Malchen and Salchen, meanwhile, to the great distress of their elders, gave a great tea-party, to which Herr Sussmann was invited, as he had, merely out of compa.s.sion, accepted a situation in the Mahlenstra.s.se.

When our old friend were set free, Pomuchelskopp sat down in the living room, and bewailed himself to his daughters. Hauning went straight to the kitchen, and there found a day-laborer's wife; for, during their imprisonment, there had been a great excitement, and the Rostock maid-servants had resolved that no respectable girl should go into service at the Pomuchelskopps. So they hired this woman by the day.

"What do you get a day?" asked Hauning.

"Sixteen groschen," was the reply. Hauning grasped the tongs, but bethought herself in time. But this self-control made the evil overflow into her blood, and three days after she was dead; and in three days more she was buried. Pomuchelskopp and his daughters do not know where she lies, and if any one inquires, they say, "She is buried over yonder,--over yonder." But Gustaving, who, in his capacity of inspector, often visits the city, knows. He took one of the little ones by the hand, and showed him the place: "See, Krischaning, mother is buried there."

I have been telling of sorrow, and have yet more to relate; but why not also of joy? There was joy in the pastor's-widow-house, for long years.

Frau Pastorin used to sit, on summer evenings, and look at her Pastor's grave. Ah! how glad she would be to die; and then, when Durt brought the candles, she would turn round, and look at her old furniture, and the picture gallery, and the duster in its old place, and under the picture gallery, the two friendly old faces, which she had so often seen there in her Pastor's time, and then, how glad she was to live!

Habermann was constantly active, no longer for strangers, but for his children and grandchildren, for Louise had two of the dearest little girls; and he had still another gratification. Fritz Triddelsitz walked in one day,--of course in a blue dress-coat,--with the little a.s.sessor, and introduced himself as a proprietor, in Lower Pomerania, and the little a.s.sessor as his bride; and when he had talked of various matters through the evening, and they had gone away, Brasig said, "Karl, this time you were right again; but who would have thought it? Your greyhound has become quite a reasonable being; but don't plume yourself too much upon it; it is not your doing, it is the little a.s.sessor's."

Brasig himself scoured the whole region after news. Now he was in Rexow, then in Pumpelhagen, then in Rahnstadt, but his chief place of resort was Hogen Selchow. He journeyed thither, nearly every quarter, and when he came back he would say, "Karl, it goes well; he has quite given up the management, and now he sits in his work-shop, and invents.

Stuff and nonsense, of course; but Bremer says he would not ask for a better master, and the gracious Frau looks as happy and blessed as an angel in Paradise. But, Karl, he is not so stupid, after all. He has made one invention, that I am going to try, myself. You see, you take an old hat, cut out a hole in front, and put a lantern in, and when you are riding out, in the winter evenings, and have your lantern there, you can see, as if it were broad daylight."

Brasig actually brought Axel's invention into practice, and frightened all the country people in the region; but once when he had visited Hogen Selchow, he had an attack of his old friend the Podagra, and the old friend kicked him in the stomach, with both feet, and on the way home, he took a severe cold. And so he lay on his death-bed.

The Frau Pastorin and Frau Nussler and his old Karl Habermann were sitting by him, and the Frau Pastorin said, "Dear Brasig, shall I not call in the young Herr Pastor?"

"Let it go, Frau Pastorin, you have called me a heathen all my life; it may not have been right for me to live as I have done; but the pastor-business! No, it is better so. And, Karl, my sister's daughter, Lotting, is to have two thousand thalers; and the rest shall go to the school in Rahnstadt; for, Karl, the Frau Pastorin has enough to live on, and you have enough to live on, but the poor school-children are so badly off! And Frau Nussler has enough to live on, and my G.o.dchild, Mining, and you, Karl, and you are all going to live, and I am going to die." And then his mind began to wander and he was once more in his early childhood, keeping sheep for his father, and an old ram made him a great deal of trouble, and he called to Frau Nussler to come and help him, and Frau Nussler sat down on the bed, and put her arms around him, and then he began about the three sweethearts, and Frau Nussler, and kept calling out that he had never loved any one but her, and Frau Nussler kissed the words from his lips, saying, "I know it, Brasig, my dear, old Zachary, I know it."

And the fancies came thicker and faster, about the time when he was a.s.sessor at the court, and the indiciums, and the young Herr von Rambow, and the Lauban pond, and how he threw the pistol into the pond and lost four groschen on the wager. And then a strange lightness came over him, and he told his dear old Frau Nussler the most wonderful stories about the little twins, and his G.o.dchild, Mining, and Karl Habermann and Louise,--all intermingled with each other,--holding Frau Nussler's hand fast in his all the while; but suddenly he raised himself, and said, "Frau Nussler, lay your hand on my head; I have always loved you. Karl Habermann, rub my feet, they are cold."

Habermann did so, and a bright smile flashed across Brasig's face, and he said slowly, "I was always ahead of you in style." That was the last.

Our little Frau Pastorin soon followed him. There are a few people who live very happily on earth, and yet are glad to die. To these few belonged the little round Frau. She was very comfortable here below, but when she thought of the home above, a dear old face shown upon her, and old tones rang in her ears, for she thought of heaven as a little, neat, clean village church, where the angels sang and her pastor preached. Now she is with him, and can put on his mantle, and tie his bands, and sing with him, in the little church, no longer "funeral hymns," no! "resurrection songs."

