The Fool and the Idiot.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13974, 7 August 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Fool and the Idiot.

(By Maarten Maartens.)

The fool and the idiot sat side by side.

They sat in front of the cottages they lived in, each on his rush chair, hard up against the dull brick wall, on the long narrow dyke, looking out to the grey North Sea. They sat there daily, when it was dry, through nine months of their monotonous year. The rest of the time they would sit indoors, each by his stove, with' only the thin partition-wall between, and pine for each other. Nobody knew the fool's name except his wife, if she hadn't forgotten it. Nobody could have told you the idiot's except his mother, who would have thought yoii were mocking her. But the fool had been christened Peter, and the idiot John. They wert unacquainted with the meaning of tlie word "christen," and a Christian had never come tlieir way. The fool Was an old man, the idiot a boy. The fool's wife declared lie had grown silly in: his age, but those who had known him in liis youth said she only took that view to explain why she married him. But lie had been goodlooking and vigorous in his day, with mild blue eyes that held'little but goodnature. Many a brisk young woman with a sharp tongue wouldn't mind such a master and lord. •. ■• Lord and master in liis own house was the idiot, whose widowed mother slaved for him all the livelong day. She set the idiot in his chair, witli liis pannikin of dinner, and went out charing. Slie would do 'anything for him except allow him to have the fool in the house, because the fool was a fool. The fool's wife, who had a pension of a ppuiid a week, left by a; dead, mistress, would do anything for lie'r.Husband, except allow- him to admit the idiot, for tlie idiot was an idiot, not fit. to enter a house such as hers. __ • ' '

So tho fool and the idiot sat side by side. in the sunshine, if they could, or in the want of it, if they couldn't, and kept each other coinpany through long hours ot silence, with occasional question and answer, in intervals of half ah hour s clouded thought: -Nor aid the answer always fit • the question after sucil long lapses of time. :■ '"A ship!" the fool'wotlid say suddenly, gazing/aw, r ay to the dull horizon. ■■■ ■ . : ;. I >. '

Twenty minutes later; perhaps, the idiot, wJio possessed no sight worth speaking of, would say, " Where?' j ■'. The tool would not - answer. : .It, may be doubted whether the- idiot always cared for a reply.; r Tliere was a; great difference between the two, as the villagers were Ware, who had re-baptised tiiem. The ■village philosopher —old Paul Kubbles. who understood everybody-—woulu have told you 1 that the vfool thought nonsense, .while the idiot: did ; not think at all. The village was proud,'in its own way, of the'pair. , The village-oi had a minister, and the 'minister, as 'in ■■■■duty bound, extended his care to the most ■ backward as wclli as to the niOf>t advanced ot' iiiy flocn.- Tiu: most aavanced, ■according to -tlie• ".curious.,-developments of Dutch theology, were 'those, who had lost all hope <.i their own . (salvation; the most backward , were ■ those who took no -interest-: in.: salvation at aIL And- here the distinction between the fool and the idiot became manifest, for the toi l ;ilways maintained that, he was going to heaven in a boat, and tlie idiot,: whatever remark you might make to him about-'Supernatural subjectSi invariably replied, ' Ves."' :• ■ TLerefii-' an lr.letestrii" contrast to <i 1!: tlnb learned |>r<,lessors' of his day and win se response, under similar eireumstanei. .5, is unalterably " No." . The origin Hi the boat theory never -transpired/ Some jnere chance nmst have fixed ifc in the 'fool's apology for ■'a .brain-sunless •.it-' - was connected with his early shipwreck, the one event ;ofhis life. : Neither he. nor the idiot could - have got their ideas in church —which they regularly attended—for neither of them ever understood- a 1! single word of what went on there. as : the minister very well knew. The Eool had: learnt to read, but he had long forgotten. The. idiot had. never learnt at- all.

The fool, however, .-occasional?said •'God." I,t was not: -the common oath, as lie daily heard that—from his wife, for instance —-for he Said it by : itself, reverently. He did not say it to tiie 'minister, as such, ,or to ■ anybody in particular. , But he would sav it, all alone, between long natises, without anv ext>l,-illation why : To hear, him sav it thus made you feel uneannv. And-when a good lady, lodging in the village, once asked him, ■with • some uttering of heart], \vhv "he said it, ho oulv made answer, " Slii'i." The idiot had nothing disagreeable about him—at least, not when sitting out in front of the poor ,cottage with his pannikin--iiothiiig, biit his laughter. IT-ven; tliat was inoffensively silent-. But he sit doubling lip, for whole periods at. a time, with inaudible continuous mer'-iment, wriggling i'lid twisting his idiot face and limp frame, as.you .hurried by. Peoule—+lie strange r summer guests especially^—disliked 1 , that even more than the,, fool's loud, unexneeted call—if it was a call—on the Deity.

