is really tiresome!"

This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because
he knew there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known
to everybody at home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came
there and told his story, they would say that he was imitating it, and
that he had no need to do. He would, therefore, not talk about it at
all; and that was wisely thought.

*Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.

In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the light
directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its
master for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little;
he made himself great: but no shadow came again. He said, "Hem! hem!"
but it was of no use.

It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and
after the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new
shadow came in the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very
fair shadow, which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands,
grew more and more in the journey, so that at last it was so long and so
large, that it was more than sufficient.

The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true
in the world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there
passed days and years--yes! many years passed away.

One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking
at the door.

"Come in!" said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there
stood before him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange.
As to the rest, the man was very finely dressed--he must be a gentleman.

"Whom have I the honor of speaking?" asked the learned man.

"Yes! I thought as much," said the fine man. "I thought you would not
know me. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You
certainly never thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your
old shadow? You certainly thought I should never more return. Things
have gone on well with me since I was last with you. I have, in all
respects, become very well off. Shall I purchase my freedom from
service? If so, I can do it"; and then he rattled a whole bunch of
valuable seals that hung to his watch, and he stuck his hand in the
thick gold chain he wore around his neck--nay! how all his fingers
glittered with diamond rings; and then all were pure gems.

"Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!" sa