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Page 9
She was telling us this when we heard a noise in the chamber, and
presently Lizzie her worthy old husband, who had got in at the window by
stealth, brought us a pot of good broth, which he had taken off the fire
whilst his wife was gone for a moment into the garden. He well knew that
his wife would make him pay for it, but that he did not mind, so the young
mistress would but drink it, and she would find it salted and all. He
would make haste out of the window again, and see that he got home before
his wife, that she might not find out where he had been. But my daughter
would not touch the broth, which sorely vexed him, so that he set it down
on the ground cursing, and ran out of the room. It was not long before his
squint-eyed wife came in at the front door, and when she saw the pot still
steaming on the ground, she cried out, "Thou thief, thou cursed thieving
carcass!" and would have flown at the face of my maid. But I threatened
her, and told her all that had happened, and that if she would not believe
me she might go into the chamber and look out of the window, whence she
might still, belike, see her good man running home. This she did, and
presently we heard her calling after him, "Wait, and the devil shall tear
off thine arms; only wait till thou art home again!" After this she came
back, and, muttering something, took the pot off the ground. I begged her,
for the love of God, to spare a little to my child; but she mocked at me
and said, "You can preach to her, as you did to me," and walked towards
the door with the pot. My child indeed besought me to let her go, but I
could not help calling after her, "For the love of God, one good sup, or
my poor child must give up the ghost: wilt thou that at the day of
judgment God should have mercy on thee, so show mercy this day to me and
mine!" But she scoffed at us again, and cried out, "Let her cook herself
some bacon," and went out at the door. I then sent the maid after her with
the hour-glass which stood before me on the table, to offer it to her for
a good sup out of the pot; but the maid brought it back, saying that she
would not have it. Alas, how I wept and sobbed, as my poor dying child
with a loud sigh buried her head again in the moss! Yet the merciful God
was more gracious to me than my unbelief had deserved; for when the
hard-hearted woman bestowed a little broth on her neighbour, old Paasch,
he presently brought it to my child, having heard from the maid how it
stood with her; and I believe that this broth, under God, alone saved her
life, for she raised her head as soon as she had supped it, and was able
to go about the house again in an hour. May God reward the good fellow for
it! Thus I had some joy in the midst of my trouble. But while I sat by the
fireside in the evening musing on my fate, my grief again broke forth, and
I made up my mind to leave my house, and even my cure, and to wander
through the wide world with my daughter as a beggar. God knows I had cause
enough for it; for now that all my hopes were dashed, seeing that my field
was quite ruined, and that the Sheriff had become my bitter enemy;
moreover, that it was five years since I had had a wedding, _item_, but
two christenings during the past year, I saw my own and my daughter's
death staring me in the face, and no prospect of better times at hand. Our
want was increased by the great fears of the congregation; for although
by God's wondrous mercy they had already begun to take good draughts of
fish both in the sea and the Achterwater, and many of the people in the
other villages had already gotten bread, salt, oatmeal, etc., from the
Polters and Quatzners, of Anklam and Lassan in exchange for their fish;
nevertheless, they brought me nothing, fearing lest it might be told at
Pudgla, and make his lordship ungracious to them. I therefore beckoned my
daughter to me, and told her what was in my thoughts, saying that God in
his mercy could any day bestow on me another cure if I was found worthy in
his sight of such a favour, seeing that these terrible days of pestilence
and war had called away many of the servants of his word, and that I had
not fled like a hireling from his flock, but on the contrary, till _datum_
shared sorrow and death with it. Whether she were able to walk five or ten
miles a day; for that then we would beg our way to Hamburg, to my departed
wife her step-brother, Martin Behring, who is a great merchant in that
city.
This at first sounded strange to her, seeing that she had very seldom been
out of our parish, and that her departed mother and her little brother lay
in our churchyard. She asked, "Who was to make up their graves and plant
flowers on them? _Item_, as the Lord had given her a smooth face, what I
should do if in these wild and cruel times she were attacked on the
highways by marauding soldiers or other villains, seeing that I was a weak
old man and unable to defend her; _item_, wherewithal should we shield
ourselves from the frost, as the winter was setting in and the enemy had
robbed us of our clothes, so that we had scarce enough left to cover our
nakedness?" All this I had not considered, and was forced to own that she
was right; so after much discussion we determined to leave it this night
to the Lord, and to do whatever he should put into our hearts next
morning. At any rate, we saw that we could in nowise keep the old maid any
longer; I therefore called her out of the kitchen, and told her she had
better go early next morning to Liepe, as there still was food there,
whereas here she must starve, seeing that perhaps we ourselves might leave
the parish and the country to-morrow. I thanked her for the love and faith
she had shown us, and begged her at last, amid the loud sobs of my poor
daughter, to depart forthwith privately, and not to make our hearts still
heavier by leave-taking; that old Paasch was going a-fishing to-night on
the Achterwater, as he had told me, and no doubt would readily set her on
shore at Gr�ssow, where she had friends, and could eat her fill even
to-day. She could not say a word for weeping, but when she saw that I was
really in earnest she went out of the room. Not long after we heard the
house-door shut to, whereupon my daughter moaned, "She is gone already,"
and ran straight to the window to look after her. "Yes," cried she, as she
saw her through the little panes, "she is really gone"; and she wrung her
hands and would not be comforted. At last, however, she was quieted when I
spoke of the maid Hagar, whom Abraham had likewise cast off, but on whom
the Lord had nevertheless shown mercy in the wilderness; and hereupon we
commended ourselves to the Lord, and stretched ourselves on our couches of
moss.
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