Weeks passed.
_Kli-r-r! Kli-rr-rr--_ This time the chains were clanging through the
village of A----. Between rows of glittering bayonets appeared from
time to time, a white face. The prisoners were being led to the place
of execution. Even in daylight this clanging of chains was terrifying.
Doors were quickly shut, windows closed. This sound was the terror
of the land. It filled the streets, and made the hearts of the brave
tremble. A crowd had accumulated about the square. There were judges,
lawyers, court accountants. The superintendent was there too, and his
helper.
“I did not do it. I am not to be blamed,” the superintendent kept
whispering to himself. The judge turned to the prisoner.
“You are A---- from the village of A----?”
“No; I am not from A----.”
“K---- is your friend?”
“I do not know him.”
“Did you kill G----?”
“Yes; he was my enemy.”
“You procured weapons and took them to S----?”
“No; I did not procure the weapons.”
The helper of the superintendent, who until then had listened
indifferently, went up to the judge and whispered to him. Then, upon a
signal from the judge he walked up to the prisoner and stood directly
in front of him, and quite near.
The place of execution became silent. Every one expected something
unusual and all eyes were turned toward the two men who stood face to
face. It was not two faces that confronted each other, but four eyes
... four flames. The spectators shivered as if from fear. Something was
going to happen, something out of the ordinary. Still they stared at
each other, eye against eye. Their eyes did not wink. Their lips did
not move. Their eyebrows did not twitch. No sound escaped their lips.
No word was spoken. They only looked and looked, and one was in chains,
but inspirited with righteous wrath. The other wore the uniform of a
Turkish official, and yet he trembled and seemed afraid.
The prisoner stepped back. The chains rattled. He turned away with a
gesture of scorn that made the other feel shivers pass down his spine,
and he stuttered.
“I--I--_know you_. You are A----”
“Yes,” replied the other. “_You were my friend._”
Friend! What a word to use here! The word took on form and towered like
a giant in front of the helper. He saw himself in all his baseness.
He was in terror at his own likeness. Ah!--how much blood he had shed
for these shining buttons on his uniform. Involuntarily he touched one
of the buttons. It was cold like ice. He drew his hand back quickly.
How many years had he feigned to be a friend to this hero who fought
for freedom, and how many just like him he had tricked and brought to
ruin. He touched his sword, then drew his hand back, and glanced at the
heavy chains of his old friend and former companion in the strife for
liberty. Which was better, the sword of the Turkish official or those
rusty chains of the martyr for freedom? This question which he thought
he had decided long ago, came up again.
* * * * *
It is night--a gloomy night. A restless wind roamed under the black
sky. The helper started for the prison. The superintendent had called
him. His walk did not have its usual animation. The darkness was not
pleasant, nor the wind either. He kept thinking of things he did not
wish to think of. How hard he had tried to hide himself that morning
when A---- climbed to the gallows. He did not succeed. The prisoner
seemed to search for him. He found him. He looked at him again just
as he had looked at him on the place of execution. Before he died
he wished to burn that look of scorn and contempt into his brain.
There--before him in the dark--were two burning points--_eyes_. He
could not go on. He stopped. They were the eyes of his friend. They
were just like them--just so large. Should he go on? He meditated a
moment and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the two eyes
were still looking at him again--only they were larger and there
was a different expression within them. He started to run. The eyes
disappeared. It was a cat which leaped ahead of him. He laughed at his
fear, but he walked faster than usual.
At length he reached the prison yard. He looked timidly toward the
place of execution of the morning. He thought the man was buried and
all was over. But he saw the body gleaming through the darkness. And
when the wind touched it, the gallows moaned and moaned. And the wind
carried the sound on and on. The helper ran without looking up, but
as he neared the gallows his steps were heavier and heavier. The old
shuddering swept over his body. At last, trembling, he entered the room
of the overseer. It was light there. At least there was a human being
there. The superintendent did not look up; he was thoughtful and both
were silent.
“Now you can sleep,” remarked the helper in order to break the
oppressive silence. “Now the chains do not rattle.”
“Hark! Don’t you hear that?” Outside, above the sound of the wind, came
plainly the creaking of the gallows. It was a sad, monotonous sound, a
gigantic slumber song over the body of the heroic dead.
“Why is he not buried?”
“That is what I have called you for. To-morrow morning you are to take
him down and bury him--because you were his friend.”
The helper was silent. What an ironic play of wit was this. Anyway he
will not make any noise, thought the helper.
The superintendent dropped his head; his eyes were in the shadow.
Slowly the helper got upon his feet, took up the lamp and held it in
front of the trembling face of the overseer. The overseer threw back
his head in anger, grabbed the lamp from the hand of the helper, threw
it upon the floor and smashed it into pieces.
“_You cowardly betrayer--he was your friend!_”
The room was in darkness. In every corner shone a dozen gleaming eyes
that kept growing larger and larger. It was frightful; he wished to
get away. But he could not find the door. He circled vainly around and
around. At last he stumbled upon it. Carefully he opened it and stuck
his head out. It was no less terrifying outside; blackness and wind,
and the creaking gallows. Ah!--what a sound was that! It penetrated
the marrow of his bones and made him suffer. Up there the dead man was
shaking in the wind. Where should he go? He made up his mind to run
as fast as he could, but he had only taken a few steps when something
forced him to look up. There in front of him, in the darkness, were
two gleaming, swollen eyes, streaked with blood. His knees gave way.
Trembling he turned back toward the door of the overseer.
“Cowardly betrayer!” murmured the overseer again. The helper turned and
ran again. But this time the wind blocked his way and he found himself
beneath the gallows. This time the dead man did not seem to be angry.
The eyes looked down at him sympathetically and the lips said: “Friend,
Friend.”
He twisted and crawled along like a snake. Then with feverish haste he
put up the ladder, climbed it, and untied the rope. The corpse fell.
Quickly he twisted the same noose about his own neck and swung himself
up into the air. With the angry voice of the wind there mingled the
peculiar choking sound of a human voice--and then the sound came no
more. The two dead men looked at each other, one upon the ground, and
the other swinging high in the darkness and the wind.
THE ELOPEMENT
By ALEXANDER PETÖFI
PETÖFI
Alexander Petöfi, the great lyric poet of the Magyar race, was born
the first day of January, 1823. His was a true poet’s life--brief
and stormy. Only twenty-six years were his in which to live and
purchase fame. Despite the fact that he took an active part in the
wars which were numerous during his brief day, and was active as an
editor and politician, he found time to write some of the finest lyric
verse of his race, and tales in prose, and to leave a considerable
correspondance with the distinguished men of the period.
His best prose work is the novelette, _The Hangman’s Knot_.
THE ELOPEMENT
“But where shall we go?”
“To Buda Pesth.”
“To Pesth?”
“Of course!”
“Why there?”
“It’s the safest place.”
“Very well.”
“Early--”
“I’ll be ready--early.”
“Use every precaution.”
“Do not worry.”
“On no account be late.”
“No; of course not!”
“Good by, Anna dear--!”
Poor Andrew von Csornay! And at this moment in the club he is saying
“Checkmate,” with an air of triumph to his opponent, just as if he
himself had not just been checkmated in life, for Anna is his wife, and
Carl his nephew.
A few days later they talked of nothing in the little village where
this happened, but the elopement of Madame Andrew with her nephew, Carl
von Csornay.
“It served the old fool right! Why did he marry such a young and
beautiful girl?”
“That’s too much for me! I can’t solve the problem. Probably because
they were so much in love with each other.”
“True--I suppose.”
“But I’m sorry for the old man. I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if the
grief killed him.”
“Poor fellow!”
“And the unfortunate scandal--”
During the time conversation like this was common in the little
village, Carl and his beautiful young aunt, had met in Pesth. While
their carriage was on the way to the hotel, another carriage started
from there.
“Oh!” screamed Madame Anna, in terror.
“I hope he’ll lose his eyesight,” thought Carl von Csornay to himself,
throwing a hasty glance in the direction of the other carriage. They
both wrapped themselves up in their cloaks as well as they could. The
man who saw them was a merchant from their home town.
“He did not recognize us,” declared Carl reassuringly, when they
entered their room in the hotel. “If he had, he would have spoken to
us.”
“Thank heaven for that!”
“Now you belong to me, Anna,--wholly--wholly! To me belong the
beautiful brown hair, the red, sweet lips, the glowing, black eyes, the
proud, swan-like neck--”
“Yes--yes--I belong to you Carl!”
And they were happy--for a little while. But the love of the senses is
an intoxication from which one awakens and when they awoke and came to
their senses, they both exclaimed:
“In the name of goodness what are we going to live upon? We have no
money! We have nothing to eat.”
They had not finished speaking, when some one knocked at the door and a
stranger entered.
“Have I the honor to address M. Carl von Csornay?”
Carl listened confused and frightened, because he felt that they had
been discovered.
“You do not answer,” continued the stranger, “but your surprise proves
that you are the one I seek. I beg you to sign this little piece of
paper. Exactly one year from to-day I will come to see you again. Do
not forget--in just one year. Good by.”
The mysterious stranger went away. It was difficult to say which was
greater, the surprise or the joy of the lovers. The paper which the
stranger gave him, was draft for a sum of money sufficiently large to
enable them to live in luxury for a year. According to the written
demand of the stranger, the money was paid to them promptly.
“It is incomprehensible,” declared Madame Anna, looking at the money.
“I should say it is incomprehensible,” agreed Carl. “Gold falls upon us
just like manna from Heaven.”
Now they could live happily. They had no material cares to worry about.
And they thought now of course that the merchant did not recognize
them. If he had, would he not have told M. Andrew von Csornay?
“And at the end of the year,” explained Carl, “the stranger will come
again, and we shall have more money. Is not that what he said?”
“Yes, indeed.”
Six months after the departure of Madame Anna with her nephew, a young
man appeared suddenly in the home of old M. Andrew von Csornay. His
face expressed suffering and a decision reached in a mood of despair.
Old M. Andrew had just returned from his club, in a rather melancholy
frame of mind. He was either sad over the disappearance of his young
wife, or because the priest had beaten him again at chess.
When the young man entered, the old man, white and trembling, sank back
in his chair. The young man seized his hand and implored:
“Uncle--Dear Uncle--what shall I do to be forgiven? I am ready to do
anything!”
“Where is she--the woman?”
“She--_she_----is not here.”
The old man drew a deep breath of relief.
“I am going to tell you the whole story,” declared Carl. “You will see
then that you ought to pity me, and not take revenge upon me. I can’t
tell you how I have suffered. My happiness did not last long. I lived
in a veritable hell. Your wife has the face of an angel--but all the
devils there are, dwell in her heart. She is the worst tempered woman I
have ever known in my life. I could not stand it a day longer--I had to
run away and leave her--”
“My poor nephew--I do pity you from the bottom of my heart. But you
ought to pity me; she only remained with you six months, while she
remained an entire year with me.”
“You, too, Dear Uncle?”
“You are surprised, I suppose, are you not? Every one thought we were
happy. But you should have seen us when we were alone! Then--you would
have learned a thing or two. When I think of her it makes me shudder.
