_Saturday, April ninth_.
It was a calm and clear night. The wild geese did not trouble themselves
to seek shelter in any of the grottoes, but stood and slept upon the
mountain top; and the boy had lain down in the short, dry grass beside
the geese.
It was bright moonlight that night; so bright that it was difficult for
the boy to go to sleep. He lay there and thought about just how long he
had been away from home; and he figured out that it was three weeks
since he had started on the trip. At the same time he remembered that
this was Easter-eve.
"It is to-night that all the witches come home from Blakulla," thought
he, and laughed to himself. For he was just a little afraid of both the
sea-nymph and the elf, but he didn't believe in witches the least little
bit.
If there had been any witches out that night, he should have seen them,
to be sure. It was so light in the heavens that not the tiniest black
speck could move in the air without his seeing it.
While the boy lay there with his nose in the air and thought about this,
his eye rested on something lovely! The moon's disc was whole and round,
and rather high, and over it a big bird came flying. He did not fly past
the moon, but he moved just as though he might have flown out from it.
The bird looked black against the light background, and the wings
extended from one rim of the disc to the other. He flew on, evenly, in
the same direction, and the boy thought that he was painted on the
moon's disc. The body was small, the neck long and slender, the legs
hung down, long and thin. It couldn't be anything but a stork.
A couple of seconds later Herr Ermenrich, the stork, lit beside the boy.
He bent down and poked him with his bill to awaken him.
Instantly the boy sat up. "I'm not asleep, Herr Ermenrich," he said.
"How does it happen that you are out in the middle of the night, and how
is everything at Glimminge castle? Do you want to speak with mother
Akka?"
"It's too light to sleep to-night," answered Herr Ermenrich. "Therefore
I concluded to travel over here to Karl's Island and hunt you up, friend
Thumbietot. I learned from the seamew that you were spending the night
here. I have not as yet moved over to Glimminge castle, but am still
living at Pommern."
The boy was simply overjoyed to think that Herr Ermenrich had sought him
out. They chatted about all sorts of things, like old friends. At last
the stork asked the boy if he wouldn't like to go out riding for a while
on this beautiful night.
Oh, yes! that the boy wanted to do, if the stork would manage it so that
he got back to the wild geese before sunrise. This he promised, so off
they went.
Again Herr Ermenrich flew straight toward the moon. They rose and rose;
the sea sank deep down, but the flight went so light and easy that it
seemed almost as if the boy lay still in the air.
When Herr Ermenrich began to descend, the boy thought that the flight
had lasted an unreasonably short time.
They landed on a desolate bit of seashore, which was covered with fine,
even sand. All along the coast ran a row of flying-sand drifts, with
lyme-grass on their tops. They were not very high, but they prevented
the boy from seeing any of the island.
Herr Ermenrich stood on a sand-hill, drew up one leg and bent his head
backward, so he could stick his bill under the wing. "You can roam
around on the shore for a while," he said to Thumbietot, "while I rest
myself. But don't go so far away but what you can find your way back to
me again!"
To start with, the boy intended to climb a sand-hill and see how the
land behind it looked. But when he had walked a couple of paces, he
stubbed the toe of his wooden shoe against something hard. He stooped
down, and saw that a small copper coin lay on the sand, and was so worn
with verdigris that it was almost transparent. It was so poor that he
didn't even bother to pick it up, but only kicked it out of the way.
But when he straightened himself up once more he was perfectly
astounded, for two paces away from him stood a high, dark wall with a
big, turreted gate.
The moment before, when the boy bent down, the sea lay there--shimmering
and smooth, while now it was hidden by a long wall with towers and
battlements. Directly in front of him, where before there had been only
a few sea-weed banks, the big gate of the wall opened.
The boy probably understood that it was a spectre-play of some sort; but
this was nothing to be afraid of, thought he. It wasn't any dangerous
trolls, or any other evil--such as he always dreaded to encounter at
night. Both the wall and the gate were so beautifully constructed that
he only desired to see what there might be back of them. "I must find
out what this can be," thought he, and went in through the gate.
In the deep archway there were guards, dressed in brocaded and purred
suits, with long-handled spears beside them, who sat and threw dice.
They thought only of the game, and took no notice of the boy who hurried
past them quickly.
