‘Everything
in its rightful Place’
It’s over a hundred years ago!
Behind the
wood near the large lake lay an old manor house, and round it there were deep ditches
in which bulrushes, rushes and reeds grew. Close to the bridge of the entrance
gate stood an old willow tree that hung out over the reeds.
Down from
the sunken road came the sound of horns and horses’ hooves, and so the little goose
girl hurried to get the geese away from the bridge before the hunting party
arrived at a gallop; it came at such a speed that she quickly had to jump up
onto one of the high stones at the bridge to avoid being ridden down. She was
still little more than a child, fine and slender, but with a lovely expression
on her face and two kind, bright eyes; but these the lord of the manor did not
notice; passing at rapid speed, he reversed his whip in his hand, and out of coarse
merriment prodded her right in the chest, so that she toppled backwards.
‘Everything
in its rightful place!’ he called out, ‘into the dirt with you!’ and then he
laughed, for he took that to be highly amusing, and the others laughed too; the
whole party shrieked and guffawed and the hounds barked, it really was a case
of:
‘Rich bird
comes a-tearing past’
– God only
knows how rich he still was.
The poor goose
girl tried to grasp something as she fell, and managed to catch hold of one of
the hanging branches of the willow; this saved her from the dirt, and as soon
as the fine party and house were well inside the gate, she tried to work her
way up, but the branch broke high up, and the goose girl fell back heavily into
the reeds, but at that very moment a strong hand from above seized her. It was
an itinerant hosier, who had seen the whole incident from a little way off and
hurried to the scene to come to her assistance.
‘Everything
in its rightful place!’ he said in jest, as the lord of the manor had done, and
hauled her up onto dry land; the broken branch he placed back at the point
where it had broken, but ‘in its rightful place’ doesn’t always apply! and so he
stuck the branch down into the soft earth, ‘grow if you can and provide a good flute
for them up at the manor!’ he would happily see the lord and his men ‘run the
gauntlet’; and then he entered the manor – but not the hall, for he was of too
humble rank for that! – he came with the others into the servants’ hall, where
they looked at his wares and haggled; but upstairs from the banqueting hall there
was much bawling and squawling that they thought was singing – they knew no
better. There was laughter and a howling of dogs, there was guzzling and
swilling; wine and old beer foamed in glass and tankard, and the house dogs
joined in too; the odd one or two of them kissed by the young noblemen after having
its muzzle dried with a drooping ear. The hosier was called up with his wares, but
only so that they could make fun of him. Wine had entered and reason exited. They
poured beer into one of his stockings, so he could join in the drinking, but
quickly! it was so exceptionally ingenious and laughable. Entire droves of
cattle, farms and farmers were bet on a single card and lost.
‘Everything
in its rightful place!’ the hosier said, when once more he was well outside
what he called Sodom and Gomorrah. ‘The open road, that’s my rightful place, up
there I wasn’t in my element at all.’ And the little goose girl nodded to him
from the gate.
Days
passed and weeks passed, and it turned out that the broken-off willow branch
that the hosier had stuck in the ground near the ditch was still fresh and
green, indeed, it was even putting forth new shoots; the little goose girl saw
that it must have taken root, and she was extremely happy about this, for it
was her tree, she felt.
Yes,
everything was going well for it, but all at the manor was in sharp decline
with all the guzzling and gambling: those two wheels are not good to try and
stand on.
Less that
six years had passed before the lord of the manor was a poor itinerant with a bag
and a stick, and the manor had been bought by a rich hosier, and it was
precisely the man who had been mocked and derided and offered beer in a
stocking; but honesty and industry lead to prosperity, and now the hosier was
lord of the manor; but from that moment on, no card-playing was allowed there;
‘it makes bad reading,’ he said, ‘it comes from the fact that when the devil
first saw the Bible, he wanted to make a parody of it that was to be just like
it, and so he invented card-playing!’
The new
lord took a wife, and who should that be but the little goose girl, who had
always been good-natured, devout and good; and in her new clothes she looked so
fine and beautiful as if she had been born a distinguished young noblewoman. How
did that come about? Well, it’s too long a story for our bustling age, but that’s
what happened, and the most important part comes after that.
Everything
flourished and thrived at the old manor, the mistress was in charge of everything
indoors and the master of everything outdoors; it was as if this abundance
gushed forth, and where there is affluence, more affluence will take up
residence. The old manor was plastered and painted, the ditches cleaned and
fruit trees planted; everything looked pleasing and attractive, and the living-room
floor was as shiny as a chopping board. In the great hall the lady of the house
sat on winter evenings with all her girls and span wool and linen; and every
Sunday evening there was a reading from the Bible, and by the counsellor
himself, for the hosier had become one, but not before he had reached a ripe
old age. The children grew up – more children came – and all of them were well
brought up, though they were not equally bright, as is the case in every
family.