The village, was - a •'•small seaside. TPsort with a large pier an:l boats. Tn the summer there was a lino of bath-ing-machines on the beach; in the winter there were.", fishing-smacks. • .The. two cottages stood • rather far ">>, the dyke, by "themselves, some minutes' •vail- from the centra! of fishcrflw"llin,'s, ■ n'nd the still iii"ve distant " Prand TJoM." The Uurtromaster Ind moved the old and their cbarf/es out yonder, "So far, so good," said he. -

Various people li!>r] at different perifl.s tried to tea'-h the pair to do something. Those endeavours liad failed. Contrary to what one mi'dit have exneeted. the idiot was willing hut tinable; the fool refused. ' Tu one of his. most lucid harangues the latter explained to his wife that it was wicked to do anything at all that, could ho construed as work. He was unable to give reasons, and his theory must therefore probably have been " some atavistic development of Calvinism. "Not work." lie said. " Work wicked. Die. Not \\*-rk." He said this over and over again at. least a hundred times in the course of half an hour. For, while the idiot seldom said anything, and never more than a word or two at a time, the fool would grow suddenly voluble, repeating the same sentence ceaselessly, till his wife threw something at him hard enough to make him stop. One amusement they had. and that was watching the shi»>s. They never tired of it. A gocd manny vessels, large and snnll, ir> by and sail in and out. On this 'subject the tool was very clear, in an incomprehensible way of his own. Tie knew what he bad seen, and lie had seen a great deal. Correct. information —names, for. instance —he bad non<\ for nobody had never vouchsafed him any, nor would he have had the audacity to ask for it. Before his ninrriage he had worked, with early biifletings and later -mockery, on a trawler; no one, in those old days before he had been able to discover that work was wicked, had laboured more assiduouslv in his own-rough-trade than lie. Then had come the amazing selection of the fool,

.among a dozen, by the. .servant girl, returned to the village; with her legacy, and the 100 l had proved what a fool be whs by dropping arduous drudgery as soon as in; no longer needed to perform it. The fool, who had never Jind an enemy, only mockers, made a lot of enemies by this selection of the servant girl's. She 'herself often taunted liirn with it. lie was far too mneh of a fool to mind.

In a phraseology of his own, then, and with terms which were not understandable. of anyone but the idiot, the fool studied ships. Now and then the pair would wander down to the pier, where the pleasure boats lay, and stand gazing at them, speechless, for- hours. But the boys jeered at them and, frightened, they would slink away home. The idiot would have liked, of all things, to go on the water —so much his gurglings plainly showed—but the fool, who had experienced a shipwreck in his sailing days, turned red with, alarm at tho suggestion .

