was never thrown aside with the contemptuous
remark,--"I've read that!" On the contrary, it always had been to its
possessors, what (from the best Book downwards) a good book always
should be, a friend, and not an acquaintance--not to be too readily
criticized, but to be loved and trusted. The pages were yellow and
worn, not with profane ill-usage, but with honourable wear and tear;
and the mottled binding presented much such an appearance as might be
expected from a book that had been pressed under the pillow of one
reader, and in the pocket of another; that had been wept over and
laughed over, and warmed by winter fires, and damped in the summer
grass, and had in general seen as much of life as the venerable book
in question. It was not the property of one member of the family, but
the joint possession of all. It was not _mine_, but _ours_, as the
inscription, "For the Children," written on the blank leaf testified;
which inscription was hereafter to be a pathetic memorial to aged eyes
of days when "the children" were not yet separated, and took their
pleasures, like their meals, together.

And after all this, with the full consent of a council of the owners,
the _Maerchen-Frau_ was to be "walled up."

But before I attempt to explain, or in any way excuse this seemingly
ungracious act, it may be well to give some account of the doers
thereof. Well, then:--

Providence had blessed a certain respectable tradesman, in a certain
town in Germany, with a large and promising family of children. He had
married very early the beloved of his boyhood, and had been left a
widower with one motherless baby almost before he was a man. A
neighbour, with womanly compassion, took pity upon this desolate
father, and more desolate child; and it was not until she had nursed
the babe in her own house through a dangerous sickness, and had for
long been chief adviser to the parent, that he awoke to the fact that
she had become necessary to him, and they were married.

Of this union came a family of eight, the two eldest of whom were laid
in turn in the quiet grave. The others survived, and, with the first
wife's daughter, made a goodly family party, which sometimes sorely
taxed the resources of the tradesman to provide for, though his
business was good and his wife careful. They scrambled up, however, as
children are wont to do in such circumstances; and at the time our
story opens the youngest had turned his back upon babyhood, and Mar