the house of T. O. Schroeter, and yearly
protested against the expectation of its arrival, by which the good
woman's household purchases were more or less influenced. But its
arrival was, in reality, of the utmost importance in his eyes; and that,
not for the sake of the actual coffee and sugar themselves, but of the
poetry of this connecting link between him and the life of a perfect
stranger. He carefully tied up all the letters of the firm, together
with three love-letters from his wife. He became a connoisseur in
colonial produce, an oracle in coffee, whose decision was much deferred
to by the Ostrau shopkeepers. He began to interest himself in the
affairs of the great firm, and never failed to note the ups and downs
reported in a certain corner of the newspapers, wholly mysterious to the
uninitiated. Nay, he even indulged in fancy speculations and an ideal
partnership, chafed when sugars fell, and chuckled at the rise of
coffee.

A strange, invisible, filmy thread it was, this which connected
Wohlfart's quiet household with the activity of the great mercantile
world, and yet it was by this that little Anton's whole life was swayed;
for when the old gentleman sat in his garden of an evening in his satin
cap, and pipe in his mouth, he would dilate upon the advantages of
trade, and ask his son whether he should like to be a merchant;
whereupon a kind of kaleidoscope-picture suddenly shaped itself in the
little fellow's mind, made up of sugar-loaves, raisins, and almonds,
golden oranges, his father's smile, and the mysterious delight which the
arrival of the box always occasioned him, and he replied at once, "Yes,
father, _that_ I should!"

Let no one say that our life is poor in poetical influences; still does
the enchantress sway us mortals as of old. Rather let each take heed
what dreams he nurses in his heart's innermost fold, for when they are
full grown they may prove tyrants, ay, and cruel ones too.

In this way the Wohlfart family lived on for many a year; and whenever
the good woman privately entreated her husband to form some decision as
to the boy's way of life, he would reply, "It is formed already; he is
to be a merchant." But in his own heart he was a little doubtful as to
how this dream of his could ever be realized.

Meanwhile a dark day drew on, when the shutters of the house remained
late unclosed, the servant-girl with red eyes, ran up and down the
steps, the doctor came and shook his head, the o