Читать книгу The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King - E. T. A. Hoffmann - Страница 10

THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE-KING

Godfather Drosselmeier.

THE DAY BEFORE

It was the day before Christmas. Fritz; and Marie Stahlbaum sat huddled together on a sofa in a little back room, for they had been forbidden to go near the living room or the drawing room. Fritz; was whispering very secretly to Marie. “Early this morning,” he told her, “I heard all kinds of noises,—rustling of paper and pounding behind the locked rooms.” Also, he confided to her, “I saw a small, dark man, with a large box under his arm, glide noiselessly through the hall.”

“Who could that have been?” asked Marie.

“Why, Godfather Drosselmeier! who else could it have been?”

At this Marie clapped her little hands for joy, and exclaimed, “Oh, what kind of a beautiful toy can it be that Godfather has made for us this year?”

Judge Drosselmeier was not a handsome man. He was short and thin, and his face was full of wrinkles. Over his right eye he wore a large black patch and as he had lost all his hair, he wore a beautiful white wig. To be sure, the children knew that Godfather was a very skillful man, for he not only understood clocks but he also made some himself.

This was the reason that whenever one of the clocks became ill and could not sing any more, they sent for Godfather Drosselmeier. He would come, remove his wig and his little yellow coat, and tying on an apron, would take out a pointed instrument and run it into the clock. This always made little Marie sad, but seemed to help the clock, as it at once became alive again and began to purr, to strike and to sing, to the great joy of every one.

Always when he came, he brought something attractive in his pocket for the children. Once it was a marionette, who could curtsy and turn his eyes; once a box, out of which a bird would hop; and another time it would be a new kind of toy such as they had never seen. But when Christmas came he always made some beautiful mechanical toy which only a very clever man could make. For this reason their parents would put it away for safekeeping after it had been presented to them.

“Oh! what kind of an ingenious thing can it be that Godfather Drosselmeier has made for us this year?” whispered Marie.

“This time,” replied Fritz, “it can hardly be anything else than a fortress, in which all kinds of handsome soldiers are marching back and forth. Other soldiers must come to storm the fortress, and then all at once, the soldiers inside will fire a cannon which will make a noise like thunder.”

“No, no,” interrupted Marie, “Godfather Drosselmeier told me about a nice garden, in which there is a large lake, on which superb swans with gold neckbands are swimming and singing lovely songs. Then a little girl comes out of the garden to the lake and beckons the swans and feeds them with candy.”

“Swans do not eat candy,” Fritz interrupted harshly, “and an entire garden Godfather cannot make. Then too, we have very little joy from his toys; they are always taken away from us at once. I would rather have what father and mother give us, for those toys we can keep and do with as we like.”

MAMSELL TRUDCHEN.

Again the children took turns in guessing what presents they were to receive this year. Marie thought that Mamsell Trudchen, her large doll, had changed much,—for clumsier than ever, she was always falling to the floor. This showed in bad marks on her face, and her clothing was now anything but clean. All her warnings had not helped. And mother had smiled to herself when she had seen how pleased Marie had been with Gretchen’s little parasol. Fritz assured Marie that he was much in need of a fine chestnut horse to add to his stable, and he also needed to add cavalry to his troops. He declared father was well aware of this. Little Marie became quiet as if in meditation, but Fritz murmured to himself, “A chestnut horse and hussars I should love to have.”

In the meantime, it had become very dark. Fritz and Marie, sitting close together, did not dare to speak. It seemed to them they could hear the rustling of wings and from a far distance superb music. A bright light now appeared upon the wall and the children knew that the Christ-Child had gone on to other happy children.

In that moment they heard a silvery bell ring, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, and the doors flew open and such a splendor greeted them from these rooms that both children exclaimed, “Oh! Oh!” and stood entranced on the threshold. Then father and mother came forward, took the children by the hand, and said, “Come, come, dear children and see what the Christ-Child has brought for you.”