The End of the World: A Love Story

  CHAPTER IV.

  A COUNTER-IRRITANT.

  "Vot you kits doornt off vor? Hey?"

  Gottlieb Wehle always spoke English, or what he called English, when hewas angry.

  "Vot for? Hey?"

  All the way home from Anderson's on that Saturday night, August hadbeen, in imagination, listening to the rough voice of his honest fatherasking this question, and he had been trying to find a satisfactoryanswer to it. He might say that Mr. Anderson did not want to keep a handany longer. But that would not be true. And a young man with August'sclear blue eyes was not likely to lie.

  "Vot vor ton't you not shpeak? Can't you virshta blain Eenglish ven youhears it? Hey? You a'n't no teef vot shteels I shposes, unt you ton'tkit no troonks mit vishky? Vot you too tat you pe shamt of? Pin lazin'rount? Kon you nicht Eenglish shprachen? Oot mit id do vonst!"

  "I did not do anything to be ashamed of," said August. And yet he lookedashamed.

  "You tidn't pe no shamt, hey? You tidn't! Vot vor you loogs so leig ateef in der bentenshry? Vot for you sprachen not mit me ven ich sprachsder blainest zort ov Eenglish mit you? You kooms sneaggin heim Zaturtaynocht leig a tog vots kot kigt, unt's got his dail dween his leks; andven I aks you in blain Eenglish vot's der madder, you loogs zheepishleig, und says you a'n't tun nodin. I zay you tun sompin. If you a'n'ttun nodin den, vy don't you dell me vot it is dat you has tun? Hey?"

  GOTTLIEB.]

  All this time August found that it was getting harder and harder to tellhis father the real state of the case. But the old man, seeing that heprevailed nothing, took a cajoling tone.

  "Koom, August, mine knabe, ton't shtand dare leig a vool. Vot titAnterson zay ven he shent you avay?"

  "He said that I'd been seen a-talking to his daughter, Jule Anderson."

  "Vell, you nebber said no hoorm doo Shule, tid you? If I dought yousaid vot you zhoodn't zay doo Shule, I vood shust drash you on dershpot! Tid you gwarl mit Shule, already?"

  "Quarrel with Jule! She's the last person in the world I'd think ofquarreling with. She's as good as--"

  "Oh! you pe in lieb mit Shule! You vool, you! Is dat all dat I raise youvor? I dells you, unt dells you, unt _dells_ you to sprach nodin putDeutsche, unt to marry a kood Deutsche vrau vot kood sprach mit you, untnow you koes right shtraight off unt kits knee-teep in lieb mit a voolof a Yangee kirl! You doo ant pe doornt off!"

  August's countenance brightened. All the way home he had felt that itwas somehow an unpardonable sin to be a Dutchman. Anderson had spokenhardly to him in dismissing him, and now it was a great comfort to findthat his father returned the contempt of the Yankees at its full value.All the conceit was not on the side of the Yankees. It was at least anopen question which was the most disgraced, he or Julia, by their littlelove affair.

  But more comforting still was the quiet look of his sweet-faced mother,who, moving about among her throng of children like a hen with morechickens than she can hover[1], never forgot to be patient andaffectionate. If there had been a look of reproach on the face of themother, it would have been the hardest trial of all. But there was thatin her eyes--the dear Moravian mother--that gave courage to August. Themother was an outside conscience, and now as Gottlieb, who had lapsedinto German for his wife's benefit, rattled on his denunciation of thisCannanitish Yankee, with whom his son was in love, the son looked everynow and then into the eyes, the still German eyes of the mother, andrejoiced that he saw there no reflection of his father's rebuke. Theolder Wehle presently resumed his English, such as it was, as betteradapted to scolding. Whether he thought to make his children love Germanby abusing them in English, I do not know, but it was his habit.

  [Footnote 1: Not until my attention was called to this word in the proofdid I know that in this sense it is a provincialism. It is so used, atleast in half the country, and yet neither of our Americandictionaries has it.]

  "I dells you tese Yangees is Yangees. Dere neber voz put shust von coodvor zompin. Antrew Antershon is von. He shtaid mit us ven ve vos allzick, unt he is zhust so cood as if he was porn in Deutschland. Put allde rest is Yangees. Marry a Deutsche vrau vot's kot cood sense to edekraut unt shleep unter vedder peds ven it's kalt. Put shust led deYangees pe Yangees."

  Seeing August put on his hat and go to the door, he called out testily:

  "Vare you koes, already?"

  "Over to the castle."

  "Veil, das is koot. Ko doo de gassel. Antrew vlll dell you vat sorts doYangee kirls pe!"