Das landhaus am Rhein. English by Berthold Auerbach
CHAPTER V.
THE GOOD COMRADE.
The Major lived in a beautifully situated house in the vineyard of arich vintner from the fortress, or rather, to use the properexpression, of a brother of the order, for the central point of theMajor's life rested firmly, in Freemasonry, and he cherished it withinhis life and thought, as his holy of holies; and if men talked of theriddles of life, his face always said,--I see no mystery, all is clearto me; only come to us, we have an answer to everything.
The small house which the Major inhabited was attached to the largemansion; one side looked toward the highroad, and the other commanded aview of the river and the mountains beyond. The Major confined himselfstrictly to his little house, and his own special little garden withits arbor. He watched over the larger dwelling and its garden, like acastellan, but he never lived there, and often did not enter them forthe many months during which they stood empty.
Eric found the Major in his little garden, smoking a long pipe andreading the newspaper, with a cup of cold coffee before him. Anexceedingly neat-looking old lady, with a large white cap, was sittingopposite, engaged in darning stockings; she rose as soon as Ericentered the garden, and hardly waited to be presented. The Majortouched his cap in military fashion, and took the long pipe from hismouth.
"Fraeulein Milch, this is my comrade, Herr Doctor Dournay, latelyCaptain."
Fraeulein Milch courtesied, took up her basket of stockings, and wentinto the house.
"She is good and sensible, always contented and cheerful; you willbecome better acquainted," said the Major, as she withdrew; "and sheunderstands men,--no one better,--she looks them through and through.Sit down, comrade, you have come just at my pleasantest hour. You see,this is the way I live: I have nothing particular to do, but I get upearly,--it prolongs life,--and every day I gain a victory over a lazy,effeminate fellow, who has to take a cold bath, and then go to walk; heoften doesn't want to, but he has to do it. And then, you see, I comehome, and sit here in the morning:--and here is a white cloth spreadon the table, and before me stand a pot of coffee, good cream, aroll--butter I don't eat. I pour out my coffee, dip in the roll whichis so good and crisp--I can still bite well, Fraeulein Milch keeps myteeth in order--then at the second cup, I take my pipe and puff out thesmoke over the world, and over the world's history, which the newspaperbrings me every day. I still have good eyes, I can read withoutspectacles, and can hit a mark; and I can hear well, and my back isstill good; I hold myself as straight as a recruit--and look you,comrade, I am the richest man in the world. And then at noon I have mysoup--nobody makes soup like her--my bit of good roast meat, my pint ofwine, my coffee--with four beans she makes better coffee than any oneelse can with a pound--and yet it has happened to me a thousand timesto have to sing this song to the fellow sitting here: You are the mostungrateful fellow in the world, to be cross as you often are, and wishfor this and that which you have not. Only look round you; see how niceand neat everything is,--good bread, a good arm-chair, a good pipe andso much good rest,--you are the happiest man in the world to haveall this. Yes, my dear comrade, you may be deucedly learned--I begpardon--I mean, you may be very learned--look you--I never studied, Inever learned anything, I was a drummer--I'll tell you about itsometime--yes, comrade--what was I saying? ah, that's it, you know athousand times more than I do, but one thing you can learn of me. Makethe best of life; now's the time, be happy now, enjoy yourself now,this hour won't come back again. Don't always be thinking aboutto-morrow. Just draw a long breath, comrade--there, what sort of air isthat? is there better anywhere?--and then we have our nice, cleanclothes on!--Ah, thank the Builder of all the worlds!--Yes, comrade, ifI had had any one, when I was your age, to tell me what I'm tellingyou--Pooh, pooh!--What an old talker I am--I'm glad you've come tosee me!--Well, how do you get on? Are you really going to drill ourboy? I think you are the right man to do it, you will bring him intoline--you know, comrade, what that means--only a soldier can do that.Only a soldier can school men. Nothing but strict discipline!--I'llwarrant, he'll come out right--he'll do well--Fraeulein Milch has alwayssaid, 'He'll come out right, if he only falls into the right hands.'The school-masters are all of no use; Herr Knopf was very worthy andgood-hearted, but he didn't hold the reins tight. Thank the Builder ofall the worlds, now it's all right!--Thank you for coming to see me. IfI can help you, remember that we are comrades. It's very fortunate thatyou have been a soldier. I have always wished--Fraeulein Milch cantestify that I've said a hundred times, none but a soldier willdo!--Now let us make a soldier of Roland, a true soldier, he hascourage, he only wants the training!"
