CHRIS,TMAS EVERY DAY
203
every further dereliction at once and broke into silent but continuing
tears, which gave rise to the most serious apprehensions.
At the end of four weeks Lucie, too, returned and said she was
ready to take part once more in the daily ceremony, but her doctor
had insisted that a jar of pickles and a platter of nourishing sand–
wiches should be held in readiness, since her butter-and-almond
trauma had proved incurable. Thus for a time, through my uncle's
unexpected severity, all breaches of discipline were suppressed.
Shortly after the first anniversary of the daily Christmas cele–
bration, disquieting rumors began to circulate: my Cousin Johannes
was said to have consulted a doctor friend of his about my aunt's
life expectancy, a truly sinister rumor which throws a disturbing light
on a peaceful family'S evening gatherings. The doctor's opinion
is said to have been crushing for Johannes. All my aunt's vital
organs, which had always been sound, were in perfect condition;
her father's age at the time of his death had been seventy-eight, and
her mother's eighty-six. My aunt herself is sixty-two, and so there is
no reason to prophesy an early passing. Still less reason, I consider,
to wish for one. After this when my aunt fell
ill
in midsummer
-the poor woman suffered from vomiting and diarrhea-it was
hinted that she had been poisoned, but I expressly declare here
and now that this rumor was simply the invention of evil-minded
relations. The trouble was clearly shown to have been caused by
an infection brought into the house by one of the grandchildren.
Moreover, analyses that were made of my aunt's stools showed not
the slightest trace of poison.
That same summer Johannes gave the first evidences of anti–
social inclinations: he resigned from the singing circle and gave
notice in writing that he planned to take no further part in the
cultivation of the German song.
It
is only fair for me to add, how–
ever, that, despite the academic distinctions he had won, he was
always an uncultivated man. For the "Virhymnia" the loss of his
bass voice was a serious matter.
My brother-in-law Carl began secretly to consult travel agencies.
The land of his dreams had to have unusual characteristics: no fir
trees must grow there and their importation must be forbidden or
rendered unfeasible by a high tariff; besides--on his wife's account
-the secret of preparing butter-and-almond cookies must be un-
