THE day before “All Souls” Mariann said to the children, “Go and find the mountain-ash berries; to-morrow we shall want them for the churchyard.”
“I know where I can find them,” said Dami, with a truly avaricious1 joy, and ran out of the village with such haste that Amrie could scarcely overtake him. When she arrived at the parental2 house, he was already upon the tree, and signed proudly to her that she should also come up, because he knew that she could not. He plucked the red berries and threw them down into the apron3 of his sister. She prayed him to break off the stems with the berries, and she would weave a crown. “That I shall not,” he answered, and yet there came no berry down afterwards without a stem.
“Listen, how the sparrows scold,” cried Dami from the tree. “They are angry because I take their food from them.” When he had plucked them all, he said, “I will not go down again from[26] this tree, but will stay up here day and night, till I fall down dead. I will never go down to you, Amrie, unless you promise me something.”
“What then?”
“That you will never wear the present that the Landfried gave you—never, as long—as long as I can see it.”
“No!”
“Then I will never come down.”
“Not on my account?” said Amrie, and went and sat down at a little distance, behind a pile of wood, and began to weave a crown, peeping out, however, every moment, to see if Dami was coming. She placed the crown upon her head, but suddenly an inexpressible anxiety, on account of Dami, overcame her. She ran back. Dami sat upon a branch, his back against the trunk of the tree, and his arms crossed before him.
“Come down,” she said, “Oh! come down; I will promise every thing you wish.” In a second Dami was at her side, upon the ground.
They went home, and Mariann scolded the foolish children because they had made crowns from the berries which were needed at the graves of their parents. She tore the crowns apart—at the same time saying some mysterious words. Then she took both children by the hand, and led them out to the churchyard. Pointing to the two graves lying together, she said, “There are your parents!”
[27]The children looked amazed at each other. Mariann made, with a stick, a deep cross upon both the graves, and showed the children how to strew4 the berries therein. Dami was the more nimble, and triumphed because his red cross was ready before his sister’s. Amrie looked at him with tears, and when Dami said, “That will make father glad,” she gave him a little blow and said, “Be still!”
Dami wept, more perhaps because he had become serious. Then Amrie cried aloud, “for Heaven’s sake forgive me—oh! forgive me that I did that. Yesterday I promised, that for my whole life long I would do for you all I can, and give you all that I have. Say, Dami, that I have not hurt you. Can you not forget it? It shall never happen again as long as I live. Oh never! never again! Never! Oh, mother! Oh, father! I will be good! I promise you, Oh, mother! Oh, father!” She could say no more, but wept silently, and they say that one deep sob5 after another convulsed her. Then as Brown Mariann wept aloud, Amrie wept with her.
They went home, and as Dami said, “Good-night,” she whispered softly in his ear, “Now I know that we shall never see our parents again in this world!” Yet in this communication there mixed a certain childish joy, a child’s pride in knowing something, a consciousness that the parents’ lips are closed forever. When death closes the lips of one who must call thee child, a living[28] breath has vanished which can never again return.
As Mariann sat by the bed of Amrie, the child said to her, “I feel as though I were falling and falling forever! Let me have your hand.” She held her hand fast and began to slumber6, but as often as Mariann withdrew her hand she caught it again. Mariann understood what that feeling of endless falling signified to the child. By the inward consciousness of the death of her parents, which she had gained to-day, they seemed to her to hover7 in an undefined distance,—she knew not whence, nor where. Not before midnight could Mariann leave the bed of the child, and after she had repeated her prayers, who knows how many times?
A stern scorn lay upon the countenance8 of the sleeping child. One hand was crossed upon her breast. Mariann took it softly away, and said, as though to herself, “If always an eye could watch over thee, and a hand help thee, as now, in thy sleep, and without thy knowledge could lift the weight from thy heart! But this can no mortal do—only He! Do thou to my child in a strange country as I do for this.”
Brown Mariann was a person whom people feared—she was so austere9 and crabbed10 in appearance. It was eighteen years since she lost her husband, who was shot as he made an attack with other companions upon the post-wagon. Mariann[29] bore child beneath her heart, when her husband’s corpse11 was brought into the village with his blackened face. But she suppressed her agony, and washed the black from the face of the dead, as though she could thereby12 wash the guilt13 from his soul. Her three daughters died in close succession, after the last child was born. He had become a smart little fellow, although with a strange dark face. He was now a journeyman mason, out upon his wanderings in some distant place; and his mother, who for her whole life had never been out of the village, and never had any desire to wander, often said, “That she was like a hen who had hatched one egg, but clucked always secretly at home.”
It would scarcely be believed that Mariann was one of the most cheerful persons in the village. She was never observed to be melancholy14. She would not allow people to pity her, and therefore she was disliked and solitary15. In winter she was the most industrious16 spinner in the village, and in summer the most diligent17 wood-gatherer, so that she was able to sell a good part of it.
“My John,”—so she called her son,—“My John,” was heard in every sentence from her lips. The little Amrie, she said, she had taken not out of compassion18, but because she would have a living being near her. She was rough and cross outwardly, and to other people, and enjoyed secretly the pride of being kind, and doing right.
[30]Exactly the opposite of this was Krappenzacher, with whom Dami had found a shelter. Before the world he showed himself one of the most good-humored benefactors19; in secret he ill treated his dependants20 and especially Dami, for whom he received but a very small compensation. His true name was Zacharia. He received his nickname because he once brought home to his wife what he called a daintily-prepared roast, of a pair of doves. They were but a pair of plucked ravens21, here in the country named Krappen. Krappenzacher spent the most of his time knitting woollen stockings and jackets, and sat with his knitting-needles in any part of the village where tattling was to be had. This gossip in which he heard every thing, served him to meddle22 with the business of his neighbors. He was the so-called match-maker of the place. When any of his marriages were really brought about, he played the violin at the wedding. In this he was really a country amateur. He also played the clarionet and the horn, when his arm was weary with the fiddle23. He was, indeed, a “Jack-of-all-trades.”
Thus were both scions24, which had sprung from the same root, transplanted into very different soil. Position and culture, and the nature which they severally possessed25, would lead them to very different fortunes.
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1
avaricious
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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2
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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strew
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| vt.撒；使散落；撒在…上，散布于 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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8
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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crabbed
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| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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12
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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benefactors
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| n.捐助者，施主( benefactor的名词复数 )；恩人 | |
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dependants
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| 受赡养者，受扶养的家属( dependant的名词复数 ) | |
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ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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22
meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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24
scions
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| n.接穗，幼枝( scion的名词复数 )；（尤指富家）子孙 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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