Toni, the Little Woodcarver Read online

  CHAPTER FIRST

  AT HOME IN THE LITTLE STONE HUT

  High up in the Bernese Oberland, quite a distance above themeadow-encircled hamlet of Kandergrund, stands a little lonely hut, underthe shadow of an old fir-tree. Not far away rushes down from the woodedheights of rock the Wild brook, which in times of heavy rains, has carriedaway so many rocks and bowlders that when the storms are ended a raggedmass of stones is left, through which flows a swift, clear stream ofwater. Therefore the little dwelling near by this brook is called thestone hut.

  Here lived the honest day-laborer Toni, who conducted himself well inevery farm-house, where he went to work, for he was quiet andindustrious, punctual at his tasks, and reliable in every way.

  In his hut at home he had a young wife and a little boy, who was a joy toboth of them. Near the hut in the little shed was the goat, the milk ofwhich supplied food for the mother and child, while the father receivedhis board through the week on the farms where he worked from morning untilnight. Only on Sunday was he at home with his wife and little Toni. Thewife Elsbeth, kept her little house in good order; it was narrow and tiny,but it always looked so clean and cheerful that every one liked to comeinto the sunny room, and the father, Toni, was never so happy as when hewas at home in the stone hut with his little boy on his knee.

  For five years the family lived in harmony and undisturbed peace. Althoughthey had no abundance and little worldly goods, they were happy andcontent. The husband earned enough, so they did not suffer want, and theydesired nothing beyond their simple manner of life, for they loved eachother and their greatest delight was little Toni.

  The little boy grew strong and healthy and with his merry ways delightedhis father's heart, when he remained at home on Sundays, and sweetened allhis mother's work on week-days, when his father was away until late in theevening.

  Little Toni was now four years old and already knew how to be helpful inall sorts of small ways, in the house and the goat's shed and also in thefield behind the hut. From morning until night he tripped happily behindhis mother for he was as content as the little birds up in the oldfir-tree.

  When Saturday night came the mother scrubbed and cleaned with doubledenergy, to finish early, for on that day the father was through his workearlier than other days, and she always went with little Toni by the hand,part way to meet him. This was a great delight to the child. He now knewvery well how one task followed another in the household. When his motherbegan to scrub, he jumped around in the room, with delight and cried outagain and again: "Now we are going for Father! Now we are going forFather!" until the moment came when his mother took him by the hand andstarted along.

  Saturday evening had come again in the lovely month of May. Outdoors thebirds in the trees were singing merrily up to the blue sky; indoors themother was cleaning busily, in order to get out early into the goldenevening, and meanwhile now outside, now in the house, little Toni washopping around and shouting:

  "Now we are going for Father!"

  It was not long before the work was finished. The mother put on her shawl,tied on her best apron and stepped out of the house.

  Toni jumped for joy and ran three times around his mother, then seized herhand and shouted once more:

  "Now we are going for Father!"

  Then he tripped along beside his mother in the lovely, sunny evening.They wandered to the Wild brook, over the wooden bridge, which crosses it,and came to the narrow foot-path, winding up through the flower-ladenmeadows to the farm where the father worked.

  The last rays of the setting sun fell across the meadows and the sound ofthe evening bells came up from Kandergrund.

  The mother stood still and folded her hands.

  "Lay your hands together Toneli," she said, "it is the Angelus."

  The child obeyed.

  "What must I pray, Mother?" he asked.

  "Give us and all tired people a blessed Sunday! Amen!" said the motherdevoutly.

  Toneli repeated the prayer. Suddenly he screamed: "Father is coming!"

  Down from the farm some one was running as fast as he could come.

  "That is not Father," said his mother, and both went towards the runningman. When they met, the man stood still and said, gasping:

  "Don't go any farther, turn around, Elsbeth. I came straight to you, forsomething has happened."

  "Oh, my God!" cried the woman in the greatest anguish, "has somethinghappened to Toni?"

  "Yes, he was with the wood-cutters, and then he was struck. They havebrought him back; he is lying up at the farm-but don't go up there," headded, holding Elsbeth fast, for she wanted to start off as soon as sheheard the news.

  "Not go up?" she said quickly. "I must go to him; I must help him and seeabout bringing him home."

  "You cannot help him, he is--he is already dead," said the messenger in anunsteady voice. Then he turned and ran back again, glad to have themessage off his mind.

  Elsbeth threw herself down on a stone by the way, unable to stand or towalk. She held her apron before her face and burst into weeping andsobbing, so that Toneli was distressed and frightened. He pressed closeto his mother and began to cry too.

  It was already dark, when Elsbeth finally came to herself and could thinkof her child. The little one was still sitting beside her on the ground,with both hands pressed to his eyes, and sobbing pitifully. His motherlifted him up.

  "Come, Toneli, we must go home; it is late," she said, taking him by thehand.

  But he resisted.

  "No, no, we must wait for Father!" he said and pulled his mother back.

  Again she could not keep back the tears. "Oh, Toneli, Father will come nomore," she said, stifling her sobs; "he is already enjoying the blessedSunday, we prayed for, for the weary. See, the dear Lord has taken him toHeaven; it is so beautiful there, he will prefer to stay there."

  "Then we will go too," replied Toneli, starting

  "Yes, yes, we shall go there too," promised his mother, "but now we mustfirst go home to the stone hut," and without a word she went with thelittle one back to the silent cottage.

