Seldwyla Folks: Three Singular TalesKeller, Gottfried
General
Seldwyla Folks: Three Singular Tales
Keller, Gottfried
Switzerland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Now that the two children were dressed they were taken along for
breakfast in the adjoining room. Early in the morning bread had been
baked, and with the milk soup the little ones received each a fresh
loaf of cummin seed bread, and in place of the one sweet roll which on
ordinary days was specially baked for Kuengolt, there were two that
day, and the little girl would have it that the boy received the larger
of them. Dietegen ate without urging all that was offered him, just as
though he had returned to his father's house after an enforced stay
with evil strangers. But he was very still throughout, and he keenly
observed everything around him: the pleasant mild woman who treated him
like her own son, the sunny, light room, and the comfortable furniture
with which it was fitted up. And after having eaten his breakfast with
a good appetite, he continued these observations, noticing that the
walls were wainscoted with smooth pine, and higher up decorated with
painted wreaths and flowers, and that the leaded window panes showed
the arms both of husband and wife. When he also carefully inspected the
handsome closets and the sideboard with its load of shining vessels and
tableware, he suddenly remembered the dingy silver jug that had almost
brought him to his death, and the cheerless house of the beadle in
Ruechenstein, and then, afraid that he should have to return there
again, he asked with a tremor in his voice: "Must I now return home?
But I don't know the way."
"There is no need of your knowing it," said the housewife, moved by his
evident dread, and she stroked his smooth chin. "Have you not yet
noticed that you are to remain with us? Go along with him now, my
little Kuengolt, and show him the house and the woods, and everything
else. But do not go too far away!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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