The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Viii Part 30

CHAPTER IX

ULI GAINS PRESTIGE AND IMPRESSES GIRLS

[Uli's improvement proceeds steadily, and his self-respect with it. The two maids are greatly impressed by him, and both set their caps for him.

Stini, the elder, is very ugly and cross-grained, but a good worker and very thrifty. Yrsi, on the other hand, is pretty and sweet-tempered, but lazy and heedless, and wants a husband so as to avoid working. Jealously the two watch each other's attempts to catch Uli, who is drawn now to Yrsi's prettiness, now to Stini's thrift. Their jealousy finally becomes so furious that Uli begins to cool off, which only makes them the more eager. Yrsi plans a master-stroke: she uncovers the liquid manure-pit, and Stini tumbles into it. When she is finally hauled out, not without difficulty and amid the gibes of the other servants, she falls like a tigress upon her rival, and the two roll in the dirt and become such a reeking ball of filth that no one ventures to touch them to pull them apart. But Uli has had enough of them both and is entirely cured, though not of his desire for marriage.]

CHAPTER X

HOW ULI SELLS A COW AND ALMOST GETS A WIFE

[Uli is sent to market with a cow, which he sells at a good profit. On the way home he encounters the daughter of a neighbor, struggling with four little pigs. She begs his a.s.sistance, and as they go along she gives him a glowing account of her father's prosperity and the size of her dowry. She invites him into a tavern on the way, and they take some refreshment together. Then she goes on about herself--how strong she is, and how much work she can do, and what a good catch she would make. Uli cannot get in a word edgewise, but is mightily impressed by her imposing vigor and her father's wealth, so that he goes home with his head in a whirl. The master and his wife are pleased with Uli's success, and the master hands over to Uli the profit he has made on the cow. Uli asks the master about the neighbor's Katie, saying that he thinks she would have him. The master, however, strongly dissuades him, pointing out that Katie might make a good field-hand, but not a good wife. She can make hay, but not soup; and there is not so much wealth, for the farm is badly managed. The boys will get the land, and the girls can take the leavings, which will not amount to very much. Besides, the girls are spoiled and will not know what to do on a small farm, after being used to a big one; and if Uli stays there he will simply be a servant without pay. Uli sees that the master is right, and decides to think no more of the matter.]

CHAPTER XI

HOW DESIRES TAKE FORM IN A SERVANT, AND HOW A GOOD MASTER REALIZES THEM

[Uli gradually reaches something like perfection, and his savings amount to a handsome sum. But the money seems to come too slowly, and he begins to feel impatient. The master is at first vexed, but sees that he must either pay Uli what will satisfy him, or let him go. Uli suggests buying or renting something, but the master will not hear to it; Uli has too little money for that. Then one autumn the master goes to market and encounters there a cousin, Joggeli, who has come, he says, to see Johannes. Joggeli tells his troubles: he and his wife are getting old and decrepit, and can no longer look after their large farm as formerly.

Their son Johannes has become too stuck-up for the farm and now runs a tavern; their daughter is good for nothing, incompetent and lazy. The overseer whom he has had for eleven years has been cheating him right and left, and the other servants are hand in glove with him. Joggeli desires a new overseer, a first-cla.s.s man on whom he can depend; he would pay as high as a hundred crowns if he could find what he wants.

Johannes recommends Uli, and Joggeli comes to have a look at him. He does his best to find some fault in him, but can discover none. Johannes and his wife are both reluctant to let Uli go, but they think it is for his good, and so Uli is induced to hire out to Joggeli for sixty crowns, two pairs of shoes, four shirts, and tips. All hearts are heavy as New Year's approaches, when the change is to be made. The master himself plans to drive Uli over to his new place.]

