come and take him up in my arms!

But now he had conjured up a restless demon whom no cry or supplication
could exorcise.

At this very moment I can distinctly remember how I wished that all the
sorrow and pain might descend on my own head and be gathered up into my
own heart, in order that I might bear them for others.

"Master, why are you sitting at your own threshold like a strange
beggar?" were the words with which Rothfuss surprised me. "I have
already heard what our madcap Ernst has done; do not let that grieve
you to death--that will do you no good. In this world, every one must
carry his own hide to market. It is bad enough in all conscience, but
there is courage in it for all. There are hundreds and thousands of
them who would like to do what he has done; but they follow the drum
with its rat-tat-tat, and put on airs into the bargain. Do you know
what I think of this matter?--Do not interrupt me, Heir Professor; I
know what I am talking about--I say that every large family must
have its black sheep, and I would rather a thousand times have a
good-for-nothing than an idiot, the very sight of whom makes one's hair
stand on end.

"Yes, indeed; my mother was right. Her favorite maxim was: 'Better sour
than rotten,' and 'To be hard of hearing is not half so bad as to have
poor eyes.'

"In every family there is something; or, as the poor woman once said:
'There is something everywhere,--except in my lard-pot, where there is
nothing at all.'"

Rothfuss would not rest until I got up again.

I went up the steps with him and into the room. He drew off my boots,
and was full of kind attentions.

Addressing me in a whisper, he offered to tell the news to his mistress
in the morning, as he thought that he was best fitted for the task.

He meant to speak of it in such a way that she would take it as his
stupid talk and give him a thorough scolding, and thus wreak her anger
on him. He thought that would be the best way, because that would help
to break the first shock of the news, and then it would be easier to
endure the rest.

The only other thing that troubled Rothfuss was how he might stop
Funk's evil tongue. He felt sure that with the exception of Funk,
others would be as much grieved as we were.

That was the trouble. The news would enlist the attention of the busy
world, those who pitied as well as those who rejoiced in the sufferings
of others.

But what matters the world: it can neither help nor hind