The Mysterious stranger - Chapter 2

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter two of The Mysterious Stranger byMark Twain. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the publicdomain. For more information or to
volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Patrick seventy nine, Chapter
one. Three of us boys werealways together, and had been so from

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the cradle, being fond of oneanother from the beginning, and this affection
deepened as the years went on.Nicholas Baumann, son of the principal judge
of the local court, Seppie Vollmeyer, son of the keeper of the principal

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inn, the Golden Stag, whichhad a nice garden with shade trees reaching
down to the river side, andpleasure boats for hire. And I was
the third Theodore Fisher, son ofthe church organist, who was also the

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leader of the village musicians, teacherof the violin, composer, tax collector
of the commune, sexton, andin other ways a useful citizen and respected
by all. We knew the hillsand the woods as well as the birds

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knew them, for we were alwaysroaming them when we had leisure, at
least when we were not swimming orboating or fishing, or playing on the
isle, sliding down hill, andwe had the run of the castle park,

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and a very few had that.It was because we were pets of
the oldest serving man in the castle, Felix Brant, and often we went
there nights to hear him talk aboutold times and strange things, and to
smoke with him. He taught usthat and to drink coffee, for he

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had served in the VARs and wasat the siege of Vienna, and there,
when the Turks were defeated and drivenaway, among the captured things were
bags of coffee, and the Turkishprisoners explained the character of it and how
to make a pleasant drink out ofit. And now he always kept coffee

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by him to drink himself, andalso to astonish the ignorant with. When
it stormed, he kept us allnight, and while it thundered enlightened outside,
he told us about ghost stories andhorrors of every kind, and of

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battles and murders and mutilations and suchthings, and made it pleasant and cozy
inside. And he told us thesethings from his own experience. Largely he
had seen many ghosts in his time, and witches and enchanters, and once

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he was lost in a fierce stormat midnight in the mountains, and by
the glare of the lightning, hadseen the wild huntsmen rage on the blast,
with his specter dogs chasing after himthrough the driving cloud rack. Also
he had seen an incubus once,and several times he had seen the great

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bat that sucks the blood from thenecks of people while they are asleep,
faneing them softly with their wings,and so keeping them drowsy till they die.
He encouraged us not to fear thesesupernatural things, such as ghosts,

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and said they did no harm,but only wandered about because they were lonely
and distressed and wanted kindly notice andcompassion. And in time we learn not
to be afraid, and even wentdown with him in the night to the
haunted chamber in the dungeons of thecastle. The ghost appeared only once,

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and went by very dim to thesight, and floated noiselessly through the air,
and then disappeared. Then we scarcelytrembled. Oh, he had taught
us so well. He said,it came up sometimes in the night and
woke him by passing its clammy handover his face, but it did him

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no hurt. It only wanted sympathyand notice. But the strangest thing was
that he had seen angels, actualangels, out of heaven, and had
talked to them. But they hadno wings and four clothes, and talked

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and looked and acted just like anynatural person. And you would never know
them for angels, except for thewonderful things they did which a mortal could
not do, and the way theysuddenly disappeared while you were talking with them,

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which was also a thing which nomortal could do. And he said
they were pleasant and cheerful, notgloomy and melancholy like ghosts. It was
after that kind of a talk oneMay night that we got up next morning
and had a good breakfast with him, and then went and crossed the bridge

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and went up into the hills onthe left of the woody hilltop, which
was a favored place of ours.And there we stretched out on the grass
in the shade to rest and smokeand talk over these strange things, for
they were in our minds yet andimpressing us. But we couldn't smoke because

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he had been heedless and left ourflint and steel behind. Soon there came
a youth strolling towards us through thetrees, and he sat down and began
to talk in a friendly way,just as if he knew us. But
we did not answer him, forhe was a stranger, and we were

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not used to strangers and were shyof them. He had new and good
clothes on, and was handsome,and had a winning face and a pleasant
voice, and was easy and gracefuland unembarrassed, not slouchy and awkward and
diffident like other boys. We wantedto be friendly with him, but didn't

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know how to begin. Then Ithought of the pipe and wondered if it
would be taken as kindly meant ifI offered it to him. But I
remembered that we had no fire,so I was sorry and disappointed. But
he looked upright and pleased and saidfire, Oh, that is easy,

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I will furnish it. I wasso astonished I couldn't speak, for I
had not said anything. He tookthe pipe and blew his breath on it,
and the tobacco glowed red, andspirals of blue smoke grows up.
We jumped up and were going torun, for that was natural, and