When I found you had eloped with her, I blessed you. No one could have
done me a greater kindness. In order to reward you--as soon as the
merchant told me where you were--I sent you a yearly allowance,--so you
would have no inclination to come back, and no hinderance where money
was concerned--”
SAIDJAH
By MULTATULI
MULTATULI
Multatuli, whose real name was Edward D. Dekker, was born in Amsterdam
in 1820. His father was a merchant. When he was eighteen years old his
father sent him to the Dutch East Indies to enter the service of the
colonial government. He was rapidly advanced to the highest government
position in the colonies. And in this position he was tireless in his
endeavor to improve the condition of the native population.
Because of this desire he gave up at length his position, with all
its advantages of money and honor, and went back to Holland to tell
the people the true condition of the native population over whom
they ruled. He was dismissed from service without a pension, and for
years after this he lived in poverty. It was during this period of
deprivation that he wrote the novel, _Havelaar_. He tells us that he
was obliged to borrow money to buy the ink with which to write it.
Other books followed this in quick succession, among them the drama, _A
School for Princes_, which is still popular in Holland.
In 1870 he went to live in Wiesbaden; from Wiesbaden he moved to a
village on the Rhine where he died in February, 1887.
SAIDJAH
Saidjah was about fifteen years old when his father ran away to
Buitenzorg. He did not accompany him because he had plans of his own
to carry out. He had heard that in Batavia there were rich gentlemen
who would employ slender youths like him, if they were nimble footed,
to sit on the rear seat of the two wheeled carriages. He had been told
that he could earn money in this way. In two years he could earn enough
money to buy two water buffaloes. This prospect pleased him. He walked
along proudly like a person who carries something important in his
head. He was on his way to see Adinda to tell her his plan.
“When I come back,” he explained, “we shall be old enough to marry--and
then we shall have two buffaloes to do the plowing.”
“Good, Saidjah, I will be your wife when you come back. I will spin. I
will weave and embroider _sarongs_.”
“I believe you, Adinda. And when I come back, I will call you a long
way off--”
“Who could hear if we happened to be pounding rice in the village?”
“That is true. Then wait for me by the Djati Forest, under the
_ketapan_ tree, where you gave me the _melatti_ flower.”
“But, Saidjah, when can I know when you are coming? When shall I go to
the tree?”
Saidjah thought a moment and replied.
“Count the moons. During three times twelve moons I will remain away.
But this moon now does not count. See, Adinda,--cut a notch in the
rice-block for each moon. When you have cut three times twelve notches,
I will return. On that day wait for me under the _ketapan_ tree.”
“I will be there by the Djati Forest, waiting for you under the
_ketapan_ tree.”
Saidjah tore a piece of cloth from his blue head-dress, and gave it
to Adinda. Then he said good by to her and to Badur. He went through
Rangas-Betung, which was not yet a place of importance, and on to
Warong-Gunang, where the assistant governor lived. The next day he saw
Pandeglang, the village that looks as if it lay in a garden. A day
later he reached Serang, and stood astonished at the splendor and the
number of the houses. He remained here one day because he was tired,
but when the sun set, he went on again and at length reached Tangerang.
Here he took a bath in the river and rested in the house of a friend of
his father.
As soon as it was dark he took out the _melatti_ flower which Adinda
gave him and looked at it. Then he was sad because he had not seen her
for so long. The farther he traveled from Badur, the more he began to
think that the thirty six moons represented a very long time. It was
not so easy for him to go ahead. He felt weary and without ambition.
Saidjah arrived in Batavia. He sought a rich gentleman who hired him at
once, when he found he could not understand what he said. In Batavia
they prefer servants who do not understand Malay, and are not spoiled
by contact with Europeans. Saidjah soon learned Malay, but he kept it
to himself, because he thought only of Adinda and the two buffaloes. He
grew tall and strong because he had something to eat every day, which
did not happen in Badur. His master promoted him to the position of a
house servant and increased his pay. But at the end of three years they
said he was ungrateful, because he gave up his position. But he did not
care what they said, his heart was glad because he was getting ready
to go back. He counted over and over the treasures which he was going
to carry home. In a hollow, bamboo stick he had his passport and the
testimonial of his master. In a case swung over his shoulder by a piece
of leather, was something heavy that beat against his back. Within this
case were thirty Spanish dollars, with which he intended to buy three
buffaloes. What would Adinda say to that! And that was not all. In his
girdle shone a Malay _kris_ with a sheathe of silver. The handle was of
carved wood which he had wrapped carefully in silk. In the folds of his
outer garment was a leathern girdle with silver links, and a clasp of
gold. This was for Adinda. Around his neck in a little silk purse, he
carried the dried _melatti_ flower.
He did not pause to visit any of the cities along his route. It seemed
to him that he could hear the voice of Adinda calling him. This music
made him deaf to everything else.
At length, in the distance, he saw a great black spot. That must be the
Djati Forest, which was near the tree where Adinda was going to wait
for him. He groped in the darkness and felt the trunks of many trees.
Soon he stumbled upon a piece of level ground that seemed familiar--the
south side of a tree. He put his fingers in a gash in the side of the
tree which he remembered had been cut to drive away an evil spirit that
had hidden there and given some people of the village toothache.
This was the _ketapan_ tree which he was seeking. He sat down in front
of the tree and looked up at the stars. And when he saw a falling star
he understood it as a greeting to him on his return to Badur. Then he
wondered if Adinda were sleeping now, and if she had counted the moons
correctly on the old rice-block. Would it not be a pity if she had cut
one too many, or one too few? Thirty-six moons there should be! He
wondered if she had woven beautiful _sarongs_. And he wondered too who
was living in the old home of his father. Then he recalled his youth,
and his mother, and the buffalo that had saved him from being torn to
pieces by the tiger.
Very carefully he watched the setting of the stars in the west, as they
disappeared along the horizon line, and estimated the time before light
would begin to come from the East, and how much time would elapse
before he met Adinda. She, of course, would come with the very first
ray of light. Why in the world could she not have come the day before?
He was sad that she had not got ahead of this beautiful hour, which had
fed his soul with delight for three long years.
His complaints were foolish. The sun had not yet risen. Not yet had the
sun sent its long rays across the levels. To be sure, over his head,
the stars were now growing paler, one by one, as if ashamed that their
domination must end so soon. Strange, wild colors fluttered over the
lonely mountain tops, which seemed blacker afterward. Something that
shone, floated now and then, across the clouds banked in the east;
arrows of gold--flame--but they fell back again into the darkness that
hid the day from the eyes of Saidjah.
Gradually it became lighter. He could see the landscape. He could hear
sound of the leaves from the Klappa forest behind Badur.
And yet how could she sleep? Did she not know that Saidjah was waiting
for her? Probably the village watchman had just knocked at her door,
and asked her why the night lamp was burning. Or perhaps she sat all
night in the darkness on her rice-block, counting with her fingers the
thirty six marks for the moons. Perhaps like him she was waiting for
the rising of the sun.
He did not wish to go to Badur. He seated himself at the foot of the
_ketapan_ tree, and looked out over the levels. Nature smiled back at
him and welcomed him. But his eyes kept turning toward the narrow path
that led from Badur to the _ketapan_ tree, along which Adinda would
come. But there was no one to be seen upon the path. He waited a long
time, and looked and looked, and still there was no one upon the path.
She probably watched all night and then fell asleep at dawn, he thought
to console himself. Should he get up and go to Badur? She might be
ill--or dead.
He got up and ran along the path to the village. He heard nothing. He
saw nothing. Yet voices called and called--“Saidjah! Saidjah!” The
women of Badur came out of their houses and looked at him. Their faces
were sad. They recognized Saidjah and knew he had come to see Adinda,
and that she was not there. The head of the district of Parang-Kudjang
had taken away the buffaloes of Adinda’s father. Her mother died of
grief. Adinda’s father feared punishment because he could not pay
the land-rent, and he had fled. He took Adinda with him. But because
Saidjah’s father had been whipped in Buitenzorg for running away, he
did not dare go there, but to the district of Lebak, which borders the
sea. There they had taken ship. But Saidjah was so grieved he did not
understand what they said to him.
He left Badur and went to Tjilang Kahan where he bought a boat. After
a few days sail he reached the Campong coast, where there was an
uprising against the rule of the Dutch. He joined a troop of soldiers
less to fight than to search for Adinda. One day when there was a
general massacre of natives who had been subdued by the army of the
Netherlands, he wandered through a little village that had been set
on fire. As he was walking around some houses that had not been yet
completely burned, he came upon the dead body of Adinda’s father. There
was a bayonet wound in his breast. A short distance away lay Adinda,
naked and dead. A little rag of blue cloth was pressed in the bayonet
wound in her breast. Saidjah met a soldier who was using his bayonet to
drive the few surviving insurgents into the burning houses. With all
his strength he rushed forward, and drove the soldier back, while the
point of the bayonet pierced his lungs.
In Batavia there was rejoicing over the victory that had brought
fresh laurels to Dutch arms in the East Indies. The Governor wrote to
the home country that there was peace again in Campong. The soldiers
were rewarded with crosses of heroes. In the churches prayers of
thanksgiving were said because the Lord of Hosts had again fought upon
the side of the Dutch.
ABISAG
By JAROSLAV VRCHLICKÝ
VRCHLICKÝ
Jaroslav Vrchlický, whose real name is Emil Frida, is a significant
personality in modern Bohemian literature.
He was born in 1853. He studied at various secondary schools and
later attended the University of Prague. Here he devoted himself
almost exclusively to theology and philosophy, and then--thanks to the
generosity of Count Montecuccoli-Laderchi--traveled for a time in Italy.
In 1893 he was made Professor of Modern Literature in the University of
Prague, of which he became one of the most distinguished figures.
His fertility as a writer is so unusual that it can not be passed over
in silence. He has published many books of lyric verse, dramatic verse,
stories in prose, and translations from many languages, including the
work of English and American writers. He has given his countrymen
versions of Schiller, Dante, Ariosto, Victor Hugo, Leopardi, and
Provençal and Spanish poets.
The story _Abisag_, which we give, is from the collection of prose
tales entitled _Bits of Colored Glass_. Vrchlický died in 1912.
ABISAG
King David lay upon a royal couch of cypress wood. From the ceiling
swung huge receptacles carved of bronze, from which the smoke of
burning perfumes rose, and whose dim, wavering light, showed carven
cedarn walls and a ceiling starred with plaques of gold.
The night was warm and windless. From the city from time to time one
could hear the measured tread of watchmen, and the clang of swords;
from the vineyards that swept about Jerusalem like a girdle of green,
came the voices of men who guarded the wine. The moon, resembling a
warrior’s shield of gold, reflected itself in the mirror of the flat
roofs and flung fleeting, ghostly shadows about the twelve great gates
of the city. The light fell upon the city wall, the purification pool,
gardens filled with bee hives, long alleys of sycamore trees, of palm
and fig trees. It fell upon tethered camels becoming restless at
approach of day. It saw its golden surface in deep cisterns. It shone
upon graves in which the bones of ancestors rested under the curse or
the blessing of the sons of Israel. Night swept across the world of
space like a prodigious face across the mind of the dreaming prophet.
The king lay like one dead upon his bed. Motionless, four men sat
opposite him, their misshapen knotty hands rested upon the carven
lions’ heads that formed the arms of their chairs. Their faces were
so still it was as if they were made of stone and only the trembling
flames in the bronze receptacles swept over them the unreal motion of
shadows.