"I should like," answered Eric, "if I really have the position--"
"Really have the position? There's no doubt about it, I tell you--Pooh,pooh; I'll wager something on that. But, I ask your pardon, I won'ttalk any more--what were you going to say, comrade?"
"I think we ought not to train him for any special calling; Roland mustbe a cultivated, wise, and good man, whatever his profession may proveto be--"
"Just so, just so--excellently said--that's right--the fellow has givenme much anxiety! How foolish people are, to hanker after millions. Whenthey get them, all they can do is to eat their fill and sleep eighthours, that's all any one can do. The chief point is--" here the Majorlowered his voice, and raised his hand--"the chief point is, he mustreturn to nature; that is all the world needs--to return to nature."
Eric luckily abstained from asking the Major what he precisely meant bythis mysterious proposition, for the Major would, unfortunately, nothave been able to tell him; but he was fond of the phrase, and alwaysused it, leaving every one to find out the meaning for himself.
"To return to nature, everything is included in that," he repeated.
After a while he began:--
"Yes, what was I going to ask?--Tell me, did not you have a great dealto bear as a soldier, because you were a commoner and not a noble?"
Eric answered in the negative, and the Major stammered out,--
"Indeed, indeed--you--a liberally educated man, felt less of it. Iasked for my discharge. I'll tell you about it sometime."
Eric mentioned that he had been at the priest's, and the Major said,--
"He is an excellent man, but I call for no aid of the ecclesiastics.You know I am a Freemason."
Eric assented, and the Major continued: "Whatever is good in me has itshome in that; we will talk farther of it--I will be your god-father.Ah, how glad Herr Weidmann will be to know you."
And again, at the mention of Weidmann's name, it seemed as if abeautiful view of the highest mountains of the landscape was broughtbefore the mind. The Major resumed:--
"But now as to the ecclesiastics. Look"--he drew his chair a littlenearer--"look at my drum, it's all there in that--look you, I was adrummer--yes, smile away, if you like--look you, everybody says such adrum makes nothing but racket, and I tell them there's music init, as beautiful as--I won't disparage any one--as beautiful as anyother--look you, then, I say,--mark my words--then I say, 'I will notquarrel with you if you hear nothing but noise, but don't quarrel withme, if I hear something else.' Look you, I have thought it all over,everything else will be made by machinery, men are very clever, butdrum and trumpet-signals can not be made by machinery, human hands andmouths are needed for that; I was a drummer, for example, I'll tell youabout it. Look you, I know by the sound what sort of a heart a man has,when he beats a drum; where you, my brother, hear nothing but noise andconfusion, I hear music and deep meaning. Therefore, for God's sake, nostrife about religions; one is worth as much or as little as another,they only lead the march; but the main thing is, how every man marchesfor himself, how he has drilled himself, and what sort of a heart hehas in his body."
Eric was amused by the eccentricity of this man, who had a deepearnestness and moral freedom peculiar to himself.
Standing his pipe near him, the Major asked,--
"Is there any human being in the wo
Eric answered in the negative, and said that his father had alwaysimpressed it upon him, that nothing injured one's own soul like hatred;and that for his own sake, a man ought not to let such a feeling takeroot within him.
"That's the man for me! that's the man for me!" cried the Major. "Nowwe shall get on together. Whoever has had such a father is the man forme!"
He then told Eric that there was a man in the village whom he hated: hewas the tax-collector, who wore the St. Helena medal given by thepresent Napoleon to the veterans, for the heroic deeds in which theyhad taken part in the subjugation of their fatherland. "And would youbelieve it!" exclaimed the Major, "the man has had himself painted withthe St. Helena medal; the portrait hangs framed in his room of state,and under it, in a separate frame, the diploma signed by the Frenchminister. I don't bow to the man, nor return his bow, nor sit down atthe same table with him; he has a different principle of honor from,mine. And tell me, ought there not to be some way of punishing suchmen? I can only do it by showing my contempt; it is painful to me, butmust I not do it?"
The old man looked much astonished when Eric represented to him thatthe man ought to be judged mildly, since vanity had great powers tomislead, and besides, many governments had been well pleased to havetheir subjects win the St. Helena medal, and the man, who was in theservice of the State, was not to be sentenced without hearing.
