_How the old maid-servant humbled me by her faith, and the Lord
yet blessed me His unworthy servant_.
"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His
holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy
diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth
thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies" (Ps. ciii.).
Alas! wretched man that I am, how shall I understand all the
benefits and mercies which the Lord bestowed upon me the very next
day? I now wept for joy as of late I had done for sorrow; and my
child danced about the room like a young roe, and would not go to
bed, but only cry and dance, and between whiles repeat the 103rd
Psalm, then dance and cry again until morning broke. But as she
was still very weak, I rebuked her presumption, seeing that this
was tempting the Lord; and now mark what had happened.
After we had both woke in the morning with deep sighs, and called
upon the Lord to manifest to us, in our hearts, what we should do,
we still could not make up our minds. I therefore called to my
child, if she felt strong enough, to leave her bed and light a
fire in the stove herself, as our maid was gone; that we would
then consider the matter further. She accordingly got up, but came
back in an instant with cries of joy, because the maid had
privately stolen back into the house, and had already made a fire.
Hereupon I sent for her to my bedside, and wondered at her
disobedience, and asked what she now wanted here, but to torment
me and my daughter still more, and why she did not go yesterday
with old Paasch? But she lamented and wept so sore that she scarce
could speak, and I understood only thus much: that she had eaten
with us, and would likewise starve with us, for that she could
never part from her young mistress, whom she had known from her
cradle. Such faithful love moved me so, that I said almost with
tears, "But hast thou not heard that my daughter and I have
determined to wander as beggars about the country; where, then,
wilt thou remain?" To this she answered that neither would she
stay behind, seeing it was more fitting for her to beg than for
us; but that she could not yet see why I wished to go out into the
wide world; whether I had already forgotten that I had said, in my
induction sermon, that I would abide with my flock in affliction
and in death? That I should stay yet a little longer where I was,
and send her to Liepe, as she hoped to get something worth having
for us there, from her friends and others. These words, especially
those about my induction sermon, fell heavy on my conscience, and
I was ashamed of my want of faith, since, not my daughter only,
but yet more, even my maid, had stronger faith than I, who,
nevertheless, professed to be a servant of God's Word. I believed
that the Lord, to keep me, poor fearful hireling, and at the same
time to humble me, had awakened the spirit of this poor
maid-servant to prove me, as the maid in the palace of the
high-priest had also proved the fearful St. Peter. Wherefore I
turned my face towards the wall, like Hezekiah, and humbled myself
before the Lord; which scarce had I done before my child ran into
the room again with a cry of joy. For behold some Christian heart
had stolen quietly into the house in the night, and had laid in
the chamber two loaves, a good piece of meat, a bag of oatmeal,
_item_, a bag of salt, holding near a pint. Any one may guess
what shouts of joy we all raised. Neither was I ashamed to confess
my sins before my maid; and in our common morning prayer, which we
said on our knees, I made fresh vows to the Lord of obedience and
faith. Thus we had that morning a grand breakfast, and sent
something to old Paasch besides; _item_, my daughter again
sent for all the little children to come, and kindly fed them with
our store, before they said their tasks; and when in my heart of
little faith I sighed thereat, although I said naught, she smiled,
and said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." [Footnote:
Matt. vi. 34.]
The Holy Ghost spoke by her, as I cannot but believe, nor thou
either, beloved reader: for, mark what happened. In the afternoon,
she (I mean my child) went up the Streckelberg to seek for
blackberries, as old Paasch had told her through the maid that a
few bushes were still left. The maid was chopping wood in the
yard, to which end she had borrowed old Paasch his axe, for the
Imperialist thieves had thrown away mine, so that it could nowhere
be found; and I myself was pacing up and down in the room,
meditating my sermon; when my child, with her apron full, came
quickly in at the door, quite red and with beaming eyes, and
scarce able for joy to say more than "Father, father, what have I
got?" "Well," quoth I, "what hast thou got, my child?" Whereupon
she opened her apron, and I scarce trusted my eyes when I saw,
instead of the blackberries which she had gone to seek, two
shining pieces of amber, each nearly as big as a man's head, not
to mention the small pieces, some of which were as large as my
hand, and that, God knows, is no small one. "Child of my heart,"
cried I, "how cam'st thou by this blessing from God?" As soon as
she could fetch her breath, she told me as follows:
That while she was seeking for blackberries in a dell near the
shore, she saw somewhat glistening in the sun, and on coming near,
she found this wondrous godsend, seeing that the wind had blown
the sand away from off a black vein of amber. [Footnote: This
happens frequently even now, and has occurred to the editor
himself. The small dark vein held indeed a few pieces of amber,
mixed with charcoal, a sure proof of its vegetable origin, of
which we may observe in passing there is now scarce any doubt,
since whole trees of amber have been found in Prussia, and are
preserved in the museum at Konigsberg.] That she straightway had
broken off these pieces with a stick, and that there was plenty
more to be got, seeing that it rattled about under the stick when
she thrust it into the sand, neither could she force it farther
than, at most, a foot deep into the ground; _item_, she told
me that she had covered the place all over again with sand, and
swept it smooth with her apron so as to leave no traces.
