost thou not love me?"
How like one inspired he pleaded! Surely she would yield, for I saw the
steady light in her eyes falter, and for a moment she clasped her hands
meekly before her, like a humble captive before some proud conqueror,
but just for a moment--strange is the heart of woman--and then I was
most inconsistently displeased to see her lift her gaze all unabashed to
his as she said lightly, "What an orator thou art; now know I what we
oft have marveled at, how thou wheedlest our good Brother Jabez into so
much forgiveness for thy indifference to our holy life."
"So our good brother is wheedled," thought I, indignantly at first, and
then smiling in a superior manner at the impossibility of such a thing
as my being wheedled.
But my boy was not one of those who could easily be laughed away from
his purpose, for I had taught him--in season and out--never to let
sarcasm or ridicule have the slightest effect on him when he had once
chosen his ground and knew he was right. If he did feel Genoveva's
gentle mockery he showed it not, but instead did what I never could have
had the courage to do, unless upon modest invitation, and that was to
step resolutely forward and take Sister Genoveva by the hands and hold
her thus against her feeble striving to free herself while he said to
her boldly, "Thou dost love me or else wouldst not tease me so!"
"Hast forgotten our promise to good Brother Jabez when thou didst fight
Johann, that we would never again talk to each other of love?"
"That promise hath no life; we were but children, and secondly, 'twas
drawn from us by fear. Such promises _Vaterchen_, who knoweth the law,
himself sayeth are not binding."
"Oh, thou lawyer," thought I to myself; "thou'rt far too worldly-wise
for a minnesinger."
"Thou dost love me," he again said strongly.
"Thou tyrant to hold me against my will. Loose thy hold or else I shall
not doubt I dislike thee," she declared right vehemently, though it
seemed to me she might have struggled more earnestly to loosen his
grasp.
But like a true-hearted man he obeyed her request, dropping her hands
and saying softly, "Thou dost not hate me, then, thou cold-hearted
nun?"
"Nay, naught of reason have I to hate thee, Sonnlein"--and how sweetly
she said his name--"but dost not know, thou mighty hunter, woman expects
little less than perfection in him she would love," and then she said
maliciously, so I could not fathom her, "surely thou dost not think
thyself perfect?"
"As to thy last," he rejoined, "I shall make answer, I am human. I leave
it to woman to be perfect"--the flatterer. "As to thy first I doubt not
thy sex ever looks for perfection in our imperfect sex, and it strikes
me this accounts more for our Sisterhood than does their love for their
heavenly Bridegroom, whom they see not until after death."
"Thou irreverent scoundrel," thought I.
"And yet," continued he, "when I think of him for whom our Sister Eunice
lately left the Roses of Saron, it seemeth as though some of thy sex at
least look not for perfection."
"Still I say our foolish hearts yearn for the ideal, but when we love
the attainable we forgive everything, and this is woman's weakness."
"Nay, sister, 'tis her most glorious strength that she, an angel, can
stoop down and make him see heaven in her."
"That I had the gift to speak with such a golden tongue," thought I, and
then fortunately for us all--for I liked not my spying, and yet I could
not leave unnoticed--Sonnlein chanced to see Brother Alburtus approach.
Suddenly that scamp of mine kissed her full on her sweet lips. How she
blushed and said not a word, as he held her close to him for a moment
whispering passionately, "Thou must love me as I love thee, forever!"
and then as they both saw Brother Alburtus perilously nigh, she quietly
sat down again at her former place, most demurely, while Sonnlein passed
on toward his _Kammer_.
As Brother Alburtus came upon her he stopped for a moment, hand rubbing
hand as usual, looked at her in grave absorption and passed on as though
she were not there.
And then I could have sworn I saw peering at her, and next at the
departing form of Brother Alburtus, the loathsome features of that awful
woman whom I had not seen for over ten years, from the shelter of a
tangled clump of vines and brush, which I solemnly promised myself
should be cut down on the morrow, root and branch.
Stealthily I crept out of my hiding-place and proceeded to where it
seemed I had seen the witch, but as I came near I saw naught, and yet as
I walked slowly away there came faintly to mine ears as though receding
from me, that horrible, cackling laugh I had reason to hold in so much
dread.