Tales of Laughter — The Seven Boys and the Monster
_The Seven Boys and the Monster_ It was Saturday afternoon, and Caspar, Michael, Fritz, and little Bessy were playing before their house, when presently little Hans came running toward them, and breathlessly cried: “What have I seen?
what have I seen?
” “What have you seen, then?
” exclaimed all the children with one voice, collecting around him.
“A monster!
a frightful monster!
” answered Hans, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“You are afraid of your own shadow, fearful Hans,” said Caspar mockingly; “perhaps your neighbor’s black cat has turned her fiery eyes on you again.
” “I am not afraid of my shadow,” answered Hans angrily; “had you only been there, your ridicule would soon have vanished.
A cat is not a bit like a grasshopper—a fearful great grasshopper, on which one could ride!
” At this the children wondered very much; and when Hans related that he had seen the monster in the shepherd’s hut in the field—that it had horns, and such a voice that the whole hut trembled—they almost believed him; and little Fritz thought: “Who knows if it is not one of the rhinoceroses of which Herr Gulmann told us yesterday?
” “Has the monster done you any harm?
” asked little Bessy.
“No,” answered Hans; “when I screamed, it shrank back into its house.
” “But I must go and see it,” said Caspar; “and, if you will all follow, I will go now.
” The children determined to go, but little Hans said: “I will not go unarmed!
” So Caspar mounted his horse-stick, put on his helmet, and buckled his saber to his side; Michael took his gun, Fritz the drum, and little Hans his lance.
“You must remain at home, little Bessy,” said Hans; “I won’t bear the blame if the monster hurts you.
” “But I want to go with you,” answered little Bessy, almost crying; “and, if you will not take me, I will tell my mother.
” “Let her go, then,” said Fritz; “but remember, Bessy, you must always keep ten yards behind.
” Thus, having armed themselves, they took courage, and Caspar thought: “Oh, if we could only catch the monster, dead or alive!
Ah!
here come Peter, and Frank, and George—they can also go with us, but they must take the great bean-pole out of the garden, that we may be able to attack the monster at a distance.
” Now the little army set itself in motion.
Caspar on “Roho” (for so his horse was named) came first, as commander; then came Hans with the spear, Fritz with the drum, Michael with the gun, and lastly, Peter, Frank, and George, with the pole.
Little Bessy came ten yards behind them.
All were full of courage, and they sang: The general on his horse comes first, And next the spear and drum;
The soldier, with his gun; and three Armed with a bean-pole come.
But Bessy marches after all, That unto her no harm may fall.
When they came to the little wood through which one must go in order to get to the great meadow where the shepherd’s cot stands, Hans cried out all at once, his flag nearly falling from his hand: “Did you not hear a noise?
” “Yes!
” cried all, trembling; but Fritz had still courage enough to say: “Bessy must remain behind.
” Then they whispered to one another, “The monster, perhaps, has hidden here”; but they dared not run away, for fear the monster should fall on them from behind, and they resolved to lie on the ground and listen.
So they laid down all apart, and presently they whispered: “Hans trembles very much.
” After a long time Fritz asked: “Have you heard nothing, Caspar?
” “No,” said he, and the others also said “no”; and Frank thought, perhaps, it was only the wind.
At this they took courage, and, in order to show they were not afraid, they sang: O wind, in the wood whistle all the day long, We’ll whistle as boldly, we’ll whistle as strong, and they began to whistle, with all their strength, against the wind.
When they had come out of the wood they saw the shepherd’s hut standing quite alone; in the distance the sheep were peacefully feeding, and their little bells sounded merrily along the meadows.
Only an old ram saw the young band of heroes, and it ventured nearer in order to look wonderingly.
But Caspar rode against it, brandishing his sword, which made the ram bleat and gallop away.
“Now is the time!
” said Caspar; “we will first walk three times round the hut, but no one must make any noise!
” “Bessy still stops behind!
” cried Fritz, out of the strength of his love.
“Once more I say,” exclaimed Caspar loudly and forcibly, “no one must make a noise.
We will now walk around, and when we are about to attack, Fritz shall give the signal with his drum.
” So they began to walk round the hut, but they marched round much oftener than three times, and each time they stopped at the same place.
“We cannot go round any more,” said Caspar, “we must attack the monster from some place.
Do you hide first, behind the oak-tree, one behind another, that the monster may not see you; I will step on to the wheel there, and look in at the window, but—mind you are all ready at the first call.
