Told by the Death's Head Part 26

PART VII.

CHAPTER I.

PEACEFUL REPOSE.

I was now without a h.e.l.ler in my pocket; and yet I did not feel poor.

I thought to myself: I am a man, born this day--nothing, and n.o.body. I am so much better off than the new-born babe, in that I shall not have to be taught how to walk and talk, need no one to feed me, and rock me to sleep.

I determined I would not remain longer on German soil. If I remained, only one of two alternatives was left to me: If I desired to a.s.sociate with respectable folk, I should have to allow them, when they discovered who I was, to cut off my head; and if I went back to my old life, or into the army, I should have to cut off the heads of my fellow-creatures. I had no desire to do either.

After my varied, and troublous experiences, I yearned for peace and quiet. My plans were soon formed. There was considerable trade in lumber, between Andernach and Holland. Innumerable rafts, composed of huge tree-trunks for masts, and piles for dams, were floated down the Rhine; and to the owner of one of these rafts I hired myself as rower.

The wage was fair: thirty pfenings a day, with bread, cheese, dried fish, and a jug of beer. I never drank my portion of beer, but sold it for three pfenings, to one of my comrades on the raft, who got thirsty twice daily. I drank only water.

When my fellow rowers would curse and swear, because a strong wind, or the current, drove the raft against the rocks, I would remonstrate mildly with them; and a.s.sure them that such speech in the mouths of Christian men was displeasing to G.o.d; and when, to pa.s.s the time, they would sit down to a game of dice, I would withdraw to the further end of the raft. If they urged me to join the game, I would reply:

"Thou shalt not covet what belongs to thy neighbor."

After awhile the jeers of my comrades attracted the attention of the owner of the raft.

"h.e.l.lo, lad; what's the matter with you? You don't drink, don't gamble, and don't swear--you are d.a.m.nably pious, it seems to me! But, you are a first-rate worker; and I shall sell you in Nimeguen for at least three times as much as any of those lazy louts."

"You are going to sell me and my comrades in Nimeguen?" I exclaimed in amazement.

"Why, certainly! What the devil else should I do with you? You can float down stream on the raft; but I couldn't float you up-stream!--and I couldn't carry you on my back, could I? But, don't you worry. I'll find good places for the lot of you. There will be plenty of buyers for the rowers, as well as for the raft, and the price every fellow brings will be equally divided between me and himself!"

"What becomes of the men--usually?" I ventured to inquire.

"Well, I don't believe _all_ are chopped into sausage-meat! The Hollander likes to be a sailor--but only a captain, or a pilot. He likes also to be a soldier, but again he prefers to be a captain, or the commandant of a fortress. Therefore, common seamen and private soldiers are in demand; and for this the ignorant stranger is good.

Consequently, you need only say which you prefer: to become a sailor, or a land-lubber--and take your choice."

I deliberated a moment, then I said to him:

"I will tell you the truth, Captain, because I have vowed never again to let a lie pa.s.s my lips. I am tired of soldiering. I have shed so much blood on the battlefield, that the remembrance of it oppresses my soul. I don't want to be a soldier; I would rather go to sea, and be rocked by the waves."

"Well, you are an ignorant dunce!" he exclaimed. "Don't you know that, if you go to sea, you will get right into the thick of battle? The Dutch fight all their real battles at sea. They keep an army on sh.o.r.e, only that they may have troops to capitulate when a fortress is starved out by the enemy! The soldiers never get any actual fighting.

Punctuality, sobriety, irreproachable conduct--these are the Dutch soldier's strong points--and, the devil fly away with me, if you don't rise to be a corporal in less than a twelve-month, if you join the army! What were you before?"

"A gunner."

"Well, you can be a gunner in the Dutch army."

"But, what have the gunners in the Dutch artillery to do if there is no enemy to shoot at?" I asked.

"Oh, they find enough to occupy their time. On Sat.u.r.day evenings they have the management of the fire-works, which are set off in the park; and on the other days of the week they prepare the rockets, and other things, for the Sat.u.r.day evening's display."

That is why I became a gunner in the artillery, in the goodly city of Nimeguen. Sixty dollars was the price paid for me, the half of which I received.

I was now in a community that exactly suited me. Here was no mighty uproar, no rioting, no drinking. Here, no vain braggart youths molested the wives of the staid burghers. Here were no conflicts between the military and the citizens. All were at peace with one another.

On Sunday mornings the armed, and the unarmed residents went together to church; and in the evening all drank their pints together amicably in the beer-houses. The soldiers were allowed, when not on guard duty, or otherwise engaged in the fortress, to work for the citizens; the money thus earned belonged to themselves. And there were many chances to secure employment. The entire city of Nimeguen was a huge flower-garden, in which was grown that most important article of commerce: the tulip bulb.

It is a well-known fact that not only entire Europe but all the lands under the dominion of the Turkish sultan, would suffer a greater financial loss, were the Dutch tulip-bulbs to remain out of the markets for a year, than if all other crops were to fail for the same length of time.

