90
PARTISAN REVIEW
8
(The very first thing next morning 1 had to offer Paula printed
proof that it had
nothing
to do with a
woman's name. I
Ernst, mockingly
: "Old-fashioned nervous-nelly ! - You'll never make a decent rider
of the highways." Ella, teasing: "Bye-bye !".
I
At first 1 wanted to
protest:
ME
? : old-fashioned? ! - But then 1 decided 'twere better
to spare myself the nervous energy; afterall, everything is possible !).
TALL GRETE
"Back when 1 was born," the aged man said, "this was still a
realm all to itself, you see." From his seat on the grass he pointed
very slowly all about him, as far as to where the jagged pine bor–
dered the horizon :
"It
was all still very different then -"; 1
understood with no trouble at all : better; and nodded expressively
to keep him in the mood. "Back then you had other folks than these
slickers they turn out nowadays by the dozen -" he wearily stretched
his worn-out legs and arranged them carefully on the heather" - and
this here most likely belongs to it too : you see, I'm sitting on a grave,
young fellow!" Now 1 can bear nothing with less grace than 'young
fellow'; afterall, I've arrived at 45 with indifferent honors, and even if
1 sometimes look absurdly young .... so 1 chewed a while longer
on that bite, whereas he was already proceeding thoughtfully:
"I was still a lad when Tall Grete first showed up around here,
in the middle of her little herd of sheep, and we children would have
sworn those animals had to be people that had been bewitched, they
used to act that clever and self-assured. Each had its own name that
it answered to; she would carryon reasoned conversations with
them, too; and sometimes at night there were long discourses as to
who would be allowed to lie closest to her this time : you see, she
never entered a house, but slept in thickets, warmed by her animals.
Of a morning, when she wanted to get up, she would call the big old
ram - Hermann was his name, 1 believe - who came over, and
lowered that mighty head of his, whereupon she grasped hold of his
horns, and with a simple raising of his head he pulled her up.
If
she
would leave her animals for even a moment, they would start right
in bleating in the most woebegone fashion; and when she came back
then, they would all crowd around her and rub their heads on her
hand.