The first wore the dress of a priest of Israel. His beard was parted
and combed and reached to his waist. His name was Sadok. The second
wore the insignia of the head of the army. His name was Banahash.
The other two were courtiers, Semej and Rej. Their richly oiled
hair smelled of sandal wood and hyacinth. They had torn the costly
garments that covered their breasts. Grief dwelled in their hearts and
lessened the quick pulsing of blood in their veins. Their attitude
was expectant. It was evident that they were waiting for something
important. Their eyes rested upon the bed where David lay wrapped in
the lion’s skin. His face was like a mask. It was the face of the dead.
The body of the king was beginning to grow cold.
“Nathan does not come,” remarked Sadok.
No one answered.
Banahash drew his brows together ominously. Semej and Rej sighed.
Again there was silence, heavy and prophetic.
“Does Bethsheba know what Nathan said?” inquired Semej in a whisper.
“Yes, she knows,” replied Sadok.
“And has she agreed to it?” asked Rej.
“She had to agree. Does not God speak through the mouth of Nathan? It
is her fault that she does not perform the last service for David the
King.”
“She is old. She is burdened with years and illness,” objected Semej.
“Hush! The King moves,” whispered Banahash.
“No--it was just a rustling noise in the outer hall. Slaves are
bringing the warming pans, and the coals.”
Seven negroes in short, red tunics entered. They bore bronze pans
filled with glowing coals, which shone like the sweet star, Sahil, when
it first pierces the mist of evening and looks down upon a sleeping
world. They placed two pans at the foot of the king, two at the head,
and one on either side. They sprinkled myrrh and powdered incense upon
the coals, and disappeared as softly as phantoms. The seven glowing
pans lighted the dim room and sent up a blueish smoke that filled the
air with fragrance. The pale face of the king looked paler. The four
men who sat and watched him sank lower their heads upon their breasts.
To the warmth of the summer night was added the heat of the steaming
pans. Beads of sweat stood out upon the brows of the watching men, and
dotted like pearls their long, black beards.
* * * * *
The door opened. A man of giant body stood upon the threshold. His hair
and beard were unkempt. They knew neither oil nor comb. His caftan was
girdled with a rope. His knotty, muscular feet were covered with dust.
His naked breast was weather stained and looked like the trunk of a
gnarled fig tree. White, bushy brows shaded his eyes which glowed like
the coals in the warming pans.
“Nathan!” cried the watchmen by the bed. They arose and greeted him
with gestures of submission. The expressions upon their faces changed.
The face of Sadok showed curiosity held in check by fear; the face of
Banahash, the calm of expectation, and satisfied desire; the faces of
Semej and Rej, mistrust coupled with fear of the prophet.
Nathan looked about the room, and came nearer.
“How is the Anointed of the Lord?” he asked quickly.
“As he was when you left so is he now. Did you bring the Sunnamite
maiden?”
“She is here; her father, too,” replied Nathan, beckoning toward the
anteroom.
A man entered. His head was bowed. He had little twinkling eyes, a red
beard, and dirty hands. It was Lamek of the tribe of Issaher. A slender
maiden enveloped in a veil followed him. Even her face was covered,
only the shadow of her eyes could be seen.
Lamek bowed low as to his knees. At this moment he was so small he
resembled a dwarf. This impression was strengthened by the saffron
yellow caftan and red hair. The maiden towered like a young palm beside
him.
“Banahash,” directed Sadok, “take the maiden to the bath of the king
that she may be fit for the bed of the king.”
Banahash opened a little door that shone like gold, which was entrance
to the place of the bath. The room was walled with jasper. In the
center was the bath, hewn round from a single block of black marble.
From the center of the ceiling two sea serpents, in which huge rubies
shone for eyes, spouted rose water.
Banahash took the hand of the maiden and led her to the door, where
he gave her over to the care of four slave women. Two held jars of
precious ointment, two mirrors of ebony, and coverings made of purple
wool.
Sadok returned to Lamek who had not yet lifted his head. But his sharp,
sly eyes kept circling the room, so that not the slightest motion of
the faces of those present escaped him. Nathan, the prophet, stood
by the bed of David the King. He held his hands extended as one who
implores a blessing. His lips trembled with prophetic words.
“Is this your daughter, Lamek?” asked Sadok.
“Yes; but she is handsomer than I--or her dead mother.”
“Are you willing to do what Nathan, the man of God, has told you?”
“If it is the will of God--and the people of Israel may be saved.”
“Did she agree?”
“She does not know. But my daughter is obedient. My will is hers.”
“Is there one who loves her?”
“Yes--and no! My daughter is beautiful. And yet she really has no
lover, because he does not know how beautiful she is. My eyes watch her
as if she were a nugget of gold, or a drop of water in the desert.”
“Who is her lover?”
“A youth--an insignificant youth. He owns nor field nor vineyard.
He owns no camels, nor is he the chief of a caravan. He owns
nothing--_nothing_--It is my wish to obtain money enough to buy a
vineyard near Sunnam--to leave to my children--that I may not die
childless.”
“Does--this lover--know what is to happen?”
“Yes--He is calm. He only said to my daughter, ‘I will stand by the
outer door of the palace until the end. I will await you there, to lead
you back to the vineyard which your father will buy for us. If you
remain as you are now, you will come without my calling you. If you do
not come until the sun has set, I shall go away and I shall never look
upon your face again’.”
Sadok did not answer. He went into a room in the rear of the sleeping
room, where a massive chest stood. He beckoned to Lamek to come nearer.
The Hebrew’s eyes greedily took in the contents of the chest. He saw
bars upon bars of red gold, cups of beaten silver, rings, armlets,
pearls the size of pigeon’s eggs. He saw gems as varied in color as the
flowers of the fields in spring. Sadok buried his hands in the chest,
drew out bar after glittering bar, and piled one upon another upon the
floor. He piled up rings covered with gems. Lamek filled his arms,
while his eyes shone fiercer than the metal.
Sadok wished to close the cover. But the Hebrew stood there and
would not let him. He kept saying: “_For so little I will not sell my
daughter!_” Sadok bent down and gave Lamek another cup, this time of
silver and starred with rubies, and two armlets. On each armlet was the
head of Anubis carved of a single onyx. Lamek was satisfied now and
drew back.
The door of the bath opened and two slave women came in leading Abisag.
She was robed in white, transparent muslin. About wrists and ankles
were jewels. Gold dust sparkled upon her long, black hair, like stars
in a dark night.
Sadok signalled the slaves to leave. The Sunnamite maiden stood alone
and trembling in the midst of the grey, old men. Her eyes were fastened
upon the marble floor. Her arms were folded upon her breast, which rose
and fell with the agitation that swayed her.
Sadok drew his brows together sharply. Banahash understood the sign,
approached the bed of the king and drew back the lions’ skins that
covered it. Sadok lifted the muslin robe from the shoulders of the
maiden.
Her hair, in which the gold dust sparkled, covered her like a cloak.
Her cheeks were the color of the pomegranate. Nathan took her by the
hand and led her to the bed of the king, while Banahash, the son of
Johad, lifted up the lions’ skins.
The maiden embraced the cold body of the king as a daughter would
embrace a dying father. Sadok spread upon them a woolen coverlet and
motioned to the others. They left the room. Nathan, alone, remained,
kneeling by the bed of David, the King, uplifting his hands in prayer.
The old men did not know that when they led Abisag to the bed of the
king, a young man wearing a white robe appeared in the doorway. He went
away again as quickly as he came. But he had seen the beauty of the
Sunnamite maiden. This young man was Solomon.
* * * * *
From that moment peace vanished from the heart of Solomon. He was even
indifferent that Adonias, the son of Hagith, whom friends had chosen
king, was reveling day and night in the streets of Jerusalem, with his
followers. He did not know that his mother, Bethsheba, stood white and
trembling, her heart filled with bitterness and envy, behind a door of
King David’s chamber, to watch the influence of Abisag upon the life of
the King. He paid no heed to the opinions of the unstable courtiers and
royal sycophants, nor to what the cunning Sadok and secretive Nathan
had in mind. Weary in body and dispirited, he betook himself to his
pleasure palace in Baalhamon. Here he shut himself in, and throughout
the night wandered along its garden ways, where century old sycamores
looked down upon him, listening the while to the cicadas of the nights
of summer, sing and sing.
Once when he was about to lie down upon his couch to rest, a slave
announced the unexpected arrival of Banahash.
Solomon did not care to see him.
The son of Johad did not await permission, he rushed into the room
declaring breathlessly:
“Good news! The king lives. The king spoke.”
Solomon arose from his couch as if he expected some more definite
communication.
“You must go back with me to the palace. It is a question of the
anointing of a king.”
Solomon fell back weakly against the heaped up rugs upon his bed.
“I go not there again.”
“But it is the will of the king, and Bethsheba, your mother. Nathan
awaits us by the river. In his hand is the holy oil for anointing.
Adonias fled to the mountains.”
“I go not,” repeated Solomon.
“The nation awaits you. The judges are on your side. The warriors are
calling your name through the streets of Jerusalem. And all this you
owe to the Sunnamite maiden.”
“Abisag,” repeated Solomon slowly. “Am I pledged to give thanks to
Abisag?”
“For everything,” answered Banahash. “She awoke the king. Otherwise he
would never again have spoken.”
“Very well. On--on! I go,” said Solomon.
* * * * *
Seldom has a king at his anointing shown such indifference as Solomon.
They did with him as they wished. They led him hither and thither.
After being proclaimed king, he would gladly have gone back to
Baalhamon. But David again lay as one dead, wordless, motionless,
between the pans of glowing coals, wrapped in the yellow lion’s skin.
Nathan, the prophet, thought the end was near. Abisag still visited the
king, but her efforts were useless.
When Solomon entered the room of his father, David, the King, it was
evening. Banahash, alone, was with him. Solomon sat down beside him and
seemed like one in a dream. He wished to see Abisag when she came to
the king. Hours passed. Banahash bent over the king and arranged the
coverings. A shudder seized him. David’s heart did not beat. He thought
he must be mistaken. He took a mirror of bronze and held it to the
mouth of the king. The shimmering surface remained smooth and bright.
David was dead!
Banahash tore his garments, ran to Solomon, fell down in front of him,
and touched his forehead to the floor.
“What is it, Banahash?” questioned Solomon, still in his dream.
“You are king! David is no more. I hasten to announce to the priests.”
“Wait!” commanded Solomon. “I forbid you to take a step.”
Then his voice changed and became gentle and pleading.
“Do you love me, Banahash?”
“I would give my life to you,” replied the courtier.
“It is your duty to watch by the King’s bed until morning. Very easily
you can delay the announcement of the death of the King.”
Solomon bent and whispered in the ear of Banahash.
“Will you do it, Banahash?”
“I will, my King, if you will tell me what it was your father demanded
against Joab, and Semej, whom they call the magician.”
“I will tell you--later.”
“No: now I must know it!” insisted Banahash.
“Later I will tell you. I swear it by the body of David, the King!”
“I go--to announce to Bethsheba, and the priests--”
“Listen, then, and hear!”
Again he bent to the ear of the still kneeling Banahash and whispered
the last will of David, the King.
“You know what Joab did to me. You will proceed against him as is just.
Semej, too, you hold in your power, who cursed me with a grievous
curse. In my wrath I swore against him: I will not slay you with the
sword! But you--pardon him not. You can make him descend early into the
grave.”
