THE BELL故事

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　　THE BELL故事
　　    IN the narrow streets of a large town people often heard
　　    in the evening, when the sun was setting, and his last rays
　　    gave a golden tint to the chimney-pots, a strange noise which
　　    resembled the sound of a church bell; it only lasted an
　　    instant, for it was lost in the continual roar of traffic and
　　    hum of voices which rose from the town. "The evening bell is
　　    ringing," people used to say; "the sun is setting!" Those who
　　    walked outside the town, where the houses were less crowded
　　    and interspersed by gardens and little fields, saw the evening
　　    sky much better, and heard the sound of the bell much more
　　    clearly. It seemed as though the sound came from a church,
　　    deep in the calm, fragrant wood, and thither people looked
　　    with devout feelings.
　　    A considerable time elapsed: one said to the other, "I
　　    really wonder if there is a church out in the wood. The bell
　　    has indeed a strange sweet sound! Shall we go there and see
　　    what the cause of it is?" The rich drove, the poor walked, but
　　    the way seemed to them extraordinarily long, and when they
　　    arrived at a number of willow trees on the border of the wood
　　    they sat down, looked up into the great branches and thought
　　    they were now really in the wood. A confectioner from the town
　　    also came out and put up a stall there; then came another
　　    confectioner who hung a bell over his stall, which was covered
　　    with pitch to protect it from the rain, but the clapper was
　　    wanting.
　　    When people came home they used to say that it had been
　　    very romantic, and that really means something else than
　　    merely taking tea. Three persons declared that they had gone
　　    as far as the end of the wood; they had always heard the
　　    strange sound, but there it seemed to them as if it came from
　　    the town. One of them wrote verses about the bell, and said
　　    that it was like the voice of a mother speaking to an
　　    intelligent and beloved child; no tune, he said, was sweeter
　　    than the sound of the bell.
　　    The emperor of the country heard of it, and declared that
            
            

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　　    he who would really find out where the sound came from should
　　    receive the title of "Bellringer to the World," even if there
　　    was no bell at all.
　　    Now many went out into the wood for the sake of this
　　    splendid berth; but only one of them came back with some sort
　　    of explanation. None of them had gone far enough, nor had he,
　　    and yet he said that the sound of the bell came from a large
　　    owl in a hollow tree. It was a wisdom owl, which continually
　　    knocked its head against the tree, but he was unable to say
　　    with certainty whether its head or the hollow trunk of the
　　    tree was the cause of the noise.
　　    He was appointed "Bellringer to the World," and wrote
　　    every year a short dissertation on the owl, but by this means
　　    people did not become any wiser than they had been before.
　　    It was just confirmation-day. The clergyman had delivered
　　    a beautiful and touching sermon, the candidates were deeply
　　    moved by it; it was indeed a very important day for them; they
　　    were all at once transformed from mere children to grown-up
　　    people; the childish soul was to fly over, as it were, into a
　　    more reasonable being.
　　    The sun shone most brightly; and the sound of the great
　　    unknown bell was heard more distinctly than ever. They had a
　　    mind to go thither, all except three. One of them wished to go
　　    home and try on her ball dress, for this very dress and the
　　    ball were the cause of her being confirmed this time,
　　    otherwise she would not have been allowed to go. The second, a
　　    poor boy, had borrowed a coat and a pair of boots from the son
　　    of his landlord to be confirmed in, and he had to return them
　　    at a certain time. The third said that he n
　　ever went into
　　    strange places if his parents were not with him; he had always
　　    been a good child, and wished to remain so, even after being
　　    confirmed, and they ought not to tease him for this; they,
　　    however, did it all the same. These three, therefore did not
　　    go; the others went on. The sun was shining, the birds were
　　    singing, and the confirmed children sang too, holding each
            
            

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　　    other by the hand, for they had no position yet, and they were
　　    all equal in the eyes of God. Two of the smallest soon became
　　    tired and returned to the town; two little girls sat down and
　　    made garlands of flowers, they, therefore, did not go on. When
　　    the others arrived at the willow trees, where the confectioner
　　    had put up his stall, they said: "Now we are out here; the
　　    bell does not in reality exist- it is only something that
　　    people imagine!"
　　    Then suddenly the sound of the bell was heard so
　　    beautifully and solemnly from the wood that four or five made
　　    up their minds to go still further on. The wood was very
　　    thickly grown. It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and
　　    anemones grew almost too high; flowering convolvuli and
　　    brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to tree; while
　　    the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played. That
　　    was very beautiful! But the way was unfit for the girls; they
　　    would have torn their dresses. Large rocks, covered with moss
　　    of various hues, were lying about; the fresh spring water
　　    rippled forth with a peculiar sound. "I don't think that can
　　    be the bell," said one of the confirmed children, and then he
　　    lay down and listened. "We must try to find out if it is!" And
　　    there he remained, and let the others walk on.
　　    They came to a hut built of the bark of trees and
　　    branches; a large crab-apple tree spread its branches over it,
　　    as if it intended to pour all its fruit on the roof, upon
　　    which roses were blooming; the long boughs covered the gable,
　　    where a little bell was hanging. Was this the one they had
　　    heard? All agreed that it must be so, except one who said that
　　    the bell was too small and too thin to be heard at such a
　　    distance, and that it had quite a different sound to that
　　    which had so touched men's hearts.
　　    He who spoke was a king's son, and therefore the others
　　    said that such a one always wishes to be cleverer than other
　　    people.
　　    Therefore they let him go alone; and as he walked on, the
            
