LION, FOX, AND MAGPIE.
In the early winter, as in the early spring, the Morgenhalde was the
pleasantest place in the whole country. Old Lenz was right in saying
that the morning sun lay on his house and meadow all day long. But
little fire was needed half the day. Flowers blossomed in the garden
behind the house long after they had disappeared everywhere else, and
put out their leaves again in the spring, when everything else was
bare. This garden was as sheltered as a room, and in it grew, what was
rare in those parts, a chestnut-tree, which attracted many an unwelcome
squirrel and nutpecker from the neighboring forest. The house protected
the garden on one side without keeping from it the sun after ten
o'clock; and the mighty forest which covered the upper part of the
steep mountain seemed to take special pleasure in both house and
garden, and had stationed two of its tallest pines as sentinels at the
gate.
Had there been many promenaders in the town, they certainly, in these
first chilly winter months, would have often taken the path up the
meadow, past Lenz's house into the wood, and returned along the
mountain ridge. But there was only one promenader, or rather there were
only two, in the town,--Petrovitsch and his dog Bubby. Every day before
dinner Petrovitsch got up an appetite by walking through the meadow,
past the house, and over the ridge of the mountain. Bubby doubled and
trebled the distance by leaping back and forth across the gullies which
to the right of Lenz's house the water had channelled down into the
valley. The gullies were dry at this season, but served in spring and
summer to carry off the rushing water. Petrovitsch was very loving
towards his dog, and in moments of special affection would call him
Sonny. The old man had come home rich from his foreign journeyings. His
neighbors naturally estimated his property at three times its actual
value, but it was really considerable. The longing for home which the
inhabitants of the mountains and of Upper Germany never outgrow had
brought him, in his old age, back to his native valley, where he
lived, after his fashion, a contented life. His happiest time was
in midsummer, when the merchants from all quarters of the world
assembled at the Lion, and all the tongues of the earth were spoken
there,--Spanish, Italian, English, Russian, and Dutch,--while in the
midst of them, from the very same men, would be heard good Black Forest
German. Then was Petrovitsch a person of consequence, and great was his
pride at being able to show off his knowledge of Spanish and Russian.
Whereas in ordinary times he always left the Lion punctually at an
appointed hour, then he would spend whole days there, staying sometimes
even into the night. And when the market was over he stayed behind, and
amused himself with calculating how far on their way such and such
merchants were who had gone to the Lower Danube.
Petrovitsch kept the whole country in suspense. It was generally
understood, though he had not said so, that he meant to found a great
charitable institution for the neighborhood. Every room of the great
house he had built for himself had a stove in it, signifying, according
to the common report, which he neither denied nor confirmed, that he
designed the building as a home for invalid workmen. Lenz, his only
heir, was left in uncertainty also; for it was naturally taken for
granted that a considerable part of the fortune would be left to him.
Lenz himself, however, counted not much upon it. He paid his uncle all
proper respect, but was man enough to take care of himself. He bade his
apprentice keep always in good order the path where his uncle liked to
walk, without any reference having been made to the attention on either
side. The cackling of Lenz's hens and geese, and the barking of a dog,
were the signal every noon of his uncle's approach. He nodded to him
through the window where he sat at work. His uncle returned the
greeting and passed on. Neither ever entered the house of the other.
One day the old man remained standing before the window. Bubby seemed
to guess his thoughts; for whereas he was usually contented with
driving Lenz's geese, cackling, behind the garden fence, and then
returning in triumph to his master, to-day he pursued them through the
garden and even into the house, where, however, they found a sufficient
protector in Franzl. Petrovitsch administered a stern rebuke to his
dog, and went on, thinking to himself, It is Lenz's place to come to
me, there is no use in my troubling myself about him. As soon as a man
begins to trouble himself about his neighbors there is an end of his
comfort. He has to keep wondering whether they will do this or whether
they will do that. I desire to be thankful I have nobody's business to
mind but my own. But still he could not help questioning, What is this
matter about the forest? Yesterday at dinner the landlady had taken a
seat by him, and, after talking of a variety of subjects, had quite
unexpectedly launched forth into praises of Petrovitsch's habit of
taking a daily walk. It kept him in good health, she said; he might
live to be a hundred, in fact had every appearance of it. She heartily
wished he might; he had had a hard time in life and deserved some
amends for it. Petrovitsch was wise enough to know that there was
something behind this unwonted friendliness. He attributed it, perhaps
not unjustly, to her having designs upon his nephew. She said nothing
about that, however, but once more turned the conversation upon his
daily walk, and said what a good thing it would be for him to buy of
her husband the beautiful Spannreuter forest by the Morgenhalde. To be
sure he would be sorry to sell it; indeed, she did not know whether he
would consent to sell at all, but she should like to give Petrovitsch
the gratification of walking every day in his own wood. Petrovitsch
thanked her for her exceedingly delicate attention, but ended the
matter by saying he liked quite as well to walk in another man's
forest; in fact, rather better, because then it did not vex him to see
persons stealing the wood, and to lose one's temper before dinner was
bad for the digestion. The landlady smiled intelligently, and replied
that no one could have a bright idea without Petrovitsch's having a
brighter. Petrovitsch again made his acknowledgments, and the two were
as sweet to each other as possible, much sweeter than the lump of sugar
that Petrovitsch pocketed from dessert.
