"I know nothing about it," said Fritz, and he really was ignorant.
"Well, it is all the same to me," said Krischan, "but if I catch any one bringing it into the stable, I will break his bones for him, for I won't be troubled with such things."
After that Krischan Däsel lay in wait, to catch the bringer of the calf-hay, and it was not long before he was successful. And who was it, who transgressed all law and order, for the love of Fritz's chestnut mare? Who was so hard-hearted as to deprive the innocent calves of their food, for the sake of Fritz's chestnut mare? Who was so foolhardy, for the sake of the chestnut mare, as to risk the breaking of her bones by Krischan Däsel? Who was it? I must tell, but let no one repeat it. It was Marie Möller, who, every time she came from feeding the young calves, and passed the riding-stable, brought an armful of the sweet hay for Fritz's old woman.
Some one may turn upon me here,--hold! here you have blundered! How came they to have little calves in summer? I reply. Friend, that is my affair. I can skip over as much time as I please, and am now in the middle of winter, after the new year 1844. And if any one should inquire further. How came Marie Möller to do such a thing? I would answer, that is as stupid a question as the one about the calves; have I not a right to introduce good-hearted people, who forgive and forget, into my book, as well as the spiteful and venomous, who bear malice to all eternity?
Marie Möller could forgive and forget, and, since it was not suitable for her to throw herself openly upon Fritz's neck, she threw herself with her affection, and the calf-hay, upon the neck of the old mare, which was, just then, the dearest thing Fritz had in the world. And it was quite touching, and Fritz was really affected, when he learned the occasion of the quarrel between his old sweetheart and Krischan Däsel; he made his peace with his old love, and the pleasant ham-and-sausage relationship was resumed.
It was now winter, as I have said, And nothing remarkable had occurred in the region, only that Pomuchelskopp, late in the autumn, had taken his journey to the Landtag, causing a great excitement in his quiet, simple family. Häuning skirmished about the house, threw the kitchen utensils around,--that is to say, such as were not liable to break,--banged the doors, and said, openly, the Herr Proprietor had gone crazy; Malchen and Salchen took the other side,--although secretly, for they had heard that the lieutenant, who commanded the Landtag Guards, derived a great part of his income from a splendid ball which he gave, with tickets of admission a louis-d'or each. They had been to the Whitsuntide-fair ball, at Rostock, they had been to a cattle-show; but a Landtag's ball? That must go beyond everything! They teased their father so persistently, that he took courage to speak out to his wife.
"Klücken," said he, "I cannot do otherwise, I have promised Herr von Rambow, and he went yesterday, and will wait on me there."
"So?" said Häuning, "and his peacock of a wife, will she wait on me?"
"Klücking, that has nothing to do with it; and if I lose every opportunity of showing that I am a man who stands up for the nobility, how shall I get made a nobleman myself? See, I shall ride away to-day, with a black coat, we will talk about it again, when I come back with a red one."
"A pretty figure you will cut in it!" said the old woman, going out of the door.