Chapter IV

WHEREIN THE HUNTER SENDS HIS COMPANION OUT AFTER A PERSON BY THE NAME OF SCHRIMBS OR PEPPEL, AND COMES HIMSELF TO THE OBERHOF

From the hills which bordered the Justice's fields there came forth two men of different appearance and age. The one, clad in a green hunter's jacket, with a little cap on his curly head and a light Liège gun on his arm, was a strikingly handsome youth; the other, dressed in more quiet colors, was an elderly man with a frank and sincere manner. The younger strode on ahead, as nimbly as a stag, while the older maintained a somewhat slower gait, like that of a worn-out hunting-dog lagging behind the master to whom he is still ever faithful. After they had emerged into an open space at the foot of the hills, they both sat down on a large stone, which lay there beside several others in the shade of a mighty linden. The younger man gave some money and papers to the older, pointed out to him the direction in which he was to continue his way, and said:

"Go now, Jochem, and be discreet, so that we can get hold of this confounded Schrimbs or Peppel who has been inventing such monstrous lies, and as soon as you discover him, let me know."

"I'll be discreet all right," replied old Jochem. "I'll make such sly and secret inquiries in all the villages and cities about a man who signs his name Schrimbs or Peppel, that it would have to be the devil's own fault if I don't succeed in locating the wretch. In the meanwhile you lie low here _incognito,_ until you receive further news from me."

"Very well," said the young man, "and now, Jochem, be very cautious and thoughtful all the time in the way you handle the matter, for we are no longer in dear Suabia, but out among the Saxons and Franks."

"The miserable fellows!" exclaimed old Jochem. "Faith, they have long talked about Suabian stupidities! They shall see that a Suabian can be a sly bird too when it is necessary."

"And keep always to the right, my Jochem, for the last tracks of this Schrimbs or Peppel are headed that way," said the young man, standing up and giving the old man a cordial parting handshake.

"Always to the right, of course," replied the latter. He handed over to the other his hunting-bag, which was stuffed full, and which up to now he had been carrying, lifted his hat and went off, following a side-path at the right, down toward the region where, in the distance, one could see towering up one of the steeples mentioned in the foregoing chapter.

The young man, on the other hand, went directly down toward the Oberhof. He had taken perhaps a hundred steps when he heard somebody running behind him and panting. He turned around and saw that his old companion was hurrying after him.

"There was one more thing I wanted to ask and beg of you," the latter cried. "Now that you are alone and left to yourself, get rid of your gun; for you certainly won't hit anything and, sure as death, you will have a mishap again, as you almost did not long ago when you fired at the hare and came very near killing the child."

"Yes, it is damnable to be always firing at things and never hitting them," said the young man. "But, truly, I'll put restraint on myself, no matter how hard it may be to do it, and not a single shot shall fly out of these barrels as long as you are away from me."

The old man begged him for the gun, but the young man refused to give it up, saying that, without a gun, it would surely cost no self-restraint to refrain from shooting, and that his method of procedure would then lose all its merit.

"That is very true," replied the old man, and, without bidding his companion a second good-by, inasmuch as the first one still held good, he went back reassured, along the path which had been pointed out to him.

The young man stood still, rested the gun on the ground, thrust the ramrod into the barrel, and said:

"It will be difficult to get the charge out, and yet it can't stay in." With that he tossed the gun over his shoulder and walked in the direction of the Justice's oak grove. Just before he got there a drove of heath fowl started up from a narrow strip of borderland, flapping their wings and screaming loudly. In exultation the young man snatched the gun from his shoulder, crying: "Here's my chance to get rid of the shot forthwith!" and took aim. Both barrels went off with a roar, and the birds flew away uninjured. The hunter gazed after them in astonishment and said:

"This time I thought I couldn't have helped hitting something. Well, from now on I shall certainly restrain myself." With that he continued his way through the oak grove to the house.

When he entered the door he saw, sitting at dinner in a high and spacious hall which took up the entire centre of the house, the Justice, his daughter, his farm-hands and maids, and in a resonant, euphonious voice he gave them a friendly greeting. The Justice scrutinized him with care, the daughter with astonishment; as for the men and maids, they did not look at him at all, but went on eating without paying any attention to him. The Hunter approached the master of the estate and inquired about the distance to the nearest city and the way to get there. At first the Justice did not understand his strange-sounding language, but the daughter, without once turning her eyes from the handsome Hunter, helped her father to get the meaning, whereupon he gave the correct information. Only after three repetitions was the Hunter, on his part, able to understand the reply; but he finally succeeded in making out that the city was not to be reached in less than two long hours, and then only by a path which was difficult to find.

