The wanderings and fortunes of some German emigrantsGerstäcker, Friedrich
General
The wanderings and fortunes of some German emigrants
Gerstäcker, Friedrich
Germany -- Emigration and immigration -- Fiction; Immigrants -- Fiction
All squabbles and disputes were put an end to by this occurrence, at
least for a time, and even the Oldenburghers tried to forget their
wooden shoes, particularly as, towards evening, a light East wind sprang
up and filled the slack sails, and removed the ship more and more from
them.
About midnight, however, a fresh favourable South-easter sprang up,
that sent the Hoffnung pretty fast on her destination; the sails were
filled, and the white spray splashed from her bows; the wind did not
increase for some days, so that the sea was not much agitated, the
motion of the ship gentle, and the travellers, who by degrees became
accustomed to the rocking to and fro, suffered little from sea-sickness;
even Mrs. Hehrmann, who had dropped the title of "pastoress" at Bremen,
began to recover, and was often on deck.
Young Werner, who by his boldness had made himself the favourite of the
whole ship, attached himself more especially to the family of the
Hehrmanns, and in particular was attentive to the women in contriving
and executing a number of little comforts to better or smoothe their
situation, which was by no means one of the pleasantest. Many a kind
look from the elder daughter, Bertha, was his reward, and on these
occasions he felt that a new and glad world opened itself before him, as
though he had already, on the desert seas, found a home, which he had
hoped to find in foreign distant climes.
It was late one evening; the moon, that but shortly before had poured
her friendly light upon the slightly curled sea, hid her disk, which was
nearly at the full, behind thin clouds, that floated past her quicker
and quicker, that covered her closer and closer, till at last a faint
glimmer announced the spot where she tried in vain to break a passage,
and to dispel the closing shadows.
Werner, wrapped in his cloak, had been relating the tale of his life, a
simple one, to old Hehrmann; how he had, yonder, lost all that was dear
to him; how he was bound, with the rest of his fortune, to that strange
country which is the hope and the silent longing of thousands, either to
found a new home among strangers, or else, at all events, not to be
daily reminded that he had once possessed such, and now was banished
from the threshold of his paternal house, tenanted by strange people.
The two girls, wrapped closely in their mantles, and leaning against
their father, had listened with breathless attention, when the loud
orders of the Captain, who issued his commands quickly through a
speaking-trumpet, disturbed the confidential conversation, and called
the attention of the friends to what was passing around them.
An ominous rustling and whispering from the sea greeted the ear, and the
dark waves, sprinkled as it seemed with millions of glistening stars,
rolled and tumbled together more uneasily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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