d not allow the
maid-servant to carry them off and roast them. Lastly, he would often
run away from his playfellows, and sit lost in thought in a corner of
the room. His greatest delight, however, was to perch himself on a chair
opposite his father, cross his legs in the same way, and smoke a mimic
pipe in emulation. Moreover, he was so seldom naughty, that all such of
the female population of Ostrau as took a gloomy view of things in
general held it doubtful that he could live to grow up, till one day
Anton publicly thrashed the councilor's son, which in some degree
modified the opinions concerning him. In short, he was just the boy that
the only child of warm-hearted parents might be expected to prove. At
school he was an example of industry; and when the drawing-master began
to declare that he must be a painter, and the classical teacher to
devote him to Philology, the boy might have been in some danger of being
diverted from the serious pursuit of any one specific calling but for an
accident which determined his choice.

Every Christmas evening the mail brought to the house of the paternal
Wohlfart a box containing a loaf of the finest sugar and a quantity of
the best coffee. This sugar the good man himself broke into squares: the
coffee was roasted by his wife's own hands; and the complacency with
which they sipped their first cup was pleasant to behold. These were
seasons when, to the childish soul of Anton, the whole house seemed
pervaded with poetry, and his father was never weary of telling him the
history of this periodical present. Many years ago, he had chanced to
find, in a dusty bundle of law-papers, a document of great importance to
a well-known mercantile house in the capital. This document he had at
once forwarded, and, in consequence of it, the firm had been enabled to
gain a long-pending lawsuit, which had previously threatened to go
against them; upon which the young head of the concern had written his
acknowledgments, and Wohlfart had refused to be thanked, having, he
said, only done his duty. From that time forth the box we have described
made its appearance every Christmas evening, accompanied by a few
cordial lines, to which Wohlfart responded in a masterpiece of
caligraphy, expressing his surprise at the unexpected arrival, and
wishing a happy new year to the firm. The old gentleman persisted, even
to his wife, in treating this Christmas box as a mere accident, a
trifle, a whim of some clerk in