CHAPTER XII

HOW ULI LEAVES HIS OLD PLACE AND REACHES HIS NEW ONE

On the following morning the sleigh was made ready and the box fastened on it, and Uli had to breakfast with the family in the living-room--coffee, cheese, and pancakes. When the horse was harnessed Uli could scarcely go, and when at last the time came, and he stretched out his hand to his mistress and said, "Good-bye, mother, and don't be angry with me," the tears rushed to his eyes again; and the mistress had to lift her ap.r.o.n to her eyes, saying, "I don't know what for; I only hope you'll get along well. But if you don't like it come back any time, the sooner the better." The children would scarcely let him go; it seemed as if his heart would break when the master finally told them to let loose, that they must start if they wanted to get there today, and it wouldn't be the last time they were to see each other; but that now there was no help for it. When they drove away the mistress kept wiping her eyes for a long time, and had to comfort the children, who, it seemed, could not stop weeping and lamenting.

In silence the two men drove over the gleaming snow. "Steady!" the master had to say occasionally, when the wild Blazer struck into a gallop, pulling the light sleigh along like the wind and kicking the snow high in the air. "It distresses me," said Uli, "and more and more, the nearer we get; it's so hard for me! I can't believe that I'm not running into misfortune; it seems as if it was right ahead of me."

"That's natural," said the master, "and I wouldn't take that as a bad omen. Think: nearly ten years ago, when you were a ne'er-do-well and I started you going right, how hard it was for you to do better, and how little faith you had in the possibility that everything would turn out right. But still it did, gradually. Your faith got stronger, and now you're a lad that can be said to have won his battle. So don't be distressed; what you've got before you now is all the easier for it, and the worst thing that can happen is that you'll come back to me in a year. Just keep yourself straight and watch out, for my cousin is terribly suspicious; but once he's taken your measure, you can put up with him. You'll have the worst time with the other servants; go easy with them, little by little, and in kindness as long as you can; then if that's no good, speak right up so that you'll know where you are--I wouldn't like a year of that sort of thing myself."

It was a bright, clear January day as they drove through handsome fields, then between white fences and glittering trees, toward Slough Farm. This property lay perhaps ten minutes' walk from Uefligen, was over a hundred acres in size and very fruitful, but not all in one piece; some fields and one gra.s.s-meadow lay at some distance. In wet years it might be swampy in spots, but that could be managed. As they drove up, Joggeli came stumping on a stick around the house, which stood on rather low ground, and said that he had been looking for them for a long time, and had almost thought they weren't coming; he had become impatient. He shouted toward the barns, which were built against the house, for some one to come and take the horse. No one came. Uli himself had to unhitch and asked where to take Blazer. "Why, is n.o.body here?"

n.o.body came. Then the old man went angrily to the stable and pulled the door open, and there was the carter calmly currying horses. "Don't you hear when you're called?" cried Joggeli.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Then p.r.i.c.k up your ears and come and take the horse."

He'd have to make room for it first, growled the fellow, and shot in among his horses like a hawk in a pigeon-house, so that they dashed at their mangers and kicked, and Uli only by constant "Whoas" and at risk of life got Blazer into the last stall. There he could find no halter for a time.

"Should have brought one," was the carter's remark. When Uli went back to the sleigh and untied his box, the wood-cutters were to help him carry it; but for a long time none stirred. Finally they dispatched the boy, who let the handle go when they were on the stairs, so that Uli almost tumbled down backward and only owed it to his strength that he did not. The room to which he was shown was not bright, was unheated, and provided with two beds. He stood in it somewhat depressed, until they called to him to come down and get something warm to eat. Outside, a cheerful, pretty girl received him, nutbrown of hair and eyes, red and white as to cheeks, with kissable lips, blinding white teeth, tall and strong, yet slender in build, with a serious face behind which lurked both mischief and good nature.

