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And when, a-travellin' to the Fairs, The merchant goes with all his wares, He takes a pouch o' th' best, I guess, And fills and smokes his pipe, no less.
Poor devil, 't isn't good for you! With all y'r gold, you've trouble, too. Twice two is four, if stocks'll rise: I see the figgers in your eyes.
It's hurry, worry, tare and tret; Ye ha'n't enough, the more ye get,-- And couldn't use it, if ye had: No wonder that y'r pipe tastes bad!
But good, thank God! and wholesome's mine: The bottom-wheat is growin' fine, And God, o' mornin's, sends the dew, And sends his breath o' blessin', too.
And, home, there's Nancy bustlin' round: The supper's ready, I'll be bound, And youngsters waitin'. Lord! I vow I dunno which is smartest, now.
My pipe tastes good; the reason's plain: (I guess I'll fill it once again:) With cheerful heart, and jolly mood, And goin' home, all things is good.
Hebel's narrative poems abound with the wayward pranks of a fancy which seems a little too restive to be entirely controlled by his artistic sense; but they possess much dramatic truth and power. He delights in the supernatural element, but approaches it from the gentler human side. In "The Carbuncle," only, we find something of that weird, uncanny atmosphere which casts its glamour around the "Tam O'Shanter" of Burns. A more satisfactory illustration of his peculiar qualities is "The Ghost's Visit on the Feldberg,"--a story told by a loafer of Basle to a group of beer-drinkers in the tavern at Todtnau, a little village at the foot of the mountain. This is, perhaps, the most popular of Hebel's poems, and we therefore translate it entire. The superstition that a child born on Sunday has the power of seeing spirits is universal among the German peasantry.
THE GHOST'S VISIT ON THE FELDBERG.
Hark ye, fellows o' Todtnau, if ever I told you the Scythe-Ghost[C] Was a spirit of Evil, I've now got a different story. Out of the town am I,--yes, that I'll honestly own to,-- Related to merchants,