Just within the gate he found an open space, paved with large, even
stone blocks. All around this were high and magnificent buildings; and
between these opened long, narrow streets. On the square--facing the
gate--it fairly swarmed with human beings. The men wore long,
fur-trimmed capes over satin suits; plume-bedecked hats sat obliquely on
their heads; on their chests hung superb chains. They were all so
regally gotten up that the whole lot of them might have been kings.
The women went about in high head-dresses and long robes with
tight-fitting sleeves. They, too, were beautifully dressed, but their
splendour was not to be compared with that of the men.
This was exactly like the old story-book which mother took from the
chest--only once--and showed to him. The boy simply couldn't believe his
eyes.
But that which was even more wonderful to look upon than either the men
or the women, was the city itself. Every house was built in such a way
that a gable faced the street. And the gables were so highly ornamented,
that one could believe they wished to compete with each other as to
which one could show the most beautiful decorations.
When one suddenly sees so much that is new, he cannot manage to treasure
it all in his memory. But at least the boy could recall that he had seen
stairway gables on the various landings, which bore images of the Christ
and his Apostles; gables, where there were images in niche after niche
all along the wall; gables that were inlaid with multi-coloured bits of
glass, and gables that were striped and checked with white and black
marble. As the boy admired all this, a sudden sense of haste came over
him. "Anything like this my eyes have never seen before. Anything like
this, they would never see again," he said to himself. And he began to
run in toward the city--up one street, and down another.
The streets were straight and narrow, but not empty and gloomy, as they
were in the cities with which he was familiar. There were people
everywhere. Old women sat by their open doors and spun without a
spinning-wheel--only with the help of a shuttle. The merchants' shops
were like market-stalls--opening on the street. All the hand-workers did
their work out of doors. In one place they were boiling crude oil; in
another tanning hides; in a third there was a long rope-walk.
If only the boy had had time enough he could have learned how to make
all sorts of things. Here he saw how armourers hammered out thin
breast-plates; how turners tended their irons; how the shoemakers soled
soft, red shoes; how the gold-wire drawers twisted gold thread, and how
the weavers inserted silver and gold into their weaving.
But the boy did not have the time to stay. He just rushed on, so that he
could manage to see as much as possible before it would all vanish
again.
The high wall ran all around the city and shut it in, as a hedge shuts
in a field. He saw it at the end of every street--gable-ornamented and
crenelated. On the top of the wall walked warriors in shining armour;
and when he had run from one end of the city to the other, he came to
still another gate in the wall. Outside of this lay the sea and
harbour. The boy saw olden-time ships, with rowing-benches straight
across, and high structures fore and aft. Some lay and took on cargo,
others were just casting anchor. Carriers and merchants hurried around
each other. All over, it was life and bustle.
But not even here did he seem to have the time to linger. He rushed into
the city again; and now he came up to the big square. There stood the
cathedral with its three high towers and deep vaulted arches filled with
images. The walls had been so highly decorated by sculptors that there
was not a stone without its own special ornamentation. And what a
magnificent display of gilded crosses and gold-trimmed altars and
priests in golden vestments, shimmered through the open gate! Directly
opposite the church there was a house with a notched roof and a single
slender, sky-high tower. That was probably the courthouse. And between
the courthouse and the cathedral, all around the square, stood the
beautiful gabled houses with their multiplicity of adornments.
The boy had run himself both warm and tired. He thought that now he had
seen the most remarkable things, and therefore he began to walk more
leisurely. The street which he had turned into now was surely the one
where the inhabitants purchased their fine clothing. He saw crowds of
people standing before the little stalls where the merchants spread
brocades, stiff satins, heavy gold cloth, shimmery velvet, delicate
veiling, and laces as sheer as a spider's web.
Before, when the boy ran so fast, no one had paid any attention to him.
The people must have thought that it was only a little gray rat that
darted by them. But now, when he walked down the street, very slowly,
one of the salesmen caught sight of him, and began to beckon to him.
At first the boy was uneasy and wanted to hurry out of the way, but the
salesman only beckoned and smiled, and spread out on the counter a
lovely piece of satin damask as if he wanted to tempt him.
The boy shook his head. "I will never be so rich that I can buy even a
metre of that cloth," thought he.