  The proprietor of the Matten farm sent word to Elsbeth the following daythat he would do everything necessary for her husband, and so she need notcome until it was time for the service, for she would not recognize herhusband. He sent her some money in order that she would not have too muchcare in the next few days, and promised to think of her later on.

  Elsbeth did as he advised and remained at home until the bells inKandergrund rang for the service. Then she went to accompany her husbandto his resting place.

  Sad and hard days came for Elsbeth. She missed her good, kind husbandeverywhere, and felt quite lost without him. Besides, cares came now whichshe had known little about before, for her husband had had his good, dailywork. But now she felt sometimes as if she would almost despair. She hadnothing but her goat and the little potato field behind the cottage, andfrom these she had to feed and clothe herself and the little one, andbesides furnish rent for the little house.

  Elsbeth had only one consolation, but one that always supported her whenpain and care oppressed her; she could pray, and although often in themidst of tears, still always with the firm belief that the dear Lord wouldhear her supplication.

  When at night she had put little Toni in his tiny bed she would kneel downbeside him and repeat aloud the old hymn, which now came from the depthsof her heart, as never before:

  Oh, God of Love, oh Father-heart, In whom my trust is founded, I know full well how good Thou art-- E'en when by grief I am wounded.

  Oh Lord, it surely can not be That Thou wilt let me languish In hopeless depths of misery, And live in tears of anguish.

  Oh Lord, my soul yearns for thine aid In this dark vale of weeping; For thee I've waited, hoped and prayed Assured of thy safe keeping.

  Lord let me bear whate'er thy Love May send of grief or sorrow, Until Thou, in thy Heaven above Make dawn a brighter morrow.

  And in the midst of he
r urgent praying, the mother's tears flowedabundantly, and little Toni, deeply moved in his heart by his mother'sweeping and earnest prayer, kept his hands folded and wept softly too.

  So the time passed. Elsbeth struggled along and little Toni was able tohelp her in many ways, for he was now seven years old. He was his mother'sonly joy, and she was able to take delight in him for he was obedient andwilling to do everything she desired. He had always been so inseparablefrom his mother that he knew exactly how the tasks of the day had to bedone, and he desired nothing but to help her whenever he could. If shewas working in the little field, he squatted beside her, pulled out theweeds, and threw the stones across the path.

  If his mother was taking the goat out of the shed so that she could nibblethe grass around the hut, he went with her step by step, for his motherhad told him he must watch her so that she would not run away.

  If his mother was sitting in winter by her spinning-wheel, he sat thewhole time beside her, mending his winter shoes with strong strips ofcloth, as she had taught him to do. He had no greater wish than to see hismother happy and contented. His greatest pleasure was, when Sunday cameand she was resting from all work, to sit with her on the little woodenbench in front of the house and listen as she told him about his fatherand talk with her about all kinds of things.

  But now the time had come for Toni to go to school. It was very hard forhim to leave his mother and remain away from her so much. The long waydown to Kandergrund and up again took so much time, that Toni was hardlyever with his mother any more through the day, but only in the evening.Indeed he always came home so quickly that she could hardly believe itpossible, for he looked forward with pleasure all day long to getting homeagain. He lost no time with his school-mates but ran immediately away fromthem as soon as school was over. He was not accustomed to the ways of theother boys since he had been constantly alone with his quietly workingmother and used to performing definite tasks continually without anynoise.

  So it was altogether strange to him and he took no pleasure in it, whenthe boys coming out of the school-house, set up a great screaming, onerunning after another, trying to see which was the stronger, and throwingone another on the ground, or wrestling so that their caps were thrown faraway and their jackets half torn off.

  The wrestlers would often call to him:

  "Come and play!" and when he ran away from them they would call afterhim: "You are a coward." But this made little difference to him; he didn'thear it long, for he ran with all his might in order to be at home againwith his mother.

  Now a new interest for him arose in the school: he had seen beautifulanimals drawn on white sheets, which the children of the upper classescopied. He quickly tried to draw them, too, with his pencil and at homecontinued drawing the animals again and again as long as he had a bit ofpaper. Then he cut out the animals and tried to make them stand on thetable, but this he could not do. Then suddenly the thought came to himthat if they were of wood they could stand. He began quickly with hisknife to cut around on a little piece of wood until there was a body andfour legs; but the wood was not large enough for the neck and the head; sohe had to take another piece and calculate from the beginning how high itmust be and where the head must be placed. So Toni cut away with muchperseverance until he succeeded in making something like a goat and couldshow it with great satisfaction to his mother. She was much delighted athis skill and said:

  "You are surely going to be a wood-carver, and a very good one."

  From that time on Toni looked at every little piece of wood which came inhis way, to see if it would be good for carving, and if so he wouldquickly put it away, so that he often brought home all his pockets full ofthese pieces, which he then collected like treasures into a pile and spentevery free moment carving them.

  Thus the years passed by. Although Elsbeth always had many cares, sheexperienced only joy in her Toni. He still clung to her with the samelove, helped her in every way as well as he could and spent his lifebeside her, entirely at his quiet occupation, in which he graduallyacquired a quite gratifying skill. Toni was never so content as when hewas sitting in the little stone hut with his carving and his mother camein and out happily employed, always saying a kindly word to him andfinally sat down beside him at her spinning-wheel.