w anxiously Lenz
was expecting him, hoped, by seeing deeper into the rugged old man's
character, to be able to bend him to his wishes. His plan was, that
Petrowitsch should advance a certain sum, to enable Lenz to enter the
manufactory as a junior partner.

"You were eight years old when I left home to travel," began
Petrowitsch, "and so you know nothing of me."

"Oh, yes, I do! many wild pranks were related of the----"

"The little Goatherd? That name has been the plague of my life. I was
two and twenty years in foreign parts, at sea and on land, in every
possible degree of heat and cold that man or dog ever endured, and that
name followed me like a dog, and I was fool enough not to give it a
kick, and so get rid of it for ever.

"We were three brothers, and had no sisters. Our father was a proud man
when we three came, but in those days children were not so kindly
treated as now, and I think it was better; it made us independent, and
a single word, good or bad, made more impression than a hundred now. My
brother Lorenz, who was called by our family name Lenz at home, the
father of the present Lenz, was the eldest, and I the youngest. Our
second brother, Mathes, was a very handsome young man; he was carried
off by that great butcher of mankind, Napoleon, and was killed in
Spain. I have been on the battlefield where he fell. There is a high
hill, and a mass of soldiers lie buried there, so what chance of
finding out a brother among them! But what's the use of telling you
that? Not long after Mathes had become a soldier, my brother Lenz went
to Switzerland for a few months, and took me with him. Who so happy as
I? My brother was a quiet, thoughtful man; every one must admit that.
He was like a first-rate clock--exact and punctual,--but stern, very
stern. I was a wild, unruly lad, good for nothing, nor had I any notion
of sitting in a workshop. What did my brother do? He took me to a fair
for hiring servants at St. Gall, which took place every year. The great
Swiss farmers hire their shepherd lads from Swabia.

"As I was standing beside my brother in the marketplace, a stout, bluff
Appenzel farmer came up, and stood opposite us, his feet well apart,
leaning on a stick, and said to my brother, 'What is the price of the
lad?'

"I gave the saucy answer, 'A log of Swiss impudence, six feet broad,
and six feet high.'

"The stout farmer laughed, and said to my brother: 'The boy is no fool.
I like him, and we can arrang