By saying this, I do not mean that the carnation is not also a necessary luxury--if I may so term it; but the tulip is, and will remain, the most important article of commerce in the lands I have mentioned. One tulip-bulb is worth as much as a peck of wheat. But it is of different values--according to the color. There are tulips which only kings and sultans can afford to have bloom in their gardens.

I was fortunate enough to secure employment for my leisure hours, as gardener's a.s.sistant, on the estate of a widow who was "tulip-wealthy."

The lady would visit her tulip beds early every morning, to see them in bud; and again late in the afternoon, to see the full-blown flowers. At such times I never got a glimpse of her face; for she always wore a huge cap, from which only the tip of her nose protruded.

But I decided, after I had been on the estate a week, that the fair owner must be young, for when she addressed a remark to me, which she did occasionally, her voice was so low--as if she feared I might hear what she said.

To judge by the enormous quant.i.ties of bulbs she sent to market, the widow must have been very rich; but the bulbs were not her only treasures. She possessed a collection of sh.e.l.ls, fresh, and salt-water, that represented a very tidy sum of money.

In Holland, as well as in England, and France, the sh.e.l.l had also a commercial value; and wealthy collectors vied with one another to secure the finest examples of the _spordilus regius_; the "sun-ray"

mussel; the rainbow-hued "venus-ear"; the "queen's cap"; the "tower of Babylon"; and "Pharaoh's turban," and would pay as high as two hundred dollars for a perfect specimen of the sh.e.l.l they wanted. I have known a perfect _scalaria preciosa_ to bring one hundred zequins. This sh.e.l.l is more valuable than the pearl; and my fair employer possessed a whole drawerful of them. Her sainted husband had collected them; and they would have sold for more than would a three-master loaded with grain.

More than one nabob had offered fabulous sums for the collection; and it was said that a British peer, who was devoted to the study of conchology, had even gone so far as to offer his hand and t.i.tle to the widow, in order to gain possession of the much coveted treasure.

The widow who hesitates loses a t.i.tle; while the lady was considering the peer's offer, there was a sudden fall in the price of sh.e.l.ls, and my lord sailed away to England.

What caused this depression in the sh.e.l.l-market you ask?

Well, as your highness, and the honorable gentlemen, must know, every sea-creature like the _scalaria_ builds its house with the volutions turning to the left.

One day a sailor, whose home was in Nimeguen, returned from a voyage to Sumatra, and brought with him a large number of _scalaria_ with the sh.e.l.ls turned in just the opposite direction--from left to right. Now, a sh.e.l.l of this order was a decided _lusus naturae_, and the price for the ordinary pattern at once depreciated. The bankers and nabobs, who had formerly vied with one another in their quest for the _scalaria preciosa_, were now so inflamed with the desire to possess a _scalaria retrotorsa_, that they willingly paid from two to three thousand thalers for a single specimen. On the other hand, the ordinary _scalaria_, which had sold readily for one hundred ducats, could now be bought for ten, and fifteen thalers.

This was a heavy blow for my widowed employer, and she soon found that she had not the strength to bear it alone.

When I heard of her loss, I summoned enough courage to say to her:

"If this unlucky business about the sh.e.l.ls is all that troubles you, my dear lady, I think I can help you. I have a scheme that will in a very short time produce sh.e.l.ls which turn to the right--and in such quant.i.ties, that you can supply all the sh.e.l.l-markets in the country."

The widow reflected several moments, then replied:

"But, I couldn't think of allowing you to employ witch-craft to secure such sh.e.l.ls for me. I do not approve of magic. I have always held aloof from sorcery, charms, conjuring, and all such infernal practices; and, as I hope some time to be united with my beloved husband, who is with the saints, I could not bind my soul to the wicked one, by countenancing any sort of magic, or idolatry."

"There is neither magic nor idolatry connected with my scheme to benefit you, gracious lady," I a.s.sured her. "What I have in mind is a purely scientific experiment. It is fully described in a large book written by the learned Professor Wagner, who was a very pious man, as well as a very clever scholar."

"The book I allude to, gracious lady, treats of the sympathy and antipathy of plants, and cold-blooded animals; and is all about creatures made by our Heavenly Father. It is a noteworthy fact, that the bean vine always twines from left to right around the stake which supports it; while the hop as invariably winds from right to left--neither of them ever makes a mistake. If, however, the bean and the hop be planted close together, then, the two plants being antipathetic one to the other, the bean will twine to the left, and the hop to the right."

"_Quid fuit probatum._"

"From such experiments the learned professor was led to experiment with living creatures. He found that, when an acaleph which forms its sh.e.l.l from right to left in the flower-beds at the bottom of the ocean, chances to lie in close proximity to a _nautilus pompilius_, which belongs to the cephalopods, and builds from left to right, the two, because of their antipathy for each other, will reverse the order of their volutions."