Читать книгу Ivar: or, The Skjuts-Boy - Emilie Flygare-Carlén - Страница 11

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On the evening of the fourth day of his journey, Ivar stepped through the door of his paternal home, and the many questions which were asked him, seemed as though they would have no end. But Ivar was weary, and begged them to allow him to sleep first. His mother prepared a bed of straw, and covered it with a coarse but warm blanket, obtained a new pillow case, and satisfied with these preparations, Ivar laid himself down, and was soon sound asleep, dreaming of the beautiful pale lady, and her child with its bandaged eye. As he saw them now in his dreams, so he saw them after a lapse of many years, and little Diana remained a pledge to him, that accompanied him everywhere. It was a chain of connexion which served to prove to him that his memory had not been a dream.

After Ivar had related the particulars of his journey to the Norwegian frontier, and had patiently suffered his mother's reproaches, that he had brought along with him another hungry mouth to fill, the most important subject, the proposal of Master Brun, was discussed.

"What is your opinion, Ivar?" said his father, who sat on the table, twirling his thumbs. "What do you think? you shall not be forced to do it; but I think it as good as anything else."

"If you do go, you can come over and see us on Sundays, and other holidays," said his mother, drawing her chair nearer to his father, so as to participate in this important conversation, and in her husband's authority.

Ivar, who had been sitting on the hearth stone, playing with his Diana, had remained silent until now. He was desirous of knowing what his parents would say concerning the proposition. But when he heard that they were in favour of it, he broke the silence, and walking toward the table, he extended his hand to his father, saying—

"Strike hands! I shall become a tanner. If I do not return on the eighth day you need not expect me at all."

Christopher and his wife were not prepared for such a quick decision, and therefore now made, as all other people do, the most foolish objections. But Ivar was not willing to take back his words, and therefore refuted all their objections with, "It is now decided, I shall become a tanner."

And by this resolution he steadfastly remained. Previous to his leaving his home, he divided the contents of his purse with his parents. One half, which he had retained as his part, he determined to apply to the purpose of buying himself a new jacket as soon as he arrived at the city, so as to be enabled to commence his new condition in life with becoming dignity. His parents accompanied him quite a distance through the forest, and for eight days after his departure, Mother Ingierd's eyes remained red and swollen by her excessive weeping.

If we should follow our hero's life, pace by pace, through his entire apprenticeship at Mr. Brun's, it would not be very interesting; but we cannot forego saying that Ivar gradually acquired a taste for reading, by means of which his mind, naturally powerful, assumed a firmer and more decided tendency. All his leisure hours he employed in reading books, whenever he could obtain them; but with the exception of a Bible, a biblical history and a short extract from Swedish history were all the literary treasures he possessed, for neither the journeymen nor the other two apprentices were inclined to spend their time in such a seemingly unprofitable and tedious manner.

But when the master found his apprentice every Sunday afternoon with a book in his hand, instead of roving through the streets, as his fellows did, his sentiments turned still more strongly in Ivar's favour, especially as he always attended to his day's labour with peculiar diligence and activity. To reward him properly, and to encourage him to still greater diligence, his master took him one pleasant Sabbath afternoon into his room, led him to the before-mentioned concealed shelf, and withdrew the curtain with as much haste as the surgeon at Rosenberg used, when he brought to the traveller Bystroem's sleeping Juno.

And lo! before Ivar's enraptured gaze a field of unbounded joy was opened. Two long rows of books, yellow with age, sometimes a half, and sometimes the third only of a volume, and occasionally a whole one; fragments from all the book-auctions that Mr. Brun had attended for the last twenty years. "That is my library," said honest Brun, joyfully. "I have never allowed either my journeymen or apprentices to look upon them; but you, Ivar, are a promising and clever boy, diligent and active in your business, as in your conduct also, and for these reasons I shall honour you, so that you will remember your master all the days of your life."

