Pümpelhagen

“ Remember how long Pümpelhagen has belonged to the von Rambow family; you can't expect to get it away from them at a moment's notice. But now--hush! I hear David coming, and he must not know what we have been talking about. You understand, he is to know of nothing but that you like taking up good bills."
When David entered the room he saw before him a couple of happy faces; Pomuchelskopp was laughing as if the attorney had been making a good joke, and the attorney was laughing as if Pomuchelskopp had been telling an amusing story. ”

“ The only person at Pümpelhagen who was perfectly contented was Fred Triddelfitz, so the young squire had not cast the pearls of his speech entirely before swine.
Slus'uhr and David arrived, and what can I say about their visit? They sang the same song as before, and Alick had to renew his bills again. From long practice he had grown quite expert at this. Borrowing money is a dreadful thing, nothing comes up to it except perhaps being beheaded or hung, neither of which is precisely a pleasant experience ”

“ Such an arrangement was never known before at Pümpelhagen as on that lovely afternoon; but order must be maintained. The old carpenter, Frederic Flegel, stood at the barn-door and watched the harvesters set out: "Wonders will never cease," he muttered, scratching his head, "however it's no business of mine," and as he went back to his work, he said: "What has become of our old bailiff?"
Hawermann was still sitting quietly in his room thinking. ”

“ I thought, father, that you would perhaps undertake the management of this place for me, and that you and Bräsig would sometimes come and overlook my farming at Pümpelhagen to see that I am getting on all right."--"Whenever you like," cried Bräsig from the box. "Didn't I tell you, Charles, that he would turn out well?"--And Hawermann's eyes sparkled with delight. To be able to farm again! To lead an active, useful life once more! ”

“ And it's just as well for us that they never do. If that is all, Hawermann may stay as long as he likes at Pümpelhagen; but wait a moment--perhaps it would be better that he should go--he's too good a farmer--if he makes Pümpelhagen pay as well for the future as it has done during the last few years, it will be a long time before it slips out of the lieutenant's hands."--"Hawermann a good farmer!--He!--Why he tried it for himself once and failed!"--"You do him injustice there. It is a great mistake to think your opponent weaker than he really is. ”

“ I can't draw back the foot I've planted on his land for anything," repeated Pomuchelskopp, and he was not to be persuaded to change his mind.
"It's a great pity," said the attorney as he was driving home, "when a man hasn't courage to carry out his intentions and so stops short in the middle. Mark my words, our work at Pümpelhagen is finished. I wish I had to do business with the old woman, she'd have gone through with it."--"She's a fearfully clever woman," said David.--"It's no good talking," grumbled Slus'uhr, "our milch cow at Pümpelhagen has gone dry. ”

“ And, gracious lady," he added, after a moment, "Pumpelhagen cannot spare this field; the advantage is too great for us to give it up."
Frida asked him to explain it more fully, and, when she understood the matter, it was easy to see that she said to herself, she would do what she could to keep the field.
As they came into the Pumpelhagen court-yard Slusuhr the notary and David were just starting off, and Axel stood before the door taking leave of them as politely as if Slusuhr were the colonel of his Regiment, and David a young count.
"Who is that?" asked Frida of Habermann. He told her. ”

“ How easy it would have been for him to have kept out of all this trouble if he had only taken Hawermann's advice. And how willingly would the bailiff help him now that loyalty to the old squire did not stand in the way. But the human heart is very reserved and timid, and thinks it will find rest when far away from the place where it has suffered pain and mortification, so Alick left Pümpelhagen sooner than his sisters had expected. ”

“ You see, Rexow is quite a small farm, there are only a few more acres belonging to it on the other side of the village. To the right up there is Warnitz; and in front of us, where the fallow ground begins, is Pümpelhagen; and down there to the left, behind the little clump of firs, is Gürlitz."
"Then Warnitz is the largest!" "No, Charles, you've mistaken me there. Pümpelhagen is the best estate in the neighborhood, the wheat-land there produces forty-two loads, and that is eight more than Warnitz can show. It would be a blessing if all the other places were like it. ”