” As they hid themselves behind the oak, he walked slowly with drawn sword to the hut, and little Hans whispered behind the tree: “If there should be a wolf in the hut!
Do you remember the story of ‘Little Red Riding-hood’?
” This made them very much afraid, and they held the faster to one another.
Only Frank dared look out to see how their captain got on.
He had arrived at the hut, and, having fastened his horse to a stake, he mounted the wheel in order to look through the window.
But—what a monster!
—a great bearded beast with horns sprang with a loud cry at him;
and Caspar, pale as death from terror, fell back, and could scarcely cry: “Help!
help!
—the monster!
” As he called out, Franz said, “It has a beard and horns, and such a voice!
” and Hans, who stood next to the oak, fell back on the rest, and one after the other fell to the ground.
Fritz picked himself up first, and called to Caspar from afar: “Has he eaten you up yet, dear Caspar?
” “Who?
” cried Caspar, springing up, “who?
” And out of the hut sounded again the cry; it shook the door, and all fell back again.
A goat came running up, with playful jumps, to our heroes.
“Herr Gulmann’s sick goat!
” cried out all, “which, since the day before yesterday, we have not seen in the schoolyard.
” “Did I not say so?
” cried Caspar.
“But, ah, fearful Hans!
where is the monster?
” “That must still be within,” protested Hans.
“You also have seen it.
” “We will look again,” cried the enraged Caspar, in anger; “but, as the monster has not eaten the goat, it is no cannibal.
Just come here, and stand around while Hans and I go in; and do you hold the bar of the door, that the monster may not come out.
” All were, in spite of their former terror, become courageous; still, Hans would willingly have gone back if he had not disliked to be called “fearful Hans.
” He placed himself, therefore, at the door, behind Caspar, holding his banner before his eyes, and pressing it close to him.
But Caspar did not remark that Hans had placed himself behind him;
and Hans, on the other hand, did not see Caspar turn himself angrily and quickly round, the hut being very dark; and it so happened that he overturned Hans and fell over him.
“The monster!
the monster!
” cried Hans; and Caspar exclaimed, too, “The monster!
the monster!
” for each thought that it had overthrown him.
With the quickness of lightning they sprang up again, in order to escape through the door, but those outside only held the bar faster from terror; and Hans and Caspar kicked with such violence against the wood that the others cried, “The monster!
the monster!
” But this time it was not a goat, but the specter, which every one sometimes sees and feels.
This our hero, Caspar, very soon found out;
and springing up, he stamped thrice on the ground with his foot, and seizing poor Hans by the collar, he shook him angrily, and cried out in a voice nearly choked with rage: “You are a coward!
you are a coward!
” “Dear Caspar, let me go; I will not do it again!
” “Hans, you are a coward!
” replied Caspar, for the third time shaking him.
But as little Hans said, “I will certainly show you a monster!
” and as the others begged for his life, he let him loose, stamped again on the ground, and exclaimed: “Oh, I would have commanded a band of heroes; I would have caught the monster, and led it in triumph home, but now it is gone, and you are the cause!
” But meanwhile the goat, which at first had so frightened them, approached again, and performed various playful capers to induce them to play with it.
This increased Caspar’s rage, who would have seized the animal and beaten it; but it ran back, and then lowering its horns rushed against Caspar, not very softly.
This excited him the more; he made a bold spring, seized the brute by the hair, and mounted it, in order the better to hold it; but, lo!
the goat ran wildly away with him, with mad jumps through the wood, past shrieking Bessy, away into the village, where the people pointed their fingers at him mockingly.
Where did the goat stop?
—for Caspar, while he lives, will not forget this!
It easily found the way to the schoolhouse where it once joyfully fed, and flying to the yard, where the affrighted dog tried to seize it, it rushed into the school at the principal entrance, and stood suddenly in the schoolroom, where Herr Gulmann was correcting the exercises of his scholars.
He heard the tremendous noise and outcry, and putting on his spectacles he discovered all!
What further happened I will omit, out of pity for Caspar, who may read this history some time.
Only this must I mention: that Herr Gulmann made him read and explain on Monday morning, for a religious exercise, the history of David and Goliath, and soon after he unwillingly related the story of the Seven Suabians, who allowed themselves to be conquered by a hare, and at that seven little boys blushed very deeply.
I believe, however, that seven times seven-and-seventy little boys would blush at this story I have just told if it had happened to them!
