The next forenoon the sun, which was already rather high, shone into
the yard of the Doerr's little establishment and lighted up a
considerable number of buildings, among which was the "castle" of which
Frau Nimptsch had spoken on the previous evening with roguish
playfulness. Such a "castle"! In the twilight its general outlines
might have passed for something of the sort, but to-day, as it stood in
the remorselessly bright light, one could see only too plainly, that
the building with its Gothic windows painted on the walls clear to the
top, was nothing more than a wretched old wooden house, in the two
gable ends of which had been set some timber framing, the spaces of
which were filled with plaster, a comparatively solid structure which
indicated two gable rooms. All the rest of the house was merely a
stone-paved space from which a confused looking set of ladders led to a
loft or garret and from that to the tower which served as a pigeon
house. Formerly, before Doerr's time, the whole great wooden "shack" had
served merely as a store-house for bean poles and watering pots,
perhaps even as a potato cellar, but since, some years ago, the garden
had been bought by its present owner, the real dwelling house had been
rented to Frau Nimptsch, and the old building painted in the Gothic
style, with the addition of the two gable rooms already mentioned, had
been arranged as a dwelling for Doerr, who was then a widower; a very
primitive arrangement it was, which was in no wise altered by his
speedy second marriage. In the summer this cool store house with its
stone pavements and almost no windows was not a bad dwelling place, but
in the winter Doerr and his wife as well as a rather feeble-minded
twenty-year-old son of the former marriage, would have actually frozen,
had it not been for the two big hothouses which stood on the other side
of the yard. In these the three Doerrs spent their time exclusively from
November until March, but even in the warmer and more comfortable part
of the year, the family life, when it was not actually necessary to
seek refuge from the sun, was mostly carried on in front of these hot
houses or in them, because everything there was more convenient. Here
were the steps and shelves on which the flowers that were brought out
of the hothouses every morning had their airing, here was the stall for
the cow and the goat, and here the kennel for the dog that was used to
pull the little wagon, and from here extended outward the double row of
hotbeds, perhaps fifty paces long, and with a little path between,
until they reached the vegetable garden which lay further back. This
garden did not look very neat, partly because Doerr had no sense of
order, and also because he had such a passion for poultry, that he
would allow his favorites to scratch and pick everywhere, without
regard to the damage that they did. To be sure, the damage was not
great, for there was nothing very fine in the garden except the
asparagus beds. Doerr thought that the commonest things were also the
most profitable, and therefore raised marjoram and other herbs for
seasoning sausages, especially "borre," concerning which he held the
opinion that a genuine Berliner really needs only three things: his
pale ale, his "gilka" and "borre." "With borre," he always concluded,
"one is never at a loss." He was decidedly an eccentric, wholly
self-sufficient in his views and was decidedly indifferent as to what
might be said about him. His second marriage was in keeping with this
tendency, a marriage of inclination, upon which the idea of his wife's
unusual beauty had had its effect as well as her former relation to the
Count, which instead of injuring her chances, had tipped the balance
for the better and had simply served as a complete proof that her
charms were irresistible. If there was any hint of overvaluing personal
charms--and there was good ground for this opinion--it could not be on
the side of Doerr himself, for whom nature, so far as outward
appearances were concerned, had done uncommonly little. Thin, of medium
height and with five strands of grey hair drawn over his head and brow,
his looks would have been completely ordinary had not a brown mole
between his eye and his left temple given him a certain mark of
distinction. For this reason his wife, with some reason and in her own
free and easy fashion used to say: "He is withered looking, but from
the left he reminds me of a 'Borsdorfer'."
This description was well hit off and would have served to identify him
anywhere if he had not continually worn a linen cap with a big visor,
which being drawn well down over his face, hid its every-day as well as
its unusual aspect.
And so, with his cap and visor drawn down over his face, he stood once
more, on the day after the conversation between Frau Doerr and Frau
Nimptsch, before a flower stand that stood against the front
greenhouse, setting to one side various wallflower and geranium pots,
which were to go to the weekly market on the morrow. They were all
plants that had not been raised in pots, but simply set into them, and
with especial joy and satisfaction he passed them in review, laughing
beforehand at the "madams," who would come the next day to spend their
usual five pfennigs, but in the end would be fooled. He considered this
one of his greatest pleasures and indeed it was the principal part of
his mental life. "If I could only hear them scold about it ... If I
only could."
He was talking to himself in this vein, when he heard from the garden
the barking of a little cur together with the distressed crowing of a
cock, and unless he was very much deceived, of his cock, his favorite
with the silvery feathers. And looking toward the garden, he actually
saw his flock of hens rushing this way and that, while the cock had
flown up in a pear tree, from which he constantly called for help while
the dog barked beneath.
"Thunder and lightning," cried Doerr in a rage. "There is Bollmann's dog
again.... He has got through the fence again.... But we shall see." ...
And quickly setting down the geranium pot that he was examining, he ran
to the dog kennel, caught up the hook of the chain and turned the big
dog loose, who rushed furiously through the garden. But before he could
reach the pear tree, "Bollmann's beast" had already given leg bail and
was disappearing under the fence into the open, the big yellow dog
pursuing him with great leaps. But the gap that had sufficed for the
pug would not let him through, and he was forced to give up the chase.
Doerr himself had no better luck, when he came up with a rake and
exchanged glances with the dog. "Well, Sultan, we didn't catch him this
time." And so Sultan trotted back to his kennel in a slow, puzzled way,
as if he had been blamed for something. But Doerr himself gazed after
the pug who was running over the ploughed ground and said to himself
presently: "The Devil take me, if I don't get me an air gun at Mehle's
or somewhere. And then I'll get the beast out of the way so silently
that neither cock nor hen will make a sound. Not even mine."
The cock, however, seemed to have for the present no use for the quiet
attributed to him by Doerr, but continued to use his voice just as
strenuously as before. And meanwhile he puffed out his silver white
throat as proudly as if he wanted to show the hens that his flying up
into the pear tree was a well-considered "coup" or else a mere whim.
But Doerr said: "Oh Lord, what a cock. He thinks he is something
wonderful. And yet his courage doesn't amount to much."
And so saying he went back to his flower stand.