The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Xii Part 87

"There's the bridge still," says Johnnie. "But that's all right, We'll make it surely out of spite!

A solid boiler and double steam Should win in such a fight, 'twould seem, Let it rave and rage and run at its bent, We'll put it down: this element!

And our bridge is our pride. I must laugh always When I think back of the olden days, And all the trouble and misery That with the wretched boat would be; And many cheerful Christmas nights I spent at the ferryman's house--the lights From our windows I'd watch and count them o'er, And could not reach the other sh.o.r.e."

The bridgekeeper's house that stands in the north-- All windows to the south look forth, And the inmates there without peace or rest Are gazing southward with anxious zest: More furious grew the winds' wild games, And now, as if the sky poured flames, Comes shooting down a radiance bright O'er the water below.--Now again all is night.

"When shall we three meet again?"

"At midnight the top of the mountain attain!"

"By the alder-stem on the high moorland plain!"

"I'll come."

"And I too."

"And the number I'll tell."

"And I the names."

"I the torture right well."

"Whoo!

Like splinters the woodwork crashed in two."

"A bawble,--a naught, What the hand of man hath wrought!"

[Footnote 4: Translator: Margarete Munsterberg.]