William Tell Told Again | Page 6

he would not
be persuaded. It was like this: We went to the house and knocked at the
door. Tell opened it. 'Good-morning,' I said.
"'Good-morning,' said he. 'Take a seat.'
"I took a seat.
"'My heart is full,' I said, 'and longs to speak with you.' I thought that a
neat way of putting it."
The company murmured approval.
"'A heavy heart,' said Tell, 'will not grow light with words.'"
"Not bad that!" murmured Jost Weiler. "Clever way of putting things,
Tell has got."
"'Yet words,' I said, 'might lead us on to deeds.'"
"Neat," said Jost Weiler--"very neat. Yes?"
"To which Tell's extraordinary reply was: 'The only thing to do is to sit
still.'

"'What!' I said; 'bear in silence things unbearable?'
"'Yes,' said Tell; 'to peaceable men peace is gladly granted. When the
Governor finds that his oppression does not make us revolt, he will
grow tired of oppressing.'"
"And what did you say to that?" asked Ulric the smith.
"I said he did not know the Governor if he thought he could ever grow
tired of oppressing. 'We might do much,' I said, 'if we held fast together.
Union is strength,' I said.
"'The strong,' said Tell, 'is strongest when he stands alone.'
"'Then our country must not count on thee,' I said, 'when in despair she
stands on self-defence?'
"'Oh, well,' he said, 'hardly that, perhaps. I don't want to desert you.
What I mean to say is, I'm no use as a plotter or a counsellor and that
sort of thing. Where I come out strong is in deeds. So don't invite me to
your meetings and make me speak, and that sort of thing; but if you
want a man to do anything--why, that's where I shall come in, you see.
Just write if you want me--a postcard will do--and you will not find
William Tell hanging back. No, sir.' And with those words he showed
us out."
"Well," said Jost Weiler, "I call that encouraging. All we have to do
now is to plot. Let us plot."
"Yes, let's!" shouted everybody.
Ulric the smith rapped for silence on the table.
"Gentlemen," he said, "our friend Mr. Klaus von der Flue will now read
a paper on 'Governors--their drawbacks, and how to get rid of them.'
Silence, gentlemen, please. Now, then, Klaus, old fellow, speak up and
get it over."
And the citizens settled down without further delay to a little serious

plotting.


CHAPTER V
A few days after this, Hedwig gave Tell a good talking to on the
subject of his love for adventure. He was sitting at the door of his house
mending an axe. Hedwig, as usual, was washing up. Walter and
William were playing with a little cross-bow not far off.
"Father," said Walter.
"Yes, my boy?"
"My bow-string has bust." ("Bust" was what all Swiss boys said when
they meant "broken.")
"You must mend it yourself, my boy," said Tell. "A sportsman always
helps himself."
"What I say," said Hedwig, bustling out of the house, "is that a boy of
his age has no business to be shooting. I don't like it."
"Nobody can shoot well if he does not begin to practise early. Why,
when I was a boy--I remember on one occasion, when--"
"What I say," interrupted Hedwig, "is that a boy ought not to want
always to be shooting, and what not. He ought to stay at home and help
his mother. And I wish you would set them a better example."
"Well, the fact is, you know," said Tell, "I don't think Nature meant me
to be a stay-at-home and that sort of thing. I couldn't be a herdsman if
you paid me. I shouldn't know what to do. No; everyone has his special
line, and mine is hunting. Now, I can hunt."
"A nasty, dangerous occupation," said Hedwig. "I don't like to hear of

your being lost on desolate ice-fields, and leaping from crag to crag,
and what not. Some day, mark my words, if you are not careful, you
will fall down a precipice, or be overtaken by an avalanche, or the ice
will break while you are crossing it. There are a thousand ways in
which you might get hurt."
"A man of ready wit with a quick eye," replied Tell complacently,
"never gets hurt. The mountain has no terror for her children. I am a
child of the mountain."
"You are certainly a child!" snapped Hedwig. "It is no use my arguing
with you."
"Not very much," agreed Tell, "for I am just off to the town. I have an
appointment with your papa and some other gentlemen."
(I forgot to say so before, but Hedwig was the daughter of Walter
Fürst.)
"Now, what are you and papa plotting?" asked Hedwig.