e, he had dwelt in strife with his wife, and being given to rioting,
he was wont rather to go to the tavern than sit at table with his
cross-grained wife.

When he presently died there was but small leaving, and the widow in
the little house in the milk market had need to look twice at every
farthing, although she had not chick nor child. And whereas full half of
the offerings sent by the bee-keepers to help out their master's widow
were in honey, she strove to turn this to the best account, and to this
end she would by no means sell it to the dealers who would offer to take
it, but carried it herself in neat little crocks, one at a time, to the
houses of the rich folks, whereby her gains were much the greater.

Whereas her husband had been a member of the worshipful class of
magistrates, she deemed that such trading ill-beseemed her dignity; and
she at all times wore a great fur hat as large round as a cart-wheel of
fair size, and all the other array of a well-to-do housewife, though in
truth somewhat threadbare. Then she would offer her honey as a gift to
the mothers of children for their dear little ones; nor could she ever
be moved to name a price for her gift, inasmuch as it was not fitting
that a bee-master's widow should do so, while it was all to her honor
when a little bounty was offered as civil return.

Her honey was good enough, and the children were ever glad to see her:
all the more so for that they had their sport of her behind her back,
inasmuch as that she was a laughable little body, who had a trick of
repeating the last word of every sentence she spoke. Thus she would say
not: "Ah! here comes Kunz," but, "Here comes Kunz Kunz." Moreover, she
ever held her head between her two hands, tightly, as though with that
great fur cap her thin neck were in danger of breaking.

In this way she had dealings with most of our noble families; and
the young ones would call her not Hennelein, as her name was, but
Henneleinlein, in jest at her foolish trick of repeating her last word.

So long as I could remember, Mistress Henneleinlein had been wont to
bring honey to our house, and had received from Cousin Maud, besides
many a bright coin, likewise sundry worn but serviceable garments as
"remembrances." And Herdegen foremost of us all had been ready to make
sport of her; but it had come to his knowledge that she was ever benign
to lovers, and had helped many a couple to come together.

The glad tidings that her n