Hans glanced up at the bedsheet, then at Thea. Mirth twitched at his mouth.
Papa noticed. ‘It’s not much at the moment,’ he admitted, ‘but we shall improve it. Imagine . . .’ Papa said, turning to Friedrich and trailing his hand through the air as though presenting a miracle. ‘Imagine the spire that will rise here, the bell that will call us to work, will call us to rest and worship!’ He seized Friedrich’s hand once more. ‘“Rejoice, ye who act in faith. The Lord shall reward thee.”’
‘Very fine,’ Friedrich said, smiling. He glanced sideways, to his wife. ‘Has Pastor Flügel seen it?’
‘We’ve sent word for him to come and dedicate the church. He will move between here and Neu Klemzig every six weeks or so. We must find him a horse so that we do not have to hold all our weddings and funerals at once. The dead do not like to wait.’
Hans grinned at Matthias. ‘Neither do the betrothed.’
‘It is Sunday tomorrow –’ Friedrich began.
‘Christian Pasche will deliver the sermon,’ my father said, interrupting him.
‘My father has delivered all the sermons thus far,’ Hans added.
‘And did Herr Pasche suggest the name Heiligendorf?’ asked Anna Maria.
‘That was me,’ my father said, finally turning to her. ‘A fitting name for a place where all seek to walk in Christ’s footsteps. Our holy village.’
Anna Maria smiled without showing her teeth.
Papa turned back to Friedrich. ‘I’ll fetch the surveyor so that you might draw your lot of land. But first, let us give thanks for your safe arrival.’ He waited until all was silent. ‘Dearest God, I thank you for giving us this rich and fertile land so that we may prosper and serve you in freedom. “Truly, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”’
‘Papa, I may turn into a tree at will,’ I said and kissed him on his slumped eyelid.
‘Amen’， said Papa. ‘Amen.’
The land rented by the congregation had already been subdivided, the layout of the village drawn up as a Hufendorf, a horseshoe of narrow homesteads that surrounded the crooked gum, the wattle-and-daub church and the place for the school that would one day be built. The surveyor, a pleasant man of some education from Züllichau, explained to Friedrich and Anna Maria that each family or married couple in the congregation would receive an equal share of one acre, enough for a house, garden and small farm, and that they would all have access to some communal land for grazing. Each allotment was numbered and corresponded to small folded pieces of paper that the surveyor kept in a chipped milk jug. He had tried to be as equitable as possible in terms of land size, fertility and access to water, he explained, but it was clear from my father’s expression that the number Friedrich drew from the jug was one of the better allotments.
‘The soil here is unquestionable proof of divine blessing,’ Papa said as he led the Eichenwalds to their land. ‘Here, this is where you will live. I am just beyond, where all those trees are. Your allotment is already mostly clear.’ Papa kneeled down and parted the tall grass with his hands, looking up at Friedrich with his good eye. ‘Here is God’s providence! Look.’ Papa pulled up some of the grass, showing Friedrich the soil beneath. He pinched some with his fingers and spread the rich, dark earth across his palm. ‘There is at least three feet of topsoil in some places. Three feet! It makes me pity those who decided to stay on at Neu Klemzig. May God bless them. Trying to grow cabbages out of that gravel pit.’ He wiped his hands on his trousers. ‘It’s soft. Spongy. You can feel the goodness under your feet. God has given us a park. Truly, we have much to thank Him for.’
‘Captain Olsen, too,’ added Friedrich, bending to the ground to examine the earth.
‘Yes, he is the Lord’s agent. Wait until you taste the water here.’
‘Pure?’ asked Friedrich.
My father laughed and threw his hat in the air.
The warmth of the day was fading fast by the time Papa left the Eichenwalds to make camp. I was tempted to follow him, to see Matthias again and Mama and Hermine, but Thea was yawning into her elbow and I was unaccustomed to spending evenings away from her side. I sat cross-legged on the ground and watched while she and her mother lit a fire with the slow-burning fungus and constructed a shelter. Friedrich took advantage of the remaining light to make his own assessment of their land.