Literary Recreations, Number I [pp. 628-640]

1840.] Lierar Recreation3. 631
looked into the fire to see what caused this unusual sound.
She could perceive only a blast of wind, or something like
it, issuing from the coals as if the old boy were underneath
with his bellows. While she looked, the whizzing increased
to a sharp and powerful hissing blast: the coals and ashes
began to fly: the sharp hiss soon sharpened into a shrill and
shriller whistle-such as the north-wind in his angriest
mood produces in the ragged eaves of an old house in a
windy mountain-gap; or such as the boatswain in a man-ofwar makes, to pierce the stunned ears of the seamen, during the thunders of the battle.
Ere it came to the wo rst, Moll y s tart e d back and gazed
i nto the fire as if her eyes were fascinated. She saw the
slender, steamy blast shoo ting like fury amidst flying coals
and clouds of ashes, an d reach ing qui te into the chimney
flue, wher e it dislodged the soot and brought a constant
st r eam o f it down into the pot.
" Was ists? Was ists?" cried Molly in G erman, with her
wide eyes directed to the object, bu t seeming t o appeal for
infor mation to Winkelman, who had turned round and wa s
look ing the s a me way.
" I t is somet hing in the fire," said Winkelman, with affected si mplicity;' I'll soon see what it is." So he took
the tongs and began cautiousl y to poke among the coals
from which the whistling blast proceeded. In a moment
the blast changed its direction, and now shot its hissing
stream, with a new cloud of coals and hot embers, directly
at Molly's broad front. Winkelman was the first to exclaim-, Der teufel! De r teufel!"
Molly thinking it was indeed the Evil One, took up the
cue and screamed out-" Der teufel! Der teufel!" pitch ing
a t the same time with all her might towards the door of the
stove-room.
Now it so happened, that Stophel, who as usual had been
dozing by the warm s tove, w as roused first by the hissing
blast, and then alarmed by the screams in the kitchen, just
ine imae to reach the door in the one direction, when Moll y,
coming full tilt in the opposite direction, encountered with
he r m assive bod y th e equ ally m assive body of Stophel; but
Molly comi ng with double the velocity of Stophel, it neces sarily cam e to p ass, a ccording t t the laws of dynamics, (the
branch of natural philosophy that treats of bodies striking
aga ins t one ano ther,) that Stophel's b ody s hould yield to the
impulse of Molly's, a nd be dr ive n back wards as fast as it
had before moved forwards. Stophel was lodged, with his
back on th e floor, ab out six feet f rom the place o f encounter,
and Molly, still retaining th e h al f of he r form er veloc ity,
tumbled on him and rolled over him. Nor was this the final
effect of their powerful collision; for the romping party of
juniors had been also alarmed by the noise in the kitchen,
and seeing their father moving that way they hurried after
him; and like nine-pins, struck by a well-aimed ball, they
were knocked over and scattered by the heavy fall of their
father and mother-Stophel junior, Molly junior, Adam
and Eve and another young patriarch or two were thus
overthrown. To make the catastrophe worse, Winkelman,
who seemed to be as much frightened as the rest, came dash ing on close behind Molly; and when Stophel fell, and
Molly fell on and over Stophel, Winkelman fell with all
his might upon them both; and in his attempts to scramble
up, from the confused heap on the floor, he caught hold of
whatever came to hand —Stophel's foot and Molly's hair —
~and thus made confusion worse confounded, and increased
the groans and screams of the frightened Seidenstric~kers.
The terror was no little aggravated by the total darkness in
which they were unaccountably enveloped, and the suffoca ting effect of the smoke and hot ashes which the fire-fiend
blew after them into the stove-room. To the ears of the
fallen, this angry demon seemed to be in the midst of them,
spitting hot embers into their open mouths, so sharp and
ear-piercing, had his whistle become. The united screams
of old and y oung however soon drowned even th is fiendish
sound, and all was uproari ous ter ror for s everal minutes.
When at last the mas s of t umbled a nd t umbling b odies
had somewhat disentangled itself in the dark, and some had
got upon their legs again. they w e re s omew ha t relieved
to find that the fire-devel had ceased to whistle and spit.
When the nois e in the stove-room ceased, the ki tchen appeared to be perfectly still. On looking into that lately terrible apartment, they saw nothing but a lurid glare, from the
half-extinguished fire, giving a dim perception of the cloud
of ashes and smoke whi ch stil l floate din its quiet atmosphere.
When Winkelman p ropose d t o ligh t the lamp, he and all
the Seidenstrickers were surprised, and some of them
dreadfilly frightened at their not being able to find it. They
groped in vain about the place wh ere it had hung as usual
by a string fast e n e d to the ceilg in g. Winke lman b ro ught a
candle from his own room, and, having light e d it in the
kitchen, h e e n abled the bruised a nd frighted family at last
to see their cond ition, a nd comfort themsel ves with the discovery that none had been killed or carried o ff by the spitfire demon. But still the lamp was missing, until old Stophel found it in his bosom, with the oil spilled and fir mly
lodged in his gar ments, which were so aked th rough and
th rough about the region of his stomach. Now the wonder
was how the lamp got into Stophel's bosom. Stophel and
Molly both thought that the fire-devil must have put it there;
and this would have been the s ettled opinion of the family,
and an established fact among the miraculous events of the
evening, if Katrina had not mentioned a circumstance
which gave a different turn to the affair. Stophel, w-hen
he started to go into the kitchen being but half awake, ran
agains t the lamp and exting u ished it. She saw n o mo re;
but as Stophel had his capacious bosom open for the convenience of scratching, it was natural enough that the lamp
should be caught and the string broken.
Things being at length set to rights, all except the burns
and bruises and frightened spirits of Stophel and his spouse,
Katrina was ordered to attend to the new pot of mush-the
former having been spoiled. She and Winkelman retained
quiet possession of the kitchen during the evening. No
other soul of the family would venture near them, lest the
fire-devil should blow again. As to Molly and her husband,
they had to keep their beds for the most part of two days.
Their foreheads had each a bruise upon it, caused by their
striking against each other, like rams' heads, in their head long impetuosity of motion; and Molly's naturally red skin
was now more fiery red and blistered from the contact of
hot steam and embers; while Stopel had a large blister iri
his bosom where the burning lamp had been lodged.
The next day, Winkelman and Katrina had the kitchen
to themselves, no one else venturing near that dangerous
fire until evening, when Stophel, who was in a very surly
humor, left his bed and came in growling like a bear about
the waste of fuel; for that Christmas Day was very cold,
and Winkelman kept tip a good fire. Katrina had been or dered to do the cookery that day, because the hired cook
and milk-maid had gone to visit her friends. Molly-also
crawled with cautious feet into the kitchen, eyeing the fire
suspiciously: her object was to order Katrina out to milk
the cows. Katrina performed all the drudgery of the house
:without a murmur and without assistance, although Molly
junior was large enough to have taken part. But Molly
was Molly's Molly.
After supper, Stophel again entered the kitchen, groaning
with pain and growling with ill-humor. He took the waterbucket and emptied it on the fire, saying that they should
not keep a spark in the kitchen, lest the evil spirit should
get into it again. All had now to sit in the stove-room, except Winkelman wsho made a fire in his own room upstairs.
He then came down and asked if Katrina might go to his
room and sit till bed-time?
1840.]
Litei-ary Recreations.
631
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