“I will warn my companions,” Banahash thought quickly.
“I will do whatever seems good to me,” thought Solomon.
Just as upon the evenings before, the Sunnamite, Abisag, ascended the
couch of David, the King. She did not notice that the light was dimmed
in the hanging receptacles of bronze, and that the great room grew dark
and darker. She did not notice that the pans of coals had been carried
away, nor that a great mass of lion’s skins and purple coverings had
been heaped upon the couch of David. She lay down and fell asleep.
At first her dream was monotonous like the desert. But this desert
was not one of heat. Cold winds blew over it. The desert stretched
to the horizon; it was dark and deep, like a great room at night. No
bird swept across it. Abisag dreamed that she stood alone upon this
monotonous grey-yellow expanse, lost in a sea of twilight, and that
invisible hands placed weights upon her feet. Across the desert blew
cold winds such as are known in the East, and Abisag thought that the
stones were such as mark the way of tombs. She was afraid. She wished
to cry for help. Then the waste trembled, and the twilight began to
lighten. Strips of azure streaked the sky. Grass sprang up upon the
sand. Cranes flew overhead. Abisag had closed her eyes, but her eyelids
were made of mother of pearl and she saw through them. Where the desert
horizon joined the sky something roared and swayed. It was a forest
of cedar trees a century old. The sunlight lay upon their fabulously
lovely summits, and the wind wafted their fragrance abroad. As by magic
the forest drew nearer and nearer. She heard fountains leap beneath it.
Narcissus blossoms rose to greet her, and their circle of leaves was
like human eyes. Flowering vines embraced her body. In the crown of the
great cedar above her head, a bird of gold nested, and when it spread
its wings scarlet blossoms fell about her. And the song of the bird was
a song of power and mystery. “_Set me like a seal upon thine heart.
Strong as death is love, and desire is implacable as the grave--._”
Day touched her eyelids. She awoke. Beside her lay not the dead,
grey King, but a man of youth and beauty, robed in white. He slept.
Terrified, Abisag leaped from the couch, and stole away from the room.
Outside, upon the streets of Jerusalem, where a great crowd swayed, and
waving palm leaves were carried on high, voices called:
“_Long live Solomon, King of Israel!_”
Banahash and Nathan had announced the death of David, the King, because
the sun had risen and day had come.
* * * * *
The Sunnamite maiden did not leave the royal palace. Some days later
when she stepped from her bath, her slave women told her that Adonias,
the son of Hagith, had been slain by Banahash at command of Solomon,
and that his dead body lay before the palace door.
Abisag went down the palace steps and out upon the terrace. She saw
the dead body. She wept. She fell upon it and covered it with kisses.
While Abisag wept beside the body of Adonias, Solomon, amid the clang
of trumpets, music of zithers and bells, was welcoming the Queen of
Sheba. She came with a great retinue of camels, elephants, negroes and
jesters, to learn of the wisdom and splendor of Solomon.
That same day were Joab, and Semej the magician, put to death, just as
Solomon had promised David, the King.
THE KING’S CLOTHES
By KOLOMAN MIKSZÁTH
MIKSZÁTH
A volume of short stories by Koloman Mikszáth--one of the most original
and talented writers of modern Hungary--was published a few years ago
in English. The story we give in translation--“The King’s Clothes,”
was printed some fifteen years ago, and we think it was this Hungarian
story teller’s first appearance in print in the United States.
This story illustrates well his peculiar talent and his ironical,
witty, satirical manner. Two novels by him--most unusual in both
subject and treatment, are _The Magic Cloak_ and _The Village That Had
No Men_ (Szelistye).
THE KING’S CLOTHES[5]
Chroniclers are sometimes mistaken. They tell us the story of King
Morus but they forget to state over what land he ruled. Yet this
does not have anything to do with the subject, because who believes
believes. I will relate it truthfully.
One afternoon King Morus escaped from the duties of kingship, which
means that he signed some seventy documents, which the Minister read
to him in a sing-song voice. His Majesty closed his eyes and was kind
enough to listen to the unavoidable documents from end to end. There
were some appointments to make, a few death sentences, and other
similar trifles. He yawned only occasionally at the reading. “We have
finished,” declared at length the Minister, putting the huge book of
papers under his arm and sticking the seal of the realm in his pocket.
“Wait a moment, Narciz,” commanded the King. “Give me that little piece
of iron from your pocket, and stamp it upon one of these empty death
sentences, then hand it over and I will sign it.”
“An empty death sentence, Your Majesty?” questioned the Minister
astonished.
“I’d like to know if you have anything against it? Perhaps it may occur
to you that you are my constitutional Minister and it is your business
to know what the seal is to be put upon. Narciz you are becoming
childish.”
“O Your Majesty!--Your Majesty--what can you be thinking of? I am the
humble servant of the best of kings.”
King Morus graciously patted old Narciz on the shoulders, then took the
paper and placed it in the inner pocket of his coat of gold.
“Now, Old Man, I have the genuine, constitutional feeling within me. By
Heaven, I have it, and I don’t mind telling you--_in confidence_--what
I am about to do with this death sentence.”
“Most glorious King!” murmured Narciz.
“I am trying to win the favor of a very beautiful lady--and she asked
me for this trifle. You see of course I couldn’t refuse her a little
thing like this.”
“Your Majesty is too gracious!”
“I am wise, Narciz! The pity is the poor woman has no power, but she
has a husband. I give her the power and she gets rid of the husband.
_Sh--sh--Narciz_--Not a word to any one--”
“It is sweeter to kiss than to kill,” flattered Narciz.
“Right you are, Old Man! I am going to carry this little piece of
paper to her now, because the favor of the King is a fruitful seed.
Write that sentence down in the Golden Book of the realm. Have you
already written down what I said yesterday about the reckoning of the
ground-rent?”
“Certainly, Your Majesty.”
“Let me hear how it sounds.”
The Minister opened the Golden Book and read the last lines: “A good
king is like a gardener who trims the trees often.”
“Very well said,” opined the king, putting on his fez. He walked to the
private garden by the shore of the sacred Nile, the garden which no one
was permitted to enter.
The servants and courtiers whom he met on the way bowed to the ground
as he passed. “We greet you, great King Morus.”
His glowing, golden garments dazzled all eyes, and beneath his proud
step the earth trembled. The nightingale in the garden sang of love, as
if it divined the King’s thoughts. The white lilies bowed their heads.
The roses strewed fragrant leaves across his path, and the azaleas
whispered a name--not the name of the king--but instead the name
Florilla, the enchanting woman who was step-daughter of Narciz. Within
the palace all were wondering where the King was going. The Minister
whispered to his son: “He is carrying someone’s head in his pocket.”
Rogus, frightened, felt for his own head. He found it just where it
always was, upon his neck, between his two shoulders.
He spoke at once to the watchman who stood by the garden gate:
“Here is a purse of gold. Exchange clothes with me, and let me into the
garden.”
The watchman refused. “I can not. The King would cut my head off when
he returns.”
“You are an ass,” replied Rogus. “The King can not kill you until he
comes back. I will kill you upon the instant if you do not obey me. So
you can see you can win both time and money.”
The watchman agreed. Rogus, who had long suspected something, put on
the watchman’s clothes and followed the King. Before him, too, the
lilies bent their heads. The roses strewed fragrant leaves, and the
azaleas whispered the name, Florilla. But Rogus stepped upon them and
crushed them. A secret gate, to which King Morus had the key, led from
the garden to the shore of the Nile, along which were pleasure palaces.
Among these palaces stood the villa of Rogus, which the King had built
just the summer before and presented to his faithful servant. Likewise,
just a year before, the Minister had written in the Golden Book, that
the favor of the King was a fruitful seed.
Rogus kept following the King, an easy thing now, because the King had
forgotten to lock the garden gate.
Profound quiet reigned by the river, even the voice of the ripples was
subdued. The twilight was beginning to color the Nile steel blue so
that it resembled the curving blade of an executioner’s giant sword.
When the King reached the dwelling of Rogus, he blew three times on a
silver whistle. At this sign a young woman appeared upon the balcony. I
only say this about her, that the artists of that day could not find a
finer head to preserve for posterity.
“Florilla,” whispered the King.
Rogus hid behind some shrubbery and listened. To be sure he knew all
about it, because he had suspected it long.
“Yes, my King,” replied Florilla.
“May I be permitted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?”
“Why ask? A King commands.”
“I have left your husband busy at court, so he can not surprise us.
Perhaps, too, the end has come for him. Here is the death sentence.”
“With the seal of the Minister?”
“Of course.”
“A shabby trick in my father,” thought Rogus.
“Bring it up to me in an hour,” whispered Florilla. “Within the hour I
will put all my serving women to sleep.”
An hour was a long time for a King who was in love to wait. The evening
was hot. An odor of heat arose from the earth. There was no breeze
and the Nile was smooth as a mirror. A conceited bee swam boldly upon
a rose leaf, without fear of shipwreck. The King looked long at the
enticing water, until a desire arose in him. And what a King desires--
He seated himself beside some shrubbery near Rogus and took off the
yellow shoes with the golden spurs. He laid aside his purple cloak and
the gold colored vest with the diamond buttons. He took the silver
whistle from his neck, and then took off all his costly royal clothes,
and placed them upon the soft grass. The mighty ruler looked about.
No one was to be seen. Who indeed would dare to intrude upon this
forbidden shore of the sacred Nile!
The mirroring water alone was shameless enough to look at him and
reflect him. Morus jumped into the water which kissed flatteringly
his heated body. He enjoyed himself greatly. The trees covered with
trailing vines built a fragrant sheltering wall and he walked upon
shining pebbles which tickled his feet.
When he had bathed long enough and the hour of the love tryst drew
near, he came out of the water and hastened to the place where he had
left his clothes. But evidently he had mistaken the piece of shrubbery
and hastened to the next one. He went back. There was no trace of the
royal garments. He walked--his teeth chattering--from bush to bush. He
ran up and down the shore, looking behind all the bushes.
“Where are my clothes? Who has stolen them? It could not have been a
man. Do you hear, Earth? If you have swallowed them, I will tear up all
the trees and grass in my realm.”
He threw himself upon the ground and began to sob. Then he jumped up
and began to revile the moon.
“Shine better, you miserable old night-light! If you don’t I’ll smash
your temple.”
But the moon did not seem to hear. The moon acted like a timid girl and
hid behind a veil of cloud. It began to rain. The dirt and water from
the trees disfigured his face. In despair he determined to return to
the palace and procure fresh clothes. The great disgrace of being seen
by the watchmen was unavoidable, but he knew how to get even. He would
have their heads chopped off. He would make it impossible for them to
laugh about it.
He hastened to the secret gate. The gate was locked. Then he remembered
he had left the key in it. There was nothing to do but to walk along
the shore to the south gate, and from there through many streets to
the palace. What ridiculous songs they would write about him--his
subjects, when they saw him like this. But fortunately no one saw him.
The streets through which he went were empty. There was only a beggar
sleeping by the door of a temple. The King awoke him. “Give me that
sack that covers you,” he commanded. The frightened beggar struck at
him with his cane.
“Get out! If you don’t I’ll knock you down.”
The King saw that he was the weaker and hurried on. A pack of hungry
dogs began to follow him howling. The watchman was sleeping at the gate
when someone slapped him on the back.
