Part 44 (1/2)
”I will do so, Zachary, and it shall all be made right; but I am sorry for the poor boy, that he should be so disappointed. Who would have thought of a mule!” (maulesel.)
”I observe,” said the rector, laying the cards, which he had arranged in order of rank, upon the table, ”that you all speak of this little new-born animal as a maulesel, while according to the natural history use of language, it should be called a maulthier. The difference is----”
”Don't bore us with your natural history!” cried Kurz. ”Are we playing natural history, or are we playing cards? Here, ace of diamonds lies on the table!”
Well, there was no help for it, they suited and suited, and Kurz won the game, and with it the right to boast, for four weeks, of his ten grandissimo.
So they played on, in friendly excitement, until the rector, looking over the account, became aware that he had won, in all, three thalers and eight groschen, and since the luck was going rather against him of late, he resolved to stop; so he rose, and said his feet were getting cold, and put his winnings in his pocket.
”If you suffer from cold feet,” said Brasig, ”I will tell you a good remedy; take a pinch of snuff every morning, on an empty stomach,--that is good for cold feet.”
”Eh, what!” cried Kurz, who had been winning lately, ”how can he get cold feet?”
”So?” said the rector, hotly, for he was determined to retain his winnings, ”haven't I as good a right to cold feet as you? Don't you always get cold feet, at our club, when you have had good luck?” and he carried it out, he kept his cold feet, and his winnings, and after a little while the two city people drove off, taking Brasig with them.
Habermann was just going to bed, when there was a loud talking and scolding before the door, and Fritz Triddelsitz and Krischan Dasel came in.
”Good evening, Herr Inspector,” said Krischan, ”it is all the same to me.”
”What is the matter now?” asked Habermann.
”Herr Inspector,” said Fritz, ”you know how it has gone with--well, with the mule, and now Krischan won't have the beast in the stable.”
”What has happened?” said Habermann.
”Yes, Herr, it is all the same to me. But this isn't all the same, I have been used to horses and colts, and not to camels and mules. Why, Herr Triddelsitz might as well bring bears and monkeys into the riding-stable!”
”Well, but if I tell you so, the beast _shall_ stand in the stable, and you shall take just as good care of it as of any other colt.”
”Yes, if you command me, then it is all the same to me, and then it shall always be so. Well, good night, Herr Inspector, and don't take it ill of me,” and he went off.
”Herr Habermann,” said Fritz, ”what will Herr von Rambow say to this accident? and the gracious lady too?”
”Make yourself easy, they will not trouble themselves much about it.
”Well,” said Fritz, and went out of the door, to go to bed, ”it is too provoking, that this should have happened to my mare.”
When the Herr came home from his journey, he got the story of the chestnut mare fresh from Krischan, and because he was a good-natured man, and liked Fritz, since in some respects they were a good deal alike, he comforted him and said, ”Never mind! This does not interfere with our bargain. You must think that it is only the natural result of a _mesalliance_. We will put the mare and the colt into the paddock, by and by; and you will see they will give us a great deal of pleasure.”
It was really so; every one found amus.e.m.e.nt in the little beast. When the village children strolled through the fields, on Sunday afternoons, they would go to the paddock, and gaze at the little mule: ”See, Joching, there he is.” ”Yes, that is a nice one! See, how he p.r.i.c.ks up his ears!” ”Now look, see him kick!”
When the maids pa.s.sed the paddock, on the way to the milking shed, they also stopped: ”See, Stina, there is Herr Triddelsitz's mule!” ”Come, Fika, let us go round that way.” ”Not I, what a horrid-looking creature!” ”You need not call him horrid, he gives you the least trouble of any of them.”
And through the whole region, the mare and the mule and Fritz were renowned, and wherever the latter showed himself he was asked after the welfare of the mule, to his great annoyance. The little old donkey, however, was not at all troubled, he ran about in the paddock all summer, with the other well-born and high-born colts, and, if any of them came too near him, he knew how to stand up for his rights.
CHAPTER XXIII.
This was a very favourable year for Pumpelhagen; and when the harvest came, and the prices of grain went up, Axel von Rambow was relieved from all his anxieties and embarra.s.sments.