And over the whole lay that familiar, but indescribable Something, that always testifies to inward and outward purity, to a soul which hates the unclean and whose body therefore never becomes unclean, or never seems so even in the dirtiest work. Freneli--this was the girl's name--was a poor relation, who had never had a home and was always treated like Cinderella, but always shook off the ashes--a girl who was never dimmed outwardly or inwardly, but met G.o.d and men and every new day with fresh and merry laughter, and hence found a home everywhere and made a place for herself in all hearts, however they might try to resist her; therefore she was often dearly loved by her relatives even while they fancied they hated her, casting her out because she was the offspring of an illicit intercourse between an aristocratic relative and a day-laborer. Freneli had not opened the door. When Uli came out the brown eyes rapidly swept over him, and quite seriously Freneli said, "I suppose you're the new overseer; they want you to come down and get something warm to eat." There was no need, said Uli, they had eaten something on the way.

None the less he followed the fleet girl to the living-room in silence.

In it Joggeli and Johannes were already sitting at the table, half hidden by smoking meat, both fresh and salted, sauerkraut and dried pears. A plump, friendly old woman came to meet him, wiped her hand on her ap.r.o.n, Held it out to him, and said, "Are you the new overseer?

Well, well, if you're as good as you are handsome, it'll be all right, I don't doubt. Sit down and eat, and don't be bashful; the food's there to be eaten."

On the stove bench there sat yet another form, lean, with a white face and pale, l.u.s.treless eyes; she acted as if she were paying no heed to anything, but had a pretty box before her, and was winding blue silk from one ball to another. Joggeli was telling about the time he had had with the last overseer, and what he had had to stand since then, and how it seemed to him that it had been much worse than he could remember now. "All the torment such a fellow can make you, and you can't string him up for it--it's not right, I swear. It didn't use to be so; there was a time when they hanged everybody that stole as much as would pay for the rope. That was something like, but all that's changed. It's enough to make you think the bad folks have nothing but their own kind in the government, the way it lets 'em get away. Why, we don't even hang the women that poison their husbands any more. Now, I'd like to know what's worse, to break the law by killing somebody, or by letting him live; it looks to me as if one was as bad as the other. And then it seems to me that if those who ought to maintain the law are the ones to break it, they deserve no forgiveness of G.o.d or men. Then I think we ought to have the right to put 'em where they belong, instead of having to pay 'em besides."

During this long speech of Joggeli's, which he fortunately delivered inside his four walls, as otherwise it might easily have brought down upon him an action for high treason, his wife kept constantly saying to Johannes and especially to Uli, "Take some more, won't you, that's what it's for; or don't you like it? We give what we've got--it's bad enough; but at least we don't grudge it to you. (Joggeli, do fill up the gla.s.ses; look, they're empty.) Drink, won't you, there's more where that came from. Our son gave us the wine; they say it's good; he bought it himself down in Italy; it actually cost fivepence halfpenny the quart, and not too full a quart at that." When Uli did not wish to take any more the old woman still kept putting food before him, stuck the fork into the largest pieces and then thrust them off on his plate with her thumb, saying, "Ho, you're a fine fellow if you can't get that down too; such a big lad must eat if he wants to keep his strength, and we're glad to give it to him; whoever wants to work has got to eat. Take some more, do."

But at last Uli really could eat nothing more, took up his cap, prayed, and stood up to go. "Stay awhile," said Joggeli; "where are you going?

They'll look after your Blazer, I gave 'em strict orders."

"Oh, I'd like to go out and look around a bit and see how I like it,"

said Uli.

"Go then; but come back when you get cold; you're not to work today, do you hear," said the mother.

"He'll have something to live through," said Joggeli, "they hate like poison to have him come, and I think the carter would have liked to be overseer. But I don't care if they are against each other. It's never good to have the servants on too good terms; it always comes out of the master."

"Ho," said Johannes, "that's as you take it. If the servants are on one side and the master on the other, then he has a hard time and can't do anything. But when the servants are all against each other, and each one does his best to vex the others, and one won't help another--that's bad for the master too; for after all in the end everything hits the master and his interests. I think it's a true saying that peace prospers, discord destroys. I don't just like it here. n.o.body came to take the horse; n.o.body wanted to help Uli with his box; each one does as he likes, and they don't fear anybody. Cousin, that won't be good. I must tell you, Uli won't stay here under those conditions. If he's to be overseer and have the responsibility, he wants order too; he won't let 'em all do as they please. Then there'll be a fuss; it will all come back on him, and if you don't back him up he'll run off. Let me say frankly: I told him that if he couldn't stand it here any longer, he was to come back to me, that I'd always have room for him. We're sorry enough to lose him, and the wife cried when I went off with him, as if it was her own child."