“Oh! Oh! Who are you? What do you want?”
“Let me in--and give me your cloak.”
The watchman thought it was a joke. He made up a face and then laughed.
“Is that all you want? I’m sorry the imbecile asylum is so far away.”
“I command you to obey,” repeated the King in wrath.
“Get out!” pointing his spear at the ridiculous figure, with tousled
hair and bleeding feet.
“Don’t you know me?”
“No.”
“I am the King.”
“Or a fool. Get out! You are lucky that I am not too sleepy to give you
a good beating in the name of the King.”
King Morus then began to speak gently. He recalled that this was the
way to get on with underlings.
“Listen--my noble Hero! To-night I bathed in the Nile. Some one stole
my clothes. I swear to you that I am King Morus.”
“You fool,” declared the soldier.
Crawling along the wall, weak and dejected, he made his way to the
palace of his adored one. He decided to knock and ask for clothes.
He also made up his mind to reduce the entire city to ashes--just as
soon--_just as soon_--as he procured clothes.
Clothes? Is this all there is to a King? Then he saw the beggar. The
old good-for-nothing was up and awake and waiting for the wine shops to
be opened.
“Give me that covering of yours,” said the King. The beggar threw him a
look of scorn.
“You don’t feel quite so high and mighty, do you? Where did you pawn
your clothes? It’s a shame the way the wine merchants carry on. If I
were the King I’d hang them all.”
“That’s just what I’ll do,” whispered Morus--“if you’ll only give me
your covering.”
“You’d like to trick me, would you, you rascal?”
“I’m the king.”
The beggar looked amazed.
“Haven’t you seen my face on the gold pieces?”
“I? I never had any gold pieces!” giving the king his covering.
Now he could go boldly to the castle of Rogus. Despite the early hour,
there was a crowd waiting at the gate. They were whispering. The King
recognized his servile courtiers. They avoided him. They did not want
his dirty covering to touch their fine clothes. The King struck the
door with his fist.
“Open! I command in the name of the King!”
The watchman by the door laughed. “Poor fool!” Morus began to implore.
“Don’t you recognize me? My well beloved subjects, look at me! I am
your ruler.”
Laughter was his answer.
“Kabul, you to whom last week I gave a fortune, why are you silent? And
you--Niles--whom I lifted from poverty, can you deny me?”
Neither Kabul nor Niles knew the King.
“Ungrateful men!” he raged. “Where is the mistress? Where is Florilla?
She will recognize me.”
At this moment the herald of the King came out. Upon his lifted spear
he bore a head--the head of Florilla.
She could recognize him no more. She was silent forever. The golden
hair fluttered about the beautiful head, and covered part of the long
spear. The people shouted with joy. The King sorrowfully demanded who
had done this. No one answered, but he soon found out. The herald read
a proclamation, then nailed it to the door, so that all could see that
it had the seal of the Minister. King Morus pressed his hands to his
temples and murmured: “Perhaps I am not king Morus.”
The crowd increased. Knights and ladies came to see the beautiful head,
which from now on could cause neither envy nor love. The beggar came,
too. The only one who spoke to the King was the beggar who gave him the
covering.
“Get out of here! The great lords will beat you and take away the
covering I gave you.” The beggar took him by the hand and led him away.
He felt limp and weak and had no will of his own.
On the great square his eyes again brightened. He saw Narciz. The
Minister was hurrying to the royal presence, a package under his arm.
He ran after him. He fell upon his neck.
“Narciz! Narciz! You dear old man! Lucky for me to find you!”
The Minister, in anger, freed himself.
“What sort of shameless creature are you?”
“Don’t you recognize me? I am the King.”
“Of course not!” replied the Minister, laughing. “You resemble him a
little, if you were not so hoarse.” He tapped him gently on the back
with the gold headed cane which the King had given him on his fiftieth
birthday.
In the merriest mood the Minister entered the royal dwelling. Servants
ran ahead to open doors for him, until he came to the room of the royal
presence--where the King--Rogus--awaited him.
Rogus told the story to him; how he had overheard the conversation
between Florilla and the King, how he had put on the King’s clothes,
and written Florilla’s name upon the empty death sentence. What
happened after this chroniclers relate, to be sure, but I am not going
to repeat it to you, because I do not believe the ending of the affair
myself.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] I published this story some fifteen years ago in a magazine devoted
to translations. It was, I believe, the first appearance by Mikszáth in
English.--E. W. Underwood.
WHEN THE BRIGHT NIGHTS WERE
By PETRI ROSEGGER
ROSEGGER
Petri Kettenfeier Rosegger (born in 1843 Alpel, Steiermark) is a
popular and prolific writer of Austria. His father and mother were both
charcoal burners in the great forest which he has pictured so often,
and his youthful surroundings were most meager. His mother was a woman
of talent; she was one of nature’s poets and from her came his mental
ability. At seventeen he was apprenticed to a tailor, and in the few
years that followed, he worked in sixty-seven different families.
In this way he learned the life of the peasants of his country and at
the same time sketched the idea of _Waldheimat_ (Forest Home), his
first important work--which has now become a classic--and from which
this story is taken.
Later Dr. Svoboda, editor of a paper in Graz, heard of him, and with
the aid and coöperation of friends, helped him to an education. His
descriptions of the wooded country where he was born, and of peasant
life in the Alps, are among the finest in the language.
WHEN THE BRIGHT NIGHTS WERE
The summer had been hot. The moss in the forest was faded and dry,
and between the sparse blades of grass one could see the grey ground.
Beside the piles of dried pine needles on the floor of the forest, lay
dead ants and beetles. The stones in the bed of the river were dry and
white as ivory. Fish and frogs were dying in the little round pools
that were occasionally visible between the stones.
The air was heavy, and the mountains--even the near ones--were blue.
When the sun arose it was as red as the autumn leaf of a beech tree,
then, later, pallid and dull, so that one could look straight at it. It
crawled lifelessly across the grey desert of the sky; the people began
to hope for rain, but a little breeze sprang up, and when morning came,
the clouds had disappeared and even the dew was not to be seen.
Down in the village they appointed a day of prayer for rain. From all
the forest the people came in crowds. Only old Markus and I remained
at home in the empty house, and the old servant said to me; “If fine
weather comes, it will rain--so of what use is the day of prayer? If
the Lord God made us and put us here, he hasn’t the foolish head to
forget us. And if he hasn’t any head at all but just made the world
with his hands and feet, then he hasn’t any ears, has he? So what’s
the use of all this howling in the village! Don’t you agree with me
yourself, Boy?”
What all do not people say! Old Markus breaks his head thinking over
things he knows nothing about, is what they say.
Just then a shepherd from the Riegelberg jumped into the door. He was
so excited he could hardly speak. He pointed through the window with
both forefingers, toward the crest of the Filnbaum Forest. The old
servant followed the direction and clasped his hands in fear. There,
behind the summit, whirled upward a circling column of red smoke, which
spread out and blackened the sky.
“That may be very serious,” declared Markus. He seized an axe and
hurried away. The smoke rose thicker and thicker, and spread out faster
and faster. I began to cry. Old Markus paid no attention to me; he had
other work to do.
On the sunny slopes of the Filnbaum Forest it had begun, where there
was a space overgrown with withered briars and bushes. Near the growth
of dry larch trees the fire began, no one knows how. First it skipped
along lightly from twig to twig, then upward from great bough to bough,
with wide fluttering wings. Soon the conflagration unchained its
wild powers, and set floating its red, victorious banners. Here the
forest becomes thicker and loftier; long braids of moss swing from the
branches, and the great trees which were wounded by a hail storm some
years ago, are bare and resinous to the summit. With what relish the
fiery tongues lick these great trunks, and then flare up into space!
And down upon the ground a brood of little red serpents begin to crawl
in all directions, and to develop a hideous life. The few wood choppers
run around and around in confusion, and come and cry for help. But the
great forest and all its huts are empty.
The people have gone to the village to pray for rain. When, hours
later, they start to return, the great forest is in flames. There is a
feverish trembling in the air, a cracking and rattling; twigs break,
trunks crash down and send up a multitude of sparks, and waves of
smoke. Fresh breaths of burning air float over the woodland; the flames
give birth to a storm-wind which they ride.
Men worked and worked; some, half burned, had to be carried out.
The servant, Markus, saw the heart-breaking result, but he did not
complain nor was he discouraged, he worked quietly and persistently.
His clothing began to catch fire. He ran down to the river bed and
rolled in the sand until it clung to and covered his rough clothing.
Now he owned a coat of mail. He hewed off branches; he cut down trees,
but that did not help. The glowing river rolled on; dead trees, bare
branches waited eagerly for the devouring flame, and burned at the
first breath.
Now the workmen tried to get ahead of the fire by cutting down great
spaces of trees, and thus by making a clearing, set a limit to its
power. Then the conflagration divided itself and spread out resplendent
arms in other directions. When evening came the wind rose; it tore into
shreds the gorgeous and triumphant flame-banners, and scattered the
fragments’ over the forest land. There was a monotonous and uncanny
moaning in the heavens, and a marvelous, unnatural light flung far and
wide over all the darkly wooded country.
Exhausted and helpless, the workmen rested; the women carried their
belongings out of their cottages without knowing what to do with them.
In the deep valleys there was peace and quiet. There one heard only the
whispering of the tall pine trees. But the night sky was rose-colored,
and occasionally a fire-dragon sped overhead. Sometimes twittering
birds came, and homeless animals. The deer came up to the dwellings of
men.
“Our fate will be that of the deer,” complained the old women. “There
is no hope of saving the forest now. It will all be burned! Oh! Holy
Savior--this is the Last Judgment.”
For days the conflagration lasted.
From our house--high among the woodlands--we could look down upon the
trees of the Filnbaum Forest, and watch the flames climb up. The land
was covered with a sad veil, and smoke choked us. Above, in the sky,
hung a huge, tragic, red wheel which the smoke whirled about but could
not destroy. That was the sun. We watched the flames draw nearer and
nearer to us. They swept over the heights, down into the valleys, and
at length climbed the hillside toward our house. We needed no burning
pine cones in the evenings, we had light enough, because ten minutes
walk from our door the beautiful forest was flaming. Long ago we had
driven the cattle to the Alm Meadow and carried the furniture out into
the field. People came running by who were half mad. Old Martin kept
his senses better than the rest, although his hut was burned, he picked
cranberries at midnight by the light of the flames. My father went upon
the roof of our cottage, carrying a pole on the end of which was a rag
which was wet. With this he put out the falling sparks. On the fifth
night, when we were sleeping in a corner of our empty rooms, we were
awakened by a great roaring. Old Markus, who was keeping watch upon the
roof, called to us. “_That’s good! That’s good!_”
A storm had arisen and now it was raging over the burning woodland,
with a power that was splendid and terrifying. It roared and thundered
like a cataract turned loose among the trees. The fire was turned away
from our direction, and that was what caused the words of old Markus.
The flames were in wild flight. They leaped over entire stretches of
forest and set fire to fresh woodlands far away.
“It is over! We are saved!” exclaimed the helpless people in surprise.
Some, indeed, when the smoke cleared away and they saw the bald
mountain sides, regained their normal mind and said: “Surely there is
going to be a great festival for the mountains have shaved themselves.”
