The Nuts | Page 2

insignificant in themselves, had
nevertheless exhausted his little store of savings. His elder brothers, to
whom he had exhibited with great pride these purchases, expressed
none of the admiration which he had expected, but began to tease him
by calling the things "trash," as indeed they were, and poking fun at the
"wonderful presents" of their small brother; they would have been less
cruel, perhaps, had he been one of their sisters.
Karl wanted to know what their father, who never was known to make
a drawing, would do with an eraser, and Kurt added that he did not see
the use of giving their grandmother nuts, when she had more in her
own garden than all of them put together would receive on ten
Christmas-eves.

Bright tears gathered in the eyes of the little one, and he cast a troubled
look at his despised treasures, in which he had rejoiced so heartily only
a short time before.
He began to sob quietly, and saying dejectedly: "But I hadn't any more
money!" he stuffed his gifts, shorn of their glamour into his pockets.
The colonel had watched the scene in silence; now, however, he drew
his favourite to him, kissed him, and caressed his fair curls. Then he
invited him gaily to sit right close to him on the footstool, and bade the
other children to sit down, too, and told Karl and Kurt to keep their ears
wide open.
My wife and I entered at this moment--we heard later of what had
happened--and begged the colonel to allow us to listen also. The
permission was willingly granted; after the lamp was brought, for it
was later than usual, and we had settled ourselves on the sofa, the
colonel stroked his moustache for some time, and began, after he had
gazed quietly before him for a moment: "To-day my story shall be
called, 'The Nuts.' Does that please you, Hermy?"
The little one smiled at him expectantly and nodded his head. The
colonel continued:
"You believe, no doubt, children, that no one ever came back from the
dead, and that therefore no mortal knows what Heaven looks like, nor
Hell. But I--look at me well--I can tell you something about it."
Here he made a short pause while my wife handed him his pipe and a
match. The children looked at one another in doubt and suspicion, for
this was the first story of the colonel which had not begun with, "Here I
am," or, "Once upon a time," and they were consequently uncertain
whether it was a true story or one that he had made up. Wolfgang, who
is thirteen and my oldest boy, and who already calls his younger
brothers, "the young ones," --and promises to be a true child of the
times, inclined to believe it the latter, but even he sat up straighter and
looked puzzled as the colonel continued:
"The two balls that I have in here, and the sabre cut on my shoulder,--
but you know how and where I received them--to be brief, I sank from
my horse onto the grass in the afternoon, and not until the following
morning was I found by the ambulance corps and carried to the hospital.
There they brought me to life again. In the interim--which lasted for the
half of a day and one whole night--I was certainly not alive like one of

you, or any other two-legged creature endowed with five senses."
With these words his penetrating eyes glanced from Karl to Kurt; the
girls caught hold of one another's hands and one could plainly read in
their expressions that they considered it rash to be in such close
proximity to a person who had erstwhile been dead. It was fortunate for
them that the resuscitated colonel was so good, and that there was no
doubt about his actual existence, which was proved by his voice and
the smoke that he puffed into the air during every pause.
"Yes, children," he began anew, "a great wonder was worked on me, an
old man. This long body here lay on the bloody ground among
groaning men, dying horses, broken gun-carriages, ammunition wagons,
exploded bombshells, and discarded weapons; but my soul--I cannot
have been too hardened a sinner in this world--my soul was permitted
to soar to Heaven. One, two, three, as fast as you can say, 'That is an
apple,' or 'The fair Ina has a pretty doll in her lap,' and it had arrived.
And now--I can see it in your eyes--you would like to know how it
seems in Heaven, and God knows I cannot blame you, for it is beautiful,
marvellously beautiful, only unfortunately I am not allowed even to
attempt its description. That must ever remain a mystery to the living
because--but that is