The Mysterious stranger - Chapter 6

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter six of The Mysterious Stranger byMark Twain. This is a LibriVox recording.
All libravox recordings are in the publicdomain. For more information or to
volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Patrick seventy nine, Chapter
six. In one moment, wewere in a French village. We've walked

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through a great factory of some sort, the men and women and little children
for toiling in heat and dirt anda fog of dust. And they were
clothed in rags and drooped at theirwork, for they were worn and half
starved, and weak and drowsy.And Satan said, it is some more

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moral sense. The proprietors are richand very holy, but the wage they
pay these poor brothers and sisters oftheirs is only enough to keep them from
dropping dead with anger. The workhours are fourteen per day winter and summer,

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from six in the morning till eightat night, little children and all.
And they walk too and from thepigsties which they inhabit, four miles
each way, through mud and slush, rain, snow, sleet, and

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storm daily, year in and yearout. They get four hours of sleep.
They kennel together three families in aroom in unimaginable filth and stench,

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and disease comes and they die offlike flies. Have they committed a crime,
these mangy things? No, whathave they done that? They are
punished so nothing at all except gettingthemselves born into your foolish race. You

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have seen how they treat a misdoer. They're in jail. Now you see
how they treat the innocent and theworthy. Is your race logical? Are
these ill smelling innocence better off thanthat heretic? Indeed? No, his

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punishment is trivial compared with theirs.They broke him on the wheel and smashed
him to rags and pulp after weleft, and he is now dead and
free of your precious race. Butthese poor slaves here, why, they

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have been dying for years, andsome of them will not escape from life
for years to come. It isthe moral sense which teaches the factory proprietors
the difference between right and wrong.You perceive the result. They think themselves

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better than dogs. Ah, youare such an illogical, unreasoning race and
paltry, Oh, unspeakably. Thenhe dropped all seriousness and just overstrained himself,

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making fun of us, and deridingour pride in our warlike deeds,
our great heroes, our imperishable fames, our mighty kings, our ancient aristocracies,
our venerable history, and laughed andlaughed till it was enough to make

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a person sick to hear him.And finally he sobered a little and said,
but after all, it is notall ridiculous. There is a sort
of pathos about it when one remembershow few are your days, how child

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is your pomps, and what shadowsyou are? Presently all things vanished suddenly
from my sight, and I knewwhat it meant. So next moment,
we were walking along in our villageand down to towards the river, I
saw the twinkling lights of the goldenstag. Then in the dark I heard

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a joyful cry, He is calmagain. It was Seppie Vollemaya. He
had felt his blood leap and hisspirits rise in the way that could mean
only one thing, and he knewSatan was near, although it was too
dark to see him. He cameto us and we walked along, and

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Seppi poured out his gladness like water. It was as if he were a
lover and had found his sweetheart whohad been lost. Seppe was a smart
and animated boy, and had enthusiasmand expression, and was a contrast to
Nicholas and me. He was fullof the last new mystery. Now the

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disappearance of Hans opened the village Loafer. People were beginning to be curious about
it, he said, He didnot say anxious. Curious was the right,
verd and strong enough. No onehad seen hands for a couple of
days, not since he did thatbrutal thing, you know. He said,

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what brutal thing? It was Satanthat asked that he was always clubbing
his dog, which is a gooddog and his only friend, and is
faithful and loves him and does noone any harm. And two days ago
he was at it again, justfor nothing, just for pleasure, and

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the dog was howling and begging,and Theodore and I beg too. But
he threatened us and struck the dogagain with all his might and knocked one
of his eyes out, And hesaid to us, there, I hope
you are satisfied. Now that's whatyou have got for him, by your

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damn meddling. And he laughed andheartless, brute, oh, Seppy's voice
trembled with pity and anger. Iguessed what Satan would say, and he
said it, there is that misusedword again, that shabby slander. Brutes

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do not act like that, butonly men. Well, it was inhuman
anyway, No, it wasn't,Seppi. It was human, quite distinctly
human. It is not pleasant tohear you liable the higher animals by attributing

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to them dispositions which they are freefrom, and which are found nowhere but
in the human heart. None ofthe higher animals is tainted with the disease
called the moral sense. Purify yourlanguage, Sepe, drop those lying phrases

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out. He spoke pretty sternly forhim, and I was sorry I hadn't
worn Sepe to be more particular aboutthe word he used. I knew how
he was feeling. He would notwant to offend Satan. It would rather
offend all his kin. There wasan uncomfortable silence, but relief soon came.

