She anticipated no good, but did not venture to ask what kind of business her husband had to transact with this usurer.
She was soon to be enlightened. One afternoon Paul saw how a strange vehicle came rumbling along on the road from the town, which looked in the distance like an immense black copper on wheels. Something that appeared to be a chimney stuck out beyond it, and when the wheels staggered on the uneven ground bent to the right and the left like a man politely bowing. He gazed at the wonder for a while, then ran to his mother, whom he eagerly pulled to the door by her dress.
She shaded her eyes with her hand and looked down the road. “That is a locomobile,” she said at last.
Paul knew as much as before. “What is a locomobile?” he asked.
“A steam-engine which can be moved anywhere, and which great land-owners use to turn their thrashing-machines; one can also harrow and plough with it, for such a thing has more strength than ten horses.”
“But why is it drawn by horses, then?” he asked.
“Because by itself it cannot move anywhere,” was the answer.
He did not understand that. “Anyhow,” he thought, “it must be a great happiness to possess such a thing with that strange name, and if we ever become rich--”
At this moment his father came rushing out of the house in great excitement; he had a slipper on one foot, a boot on the other, and his necktie had turned to the back of his neck.
“They are coming! they are coming!” he cried, clapping his hands; then he caught his wife round the waist and danced with her into the middle of the road.
She looked at him with great anxious eyes, as if she wanted to say, “What fresh nonsense have you contrived now?” But he would not let her go, and when the twins in their pink cotton frocks and dark little pigtails came running out of the garden, he made for them, took them in his arms, let them dance on his shoulders, and pretended to throw them over the ditch, so that the mother could only stop this nonsense by most ardent pleading.
“There, you little rogues,” he cried, “rejoice and dance. All poverty is ended now; next spring we shall measure our money by the bushel.” The mother looked at him askance, but said nothing.
The monster came nearer and nearer. Paul stood there motionless--all eyes. Then he looked up at his mother, whose face was care-worn, and a certain fear came over him as if now the devil had come into the house; but then he remembered how his wish of a moment ago was fulfilled, and he resolved to meet the black guest with full confidence.