oy grew
up a fine, handsome youth, but in character he remained the boy of
former days. If he looked up from his work it was not in order to gaze,
like other journeymen, after a young girl who maybe was tripping past;
but to stare up at the sky, which shone so blue between the houses, or
to follow with his eyes the great white clouds away,--who knows whither?
In his free time he did not go like others to the market-place, but
would mount the ramparts at the back of his parents' house and gaze into
the valley below, where the river was bearing its silvery wavelets into
the far distance. What might not be in the far distance? Far, far away
yonder must be the place where the dream of his childhood was realized!
How astonished, then, was his father, when one fine sunny spring morning
his son stood before him, with knapsack and staff, in order to bid him
farewell before setting out on his travels. Who would ever have thought
he would want to travel! The father rejoiced in the belief that the son
would seek work according to the custom of journeymen workmen, and gave
him his blessing, and much good advice besides. But he hardly even heard
the words and advice of his father; there was a singing in his ears and
a mist before his eyes, so that he felt like one intoxicated. Yes, he
was a fool! Nor did he see the tears his mother and Liesel were shedding
at his departure: he only thought of that far-off land, of the dream of
his childhood. What mattered to him their tears! He wanted only to
travel to find his Eden. And he travelled. With each rising sun he arose
and thought, "To-day you will find what you seek;" and when he laid
himself down tired at night, he thought, "To-morrow I shall reach my
goal;" and, happy in this thought, he would fall asleep. No mountain was
too steep for him, no path too stony, no forest too dense; he thought of
his Eden, and minded not the thorns that tore his flesh. Yes, he was a
fool!

Far behind him, forgotten, lay his home in the dim distance!

No living creature could tell him where his Paradise lay! The birds of
the forest went on with their song; the deer gazed at him astonished;
the brooks babbled on monotonously and sought the way to the ocean.
People he asked only laughed, and they looked back at the strange lad,
shaking their heads.

Quickly the time flew by; the spring faded, summer and autumn passed,
and still he wandered on. His path, that once lay before him green and
fair, was now co