This lucky combination endeared Uncle Braesig to everyone, and
enabled him to make his blustering way cheerfully, yet serenely
conscious of all joys and sorrows, amid the vicissitudes of life. He
understood the human heart, whether it beat in the breast of a child or
a tired old man, of a villain or of a loving wife. Nobody, however, was
dearer to him than Mina and Lina Nuessler, his god-children. And naughty
little girls these angelic twins were too, without respect for
grandfather's peruke or grandmother's Sunday cap. They placed them on
their own curly locks, and danced the "Kringelkranz-Rosendanz," and in
so doing broke Mina's favorite toy-jar. In their eagerness to have it
mended they ran from the house.]
* * * * *
Just as the children entered the yard a little man came in at the gate.
And this little man had a red face, and a very imposing red nose which
he always held cocked up in the air. He wore a square cap of no
particular color with a tassel in front, and a long-tailed, loose, gray
linen-coat. He always kept his feet turned out in an exaggerated first
position which made his short legs look as if they were fastened to his
body in the wrong way. He had striped trousers and long boots with
yellow tops. He was not stout, and yet he was by no means thin, in fact
his figure was beginning to lose its youthful proportions.
Pages:
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370