"Alas, I am no sturdy oak!Alas, I'm but the flower That wakes the kiss of May!And when has fled its little hour, Will voice of Death obey."--RUCKERT.
The following afternoon came visitors--two young ladies fromNyborg, friends of Sophie and Louise. Before dinner they would takea walk through the wood to an inclosure where the flax was in bloom.Otto was to accompany them.
"I am also of the party!" said the Kammerjunker, who just gallopedinto the court-yard as the ladies, with Otto, were about settingout on their excursion. Thus the whole company consisted of fiveladies and two gentlemen.
"The cows are not in the field over which we must go, are they?"asked Eva.
"No, my good girl!" returned Sophie; "you may be quite easy!Besides, we have two gentlemen with us."
"Yes; but they would not be able to protect us from the unrulybullocks!" said Louise. "But we have nothing to fear. Where we aregoing the cows do not go until after they are milked. I am noheroine! Besides, it is not long since one bullock nearly gored thecowherd to death. He also gored Sidsel a great hole in her arm justlately: you remember the girl with her eyebrows grown together?"
"There is also in the wood a wild sow, with eleven sucking pigs!"said Sophie, in ironical gravity; "it would not be agree able tomeet with her!"
"She is almost as dangerous as the bullocks!" said the Kammerjunker, and laughed at Eva.
The conversation took another turn.
"Shall we not visit Peter Cripple?" asked Sophie. "The gentlemencan then see the smith's pretty daughter; she is really toobeautiful to be his wife!"
"Is Peter Cripple married?" inquired Otto.
"No, the wedding will be held on Sunday!" replied the Kammerjunker;"but the bride is already in the house. The bans were publishedlast Sunday, and they immediately commenced housekeeping together.This often takes place even earlier, when a man cannot do without awife. She has taken him on account of his full money-bags!"
"Yes, with the peasant it is seldom love which brings about theaffair!" said Louise. "Last year there was quite a young girl whomarried a man who might have been her grandfather. She took himonly, she said, because he had such a good set of earthenware."
"These were very brittle things to marry upon!" remarked Otto.
Meantime they were nearly come to the edge of the wood. Here stooda little house; hops hung luxuriantly over the hedge, the cat stoodwith bent back upon the crumbling edge of the well.
Sophie, at the head of the whole company, stepped into the room,where Peter Cripple sat on the table sewing; but, light and activeas an elf, he sprang down from the table to kiss her hand. Thesmith's pretty daughter was stirring something in an iron pot inthe hearth. St. John's wort, stuck between the beams and theceiling, shot forth in luxuriant growth, prophesying long life tothe inhabitants of the house. On the sooty ceiling glitteredherrings' souls, as a certain portion of the herring's entrails iscalled, and which Peter Cripple, following the popular belief, hadflung up to the ceiling, convinced that so long as they hung therehe should be freed from the ague.
Otto took no part in the conversation, but turned over a quantityof songs which he found; they were stitched together in a piece ofblue tobacco-paper. The principal contents were, "New, MelancholySongs," "Of the Horrible Murder," "The Audacious Criminal," "TheDevil in Salmon Lane," "Boat's Fall," and such things; which havenow supplanted, among the peasants, the better old popular songs.
With Louise, Eva, and one of the ladies from Nyborg, Otto slowlypreceded the others, who had still some pleasantries to say beforeleaving Peter Cripple and his bride.
"Shall we not go over the inclosure to the cairn?" said Louise. "Itis clear to-day; we shall see Zealand. The others will follow us;here, from the foot-path, they will immediately discover us."
Otto opened the gate and they went through the inclosure. They hadalready advanced a considerable way, when the Kammerjunker and hisladies reached the foot-path from which they could see the others.
"They are going to the cairn," said he.
"Then they will have a little fright!" said Sophie. "Down in thecorner of the inclosure lie the young cattle. They may easilymistake them for cows, and the wild bullocks!"
"Had we not better call them back?" asked the other lady.
