Page:Buddenbrooks vol 1 - Mann (IA buddenbrooks0001mann).pdf/39

RV 27 (BUDDENBROOKS) among the undergrowth, I have a feeling that I belong to nature and not she to me. . . .”

“Krishan, don’t eat too much,” the old man suddenly called out, in dialect. “Never mind about Tilda&mdash;it doesn’t hurt her. She can put it away like a dozen harvest hands, that child!”

And truly it was amazing, the prowess of this scraggy child with the long, old-maidish face. Asked if she wanted more soup, she answered in a meek drawling voice: “Ye-es, ple-ase.” She had two large helpings both of fish and ham, with piles of vegetables; and she bent short-sightedly over her plate, completely absorbed in the food, which she chewed ruminantly, in large mouthfuls. “Oh, Un-cle,” she replied, with amiable simplicity, to the old man’s gibe, which did not in the least disconcert her. She ate: whether it tasted good or not, whether they teased her or not, she smiled and kept on, heaping her plate with good things, with the instinctive, insensitive voracity of a poor relation&mdash;patient, persevering, hungry, and lean.

RV 27 (27)