The Silver Cup Read Online Free PDF Page A

killing frost. Anna hurried from the house.
    Anna tried to forget her disastrous day that evening as she sat by a cozy fire, brimming with the sweet smell of roasting fruit and chestnuts. She and Martin cooked apples on sticks while he recreated the people and places he and Gunther had seen along the Rhine.
    â€œOn the way to Speyer, we stopped in Worms and delivered the knives to those rich Jews,” he said.
    â€œDid you see the girl and her brothers? ” asked Anna.
    â€œYes. When your father and I were shown into their hall, the girl and her mother were talking to a wine grower who displayed two huge baskets of grapes. I’ve never seen so many grapes, and her mother was sifting fussily through the fruit and talking to the girl in their strange tongue. Laughing and chattering like squirrels. Then her father, the spice merchant, appeared with his sons dressed like little princes to examine our knives. He and his sons yammered to themselves and with the girl. Lord knows what they were saying! But he said he would have more ironwork from us. And well he can afford it. What a house he has! Never have I seen such riches. The room had a stone floor with a woolen carpet of red and green and blue, more like a garden than a floor covering. And there were polished wooden chests and benches with silk-covered cushions. Jakob must be either a thief or a magician: no man lives like that. Not even King Heinrich.”
    â€œDidn’t you think the girl was pretty? ”
    â€œPretty? Those monsters are never pretty. It’s an enchantment ! ” exclaimed Martin, as he and Anna nicked the tops of a handful of chestnuts and rolled them toward the outside edge of the glowing coals.
    â€œI wish I could have spent the day in Worms,” sighed Anna, rubbing her aching shoulders and remembering her miserable day.
    With his knife, Martin fished out a roasted chestnut for himself and another one that he rolled toward his cousin.
    â€œSometimes I wonder what it would be like to be someone else,” said Anna.
    â€œWhat are you talking about, Anna? ”
    â€œI wonder what it would be like to be that girl we saw. She had the most beautiful dress, and she looked so happy with her father and her brothers.”
    Martin rolled his eyes. “Have lost your reason? She’s a Jew! Do you want to burn in hell?”
    â€œNo, of course not. But don’t you ever think about a different life? ”
    Martin was quiet. For once, he responded with a silent single nod.
    â€œI even wonder what it would be like to be Elisabeth,” said Anna, lost in her own daydreams.
    â€œMy beautiful but very dull sister? She talks of nothing but her wedding,” said Martin, spraying Anna with sticky nut crumbs as he spoke and chewed.
    â€œI love to listen. And Johann is—”
    â€œAlso boring,” scowled Martin. “At least he’s rich. But soft.”
    â€œYou’re all noise and nonsense, Martin,” said Anna wiping her face and leaning away.
    â€œ You’re all dreams, Anna. So, who’s to be your husband ? ”
    â€œI wish I knew. Father gives it no thought, ” Anna said with a sigh.
    â€œNo. You’re wrong there. What do they say? Wedding clothes are soon a young bride’s shroud?”
    â€œI know well the cost of childbearing,” said Anna, thinking of her mother.
    â€œYes, and so does he. You needn’t worry. Mother will find husbands for all the tiresome girls in the family.”
    â€œAnd wives for your brothers? Who ever will she find for you, Martin?”
    â€œI’ll find my own wife when I am ready. But I am sure my mother will find someone for our Anna.”
    â€œYour mother thinks I am worthless.”
    Martin shook his head and laughed. “She thinks everyone is worthless, even Father sometimes, but she brags about your father’s noble blood. Anyway, she has dull Elisabeth well matched with our miller’s son. Next she’ll