The Adventures of Harry Richmond — CompleteMeredith, George
General
The Adventures of Harry Richmond — Complete
Meredith, George
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
Fronting the tower, which was of white marble, a high tent had been
pitched on a green platform semicircled by pines. Torches were stuck in
clefts of the trees, or in the fork of the branches, or held by boys
and men, and there were clearly men at work beneath the tent at a busy
rate. We could hear the paviour's breath escape from them. Outside the
ring of torchbearers and others was a long cart with a dozen horses
harnessed to it. All the men appeared occupied too much for chatter and
laughter. What could be underneath the tent? Seeing a boy occasionally
lift one of the flapping corners, we took licence from his example to
appease our curiosity. It was the statue of a bronze horse rearing
spiritedly. The workmen were engaged fixing its pedestal in the earth.
Our curiosity being satisfied, we held debate upon our immediate
prospects. The difficulty of making sure of a bed when you are once
detached from your home, was the philosophical reflection we arrived
at, for nothing practical presented itself. To arm ourselves we pulled
out Miss Goodwin's paper. 'Gasthof is the word!' cried Temple.
'Gasthof, zimmer, bett; that means inn, hot supper, and bed. We'll
ask.' We asked several of the men. Those in motion shot a stare at us;
the torchbearers pointed at the tent and at an unseen height, muttering
'Morgen.' Referring to Miss Goodwin's paper we discovered this to
signify the unintelligible word morning, which was no answer at all;
but the men, apparently deeming our conduct suspicious, gave us to
understand by rather menacing gestures that we were not wanted there,
so we passed into the dusk of the trees, angry at their incivility. Had
it been Summer we should have dropped and slept. The night air of a
sharp season obliged us to keep active, yet we were not willing to get
far away from the torches. But after a time they were hidden; then we
saw one moving ahead. The holder of it proved to be a workman of the
gang, and between us and him the strangest parley ensued. He repeated
the word morgen, and we insisted on zimmer and bett.
'He takes us for twin Caspar Hausers,' sighed Temple.
'Nein,' said the man, and, perhaps enlightened by hearing a foreign
tongue, beckoned for us to step at his heels.
His lodging was a woodman's hut. He offered us bread to eat, milk to
drink, and straw to lie on: we desired nothing more, and were happy,
though the bread was black, the milk sour, the straw mouldy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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