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Schwarzenberg, in Muran. He had to study, and wanted to also, but suddenly
dropped it all in his seventeenth year, just when he should have repeated his
annual course. After that he tried an agricultural school, learnt forestry and
became a forester. But he only got as far as being a foresterâs assistant or
huntsman, and as this he was placed in the Imperial forests at Neuberg. He
ought, perhaps, to have been a scholar, for there was something speculative in
him, and he read many books in his spare time. He was much too much in
books. He said such things oftentimes, and kept so away from church, that the
people said: âHuntsman Kickel has fallen away from the Christian faith.â That
often happens to-day,â commented my travelling companion. âAt that time it
was something novel. No one knew how he felt about it himself inside; the
people said it could not feel quite right. Otherwise he was not a bad man.
Once when he was in the church during a feast, he took money out of his
purse and wanted to give it to the bell-pocket man, but the man passed by him
as if to say, âYou monster, your money is too bad for me.â Whereupon Kickel
gave the coins to a poor little old woman; they were not too bad for her, and
the people laughed no end! Once a swallow flew into the church and could
not get out again, because the windows have wire-netting and the door was at
the far end. And no one could catch her, either. So Kickel went into the
church every day and the sacristan thought he had been converted. Kickel,
however, was only taking in birdâs food so that the swallow should not starve.
And as to conversion, there was nothing of that sort at all. In spite of
everything, people liked him well, and nobody could accuse him of anything
wrong. Then he married a schoolmasterâs daughter from the Veitsch, and had
seven children; and of these he lost six by death while they were quite little,
three at one time, and his wife also through consumption. Only one single
child remained to him, a boy called Oswald. One often sees that people who
are unable to believe in a future life are all the more thirsty for life here, and
for love too. It was just that way with Kickel. His love for this only child
became an overwhelming passion, and all and everything which lay in his
power that could make life lovely for the handsome, merry young Oswald, he
gave him. He had him taught, and when he was twelve years old wanted to
send him to an Institute in Vienna; but, on the other hand, Oswald wanted to
stay among his home mountains, and the huntsman had to force himself to
thrust him out. A few years later he secured him a clerkship in the State
Forestry Office at Neuberg, and a few years after that there was a wedding.
âOswaldâs choice was a pretty daughter of a burgher of MĂźrzzuschlag. The
love-story apparently was just like other love-stories, and went much the
same road as they. Oswald became master-woodman in the Hochschlag,
behind MĂźrzsteg, on the high Veitsch. After barely a year, naturally enough,
the âlittle ladâ was there, and Oswald could say to his father, âI can wish
The Forest Farm
Tales of the Austrian Tyrol
- Title
- The Forest Farm
- Subtitle
- Tales of the Austrian Tyrol
- Author
- Peter Rosegger
- Publisher
- The Vineyard Press
- Location
- London
- Date
- 1912
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 169
- Categories
- Geographie, Land und Leute
- International