Seed-time and Harvest: A Novel

by Fritz Reuter

Mining had taken her Rudolph by the hand, and, when she saw her dearest and oldest friends standing a little on one side, had made various efforts to penetrate the sand-bags of stout, rich, stupid Nüsslers, and the wooden palisades of shopmen and school-boys, but without success; but when her brand new husband saw her futile manœuvres, he came to her assistance, shoved aside sand-bag No. 1, the rich Uncle Luting, and sand-bag No. 2, the witty cousin Wilhelming, grasped the longest palisade, Fritz Triddelsitz himself, in the short ribs, and moved him gently to another place, and neatly sent his pupil-shadow after him, and having thus made a breach through obstinacy, stupidity and tedium,--certainly no easy thing to do,--he brought his brand new bride to the people, who instead of congratulating her with flower-pots, and gay waistcoats and gold watch-chains, did it with what lies beneath them, their heads and their hearts. And when Frau Nüssler came up, and pressed her children, alternately, to her heart, Rudolph wiped the tears from his eyes, and said, "Let us all come out into the garden, and be by ourselves a little while."

And the carpenter, Schultz, who stood near and heard him, said; "Yes, out with you! All of you, out! We must set the tables here!" and he began to shove the rich Nüsslers about as if they were blocks and lumber. And when our company,--I say our--had come to the famous arbor, Bräsig pointed to the cherry-tree, and said, "Mining, this tree must be an indicium and a token to you, all your life, since your future was decided under it, and under me that time; and since we are talking about tokens, Mining, bring me a blue larkspur again, there is one!"

And when Mining had gone for it Uncle Bräsig said, "Rudolph, have you always remembered the blue larkspur?" And when Rudolph said he had, Bräsig looked in his clear eyes, and then examined him from head to foot, and said, "I believe you!" and when Mining came back with the flower he said, "Thank you, Mining! And now I will give you my wedding present for it," and he pulled out an old thick, black pocket-book from his brown coat, and rummaged among his old milk and corn accounts, and took out a withered flower, saying, "See, my little godchild, this is the flower of that time,"--and he held it towards her with the fresh blossom,--"and if, after long years, Rudolph can look at you with the same clear eyes, and give you this new flower, then you may say, 'I have been a happy wife.' I have nothing more to say, nothing! and I have nothing else to give you, nothing at all!" and with that he walked away, and our company heard him saying to himself, "Nothing at all! but this indicium, Rudolph's indicium!" And when they found him again, he was walking with his sister and his niece Lotting, and the two women were caressing and thanking him, because he had never forgotten or forsaken them.

Then Frau Nüssler came up to our company: "Come children, all is ready. But don't take it ill! Jochen's family are the most distinguished, and I cannot offend Jochen to-day,--he is master for this once,--they must sit nearest the bridal pair. Kurz and his wife, of course, will sit among them, for, as you say, Frau Pastorin, they are the nearest, and Gottlieb and Lining must also sit there, he as clergyman, and she as twin, and Jochen, too, because they are his friends. But we, Frau Pastorin, Karl, Louise, and you, Bräsig! we will sit together at one end, and it shall be a merry wedding."

"A la bong kör!" said Bräsig, "but where is the shopman, Süssmann? I must speak to him about the fraternity ball."

"Oh, bless you! the poor fellow is sitting in the back kitchen; he and Triddelsitz were performing some kind of antics over a heap of pea-straw, and he fell, and something split, and Krischan had to get him Jochen's old blue trousers, and he will not let himself be seen by daylight, but is waiting until evening, when they will not noticed."

"And he wants to be dance-director!" said Bräsig, as he followed our company to the hall.

