The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

again. In short, already in those days we were at times satisfied with one another, and at other times dissatisfied - then as now.

Now that I had, as I said before, made during the winter all the preparations that I could for my building, and had dragged the timber to the site, and spring was coming on, my carpenters arrived on the day that they had promised. Besides my brother Georg, whom I had also hired for this purpose, (and so had to pay my father for his keep), there were seven men, to each of whom I paid seven batzen a day for wages and board, but to the master, Hans Jörg Brunner of Krinau, I paid nine batzen, and above that I paid every day for a half-measure of brandy, and also wine with which to drink to the laying of the threshold, the completion of the walls, and the raising of the roof. It was the 27th of March when the threshold of my cottage was laid, in very fine weather which lasted until mid-April, but then the work was interrupted for some days by heavy falls of snow. And so in the middle of May, thus in about seven weeks, the roof was on.

Before this, however, at the end of April, fate struck me several blows so disastrous that (so carelessly had I until then cast all my burdens upon Heaven, who has never promised to provide for the frivolous-minded) they nearly brought down all my courage to nothing. For indeed three or four unlucky stars had conspired to hinder my building. The first was that I had not nearly enough timber, though Master Brunner had told me that it was sufficient, and he did not see his mistake until they were building the upper floor. So I had to go to the forest once more, buy some trees, fell them and carry them to the sawmill and the timber-yard. The second disaster was that while I was at this same work my carter with me beside him tried to gallop with a heavy load between two high rocks, and as it turned the tree-trunk caught my right foot, tearing away my shoe and stocking and crushing skin, flesh and bone, so that I had to ride home on one of the horses in a fair state of wretchedness, and lie abed for many days in great pain, until I could limp forth again to my workmen. And in addition to this two other misfortunes joined themselves to the first while I was incapacitated. The first: one of my neighbours, to whom I owed 120 guilders, sent me word quite without warning that he wished to be paid at once. I knew my man, and knew that begging and pleading would be useless. So I racked my brains as to what was to be done. Finally I resolved to gather together from every corner all my stock of yarn, send it to St. Gallen and sell it for what I could get.

But alas, a fourth catastrophe! My envoy returned not only empty-handed but with the appalling news that my yarn was in bond because it was short on the reels

, I should have to go myself to St. Gallen and present myself to the guild-officers. What was I to do now? I had neither yarn nor money, in fact not a schilling left to pay my men, who meanwhile were carpentering away as if they were building Solomon's temple [I Kings 5]. And to crown it all I had an unrelenting creditor! Should I not borrow again? To be sure! But who would trust a penniless youth like me? My father saw my anxiety and my Father in Heaven saw it even more clearly. Father and I could still find credit, to be sure, but should we not then be abusing it? In short, however, he hastened to seek it both in his own name and mine, and at last found men who took pity on us - men with hearts of flesh and not of stone! May God reward them for it hereafter!

As soon as I could again hop abroad and go about my business, my distress was soon (perhaps too soon) forgotten. My sweetheart visited me often during my illness. I did not, however, allow her to see any sign of all these misfortunes, and my good angel took care that she did not learn of them, for I could well see that she was still undecided, and was waiting to see more of my character and the outcome of so many uncertain matters. And so in our conversation we were never in each other's full confidence.

Trade associations which maintained the standards of commodities in their locality.