Seite - 27 - in The Forest Farm - Tales of the Austrian Tyrol

II How I Gave God My Sunday Jacket THE church of the Alpine village of Ratten contains a nearly life-size equestrian statue, standing to the left of the high altar. The horseman is a splendid warrior; he wears a crested helmet and moustaches black as ebony. He has drawn his broad and gleaming sword and is using it to cut his cloak in half. At the foot of the prancing steed cowers the figure of a ragged beggar- man. My mother used to take me to this church when I was still a little whipper- snapper, hardly up to the height of an ordinary person’s trousers. Near the church stands a lady-chapel, famed for its many graces; and here my mother loved to pray. Often, when there was not another soul remaining in the chapel and twelve o’clock struck and the steeple sent the midday Angelus clanging out across the summer Sunday, mother would still be kneeling on one of the chairs and sending up her plaint to Mary. The Blessed Virgin sat on the altar, with her hand in her lap, and moved not head, nor eyes, nor hands; and so, little by little, my mother was able to say what she wanted. I preferred to stop in the church and gaze at the fine rider on his horse. And once, when we were on our way home and mother leading me by the hand (and I had always to take three steps for every one of hers), I raised my little head to her kind face and asked: “Why does the man on horseback keep on standing against the wall up there? Why does he not ride out through the window into the street?” Then mother answered: “Because you put such childish questions and because it is only a statue, the statue of St. Martin, who was a soldier and a very charitable and pious man and is now in Heaven.” “And is the horse in Heaven too?” I asked. “I will tell you all about St. Martin,” said mother, “when we come to a nice place where we can sit down and rest.”