The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories

d women and little children were toiling in heat and dirt and a fog of dust; and they were clothed in

l together, three families in a room, in unimaginable filth and stench; and disease comes, and they die off like flies. Have they committed a crime, these mangy things? No. What have they done, that they are punished so? Nothing at all, except getting themselves born into your foolish race. You have seen how they treat a misdoer there in the jail; now you see how they treat the innocent and the worthy. Is your race logical? Are these ill-smelling innocents better off than that heretic? Indeed, no; his punishment is tr

ty kings, our ancient aristocracies, our venerable history-and laughed and laughed till it was enough to make a person sick to hear him; and finally he sobered a little and sa

he next moment we were walking along in our village; and down toward the river I

come a

out his gladness like water. It was as if he were a lover and had found his sweetheart who had been lost. Seppi was a smart and animated boy, and had enthusiasm and expression, and was a contrast to Nikolaus and me. He was full of the las

that brutal thing,

ing?" It was Sa

re-and the dog was howling and begging, and Theodor and I begged, too, but he threatened us, and struck the dog again with all his might and knocked one of his eyes out, and he said to us, 'There, I hope you

n-that shabby slander. Brutes do

was inhuma

buting to them dispositions which they are free from, and which are found nowhere but in the human heart. None of the higher

ow, with his eye hanging down, and went straight to Satan, and began to moan and mutter brokenly, and Satan began to answer in the same way, and it was plain that they were talking together in the dog language. We all sat down in the grass, in the moonlight, for the clouds were breaking away now, and

is master

e was,"

over the precipice there

ce; it is three

ge, begging people to go there, but he w

but hadn't underst

n reserved for it, and this dog ruled out, as your teachers tell you? Can your race add anything to this dog's stock of morals and magnanimities?" He spoke to the creature, who jumped up, eager and ha

heaven, but now he was gone down into the awful fires, to burn forever. It seemed such a pity that in a world where so many people have difficulty to put in their time, one little hour could not have been spared for this poor creature who needed it so much, and to whom it would have made the difference between eternal joy and eternal pain. It gave an appalling idea of the value of an hour, and I thought I could never

ind us out if we tried. But we came across Ursula a couple of times taking a walk in the meadows beyond the river to air the cat, and we learned from her that things were going well. She had

uncle, and had fattened him up with the cat's contributions. But she was curious to know more about Philip Traum, and hoped I would bring him again. Ursula was curious about him herself, and a

ottfried Narr, a dull, good creature, with no harm in him and nothing against him personally; still, he was under a cloud, and properly so, for it had not been six months since a social blight had mildewed the family-his grandmother had been burned as a witch. When that kind of a malady is in the blood it does not always come out with just one burning. Just now was not a good time for Ursula and Marget to be having dealings with a member of such a family, for the witch-terror had risen higher during the past year than it had ever reached in the memory of the ol

e dry and they did not cry any more, but only sat and mumbled, and would not take the food. Then one of them confessed, and said they had often ridden through the air on broomsticks to the witches' Sabbath, and in a bleak place high up in the mountains had danced and drunk and caroused with several hundred other witches and the Evil One, and all had conducted themselves in a scandalous way and had reviled the priests and blasphemed God. That is what she said-not in narrative form, for she was not able to remember any of the details without having them called to her mind one after the other; but the commission did that, for they knew just what questions to ask, they being all written down for the use o

to burn her next morning, early, in our market-square. The officer who was to prepare the fire was there first, and prepared it. She was there next-brought by the constables, who left her and went to fetch another witch. Her family did not come with her. They might be reviled, maybe stoned, if the people were excited. I came, and gave her an apple. She was squatting

did you

ould ruin me, for no one would forget that I had been suspected of being a witch, and so I would get no more work, and wherever I went they wou

and still on her old gray head and making it white and whiter. The crowd was gathering now, and an

f no consequence. And he said he had seen it made; and it was not made of clay; it was made of mud-part of it was, anyway. I knew what he meant by that-the Moral

er happened. And neither would he break the hearts of innocent, poor old women and make them afraid to trust themselves among their own race; and he wou

d he always chose when the human race was brought to his attention.

, since Marget and Ursula hadn't enough to eat themselves, where was the money coming from to feed another mouth? That is what they wanted to know; and in order to find out they stopped avoiding Gottfri

schen a week, besides my keep. And they live on the fat of the l

loger to Father Adolf on a Sunday morning when he wa

t be look

counsel, and not rouse the suspicions of the household. The villagers were at first a bit reluctant to enter such a dreadful place, but the priest said they would be under his protection while there, and no harm cou

ies and not averse from showing them off a little; and she was humanly grateful to have the warm shoulder turned to her and be smiled upon by her f

ovided the top of everything for those companies, and in abundance-among them many a dish and many a wine which they had not tasted befo

he could not help having doubts that this effort was from there, though she was afraid to say so, lest disaster come of it. Witchcraft occurred to her, but she put the thought aside, for this was before Gottfried joined the household, and she knew Ursu

ng that witchcraft was at the bottom of it, and fright frenzied their reason. Naturally there were some who pitied Marget and Ursula for the danger that was gathering about them, but naturally they did not say so; it would not have been safe. So the others had it all their own way, and there was none to advise the ignorant girl and the foolish woman and warn them to modify their doings. We boys wanted to warn them, but we backed down when it came to the pinch, being afraid. We found that we were not manly enough nor brave enough to do a generous action when there was a chance that it could get us into trouble.

hese effects was usual enough with witches and enchanters-that part of it was not new; but to do it without any incantations, or even any rumblings or earthquakes or lightnings or apparitions-that was new, novel, wholly irregular. There was nothing in the books like this. Enchanted things were always unreal. Gold

itchcraft in the matter. It did not wholly convince him, for this could be a new kind of witchcraft. There was a way to find out as to th