He saw me in the crowd, and we shook hands joyfully. "All right,
Father Moses! All right!" he said.
Everybody laughed.
Then, without waiting for the end of the procession, I ran to the
market to open my shop.
Little Safel had also understood that we were going to have a
profitable day, for, in the midst of the crowd, he had come and pulled
my coat-tails, and said, "I have the key of the market; I have it; let
us make haste! Let us try to get there before Frichard!"
Whatever natural wit a child may have, it shows itself at once; it is
truly a gift of God.
So we ran to the shop. I opened my windows, and Safel remained while I
went home to eat a morsel, and get a good quantity of sous and small
change.
Sorle and Zeffen were at their counter selling small glassfuls.
Everything went well as usual. But a quarter of an hour later, when
the soldiers had broken ranks and put back their muskets in their
places at the barracks, the crowd at my shop in the market, of people
wishing to sell me coats, sacks, watches, pistols, cloaks, epaulettes,
etc., was so great that without Safel's help I never could have got out
of it.
I got all these things for almost nothing. Men of this sort never
trouble themselves about to-morrow; their only thought was to live well
from one day to another, to have tobacco, brandy, and the other good
things which are never wanting in a garrisoned town.
That day, in six hours' time, I refurnished my shop with coats, cloaks,
pantaloons, and thick boots of genuine German leather, of the first
quality, and I bought things of all sorts--nearly fifteen hundred
pounds' worth--which I afterward sold for six or seven times more than
they cost me. All those landwehr were well-to-do, and even rich
citizens, with good, substantial clothes.
The soldiers, too, sold me a good many watches, which Goulden the old
watchmaker did not want, because they were taken from the dead.
But what gave me more pleasure than all the rest, was that Frichard,
who was sick for three or four days, could not come and open his shop.
It makes me laugh now to think of it. It gave the rascal that green
jaundice which never left him as long as he lived.
At noon Safel went to fetch our dinner in a basket; we ate under the
shed so as not to lose custom, and could not leave for a minute till
night. Scarcely had one set gone, before two and often three others
came at once.
I was sinking with fatigue, and so was Safel; nothing but our love of
trade sustained us.
Another pleasant thing which I recall is that, on going home a few
minutes before seven, we saw at a distance that our other shop was
full. My wife and daughter had not been able to close it; they had
raised the price, and the soldiers did not even notice it,--it seemed
all right to them; so that not only the French money which I had just
given them, but also Wurtemburg florins came to my pocket.
Two trades which help each other along are an excellent thing, Fritz:
remember that! Without my brandies I should not have had the money to
buy so many goods, and without the market where I gave ready money for
the booty, the soldiers would not have had wherewith to buy my brandy.
This shows us plainly that the Lord favors orderly and peaceable men,
provided they know how to make the best use of their opportunities.
At length, as we could not do more, we were obliged to close the shop,
in spite of the protestations of the soldiers, and defer business till
to-morrow.
About nine o'clock, after supper, we all sat down together around the
large lamp, to count our gains. I made rolls of three francs each, and
on the chair next me the pile reached almost to the top of the table.
Little Safel put the white pieces in a wooden bowl. It was a pleasant
sight to us all, and Sorle said: "We have sold twice as much as usual.
The more we raise the price the better it sells."
I was going to reply that still we must use moderation in all
things--for these women, even the best of them, do not know that--when
the sergeant came in to take his little glass. He wore his foraging
coat, and carried hung across his cape a kind of bag of red leather.
"He, he, he!" said he, as he saw the rolls. "The devil! the devil!
You ought to be satisfied with this day's work, Father Moses?"
"Yes, not bad, sergeant," I joyfully replied.
"I think," said he, as he sat down and tasted the little glass of
cherry-brandy, which Zeffen had just poured out for him, "I think that
after one or two sorties more, you will do for colonel of the
shopkeepers' regiment. So much the better; I am very glad of it!"
Then, laughing heartily, he said,
"He, Father Moses! see what I have here; these rascals of kaiserlichs
deny themselves nothing."
At the same time he opened his bag, and began to draw out a pair of
mittens lined with fox-skin, then some good woollen stockings, and a
large knife with a horn handle and blades of very fine steel. He
opened the blades:
"There is everything here," said he, "a pruning-knife, a saw, small
knives and large ones, even to a file for nails."
"For finger-nails, sergeant!" said I.
"Ah! very likely!" said he. "This big landwehr was as nice as a new
crown-piece. He would be likely to file his finger-nails. But wait!"
My wife and children, leaning over us, looked on with eager eyes.
Thrusting his hand into a sort of portfolio in the side of the bag, he
drew out a handsome miniature, surrounded with a circle of gold in the
shape of a watch, but larger.
"See! What ought this to be worth?"
I looked, then Sorle, then Zeffen, and Safel. We were all surprised at
seeing a work of such beauty, and even touched, for the miniature
represented a fair young woman and two lovely children, as fresh as
rose-buds.
"Well, what do you think of that?" asked the sergeant.
"It is very beautiful," said Sorle.
"Yes, but what is it worth?"