With these thoughts running through my head, I turned the corner near the arbor, where so many people had sat in their trouble and distress, and saw, playing on the lawn, three little maidens from four to eleven years of age. And, as I came nearer, I saw a lady with a friendly, contented expression in her face, and she dropped her work in her lap, and smiled at the little girls, and shook her finger at them: "Don't provoke me too far!" Near her, sat a fresh, healthy-looking man, reading the newspaper, and he laid it down and shook his head, as if he said, "There is nothing in it." And farther on sat an old man, at whose knee a little girl of twelve years was leaning, and chatting with him, and he interrupted her lively childish prattle, to say to the young Frau: "Let them play, Louise, they will become steady and reasonable soon enough." And as I came round the corner, the old man exclaimed: "Good heavens! is not that----?" And Franz and Louise came towards me, and Franz said, "See! see! That is right, Fritz, to visit us once more!"

"Many greetings, gracious Frau," said I, "from my Louise," for my wife is a Louise too. And we talked of one thing and another, but our quiet did not last long, for a troop came tearing through the garden, like the wild hunt, and four boys, with brown eyes, and brown cheeks, and gray jackets and trousers, scampered up the path, and a little rogue of six years rushed up to Franz and clasped his knees, saying over his shoulder to the others, "I am the first!"

"Yes," said another, a boy of about twelve, "I believe you, you ran through the meadow; but how you look! Mather will scold finely!" And now the little fellow looked down at his stockings and trousers, and, truly! if his mother were contented with their condition, he would have reason to be thankful.

"Are your father and mother coming soon?"

"Yes," said the eldest boy, "they are close by. And grandmother is coming too, and Frau von Rambow, who came yesterday."

"Ah, Frida?" cried Louise, "that is good!" And it was not long before Rudolph and Mining came up, and they looked like a fair day in summer, when the sunlight lies broad over the fields, and the shadows are short, and men are working in their shirt-sleeves. Rudolph has become a capable fellow who counts for something among his colleagues, for he does not carry on his farming in the old-fashioned, narrow ways, and has regard to the welfare of other people, and of the whole country, as well as to his own profit. And behind them came Frau Nussler, and Frida. The Frau von Rambow looked to the right, and the left, and her face grew sad, and when she came to the arbor and the first greetings were over, Louise called to her oldest daughter, "Frida, bring auntie a chair!" for Frida had once said, she could never sit again on that bench, where she had sat in such anguish.

Frau Nussler went up to Habermann:

"How are you, Brother Karl?"

"Finely!" cried Habermann, in a loud voice, for Frau Nussler had grown very hard of hearing, "and you?"

"Very well, all but my hearing; that is worse. They say it comes from taking cold. Nonsense! how should I take cold? I will tell you, Karl, it came from Jochen; for he talked and talked so much, at the last, and I was quite worn out. Well, he could not help it, it was in his nature."

Then came Pastor Gottlieb and Lining, with three children. And the children played together, and their elders talked together, and at supper time the tables were laid, out of doors, one for the older people by themselves, and one for the children by themselves, and Louise's eldest daughter presided at the children's table, and Grandfather Habermann at the other, and both with a very different rule from our old Hauning. How friendly and pleasant it was!

And as we old subjects of Habermann were sitting together merrily, rejoicing in his government, who came along the garden path? Fritz Triddelsitz and the little a.s.sessor. What an uproar! How many questions were asked and answered, in a few moments!

All at once, Triddelsitz caught sight of me: "Fritz, where did _you_ come from?"

"Eh, Fritz where did _you_ come from?"

"Fritz I haven't seen you in seven cold winters!"

"Nor I you, Fritz."

So we "Fritzed" each other, back and forth, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the whole company.

"Fritz," asked he, "do you still write books?"

"Yes, Fritz, I have written a whole heap of them."

"Well, Fritz, do me a single favor, and never put me into any of them."

"Eh!" said I, "there's no help for it; you are in already, Fritz."

"What am I in about?" he asked hastily.

"The rendezvous, at the great water-ditch."

"What is that?" asked Louise, who sat opposite me.

Franz laughed heartily: "I will tell you, another time."

"No, no!" cried Fritz.

"Why, what is it then?" asked the little a.s.sessor, looking at me, Fritz Reuter, and then at him, Fritz Triddelsitz. I was silent, and he said:

"I will tell you, another time."

Old Grandfather Habermann laughed with all his might.

When we were by ourselves, afterwards, Fritz took my arm, and said:

"Just tell me, who told the story?"

"Brasig," said I.

"I thought so," said he, "Brasig was the chief person in the whole story."

"That he was," said I.

Some people may ask the question, Where are Pumpelhagen and Rexow and Gurlitz? Well, you will look in vain for them on the map, and yet they are situated in our German Fatherland, and I hope they are to be found in more places than one. Everywhere, where a n.o.bleman resides, who does not think himself better than his fellow-men, and who recognizes the lowest of his laborers as his brother, and himself as a fellow-worker,--there is Pumpelhagen. Wherever there is a clergyman, who does not demand, in his self-conceit, that everybody shall believe precisely as he does, who makes no difference between poor and rich, who not only preaches, but is ready with kind words, and wise counsel, and substantial help, when it is needed,--there is Gurlitz. Wherever a burgher is active and energetic, and is driven by an impulse to become wiser and more capable, and thinks more of the general welfare than of his own pecuniary advantage,--there is Rexow. And wherever these three are united, through the love of sweet womanhood, and the hopes of fresh, joyous childhood, there are, also, all three villages together.