#Colloquy downeast windows#

Cheer up, little mother! As IвЂ™ve told you, it is not a good-bye for ever!вЂќ вЂњThe old engine is getting its steam up, and weвЂ™ll soon be off. вЂњHere we are at last, mother,вЂќ said Eric, slinging the bag containing his sea kit on to the railway platform. But, even here, amid all the hissing of steam, and creaking of carriages, and whirr of moving machinery, the queer old-world costumes of the peasantry, with their quaint hats and mantles, which more resembled the stage properties of a Christmas pantomime than the known dress of any people of the period, all spoke of the past-a past when the great Barbarossa reigned in Central Europe, and when there were вЂњRobbers of the Rhine,вЂќ and вЂњForty thousand virgins,вЂќ in company with Saint Ursula, canonising the sainted and scented city of Cologne. Presently, however, they were at the railway station, and they would have been convinced, if they had felt inclined to believe otherwise, that they were living in the present. It seemed like a scene of a bygone age reproduced on the canvas of some Flemish artist and, but that Eric and his mother were accustomed to it, they must have rubbed their eyes, like Rip Van Winkle when he came down from the goblin-haunted mountain into the old village of his youth, in doubt whether all was real, thinking it might be a dream.

#Colloquy downeast windows#

Although it was past the midday hour, hardly a soul was to be seen moving about and the western sun lighted up the green spires of the churches and red-tiled pointed roofs of the houses, glinting from the peculiar eye-shaped dormer windows of some of the cottages with the most grotesque effect and making them appear as if winking at the onlooker. Mother and son were wending their way through the quaint, old-fashioned, sleepy main street of Lubeck that led to the railway station-a bran-new modern structure that seemed strangely incongruous amidst the antique surroundings of the ancient town. вЂњI hope so, Eric, surely still, we cannot tell what the future may bring forth!вЂќ said the other sadly. Keep your heart up, mother mine, the same as I do remember, it is not a вЂFarewellвЂ™ I am saying for ever, it is merely вЂAuf wiedersehen!вЂ™вЂќ He will do that, and in a yearвЂ™s time we shall all meet again under the old roof-tree, IвЂ™m certain. The parting is a sad one to me but I hope and trust the good God will hold you in His safe keeping, and guide your footsteps back home to me again!вЂќ вЂњTime is getting on, little mother, and weвЂ™ll soon have to say farewell!вЂќ