"I shall certainly do so," said Ivar, his eyes glistening with pleasure, as he stood enchained by rapture to the spot, as his master drew one volume after another from the library, and gave him his choice. Not to occupy too much time in selecting, he took, in God's name, the first that came to his hand, and left all to fortune, until the treasure he had chosen would become exhausted. Master Brun was glad he did so, as he was not able to advise Ivar in the choice of the books, and being convinced that they were all of equal value.

The first great catch was "Peter Wilkins, or the Flying People," bound together with "Gulliver's Travels," both forming a volume the size of a prayer-book. Ivar conveyed the treasure to his room, and from that hour, after he had opened the sturdy leather cover, there was displayed to his astonished senses such a new and miraculous world, that his brain was completely bewildered by the mass of strange adventures. Day and night, during his work in the shop, and when in his silent bed, he dreamed of nothing but giants, dwarfs, flying men and women, and bewitched princesses. He became a perfect wandering edition of the "Arabian Nights," and at length gave way so much to these unwonted enjoyments, that his dearest recollections, the journey with the German lady and her baby, and even the remembrance of the old pony, were gradually driven from his mind.

Under such circumstances, Ivar was very happy in the position of a tanner's apprentice, and the only disagreeable thing that clouded his stay in Master Brun's house was the continual fights between Mrs. Brun's cat and Ivar's favourite and constant companion, the golden-haired Diana.

Mrs. Brun was a very good-natured, honest old woman, but she had transferred all that tenderness to her cat which she would have probably bestowed on her own children, if she had had any. For this reason she would never allow the horrible dog to put even his nose within the door, for as soon as this happened, the cat, disturbed from her slumber, sprang from the bed, tearing down with her Mrs. Brun's stocking and ball of yarn, with which the cat and Diana used to tangle themselves into the utmost confusion, and when Mrs. Brun heard the well-known spitting and howling, she would jump into the room where they were, and knitting-needles flew around briskly, and the yarn was broken to pieces; she usually ran after her uncompleted stocking, and generally found it torn open down to the heel.

And was she not right? and did not Diana come devoutly to her call, holding the tangled yarn in her mouth, and attempt to sneak off through the open door, when she knew certainly that a storm was brewing? But Mrs. Brun was too quick for Diana, and always shut the door before the dog could escape, and she was forced to suffer many a buffet and threat, for having induced the cat into such mischievous pranks. The cat was then obliged to seek safety under the stove; but this did not terminate the matter. Master Brun was called upon, and seriously admonished to give Ivar a severe lecture, the rogue, for it was a pure scandal to conduct himself thus.

"Well, what is the matter now?" inquired the tanner, with the utmost composure.

"What is the matter? How dare you ask such a question? You see on the floor there the cause; but if you do not wish to hear or see anything, you may know that that wretch of a dog is seducing my cat, who never before cut such indecent capers with stocking-yarn and knitting-needles. Look here—is that nothing? and to stop this, I have to walk here from the kitchen, and let my bacon burn—is that nothing? But if you do not wish to inform the boy yourself, that he must either drown his dog, or must take him from the house, with himself also, I shall throw the wretch into the water myself, if he does not do so."

"You will not do it, my child," replied the tanner, quietly. "Diana is Ivar's favourite, and Ivar is a good boy. He cannot help it, that the dog and cat cannot agree; all you must do, is to keep the door shut."

But Mrs. Brun was not satisfied with this, by no means. As soon as her husband had walked out after his noon's nap, she stepped without hesitation to the tannery, and lectured Ivar so impressively, that he became very sad, and, looking at his Diana, he said, "Before I shall drown you, I would rather pack up my bundle, and go myself. As dear as the library is to me, you are much dearer. There is nobody in the whole world that I love so much as I do you."

Mrs. Brun's threats, however, were not carried into force, although she repeated them daily, for in spite of her loquaciousness and high-sounding ways, she, nevertheless, held her husband in the greatest respect, and was very careful not to make him angry in earnest. Master Brun was a plain sensible man in his daily life, but if he once became angry, it would not do to joke with him.

