e., those which have for a long
time been handed, down in the same family, so that family customs have
been established and family respectability is cherished--the very
pleasant custom of causing absolutely no quarrel, no violent scene,
which could attract the neighbors' attention in any way. In proud calm
the house stands amid the green trees; with calm, grave demeanor its
indwellers move about and in it, and over the tree-tops sounds at most
the neighing of the horses, never the voices of men. There is little
noisy rebuke. Man and wife never rebuke each other in public; and
mistakes of the servants they often ignore, or make, as it were in
passing, a remark, let fall merely a word or a hint, which reaches only
the ear for which it is intended. When something unusual occurs or the
measure is full, they call the sinner into the sitting-room as
unostentatiously as possible, or seek him out while he is working alone,
and "read him the riot act," as the saying is; and for this the master
has usually prepared himself carefully. He performs this duty in perfect
calm, quite like a father, keeps nothing from the sinner, not even the
bitterest truth, but gives him a just hearing too, and puts before him
the consequences of his misdoings with respect to his future destiny.
[Illustration: JEREMIAS GOTTHELF]
And when the master is done he is content, and the affair is settled to
this extent, that neither the rebuked one nor his fellows can detect the
least thing in the conduct of the master--no bitterness, nor vehemence,
nor anything else.
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