Love, thou art mine, and I am thine, And that doth content me, And shall not repent thee, Love, fare thee well!"
At last they came to the village, where one group after another detached itself. Barefoot paused under the tree by her father"s house, and stood there for a long time in dreamy meditation. She would have liked to go in and tell Black Marianne everything, but gave up the idea. Why should she disturb the old woman"s rest at night? What good would it do? She went quietly home, where everybody was asleep. When she finally entered the house, everything seemed so much more strange to her than it had outside--so odd, so out of keeping, so out of place. "Why do you come home? What do you want here?" There seemed to be a strange questioning in every sound; when the dog barked, when the stairs creaked, when the cows lowed in the stable--they all seemed to be questioning her: "Who"s that coming home? Who"s that?" And when at length she found herself in her room, she sat down quietly and stared at the light. Suddenly she got up, seized the lamp, held it up to the gla.s.s, and looked at her face; she felt inclined to ask herself: "Who"s that?"--"And thus," she thought, "he saw me--this is how I looked. He must have been pleased with something about you, or else why did he look at you so?"
There arose in her a quiet feeling of contentment, which was heightened by the thought:
"Well, for once you have been looked upon as a person; until now you have been nothing but a servant, a convenience for others. Good night, Amrei--this has been a day indeed! But even this day must come to an end at last."
CHAPTER XI
WHAT THE OLD SONG SAYS
[The memory of the handsome stranger, and of the dance, and of all the new and wonderful emotions that had filled her heart on that eventful day, to Amrei was a sacred one indeed; for weeks she thought of it by day and dreamed of it by night. The jealous, sneering remarks of Rose, and the half-serious, half-jesting utterances of other people, who had been present at the wedding, meant nothing to her; she went about her work all the more diligently and ignored it all. Black Marianne could offer her no encouragement in her hope that the stranger would some day appear again and claim her; she had waited all her life for her John, and would continue to wait until she died.]
Spring had come again. Amrei was standing beside the flowers in her window when a bee came flying up and began sucking at an open blossom.
"Yes, so it is," thought Barefoot; "a girl is like a plant; she grows up in one place, and cannot go out into the world and seek--she must wait until something comes flying to her."
"Were I a little bird, And had a pair of wings, I"d fly to thee; But since I can"t do that, Here must I be.
Though I am far from thee, In dreams I am with thee, Thou art mine own; But when I wake again, I am alone.
No hour at night doth pa.s.s, But that my heart doth wake, And think of thee,--"
Thus sang Amrei. It was wonderful how all songs seemed now to apply to her own life. And how many thousands of people have already sung those songs from the depths of their souls, and how many thousands more are yet to sing them!
Ye who yearn and who at last embrace a heart, ye embrace along with it the love of all those who have ever been, or who ever shall be.
CHAPTER XII
HE IS COME
One Sunday afternoon Barefoot, according to her custom, was leaning against the door-post of the house and gazing dreamily out before her, when Coaly Mathew"s grandson came running up the street, beckoning to her from afar and crying:
"He is come, Barefoot! He is come!"
Barefoot felt her knees tremble, and she cried in a broken voice:
"Where is he? Where?"
"At my grandfather"s, in Mossbrook Wood!"
"Where? Who? Who sent you?"
"Your Damie--he"s down yonder in the woods."
Barefoot was obliged to sit down on the stone bench in front of the house; but only for a minute. Then she pulled herself together and stood up stiffly with the words:
"My brother? My Damie?"
"Yes, Barefoot"s Damie," said the boy, bluntly; "and he promised that you would give me a kreutzer if I would run and tell you. So now give me a kreutzer."
"My Damie will give you three."
"Oh, no!" said the boy, "he"s been whimpering to my grandfather because he hadn"t a kreutzer left."
"I haven"t one now either," said Barefoot, "but I"ll promise you one."
She went quickly into the house and begged the second maid to milk the cows for her that evening, in case she should not get back, for she had an errand to do immediately. Then, with a heart now full of anger at Damie, now full of sorrow for him and his awkwardness, again full of vexation on account of his coming back, and then again full of self-reproach that she should be going to meet her only brother in such a way, Barefoot wended her way out into the fields and down the valley to Mossbrook Wood.
There was no mistaking the way to Coaly Mathew"s, even if one were to wander off from the foot-path. The smell of burning charcoal led one to him infallibly.
How the birds are rejoicing in the trees! And beneath them a sad maiden is pa.s.sing, thinking how unhappy it must make her brother to see all these things again, and how badly things must have gone with him, if he had no other resource but to come home and live upon her earnings.
"Other sisters are helped by their brothers," she thought to herself, "and I--but I shall show you this time, Damie, that you must stay where I put you, and that you dare not stir!"
Such were Barefoot"s thoughts as she hurried along; and at last she arrived at Coaly Mathew"s. But there she saw only Coaly Mathew himself, who was sitting by the kiln in front of his log cabin, and holding his wooden pipe with both hands as he smoked it; for a charcoal-burner is like a charcoal kiln, in that he is always smoking.
"Has anybody been playing a trick on me?" Barefoot asked herself. "Oh, that would be shameful! What have I done to people that they should make a fool of me? But I shall soon find out who did it--and he shall pay for it."
With clenched fists and a flaming face she stood before Coaly Mathew, who hardly raised his eyes to her--much less did he speak. As long as the sun was shining he was almost always mute, and only at night, when n.o.body could look into his eyes, did he like to talk, and then he spoke freely.
Barefoot gazed for a minute at the charcoal-burner"s black face, and then asked impatiently:
"Where is my Damie?"
The old man shook his head. Then Barefoot asked again with a stamp of her foot:
"Is my Damie with you?"
The old man unfolded his hands and spread them right and left, implying thereby that he was not there.
"Who was it that sent to me?" asked Barefoot, still more impatiently.
"Can"t you speak?"
The charcoal-burner pointed with his right thumb toward the side where a foot-path wound around the mountain.
"For Heaven"s sake, do say something!" cried Barefoot, fairly weeping with indignation; "only a single word! Is my Damie here, or where is he?"
At last the old man said:
"He"s there--gone to meet you along the path." And then, as if he had said too much, he pressed his lips together and walked off around the kiln.