"That's good! that's good!" cried the old Major, nodding frequently,according to his habit; "you are the right kind of teacher! I amseventy years old, that is, I am seventy-three now, and I've known manymen, and let people say what they will, I have never known a bad man,one really bad. In passion, and stupidity, and pride, men do muchthat's wrong; but, good God! one ought to thank his heavenly Fatherthat he isn't such as he might very often have become. Thank you; thankyou: you have lifted the enemy from my neck;--yes, from my neck; he hassat there, heavy and--look, here comes the man himself!"
The collector was walking by the garden; the Major went to the hedgewith many nods and gestures of his hand; he hoped, perhaps, that theman would utter the first greeting; but as this did not happen, hesuddenly called out, with a voice like the explosion of a bomb,--
"Good-morning, Herr Collector!"
The man returned his salutation and went on. The old Major was entirelyhappy, and passed his hand several times over his heart, as if a stoneor burden were removed from it. Fraeulein Milch looked out of thewindow, and the Major asked her to come out, as he had something verygood to tell her. She came, looking still neater than before, havingput on a white apron, in which the ironed folds were still fresh. TheMajor told her that the collector was not to blame, for he had receivedthe St. Helena medal only in obedience to the government.
They went together to the house, and the Major showed his guest therooms where simple neatness reigned; then he looked at the barometer,and nodded, saying to himself, "Set fair."
Then he looked at the thermometer screwed up by the window, and wipedhis forehead, as if he had not felt till then how hot it was.
A shot was heard in the distance, and the Major pointed out to Eric thedirection whence the sound came, saying,--
"I can hear the gun-practice from the fortress. I find that therifle-cannon have just the same sound as the smooth-bore. Ah, comrade,you must instruct me in the new art of war. I don't know anything aboutit, but when I hear them firing down there, all the soldier in me wakesup."
He asked Fraeulein Milch to bring a bottle of wine, one of the verybest. Fraeulein Milch seemed to have it all ready; she brought bottleand glasses directly, but gave the Major a significant look, which heunderstood, and answered:--
"Don't be afraid; I know very well that I can't drink in the morning.Pray, captain, give me your cork-screw. I take you to be the right sortof man, and the right sort of man always has a cork-screw in hispocket."
Smiling, Eric handed him his knife, which was fitted with a cork-screw.
While the Major was opening the bottle, he said,--
"And another mark of a genuine man is, that he can whistle. Comrade, beso kind as to whistle once for me."
Laughter prevented Eric from drawing up his lips. The bottle wasuncorked, and they drank to good comradeship. The Major said,--
"Perhaps we are in better spirits here, than our friend Sonnenkamp inhis grand villa. But Herr captain, I say again, an elephant is happy,and a fly is happy too; only the elephant has a larger proboscis thanthe fly."
The Major laughed till he shook with delight at his comparison, andEric found the laughter contagious, and as often as they looked at eachother, the laughter began afresh.
"You show me the meaning of the proverb," cried Eric, "'a gnat may betaken for an elephant,' and in fact it is correct; not the size, notthe mass, but the organism is the life."
"Just so, just so!" exclaimed the Major. "Fraeulein Milch, come in againa moment."
Fraeulein Milch, who had left the room, re-entered, and the Majorcontinued,--
"Pray, captain, say that once more about the organism. That is the sortof thing for Fraeulein Milch, for, look you, she studies much more thanshe chooses to let any one know. If you please, comrade, the organismonce more. I can't tell it half so well."
What was Eric to do? He explained his figure again, and the laughterbroke out anew.
Fraeulein Milch recommended to Eric the school-master of the village, asa remarkably fine writer, and the Major cried, laughing,--
"Yes, comrade, Fraeulein Milch is a living roll of honor for the wholeregion; if you want information about anyone, ask her. And for Heaven'ssake, don't let the Countess Wolfsgarten give you any medicine.Fraeulein Milch knows much more about it--and no one can apply leechesso well as she can."
Eric saw the good old woman's embarrassment, and began to praise herbeautiful flowers, and thriving plants, which stood in the window. TheMajor asserted that she understood gardening perhaps even better thanHerr Sonnenkamp, and if it were only known with what small means sheraised her plants, she would get the first prize at the exhibition,instead of the gentlemen with their great forcing-houses.
Turning the conversation, Fraeulein Milch said to Eric that it was thechief misfortune of Roland, the poor rich boy, that he had no realsatisfaction.
