Seldwyla Folks: Three Singular TalesKeller, Gottfried
General
Seldwyla Folks: Three Singular Tales
Keller, Gottfried
Switzerland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"Well, here we are," said Manz, when the cart had reached its
destination. His wife was crestfallen when she noticed the dreary and
unpropitious aspect of the place. The people of the neighborhood
stepped in front of their housedoors to have a look at the new
innkeeper, and when they saw the rustic appearance of the outfit and
the miserable trappings, they put on their Seldwyla smile of
superiority. Wrathfully Mother Manz climbed down from her high seat,
and tears of anger were in her eyes as she quickly fled into the house,
her limber tongue for once forsaking her. On that day at least she was
no more seen below. For she herself was well aware of the sorry show
made by her, and all the more as the tattered condition of her
furniture could not be concealed from prying eyes when the various
articles were now being unloaded. Her musty and torn beds,
particularly, she felt ashamed of. Sali, too, shared her feelings, but
he was obliged to help his father in unloading, and the two made quite
a stir in the neighborhood with their rustic manners and speech,
furnishing the curious children with food for laughter. These little
folks, indeed, amused themselves abundantly that day at the expense of
the "ragged peasant bankrupts." Inside the house, though, things looked
still more desolate; the place, in fact, had more the looks of a
robbers' roost than of an inn. The walls were of badly calsomined
brick, damp with moisture, and beside the dark and poorly furnished
guest room downstairs there were but a couple of bare and uninviting
bedrooms, and everywhere their predecessor had left behind nothing but
spider's webs, filth and dust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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