The Amber Witch | Page 9

a cat, which the
people had not either eaten in their extreme hunger, or knocked on the
head or drowned long since. Albeit old farmer Paasch still owned two
cows; _item_, an old man in Uekeritze was said to have one little
pig:--this was all. Thus, then, nearly all the people lived on blackberries
and other wild fruits: the which also soon grew to be scarce, as may
easily be guessed. Besides all this, a boy of fourteen was missing (old
Labahn his son) and was never more heard of, so that I shrewdly think
that the wolves devoured him.
And now let any Christian judge by his own heart in what sorrow and
heaviness I took my staff in my hand, seeing that my child fell away
like a shadow from pinching hunger; although I myself, being old, did
not, by the help of God's mercy, find any great failing in my strength.
While I thus went continually weeping before the Lord, on the way to
Uekeritze, I fell in with an old beggar with his wallet, sitting on a stone,
and eating a piece of God's rare gift, to wit, a bit of bread. Then truly

did my poor mouth so fill with water that I was forced to bow my head
and let it run upon the earth before I could ask, "Who art thou? and
whence comest thou? seeing that thou hast bread." Whereupon he
answered that he was a poor man of Bannemin, from whom the enemy
had taken all; and as he had heard that the Lieper Winkel had long been
in peace, he had travelled thither to beg. I straightway answered him,
"Oh, poor beggar-man, spare to me, a sorrowful servant of Christ, who
is poorer even than thyself, one little slice of bread for his wretched
child; for thou must know that I am the pastor of this village, and that
my daughter is dying of hunger. I beseech thee by the living God not to
let me depart without taking pity on me, as pity also hath been shown
to thee!" But the beggar-man would give me none, saying that he
himself had a wife and four children, who were likewise staggering
towards death's door under the bitter pangs of hunger; that the famine
was sorer far in Bannemin than here, where we still had berries;
whether I had not heard that but a few days ago a woman (he told me
her name, but horror made me forget it) had there killed her own child,
and devoured it from hunger? That he could not therefore help me, and
I might go to the Lieper Winkel myself.
I was horror-stricken at his tale, as is easy to guess, for we in our own
trouble had not yet heard of it, there being little or no traffic between
one village and another; and thinking on Jerusalem, and sheer
despairing because the Lord had visited us, as of old that ungodly city,
although we had not betrayed or crucified him, I almost forgot all my
necessities, and took my staff in my hand to depart. But I had not gone
more than a few yards when the beggar called me to stop, and when I
turned myself round he came towards me with a good hunch of bread
which he had taken out of his wallet, and said, "There! but pray for me
also, so that I may reach my home; for if on the road they smell that I
have bread, my own brother would strike me dead, I believe." This I
promised with joy, and instantly turned back to take to my child the gift
hidden in my pocket. And behold, when I came to the road which leads
to Loddin, I could scarce trust my eyes (before I had overlooked it in
my distress) when I saw my glebe, which could produce seven bushels,
ploughed, sown, and in stalk; the blessed crop of rye had already shot
lustily out of the earth a finger's length in height. I could not choose but
think that the Evil One had deceived me with a false show, yet,

however hard I rubbed my eyes, rye it was and rye it remained. And
seeing that old Paasch his piece of land which joined mine was in like
manner sown, and that the blades had shot up to the same height, I soon
guessed that the good fellow had done this deed, seeing that all the
other land lay waste. Wherefore, I readily forgave him for not knowing
the morning prayer; and thanking the Lord for so much love from my
flock, and earnestly beseeching him to grant me strength and faith to
bear with them steadfastly and patiently all the troubles and adversities
which it might