Chapter 4 Chapter Three: A Trip to Berlin

The emir took off his school cap and said, "Gentlemen, hello. Are there any vacancies?" Of course there are vacancies.A fat lady was sitting in the car. She took off her left shoe because it squeezed her feet a bit.Beside her sat a gentleman who breathed terribly loudly.After listening to Emil's question, the fat lady said to the gentleman: "Such a polite child is really rare today. Thinking of my childhood, my God, it's not like this now." She said, looking at Emil found it interesting to move the crushed left toes back and forth rhythmically in the sock, and kept staring at them with both eyes.After listening to the fat lady's words, the gentleman nodded his head reluctantly.

Emile knew it all the time, some people always said: God, everything was better before than now.So when someone said that the air used to be healthier than it is now, or that cows had bigger heads, he didn't pay attention at all.Because most of these words are not in line with the actual situation. Those who say these things are only whiners, because it hurts not to say what has to be said. Emil touched the jacket pocket on the right, and was relieved when he heard the sound of the envelope.The fellow travelers looked like men who could be trusted, not robbers or murderers.Beside the wheezing gentleman sat a lady crocheting a scarf.Next to the Emil, by the window, sat a gentleman in a top hat, reading a newspaper.

Suddenly, the man in the top hat put the newspaper aside, took out a bar of chocolate from his pocket, handed it to Emil, and said, "Hey, boy, have a bar." "I'm blunt," Emile said, taking the chocolate.Afterwards he hastily took off his hat, bowed and said, "My name is Emil Tischbein." The traveling companions all laughed.But the gentleman raised his top hat solemnly and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Grond." Then, the fat lady who took off her left shoe asked Emil, "Is Mr. Kurtz, the cloth seller in Xincheng, still alive?"

"Yes, he's alive," Emil told her. "You know him? He's also bought the land on which his shop is now." "Oh, tell him, then, that Mrs. Jacob of Big Gru's sends her regards." "But I'm going to Berlin now." "It's not too late to tell him when you get back," said Mrs. Jacobs, wiggling her toes again, and she laughed so hard that her hat slipped off her face. "Oh, oh, are you going to Berlin?" asked Grond. "Yes, my grandmother is waiting for me at the flower kiosk at the Friedrichstraße railway station," replied Emil, touching his coat pocket again.The envelope inside rustled and thankfully the money was still there.

"Do you know that place in Berlin?" "do not know." "Oh, you'll be surprised when you get there! A lot of houses have been built in Berlin lately, as high as a hundred stories, and people have to tie the roofs to the sky, or the wind blows them away. If anyone has a little For urgent matters, if you want to go to another part of the city, go to the post office as soon as possible. German meaning: table leg. He puts him in a box, and puts the box in a tube, like a pipe for postal mail, and the air in the tube, when compressed, carries him to the post office in the district to which he is going. ..Anyone who has no money goes to the bank and stakes his brain there, and he gets a thousand marks.If a person has no brains, he can only live for two days; if he returns 1,200 marks to the bank, he can redeem his brains.Now someone has invented a very modern medical device.."

"Your brains are probably in the bank, too," said the out-of-breath gentleman to the gentleman in the top hat, adding: "Stop talking nonsense!" Fat Mrs. Jacob was too scared to move her toes.The lady who hooked the scarf also stopped what she was doing. The Emil smiled unnaturally, and the two gentlemen argued for a long time.Emile thought: Anyway, it has nothing to do with me, no matter what you say!Although he had just eaten lunch, he opened the bag of sausage bread.While he was eating the third piece, the train stopped at a large station.Emil could neither see the stop sign nor hear what the conductor was shouting at the window.Almost all the passengers got out; so did Mr. Wheezing, the woman hooking the scarf, and Mrs. Jacobs.Mrs. Jacobs nearly got out of the car late because she hadn't fastened her shoelaces.

"Say hello to Mr. Kurtz for me," she repeated.Emil nodded. Now only Emile and the gentleman in the top hat were left in the carriage.Emile was a little unhappy.A man who feeds a child chocolate one moment and then tells the child some nonsense is not a very nice man.Emil wanted to touch the envelope again and change the money, but he dared not do so.After the car moved, he ran to the toilet, took the envelope out of his pocket, counted the money—not a single penny—and had no idea what to do now.He finally figured out a way.He found a pin on his collar, and first pierced the envelope and the three bills with the pin, and pinned it to the lining of his clothes.That is, he nailed the money with a needle.This time, he thought, nothing could go wrong.

When he was done, he returned to the carriage. Monsieur Grund was sleeping comfortably in a corner, and Emile was glad that there was no need to chat with him.He looked out the window and saw trees, windmills, fields, factories, cattle, and the peasants waving to the train, all passing by the window.Look, how beautiful it is!Everything was spinning in front of me, like on a gramophone record.But no one can stare out the window for hours on end. Mr. Grond has been asleep and snoring a little.Emil really wanted to get up and walk, but that would wake others up: Emil would never have liked to do that.So he leaned against a corner opposite Grond, and carefully looked at the sleeping man.Why is this man always wearing a hat?His face was thin and long, with two very thin black beards, many wrinkles at the corners of his mouth, and his ears were thin and far apart.

Suddenly, Emile shuddered all over, startled.He almost fell asleep!In any case he couldn't fall asleep.It would be nice if someone got in the car!The train stopped several times, but no one came up.It was only four o'clock, and Emil had to sit for more than two hours.To refresh himself, he pinched his legs.At school, when Mr. Bream was in history class, it worked out quite well. After a while.Emile's mind was filled with what Bonnie looked like now.But he couldn't figure out what her face looked like at all.He remembered that the last time they had seen each other—that year when Grandma and Aunt Martha had brought Bonnie to Newtown—Boney wanted to fight him.Of course he said no, because Bonney was only a bantamweight and he was at least a bantamweight himself.He told Bonnie at the time that it was unfair for them to fight each other.If he punched her on the chin from below, it was guaranteed that she would be stuck against the wall and unable to get off.But Bonnie was still arguing for the competition, and she didn't stop until Aunt Marta intervened.

"Snap"!He nearly fell off his chair.Maybe he fell asleep again?He pinched his leg and pinched it, and it must have been bruised and purple everywhere.Still, it doesn't work. He tried counting buttons again.First count from top to bottom, then from bottom to top.Counting from top to bottom is twenty-three buttons, and counting from bottom to top becomes twenty-four.Emil leaned back, thinking, what's going on here? I fell asleep thinking about it.