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BERTHOLD AUERBACH

On the Height

Berthold Auerbach, a German poet and author of Jewish
descent, was born at Nordstetten, in Wuertemberg, on February
28, 1812. On the completion of his studies at the universities
of Tuebingen, Munich and Heidelberg he immediately devoted
himself to literature. His first publication dealt with
"Judaism and Recent Literature," and was to be followed by a
series of novels taken from Jewish history. Of this intended
series he actually published, with considerable success,
"Spinoza" and "Poet and Merchant." But real fame and
popularity came to him when he began to occupy himself with
the life of the general people which forms the subject of his
best-known works. In these later books, of which "On the
Height" is perhaps the most characteristic and certainly the
most famous, he revealed an unrivalled insight into the soul
of the Southern German country folk, and especially of the
peasants of the Black Forest and the Bavarian Alps. His
descriptions are remarkable for their fresh realism, graceful
style and humour. In addition to these qualities, his last
books are marked by great subtlety of psychological analysis.
"On the Height" was first published at Stuttgart in 1861, and
has been translated into several languages. Auerbach died at
Cannes on February 8, 1882, when all Germany was preparing to
celebrate his 70th birthday.

_I.--A Peasant Nurse in a Royal Palace_

Walpurga was as in a dream. It had all happened so quickly! Only a
fortnight ago, on the walk home from Sunday Mass at the village church,
her Hansei had to make a hay bed for her on a stone-heap by the
roadside. She had thought she could not get back to the cottage in time,
but she recovered after a while and bravely walked home. Her mother was
with her in the hour of suffering, as she had been with her through all
the joys and sorrows of her simple life. Then came the supreme joy of
the awakening, with a new life by her side, a baby-girl groping
helplessly for the mother's breast. Then--was it only yesterday?--when
she was waiting for the return of the christening party, a carriage
drove up with the village doctor and an elegant stranger. There was much
beating about the bush, and then it came out like a thunderbolt. The
stranger was a great doctor from the capital, entrusted with the mis