" or, "Once upon a time," and they were consequently uncertain
whether it was a true story or one that he had made up. Wolfgang, who is
thirteen and my oldest boy, and who already calls his younger brothers,
"the young ones,"--and promises to be a true child of the times,
inclined to believe it the latter, but even he sat up straighter and
looked puzzled as the colonel continued:
"The two balls that I have in here, and the sabre cut on my
shoulder,--but you know how and where I received them--to be brief, I
sank from my horse onto the grass in the afternoon, and not until the
following morning was I found by the ambulance corps and carried to the
hospital. There they brought me to life again. In the interim--which
lasted for the half of a day and one whole night--I was certainly not
alive like one of you, or any other two-legged creature endowed with
five senses."
With these words his penetrating eyes glanced from Karl to Kurt; the
girls caught hold of one another's hands and one could plainly read
in their expressions that they considered it rash to be in such close
proximity to a person who had erstwhile been dead. It was fortunate for
them that the resuscitated colonel was so good, and that there was no
doubt about his actual existence, which was proved by his voice and the
smoke that he puffed into the air during every pause.
"Yes, children," he began anew, "a great wonder was worked on me, an old
man. This long body here lay on the bloody ground among groaning
men, dying horses, broken gun-carriages, ammunition wagons, exploded
bombshells, and discarded weapons; but my soul--I cannot have been
too hardened a sinner in this world--my soul was permitted to soar to
Heaven. One, two, three, as fast as you can say, 'That is an apple,'
or 'The fair Ina has a pretty doll in her lap,' and it had arrived. And
now--I can see it in your eyes--you would like to know how it seems
in Heaven, and God knows I cannot blame you, for it is beautiful,
marvellously beautiful, only unfortunately I am not allowed even to
attempt its description. That must ever remain a mystery to the living
because--but that is no matter, and evil would befall me if I were to
chatter."
At this point the colonel was interrupted by many expressions of
disappointment, but he was resolute, and continued in a peremptory tone:
"That will do. Description indeed is forbidden to me; but there are
certain of my experiences about which I may tell you. So
|