Then the feast began, and Frau Nüssler's little waiting-maids, with their fresh faces and three-cornered caps, and white bib-aprons, ran about the temple of art, and turned and whirled like humming tops,--for the old waiters with their shabby black dress-coats, and white neck-ties à la turkey-cock, and white cotton gloves which are always dipping into the gravy, were not the fashion then,--and the stout Nüsslers sat there and ate, as if there were a French commissary in their stomachs, provisioning an army for a Russian campaign, and when they had finished the fricassee they began on the pudding, and when they had disposed of the pudding they attacked the roasted pigeons and sparrows, and wondered that the pigeons in Mecklenburg were not as large as the geese, and murmured against providence because sparrows were not as thick as hops, and when the roast meat came, Cousin Wilhelming, the wit of the Nüssler family, stood up and clinked his glass, and cried, "Quiet!" three times, and holding up his glass said, "To the health of the old General Knusemong (que nous aimons), who has been a very distinguished general, and is so to this day!" and with that he looked towards the young pair, blinking with his left eye at Mining, and with his right at Rudolph. And Uncle Luting--understand me, the rich Uncle Luting--stood up expressly for the purpose, and said, "Wilhelming, you are a devilish fellow!" And Bräsig said to the Frau Pastorin, "Frau Pastorin, I know you are opposed to the Reform, but I assure you the witty shoemaker in the Reform would have done it much better!" And Frau Nüssler sat on thorns and thistles, in distress lest Jochen should take it into his head to make a speech; but Jochen restrained himself, his speeches were not for the world at large, they were only for the neighborhood, and all he said was, "Wilhelming, fill Luting's glass! Luting, help Wilhelming!"

And when the punch-bowls were placed on the table, and the champagne came, the old Nüsslers looked at the labels, and said they had just such in their cellars, and Fritz Triddelsitz and the Herr Shopmen and the Herr Pupils drank one glass after another, losing no time, until the left wing of the wedding-army became so uproarious that the little assessor remarked to the commander of these light troops, to Fritz Triddelsitz, that if they were to attack the enemy in that condition they would be obliged to retreat, and when Fritz was making arrangements to withdraw his forces, then there happened a diversion, for him and for the whole company. Well, just to think what clever things an ignorant beast will do sometimes! Bauschan, Jochen's Bauschan, our old Bauschan was sitting with a green wreath about his neck, and another about his tail,--for Krischan the coachman had dressed him up for the occasion,--on the green and white altar, which was behind the bridal pair, and where Gottlieb and Lining had married them, and he thrust his dignified autocratic face between their heads and licked Mining with his tongue, and struck Rudolph with his tail, and then licked Rudolph, and struck Mining. And when he had done this, the old fellow settled down again upon the altar with the greatest dignity, looking as if he were well contented with the whole affair, but meant to sit there a little longer, for his own pleasure. Jochen sprang up: "Bauschan, for shame! Down with you!" But Uncle Bräsig sprang up also, saying; "Jochen, do you treat your best friend like that, on this solemn occasion?" and turning to Pastor Gottlieb, he added: "Herr Pastor, let Bauschan alone! When the beast shows his affection, here on this Christian altar, the beast knows something that we don't. And Bauschan is a clever dog! I know it; for when I heard about the love-affairs, up in the cherry-tree, he heard them from below, for he was lying in the arbor, under the bench. Herr Pastor, this Bauschan is certainly a marriage witness, for he was there when they were betrothed."

Gottlieb turned pale at the scandalous idea, but did not break out into a sermon this time, for there was suddenly a humming and buzzing, as of a swarm of bees; everybody had risen, and began to remove chairs and tables,--"Out! out!" cried carpenter Schultz,--and dishes and platters, and the rector's youngest pupil tumbled down with a great pile of Frau Nüssler's china plates, and the fragments clattered through the hall, and he stood looking at his work, and feeling in his vest-pocket for treasures which were as much concealed from his own eyes as from those of other people, and as Frau Nüssler passed by and saw the performance he turned very red, and said he would gladly pay for them, but he hadn't so much by him. And Frau Nüssler patted him kindly on the shoulder and said, "Oh, nonsense! But you must be punished!" and she took him by the hand and led him to Bräsig's niece Lotting, and said, "You shall dance out my plates here, this evening." And he paid his debt honestly.