When the storm was over, the rain came. For days the rain fell and the
heavy clouds hung low. At last the fire was extinguished. Over the
forest spread a frosty fog, for fall had come.
The burning of the forests was so huge a thing that it could be painted
only by a powerful imagination. Such an imagination is not mine,
therefore there was nothing left for me to do but to sketch it roughly
with the worn pencil of memory.
After the cold mists of autumn came the snow. That winter from our
windows we saw more white spaces than black. When spring came, then
we realized what the great fire had done. Every where black ground,
rust hued stones, roots that looked like coals, and tall, black trunks
towering over all.
Workmen came. They plowed the blackened soil. They sowed grain. The
early fall brought splendor. No one in all our forest land had ever
seen such a magnificent harvest as covered the mountain sides. I recall
what the village pastor said: “The Lord God strikes wounds, but he
sends the balsam that heals. Praised be His name!”
From the Filnbaum Forest to our very door were fields, and for thirty
years the burned woodland gave our people bread. Since then our people
are scattered; they have moved away, and a fresh, new, forest is
beginning to grow upon the mountain sides.
THE POINT OF VIEW
By ALEXANDER L. KIELLAND
KIELLAND
Alexander L. Kielland is the Norwegian writer of whom it has been said
that he has given to his northern tongue the flexibility and the grace
of the French tongue. He is _par excellence_ a writer of the short
story and is renowned for the skill of his technique.
One volume of his stories has been published in America. The story we
give--_The Point of View_, is new, however, to American readers.
THE POINT OF VIEW
In front of the garden gate of the villa of Lawyer Abel a small,
elegant trap drew up, to which two handsome, well groomed horses were
attached.
Upon the harness was neither silver nor any shining metal; it was dull
black, and even the buckles were covered with leather. The shining
wood of the trap showed just a trace of dark green in its color. The
upholstery was a dark and modest grey, and only when one examined it
closely, did one discover that it was made of heavy silk. The coachman
was as correct as an English coachman; all in black, the coat tightly
buttoned, showing a space of white at the neck.
Mrs. Warden, who sat alone in the trap, bent forward and placed her
hand upon the ivory handle. Slowly she got out, her long gown trailing
behind her, and carefully closed the door of the trap.
Mrs. Warden walked through the little garden, and entered. She looked
through the open door into the adjoining room, and saw the lady of the
house standing beside a table littered with bright colored cloth, and
with several copies of “The Bazaar.”
“Ah--you have come just in time--dear Emilie!” declared Mrs. Abel. “I
am in despair about my seamstress. She can not design anything new, so
here I sit turning the leaves of “The Bazaar.” Take off your wraps and
help me. I am trying to design a street dress.”
“I am not capable of helping you when it is a question of dress,”
replied Mrs. Warden.
Mrs. Abel stared at her in astonishment. There was something unusual
in the tone of voice, and she had great respect for the opinion of her
wealthy friend.
“Don’t you remember that I told you that just a little while ago Mr.
Warden insisted upon my buying a new silk gown?”
“Yes--yes--of Madame Labiche. Of course I remember,” interrupted Mrs.
Abel. “And now I suppose you are on the way to purchase it. Take me
with you! That will be pleasant.”
“I am not going to see Madame Labiche,” replied Mrs. Warden with solemn
dignity.
“For goodness sake, why not?” questioned her friend, opening her pretty
brown eyes with astonishment.
“Well--I will tell you,” replied Mrs. Warden. “I am convinced that we
can not spend so much money and keep a good conscience--when we know
how much poverty there is in this city in which we live. There are
hundreds of families who are suffering--the direst need!”
“Yes--but--,” objected Mrs. Abel, casting a deprecating glance toward
the table. “It is so everywhere. There can not help but be inequality--”
“We must be careful not to increase the inequality. We must do
everything in our power to lessen it,” insisted Mrs. Warden. Mrs. Abel
felt that her friend gave a glance of disapproval at the table covered
with cloth, where the copies of “The Bazaar” lay.
“It is only alpaca,” she ventured timidly.
“Don’t think, dear Caroline, that I reproach you. Things of this kind
depend wholly upon the individual. Every one must act as he thinks he
is answerable to his own conscience.”
The conversation continued in this manner, and Mrs. Warden explained
that she was now on her way to visit one of the poorest quarters of the
city, in order to see conditions with her own eyes, and to convince
herself of the way in which the poor really live.
A few days before, she had read the yearly statement of a private
institution for the poor, of whose board of managers her husband
was a member. She had purposely avoided asking the police, or the
Superintendent of the Poor, for statements, because it was her
intention to see for herself, and to form her own opinion. The good-by
of the friends was a little cooler than usual. Both were in serious
mood. Mrs. Abel remained in the garden room. She did not feel inclined
to proceed further with the design for the street dress, although the
material was unusually attractive. She heard the sound of the wagon
wheels upon the level roadway of the residence quarter as it rolled
away.
“What a good heart Emilie has!” she sighed.
Nothing was further from this young woman’s disposition than envy and
ill will, and yet it was with a feeling akin to this that to-day she
watched the trap drive away. Whether it was the good heart or the
elegant trap it would be hard to say.
The coachman had taken his orders without a change of expression.
He drove farther and farther along the strange streets of the poor
quarter, just as if he were going to a court ball.
At last he received command to stop, and it was high time. The streets
became narrower and narrower, it was almost as if the well fed horses
and the elegant trap would be caught like a stopper in the neck of a
bottle.
The correct coachman gave no sign of anxiety although the situation was
really becoming acute. An impudent voice called from a garret window
and advised him to kill the horses because they would never get out
alive.
Mrs. Warden climbed down and turned into a still narrower street. She
had made up her mind to see the worst. In a door stood a half grown
girl. “Do poor people live in this house?”
The girl laughed and answered something then darted ahead of her
through the door. Mrs. Warden did not catch the words, but she had the
feeling that she said something insulting.
She entered the first room she came to. The air was so thick it made
her dizzy, and she was glad to find a place to sit down by the stove.
In the gesture with which the woman swept the clothing from the seat
to the floor, and in the smile with which she greeted the elegant
lady, there was something that offended her. She received likewise the
impression that the woman had seen better days, although her manner
was rather bold than gentle, and the smile certainly was not pleasant.
The long train of the pale, grey street dress floated out over the
dirty floor, and when she seated herself she could not help remembering
a witticism of Heine’s: “You look like a bon-bon that has been lying in
the sun.”
The conversation began and progressed as is the custom with such
conversations. If each of these women had kept to the usual tone of her
conversation, neither would have understood a word of what the other
said.
But since the poor know the rich so much better than the rich know the
poor, they hit upon a form of speech, which experience had taught, and
which is so far successful that the rich are at once put in mood to
give. Better than this they can not know each other.
This speech the poor woman understood to perfection, and soon Mrs.
Warden began to comprehend their miserable life. She had two children,
one a boy of four or five who lay on the floor, and a baby.
Mrs. Warden looked attentively at the little colorless creatures and
could not believe that the baby was thirteen months old. She had a baby
at home of seven months who was twice as large.
“You ought to feed the baby something strengthening,” she said. Then
she said something that floated through her head about prepared foods.
At the words “_something strengthening_,” an unkempt head rose from the
straw bed. It was the pale, hollow-eyed face of a man, with a cloth
tied tightly about his forehead.
Mrs. Warden was afraid. “Your husband?” she inquired.
“Yes,” was the reply. “He did not go back to work to-day because he had
the toothache.”
Mrs. Warden had had toothache. She knew how painful it was. She at once
said something sympathetic. The man murmured something and fell back
upon the straw. At this moment Mrs. Warden discovered another person
whom she had not seen before--a young girl, who sat in the opposite
corner by the stove. She stared at the elegant lady a moment, and then
turned her back upon her. Mrs. Warden thought the young girl had some
sort of work in her lap which she wished to conceal. Perhaps it was an
old dress which she was trying to mend.
“Why does the boy lie there on the floor?” she inquired.
“He is lame,” answered the mother. Now followed a pitiful tale and a
description of what had happened after the scarlet fever.
“You should buy him a wheeled chair,” Mrs. Warden was on the point of
remarking, when it occurred to her it would be better for her to buy
it. It is not wise to give poor people money, she remembered. But she
would give the poor woman something, of course. She felt in her pocket
for her purse. It was not there. She must have left it in the trap.
Just as she was about to explain to the poor woman what had happened, a
well dressed man opened the door and entered. His face was round and of
a peculiar dry pallor.
“Mrs. Warden, I believe,” said the stranger. “I saw your trap up here
in the street, and I suppose this is your pocket book which I am
bringing you.”
It belonged to her. Upon the smooth ivory was E.W. engraved in black.
“Just as I turned the corner, I saw it in the hands of a girl--one of
the worst in the quarter. I am Superintendent of the Poor for this
district.”
Mrs. Warden thanked him. When she turned toward the occupants of the
room again, she was terrified at the change that had taken place. The
man was sitting up in bed and staring at the stranger. The woman’s face
wore a hateful expression, and the lame child on the floor, propped up
upon its arms, bristled like a wild animal. In all the eyes lay the
same hate, the same warlike defiance.
“What a sight you are to-day, Martin!” declared the stranger. “I
thought to myself that you were one of them last night. I was right you
see. They’ll come after you this afternoon. You’ll get at least two
months in prison.”
Then the deluge descended upon them. The man and woman shrieked at
each other. The girl came from behind the stove and joined them. No
one could distinguish words they were so busy with hands and eyes. It
seemed as if the little stuffy room must explode with the pressure of
unchained passions.
Mrs. Warden turned pale and arose. The stranger opened the door and
they went out. In the corridor she heard the frightful laughter of the
woman. And the woman who laughed like that was the same woman who had
spoken so gently and pitifully of the sick children. Almost unwillingly
she followed the man who had brought about this amazing change. At
first she listened to him with a proud indifferent air. Gradually,
however, her attitude changed, there was so much truth in his words. He
was glad to meet a woman like Mrs. Warden who had heart for the poor
who suffered. Although--usually--the best intentioned help fell in the
wrong place. Good heartedness was something praiseworthy anyway.
“But does not this family need help? I received the impression that the
woman had seen better days. Perhaps she could be helped out of this
life.”
“I am sorry to tell you, Madam, that she has been a very bad--public
character.”
Mrs. Warden trembled.
She had spoken with a woman like that!--_about children_.
“And the young girl?” she asked timidly.
“Did you not look at her Madam, and observe her condition?”
“No--you mean--?”
The Superintendent of the Poor murmured a few words. Mrs. Warden
shuddered “--and that man? _The man of the house!_”
“Yes, Madam. I am sorry to tell you this,” and he whispered again.
This was too much for the elegant lady. She became faint and dizzy.
They were walking toward her trap, which was somewhat farther on than
the place where she had left it.
The correct coachman had played a trick upon the street urchins. After
he had sat for a time as straight and impassive as a taper of wax, he
guided the fat horses, step by step, to a wider place in the street
which could not have been noticed by any one except the trained eye of
the correct coachman. A crowd of ragged gamins surrounded him and tried
to frighten the fat horses, but the spirit of the correct coachman had
become their spirit.