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For that poor dog came along nowwith his eye hanging down, and
went straight to Satan and began tomoan and mutter brokenly. And Satan began
to answer in the vain and itwas plain that they were talking together dog

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language. We all sat down inthe grass in the moonlight, for the
clouds were breaking away now. AndSatan took the dog's head in his lap
and put the eye back in itsplace, And the dog was comfortable,
and he wagged his tail and lickedSatan's hand and looked thankful and said the

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same. I knew he was sayingit, though I did not understand the
words. Then the two talked togethera bit, and Satan said, he
says his master was drunk. Yes, he was, said V. And
an hour later he fell over theprecipice there beyond the cliff pasture. Oh

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we know that place. It isthree miles from here, and the dog
has been often to the village beggingpeople to go there. But he was
only driven away and not listened toORVI remembered it, but hadn't understood what
he wanted. He only wanted helpfor the man who had misused him.

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And he thought only of that,and has had no food nor sort any
He has watched by his master twonights. What do you think of your
race? Is Heaven reserved for it? And this dog ruled out? As
your teachers tell you can your raceadd anything to this dog's stock of morals

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and magnanimities. He spoke to thecreature, who jumped up, eager and
happy, and apparently ready for ordersand impatient to execute them. Get some
men, go with a dog.He will show you that carrion, and

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take a priest along to arrange aboutinsurance, for death is near. With
the last verd he vanished, toour sorrow and disappointment. We got the
men and father Adolf, and wesaw the man die. Nobody cared but

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the dog. He mourned in griefand licked the dead man's face, and
could not be comforted. We buriedhim where he was, and without a
coughin, for he had no moneyand no friend but the dog. If
we had been an hour earlier,the priest would have been in time to

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send the poor creature to heaven.But now he was gone down into the
awful fires to burn forever. Itseems such a pity that, in a
world where so many people have difficultyto put their time, one little hour

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could have not been spared for thispoor creature who needed it so much,
and to whom it would have madethe difference between eternal joy and eternal pain.
It gave an appalling idea of thevalue of one hour, and I

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thought I could never waste again withoutremorse and terror. Oh Seppy was depressed
and grieved, and said it mustbe so much better to be a dog
and not run such awful risks.We took this one home with us and
kept it for our own. Seppyhad a very good thought as we were

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walking along, and it cheered usup and made us feel much better.
He said the dog had forgiven theman that had wronged him so and maybe
God would accept that absolution. Therewas a very dull week now, for
Satan did not come. Nothing muchwas going on, and we boys could

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not venture to go and see marketbecause the knights were moonlit and our parents
might find us out if we tried. But we came across Ursula a couple
of times, taking a walk acrossthe meadow beyond the river to air the
cat, and we learned from herthat things were going well. She had

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nothing new clothes on and bore aprosperous look. The four Groshner day were
arriving without break, but were notbeing spent for food and wine and such
thing. The cat attended to allthat Margaret was enduring her forsakeness and isolation

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fairly well all things considered, andwas cheerful by help of Wilhelm Medling.
She spent an hour or two everynight in the jail with her uncle,
and had fattened him up with thecat's contributions. But she was curious to

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know more about Philip Trown, andhoped I would bring him again. Ursula
was curious about him herself, andasked a good many questions about his uncle.
It made the boys laugh, forI had told him the nonsense had
Satan had been stuffing her with.She got no satisfaction out of us.

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Our tongues were tied. Ursela gavea small item of information. Money being
plenty now, she had taken ona servant to help about the house and
run ernds. She tried to tellit in a commonplace, the matter of
courseway, but she was so setup by it and so vain of it,

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that her pride in it leaked outpretty plainly. It was beautiful to
see her veiled delight in this grandeur, poor old thing. But when we
heard the name of the servant,we wondered if she had been altogether wise,
for although we were young and oftenthoughtless, we had fairly good perception

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on some matters. This boy wasGottfried Nah, a dull, good creature,
with no harm in him and nothingagainst him personally. Still, he
was under a cloud, and properlyso, for it had not been six
months since a social blight had milledeedthe family. His grandmother had been burned

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as a witch. When that kindof malady is in the blood, it
does not always come out with justvan burning. Just now was not a
good time for Ursula and Margaret tobe having dealings with a member of such
a family, For the witch terrorhad risen highly during the past year than

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it had ever reached in the memoryof the oldest villagers. The mere mention
of a witch was almost enough tofrighten us out of our wits. This
was natural enough, because of lateyears there were more kinds of witches than
there used to be. In oldentimes, it had been only old women,

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but of late years they were ofall ages, even children of eight
or nine. It was getting sothat anybody might turn out to be a
familiar of the devil. Age hadn'tanything to do with it In our little
region. We had tried to extirpatethe witches, but the more of them

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we burned, the more of thebreed rose up in their places. Once,
in a school for girls, onlyten miles of they, the teacher
found that the back of one ofthe girls was all red and inflamed,
and they were greatly frightened, believingit to be the devil's marks. Her