"No real satisfaction?" laughed the Major; "just listen to that!"
"Yes," asserted Fraeulein Milch, the ribbons and bows on her cap noddingassentingly as she spoke, "he has merely pleasure and amusements thatmoney can buy, but they are not genuine; and any one who only drivesthrough the world for pleasure, with nothing to do in it, seekssatisfaction in vain."
A gleam of pleasure from Eric's eyes rested on the good Fraeulein, andat that moment a secret bond of union, a sense of mutual understanding,was formed between them.
Accompanied by both as far as the garden-gate, Eric left the house.When the door was opened, a brown and white spaniel jumped upon theMajor.
"Halloo!" cried the Major, in a tone of mingled scolding and caress,"where have you been again, you disorderly vagabond, who can tellwhere? and here we've had a visitor; old as you are, you will neverlearn good behavior and regular habits. Shame on you--shame!"
So spoke the Major to his dog Laadi, well-known in all the countryround; he kept a female dog, because the village dogs never fought withher.
As the Major left the garden with Eric, he said,--
"Look at these two posts, these closely-trimmed ash-trees. Severalyears ago I noticed that the one at the left got its leaves ten oreleven days before the one at the right. Now, once the frost cameunexpectedly, and the leaves withered on the left-hand one, and itdrooped all summer; since then it has been prudent, and lets the otherget its leaves first, and then itself leaves out. Doesn't it seem as iftrees had understanding? Yes, dear comrade, everything is betterarranged in the world than we understand, and, look you, though I havea pension and nothing to do, I have so many things to keep in sight,that the day is often t
And as Eric shook hands, he added:--
"I thank you, for now I have another man to hold dear, and that's thebest thing in the world to keep one young and sound."
Eric had gone several steps, when the Major called to him to stop, andcoming up to him, said:--
"Yes, as to Herr Sonnenkamp--do not be led astray, comrade. Men of theworld either make an idol of a successful man, or they abuse him. HerrSonnenkamp is somewhat rough outside, but he is good at heart; and, asto his past history, who is there who can feel satisfied with all hispast life? can any man? certainly not I, and I don't know anyone whocan. I have not always lived as I wish I had. But enough, you are wiserthan I."
"I understand perfectly," replied Eric. "American life is an existencewithout a seventh day of rest; there is a continual working andstriving to win money, nothing else. If men have led such a life forhalf a score of years, they lose the power of turning to anything else;they say to themselves that if they only had enough--ah, those whostrive for gold never get enough--they say then they would devotethemselves to nobler ends. If it were only still possible! I understandyou, and wonder at Herr Sonnenkamp."
"Just so--just so," said the Major, "he must have dragged himselfthrough a good deal of mud, as a gold-hunter, to get such a greatproperty together. Yes, yes, I am easy--you are wiser than I. But now,just for the first time, the main question occurs to me--look at me,tell me honestly, is it true that you have been to see Fraeulein Mannaat the convent?"
"I have been at the convent, and saw Fraeulein Manna, but withoutknowing her or speaking to her."
"And you didn't come to establish yourself in the house, in order tomarry the daughter?"
Eric smiled, as he said in reply, how strangely this question came tohim from every direction.
"Look you, comrade, put the maiden out of your thoughts, she is as goodas betrothed to Baron Pranken--I would rather you should have her, butit can't be changed."
Eric at last got away, and went back toward the villa with cheerfulthoughts. Good powers were working together to keep Roland constantlyin a circle of thought and feeling, from which he might not deviatethrough his whole life.
He stopped before a wide-spreading walnut tree, and looked up smilinginto its rich branches.
"Sonnenkamp is right," he said to himself; "the planting of trees andtheir growth depend upon the surrounding heights and the prevailingwinds. There are nervous trees, which are killed by the blasts, andothers which only strike root when they are blown this way and that bythe wind. Is not the life of man such a plant? the men around itconstitute its climatic zone."
Eric thought he was constantly getting a better insight into theinfluences which were helping, and those which were hindering, the truegrowth of his pupil.
How rich is the world! Up there at the castle sits the old count by hisyoung wife's side, and creates for himself an ideal realm of thought,after a full and active life;--here sits the old Major with hishousekeeper. How Bella would turn up her nose if she were compared withthat housekeeper, and yet--
Suddenly Eric heard carriage wheels behind him, and a man's and awoman's voice called out to him.