The thought passed through the old man's mind that the forest would be
a good purchase for Lenz to make, he furnishing the means; for the
landlord would ask him too high a price for it. That was what he wanted
to tell his nephew, when he remembered his noble principle of not
troubling himself about other men's concerns, and he desisted. He had
done too much already in busying his head in the matter. He noticed
that the ascent was more difficult to-day than usual; so much for
thinking when you are going up a mountain; you should do nothing but
breathe. "Here, you stupid fellow!" he called to Bubby, who was
grubbing after a mole when a good cooked dinner was preparing for him;
"what is a mole to you? let him dig!" The dog obeyed, and walked close
at his master's side. "Back!" ordered Petrovitsch again, and with the
dog put all unnecessary thoughts behind him. He would know nothing; his
tranquillity must be undisturbed.
The old man found the family at the Lion out of temper. The landlord
was in great wrath at hearing from his wife that she had offered the
forest to Petrovitsch, who had refused it. "Now the report will get
abroad that I am in want of money," he complained.
"Well, you said you wanted money," retorted his wife, pouting.
"I don't need you to do my business for me. I shall sell no paper at
the exchange to-day!" he exclaimed in an unusually loud tone just as
Petrovitsch was entering. The old man gave a knowing smile and thought
to himself, You would not boast so loud if you were not in want of
money. Just as dinner was ready, the post-boy brought in a number of
letters, some marked "Important." The landlord signed a receipt, but
sat down to table without opening them, loudly repeating what he had
often said before, "I read no letters before dinner. Whether they are
good or bad they spoil one's appetite. I am not going to have my
comfort disturbed by the railroads."
A wicked scoffer, sitting at another table, refused the due tribute of
admiration to this piece of wisdom, and profanely thought, There is a
locomotive running about in your body, put as good a face on the matter
as you will. This scoffer, it is needless to say, was Petrovitsch.
After dinner Pilgrim walked several times past Petrovitsch's table with
the evident desire of stopping at it. Four eyes looked at him
wonderingly. Bubby, sitting in his master's lap, stared and growled as
if he scented a beggar, while Petrovitsch's occasional glance up from
his paper said plainly: What is he after? He has not a forest to sell
too,--has he? None, certainly, but the one on his head, if he does not
owe for that.
Pilgrim frequently passed his hand through his long lank hair, but
found thereby no approach to Petrovitsch, who, so far from encouraging
him, got up now, paid his score, and departed. Pilgrim hurried after
him. "A couple of words with you, if you please, Mr. Lenz," he said,
when he overtook him in the street.
"Good day; that is just a couple of words."
"I want nothing for myself, Mr. Lenz; but I consider it my duty--"
"Your duties are nothing to me."
"Imagine that some one else is speaking my words. So that you hear
them, the rest is nothing."
"I am not curious."
"It concerns your nephew Lenz."
"I knew that."
"Yet more; you may make his happiness for life."
"Every man must make that for himself."
"It would only cost you a walk to the doctor's."
"Is Lenz ill?"
"No. The state of the case is this: he ought to marry and wants to
marry. Now the best wife for him is the doctor's daughter Amanda, as I
am convinced, after thinking the matter over on all sides. But he lacks
the necessary courage. He thinks, too,-he has not told me so, but I am
sure of it,--that he is not rich enough. Now, if the uncle makes the
proposal, and thereby promises--"
"So? I knew it would come to that. If my brother's son wants a wife,
let him get her himself. I am an old bachelor, and don't understand
such things."
"If his friends do not exert themselves, Amanda will marry some one
else. I know that an apothecary is paying his addresses to her."
"Good! she would be just the wife for him. I am not the disposer of the
world."
"But if your nephew should foolishly get into trouble in some other
quarter?"
"He must get out the best way he can."
"Mr. Lenz, you are not as hard-hearted as you set up for being."
"I am not setting at all, I am going. Good day, Mr. Pilgrim." And go he
did. Pilgrim drew his breath hard as he looked after him, but presently
turned homeward. In this gloomy weather, with no ray of sunshine, he
could at least be grinding his colors for brighter days.