Shipwrecks were of rarest occurrence on that coast, but the fool, after his own distressful adventure, was perpetually expecting one. He had lived through several hours' agony on a plank among the billows, and been ultimately saved by a rope from a passing brig. The one dramatic terror of his life had eaten itself into his dull soul for ever. Even the far approach of a storm seemed to thrill throngby his whole frame with some voiceless electrical warning. He would wake with what his wife called his "tantrums." All the time he would wander about, restless and wretched, fidgeting his wife till she tried her first l-emedy—her '• cushion, and her second' 'remedy— block of peat. The latter ho did not always dodge, and once, when it knocked him senseless, she had'a fright, and occasion to meditate on degrees of "sense." Of late the old woman was stiffening in her chair with " the rheumatiz," and beginning to -discover that lier husband was not so absolutely lumbersome about the house as she had always streamed. , But she screamed it, on that account, all the louder. . When the storm burst—the natural one, outside the house —the fool -iVould shrink at the door —shrink—unil with a sudden irresistible impulse he rushed out arid faced it. The sea! The sea! the tumbling, roaring, terrible sea! His eyes started from his sockets <°s lie stared, into . the. turmoil of winds and waters.'' He ran along the; beach through the tumult. (If lie shouted iii his loneliness, he often could not have heard his own voice. Tho idiot came after him, but he hooted him. away.' - . When it was all over he would crcap back, draggled and drenched. His wife would abuse him, but ho never noticed. "Saved!" lie jwo'uld repeat, often and often. Evidently his thoughts were of *his own escape. The idiot, rebuffed by lus only comrade, would weep wildly, and tho idiot's mother Would thereupon also turn against the fool. One: of her most curious ways of showing affection to her idolised, son was, .after the lad had sp A nt a sorrowful storm-day in-, doois, to put a pail or. two in the dark for his: lioinc-cbniing friend to break a leg over. ' Once the fool had stumbled and hurt himself badly. He limped for several days, but although he realised the I pails had been left outside by the idiots mother,- in this as in other matters he was to/' great a fool to take offence. The idiot had not this patience. On the contrary, he nursed a second grievance. It was that tho fool would not go out with him - iu a boat. 1 Of such expenditure there iJnul never beenv uny question -ujitiU-ono-disastroußjJduy,. when it tourist,, strolling along the dyke, had. stopped and handed..tho idiot, probably because lie was a lad, a. whole silver florin. The idiot had kept the .coin hidden even from his mother. Only the fool and he knew of it. When lie was certain that his mother had departed for. the day. the idiot would draw the piece forth from its latest cunning hiding-place and, laying it on his knee, would, sit contemplating it for hours.' The. fool, to whom his wife never gave a halfpenny —-she paid for his tobacco —would sit contemplating it too. It was not that the idiot wanted to keep it. He Wanted to spend it, to buy a- boat with it. But lie could neither buy the boat nor navigate it without the help of the fool. And the fool would not leave tern, firma on any account. So much the two had made clear to each other, step'by step. .From this difference of opinion resulted day-long discussions and still longer bouderies. The discussions consisted of a word or two now and then, like the strikings of a crazy clock. The bouderies consisted, as tlicyought to, of nothing at all. But the idiot's feeling deepened as the empty days passed by and the floron still lay u'spless in his lap. He was not malicious by nature, as so many of his kind. He showed affection to the Cat in a stupid sort of manner (rubbing her fur the wrong way) and even to his mother. But the injustice !»t his * friend, the fool, rankled, to his mind. He went so far as to put one of his mother's pails, in broad davlight, ' near the neighbours cottage door. The fool's wife laboriously stumbled ofT her chair and took the pail inside and kept it. , Thus matters went on, and uotlungliappeuedi Nothing ever happened, the idiot and the fool wore aware of that, as well as anyone else. Nothing ever happened in their lives, except the fears-of the fool for the storm-wind, and the longings of the idiot for the sea. One Sunday as the lad was sitting moping iii the nallid winter sunlight, a ladv, a stranger to the placc( she belonged to the Salvation Army) P»"scd in front of -him and asked him it n« loved Jesus? True to his rule when he didn't understand, he answcicd "Yes." Thus gratified, unable to git more out of him, she turned to the tool, with the question, " Do you know who has taught him that?" And the tool, under the impression of the- long coining blank in church, after the inquii.y had been vigorously repeated to lum,. said "God." lu the light ol s^ sequent events, when the fool and,the idiot—John and 1 Ltt ' were suddenly blazed forth to the world iu a nine days gloij, ns incident achieved paramount nmw t a nee, and it cannot be cinusu'ciodni verent to state—lor the veracity o the fact is manifest to all. who caie to trace it—that the simple story ot John Lotz and Peter Harden has become the means, on many an eaniest platform, of giving strength to the feeble minded and encouraging even the pooicst in spirit to come in. Tho early spring ot 190< was, as a l will remember, confused bv much tempest and rife with mantnue - The German Ocean, tortured bet>, ccn two coasts, rent its owirlieart asundci and Hung itself irom shore to l01L ; And the cockle-shells it tosses oiv its bosom fell splitting right and left, strewn in fragments, like chestnuts, on iv country-road. As the outlay, the elements continued, day attei da>, the fool's frenzy seemed to tea lum, soul and body, like a storm within -.i storm. His wife said it was pitiful to seo what had become of him— ; such ■a clever man when I married un, Sll On'thc ninth of March, at daybreak, when the gale was at its worst, tho fool, staring out into the greyness, pressed tight under the dripping eaves ill the blinding rain against tho wet

wall of tho cot'ngp—"shirk, fttnring raving marl!" erind Lis «f«> from tin; inside the foil, with eyes and hands working, r.iw ;i sight—a sight that froze his blood, for he understood it—a eight .that he, pnrhap*, at that dead moment, was tho only xnan on fibers to we. Ifo saw si largo schooner, that was struggling in a mifct of foaming waters," riso tip suddenly, mast high and more, on a great black wall of and come "down crashing right out of its cortrjie on tho head of the pier. He thought that, in tho uproar of wind ahd' se¥, lie heard the crash of slio split in twain, breaking right across the middle, like a twig n child snaps on" k'hoc, Ho sow and ho knew and understood, as if forty years had been 'suddenly bridged over , perhaps they required 'no bridging over in the memory of J a past which was today.

