When they drove away the mistress kept wiping her eyes for
a long time, and had to comfort the children, who, it seemed, could not
stop weeping and lamenting.
In silence the two men drove over the gleaming snow. "Steady!" the
master had to say occasionally, when the wild Blazer struck into a
gallop, pulling the light sleigh along like the wind and kicking the
snow high in the air. "It distresses me," said Uli, "and more and more,
the nearer we get; it's so hard for me! I can't believe that I'm not
running into misfortune; it seems as if it was right ahead of me."
"That's natural," said the master, "and I wouldn't take that as a bad
omen. Think: nearly ten years ago, when you were a ne'er-do-well and I
started you going right, how hard it was for you to do better, and how
little faith you had in the possibility that everything would turn out
right. But still it did, gradually. Your faith got stronger, and now
you're a lad that can be said to have won his battle. So don't be
distressed; what you've got before you now is all the easier for it, and
the worst thing that can happen is that you'll come back to me in a
year. Just keep yourself straight and watch out, for my cousin is
terribly suspicious; but once he's taken your measure, you can put up
with him. You'll have the worst time with the other servants; go easy
with them, little by little, and in kindness as long as you can; then if
that's no good, speak right up so that you'll know where you are--I
wouldn't like a year of that sort of thing myself.
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