But the
willow tree outside had become a quite magnificent tree that stood there unpollarded
on its own, ‘it is our family tree!’ the old people said, and that tree was to
be honoured and revered! they said to the children even to those of them that
were not all that bright.
And now a
hundred years had passed.
It was now
our own age; the lake had become a marsh, and the old manor house was as if
erased, there stood a rectangular pool of water, with some loose stonework on
one side, it was all that was left of the deep ditches, and here still there
stood a magnificent old tree with hanging branches, it was the family tree; it
stood there showing just how beautiful a willow tree can be when it is allowed
to take care of itself. – Admittedly, there was a split in the middle of the
trunk from its root up to its crown, the storm had twisted it slightly, but it
stood there, and out of the splits and cracks in it where wind and weather had deposited
topsoil grass and flowers grew; especially highest up, where the large boughs
separated, there was what was like a small hanging garden, with raspberries and
chickweed, yes, even a small rowan had managed to take root and stood so
slender and fine up in the middle of the willow tree, which mirrored itself in
the black water when the wind had driven the food for the ducks over into a
corner of the pool. – A small path, out across the tenant fields, led close by.
High up on
the hill by the wood, with a delightful view, lay the new manor, large and
imposing, with glass panes so clear that would think there were none there. The
large flight of steps at the door looked as if it had a bower there of roses
and large-leaved plants. The lawn was such a rich green it looked as if every
blade had been seen to both morning and evening. Inside in the hall precious
paintings hung, and there were silk and velvet upholstered chairs and sofas
that could almost walk on their own legs, tables with gleaming marble tops, and
books in morocco and with gilt edges... oh yes, it was rich folk that lived
here, people of rank, the baron and his family.
The one thing corresponded with the
other. ‘Everything in its rightful place!’ they too said, and therefore all the
paintings that had once graced and adorned the old manor had now been hung in
the passageway to the farmhands’ room; it was nothing but lumber, especially
two portraits, one of a man in a pink coat and wearing a wig, the other a lady
with powdered, high-piled hair and a red rose in her hand, but both of them
surrounded in the same way by a large garland of willow switches. There were so
many round holes in the two pictures, and this was because the small barons
always used to shoot arrows from their bows at the two old people. It was the
counsellor and his lady wife, from whom the entire family line was descended.
‘But they
are not really from our family!’ one of the young barons said. ‘He was a hosier
and she a goose girl. They were not like Papa and Mama!’
The
pictures were nothing more than lumber, and ‘Everything in its rightful place!’
one used to say, and that meant that great-grandfather and great-grandmother
ended up in the passageway to the farmhands’ room.
The
vicar’s son was tutor at the manor; one day he was out walking with the young
barons and their eldest sister, who had just been confirmed, and they were
taking the path down towards the old willow tree; and while they walked, she
was making a bouquet out of what grew in the fields; ‘Everything in its rightful
place’, and it became a truly beautiful bouquet of flowers. Even so, she
listened most attentively to everything that was being said, and she was so glad
to hear the vicar’s son talk about the forces of nature and the great men and
women of history; she had a healthy, fine nature, was noble in thought and
mind, and had a heart well capable of embracing all things created by God.
They
stopped down by the old willow tree; the youngest of the barons wanted so much
to have a flute carved from it, this had been done before from other willow
trees, and the vicar’s son broke off a branch.
‘Oh, don’t
do that!’ the young baroness said, but it had already been done. ‘It’s our old illustrious
tree! I am so fond of it! yes, I know people laugh at me back home for this,
but I don’t care. There is a legend about that tree –!’
And now
she told them everything that we have heard about the tree, about the old
manor, about the goose girl and the hosier who met here and became progenitors
of the fine family line and the young baroness.
‘They
refused to be ennobled, the honest old folk!’ she said. ‘They had the saying:
“Everything in its rightful place!” and they did not feel it was fitting to be
raised to the aristocracy because of money. It was their son, my grandfather,
who became a baron, he is said to have been a very learned man, highly respected
and fondly regarded by princes and princesses, and to have attended all their
festive occasions. He is the one they are most fond of at home, I am not sure
myself, for me there is something about the old couple that draws my heart
towards them! it must have been so cosy, so patriarchal at the old manor, where
the mistress of the house sat weaving with all the girls and the old master
read aloud from the Bible!’
‘They were
splendid people, sensible people!’ the vicar’s son said; and then they got
talking about the aristocracy and the lower classes, and it was almost as if
the vicar’s son did not belong to the lower classes, judging by the way he enthused
about the aristocracy.
‘It is
highly fortunate to belong to a family that has distinguished itself! so that
one has, so to speak, a line of blood to follow in the pursuit of what is fine.
