"Laurels wave where the warrior sleeps,"
and on the road to Gurlitz went the day-laborers, in serious mood; and old weaver Ruhrdanz said, "Children, listen to me! We will get rid of him; but not by force, no! in all moderation, for what would the grand-duke and the Herr Inspector Bräsig say, if we should show our gratitude for his speech by making fools of ourselves?"
CHAPTER XXXIX.
After church next day, for it was Sunday, Kurz came in to see Habermann and Bräsig:
"Good day! good day! I am angry; nothing but vexations the whole day! What? Such a set of people! Won't let a man speak at all! Eh, one might better keep swine than be a democrat! They listen to the stupidest speeches, and cry 'Bravo,' and give serenades, disturbing people out of their sleep, and when one tries to make an important subject clear to them, do they drum and pipe then? and they call that a Reformverein!"
"Listen to me, Herr Kurz," said Bräsig, stepping up to him, fully two inches taller than usual, "it is very unbecoming in you, to sneer at that serenade, for that serenade was given to me, and you would have been turned out again, if the well-meaning Herr Schultz and I had not taken you under our protection. What? What does the old proverb say? 'When it is the fashion, one rides to the city on a bull;' but it is not the fashion in the Reformverein, and if one persists in riding in and rampaging about on a bull, the people won't stand it, and they turn him out, with his bull, for the Reformverein is not designed for such purposes."
"It is all one to me!" cried Kurz, "other people rode in on donkeys, and were treated with great distinction."
"You are a rude fellow!" cried Uncle Bräsig, "you are an impertinent rascal! If this were not Karl Habermann's room, I would kick you down stairs, and you might carry your bones home in a bag."
"Hush, Bräsig, hush!" interposed Habermann, "and you, Kurz, ought to be ashamed of yourself, to come here stirring up strife and contention."
"I had strife and contention last evening; I have had strife and contention all day long. This morning, when I had hardly opened my eyes, my wife began with strife and contention; she is not willing I should go to the Reformverein."