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ââItâs a proper cross, and no Lord upon it,â says the old proverb. And the
old proverbâs right,â said the wife. âOnly eat your soup now, in Heavenâs
name, Schoolmaster, and get some warmth into your poor body. God will put
things straight; donât let that fret you. I say, Peter, come into the kitchen for a
minute; I want you to shut the chimney-slide; I canât quite manage it.â
But it was nothing to do with the chimney-slide, really.
When the pair were in the kitchen the wife said:
âYou must see, Peter, that we canât let the schoolmaster go like this. I went
to him for schooling, and he taught me to use my Prayer Book. As long as I
live I should never relish a morsel of bread again if I had to say to myself,
âYour old teacherâs had to go a-begging!ââWhat would you say to having the
top room fitted up for him? He could cut the rushes for us in the winter; and
he could look after the children in the summer, when we were out in the
fields; and he could teach them a bit too. You see, it would be just as well if
they knew how to read a little, and the boy would love it so and writing too;
and I shanât rest content till he can write his name.â
âThereâs no need for that, Klara,â answered Peter. âWho is there in the
Wilderness that knows how to write his name? Not a soul. Besides, working
menâs hands are too rough for that kind of thing; and, if it comes to a pinch,
we can always make our cross.â
Whereupon his wife:
âAfter that, I donât wonder that we have so many crosses to bear in the
Wilderness! But I donât hold with it, and I think that with the schoolmasterâs
help we might rise a bit.â
âYouâre looking at only one side of the question. You know quite well that
we only grow enough corn to make a bushel and a half, and that we have no
milk and no bacon in the winter; you know that we have no meat in the larder,
that we have no proper bedding, and that we are poor all round, in every nook
and corner. And now you want to take the schoolmaster in as well! There
canât be any question of it, good wife.â
And she:
âWell, if youâre beginning to grieve about the bit of bread and the morsel of
bacon which the schoolmaster would eat, Iâll save it out of my own mouth,
and lie on the bare straw, in Heavenâs name, and think it an honour if I can
have the old teacher under my roof.â
And he:
âYes; and by the time youâve done youâll sew a beggarâs sack for him and
The Forest Farm
Tales of the Austrian Tyrol
- Titel
- The Forest Farm
- Untertitel
- Tales of the Austrian Tyrol
- Autor
- Peter Rosegger
- Verlag
- The Vineyard Press
- Ort
- London
- Datum
- 1912
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 169
- Kategorien
- Geographie, Land und Leute
- International