“ That was a sad picture, which Bräsig had drawn of the situation at Pumpelhagen; but in truth, matters were much worse, for he had said nothing of the influence which Axel's constant need of money had upon his temper, and this was the saddest. Continual embarrassment not only makes a man out of humor, it makes him hard towards his inferiors, and our Axel fell into the old fault; he believed he was so badly off because his people fared too well, and Pomuchelskopp was always telling him so. ”

“ As I was thinking over all of these events, I turned the corner of the path at the arbour where so many of the Pümpelhagen family had sat in their hour of sorrow, and I saw three little girls of from four to eleven years old playing on the grass. A lady with a kind, gentle, and happy face was seated in the arbour sewing, she let her work fall into her lap, and smiling at the little girls threatened them with her finger, saying: "There can be too much of a good thing." Beside her was a strong active looking man reading a newspaper. ”

“ Two may play at the same game. You don't really think that you can bring an estate like Pümpelhagen into the market, by buying up bills to the extent of a few hundred pounds? You'll have to do much more than that, you must get all the mortgages on the property into your own hands."--"I intend to do so," whispered Pomuchelskopp. "But how am I to get possession of the bond for a thousand and fifty pounds which old Moses holds? I'm afraid there's no hope."--"I'll have nothing to do with Moses, I can tell you; but there's David, you might get him to manage it. ”

“ Parson Behrens shook his head also when he heard of this kind of beneficence. He said that the Pümpelhagen peasantry were the best in his parish because they had always been under the rule of the same family, and had always been treated justly and kindly, while the Gürlitz villagers had been spoilt by a constant change of masters. He was well aware that nothing is so hurtful to the character as receiving lavish and undeserved benefits, and therefore determined to speak to the young lady. ”

“ Meanwhile they had reached Pümpelhagen, and Bräsig took Hawermann quite under his protection as they crossed the court-yard, and addressing the old butler, asked if his master was at home and able to see them. He would announce the gentlemen, was the servant's reply, and say that Mr. Farm-bailiff Bräsig was there. "Yes," said Bräsig. "You see, Charles, that he knows me, and the Councillor knows me also—and—did you notice?—announce! That's what the nobility always have done when any one calls on them. ”

“ Pümpelhagen is wherever a nobleman lives who thinks no higher of himself than of his fellowmen, who looks upon the lowest of his labourers as his brethren, and who works with and for them. Gürlitz is wherever a clergyman is to be found who preaches what he believes to be the truth, but who is not self-sufficient enough to expect that his people should hold the faith exactly as he holds it; who makes no difference between rich and poor, and who is not contented with preaching alone, but who works amongst his people, helping and counselling them whenever it is needful. ”

“ I'll tell you what it is, Master Strull, they only use these words as a flower of speech and to show how learned they are."--When they had read a little more of the book the schoolmaster rose to go home, and then the two old friends were left alone together, for Bräsig was to spend the night at Pümpelhagen.--At last Hawermann said with a deep sigh: "I'm very much afraid, Zachariah, that bad times are beginning for me."--"Why, what do you mean? Your young squire is a merry light-hearted sort of man, and is fond of a joke too. ”

“ He is too good a steward, and, if he manages Pumpelhagen as well as he has so far, the lieutenant can afford to keep us waiting a good while yet."
"He a good manager! He didn't manage very well for himself."
"Well, let him go! One mustn't undervalue things. But he must go."
"Yes, but how can we bring it about?"
"I can't do anything," laughed the notary, "but you--when you get the Herr Lieutenant with the bright dollars under his eyes, it will be easy to get an old, worn-out inspector turned off. The devil is in it, if you can't."
"Yes, yes," cried Pomuchelskopp, in a tone of annoyance ”

“ He did so on the first opportunity, and explained to her that the Pümpelhagen vassals were so well off that unless any of them were thrown out of work by age or ill-health, or had lost their cattle by an epidemic, they were quite able to support themselves, and added that indiscriminate alms-giving only taught people to rely upon outside help instead of on their own exertions; he showed her that the common people, as well as those in a better worldly position, should be allowed to go their own way independently, and that no outsider ought--even in kindness--to meddle in their private affairs. ”