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girls was scared and begged them notto denounce her, and said it was
only fleas, But of course itwould not do to let the matter rest
there. All the girls were examined, and eleven out of the fifty were
badly marked the rest less. Soa commission was appointed, but the eleven

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only cried for their mothers and wouldnot confess. Then was shut up each
by herself in the dark, andput on black bread and water for ten
days and nights. And by thattime they were haggard and wild, and
their eyes were dry, and theydid not cry anymore, but only sat

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and mumbled and would not take thefood. Then one of them confessed and
said they had often ridden through theair on the broomsticks to the witches sabbath,
and in a bleak high place upin the mountains, had danced and
drunk and caroused with several hundred otherwitches and the evil one, and all

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had conducted themselves in a scandalous way, and had reviled the priests and blaspheming
God. That is what she said, not the narrative form, for she
was not able to remember any ofthe details without having having them called to
her mind one after another. Butthe commission did that, for they knew

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just what questions to ask. Theyall been written down for the use of
which commissioners two centuries before. Theyasked, did you do so and so?
And she always said yes, andlooked very and tired and took no
interest in it. And so whenthe other ten heard that this one confessed,

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they confessed too, and answered yesto the questions. Then they were
burned at the stake altogether, whichwas just and right, and everybody went
from all the countrieside to see it. I went to But when I saw

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that one of them was a bonny, sweet girl I used to play with,
and look so pitiful. There Janeto the stake, and her mother
crying over her and devouring her withkisses and clinging round her neck, and
saying, oh god, oh mygod, it was too dreadful, and

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I went away. It was bittercold weather when Godfrey's grandmother was burned.
It was charged that she had curedbad headaches by kneading the person's head and
neck with her fingers, as shesaid, but really by the devil's help,

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as everybody knew. They were goingto examine her, but she stopped
them and confessed straight off that herpower was from the devil. So they
appointed to burn her next morning,early in our market square. The officer

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who was to prepare the fire wasthe first and prepared it. She was
there next, brought by the constables, who left her and went to fetch
another witch. Her family did notcome with her. They might be reviled,
may be stoned if the people wereexcited. I came and I gave

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her an apple. She was squattingat the fire, warming herself and waiting,
and her old lips and hands wereblue with the cold. A stranger
came next. He was a travelerpassing through, and he spoke to her

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gently, and, seeing nobody butme there to hear, said he was
sorry for her, and he askedif what she had confessed was true,
and she said no. He lookedsurprised and still more sorry for her,

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and then asked her, why didyou confess. I am old and very
poor, she said, and Iwork for my living. There was no
way but to confess. If Ihadn't, then they might have set me
free. But that would ruin me, and for no one would forget that

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I had been suspected of being awitch, and so I would get no
more work, and wherever I wentthey would set their dogs on me.
In a little while I would starve. The fire is best. It is

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soon over. You have been goodto me, you too, and I
thank you. She snuggled closer tothe fire and put out her hands to
warm them. The snowflakes descended,soft and still, on her old gray
head, and making it white andwhiter. The crowd was gathering now,

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and an egg came flying and struckher in the eye and broke and ran
down her face. There was alaugh at that. I told Satan all
about the eleven girls and the oldwoman once, but it did not affect
him. He only said it wasthe human race, and what the human

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race did was of 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, Iknew what he meant by that, the
moral sense. He saw the thoughtin my head, and it tickled him

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and made him laugh. Then hecalled a bullock out of the pasture and
petted it and talked with it,and said there. He wouldn't drive children
mad with hunger and fright and loneliness, and then burn them for confessing to
things invented for them which had neverhappened. And neither would he break the

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hearts of innocent, poor old womenand make them afraid to trust themselves among
their own race. He would notinsult them in their death agony, for
he is not besmirched with the moralsense, but is as the angels are,

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and knows no wrong, and neverdoes it. How lovely as he
was, Satan could be cruelly offensivewhen he chose, and he always chose,
when the human race were brought tohis attention. He always turned his
nose up at that, and neverhad a kind word for it. Well,

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as I was saying, we Bowaysdoubted if it was good time for
Ursela to be hiring a member ofthe naw, family, Oh we were
right. When the people found itout, they were naturally indignant, and
moreover, since Margaret and Ursela hadn'tenough to eat themselves, where was the

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money coming from to feed another mouth? That is what they wanted to know,
And in order to find out,they stopped the voiding Gottfried and began
to seek his society and have sociableconversations with him. He was pleased,

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not thinking any harm and not seeingthe trap, and so he talked innocently
along and was no discreeter than acow. Oh money, he said,
They've got plenty of it. Theypay me to Grushen a week besides my
keep, and they live on thefat of the land. I can tell

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you the Prince himself can't beat theirtable. This astonishing statement was conveyed by
the astrologer to Father Adolf on aSunday morning when he was returning from us.
He was deeply moved and said,oh, this must be looked into.

