My heart was freed from a great burden; but the next moment I was
troubled. Only yesterday, within the hearing of everyone, I had called
the young Baron a wicked man.
But as I am a man of honour I will make amends. Of course he may be a
wild fellow; still thou art honest and kind-hearted, Hermann, and the
people must know it. For three Sundays in succession I will proclaim it
from the chancel: "Our young future master, Hermann von Schrankenheim,
is honest and good. May God preserve him!" And until death will I beg
his pardon for my slanderous words.
The Einspanig entered my house with me. One of my windows opens towards
the church and the parsonage. Sitting down by it, we fell into a
conversation which lasted two hours.
We are now able, when the weather is fine, to measure the time by the
hour; Franz Ehrenwald has painted a sun-dial on the southern side of the
tower.
When the Einspanig had gone my housekeeper cried: "_Wie naerrisch_, now
the _Kukuk_ has brought _him_ into the house again!"
"The _Kukuk_?" I answered gaily. "Yes, indeed, this man is himself like
the cuckoo; he has no nest and must restlessly flutter from tree to
tree, is avoided everywhere, and is at home nowhere. But all the same
we are glad to see him in the spring, for he brings it with him; he is a
soothsayer who can count our years for us."
"Yes," screamed the woman, "and tell us all sorts of extravagant tales,
as he did me once; and if for him perhaps the world is not fastened in
with boards, his own head surely is. Get away with your Einspanig!"
If the good Winkel-warden's wife could only have known what kind of a
letter I wrote to the Baron an hour later!