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we did run a few steps,although he was yearningly pleading for us to
stay, and giving us his wordthat he would do us no harm,
but only wanted to be friends withus and have company. Were so we
stopped and stood and wanted to goback, being full of curiosity and wonder,

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but afraid to venture. He wenton coaxing in his soft, persuasive
way, And then we saw thatthe pipe did not blow up, and
nothing happened. Our confidence returned bylittle and little, and presently our cube

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curiosity got to be stronger than ourfear, and we ventured back, but
slowly, and ready to fly atany alarm. I was bent on putting
us at ease, and he hadthe right art. One could not remain
doubtful and timorous where a person wasso earnest and simple and gentle, and

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talked so alluringly as he did.No he ran us over, and it
was not long before we were contentand comfortable and chatty, and glad we
had found a new friend. Whenthe feeling of constraint was all gone,
we asked him how he had learnedto do that strange thing, and he

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said he hadn't learned it at all. It came natural to him like other
things, other curious things. Whatones? Oh a number, I don't
know how many? Will you letus see? You do? Then?

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Do please? How the others said, you won't run away again? Oh
no, indeed we won't. Ohplease do won't you? Yes, with
pleasure? But you mustn't forget yourpromise, you know, we said we
wouldn't. And he went to apuddle and came back with water in a

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cup which he had made out ofleaf. And he blew upon it and
threw it out, and it wasa lump of ice the shape of the
cup. We were asponished and charmed, but not afraid anymore. We were
glad to be there, and askedhim to go on and do more things,

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and he did. Lady would giveus any kind of fruit we liked,
whether it was in season or not. We all spoke at once.
Orange apple grapes. They are inyour pocket, he said, And it
was true. They were of thebest too, and we ate them and

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vist we had more, though noneof us said so you will find more
of them where those came from,he said. And everything else your appetites
call for. And you need notname the thing you wish as long as
I am with you, you onlyhave to wish and find. And he

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said, true, there was neveranything so wonderful all or so interesting,
bread cakes, sweets, nuts,whatever we wanted, it was there.
He ate nothing himself, but satand chatted and did one curious thing after

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another to amuse us. He madea tiny toy squirrel out of clay and
made it a run up a tree, and sat on a limb overhead and
barked down to us. Then thenhe made a dog that was not much
larger than a mouse, and ittreed the squirrel and danced about the tree,

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excited and barking, and was aliveas any dog could be. He'd
frightened the squirrel from the tree andfollowed it up until both were out of
sight in the forest. He madebirds out of clay and set them free,
and they flew away singing. Atlast, I made bold to ask

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him to tell us who he was. An angel? He said, quite
simply, and set another bird free, and clapped his hand and made it
fly away. A kind of awefell upon us when we heard him say
that, and we were afraid again. But he said, we need not

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be troubled. There was no occasionfor us to be afraid of an angel,
and he liked us anyway. Hewent on chatting as simply and unaffectedly
as ever, And while he talkedhe made a crowd of little men and
women the size of your finger.And they went diligently to work, and

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cleared and leveled off a space acouple of yards square in the grass,
and began to build a cunning littlecastle in it. The vimen mixing the
mortar and carrying it up, thescaffolding in pails on the heads, just
as our workwomen have always done,and the men laying the courses of masonry.

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Five hundred of these toy people,swarming briskly about and working diligently,
and viping the speat of their facesas natural as life. In the absorbing
interest of watching those five hundred littlepeople making the castle grow step by step

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and course by course, and takeshape and symmetry, that feeling and all
soon passed away, and we werequite comfortable at home again. We asked
if we might make some people,and he said yes, and told STEPPI
to make some cannon for the wars, and told Nicholas to make some halberdiers.

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And breastplates and grieves and helmets,and I was to make the cavalry
with horses, and in allotting thesetasks, he called us by our names,
but did not say how he knewthem. Then Seppi asked him what

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his own name was, and hesaid Tranquility Satan, and held out a
chip and caught a little woman onit who was falling from the scaffolding,
and put her back where she belonged, and said, she is an idiot
to step backwards like that and notnotice where she is about. Oh,

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it caught us suddenly, that namedid, and how ver dropped out of
our hands and broke to pieces acannon, a halberder, and a horse.
Satan laughed and asked what the matterwas, I said, I think
only it seemed a strange name foran angel. He asked why, because

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it's it's well, it's his name, you know, Yes, he is
my uncle. He said it placidly, But it took our breath for a
moment and made our hearts beat.He did not seem to notice that,
but meny our halberdiers and things witha touch, handing them to us,

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finished and said, don't you rememberhe was an angel himself once. Yes,
it's true, said Seppy. Ididn't think of that before the fall.
He was blameless, yes, saidNicholas, He was without sin.