"But we must frighten them a little," said Sophie. "Shout to themthat there are the cows!"
"Yes, that I can do with a clear conscience!" said the Kammerjunker;and he shouted as loud as he could, "There are the cows! Turn back!turn back!"
Eva heard it the first. "O God!" said she, "hear what they arecalling to us!"
Otto glanced around, but saw no cows.
"They are standing still!" said Sophie; "call once again!"
The Kammerjunker shouted as before, and Sophie imitated the lowingof the cows. At this noise the young cattle arose.
Louise now became aware of them. "O heavens!" exclaimed she;"there, down in the corner of the inclosure, are all the cows!"
"Let us run!" cried Eva, and took to flight.
"For God's sake, do not run!" cried Otto; "walk slowly and quietly,otherwise they may come!"
"Come away, away!" resounded from the wood.
"O Lord!" shrieked Eva, when she saw the creatures raise theirtails in the air as soon as they perceived the fugitives.
"Now they are coming!" cried the lady who accompanied them, andsent forth a loud scream.
Eva fled first, as if borne by the wind; the lady followed her, andLouise ran on after them.
Otto now really saw all the cattle, which, upon the ladies flight,had instinctively followed, chasing over the field after them inthe same direction.
Nothing now remained for him but, like the others, to reach thegate. This he opened, and had just closed again, when the cattlewere close upon them, but no one had eyes to see whether the cattlewere little or big.
"Now there is no more danger!" cried Otto, as soon as he had wellclosed the gate; but the ladies still fled on, passing among thetrees until they reached the spot where the Kammerjunker and histwo ladies awaited them with ringing laughter.
Sophie was obliged to support herself against a tree through allthe amusement. It had been a most remarkable spectacle, thisflight; Eva at the head, and Mr. Thostrup rushing past them to openthe gate. Louise was pale as death, and her whole body trembled; thefriend supported her arm and forehead on a tree, and drew a longbreath.
"Bah!" again cried Sophie, and laughed.
"But where is Eva?" asked Otto, and shouted her name.
"She ran here before me!" said Louise; "she is doubtless leaningagainst a tree, and recovering her strength."
"Eva!" cried Sophie. "Where is my hero: 'I want a hero!'"[Author's Note: Byron's Don Juan.]
Otto returned to seek her. At this moment Wilhelm arrived.
The Kammerjunker regretted that he had not seen the race with them,and related the whole history to him.
"O come! come!" they heard Otto shout. They found him kneeling inthe high grass. Eva lay stretched out on the ground; she was aspale as death; her head rested in Otto's lap.
"God in heaven!" cried Wilhelm, and flung himself down before her."Eva! Eva! O, she is dead! and thou art to blame for it, Sophie!Thou hast killed her!" Reproachfully he fixed his eyes on hissister. She burst into tears, and concealed her face in her hands.
Otto ran to the peasant's cottage and brought water. Peter Cripplehimself hopped like a mountain-elf behind him through the highnettles and burdocks, which closed above and behind him again.
The Kammerjunker took Eva in his strong arms and carried her to thecottage. Wilhelm did not leave hold of her hand. The othersfollowed in silence.
"Try and get her home," said Wilhelm; "I myself will fetch thephysician!" He rushed forth, and hastened through the wood to theball, where he ordered the men to bring out a sedan-chair for theinvalid; then had horses put into one of the lightest carriages,seated himself in it as coachman, and drove away to Nyborg, thenearest town, which, however, was distant almost twenty miles.
Sophie was inconsolable. "It is my fault!" she said, and wept.
Otto found her sitting before the house, under an elder-tree. Shecould not endure to see Eva's paleness.
"You are innocent," said Otto. "Believe me, to-morrow Eva will becompletely restored! She herself," added he, in an assuaging tone,"behaved in an imprudent manner. I warned her not to run. Her ownterror is to blame for all."
"No, no," returned Sophie; "my folly, my extravagance, has causedthe whole misfortune!"
