The rainbow never sets

"It is. It will seat six. It is drawn by two horses. Come into this side room here. Inside that cupboard, there are two splendid bell arrangements, one for each horse."

"That really looks like it is out of a fairly tale. The tuft of horse hair on top of all the bells, it is all so colourful and looks really beautiful. But Ñ do you really use it?"

"You can be sure of that. If you come to visit during winter, you will see it in use. The sleigh glides so quietly over the snow, that no one would hear it without the bells. All sleighs have some type of bells. This here is just a little more elaborate. At every step of the horse the bells jingle. It's very practical. Come through this door. It leads straight to the stables."

Then I showed him our two pairs of coach horses. They always went together in pairs, as they had to get used to one another to work as a team. In a separate pen was Vater's riding horse, a full-blood Arab.

"That looks mighty strong, and quite tall. Can you ride it too?" "Not as a rule. It is strictly Vater's. But once he told me that I could ride it, as he had to stay all day in Posen, and it is not good for the horse to stay inside all day. I rode to the woods, which we passed on the way, and on the way back I let him run as fast as he wanted to go. I tell you, it was fast, like on a racing track. A bit scary at first, but I had him in control, and the feeling was great. It was the most exciting ride I ever had." "What about the other horses here, can they be ridden?" "Yes, we learned to ride on them. They are much slower, of course, but still good riding horses. Our saddles are kept in this ante-room. Vater gave us our first riding lessons in the park on the grass. He held the horse on a long line and it could go around in a circle. He taught us to sit straight, to have proper leg-contact with the horse, and how to use the reins. When we had mastered that we were allowed to go out into the fields on horse-back. Sometimes we arranged to meet up with Horst and Bernd, perhaps also with Vater and Onkel Werner, and then we had a great time all together riding in a group around the fields, or along the lake. It is such a good atmosphere, especially early in the mornings."

"Do you think I could go on one of those riding trips?" "I'm not sure. You need to be able to control the horse first, but we'll see." We walked through the door into the yard again. On our left was the wing that closed the rectangle of the big yard. It consisted of the house of the administrator, a grain store upstairs, and the nursery for our calves.

"The female calves come here as soon as their mother has licked them dry after birth. They are given their mother's milk mixed with some eggs, to make them strong and healthy. The male calves are sold to the St ŝeszew butcher. Do you want to let a calf suck your finger? Watch this."

I held my finger through the barrier and the calf began immediately to suck vigorously on my finger.

"Let me try," said Helmut. "Oh, it tickles. The calf has such a rough tongue."

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