But now they had caught sight of him in every stall, all along the
street. Wherever he looked stood a salesman and beckoned to him. They
left their costly wares, and thought only of him. He saw how they
hurried into the most hidden corner of the stall to fetch the best that
they had to sell, and how their hands trembled with eagerness and haste
as they laid it upon the counter.
When the boy continued to go on, one of the merchants jumped over the
counter, caught hold of him, and spread before him silver cloth and
woven tapestries, which shone with brilliant colours.
The boy couldn't do anything but laugh at him. The salesman certainly
must understand that a poor little creature like him couldn't buy such
things. He stood still and held out his two empty hands, so they would
understand that he had nothing and let him go in peace.
But the merchant raised a finger and nodded and pushed the whole pile of
beautiful things over to him.
"Can he mean that he will sell all this for a gold piece?" wondered the
boy.
The merchant brought out a tiny worn and poor coin--the smallest that
one could see--and showed it to him. And he was so eager to sell that
he increased his pile with a pair of large, heavy, silver goblets.
Then the boy began to dig down in his pockets. He knew, of course, that
he didn't possess a single coin, but he couldn't help feeling for it.
All the other merchants stood still and tried to see how the sale would
come off, and when they observed that the boy began to search in his
pockets, they flung themselves over the counters, filled their hands
full of gold and silver ornaments, and offered them to him. And they all
showed him that what they asked in payment was just one little penny.
But the boy turned both vest and breeches pockets inside out, so they
should see that he owned nothing. Then tears filled the eyes of all
these regal merchants, who were so much richer than he. At last he was
moved because they looked so distressed, and he pondered if he could not
in some way help them. And then he happened to think of the rusty coin,
which he had but lately seen on the strand.
He started to run down the street, and luck was with him so that he came
to the self-same gate which he had happened upon first. He dashed
through it, and commenced to search for the little green copper penny
which lay on the strand a while ago.
He found it too, very promptly; but when he had picked it up, and wanted
to run back to the city with it--he saw only the sea before him. No city
wall, no gate, no sentinels, no streets, no houses could now be
seen--only the sea.
The boy couldn't help that the tears came to his eyes. He had believed
in the beginning, that that which he saw was nothing but an
hallucination, but this he had already forgotten. He only thought about
how pretty everything was. He felt a genuine, deep sorrow because the
city had vanished.
That moment Herr Ermenrich awoke, and came up to him. But he didn't hear
him, and the stork had to poke the boy with his bill to attract
attention to himself. "I believe that you stand here and sleep just as I
do," said Herr Ermenrich.
"Oh, Herr Ermenrich!" said the boy. "What was that city which stood
here just now?"
"Have you seen a city?" said the stork. "You have slept and dreamt, as I
say."
"No! I have not dreamt," said Thumbietot, and he told the stork all that
he had experienced.
Then Herr Ermenrich said: "For my part, Thumbietot, I believe that you
fell asleep here on the strand and dreamed all this.
"But I will not conceal from you that Bataki, the raven, who is the most
learned of all birds, once told me that in former times there was a city
on this shore, called Vineta. It was so rich and so fortunate, that no
city has ever been more glorious; but its inhabitants, unluckily, gave
themselves up to arrogance and love of display. As a punishment for
this, says Bataki, the city of Vineta was overtaken by a flood, and sank
into the sea. But its inhabitants cannot die, neither is their city
destroyed. And one night in every hundred years, it rises in all its
splendour up from the sea, and remains on the surface just one hour."
"Yes, it must be so," said Thumbietot, "for this I have seen."
"But when the hour is up, it sinks again into the sea, if, during that
time, no merchant in Vineta has sold anything to a single living
creature. If you, Thumbietot, only had had an ever so tiny coin, to pay
the merchants, Vineta might have remained up here on the shore; and its
people could have lived and died like other human beings."
"Herr Ermenrich," said the boy, "now I understand why you came and
fetched me in the middle of the night. It was because you believed that
I should be able to save the old city. I am so sorry it didn't turn out
as you wished, Herr Ermenrich."
He covered his face with his hands and wept. It wasn't easy to say which
one looked the more disconsolate--the boy, or Herr Ermenrich.