Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship and travels, vol. 1 (of 2)Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
General
Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship and travels, vol. 1 (of 2)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Bildungsromans; German fiction -- Translations into English; Self-realization -- Fiction
The boy, out of sulkiness and ill nature more than want of skill, went
on but indifferently with his task: he pulled the hair with his
implements, and seemed as if he would not soon be done. Philina more
than once reproved him for his blunders, and at last sharply packed him
off, and chased him to the door. She then undertook the business
herself, and frizzled Wilhelm's locks with great dexterity and grace;
though she, too, appeared to be in no exceeding haste, but found always
this and that to improve and put to rights; while at the same time she
could not help touching his knees with hers, and holding her nosegay and
bosom so near his lips, that he was strongly tempted more than once to
imprint a kiss on it.
When Wilhelm had cleaned his brow with a little powder-knife, she said
to him, "Put it in your pocket, and think of me when you see it." It was
a pretty knife: the haft, of inlaid steel, had these friendly words
wrought on it, "Think of me." Wilhelm put it up, and thanked her,
begging permission at the same time to make her a little present in
return.
At last they were in readiness. Laertes had brought round the coach, and
they commenced a very gay excursion. To every beggar, Philina threw out
money from the window; giving along with it a merry and friendly word.
Scarcely had they reached the Mill, and ordered dinner, when a strain of
music struck up before the house. It was some miners singing various
pretty songs, and accompanying their clear and shrill voices with a
cithern and triangle. In a short while the gathering crowd had formed a
ring about them, and our company nodded approbation to them from the
windows. Observing this attention, they expanded their circle, and
seemed making preparation for their grandest piece. After some pause, a
miner stepped forward with a mattock in his hand; and, while the others
played a serious tune, he set himself to represent the action of
digging.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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