After he had sat there calmly for a while, he saw a little irregular
space, made by two opposing stair-ways. Slowly he guided the horses
here and made a turn, so sharp, so crisp, that it seemed as if the
frail trap must be crushed between the masonry, but so accurately, that
scarcely an inch intervened on either side. Now he was sitting again
as straight as a taper of wax. But he was treasuring in his mind the
number of the policeman, who had seen him make the turn, so he could
have some one to refer to when he told the incident at home in the
stable.
The Superintendent helped Mrs. Warden into the trap. She begged him to
call the next day.
“Lawyer Abel,” she called to the coachman, and the carriage rolled on.
The farther she went from the poor quarter, the smoother and swifter
the carriage moved. When they entered the residence section, the fat
horses lifted their heads gladly to breathe the good air, that came
across the gardens. And the correct coachman, without any visible
reason cracked his whip three times.
How could one expect that such degenerate people could ever rise
to any height of intelligence! What condition must exist in their
miserable conscience--how could they be expected to withstand the
temptations of life! She herself knew what temptation was. Did she not
have to fight against one all the time--against wealth! She shuddered
to think what these beasts of men, and these wretched women would
do, if wealth were suddenly given to them. Wealth was no slight test
of character. Just day before yesterday her husband had led her into
temptation. He insisted upon hiring an English groom. And she had
resisted the temptation and replied:
“No--it is not right. I will have no groom upon the box. Perhaps we
are rich enough, but we must guard against pride. I can get out and in
without help, thank God.”
Mrs. Abel, who was clearing the table of the cloth and the copies of
“The Bazaar,” was glad to see her.
“You are back so soon, Emilie? I have just told the seamstress to go.
What you said to me took away all desire for the new dress,” declared
kind, little Mrs. Abel.
“Every one must follow his own conscience,” answered Mrs. Warden gently.
Mrs. Abel looked up. She had not expected this answer.
“Let me tell you what I have experienced,” continued Mrs. Warden. She
repeated what the Superintendent of the Poor had told her. When she
had finished describing the condition of the young girl, Mrs. Abel
became so ill, the maid had to bring her a glass of port wine. When
the costly, cut crystal decanter and glasses were brought in, Mrs. Abel
whispered to her.
“What--all in one bed? You can’t mean it!” exclaimed Mrs. Abel clasping
her hands tragically.
“I would not have believed it an hour ago,” replied Mrs. Warden.
“How lucky you were to get safely out of the place, Emilie!”
“Yes--and when we consider,” continued Mrs. Warden, “that not even
the heathen--who have nothing--not even an excuse to keep them from
wrong--nor any conscience--”
“This surely speaks loudly for all who listen to the teachings of the
church,” interrupted Mrs. Abel sympathetically.
“Yes--God knows that--who does it,” replied Mrs. Warden, looking
straight ahead, a smile upon her lips. The two friends separated after
embracing each other warmly.
Mrs. Warden took hold of the ivory handle and stepped into the trap,
the long, grey, train floating behind her. She closed the trap door
carefully, without making any noise.
“To Madame Labiche!” she directed. She looked toward Mrs. Abel and
said: “Now, Heaven be praised, I can order that silk dress with a clear
conscience.”
“Yes, indeed, you can!” was the answer.
Then she hastened into the house.
MY TRAVELING COMPANION
By PIETARI PÄIVÄRINTA
PÄIVÄRINTA
Päivärinta--who belongs to the new school of Finnish writers--although
he was born much earlier--is the prose poet of the peasant and one of
his strongest equipments for this aesthetic role which he was to play
so well, is the greatness of his heart--a sort of tragic pity--which
is found in everything he writes. He sees with his heart and nothing
escapes this seeing. Sometimes it lifts him to just such dramatic
heights as the “Homeric laughter” of Gógol, which, by the way, too, was
full of tears. It is an x-ray vision that lays bare the soul. He lived
the life of a peasant, so he knows at first hand the things of which he
writes. He left the plowshare after he was forty to picture the humble
companions among whom he had spent his days. Like Burns, he did manual
labor with one hand while he held a book in the other. The date of his
birth--1827--seems long ago for him to be of that new school of story
tellers of Finnland, among whom are Frosterus, Pakkala, Raijonen, Aho.
His parents were poor, day laborers. He was brought up to work, and
to the observance of stern discipline. There were a number of other
children. Pietari was the eldest. The parents fell ill, and he was
obliged to go out begging as a child in order to procure bread enough
for the others. When he was scarcely out of his teens he married a poor
peasant girl and bought himself a little piece of forest land. Unable
to make a living by farming he traveled from parish to parish and sang;
he had a voice of great beauty and power which won him his first fame.
At length he settled down as clerk of a parish. Later he represented
his peasant community in the Finnish Parliament. His first book was
_Episodes of the Great War_, and it was published with success the year
he wrote it. This was followed by others among which was an account of
his own life. The subjects were always the same, pictures of peasant
life. Päivärinta is a Joseph Israel of the pen.
MY TRAVELING COMPANION
It was the last of March. The weather was fair and here and there one
could see signs of approaching Spring. Birds were beginning to twitter
in the branches. Sleighing, if not completely broken up, was bad; the
roads were rough and muddy, and in several places the bare ground
showed through. Brooks and rivers were filled with floating snow and
ice and dirt, and only the sharp freezing at night kept them from
overflowing their banks. In favored places many a little brook had
burst through to freedom and was joyfully leaping down the declivities,
and rushing noisily away to the breast of its mother--the ancient sea.
Such was the season and condition of traveling, when business forced me
to take a journey outside my own parish.
Early that morning I came across a man, who like myself was forced to
travel on business. He had one emaciated old horse and a heavy sleigh;
indeed he went on foot and pushed the sleigh. When I overtook him I
jumped out and trudged along beside him.
“Good morning, old man,” I began, as I reached his side.
“Good morning,” was the reply, without looking in my direction.
I had now opportunity to observe my companion at close range. His
horse was really little more than a skeleton, and the load was two
barrels of tar. In the sleigh I saw reeds and swamp-grass, evidently
the horse’s food, and very likely for the same purpose was a sack
filled with straw, which was placed on top of the tar barrels and stuck
out over the front. In addition, in the sleigh, there was a small
birch-bark basket which probably held food for the man. He wore an old
and ragged coat, which was held tight at the hips by a worn leather
strap. The coat had no buttons, and it was not provided with any means
of fastening at the top. The strap about his hips had no effect upon
holding the old coat together at the neck, so the man’s chest was bare.
His shoes were likewise old and they had been mended time and again.
Now they were torn and wisps of straw which he had used to try to stuff
the holes, stuck through. On his hands he wore tattered, often mended
mittens, and on his head an ancient sheep skin cap.
As I said, the old man was trudging along behind the sleigh. He did not
seem to have planned upon riding, because the two barrels of tar and
the food for the old mare filled it completely.
When he came to a place in the road where the snow was gone, the old
man pushed the sleigh with all his strength, in attempt to help the
feeble horse. Holes in the road, and furrows cut by sleighs, were
filled with water, and this ice water went in through the holes in the
old man’s shoes.
“Where are you going?” I inquired, in order to begin a conversation,
after making the above observations.
“To the city!” was the curt and melancholy reply.
“You have chosen a bad time for your journey, because now sleighing is
uncertain.”
He answered: “True; the road is bad but I couldn’t wait for a better
one.”
“What could force you to make the journey now when it is so difficult
to get along?”
“Threat of execution for debt. That doesn’t wait for weather,” said
the old man sadly, looking up at me for the first time, with shy,
grief-shadowed eyes.
This was my first glimpse of his face. It was wrinkled, and eaten out
by misfortune, and made old before years had done so. Both his body and
his manner indicated fewer years than his face.
“Who is such a cruel creditor as to drive you to the city in weather
like this?”
“The parson!” said the old man sharply.
“The parson? You owe him so much then?” I inquired in astonishment.
“Only last year’s interest.”
“Only last year’s interest? Haven’t you been to him and asked him to
wait?”
“Yes--several times.”
“Well, what does he say?”
“He was very angry and exclaimed: You’re stealing from me--you
vagabond. He didn’t have any pity when I begged him with tears in my
eyes.”
“I must say that you have a hard hearted parson. It wouldn’t hurt him
to wait a little--anyway until the roads are dry,” I explained in ill
temper, without knowing why I was so agitated.
“That’s just what I think--that he could wait. But I’m so ignorant I
don’t suppose I know anything about such things--of course the pastor
knows better than I do. He has great responsibility for all our souls,
and I suppose that’s why he has to look after his interest. He’s a good
preacher--though--does everything just right. Of course, I don’t like
to blame the pastor--but I wouldn’t steal however much good it would
do me. Some say the pastor is _tight_ and thinks only of his share.
But how could he carry such great responsibility--looking after our
souls--if he didn’t get all that was coming to him?” observed the old
man innocently.
This simplicity threw light upon the old man’s nature. Surely he
had been tried severely by the hardships of life--far more than the
pastor--about whose material welfare he was so concerned. All his life
he had struggled with want, with suffering--with the bitter climate
of our Finnland. And still he felt it his duty to give to others what
was coming to them, no matter whether or not he had anything to live
upon. The only thing that grieved him was his inability to meet his
obligations punctually.
“I don’t think it was right for the pastor to call me a thief. I
wouldn’t steal--but still I can’t pay,” continued the old man.
This utterance came from a heart that was honest--if worn out in the
struggle.
“If I can haul these two barrels of tar to the city I can pay
the pastor--and then there’ll be no danger of the execution,” he
went on. He seemed to become more confidential. I was interested
to know something more about the life of the old man, and observed
indifferently:
“That mare of yours is pretty thin. How can you expect her to haul
those two barrels of tar to the city?”
“Yes, true it is. The mare is lean. But how could the poor creature be
fat, when fed upon swamp-grass and water?” confessed the old man.
“But the creature ought to be provided for first,” I suggested.
“So anyone would say, who observed from a distance and did not know.
But when the cold has killed everything, you’d take what little you
could get and put into the pot, to keep the family from starving.
There’s very little difference between what we get to eat and the old
mare. I guess you’d find the old mare fares just as well as we do,” the
old man explained, looking up in surprise at my way of judging.
“At least you should have had these boots of yours mended. Your feet
are wet.”
“Anyone would say so--who didn’t know. But if you had six hungry, naked
children, and a wife, you wouldn’t have time to think about mending
shoes. Besides, these shoes have been mended and mended--and now they
can’t be mended any more. Of course I’d like to wear respectable
clothes--but there’s no way,”--declared the old man with a peculiar
intonation of melancholy.
“Where’s your home?”
“Just outside a village on the edge of this parish.”
“What’s your name?”
“Svältbacka Matti--they call me, and I’ve suffered hunger all my life
on my “hunger field.””
“How’s that?”
“Well it’s true anyway. My hut is at the far end of a lonely village,
between swamps on one side and marsh land on the other. I live there
because it is not good enough for anyone else. My father built the
place, but now every year the cold starves us out.”
“Can’t you get away from such a place? You could earn a better living
somewhere else.”
“It is not so easy to get away as you think. If we tried to get away no
one would buy the place, so how could we buy another? We’ve got to stay
there. And it’s better there than tramping--and begging. If I could
only get away from these payments!”
“Is it last year’s tar you are taking to the city?”
“No. How could I keep that so long? Everything goes from hand to mouth.
That was used up long ago. Hardly was it in the barrels before away it
went to the city.”
