l gabled houses with their multiplicity of adornments.

The boy had run himself both warm and tired. He thought that now he had
seen the most remarkable things, and therefore he began to walk more
leisurely. The street which he had turned into now was surely the one
where the inhabitants purchased their fine clothing. He saw crowds of
people standing before the little stalls where the merchants spread
brocades, stiff satins, heavy gold cloth, shimmery velvet, delicate
veiling, and laces as sheer as a spider's web.

Before, when the boy ran so fast, no one had paid any attention to him.
The people must have thought that it was only a little gray rat that
darted by them. But now, when he walked down the street, very slowly,
one of the salesmen caught sight of him, and began to beckon to him.

At first the boy was uneasy and wanted to hurry out of the way, but the
salesman only beckoned and smiled, and spread out on the counter a
lovely piece of satin damask as if he wanted to tempt him.

The boy shook his head. "I will never be so rich that I can buy even a
metre of that cloth," thought he.

But now they had caught sight of him in every stall, all along the
street. Wherever he looked stood a salesman and beckoned to him. They
left their costly wares, and thought only of him. He saw how they
hurried into the most hidden corner of the stall to fetch the best that
they had to sell, and how their hands trembled with eagerness and haste
as they laid it upon the counter.

When the boy continued to go on, one of the merchants jumped over the
counter, caught hold of him, and spread before him silver cloth and
woven tapestries, which shone with brilliant colours.

The boy couldn't do anything but laugh at him. The salesman certainly
must understand that a poor little creature like him couldn't buy such
things. He stood still and held out his two empty hands, so they would
understand that he had nothing and let him go in peace.

But the merchant raised a finger and nodded and pushed the whole pile of
beautiful things over to him.

"Can he mean that he will sell all this for a gold piece?" wondered the
boy.

The merchant brought out a tiny worn and poor coin--the smallest that
one could see--and showed it to him. And he was so eager to sell that
he increased his pile with a pair of large, heavy, silver goblets.

Then the boy began to dig down in his pockets. He knew, of course, that
he didn't possess a single coin, but h