“Everything in the right place,” he said, imitating the noble baron, and
pulling the little maid up to the dry ground. He wished to put the branch
back in the place it had been broken off, but it is not possible to put
everything in the right place; therefore he stuck the branch into the soft
ground.
“Grow and thrive if you can, and produce a good flute for them yonder at
the mansion,” he said; it would have given him great pleasure to see the
noble baron and his companions well thrashed. Then he entered the castle-
but not the banqueting hall; he was too humble for that. No; he went to the
servants’ hall. The men-servants and maids looked over his stock of articles
and bargained with him; loud crying and screaming were heard from the
master’s table above: they called it singing-indeed, they did their best.
Laughter and the howls of dogs were heard through the open windows:
there they were feasting and revelling; wine and strong old ale were
foaming in the glasses and jugs; the favourite dogs ate with their masters;
now and then the squires kissed one of these animals, after having wiped its
mouth first with the tablecloth. They ordered the pedlar to come up, but
only to make fun of him. The wine had got into their heads, and reason had
left them. They poured beer into a stocking that he could drink with them,
but quick. That’s what they called fun, and it made them laugh. Then
meadows, peasants, and farmyards were staked on one card and lost.
“Everything in the right place!” the pedlar said when he had at last safely
got out of Sodom and Gomorrah, as he called it. “The open high road is my
right place; up there I did not feel at ease.”
The little maid, who was still watching the geese, nodded kindly to him
as he passed through the gate.
Days and weeks passed, and it was seen that the broken willow-branch
which the peddlar had stuck into the ground near the ditch remained fresh
and green-nay, it even put forth fresh twigs; the little goose-girl saw that the
branch had taken root, and was very pleased; the tree, so she said, was now
her tree. While the tree was advancing, everything else at the castle was
going backward, through feasting and gambling, for these are two rollers
