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An Unknown Destination!
A
Tale from Charles Dickens
Sometimes,
the wherever it is we are going turns out to be different from the
expected. And, sometimes we even know nothing at all about our
planned destinations. And, whilst reading Charles Dickens’s
Nicholas Nickleby, I discovered the following anecdote.
Nicholas
Nickleby was on his way from London to Yorkshire when he was involved
in an accident. The coach upon which he was travelling overturned and
Nicholas Nickleby, being an outside passenger, was thrown into a snow
drift. But, it wasn't so bad. Everyone survived to tell the tale and
had to wait in an inn for a new coach to be sent. And, it was
there that one of the passengers told the following story.
Once
upon-a-time, there was a German Baron, Baron Koeldwethout. And he
was a very happy man who spent most of time hunting, getting drunk,
and generally having lots of good fun. But, one day, he started
getting fed up with it all. Life had become boring. And so,
to cut a long story short, he got married.
But,
12 years later with a miserable never happy domineering wife and 13
noisy uncontrollable little barons and baronesses to keep and to
feed, he discovered that he was sorely missing the life of
revelry and drunkenness that he had sacrificed upon the
altar of domestic happiness.
Things
were bad, and, to add to it all, his money was spent. The only way
out, he believed, was the bringing about of a premature end to his
life! And so, there he was, all alone with a bottle of wine, his
knife to kill himself, and a final pipe. But, he was not as alone as
he thought. For there, in the corner, was the ghost of suicide. He
had come to collect the Baron!
And,
it turned out, that the ghost of suicide was a somewhat
miserable apparition in a hurry. There were, after-all, many
others waiting for him, and the next one on his list was a young man
who had too much money! Upon hearing this, the Baron burst into
laughter. How could someone kill himself because he had too much
money? Totally absurd! And then the baron started thinking!
Was
where he was planning to go better than where he was now? If the
ghost of suicide was so miserable, then, what was everyone else like?
The Baron changed his mind, and, after getting his life in order and
becoming once again happy, died many years later.
And,
what about Nicholas Nickleby? He resumed his journey and became an
assistant in the school which belonged to the notorious alcoholic and
child hater, Mr Newman Noggs.
And,
if you want to know what happened, you will have to read the book! I
did - and I thought it was great! Nj
Selected
Vocabulary
apparition
– Gespenst
fed
up – Satt
revelry
– Feiern
sacrifice
– (sacrifice/sacrificed/sacrificed) – opfer
sorely
– sehr, stark, heftig
suicide
– Selbstmord
Diarikom
is sponsored by Mag. Karl Brieber
Wirtschaftstreuhänder,Steuerberater,
Unternehmensberater
b.