            

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　　    solitude of the wood produced a feeling of reverence in his
　　    breast; but still he heard the little bell about which the
　　    others rejoiced, and sometimes, when the wind blew in that
　　    direction, he could hear the sounds from the confectioner's
　　    stall, where the others were singing at tea. But the deep
　　    sounds of the bell were much stronger; soon it seemed to him
　　    as if an organ played an accompaniment- the sound came from
　　    the left, from the side where the heart is. Now something
　　    rustled among the bushes, and a little boy stood before the
　　    king's son, in wooden shoes and such a short jacket that the
　　    sleeves did not reach to his wrists. They knew each other: the
　　    boy was the one who had not been able to go with them because
　　    he had to take the coat and boots back to his landlord's son.
　　    That he had done, and had started again in his wooden shoes
　　    and old clothes, for the sound of the bell was too enticing-
　　    he felt he must go on.
　　    "We might go together," said the king's son. But the poor
　　    boy with the wooden shoes was quite ashamed; he pulled at the
　　    short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he
　　    could not walk so fast; besides, he was of opinion that the
　　    bell ought to be sought at the right, for there was all that
　　    was grand and magnificent.
　　    "Then we shall not meet," said the king's son, nodding to
　　    the poor boy, who went into the deepest part of the wood,
　　    where the thorns tore his shabby clothes and scratched his
　　    hands, face, and feet until they bled. The king's son also
　　    received several good scratches, but the sun was shining on
　　    his way, and it is he whom we will now follow, for he was a
　　    quick fellow. "I will and must find the bell," he said, "if I
　　    have to go to the end of the world."
　　    Ugly monkeys sat high in the branches and clenched their
　　    teeth. "Shall we beat him?" they said. "Shall we thrash him?
　　    He is a king's son!"
　　    But he walked on undaunted, deeper and deeper into the
　　    wood, where the most wonderful flowers were growing; there
            
            

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　　    were standing white star lilies with blood-red stamens,
　　    sky-blue tulips shining when the wind moved them; apple-trees
　　    covered with apples like large glittering soap bubbles: only
　　    think how resplendent these trees were in the sunshine! All
　　    around were beautiful green meadows, where hart and hind
　　    played in the grass. There grew magnificent oaks and
　　    beech-trees; and if the bark was split of any of them, long
　　    blades of grass grew out of the clefts; there were also large
　　    smooth lakes in the wood, on which the swans were swimming
　　    about and flapping their wings. The king's son often stood
　　    still and listened; sometimes he thought that the sound of the
　　    bell rose up to him out of one of these deep lakes, but soon
　　    he found that this was a mistake, and that the bell was
　　    ringing still farther in the wood. Then the sun set, the
　　    clouds were as red as fire; it became quiet in the wood; he
　　    sank down on his knees, sang an evening hymn and said: "I
　　    shall never find what I am looking for! Now the sun is
　　    setting, and the night, the dark night, is approaching. Yet I
　　    may perhaps see the round sun once more before he disappears
　　    beneath the horizon. I will climb up these rocks, they are as
　　    high as the highest trees!" And then, taking hold of the
　　    creepers and roots, he climbed up on the wet stones, where
　　    water-snakes were wriggling and the toads, as it were, barked
　　    at him: he reached the top before the sun, seen from such a
　　    height, had quite set. "Oh, what a splendour!" The sea, the
　　    great majestic sea, which was rolling its long waves against
　　    the shore, stretched out before him, and the sun was standing
　　    like a large bright altar and there where sea and heaven met-
　　    all melted together in the most glowing colours; the wood was
　　    singing, and his heart too. The whole of nature was one large
　　    holy church, in which the trees and hovering clouds formed the
　　    pillars, the flowers and grass the woven velvet carpet, and
　　    heaven itself was the great cupola; up there the flame colour
　　    vanished as soon as the sun disappeared, but millions of stars
            
            

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　　    were lighted; diamond lamps were shining, and the king's son
　　    stretched his arms out towards heaven, towards the sea, and
　　    towards the wood. Then suddenly the poor boy with the
　　    short-sleeved jacket and the wooden shoes appeared; he had
　　    arrived just as quickly on the road he had chosen. And they
　　    ran towards each other and took one another's hand, in the
　　    great cathedral of nature and poesy, and above them sounded
　　    the invisible holy bell; happy spirits surrounded them,
　　    singing hallelujahs and rejoicing.
　　    THE END