An Old Heart Goes A-Journeying

BOOK: An Old Heart Goes A-Journeying
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An Old Heart
Goes A-Journeying
 

Hans Fallada

 

 

 

Manufactured in the United States of America

Farmer Tamm gives good measure
.

[Page 18]

Contents
 

 

I.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS IS VISITED BY AN ANGEL, AND SENT TO UNSADEL

 

II.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS SEES A FAT FARMER HANGING FROM A TREE, AND A GIRL CRYING UNDER A HEDGE

 

III.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS PAYS A CALL THAT ENDS IN A COALSHED

 

IV.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS ESCAPES FROM ONE DARKNESS BUT FALLS INTO A BLACKER ONE

 

V.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS RECEIVES A SECOND SUMMONS FROM THE ANGEL

 

VI.

 

IN WHICH EVERYTHING GOES WRONG, AND PROFESSOR KITTGUSS FLEES IN SECRET

 

VII.

 

IN WHICH ROSEMARIE SETS UP A COMPLETELY ILLEGAL HOUSEHOLD

 

VIII.

 

IN WHICH A COUNCIL IS HELD BY NIGHT, AND A STATE OF SIEGE DECLARED AGAINST THE SCHLIEKERS

 

IX.

 

IN WHICH THE ACCUSED BECOMES THE ACCUSER, AND PAUL SCHLIEKER MAKES A CATCH

 

X.

 

IN WHICH ROSEMARIE COMES INTO POSSESSION OF A LARGE SUM OF MONEY, AND OTSCHE RUNS FOR HIS LIFE

 

XI.

 

IN WHICH GAU SHOWS HIMSELF A STERN FATHER, AND SCHLIEKER AS SOMETHING WORSE THAN A CROOK

 

XII.

 

WHICH CONTAINS AN ACCOUNT OF THE YOUTH, THE RISE, AND THE VICISSITUDES OF THE SCHLIEKERS

 

XIII.

 

IN WHICH DR. GEORGE KIMMKNIRSCH ACQUIRES SOME PATIENTS AND BECOMES INVOLVED IN A CONSPIRACY

 

XIV.

 

IN WHICH MANY PEOPLE GO IN SEARCH OF MANY THINGS AND THE WRONG PEOPLE FIND THE WRONG THINGS

 

XV.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS SETS OUT IN SEARCH OF HIS GODCHILD AND WHAT HE ENCOUNTERED ON THE WAY

 

XVI.

 

IN WHICH ROSEMARIE DOES NOT CHOOSE TO OBEY MAGISTRATE SCHULZ, BUT DR. KIMMKNIRSCH DOES HIS BEST

 

XVII.

 

IN WHICH A RUNAWAY CHILD GOES HOME, BUT DOES NOT STAY THERE

 

XVIII.

 

IN WHICH BOTH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS AND ROSEMARIE EACH ON HIS OWN ACCOUNT RUNS AWAY

 

XIX.

 

IN WHICH THE PROFESSOR TRAVELS WITH EMPTY POCKETS TO BERLIN TO SEE ABOUT SOME MONEY

 

XX.

 

IN WHICH ROSEMARIE LOSES ALL HER FRIENDS

 

XXI.

 

IN WHICH EVERYTHING GOES WRONG AND DR. KIMMKNIRSCH TAKES TO DRINK

 

XXII.

 

IN WHICH PROFESSOR KITTGUSS MAKES FRAU MÜLLER ANXIOUS AND THE HORIZON REDDENS

 

XXIII.

 

IN WHICH ROSEMARIE THÜRKE FIGHTS HER BATTLE ALONE

 

XXIV.

 

IN WHICH THERE IS EATING, DRINKING, AND DANCING; BUT TWO PERSONS STAND ASIDE

 

Chapter One
 

In which Professor Kittguss is visited by an angel, and sent to Unsadel

 

O
NCE UPON A TIME
there was an old Professor, named Gotthold Kittguss, who had neither wife nor child. Until he was fifty years old he had been a master in a large school in Berlin, where he taught the Christian Evangelical religion. He also instructed the junior classes in Latin and Greek; and with such of the seniors as intended to take orders later on he read the New Testament in the original Greek, and taught them the rudiments of Hebrew.

His twenty-five years of teaching had left him with an abiding love for the younger generation; but he was not content to teach the mere text of Holy Writ, he did his best to inculcate the spirit of the sacred writings. He had often expounded the New Testament, including the Revelation of St. John the Divine to his boys, but never ventured on any interpretation of that book, though it interested him more than all the others.

A day, however, came, as he records in his diary, when
“God caused a light to shine upon me, and the gates to the temple of Revelation were thrown open. No limit in time had indeed been prescribed for the glory of the fulfilled Kingdom of God, but perhaps a limit had been set to the tribulation that was to precede and lead the way to it. I set this presumption clearly and firmly before my mind and grew so absorbed in it that I was no longer able to pursue my teaching work. . . .”

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