ters, who in winter
washed laces and in summer went with him to the fairs.

In the hovels, before which numerous children were playing, lived honest,
but poor foresters. It was the home of want and misery. Only the jockey's
house and one other would have been allowed to exist in the city. The
latter was occupied by the Jew, Costa, who ten years before had come from
a distant country to the city with his aged father and a dumb wife, and
remained there, for a little daughter was born and the old man was
afterwards seized with a fatal illness. But the inhabitants would
tolerate no Jews among them, so the stranger moved into the forester's
house on the Richtberg which had stood empty because a better one had
been built deeper in the woods. The city treasury could use the rent and
tax exacted from Jews and demanded of the stranger. The Jew consented to
the magistrate's requirement, but as it soon became known that he pored
over huge volumes all day long and pursued no business, yet paid for
everything in good money, he was believed to be an alchemist and
sorcerer.

All who lived here were miserable or despised, and when Adam had left the
Richtberg he told himself that he no longer belonged among the proud and
unblemished and since he felt dishonored and took disgrace in the same
dogged earnest, that he did everything else, he believed the people in
the Richtberg were just the right neighbors for him. All knew what it is
to be wretched, and many had still heavier disgrace to bear. And then! If
want drove his miserable wife back to him, this was the right place for
her and those of her stamp.

So he bought the jockey's house and well-supplied forge. There would be
customers enough for all he could do there in obscurity.

He had no cause to repent his bargain.

The old nurse remained with him and took care of Ulrich, who throve
admirably. His own heart too grew lighter while engaged in designing or
executing many an artistic piece of work. He sometimes went to the city
to buy iron or coals, but usually avoided any intercourse with the
citizens, who shrugged their shoulders or pointed to their foreheads,
when they spoke of him.

About a year after his removal he had occasion to speak to the
file-cutter, and sought him at the Lamb, where a number of Count
Frolinger's retainers were sitting. Adam took no notice of them, but they
began to jeer and mock at him. For a time he succeeded in controlling
himself, but when red-hair