"Now it is much better," said the Kammerjunker, coming out of thehouse. "She must be devilish tender to fly before a few calves! Ireally must laugh when I think of it, although it did come to suchan end!"
The men now arrived whom Wilhelm had sent with the sedan-chair.
Eva thought she could walk, if she might lean upon some one; but itwould be better, her friends thought, if she were carried.
"Dost thou feel any pain?" asked Louise, and gave her a sisterlykiss on the brow.
"No, none at all," replied Eva. "Do not scold me for havingfrightened you so. I am so fearful, and the bullock were closebehind us."
"They were, God help me, only calves!" answered the Kammerjunker;"they wished to play, and only ran because you ran!"
"It was a foolish joke of mine!" said Sophie, and seized Eva'shand. "I am very unhappy about it!"
"O no!" said Eva, and smiled so pensively, yet happily. "To-morrowI shall be quite well again!" Her eye seemed to seek some one.
Otto understood the glance. "The physician is sent for. Wilhelm hashimself driven over for him."
Toward the middle of the wood the mother herself approached them;she was almost as pale as Eva.
All sought to calm her; Eva bowed her head to kiss the good lady'shand. The Kammerjunker told the story to her, and she shook herhead. "What an imprudent, foolish joke!" said she; "here you seethe consequences!"
Not before late in the afternoon did Wilhelm return with thephysician; he found his patient out of all danger, but prescribedwhat should still be done. Quiet and the warm summer air would dothe most for her.
"See," said Otto, when, toward evening he met Sophie in the garden,"to-day Wilhelm did not conceal his feelings!"
"I fear that you are right!" returned Sophie. "He loves Eva, andthat is very unfortunate. Tell me what you know about it."
"I know almost nothing!" said Otto, and told about little Jonas andthe first meeting with Eva.
"Yes, that he has told us already himself! But do you know nothingmore?" Her voice became soft, and her eyes gazed full of confidenceinto Otto's.
He related to her the short conversation which he had had lastautumn with Wilhelm, how angry he had been with his candid warning,and how since then they had never spoken about Eva.
"I must confide my fear to our mother!" said Sophie. "I almost nowam glad that he will travel in two months, although we shall thenlose you also!"
And Otto's heart beat; the secret of his heart pressed to his lips;every moment he would speak it. But Sophie had always still anotherquestion about her brother; they were already out of the garden,already in the court-yard, and yet Otto had said nothing.
Therefore was he so quiet when, late in the evening, he and Wilhelmentered their chamber. Wilhelm also spoke no word, but his eyerepeatedly rested expectantly on Otto, as if waiting for him tobreak the silence. Wilhelm stepped to the open window and drank inthe fresh air, suddenly he turned round, flung his arms round Otto,and exclaimed, "I can no longer endure it! I must say it to someone! I love her, and will never give her up, let every one beopposed! I have now silently concealed my feelings for some months;I can do so no longer, or I shall become ill, and for that I am notmade!"
"Does she know this?" asked Otto.
"No, and yes! I do not know what I should answer! Here at home Ihave never spoken alone with her. The last time when Weyse playedon the organ at Roeskelde I had bought a pretty silk handkerchief,and this I took with me for her; I know not, but I wished to giveher pleasure. There came a woman past with lovely stocks; I stoodat the open window; she offered me a bouquet, and I bought it.'Those are lovely flowers!' said Eva, when she entered. 'They willfade with me!' said I; 'put them in water and keep there foryourself!' She wished only to have a few, but I obliged her to takethem all: she blushed, and her eyes gazed strangely down into mysoul. I know not what sort of a creature I became, but it wasimpossible for me to give her the handkerchief; it seemed to methat this would almost be an offense. Eva went away with theflowers, but the next morning it seemed to me that she was uneasy;I fancied I saw her color come and go when I bade her adieu! Shemust have read the thoughts in my soul!"
"And the handkerchief?" interrupted Otto.
"I gave it to my sister Sophie," said Wilhelm.