The midday heat, combined with the sight of the tidy meal before him and his own hunger, prompted the Hunter to ask the question whether for love or money he could have something to eat and drink and shelter till the cool of evening.

"For money, no!" replied the Justice, "but for love the gentleman may have dinner and supper and a place to rest as long as he wants it." He had a tin plate, as clear and bright as a mirror, a knife, a fork and a spoon, just as bright as the plate, laid upon the table, and pressed his guest to sit down. The latter fell upon the well-cooked ham, the big beans, the eggs and sausages, which constituted the meal, with all the appetite of youth, and discovered that the food of the country, which was everywhere decried as Boeotian, was, on the contrary, not at all bad.

Very little talking was done by the hosts, for peasants do not like to speak while they are eating. Howsoever, the Hunter, on inquiry, managed to find out from the Justice that no man by the name of Schrimbs or Peppel was known anywhere around in that vicinity. The farm-hands and maids, who sat apart from the seats of honor at the other end of the long table, kept absolutely silent and looked only at the dishes out of which they spooned their food into their mouths. After they had finished eating, however, and had wiped their mouths, they stepped up to the Justice, one after the other, and said: "Master, my motto;" whereupon the Justice addressed to each one a proverbial phrase or a biblical passage. Thus to the first man, a red-haired fellow, he said: "Proneness to dispute lights a fire, and proneness to fight sheds blood;" to the second, a slow, fat man: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise;" to the third, a small, black-eyed, bold-looking customer: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The first maid received the motto: "If you have cattle, take care of them, and if they bring you profit, keep it;" and to the second he said: "Nothing's ever locked so tight but it will some day come to light."

After each one had been remembered in this way, they all went off to their work, some looking unconcerned, others embarrassed. The second girl blushed a deep crimson when she heard her motto. The Hunter, who was gradually learning to understand the local dialect, listened to this lesson with astonishment, and after it was over he asked what the purpose of it was.

"To give them something to think about," said the Justice. "When they come together here again tonight, each one of them will tell me what he or she has been thinking relative to the motto. Most of the work in the country is of such a kind that, in doing it, the people are liable to think all sorts of things, and they get a lot of bad notions in their heads, which afterwards break out in the form of wantonness, lies, and deception. But when a man has such a motto to ponder over, he will not rest until he has extracted the moral from it, and meanwhile the time has elapsed without any evil thoughts having entered his mind."

"You are a true philosopher and priest," cried the Hunter, whose amazement was increasing with every minute.

"One can accomplish a great deal with a person when one brings morality home to him," said the Justice thoughtfully. "But morality sticks in short sayings better than in long speeches and sermons. My people keep straight much longer since I hit upon the morality idea. To be sure it does not work all the year round; during planting and harvest-time all thinking ceases. But it isn't necessary then anyway, because they have no time for wickedness."

"You have, then, regular sections in your teaching?" asked the Hunter.

"In winter," replied the Justice, "the mottoes usually begin after threshing and last until sowing. In summer, on the other hand, they are assigned from Walpurgis Night until dog days. Those are the times when peasants have the least to do."

With that he left the young man, who got up and looked around in the house, the yard, the orchard, and the meadow. He spent several hours in this inspection, since everything he saw attracted him. The rural stillness, the green of the meadows, the prosperity which beamed upon him from the whole estate, all made a most pleasant impression, and aroused in him a desire to spend the one or two weeks that might elapse before he received news from old Jochem there in the open country rather than in the narrow alleys of a small city. Inasmuch as he wore his heart on his tongue, he went forthwith to the Justice, who was in the oak grove marking a pair of trees for felling, and expressed his wish. In return he offered to assist in anything that might be of use to his host.

Beauty is an excellent dowry. It is a key which, like that little one of gold, opens by magic seven locks, each one different from the rest. The old man gazed for a moment at the youth's slim yet robust figure and at his honest and at the same time splendidly aristocratic face, and at first shook his head persistently; then, however, he nodded approvingly, and, finally growing friendly, granted him his request. He assigned to the Hunter a corner room on the upper floor of the house, from one side of which one could see across the oak grove toward the hills and mountains, and from the other out over the meadows and corn fields. The guest had, to be sure, in place of paying for his room and board, to promise to fulfil a very peculiar condition. For the Justice did not like to have even beauty favored without an equivalent return.