Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/130

130THE HALLIG.

thoughts and feelings were entirely absorbed in this
new occupation. The hallig afforded no medical aid
and to seek it elsewhere was not within the means of
the poor widow, had there been a wish to do so, and if
rest, care, and domestic remedies had not been thought
sufficient in cases of sickness. Hold frequently visited
the patient, and when she sometimes alluded to the
faithlessness of Godber, Maria would quickly interrupt
lier, saying, "Never mind that, mother, I can take care
of you all the better for not having him to think
about." When, however, she talked with the pastor
alone, a tone of sorrow would sometimes break forth,
but as if he had only one message of peace to bring
down from the mouth of the great Carer for souls, he
always returned to the plain requirement of pious sub-
mission.
  He could not help smiling when Maria, on one of
these visits, gave him a couple of novels much read at
that time, with a request that he would return them to
young Mander. He now learned that Oswald, perhaps,
merely to gratify a desire for a little variety in the uni-
formity of the life to which he was condemned, had
sought the acquaintance of Maria, bringing one day a
bottle of wine for the mother, and the next, the novels
for the daughter.
  But she thought she should understand as little of
the books as she had been able to comprehend of his
conversation. Indeed, she did not like the latter be-
cause it sounded very much like what Godber had writ-
ten in some of his letters, and which was probably the
cause of his having forsaken her ; and unacquainted
with the flower whose very name should bind fast the