While we talked on we reached a farm, which at the same time was a
rest-house, and the old man said he would stop and feed his horse. This
was my intention, too, I had traveled so far that my horse needed food
and rest. The sleigh of the old man began to grate on the harsh, bare
ground in front of the farm, and the two of us then helped the old mare
as best we could.
When we had unharnessed the horses and given them fodder, we took
our food bags and started toward the house. We, too, felt need of
breakfast. The old man picked up the little birch basket, took
something from it and sat down upon a bench in the corner near the
stove. I wanted to know what he had to eat and made believe that I had
business in the same corner. Poor and needy was his lunch. It was only
black bread and salt.
I turned away and took up my food box. I tried to appear calm and
indifferent, although my heart was moved by strange emotions. When,
outwardly, I had regained composure, I said to him:
“Come over here and eat with me!” The old man looked up in my face and
did not answer. He did not seem to comprehend. Perhaps he did not hear
or perhaps he wished to hold out on what he had to eat.
“Come! Come over and eat with me,” I asked again.
“Why should you be so good to me?” replied the old fellow, carefully
packing away again his own food in the birch basket. He came across
with slow steps, giving a hasty, searching glance at my face, in order
to convince himself that the offer was genuine.
“We know each other so well now that we ought to be good to each
other,” I answered.
“Sit down now and eat.”
* * * * *
Our roads separated. The old man went on toward the city. And while I
jogged on again alone, I could not get the poor old fellow out of my
mind. His lean mare, his scanty food, his ragged insufficient clothes,
and his face which had grown old before its time, were constantly in
my mind. And I kept on hearing his words: “Anyone would think so if he
didn’t know!”
I travelled on one day, two days. Ahead now I saw a good sized, well
built village and a church. The village extended considerable distance
and the fields that stretched between the buildings, were extensive,
too. This was no new village, the work of pioneers. The farms were old
and well developed. Upon this land many struggles for existence had
taken place, many a life had been sacrificed. Upon these unpromising
fields even in ancient times the same struggle had been going on,
for generations and generations, in order that people of today might
enjoy the result. They who lived here now were reaping reward from
the suffering, the tears, the want, the oppression of them who had
struggled and died. Perhaps none of these who had died had paid their
interest to the pastor.
The prosperous looking church stood upon a hill, on a thread of land,
bordering a long, indented arm of the sea. Pine woods shadowed it on
all sides. A little farther ahead, upon a piece of land projecting into
the water stood the elegant home of the pastor, in the midst of a park.
My business led me to call upon the pastor. He was a stately figure.
And in his home there was every luxury that modern civilization can
provide.
The pastor was sitting in an expensive, richly upholstered chair. He
was tall, well built. No one could say that he had grown old before
his time. He was pastor of the parish to which Matti’s “hunger-field”
belonged, and it was because of him that Matti was trying to get to the
city with two barrels of tar.
When I arrived the pastor was having a set-to with the clerk.
“You act like an honest man according to your own reckoning, and you
have never once told me how many cows each person owns, and I know
perfectly well that you have the number on most of the farms,” declared
the pastor.
“Who? I?” answered the clerk.
“Of course--you,” was the reply, looking sharply at the clerk.
“How could I know just how many cows each one has?” objected the clerk.
He seemed to wish to escape a violent attack of temper on the part of
the pastor.
“You know well enough; and I know you do. But you try to conceal it
from me. The wretches are all stealing from me--and who shields them
shares the sin. Do you know clerk, what the punishment for theft is?”
shrieked the pastor in a rage.
Red, of indignation and wounded honor dyed his cheeks, and he replied
to this accusation, which according to my opinion had gone too far.
“I don’t think it my duty to run about the village, and count the cows,
in order to report to the pastor. Neither do I think it my duty--to
God or man--to report cows that do not exist. To be sure, upon earth
there are two kinds of people; they who make their incomes as large as
possible, and they who make it as small as possible. Who has visited
the homes of the poor--and had dealings with them--he knows the
conditions. The pastor--according to my opinion, has said things he has
no right to say.”
Now it was the pastor’s turn to become red. Then he let all his anger
loose upon the clerk.
“Do you know, clerk, whom you address?”
“I know very well. I speak with my lord, the pastor, but not with a
gracious lord.”
With these words he went away. They did not take leave of each other. I
now had opportunity to introduce my own business. The pastor was in a
bad temper. The just reproach of the clerk had done its work.
“This ignorant clown is loud mouthed, and doesn’t know better than to
attack his superiors. He has always been obstinate and self-willed.
Many a pastor has said to me: ‘If I had him, I’d send him going.’”
I had no answer to make to this, because it seemed to me the pastor had
been the cause of what happened. I politely brought my own business
to his attention. The pastor thought he understood the peasants and
their customs better than anyone else. He cherished the belief, and
gave expression of it to everyone, that the peasants did not show
any gratitude toward their benefactors. He did not happen to mention
just who their benefactors were, but he let it be understood that he,
himself, was the most prominent among them. This speech of his sounded
to me very like a preachment upon the subject of martyrdom.
I concluded my business as speedily as possible and went my way.
As it happened I still kept thinking of Svältbacka Matti and his two
barrels of tar. I couldn’t get him out of my head. I compared his life
and surroundings with that of the pastor. There was a great difference
between them. But as human beings they were equal.
Business kept me several days in the little village. When I traveled
on again, I went into a more remote part of the parish. Here the roads
were so poor and confusing that I was forced to hire a guide. He was
a young man and wholly untouched by the responsibilities and cares of
this world. We scarcely exchanged two words on the trip.
About a mile and a half from the church, on the left at a little
distance there was a farm, where a lot of people were assembled.
“What sort of farm is that?” I inquired of my guide.
“That is Svältbacka,” replied the young man carelessly. I started.
“What are all those people doing there?” I ventured, confused.
“O--that’s an auction sale--an execution. It’s because of a debt to the
pastor,” he explained indifferently.
“Is the owner’s name Matti?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s it,” replied the young man with increasing indifference.
“I met him on the way to your village. He was going to the city. We
went along together. How is this sale possible? I surely should have
met him again.”
“That’s easy enough to understand. Matti took another road. There’s a
detour here.”
“I suppose he is not back from the city, because he was going to the
city to sell two barrels of tar to pay the interest,” I ventured.
“Probably so.”
Here the road turned toward Svältbacka.[6]
“Drive up to the house,” I ordered.
The guide obeyed.
When we came near I saw that the auction was all over. There hadn’t
been much to sell. One or two lean cows was all! Besides the cows there
were a few half naked, hungry little children, and a worn looking
woman. But a creditor hasn’t any use for creatures of this kind.
The cows were outside the yard, tied together with willow twigs. The
new owner held one end of the twigs. They were just in the act of being
driven away. The woman, white and trembling, stood in the midst of the
hungry children. She did not weep. She had wept all she could long ago,
as her eyes bore witness. I went up to her and said:
“Did your husband not get back from the city? Is that the cause of the
auction?”
“How do you know that Matti went to the city?” was the reply, looking
at me searchingly.
“I went part of the way with him.”
“No, he hasn’t come back. And he said he was going to hasten all he
could. I’m afraid something has happened. The road is bad. The old
mare is so lean, too. But when Matti comes now it won’t do any good.
Now everything’s gone. It’s all over. Even if the cows were not good
for much, they gave a few drops for the children. They were sold for
nothing, too. Who would pay for them when they were so lean? They
didn’t bring enough to pay the pastor, let alone the costs of the
auction.” Thus spoke the woman.
Yes, yes, the misfortune had come. Things had gone their way, and no
one could say that a wrong had been done, for law is changeless and
power is holy.
I had seen enough. I sought out my guide in the crowd, betook myself
to my conveyance and again we set out. Traveling across the untenanted
land that had just been cleared strange thoughts came to me, and we did
not talk, my guide and I.
“What sort of man is the pastor? What do the villagers think of him?”
at length I inquired of my guide.
“Oh, the pastor is a fine _preacher_. But he’s so mean and niggardly
that he steals the very ashes from the hearths,” replied the young man
indifferently, beginning to hum a song.
That day I reached the end of the journey. Here I tarried several
days. Then again one Saturday I set out with my guide on the return.
Sunday morning I was in the village. I put my horse up at a farm, and
determined to go to church, since the opportunity presented itself. The
church bells rang solemnly. They were summoning the people to listen to
a message of love and peace.
When I reached the church they were carrying a dead man upon a bier.
The pall bearers put their burden down, to wait for the pastor and the
clerk. It looked as though the pastor was still quarreling with the
clerk, and he said: “I tell you the rascals are stealing from me.”
“Whom are they burying?” I asked of some one near.
“Svältbacka Matti. He died driving to the city.”
Now I understood. A shudder ran over me. My old traveling companion was
dead. He had put forth too great an effort to make the journey. That
was the reason he could not return and prevent the auction.
The clerk read the psalm:
“Great suffering and sorrow in the valley of tears,” etc.--
Probably Matti’s pastor chose this psalm. His sharp eyes and instinct
had told him that it was appropriate.
When we reached the grave and the pastor began to bless the last place
of rest, he took the shovel, stuck it in the ground, lifted up earth
three times and threw it upon the coffin of the dead man. With great
pathos then he exclaimed: “Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt
return.” When he had thrown the wet and frozen earth upon Matti’s
coffin, it seemed to me I could hear a voice saying: “He’s a fine
_preacher_. I don’t blame the pastor--I wouldn’t steal--but I couldn’t
pay.”
Among the mourners I looked for Matti’s wife. This woman who had been
tried in sorrow was tragically white. With tearless, reddened eyes and
hollow cheeks, she stood in the midst of the half naked children, who
were shivering and looked at one point--the coffin. I went up to speak
to her.
When the burial was over I asked some of the people about Matti.
He was taken ill with pneumonia before he reached the city. He was
ill-clothed, wet, underfed, and he could not struggle against it.
Now the bell summoned to church service. With others I entered the
building. After the singing and the altar service, the pastor went to
the pulpit. He chose for text: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” “Love,”
he said, “was the fulfilling of the law.” With pathos and display of
genuine ability he explained to his hearers this high and noble command.
During the most zealous part of his speech I heard again the words: “He
is a good _preacher_.” The lengthy sermon seemed not to be lacking in
effect. Here and there women wept.
After service he spoke of the dead man. “God in his mercy has taken
from this vale of tears, the farmer Matti Antinporka of Svältbacka,
aged forty-two years, three months and eight days.
What is wealth and what is gold?
Trash--that melt to dust and mold.
Care and sorrow here below
Both the rich and poor must know.”
Thus the pastor bestowed the last earthly service upon Matti. And he
did not do it in the cheap manner of a hireling, but with oratorical
eloquence and fervor. When he read the hymn above, it seemed to his
hearers that he scorned gold and riches, and that he really suffered
for the companions in suffering of poor Matti.
But while he was reading the hymn in a loud and impressive voice, I
heard another voice saying:
“I’m so stupid that of course I don’t understand such things. The
Pastor--he knows more about it than I!”
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Svältbacka means Hunger Field.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious punctuation and accentuation errors have been corrected.
Page 24: “the gentle rythm” changed to “the gentle rhythm”
Page 89: “color of the pomegranite” changed to “color of the
pomegranate”
Page 100: “humble servent” changed to “humble servant”