One Saturday, late in June, Thea arrived early for her lesson. As she perched herself upon the piano stool,—a wobbly, old-fashioned thing that worked on a creaky screw,—she gave Wunsch a side glance, smiling. “You must not be cross to me to-day. This is my birthday.”
“So?” he pointed1 to the keyboard.
After the lesson they went out to join Mrs. Kohler, who had asked Thea to come early, so that she could stay and smell the linden bloom. It was one of those still days of intense light, when every particle of mica2 in the soil flashed like a little mirror, and the glare from the plain below seemed more intense than the rays from above. The sand ridges3 ran glittering gold out to where the mirage4 licked them up, shining and steaming like a lake in the tropics. The sky looked like blue lava5, forever incapable6 of clouds,—a turquoise7 bowl that was the lid of the desert. And yet within Mrs. Kohler’s green patch the water dripped, the beds had all been hosed, and the air was fresh with rapidly evaporating moisture.
The two symmetrical linden trees were the proudest things in the garden. Their sweetness embalmed8 all the air. At every turn of the paths,—whether one went to see the hollyhocks or the bleeding heart, or to look at the purple morning-glories that ran over the bean-poles,—wherever one went, the sweetness of the lindens struck one afresh and one always came back to them. Under the round leaves, where the waxen yellow blossoms hung, bevies9 of wild bees were buzzing. The tamarisks were still pink, and the flower-beds were doing their best in honor of the linden festival. The white dove-house was shining with a fresh coat of paint, and the pigeons were crooning contentedly10, flying down often to drink at the drip from the water tank. Mrs. Kohler, who was transplanting pansies, came up with her trowel and told Thea it was lucky to have your birthday when the lindens were in bloom, and that she must go and look at the sweet peas. Wunsch accompanied her, and as they walked between the flower-beds he took Thea’s hand.
“Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen,”—
he muttered. “You know that von Heine? Im leuchtenden Sommermorgen?” He looked down at Thea and softly pressed her hand.
“No, I don’t know it. What does flüstern mean?”
“Flüstern?—to whisper. You must begin now to know such things. That is necessary. How many birthdays?”
“Thirteen. I’m in my ’teens now. But how can I know words like that? I only know what you say at my lessons. They don’t teach German at school. How can I learn?”
“It is always possible to learn when one likes,” said Wunsch. His words were peremptory11, as usual, but his tone was mild, even confidential12. “There is always a way. And if some day you are going to sing, it is necessary to know well the German language.”
Thea stooped over to pick a leaf of rosemary. How did Wunsch know that, when the very roses on her wall-paper had never heard it? “But am I going to?” she asked, still stooping.
“That is for you to say,” returned Wunsch coldly. “You would better marry some Jacob here and keep the house for him, may-be? That is as one desires.”
Thea flashed up at him a clear, laughing look. “No, I don’t want to do that. You know,” she brushed his coat sleeve quickly with her yellow head. “Only how can I learn anything here? It’s so far from Denver.”
Wunsch’s loose lower lip curled in amusement. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he spoke13 seriously. “Nothing is far and nothing is near, if one desires. The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing—desire. And before it, when it is big, all is little. It brought Columbus across the sea in a little boat, und so weiter.” Wunsch made a grimace14, took his pupil’s hand and drew her toward the grape arbor15. “Hereafter I will more speak to you in German. Now, sit down and I will teach you for your birthday that little song. Ask me the words you do not know already. Now: Im leuchtenden Sommermorgen.”
Thea memorized quickly because she had the power of listening intently. In a few moments she could repeat the eight lines for him. Wunsch nodded encouragingly and they went out of the arbor into the sunlight again. As they went up and down the gravel16 paths between the flowerbeds, the white and yellow butterflies kept darting17 before them, and the pigeons were washing their pink feet at the drip and crooning in their husky bass18. Over and over again Wunsch made her say the lines to him. “You see it is nothing. If you learn a great many of the Lieder, you will know the German language already. Weiter, nun19.” He would incline his head gravely and listen.
“Im leuchtenden Sommermorgen
Geh’ ich im Garten herum;
Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen,
Ich aber, ich wandte stumm.
“Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen
Und schau’n mitleidig mich an:
‘Sei unserer Schwester nicht böse,
Du trauriger, blasser Mann!’”
(In the soft-shining summer morning
I wandered the garden within.
The flowers they whispered and ............