It is delightful to own a family name that grants one admittance to the top
families. Nobility means being noble, it is the gold coin that is stamped with
what one personally has of worth. – It is a fashionable belief, and naturally
many poets adopt it, to state that everything that is noble is bad and stupid,
whereas among the poor, the lower down one stoops, the more everything
glitters. But that is not my opinion, for it is completely wrong, completely
false. In the higher ranks there are many touchingly fine features; my mother
has told me one, and I could provide several more. She was visiting a fine
house in the town – my grandmother, I believe, had suckled the lady of the
house. My mother was standing in the living room with the old master, who was
of the high nobility; when he saw that an old woman on crutches came into the
courtyard – she used to come every Sunday and was given a few coins. ‘There is
that poor old woman,’ the master said, ‘she finds walking so difficult! – and
before my mother realised it, he was out of the door and down the stairs, this
excellency of three score years and ten, had gone down to the poor old woman to
save her the exeertion of going all the wearisome way up for the few coins she
was to receive. That is only a small trait, but like the “widow’s mite” it
comes directly from the bottom of the heart, from human nature; and it is to
this that the poet should point, in our present age it is precisely of what
does good, alleviate and reconcile that he should sing! But if a example of
mankind, simply because he is of blue blood and has a family tree, stands on
his hind legs, like Arab horses, and whinnies in the street, and in his living
rooms says “people from the street have been here!” when someone from the lower
classes has been there, then nobility has started to decay, has become a mask
of the type that Thespis made for them, and one makes fun of the person and exposes
that person to satire.’
That was
the speech given by the vicar’s son, it was rather long, but after it the flute
had been carved.
There was
a large festive occasion at the manor, with many people from the local area and
from the capital. Ladies dressed tastefully and tastelessly. The great hall was
packed with people. The local clergy stood deferentially clustered in a corner,
it looked as if a funeral was taking place, but it was festive occasion that
was yet to get underway.
There was
to be a big concert, and so the young baron had his willow flute along with
him, but he could not breathe into it effectively, nor could his Papa, so it
was considered worthless.
There was
music and singing, of the kind that is most agreeable to those performing it;
quite acceptable otherwise.
‘So you
too are a virtuoso!’ said a young gentleman present who was very much a child
of his parents; ‘You play the flute, you carve it yourself. It is genius that
rules – sits to the right – Great heavens! I keep up with the latest fashion,
one has to, doesn’t one, you will surely delight us all with this little
instrument!’ and so he handed him the small flute that had been carved from the
willow tree down by the small pool of water, and in a loud, clear voice he
announced that the tutor of the house would give them a solo on the flute.
This was, it
was easy to understand, in order to make fun of him, and the tutor was
unwilling to blow, although he knew how to, but they pressed him, they urged
him, and so he took the flute and put it to his lips.
It was a
strange flute! it let out a sound strong and sustained as that from a steam
locomotive, even louder in fact; it could be heard everywhere in the manor, the
garden and the wood, for miles out into the countryside, and along with the
sound there came a roaring gale: ‘Everything in its rightful place! – and then
Papa flew off as if borne by the wind, out of the manor, and straight into the cowman’s
cottage, and the cowman flew up – not into the main living room, he wasn’t able
to get in there, no, up to the servants’ chamber, among all the fine domestic
staff that wear silk stockings, and the proud fellows were as if struck down by
rheumatics that such a lowly person dared sit at table among them.
But in the
great hall the young baroness flew up to the head of the table, where she fully
deserved to sit, but the vicar’s son was given the seat next to her, and there
they sat the two of them, as if they were a bridal couple. An old count from
the oldest family in the land remained firmly in his place of honour, for the
flue was just, as one should be. The witty young gentleman who was responsible
for the flute-playing, the one who was a child of his parents, flew head-first
in among the chickens, but he was not alone.
The flute
could be heard a whole league away in the countryside, and there major incidents
were reported. A rich merchant’s family, out driving in a coach and four, were
blown completely out of it, and couldn’t even get a place at the back; two rich
farmers who in our present age had grown taller than their own cornfields were
blown down into a muddy ditch; it was a dangerous flute; fortunately the first
sound it made caused it to split, and that was a good thing, then it was pocketed
again: ‘Everything in its rightful place!’
The
following day nobody spoke about the incident, which is why one has the saying ‘don’t
blow the whistle!’ Everything was as before again, except for the fact that the
two old pictures, those of the hosier and the goose girl – now hung in the
great hall where they had blown up onto the wall; and since one of the real art
connoisseurs said they had been painted by a master, they stayed there and were
restored, before then people did not know that they were fine paintings – and how
were they to have known that. They now hung in the place of honour. ‘Everything
in its rightful place!’ and everything will indeed come to that! Eternity is long,
longer than this story!