84
PARTISAN REVIEW
5
: "In
this humidity
?
! " -
But Paula was inexorably gentle; Ella quietly amused; (and we
were looked upon sadistically by them both, as with tucked-up
shirts, tacky little bellies and disgruntled sheep's faces, we took up
our positions - helpless as once upon a time before the "recruiting
board" : a man ought to bang his fist on the table !). "Oh come on,
Ernst, no point in that." But they didn't let us go at it yet by any
means; first the two Xanbiddies provided us with several of those
well-loved little lectures .
: "A
good
mower gets through an acre a day." (Paula. Since we
were dealing here with a quarter acre and 2 men, the application
was self-evident; we kept an impenitent peace, and merely bored
around in our navels .)
: "And please-please don't harm those salmon-colored dahlias! :
They're
so
sweet." (Ella: as if we had intended to. (That is to say, if
They kept on pestering us here much
longer .
..
!). A quick turn of
the tables.)
: "And what do
you-two
intend to do meanwhile? !". But they
were perfectly irony-proof. "Us? We'll lie on the chaises longues."
(Ella, innocent ; so totally matter-of-course.) "We'll cook you guys a
pudding." Paula; by 1 decisive hint - I can speak federal German,
too! - the more understanding.
Alone at last. / "A pudding ?". Ernst, nibbly; but I just shook
my head dolefully : "Dregs left over from ricing the elderberries,
then cooked with sago: one eats, but one does not prize it. - That is
to say, tastes do vary." I added hastily, so as not already to smother
his ardor for work, which didn't appear excessive as it was: "Go get
the scythe out of the shed on the right." (And He actually went! - I
first waited until he was halfway inside; and then, in an inappropri–
ate attack of charity, called after him : "But don't knock down that
wasp nest with the handle! Firstly, Paula sets great store by it. And
the secondly I assume you know about all on your own." He uttered
Cromwell's curse, 'tis true; was, however. just as I had figured, too
much a coward to make the decisive turnabout. And happily
brought the creature out into the dingy light of day .)
As a child of the asphalt he was morbid enough to be fascinated
by the tool - god be praised : its ash handle; the whetstone (besides,
I was fiddling away at that murderously long blade
so
enticingly–
smoothly, that he immediately beamed chubby-cheeked, WE