Mrs. Brun's constant scolding and grumbling, however, caused Ivar to resolve that as soon as he had completed his apprenticeship he would seek a place in another tannery. He esteemed his old master very highly, and the treasure behind the grey curtain no less; but there was something else, which was of still greater value to him—peace, within and without. It can hardly be imagined how much Mrs. Brun's constant scolding pained him. He was a gay, clever boy, and did not care for reproach more than was necessary, but there are characters which can never endure such shrews, while others bear with them as with their daily bread. Ivar longed, with all his heart, for a place where there was no cat, or a scolding woman to be found.

In the meantime his intellectual developments, as well as his desire for information, had taken a better direction after his confirmation, which took place in his sixteenth year. During this time, he had entered into a closer acquaintance with one of his schoolmates, who was soon to be promoted from the lower school into the college. This young man often lent Ivar some of his books, who, amid the throng of better ideas he received from them, cast out the mass of the confused ideas which were the consequence of his former readings. With as much zeal as he had devoured the myths of the traditional world, he now studied history and geography, and even scribbled with chalk rough maps on a piece of leather, by the aid of which he made journeys, in his chamber, through foreign countries.

Assisted by the first friend whom he had gained, he advanced at a rapid pace. The young and fashionable Leopold Wirén, himself a stranger in the place, where he had been sent by his guardian at the death of his parents, attached himself with warm interest and real friendship to Ivar, who, on his part, hung with infinite tenderness on him to whom he owed so much.

An equally sad fate rendered their connexion still closer. After three years had passed, Ivar lost both his parents; and as he now stood alone in the wide world, with his warm heart, that had so often appeared to him like an enigma, he sometimes felt a voidness and a longing, which neither Diana's friendly caresses could dispel, nor could be decreased by the most assiduous application to his books. But when he visited his friend, and, after his day's labour had closed, took a walk with him out upon the forest-covered mountains of Gustavsburg, he began to feel better, for Leopold stood as isolated in the world as himself, and in spite of the difference in their temperaments and degrees of education, they understood each other well.

They soon, however, became more equal, for Ivar's good head and natural pride would not suffer him to remain long behind his friend. Concerning the mark of true politeness, the modesty of Borgenstierna, as he was now called, taught him the path as well as Leopold's more careful education.

Thus Ivar's apprenticeship gradually passed away. Leopold had long since left Uddevalla, and entered the gymnasium at Gothenborg, and often wrote to his friend from there, whose highest joy was to hear from the absent one.

But it was not yet time to take a new and firm resolution for his future life, and although Master Brun endeavoured to persuade him, in all possible ways, to remain with him as a journeyman tanner, and even gave hope that he would accept him, at some future time, as his partner, Ivar's long-entertained dislike to the domestic quarrels strengthened him in the conviction that a longer stay would not be beneficial to his gloomy and mournful disposition.

He therefore communicated to his master his unalterable purpose of commencing the usual time of travelling, and after that to settle down in another place. Mrs. Brun's virulent disposition had caused him to dislike Uddevalla, of which city, however, he did not know much more than his master's place of business, and the road to Gustavsburg.

"The boy will be an irretrievable loss to me," said Master Brun to his wife; and at this moment unluckily caught the cat's tail between the door, and gave it a terrible squeeze.

"Are you mad?" cried his wife, jumping up as though she was crazy; "must you squeeze my unfortunate cat to death because the boy is trampling his own fortunes under his feet?"

"It was the cat's own fault," replied Brun, angrily; and did not cease to use threatening gestures at his wife, neither did he loose the unfortunate member from its painful position, until he thought that their united cries would deafen him.

A few weeks after this little conjugal dispute, Ivar took his knapsack upon his back, and placed the certificate of good conduct in his pocket, and left the house of his late master. He had just arrived at the age of twenty-one, and might justly be considered a handsome, well-formed young man. Without giving a more minute history of our hero's outward appearance, and his wanderings, we will conclude this section of his life, not to see him again until many years have elapsed.