cht was greatly astonished at the
boldness and originality of the invention no less than at its
exceptional neatness in the finished state. The mechanical part of the
contrivance was so skilfully and cleverly arranged that even
Engelbrecht, with all his great experience, could not comprehend it at
once; but the greater therefore was his glad admiration when Master
Wacht explained to him the whole construction down to the minutest
details, and he had convinced himself that the putting of the plan into
execution could not fail to be successful.

At this time Wacht's household consisted of only two daughters besides
himself; but it was very soon to be increased.

Albeit a clever and industrious workman, Master Engelbrecht had never
been able to advance so far as that lowest grade of affluence which had
been the reward of Wacht's very earliest undertakings. He had to
contend with the worst enemy of life, against which no human power is
of any avail; it not only threatened to destroy him, but really did
destroy him--namely, consumption. He died, leaving a wife and two boys
almost in want. His wife went back to her own home; and Master Wacht
would willingly have taken both boys into his own house, but this could
only be arranged in the case of the elder, who was called Sebastian. He
was a strong intelligent lad, and having an inclination to follow his
father's trade, promised to make a good clever carpenter. He had,
however, a certain refractoriness of disposition, which at times seemed
to border closely upon badness, as well as being somewhat rude in his
manners, and even often wild and untamable; but these ill qualities
Wacht hoped to conquer by wise training. The younger boy, Jonathan by
name, was exactly the opposite of his elder brother; he was a very
pretty little boy, but rather fragile, his blue eyes laughing with
gentleness and kind-heartedness. This boy had been adopted during his
father's lifetime by Herr Theophilus Eichheimer, a worthy doctor of
law, as well as the first and oldest advocate in the place. Noticing
the boy's remarkably good parts, as well as his most decided bent for
knowledge, he had taken him to train him for a lawyer.

And here one of those unconquerable prejudices of our Wacht came to
light which have been already spoken of above, namely, he was perfectly
convinced in his own mind that everything understood under the name of
law was nothing else but so many phrases artificially hammered out
a