CHAPTER XI.
A NEW LIFE IN EVERYTHING.
The Prince must have forgotten that he had meant to send forSonnenkamp, who now found himself deprived of all opportunity ofexpressing his thanks in person to him or to his brother, by theirdeparture, in company with many nobles of the court, and Pranken amongthem, for a royal hunting-seat where the great Spring hunts were to beheld. Pranken had left the capital in great ill-humor at HerrSonnenkamp's having been guilty of the impropriety of entering into anyrelations with the editor of a newspaper.
All was quiet in the Hotel Victoria. Eric's mother and aunt had alreadyreturned to the green cottage, and Roland begged and entreated everyday that the whole family might break up their establishment in theCapital. At last his wish was granted, and Sonnenkamp favored hishouse, his servants, the park and the hot-houses, with a sight of theglory of his button-hole. This decoration he brought back, and couldalways preserve as a happy memento of that winter of pleasure and ofpain. Roland never grew weary of greeting the familiar objects withfresh delight. A feeling and love of home seemed to be roused in him,for the first time, in its full intensity.
"I see now," he said to Eric, "that this living in hotels and anywhereelse than in one's own house is like living on a railway. I can go tosleep, but I hear all the time the rattle of wheels in my dreams. Thatis the way when we are abroad, but now we are at home again, and I havea grandmother near by to visit, and an aunt, and the Major is a kind ofuncle, and Claus is like a faithful old tower. The dogs too are glad tohave me at home again. Nora looked at me a little strange at first, butsoon recognized me, and her pups are splendid. Now we will be busy andmerry again. It would be nice to plant a tree to remember this day by,and have you plant one near it, don't you think so? Don't you feel as Ido, that you have just come into the world, and that all that hashappened before was only a dream? If I could only erect something thatshould always be saying to me: Remember how happy you once were, andhow happy you are, and let nothing further trouble you in the world.Oh, how beautiful it is here! The Rhine is broader than I rememberedit, and the mountains look down so upon me! I think I saw them in myfever, but not so beautiful as they are now. It seems as if I couldcompel the vineyards to grow green at once."
As he was walking with Eric along the river bank, he suddenly stoodstill and said,--
"Hark, how the waves plash against the shore! Just so have they rippledand plashed day and night when I was not here. Would it not bebeautiful to plunge into the waves and swim? Does not the ripplingtempt you too? It seems to me we did it centuries ago."
The boy had awaked to new life, and thoughts and feelings came bubblingceaselessly from his heart, as from an ever running fountain. Hedelighted in having the people he met tell him how tall he had grown,and how like a man he was looking.
Eric listened patiently to all his outpourings; the boy was tasting thedouble pleasure of returning health and the opening spring.
"The hen cackles for herself and the cock," he exclaimed, the firsttime he heard a hen; "and I am sure it is as beautiful a sound to them,as the song of the nightingale is to us. Don't you think our barnyardhen makes a great deal more noise over the laying of an egg than herwild sisters? No female of all the wild birds of the forest sings; thehen is the only one. Do look at the grass; how beautifully green it is,and the hedgerows there! The green leaves and buds would like to popout all of a sudden and cry, Here we are!"
So he chattered on, like a grateful child.
Only a little at a time could the studies be resumed. Eric observed acertain depression in his mother, which might be the result of heranxiety for Roland, whose illness naturally recalled to her that of herown son, or of her constant care for the poor in the neighborhood,whose calls for help were increasing as their winter stores weregetting exhausted. Roland was desirous of sharing these cares with her,and of being allowed to take some of the gifts himself; but the motherwould not permit it. He was not ready for that yet, she said; he mustfirst come to be a strong man himself, able to carry out his own greatlifework.
Roland complained that he did not see the need of so many having tosuffer want, when there was enough in the world to satisfy everybody.Eric and his mother had to reason with him, or he would have cursedwealth as a misfortune and an injustice. But the elasticity of youthcame to their aid, and the boy soon forgot how much misery there was inthe world, and contented himself with the objects immediately abouthim.
Sonnenkamp was very happy, too, for Eric and Roland took an activeinterest in the cultivation of the trees, and he could be theirteacher.
"You will experience, as I have," he often said, "that the greatestpleasure in the world, is to watch the growth of a tree of your ownplanting."
The buds were swelling in the garden, while across the river, and overthe fields, floated an aromatic breath of spring, a fragrance as if theair had blown over vast, invisible beds of violets. Within the housewas a cheerfulness that had never been known there before. Even FrauCeres could not escape its influence, for Roland shed about him aconstant atmosphere of joy, that infected all who came in contact withhim. He had, moreover, now, as he confided to the Professorin, aproject in his head, of which he would not betray, even to her, theexact nature. On the anniversary of his birthday, which was also thatof Eric's arrival, he meant to prepare for everybody such a joyfulsurprise as they never would guess.
The grass and the blossoms had come forth in the garden, the birds weresinging, and the boats sailing merrily up and down the river, when, onthe day preceding Roland's birthday, a note was found in his room,saying that the family must not be uneasy about him, for he wouldreturn the next day, bringing something most beautiful with him.
Upon inquiry, it appeared that Roland had set off with Lootz for theconvent.