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It is a good family ours,said Satan. There is not a better.
He is the only member of itthat has ever sinned. I should
not be able to make anyone understandhow exciting it all was. You know

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that kind of quiver that trembles aroundthrough you, and when you are seeing
something so strange and enchanting and wonderfulthat it is just a fearful joy to
be alive and look at it.And you know how you gaze when your
lips turn dry and your breath comesshort. But you wouldn't be anywhere but

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there, not for the world.I was bursting to ask one question.
I had it on my tongue's endand could hardly hold it back. But
I've was ashamed to ask it.It might be a rudeness, Satan said

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an oxtand that he had been making, and smiled up at me and said
it wouldn't be a rudeness, andI should forgive if it was. Have
I seen him millions of times fromthe time that I was a little child
a thousand years old. I washis second favorite among the nursery angels of

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our blood and lineage. To usea human phrase, yes, from that
time until the fall, eight thousandyears measured as you can time, eight
thousand. Yes. He turned toSeppi and went on as if answering something

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that was in Seppe's mind. Whynaturally I look like a boy, for
that is what I am with us. What you call time is a spacious
thing. It takes a long stretchof it to grow an angel to full
age. There was a question inmy mind, and he turned to me

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and answered it. I am sixteenthousand years old, counting as you count.
Then he turned to Nicholas and said, no, the fall did not
affect me, nor the rest ofthe relationship. It was only he that
I was named for, who ateof the fruit of the tree and then

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beguiled the man and the woman withit. We others are still ignorant of
sin, We are not able tocommit it. We are without blemish,
and shall abide in the estate always. We too off They the little workmen,

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were quarreling and in buzzing little bumbledbee voices. They were cursing and
sparing at each other. Now cameblows and blood. Then they locked themselves
together in a life and death struggle. Satan reached out his hand and crushed

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the life out at them with hisfingers, and threw them away, wiped
the red from his fingers on hishandkerchief, and went on talking where he
had left off. We cannot dowrong, neither have we any disposition to
do it, for we do notknow what it is. It seemed a

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strange speech in the circumstance dances,but we barely noticed that. We were
so shocked and grieved at the wantonmurder he had committed. For murder it
was, that was its true name, and it was without palliation or excuse,
for the men had not wronged himin any way. It made us

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miserable, for we loved him andhad thought him so noble and so beautiful
and gracious, and had honestly believedhe was an angel. And to have
him to do this cruel thing,oh, it lowered him so, and
we had such pride in him.He went right on talking, just as

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if nothing had happened, telling abouthis travels and the interesting things he had
seen in the big worlds, ofour solar system, and of other solar
systems far away in the remoteness ofspace, and about the customs of the
immortals that inhabit them, somehow fascinatingus, enchanting us, charming us in

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spite of the pitiful scene that wasnow under our eyes. For the wives
of the little dead men had foundthe crushed and shapeless bodies, and the
crying over them, and sobbing andlamenting, And the priest was kneeling there
with his hands crossed upon his breast, praying, and the crowds and crowds

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of pitying friends were masked about them, reverently uncovered, with their bare heads
bowed, and many with the tearsrunning down, a scene which Satan paid
no attention until the small noise ofthe weeping and praying began to annoy him.

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Then he reached out and took theheavy board seat out of our swing
and brought it down and smashed allthe people into the earth, just as
if they had been flies, andwent on talking just the same, an
angel and kill a priest, anangel who did not know how to do

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wrong, and yet destroys in coldblood hundreds of helpless poor men and women
who had never done any harm.It made us sick to see that awful
deed, and to think that noneof those poor creatures was prepared except the
priest, for none of them hadever heard a mass or seen a church.

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And we were witnesses. We hadseen these murders done, and it
was our duty to tell and letthe law take its course. But he
went on talking right along and votehis enchantments upon us. With that fatal
music of his voice, he madeus forget everything. We could only listen

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to him and love him, andbe his slaves, to do with us
as he would. He made usdrunk with joy of being with him,
and of looking into the heaven ofhis eyes, and of feeling the ecstasy
that filled along our veins from thetouch of his hand. End of Chapter two.