His heart beat loud against his side,
but he plucked up his courage, and knocked as loud as his heart
was beating.
He knocked and knocked, but no answer came. The house was empty.
But he did not know that; he thought it was that the people within
were cruel, and he went sadly onward with the road winding before
him, and on his right the beautiful impetuous gray river, and on
his left the green Mittelgebirge and the mountains that rose
behind it. By this time the day was up; the sun was glowing on the
red of the cranberry shrubs and the blue of the bilberry-boughs;
he was hungry and thirsty and tired. But he did not give in for
that; he held on steadily; he knew that there was near, somewhere
near, a great city that the people called Sprugg, and thither he
had resolved to go. By noontide he had walked eight miles, and
came to a green place where men were shooting at targets, the tall
thick grass all around them; and a little way farther off was a
train of people chanting and bearing crosses and dressed in long
flowing robes.
The place was the Hottinger Au, and the day was Saturday, and the
village was making ready to perform a miracle play on the morrow.
Findelkind ran to the robed singing-folk, quite sure that he saw
the people of God. "Oh, take me, take me!" he cried to them; "do
take me with you to do heaven's work.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151