“ You are in fault, you have bitterly wronged the old man, as he evidently thinks."
"That was a bold move," said Pomuchelskopp, as if he were talking to himself, "that was a bold move, for an inspector," but he must be going home, he said, and called, out of the window, for his horse. He had got things started finely.
The horse was brought, Axel accompanied his Herr Neighbor out of the door; Franz remained in the room. "Certainly a very good man, your Herr Cousin," said Pomuchelskopp, "but he does not know the world yet, does not know yet what is proper for the master, and what for the servant." ”

“ George Pepusch was wandering through the streets at night, quite inconsolable, when his attention was attracted by an unusually bright light, that fell upon the street from a crevice in the window-shutter in the lower room of a large house. He thought that there must be fire in the chamber, and swung himself up by means of the iron-work to look in. Boundless was his surprise at what he saw. A large fire blazed in the chimney, which was opposite to the window, before which sate, or rather lay, the little Hollandress in a broad old-fashioned armchair, dressed out like an angel. ”

“ George Pepusch in a very neat room, meditating on whom he could find in Frankfort to be his bail. He had been away so long that he feared he must be forgotten by those who had formerly known him well; and, as to foreign recommendations, he possessed none whatever. He began to look out of the window in a very melancholy mood, and cursed his fate aloud, when a window was opened close by him, and a voice exclaimed,--"What! do I see right? Is it you, George?" Mr. Pepusch was not a little astonished on perceiving the friend, with whom he had been most intimate during his residence at Madras. ”

“ When George Pepusch came to Berlin, Leuwenhock's fair niece was the talk of the day; and hence at the table of the hotel, where he lodged, scarcely any thing else was spoken of but the little wonder that delighted all the men, young and old, and even the women themselves. Every one pressed the new-comer to place himself on the pinnacle of the existing mode at Berlin, and see the Hollandress. ”

“ Across the Weser all was beauty and repose: green meadows covered with peacefully grazing cattle; clumps of trees dotting the valleys and the banks of the stream; hills in the hazy distance, and the picturesque ruins of what had once been the residence of the steward of the Petershagen domains (the Koppel) in the immediate foreground. The air was balmy; the thin, white clouds floating in the sky threw light shadows on the beautiful German earth ”

“ Prince Otto pulled thoughtfully at his moustache.
"Bombard London! It seems—and yet—ah, well, they have few pleasures."
He stood awhile in meditation. So did Captain von Poppenheim. He kicked a pebble. So did Captain von Poppenheim—only a smaller pebble. Discipline is very strict in the German army.
"Poppenheim."
"Sir?"
"Any signs of our—er—competitors?"
"Yes, sir; the Russians are coming up on the left flank, sir. They'll be here in a few hours. Raisuli has been arrested at Purley for stealing chickens. The army of Bollygolla is about ten miles out. No news of the field yet, sir." ”

“ Ah, here comes Pelham at last—a clean little bay, stepping roundly, and lifting his legs well; you might call it a perfect action, if we had not just seen Lady Suffolk go by—but so wicked about the head and eyes! Behind the little horse sits a big Irishman, in his shirt sleeves; and they are hauling away at each other, pull Pat, pull Pelham, as if the man wanted to jerk the horse's head off, and the horse to draw the man's arms out. You see the driver is holding by little loops fastened to the reins, to prevent his grasp from slipping. ”

“ And there sat Peppel, who had lived so long in England; behind him a pile of willow-pattern crockery, before him a calabash of dog stew and palaver sauce. It is always thus with these savages. The instincts inherited from their forefathers will ever triumph over a sprinkling of foreign reason. Their intellects have a rete mucosum as well as their skins. As soon as they return to their own country, take they off all their civilization and their clothes, and let body and mind go naked. Like most negroes of rank, Peppel has a yellow complexion, as light as that of a mulatto. ”