110 was gone at. a" ibatl paco along the dyke, against "tho sleet, to the village, to the beach, to tho pier. Tho idiot, watching ,the window, "was after him, breathless; Qatching him up, ignoring the command to desist, hurrying on, tho silver- florin .clutched tight in one fifct. .V. - A cun had bon. firod from tho schooner—or a." revolver shot; already the beach was.alive. with half-dressed villagers. Men wor&-rushing to and fro crying out, in&: giving orders, inaudible for tho most, part, in the unbroken bellow of ocean and hurricane. All wero talking imd" screaming—tho women and childrcn-r-but all, whatsoever they were doing, Lad their eyes fixed irrevocably on „tmo point against tho inky horizom Qyer_ tho great gloom of the grim '-dawning a torn tangle of blackclduds came flying, like masses of cobweb ' lace-Work, drooping wet towards-the sliorc. And far up into the sinking, the infuriated deep dashed its towering tumult of waters, filling the - intermediate air with whirlpools of.blackriess and cataclysm and thunderous spray. Vainly, madly the alarm LeH began swaying in the steeplefoir itoe ibojaent tho frightened faces turnip towajrds it as it swung, unheard,' m tho roar. Tho damp houses huddled" .Tourid tho church seemed to "ojjerr-eyed, hiding, with tho dfcaggl'ca "thatches over their ears, out of sights-low as .they could get, behind form was telling pothers to get out the lifeboat. At Ifra«fc that Was what ho was presumably' ljusy with. Tho rain and tlio wind stnfck against the scared figures. ;. . And ,y^^er, l 'iii the' distant dash of the watgref'two ; gfrey hulks glimmered a veil of cloud closing antebreakins incessantly, pitilessly; dark- tfg&ihSt " the dark. The midgets oil tfifl l short hummed for tho lifeboafev' ,?Flu> wires and the winds challenge in derisive iepty. \ The fool," ttb- idiot close behind him, reaebwt; the shore. The fishermen ;iWere getting out tho • lifeboat; . the slow, but it monopolised the attention of all. The boat was not' tHft.niosfc modern construction of ita th> crew wcro bravo men, but unaccustomed to their task, for no. slupwreclt; Jiad _occurr«'d on tliis harmless within tho memory <bf nan. '• - Tfiere was confusion, but always have been in so . intimidating..fin emergency before that gaping,-• shrieking, wait'-": hell. ' But, .'jjCfc3ofeTiolnti^»—op»v that tire minutes; were' Lonra-—the ii»her turmoil, - disturbance calmed/down; witlu set faces »"vl strong hands the-volunteers fell )'-*•> line and did their "wort in tho teeth of the ,and sky. A faint cheer -wenti wp—ft sound™! faint—as- ii various vnin attemnts to,:l!lunch her—-and from om of these attempts--they-: carried a married frian badly..hurt-—the 1 • f - - bor>t, unwieldy, uncertain, rose with a first heave and shivering shake unon the crest of j a wvvq. , .. It was the sole chance of - salvation -for tho shipwrecked. Rockets.Viherfv were none; the only olie,. already fired, had fallen short; - A j , Not till, the.l.lifeboat nnd fairly , started on her staefcerini? <*>»rse did the crowd on '--the--: bench, dronning bnck from its '.concentration, reali«o what hfad occurred-■ a - '.few paces off. How tlio foot "had'pot-Ws boat—somebody's boat—-drwn „to...tliewater fifty yards from the TipH of the eager idiot, -it was easy enough to explain. \, But'noßodj''llftd observed liinK in the crush ' round tho lifeboat, aiid nobody understood now liow or why' he should bo rowing with tho idiot in that little skiff of a thing right into and over—oli, -my God, overt — that yawning gulf.: A- rampart of shaking obony roso np beforo tho tiny speck—rose, tottered,ond crashed down upon it. It sank,' disappeared, and soared up to heaven again. A woman or two shrieked. .Tho--minister folded his hands and bent; his Jiead; the crowd, as one nuiii, t followed his example. Tho idiots soul leaped up in him, full of fierce 'joy ,"jvitli\ every leap of tho waves. At last, .lifter waiting so long, in-tho sickness of Lope deferred — at last, suddenly", ho achieved his dospaired-of desire I Of the. shipwreck, tlio danger, tho crowd, on. tho shore, the" tesiie, it stake, ho understood nOthing?':WsthittE at. all. But he was out on the--soa with tlio fool. At last! Tho.rVr was.tho triumph in his clouded intellect, .tor .well as satisfaction. Thtv-ftwl r -had given in at last—at Inst. Hc'-Avas!-out the sea with the fool. '" As for the screamy and-the swirl of the tcnipest, lib /caret! 'lffitle,^ certainly not realising the ";aud reaping,, in tho calmness of iiis'.-pirlso and tho steadiness of Lis gorge,*,tho harvest of a long line of s6iif{triug''ancestors. Ho shouted as ho flung Up 4 his oars, following by iiituitioii tlio'careful guidance of his companion. . ; 'Kot ' that guidance went for much* in such;;a sea. There wns really nothing but", tho foolhardy struggle forwards intff'.tho.opening jaws of death. ■ - None but. a 'lUliittib'AVould have attempted it. And whatrdi.cl it all mean? asked the 'crowdl. 1~. Why had he bogun it? Ah! J qiVCwli''Noticed—then they all sucldenly saw-. - Thero was at least method iii.his'madiicss, hopelessly mad as it niight of tho long ropes had been taken frohi tlio lifeboat house and fastened :sbciiraly to a stake . outside the building.;; 11 It trailed away down tho breacfi-.iiifo ■ smoking cauldron of the': o'Cc£i;t| 'ianu i"- tho midst of tiiat cauldron- tho little nutshell tossed as a leaf that curls up for a moment on-an eddy and then disappears. The lifeboat, '..;brpadrboamed and heavy, on the and, as it proved, the wrong sid'c wf" the.. jetty, dashed against tho tall : lf?trtidsides of water, shipping great and sliivcroring back witli,' eytiry A sailor was knocked. ; down 'anil washeil overboard beforo-tlio-liorritied eyes ot the onlookers.; ■: Anxiotis lieiirts. asked Who it might he, iin vain' amidst tho lioiso and the rapid AyLirl,.,of white fog.. And .tho cumbersome tub struck .- down into a shoal that had formed,' 'lUidprneath it, and pitched ionyii'rd)'to- a wild -croaking and straining. Uiid breaking, righting itself in a long tremblfe/and heaving up sideways, as -a- vast roller slid, curlig, 'against' it, .just.'befpro; a cataract, icy cold and brazen, phmged-all-over it in a deluge and -destruction.. of watery death. - ' Tho ;borit.;.slifanls;, back,• stagporing; three of Jier- crew* were overbonvd. .. .. ' On the other tlio foam, lilco

