Good Government
by
Translator: Charles Goepp
1.
On May morning a magnificent tree was found before the house of Michael the wagoner. It was a tall fir; the branches had been cut off, and only the crown was left. It towered far over all the houses, and, if the church were not on a hill, it would have looked down on the steeple. There was not another May-pole in all the village; and all the girls envied Eva, the wagoner’s oldest daughter, the distinction of having this one set for her.
The children came up the village, a green hut moving along in their midst. A conical roof of twisted withes, covered with leaves, was put on a boy’s head, and in this curious disguise he went from house to house, stopping at every door. Two boys walked beside him, carrying a basket filled with eggs and chaff, followed by a crowd with green boughs in their hands. They sang at every house,–
“Bim, bam, bum!
The May-man he has come;
Give us all the eggs you’ve got.
Or the marten will come to your cot;
Give us all the eggs we will,
Or we’ll strew our chaff on your sill.
Bim, bam, bum,” etc.
Where they received no eggs they fulfilled their threat, and cast a handful of chaff on the sill, with cheers and laughter. This happened but very rarely, however, though they left not a single house unvisited except the manor-house farmer’s. But the “May-man” failed on this occasion to attract the general interest, for all the world had flocked to Michael the wagoner’s house to see the May-pole. It could not have been brought there without the aid of at least six men and two horses. How it could have been done so “unbeknown” was the wonder of all, for setting May-poles was rigorously forbidden and punished with three months’ confinement in the Ludwigsburg penitentiary. The fear of this punishment had deterred all the boys from putting this monster nosegay before their sweethearts’ windows,–all but Wendel’s Mat, who went to see Eva. Who had helped him was not to be discovered: some supposed that they were boys from Dettensee, which is only a mile off and belongs to the dominions of his high mightiness the Duke of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
Many of the farmers, on their way to the field with their ploughs and harrows, stopped to look at the May-pole. Others, with hoes on their shoulders, did the same. Wendel’s Mat was there also, and he chuckled in his sleeve continually, tipping the wink to Eva, who sat gayly at the window with her eyes shut. Those closed eyes were very significant. At every arch repetition of the question, “Who could have set the May-pole!” she answered with a roguish shrug of the shoulders.
Just as the May-man and his followers had reached Michael the wagoner’s house and began their song, the beadle and the ranger made their appearance, and a solemn “Hush your noise, you—-!” from the former, stopped the proceedings. Amid the sudden silence the officer of the law walked up to Mat, took him by the arm, and said, “Come along to the squire.”
Mat shook off the broad hand of the functionary, and asked, “What for?”
“You’ll hear in good time. Come along, now, or you’ll be sorry for it.”
Mat looked about him as if he did not exactly know what to do, or as if he was waiting for assistance from some quarter. The May-cabin marched straight up to the beadle and struck his face. The boy probably took it for granted that, as May-man, his person was sacred and secure; but the beadle knew no sacred personage except himself, and pulled the boy’s hut to pieces at a blow. Christian, Mat’s younger brother, sprang out of it; and there was an end of the Maying.