Meantime, with the view of not waking him up by means of a sudden change of key, I went on talking to him as if nothing had happened, speaking to him all the time I was slipping away from him further and further towards the window with an exceedingly gradual _diminuendo_ of my tone, as follows:--"And of such a public as this, I quite expect that a time will come when it will value shoe leather much above altar-pieces,[9] and that, when the moral and philosophical credit of any philosopher chances to be in question, its first inquiry of all will be, 'is the fellow _solvent_?' And further, my beloved listener (I continued in the same tone, so as not to run the risk of waking the sleeper by any change in the _kind_ of sound), it is to be hoped and expected that I shall now have an opportunity of going through, for your entertainment, my Flower-pieces, which have not even been committed to paper as yet, and which I can quite easily finish this evening, if _he_ (father Jacobus) will have the goodness to sleep long enough." I commenced, accordingly, as follows:-- P.S. But it would be too utterly ridiculous altogether, if I were to have the whole of the Flower and Thorn pieces, which are all in the book itself, printed over again in the _preface_! At the end of book the first, however, I shall give the continuation and conclusion of this preface, and of the New Year's Eve, and shall then go on with the second book, so that it may be ready for the Easter fair. JEAN PAUL FR. RICHTER. HOF, _7th November_, 1796. WEDDED LIFE, DEATH AND MARRIAGE OF F. S. SIEBENKÆS, PARISH ADVOCATE IN THE ROYAL BURGH OF KUHSCHNAPPEL. * * * A GENUINE THORN PIECE. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. A WEDDING DAY, SUCCEEDING A DAY OF RESPITE--THE COUNTERPARTS--DISH QUINTETTE IN TWO COURSES--TABLE-TALK--SIX ARMS AND HANDS. Siebenkæs, parish advocate[10] for the royal borough of Kuhschnappel, had spent the whole of Monday at his attic-window watching for his wife that was to be, who had been expected to arrive from Augspurg a little before service-time, so as to get a sip of something warm before going to church for the wedding. The Schulrath of the place, happening to be returning from Augspurg, had promised to bring the bride with him as return cargo, strapping her wedding outfit on to his trunk behind.