"I can tell you the joke. She said you must certainly belong to the heavy artillery. One only had to look at you to know it."
This speech had the desired effect. Gerold could stand a good deal, but jokes and allusions to his weight! that was entirely too much. His haughty demeanour thawed out. His look of wrath was the sign that he accepted the proposals of his brother for peace, a joint peace excluding Gesima, who was thus cast off by both parties. As Gerold was bound not to move, they substituted for the ceremonial hand-shake a flower stalk, which Hänsli pushed into his ally's hand, each holding fast to one end of the stem to symbolize the alliance.
Immediately, by a lively pantomime on the bridge, consisting of mocking gestures and provoking hops, Hänsli let Gesima understand the new grouping of forces. But in order to be perfectly fair and to leave no doubt on the matter, he felt that a formal declaration of war was necessary. Couldn't he find a scrap of paper somewhere? There, on the ground, was a crumpled letter. It was entirely covered with close writing but at the end, between the words: Do not think, on account of this, that I love you any the less, and the signature, Dolf, he found a small empty place. There he wrote: Ugly Gesima. You have red hair. Then he coaxed the curly dog to him, slipped the letter under his collar and made signs to the little girl that she was to call it. Gesima snapped her fingers and the dog went to her. She took the letter, read the few words, scribbled something, and Hänsli called the messenger back again. At the top of the letter, above the words: My poor, poor Marianneli, he read: Bad Hänsli, you have a wart on your left forefinger.
Nature interrupted further correspondence. A shower of
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