“And is that all you can give me?” asked Peter angrily. “I hoped for money, and you offer me a stone.”
“Well, I should think a hundred thousand guldens would be enough to begin with, would it not? If thou dost only manage it well, thou canst soon be a rich man.”
“A hundred thousand!” cried the poor charcoal-burner joyfully. “Well, do not leap so wildly in my breast, unruly heart! we shall soon have done with one another! So be it, Michael, give me the money and the stone, and thou hast leave to take away the unrest from this dwelling-place.”
“I was sure thou wert a sensible lad,” replied the Dutchman, smiling pleasantly; “come, let us have one more drink together, and then I will count out the money.”
They sat down to their wine again, and drank and drank, until Peter fell into a deep slumber.
Coal-Munk Peter was awakened by the cheery ring of a post-boy’s horn, and found himself sitting in a fine carriage, rolling along a broad road; and as he leaned from the door and looked back, he could see the Black Forest lying far behind him in the distance. At first he could not believe that it was really himself sitting in this post-chaise, for even his clothes were not the same as he had worn yesterday, but he remembered everything that had happened so clearly, that at last he gave up puzzling, and cried: “Well, I am Coal-Munk Peter at any rate, and no other; that much is certain.”
He was surprised that he felt no melancholy, no home-sickness, on thus leaving his quiet village, and the silent woods where he had lived so long, for the first time. Even when he thought of his mother, whom he must have left behind in penury and distress, he could not squeeze a tear out of his eye, or even heave a sigh at the thought of her, for he felt indifferent to everything.
“But of course,” he thought to himself, “tears and sighs, melancholy and home-sickness, all come from the heart, and, thanks to Dutch Michael, mine is cold and of stone.” He laid his hand on his breast, and all was quiet and motionless within. “If he has kept his word as well about the hundred thousand, I may think myself lucky indeed,” he said, and began to search the carriage.
At first he only found clothes, of every description that he could want, yet no money; but finally he hit on a bag filled with golden thalers, and bills upon various merchants in all the great cities. “Now everything is as I wish,” he thought, and settling himself comfortably in a corner of the carriage, he journeyed forth into the world.