Legends from River & Mountain

by Carmen Sylva; Alma Strettell

After supper the family gathered round the great pine-torches, the women spinning, the men smoking, or carving spoons and forks out of spare bits of wood. Out in the forest a violent storm was howling and raging among the pines; and now and then heavy blows were heard, as though whole trees were being snapped off and hurled to the ground. The foolhardy youths of the party would have run out into the forest to witness this splendid and terrible sight, but the grandfather held them back with stern word and glance.

“I would not advise any one to go out at yon door to-night,” said he. “By Heaven! he would never return, for Dutch Michael is busy hewing himself a new raft in the forest.”

The children stared at him; though they had doubtless heard something of Dutch Michael before, yet they knew too little to satisfy them, and now begged their grandfather to tell them the whole tale about him for once. And Peter Munk, too, who had only heard of him vaguely on the other side of the hills, joined in, and asked the old man what the truth about him was.

“He is the master of these woods,” returned the grandfather; “and if you, at your age, do not know this, it proves you must belong to the other side of the ‘Pine-thicket,’ or to some yet more distant place. But I will tell you the tale, as it goes in this district, of Dutch Michael.

“A hundred years ago—so my grandfather used to say—there were no worthier people on earth than those of the Black Forest. But now, since so much money has come into the land, men have grown bad and dishonest. The lads dance and sing on Sundays, and swear so, that ’tis dreadful to hear! In other days it was not thus; and though Dutch Michael should look in at the window this very minute, I say, as I often have already, that all this evil is his fault. A hundred years ago, then, and more, there was a rich master woodman, who employed many work-people, and sold his stuff far down the Rhine, and his trade was blessed with prosperity, for he was a pious man. One evening there came to his door a man whose like he had never seen before; he wore the dress of the Black Forest lads, but he was a good head taller than any of them; no one would have believed that such a giant could be. He asked the master for work, and the latter, seeing how strong he was, and fitted for heavy tasks, agreed with him for a price, and engaged him. Such a workman that master had never had before. For felling trees, Michael was as good as three men, and when it took six together to lift one end of a trunk, Michael could raise the other all by himself. But when he had cut down trees for half a year, he went one day to the master and said: ‘I have had enough of hewing wood now, and should like to see whither my tree-trunks go. How would it be if thou shouldst let me travel with one of the rafts?’

“‘I will not stand in thy way, Michael, if thou art fain to see the world a bit,’ the woodman answered. ‘To be sure, I need strong fellows like thee for the tree-felling, and on the rafts it is rather skill that is needed; but let it be so for once.’

“And so it was. The raft which he was to take down the river had eight divisions, and the last was made up of the stoutest roof-beams. But see what happened. The evening before they started, big Michael brought down eight more beams to the river, the thickest and longest that had ever been seen, and he bore each on his shoulder as lightly as though it had been a raftsman’s pole, so that all who saw it were taken aback. Where he had hewn these beams no one knows to this day. The master woodman laughed in his heart when he saw them, for he knew what such beams were worth. But Michael only said: ‘There, these are for me to stand upon, I could never manage upon yonder little chips.’ His master would have given him a pair of raftsman’s boots as a reward, but he threw them aside, and brought out a pair, such as none had ever seen before; my grandfather swore they were five feet long and weighed over a hundred pounds.

“The raft started off, and if Michael had astonished the wood-cutters before, it was the raftsmen’s turn to be amazed now. For the raft, instead of going more slowly, as they expected, because of the huge beams, flew along like an arrow as soon as they got into the Neckar; and when there was a bend in the river, where the men usually had trouble in keeping their rafts in mid-stream, and away from shoals and sand-banks, Michael would leap into the river and push them clear of every hindrance; then, when they reached an open stretch of water, he would spring on to the foremost raft, and bidding the others put their poles aside, would give one mighty shove into the gravel with his huge beam, and away sped the raft, so that trees, banks, and houses seemed to fly past on either hand. By this means, they came in half their usual time to Cologne upon the Rhine, where they had always been used to sell their cargo of wood; but now Michael spoke thus:

“‘A nice set of traders ye are, and well ye understand your own interests! Do ye think the men of Cologne need all the wood for themselves that comes out of the Black Forest? Nay, but they buy it of us half-price, and then sell it for far more to Holland. Let us sell the small beams here, and go on to Holland with the big ones; and whatever we get over the usual price, we will pocket for ourselves.’

“So spoke the crafty Michael, and the rest heard him gladly, some because they wished to see Holland, others because they were greedy for the money. Only one was honest, and warned his comrades against risking their master’s goods, or deceiving him about their price; but they paid no heed to his words, only Dutch Michael did not forget them. So they went on down the Rhine with their wood, and Michael steered the raft, and brought it quickly to Rotterdam. There they were soon offered four times the usual price for the cargo, and Michael’s huge beams, in particular, were sold for much money.