"Dance and stampTill the shoe-soles drop!" --Danish Popular Song.
On the following day should the much-talked-of mowing-festival takeplace. It was the hay-harvest which occasioned all this merriment.[Author's Note: It is true that serfdom is abolished, but thepeasant is still not quite free; neither can he be so. For hishouse and land he must pay a tribute, and this consists in labor.His own work must give way to that of his lord. His wagon, which hehas had prepared to bring home his own harvest, must, if such becommanded, go to the nobleman's land, and there render service.This is, therefore, a kind of tax which he pays, and for thefaithful payment of which he is rewarded by a harvest and mowing-feast;at the latter he receives a certain quantity of brandy, and as muchale as he can drink. The dance generally takes place in the middleof the court-yard, and the dancers themselves must pay their musicians.]
During three afternoons in succession, in the inner court and underfree heaven, should a ball be held. Along the walls, rough planks,laid upon logs of wood, formed a row of benches. At both ends ofthe court lay two barrels of the newly brewed ale, which hadreceived more malt than usual, and which, besides, through thesilver skilling, and the magic dance of the maidens round the tub,had acquired extraordinary strength. A large wooden tankard,containing several measures of brandy, stood upon a table; the manwho watched the bleaching-ground was placed as a kind of butler topreside at this sideboard. A bread-woman, with new white bread fromNyborg upon her barrow, wheeled into the court, and thereestablished her stall for every one; for it was only liquors theguests received gratis.
The guests now entered the court by pairs; the men, part injackets, part in long coats which hung down to their ankles. Out ofthe waistcoat-pocket protruded a little nosegay of sweet-williamsand musk. The girls carried their "posies," as they called them, intheir neatly folded pocket-handkerchiefs. Two musicians--one quitea young blade, in a laced coat with a stiff cravat, mid the otherthe well-known Peter Cripple, "Musikanti" as he was called--led theprocession. They both played one and the same piece, but eachaccording to his own manner. It was both good and old.
They now began to draw lots, who should dance before the door ofthe family and who before that of the steward; after which the twoparties drew lots for the musicians. The girls seated themselves ina row upon the bench, from whence they were chosen. The gallantryaccorded with the ball-room,--the hard stone pavement. Not even hadthe grass been pulled up, but that would be all right after dancingthere the first day. "Nay, why art thou sitting there?" spoken witha kind of morose friendliness, was the invitation to dance; andthis served for seven dances. "Only don't be melancholy!" resoundedfrom the company, and now the greater portion moved phlegmaticallyalong, as if in sleep or in a forced dance: the girl with her eyesstaring at her own feet, her partner with his head bent toward oneside, and his eyes in a direct line with the girl's head-dress. Afew of the most active exhibited, it is true, a kind of animation,by stamping so lustily upon the stone pavement that the dustwhirled up around them. That was a joy! a joy which had occupiedthem many weeks, but as yet the joy had not reached its height;"but that will soon come!" said Wilhelm, who, with his sisterand Otto, had taken his place at an open window.
The old people meanwhile kept to the ale-barrels, and the brandy.The latter was offered to the girls, and they were obliged, atleast, to sip. Wilhelm soon discovered the prettiest, and threwthem roses. The girls immediately sprang to the spot to collect theflowers: but the cavaliers also wished to have them, and they werethe stronger; they, therefore, boldly pushed the ladies aside, sothat some seated themselves on the stone pavement and got no roses:that was a merry bit of fun! "Thou art a foolish thing! It fellupon thy shoulder and thou couldst not catch it!" said the firstlover to his lady, and stuck the rose into his waistcoat-pocket.
All got partners--all the girls; even the children, they leapedabout to their own singing out upon the bridge. Only ONE stoodforlorn,--Sidsel, with the grown-together eyebrows; she smiled,laughed aloud; no one would become her partner. Peter Cripplehanded his violin to one of the young men and asked him to play,for he himself wished to stretch his legs a little. The girls drewback and talked with each other; but Peter Cripple stepped quietlyforward toward Sidsel, flung his arms around her, and they danced awhirling dance. Sophie laughed aloud at it, but Sidsel directed herextraordinary glance maliciously and piercingly toward her. Ottosaw it, and the girl was doubly revolting and frightful in hiseyes. With the increasing darkness the assembly became moreanimated; the two parties of dancers were resolved into one. Atlength, when it was grown quite dark, the ale barrels become empty,the tankard again filled and once more emptied, the companywithdrew in pairs, singing. Now commenced the first joy, thepowerful operation of the ale. They now wandered through the wood,accompanying each other home, as they termed it; but this was awandering until the bright morning.
Otto and Wilhelm were gone out into the avenue, and the peasantsshouted to them a grateful "Good night!" for the merry afternoon.
"Now works the witchcraft!" said Wilhelm; "the magical power ofthe ale! Now begins the bacchand! Give your hand to the prettiestgirl, and she will immediately give you her heart!"
"Pity," answered Otto, "that the Maenades of the north possess onlythat which is brutal in common with those of the south!"
"See, there goes the smith's pretty daughter, to whom I threw thebest rose!" cried Wilhelm. "She has got two lovers, one undereither arm!"
"Yes, there she goes!" simpered a female voice close to them. Itwas Sidsel, who sat upon the steps of a stile almost concealed inthe darkness, which the trees and the hedge increased still more.
"Has Sidsel no lover?" asked Wilhelm.
"Hi, hi, hi," simpered she; "the Herr Baron and the other gentlemanseek, doubtless, for a little bride. Am I beautiful enough? Atnight all cats are gray!"
"Come!" whispered Otto, and drew Wilhelm away from her. "She sitslike some bird of ill omen there in the hedge."
"What a difference!" exclaimed Wilhelm, as he followed; "yes, whata difference between this monster, nay, between the other girls andEva! She was, doubtless, born in the same poverty, in similarcircumstances, and yet they are like day and night. What a soul hasbeen given to Eva! what inborn nobility! It must be, really, morethan a mere freak of Nature!"
"Only do not let Nature play her freaks with you!" said Otto,smiling, and raised his hand. "You speak often of Eva."
"Here it was association of ideas," answered Wilhelm. "The contrastawoke remembrance."
Otto entered his chamber--he opened the window; it was a moonlightnight. From the near wood resounded laughter and song. They camefrom the young men and girls, who, on their wandering, gavethemselves up to merriment. Otto stood silent and full of thoughtin the open window. Perhaps it was the moon which lent her palenessto his countenance. On what did he reflect? Upon his departure,perhaps? Only one more day would he remain here, where he felthimself so much at home; but then the journey was toward his ownhouse, to his grandfather, to Rosalie, and the old preacher, whoall thought so much of him. Otto stood listening and silent. Thewind bore the song more distinctly over from the wood.
"That is their joy, their happiness!" said he. "It might have beenmy joy also, my happiness!" lay in the sigh which he heaved. Hislips did not move, his thoughts alone spoke their silent language."I might have stood on a level with these; my soul might have beenchained to the dust, and yet it would have been the same which Inow possess, with which I long to compass all worlds! the same,endowed with this sentiment of pride, which drives me on to activeexertion. My fate wavered whether I should become one such as theseor whether I should rise into that circle which the world calls thehigher. The mist-form did not sink down into the mire, but roseabove into the high refreshing air. And am I become happy throughthis?" His eye stared upon the bright disk of the moon. Two largetears rolled over his pale cheeks. "Infinite Omnipotence! Iacknowledge Thy existence! Thou dost direct all; upon Thee will Idepend!"
A melancholy smile passed over his lips; he stepped back into thechamber, folded his hands, prayed, and felt rest and peace.