The Sand-Man | Page 4

faces visible round about,
but without eyes, having ghastly deep black holes where the eyes
should have been. "Eyes here! Eyes here!" cried Coppelius, in a hollow
sepulchral voice. My blood ran cold with horror; I screamed and
tumbled out of my hiding-place into the floor. Coppelius immediately
seized upon me. "You little brute! You little brute!" he bleated,
grinding his teeth. Then, snatching me up, he threw me on the hearth,
so that the flames began to singe my hair. "Now we've got
eyes--eyes--a beautiful pair of children's eyes," he whispered, and,

thrusting his hands into the flames he took out some red-hot grains and
was about to strew t~em into my eyes. Then my father clasped his
hands and entreated him, saying, "Master, master, let my Nathanael
keep his eyes--oh! do let him keep them." Coppelius laughed shrilly
and replied, "Well then, the boy may keep his eyes and whine and pule
his way through the world; but we will now at any rate observe the
mechanism of the hand and the foot." And therewith he roughly laid
hold upon me, so that my joints cracked, and twisted my hands and my
feet, pulling them now this way, and now that, "That's not quite right
altogether! It's better as it was!--the old fellow knew what he was
about." Thus lisped and hissed Coppelius; but all around me grew black
and dark; a sudden convulsive pain shot through all my nerves and
bones I knew nothing more.
I felt a soft warm breath fanning my cheek; I awakened as if out of the
sleep of death; my mother was bending over me. "Is the Sand-man still
there?" I stammered. "No, my dear child; he's been gone a long, long
time; he'll not hurt you." Thus spoke my mother, as she kissed her
recovered darling and pressed him to her heart. But why should I tire
you, my dear Lothair? why do I dwell at such length on these details,
when there's so much remains to be said? Enough--I was detected in
my eavesdropping, and roughly handled by Coppelius. Fear and terror
had brought on a violent fever, of which I lay ill several weeks. "Is the
Sand-man still there?" these were the first words I uttered on coming to
myself again, the first sign of my recovery, of my safety. Thus, you see,
I have only to relate to you the most terrible moment of my youth for
you to thoroughly understand that it must not be ascribed to the
weakness of my eyesight if all that I see is colourless, but to the fact
that a mysterious destiny has hung a dark veil of clouds about my life,
which I shall perhaps only break through when I die.
Coppelius did not show himself again; it was reported he had left the
town.
It was about a year later when, in pursuance of the old unchanged
custom, we sat around the round table in the evening. Father was in
very good spirits, and was telling us amusing tales about his youthful

travels. As it was striking nine we all at once heard the street door creak
on its hinges, and slow ponderous steps echoed across the passage and
up the stairs. "That is Coppelius," said my mother, turning pale. "Yes, it
is Coppelius," replied my father in a faint broken voice. The tears
started from my mother's eyes. "But, father, father," she cried, "must it
be so?" "This is the last time," he replied; "this is the last time he will
come to me, I promise you. Go now, go and take the children. Go, go to
bed--good-night."
As for me, I felt as if I were converted into cold, heavy stone; I could
not get my breath. As I stood there immovable my mother seized me by
the arm. "Come, Nathanael! do come along!" I suffered myself to be
led away; I went into my room. "Be a good boy and keep quiet,"
mother called after me; "get into bed and go to sleep." But, tortured by
indescribable fear and uneasiness, I could not close my eyes. That
hateful, hideous Coppelius stood before me with his glittering eyes,
smiling maliciously down upon me; in vain did I strive to banish the
image. Somewhere about midnight there was a terrific crack, as if a
cannon were being fired off. The whole house shook; something went
rustling and clattering past my door; the house door was pulled to with
a bang. "That is Coppelius," I cried, terror-struck, and leapt out of bed.
Then I heard a wild heartrending scream; I rushed into my father's
room; the door stood open, and clouds of suffocating smoke came
rolling towards me. The servant-maid shouted, "Oh! my master! my
master! On the floor in front of