That seemed very lovely to the old mother and she wiped her own eyes just from hearing about it, and said, "Have no fear, Cousin Johannes, he shan't have a hard time with us; we know how to look after him, too. I am sure that if we've only found some one at last that we can trust and that takes an interest in things, no pay will seem too high."

"Cousin," said Johannes, "pay isn't everything; you must back Uli up and you must trust him. We've treated him almost like our own child, and he'd feel very strange if he was to be nothing but a servant."

"Oh," said the mother, "don't be anxious, Johannes, we'll do all we can.

When we make coffee for ourselves in between meals, it can't be but he shall have a cup of it. And we have our piece of meat every day, but the servants only on Sunday. What would become of us if we gave 'em meat every day? But if you think best we'll see to it that Uli gets a piece of meat every now and then."

"Cousin," said Johannes, "that's not the thing, and Uli doesn't want it either, for it only makes the others envious. No matter how you do it, they find it out just the same. We had a maid once that used to smell of all the pots when she came in from the field, and she always guessed when coffee had been given to the other servants; and then she used to sulk for a week, so that you could hardly stand it. No, you must have confidence in him and help him; then it'll be all right."

Joggeli did not want the conversation to continue and took Johannes around through stables and granary, as long as it was light. He asked for advice and got it, but Johannes would praise nothing. Of the calves he said that they ought to be looked to, for they had lice; and of the sheep that they were too cramped for room, that they would squeeze each other and the lambs would be ruined. For the rest, the inspection was made in silence. On the way back they found Uli standing gloomily in the front shed and took him in with them; but he remained down-cast the whole evening--indeed on the verge of tears whenever any one spoke to him.

On the following morning Johannes made ready for his return, after having had to eat beyond his capacity and drink a nip of brandy on top of it, although he said he never did so in the morning. Uli almost clung to his coat like a child that fears its father will run away from it; and when he started to give him his hand, Uli said he would drive a piece with him if he might; he didn't know when he should see him again.

"And how do you like it?" asked Johannes, as soon as they were away from the house.

"Oh, master, I can't tell you how I feel. I've been in a lot of places, but I never saw anything like that. So help me G.o.d, there's no order in the place anywhere. The liquid manure runs into the stable; they've never cleaned out the dung properly, the horses' hind feet are higher than the forefeet; half the grain is in the straw; the loft is like a pig-sty; the tools aren't fit to be seen. The men all look at me as if they'd like to eat me. Either they give me no answer, or they give me impudent ones, so that I feel as if I'd have to punch their heads."

"Be patient and calm yourself," said Johannes. "Begin slowly, take the helm little by little, do all you can yourself, speak pleasantly, and try to bring 'em around gradually or at least get some on your side.

Then wait awhile and see how things go, until you're familiar with everything, so that you can tell the best way to take hold. It's no good to rush right in at the start; usually one doesn't know his business well enough and takes hold of it at the wrong end. Then when you know how you stand, and if things don't get any better, sail into 'em good and proper, let 'em know where they stand with you, and force one or two of 'em to leave; you'll see an improvement right away. And be of good cheer; you're no slave, and you can go when you will. But it's a good apprenticeship for you, and the more a young man has to stand the better for him. You can learn a lot--even to be master, and that takes more skill than you think. But I keep feeling that you can make your fortune at it and make a proper man of yourself. Get on good terms with the women-folk, but not so as to make the old man suspicious; if you can get on their good side, you've won a lot. But if they keep inviting you away from your work to drink coffee with 'em, don't go; stay with the others. And always be the first one in the work; then they'll have to give in at last, willing or not."