laces on the latter, my cup of
felicity was nearly full.

Our home, on the contrary, had shrunk and grown darker; there was no
more garden now in which I could romp with my comrades when the weather
was fine, no hallway to receive us hospitably when it rained and blew. I
was restricted to a narrow room in which I myself could hardly move
around and into which I dared not bring any playmates, and to the space
before the door, where it was seldom that any one would stay with me
very long, as the street ran directly past it.

The reason for this change, which brought about such serious
consequences, was strange enough. My father at the time of his marriage
had, by going security, laden himself with another's debt, and would no
doubt have been driven out much earlier if his creditor had not
fortunately had to serve a long term in the penitentiary in punishment
for an act of incendiarism. He was one of those terrible men who do evil
for evil's sake, and prefer the crooked path even when the straight one
would lead them more quickly and surely to the goal. He had that
lowering, wicked, diabolical look in his eyes which no one can endure,
and which in a childlike age may have begotten belief in witches and
sorcerers, because enjoyment of evil finds expression in it, indeed it
seems of necessity to be forced to increase evil. A tavern and general
store-keeper by profession and more than prosperous for his station, he
might have led the most peaceful and merry existence possible, but he
absolutely had to be at enmity with God and the world, and to give free
rein to a truly devilish humor, such as I have never come across
elsewhere, even in detective stories.

Thus he once, with the greatest friendliness, allowed his wife, at her
request, to go to confession on Saturday, but forbade her to take the
communion on Sunday, in accordance with the Protestant custom, because
she had not asked his permission to do so. When any one of his neighbors
happened to be raising a fine young horse, he would go to him and offer
an absurdly low price for the animal. If the other refused it, he would
say: "I would think about it, and bear in mind the old rule, that one
should hand over everything that has once been bargained for; who knows
what may happen!" And surely enough the horse, in spite of careful
watching, would sooner or later be found in the meadow or in the stable
with the tendons of its feet cut and would have to be stabbed to death;