Short Stories, - [books to read fiction .txt] 📗
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“Pooh,” said the dreamer, “why should I toil, and have my labor for my pain? It was nothing, after all, but a mere dream. My guardian angel takes little charge of me, I think, else I should not, to his shame, be going hitching about here on a wooden leg.”
Franz took out the last piece of silver he had on him: “There,” said he, “old father, take this other gift from me, to get thee a pint of wine for evening-cup; thy talk has driven away my ill humor. Neglect not diligently to frequent this bridge; we shall see each other here, I hope, again.”
The lame old man had not gathered so rich a stock of alms for many a day as he was now possessed off; he blessed his benefactor for his kindness, hopped away into a drinking shop to do himself a good turn; while Franz, enlivened with new hope, hastened off to his lodging in the alley.
Next day he got in readiness everything that is required for treasure-digging. The unessential equipments, conjurations, magic formulas, magic girdles, hieroglyphic characters, and such like, were entirely wanting; but these are not indispensable, provided there be no failure in the three main requisites—shovel, spade, and, before all, a treasure underground. The necessary implements he carried to the place a little before sunset, and hid them for the meanwhile in a hedge; and as to the treasure itself, he had the firm conviction that the goblin in the castle and the friend on the bridge would prove no liars to him. With longing impatience he expected the rising of the moon, and no sooner did she stretch her silver horns over the bushes than he briskly set to work, observing exactly everything the old man had taught him; and happily raised the treasure without meeting any adventure in the process, without any black dog having frightened him, or any bluish flame having lighted him to the spot.
Father Melchior, in burying this penny for a rainy day, had nowise meant that his son should be deprived of so considerable part of his inheritance. The mistake lay in this, that death had escorted the testator out of the world in another way than said testator had expected. He had been completely convinced that he should take his journey, old and full of days, after regulating his temporal concerns with all the formalities of an ordinary sick-bed; for so it had been prophesied to him in his youth. In consequence he purposed, when, according to the usage of the church, extreme unction should have been dispensed to him, to call his beloved son to his bedside, having previously dismissed all bystanders, there to give him the paternal blessing, and by way of farewell memorial direct him to this treasure buried in the garden. All this, too, would have happened in just order, if the light of the old man had departed like that of a wick whose oil is done; but as death had privily snuffed him out at a feast, he undesignedly took along with him his secret to the grave.
With immeasurable joy the treasure-digger took possession of the shapeless Spanish pieces, which, with a vast multitude of other finer coins the old chest had faithfully preserved. When the first intoxication of delight had in some degree evaporated, he bethought him how the treasure was to be transported, safe and unobserved into the narrow alley. The burden was too heavy to be carried without help; thus, with the possession of riches, all the cares attendant on them were awakened. The new Crœsus found no better plan than to intrust his capital to the hollow trunk of a tree that stood behind the garden, in a meadow; the empty chest he again buried under the rose-bush, and smoothed the place as well as possible. In the space of three days the treasure had been faithfully transmitted by instalments from the hollow tree into the narrow alley; and now the owner of it thought he might with honor lay aside his strict incognito. He dressed himself with the finest; had his prayer displaced from the church, and required, instead of it, “A Christian thanksgiving for a traveler on returning to his native town, after happily arranging his affairs.” He hid himself in a corner of the church, where he could observe the fair Meta, without himself being seen; he turned not his eye from the maiden, and drank from her looks the actual rapture which in foretaste had restrained him from suicide on the bridge of the Weser. When the thanksgiving came in hand, a glad sympathy shone from all her features and the cheeks of the virgin glowed with joy.
Franz now appeared once more on the Exchange; began a branch of trade which in a few weeks extended to a great scale; and as his wealth became daily more apparent, Neighbor Grudge, the scandal-chewer, was obliged to conclude, that in the cashing of his old debts he must have had more luck than sense. He hired a large house, fronting the Roland, in the market-place; engaged clerks and warehousemen; carried on his trade unweariedly; married Meta; provided for old Timbertoe; lived happily with his wife; and found the most tolerable mother-in-law that has ever been discovered.
The Table of Contents was added by the Transcriber.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. Inconsistent hyphenation was not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; all unbalanced quotation marks were remedied.
Words in dialect have not been checked for consistency and have not been changed.
The credit line for each story was printed at the bottom of the story’s first page. In this eBook, those credit lines have been repositioned just below the titles and enclosed in parentheses.
Page 151: “mien” was printed as “mein”; changed here.
Page 160: “via Bourdeaux” was printed as “via., Bourdeaux”; changed here.
Page 195: “ricocheting” was printed as “richocheting”; changed here.
Page 201: “curiosities” was printed as “curosities”; changed here.
Page 210: “chimpanze” was printed that way.
Page 217: The “m” in “Embalm” was italicized in the original book; not changed here.
Page 252: “young gentleman” was printed as “young gentlemen”; changed here.
Page 255: “he was now possessed off” was printed that way.
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