A PRECIOUS LEGACY, AND A PRECIOUS PRAYER.
Many beautiful Sundays followed; and, whenever it was possible, the
grandmother so arranged it that Stineli got, now and then, a spare
moment; but the work in the house increased daily. Rico passed many
hours standing on the threshold of his cottage looking longingly across
the way, in the hope of seeing Stineli come out.
Towards September, when people often sat before their houses in order to
enjoy, to the utmost, the last warm evenings of the season, the
schoolmaster placed himself before his door, but he looked very thin and
coughed continually; and at last, one morning when he tried to rise, his
strength deserted him completely, and he fell back upon his pillow.
There he lay very still, and busy with all sorts of thoughts; and he
wondered what would come to pass when he died. He had no children, and
his wife had been dead for a long time, and there was only an old
maid-servant to live with him and take care of the house. He was
principally occupied in thinking of what would become of all the things
that belonged to him when he should be gone; and, as his fiddle hung
directly opposite to him on the wall, he said to himself, "I must leave
that behind me too."
Then he remembered the day when Rico stood before him and played on the
instrument, and he felt as if he had rather let the boy have the fiddle
than to let it go to a distant cousin who did not understand the use of
it at all. And he thought that, if it were to go very cheap, perhaps
Rico could buy it. Presently he bethought himself that if he could not
use the violin, neither would he have any use for money. For all that,
he could not bring himself to let the instrument, for which he had paid
down six hard gulden, go for nothing.
So he pondered and pondered how he could manage to obtain something in
exchange; but at last it was quite clear to him that there, where he was
fast going, he could not take his violin with him, neither could he take
any thing that he might get for it, for all must remain behind.
While he was lying there the fever became greater and greater, and he
lay, towards evening and all night long, fighting with all sorts of
strange thoughts, and old, long-forgotten events rose before his mind
and perplexed him; so that at last, towards morning, he lay on his bed
utterly exhausted, and with only one thought or wish,--viz., to be able
to do one kind deed, one good action, and that quickly, before it was
too late. He knocked against the wall with his stick until the old
maid-servant heard him and came in to him; and then he sent her over to
the grandmother, to ask her to come to him as quickly as possible.
She did come almost immediately; and before she had fairly time to ask
him how he found himself, he said,--
"Will you be so good as to take down the fiddle that hangs there on the
wall, and give it to the little orphan boy? I wish to make him a present
of it, and he must be very careful of it."
Naturally the good woman was very much surprised, and could not
refrain from exclaiming repeatedly, "What will Rico do with it? What
will Rico say to this?" Presently she noticed, however, that the
schoolmaster seemed a little restless, as if he were in a hurry to
have the thing done.
So she left him, and hastened as quickly as possible across the fields
with the gift under her arm; for she was also impatient to know how Rico
would take this rare piece of good fortune.
He was standing in the doorway of his cottage. At a motion from the
grandmother, he ran towards her.
"Here, Rico," she said, and handed him the violin. "The schoolmaster
sends this to you: it is yours."
The boy stood as if he were in a dream, but it was true. The grandmother
was really standing there, holding the fiddle out to him.
Trembling with pleasure and excitement, he took his present at last, put
it on his arm, and gazed at it in a silly sort of way, as if he thought
it might vanish presently, as quickly as it had come, if he did not keep
his eyes on it.
"You must be very careful of it," said the old woman, delivering her
message faithfully. She was much inclined to laugh, however; for it did
not seem to her that the warning was at all necessary. "And, Rico, think
about the teacher, and do not forget what he has done for you: he is
very ill."
The grandmother went into the house with these words; and the boy
hastened up into his own bedroom, where he was always alone.
There he sat and fiddled, and played on and on, and forgot all about
eating or drinking, or how the time sped on. At last, when it was almost
dark, he came to himself, and went down-stairs. The cousin came out from
the kitchen, saying, "You can have something to eat to-morrow morning.
You have behaved so to-day that you won't get any thing more."
The boy did not feel hungry, although he had not eaten since the early
morning, and went quite unconsciously across into the opposite house,
and entered the kitchen. He was looking for the grandmother.
Stineli was standing by the hearth, arranging the fire. When she caught
sight of Rico, she shouted aloud for joy; for the ground had almost
burned beneath her feet, she had been so impatient all day--ever since
her grandmother had told her the great news--to get away, and express
her delight to Rico; but she had not dared to leave the house for an
instant. Now she was fairly beside herself, and called out, again and
again, "You have got it now! You have got it now!"
Hearing the noise, the grandmother came out of the sitting-room; and
Rico hastened towards her, saying, "May I go to thank the teacher, if
he is sick?"
After thinking a while,--for she remembered how very ill the
schoolmaster looked in the morning when she saw him,--the good woman
said, "Wait a few moments, Rico, I will go with you;" and stepped into
her room to put on a clean apron. Then they went over to the
schoolhouse. The grandmother entered first. Rico followed, his fiddle
under his arm. He had not once laid it down since it had come into his
possession.
The teacher lay on his bed, looking very feeble indeed. The lad stepped
to the bedside and looked down at his fiddle and could scarcely speak,
but his eyes sparkled so brightly that the good man had no difficulty in
understanding him: he cast a pleased look towards the boy, and nodded at
him. Then he beckoned the grandmother to draw near. Rico moved a little
to one side, and the teacher said with a weak voice, "Grandmother, I
should be very glad if you would say 'Our Father' for me, I feel so very
much troubled."
Just at this moment the prayer-bell sounded. The grandmother folded her
hands and repeated the Lord's Prayer, and Rico also folded his hands.
Every thing was quiet in the room. After a while the grandmother bent
over and closed the old teacher's eyes, for he had passed away. Then she
took Rico by the hand, and went softly home with him.