mist among the" mountains, the little black speck could be seen at intervals, sis it rose and fell. lhe minister pra>ed aloud. 1 The idiot's mother, who liad found her way down to the shore, | hung against his shoulder to catch the ] wortU from his lips and give them weight with her passionate a mens. In the little boat, as it pulsed up and down. like- a* lioy 1 s body tossed in a blanket, there were no prayers—the tool. hard at .work, had not even once uttered "n cry.' On the hulk at the pier head, se'ttling down, growing less with each impulse of the breakers, were such prayers as rend heaven. And, indeed."-but for prayers such as these the thing were impossible The lifeboat hhd put back for fresh volunteers. /Already the beach listened to lamentations, -which even the . TflgeOfthe windcouldnot quell. Yet the -light Httj<r skiff, with the long rope hidden bellind it, plodded on as if-it held a charmed existence —it .must have done so—through the shifting mountains and 'Valleys of perdition, down to the' abysses where the seadevels lie' in Vsuting, up against the of heaven. Two thousand eyea were straining toa 4HouSind . hearts were boating Jagainst th'at';;sky : of .adamant. To " the pair .the bdat no such thoughts would "'hare come, if they could". Had the idiot's sight been as keen as - his. "comrade's, he could net hue more fhah.he saw. One fhmg only - the fool knew.: there was i wreck m the,.stormy and a■ wreck in i storm needs a Tope. ..■ The ,wind j shnekefl iround them,. the clouds; fell upon ctn(?ni,-thfr "whole sea boiled over, j Suddenly,- closely ; before them, rase j the bliick" frothed" hulk m a wide cir- j ole of surge' ' attd spume. At the | fame moment a receding coil of water struck full "against an inriishing torrent and whirled no the little boaE in a jyhite S pont on, high. The fool, clinging to her_ l ßows, whizzed the lifesaving fvpnaratns -into the air over the, < side of lhe wreck. And the_ breakers. sinking swiftly back, infuriate, in -a vortex.■dashed'-the little boat, as if it had- been - matchwood, •. to pieces against the 'timb€ra-,of the pier. . The owner lost pleasure-skiff, iwo days'"/5n a morning of . blue sky and - bluer flMwn, " found a ; bright silver florin, p 'in -brown paper, I, But no-; body oh - earth-wcrer knew that the, idiot had' boat" in which he and to heaven. _