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He said there must be witch craftat the bottom of it, and
told the villagers to resume relations withMargaret and Ursela in a private and unostentatious
way and keep both eyes open theywere told to keep their own counsel and

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not rouse the suspicions of the household. The villagers were at first a bit
reluctant to enter such a dreadful place, but the priests said they would be
under his protection while there, andno harm would come to them, particularly
if they carried a trifle of holywater along and kept their beads and crosses

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handy. This satisfied them and madethem willing to go. Envy and malice
made the basis sought even eager togo, And so poor Margaret began to
have company again, and was aspleased as a cat. She was,

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like most anybody else, just humanand happy in her prosperities, and not
a verse from showing them off alittle. And she was humanly grateful to
have a warm shoulder turned to herand be smiled upon by her friends and
the village again. For of allthe hard things to bear, to be

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cut by your neighbors and left incontemptuous solitude is maybe the hardest. The
bars were down, and we couldall go there now, and we did
our parents, and all day afterday the cat began to strain herself.

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She provided the top of everything forthose companies, and in abundance, among
them many a dish and many avine, which they had noted before,
and which they had not even heardof, except that second hand from the
Prince's servants and the table. Therewas much above ordinary too. Margaret was

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troubled at times, and pursued Urselawith questions to an uncomfortable degree. But
Ursula stood her ground and stuck toit that it was Providence, and said
no word about the cat. Margaretknew that nothing was impossible to Providence,

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but she could not help having doubtsthat this effort was from there, though
she was afraid to say so.Less disaster came of it, witchcraft occurred
to her, but she put thethought aside, for this was before Godfrey
joined the household, and she knewUrsela was pious and a bitter hater of

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riches. By the time Gottfried arrived, Providence was established, unshakably entrenched,
and getting all the gratitude. Thecat made no murmur, but went on
composedly, improving in style and prodigality. By experience, in any community,

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big or a little, there isalways a fair proportion of people who are
not malicious or unkind by nature,and who never do unkind things except when
they are overmastered by fear, orwhen their self interest is greatly in danger,
or some such matter as that.Esseldorf had his proportion of such people,

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and ordinarily their good and gentle influencewas felt. But these were not
ordinary times on account of the witchdread, and so we did not seem
to have any gentle and compassionate's heartleft to speak of. Every person was

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frightened at an unaccountable state of thingsat Margaret's house, not doubting that witchcraft
was at the bottom of it,and fright frenzied their reason. Naturally,
there were some who pitied Margaret andUrseler for the danger that was gathering about

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them, but naturally they did notsay so. It would not have been
safe. So the others had itall their own way, and there was
none to advise the ignorant girl andthe foolish woman and warned them to modify
their doings. We always wanted towarn them, but we backed down when

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it came to the pinch, beingafraid. We found that we were not
manly enough nor brave enough to doa generous action. Then there was a
chance that it could get us intotrouble. Neither of us confessed this poor
spirit to the others, but didas other people would have done, dropped

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the subject and talked about something else. And I knew we all felt mean,
eating and drinking markets fine things,along with those companies of spies,
and petting her and complimenting her withthe rest, and seeing with a self
reproach how foolishly happy she was,and never saying a verd to put her

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on her guard. And indeed shewas happy, and as proud as a
princess, and so grateful to havefriends again. And all of the time
these people were watching with all theireyes and reporting all they saw to Father

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Adolf, but he couldn't make headnor tail of the situation. There must
be an enchanter somewhere on the premises, but who was it. Margaret was
not seen to do any jugglery,Nova's ursler, not yet Gottfried. And

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still the vines and dainties never ranshort, and the guests could not call
for a thing and not get it. To produce these effects was usually enough
with witches and enchanters, that partof it was not new. But to
do it without any incantations or evenrumblings or earthquakes or lightnings or apparitions.

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That was new novel, wholly irregular. There was nothing in the books like
this. Enchanted things were always unreal. Gold turned to dirt in an unenchanted
atmosphere, food withered away and vanished. But this test failed in the present

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case. The spies brought samples.Father Adolf prayed over them, exorcized them,
but it did no good. Theyremained sound and real, yet yielded
to natural decay only, and tookthe usual time to do it. Father

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Adolf was not merely puzzled. Hewas also exasperated for these evidences very nearly
convinced him privately that there was nowitchcraft in the matter. It did not
wholly convince him, for this couldbe a new kind of witchcraft. There

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was a way to find out asto this. If this prodigal abundance of
provender was not brought in from theoutside but produced on the premises, there
was witchcraft sure. End of Chaptersix