"
These words brought me back to a sense of the realities of life.
"Ah, I am very glad!"
"It is all owing to you, Fritz."
"What do you mean? I have not prescribed yet."
"What signifies? You were there; that was enough."
"You are only joking, Gideon! What is the use of my being present if
I don't prescribe?"
"Why, you bring him good luck!"
I looked straight at him, but he was not even smiling!
"Yes, Fritz, you are just a messenger of good; the last two years the
lord had another attack the next day after the first, then a third and
a fourth. You have put an end to that. What can be clearer?"
"Well, to me it is not so very clear; on the contrary, it is very
obscure."
"We are never too old to learn," the good man went on. "Fritz, there are
messengers of evil and there are messengers of good. Now that rascal
Knapwurst, he is a sure messenger of ill. If ever I meet him as I am
going out hunting I am sure of some misadventure; my gun misses fire, or
I sprain my ankle, or a dog gets ripped up!--all sorts of mischief come.
So, being quite aware of this, I always try and set off at early
daybreak, before that author of mischief, who sleeps like a dormouse, has
opened his eyes; or else I slip out by a back way by the postern gate.
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