her face seemed as though it had
been hewn out of coarse wood, so that it was a proper face to frighten
children; even when she was young they said that her appearance was too
like a man and devoid of charms, and for that reason my father never
heeded her love for him; but her eyes were like open windows, and out of
them looked everything that was good and kind and loving and true, like
angels within. For the sake of those eyes you forgot all else; all
that was rough in her, and her wide nose with the deep dent just in the
middle, and such hair on her lip as many a young stripling might envy
her.

And Sebald Kresz knew very well what he was about when he took to wife
Maud Im Hoff when he was between sixty and seventy years of age; and she
had nothing to look forward to in life as she stood at the altar with
him, but to play the part of nurse to a sickly perverse old man. But to
Maud it seemed as fair a lot to take care of a fellow-creature as it is
to many another to be nursed and cherished; and it was the reward of her
faithful care that she could keep the old man from the clutch of Death
for full ten years longer. After his decease she was left a well-to-do
widow; but instead of taking thought for herself she at once entered on
a life of fresh care, for she undertook the duty of filling the place of
mother to us three orphans.

As I grew up she would often instruct me in her kind voice, which was
as deep as the bass pipe of an organ, that she had set three aims before
her in bringing us up, namely: to make us good and Godfearing; to
teach us to agree among ourselves so that each should be ready to give
everything up to the others; and to make our young days as happy as
possible. How far she succeeded in the first I leave to others to judge;
but a more united family than we ever were I should like any man to show
me, and because it was evident from a hundred small tokens how closely
we clung together folks used to speak of us as "the three links,"
especially as the arms borne by the Schoppers display three rings linked
to form a chain.

As for myself, I was the youngest and smallest of the three links, and
yet I was the middle one; for if ever it fell that Herdegen and Kunz had
done one thing or another which led them to disagree and avoid or defy
each other, they always came together again by seeking me and through my
means. But though I thus sometimes acted as peacemaker it is no
credit to me, since I did not brin