he next day, on going into the little village
close by, and spending it for gingerbread. He would go, while eating his
gingerbread, to where his father was at work, and hold it up to his father
as in triumph--making it a sort of trophy, as it were, of victory. His
father would shake his finger at him, laughing at the same time, and
saying, "Ah, Rolf! Rolf! what a little rogue you are!"

Rodolphus, in fact, generally contrived to have his own way in almost
every thing. His mother did not attempt to govern him; she tried to
_manage_ him; but in the end it generally proved that he managed her. In
fact, whenever he was engaged in any contest with his mother, his father
would usually take the boy's part, just as his mother had done in his
contests with his father.

For instance, one winter evening when he was quite a small boy, he was
sitting in a corner playing with some blocks. He was building a saw-mill.
His mother was at work in a little kitchen which opened into the room
where he was at play. His father was sitting on the settle, by the fire,
reading a newspaper. The door was open which led into the kitchen, and
Rodolphus, while he was at work upon his mill, watched his mother's
motions, for he knew that when she had finished the work which she was
doing, and had swept up the room, she would come to put him to bed. So
Rodolphus went on building the mill, and the bridge, and the flume which
was to convey the water to his mill, listening all the time to the sounds
in the kitchen, and looking up from time to time, with a very watchful
eye, at the door.

At length he heard the sound of the sweeping, and a few minutes afterward
his mother appeared at the door, coming in. Rodolphus dropped his blocks,
sprang to his feet, and ran round behind the table--a round table which
stood out in the middle of the room.

"Now, Rodolphus," said his mother, in a tone of remonstrance, looking at
the same time very seriously at him. "It is time for you to go to bed."

Rodolphus said nothing, but began to dance about, looking at his mother
very intently all the time, and moving this way and that, as she moved, so
as to keep himself exactly on the opposite side of the table from her.

"Rodolphus!" said his mother, in a very stern and commanding tone. "Come
to me this minute."

Rodolphus continued his dancing.

Rodolphus's mother was a very beautiful young woman. Her dark glossy hair
hung in curls upon her neck.

When she found that i