Moreover, that no stranger was at all likely to go thither, seeing
that no blackberries grew very near, and she had gone to the spot,
moved by curiosity and a wish to look upon the sea, rather than
from any need; but that she could easily find the place again
herself, inasmuch as she had marked it with three little stones.
What was our first act after the all-merciful God had rescued us
out of such misery, nay, even as it seemed, endowed us with great
riches, any one may guess. When we at length got up off our knees
my child would straightway have run to tell the maid our joyful
news. But I forbade her, seeing that we could not be sure that the
maid might not tell it again to her friends, albeit in all other
things she was a faithful woman, and feared God; but that if she
did that, the sheriff would be sure to hear of it, and to seize
upon our treasure for his princely Highness the Duke, that is to
say, for himself; and that naught would be left to us but the
sight thereof, and our want would begin all over again; that we
therefore would say, when folks asked about the luck that had
befallen us, that my deceased brother, who was a councillor at
Rotterdam, had left us a good lump of money; and indeed it was
true that I had inherited near 200 florins from him a year ago,
which, however, the soldiery (as mentioned above) cruelly robbed
me of; _item_, that I would go to Wolgast myself next day,
and sell the little bits as best I might, saying that thou hadst
picked them up by the seaside; thou mayst tell the maid the same
if thou wilt, but show the larger pieces to no one, and I will
send them to thy uncle at Hamburg, to be turned into money for us;
perchance I may be able to sell one of them at Wolgast, if I find
occasion, so as to buy clothes enough for the winter, for thee and
for me, wherefore thou too mayst go with me. We will take the few
farthings which the congregation have brought together to pay the
ferry, and thou canst order the maid to wait for us till eventide
at the water-side to carry home the victuals. She agreed to all
this, but said we had better first break off some more amber, so
that we might get a good round sum for it at Hamburg; and I
thought so too, wherefore we stopped at home next day, seeing that
we did not want for food, and that my child, as well as myself,
both wished to refresh ourselves a little before we set out on our
journey; _item_, we likewise bethought us that old Master
Rothoog, of Loddin, who is a cabinet-maker, might knock together a
little box for us, to put the amber in, wherefore I sent the maid
to him in the afternoon. Meanwhile we ourselves went up the
Streckelberg, where I cut a young fir-tree with my pocket knife,
which I had saved from the enemy, and shaped it like a spade, so
that I might be better able to dig deep therewith. First, however,
we looked about us well on the mountain, and seeing nobody, my
daughter walked on to the place, which she straightway found
again. Great God! what a mass of amber, was there! The vein was
hard upon twenty feet long, as near as I could feel, and the depth
of it I could not sound. Nevertheless, save four good-sized
pieces, none, however, so big as those of yesterday, we this day
only broke out little splinters, such as the apothecaries bruise
for incense. After we had most carefully covered and smoothed over
the place, a great mishap was very near befalling us; for we met
Witthan her little girl, who was seeking blackberries, and she
asked what my daughter carried in her apron, who straightway grew
red, and stammered so that our secret would have been betrayed if
I had not presently said, "What is that to thee? she has got
fir-apples, for firing," which the child believed. Wherefore we
resolved in future only to go up the mountain at night by
moonlight, and we went home and got there before the maid, and hid
our treasure in the bedstead, so that she should not see it.