"That would not be hard," broke in the Bavarian at this, "to live in concord and happiness with Miss Zues. I also would undertake to do the same. I am not a fool, either. My craft I understand as well as the best, and I know how to keep things in order without ever having to get excited about it. And although I also have dwelt in the largest cities and have earned good wages there, I have never got into trouble, and neither have I ever killed as much as a spider or thrown a brick at a mewling cat. I am temperate and easily pleased with my food, and am able to get along with very little indeed. With that I am in full health and of good temper and cheerful. I can stand much hardship without losing my bland mind, and my good conscience is an elixir that keeps me in excellent spirit. All animals love me and follow me, because they scent my kind heart, for with an unjust man they would not stay. A poodle dog once followed me for three entire days, on leaving the town of Ulm, and at last I was forced to leave it in charge of a peasant, since I as an humble journeyman combmaker could not afford to feed such a creature. When I was traveling through the Bohemian Forest stags and deer used to come within twenty paces of me, and would then stand and watch me. It is wonderful indeed how even such wild beasts know by instinct what kind of human beings they have to deal with." "True," here sang out the Suabian. "Don't you see how this chaffinch has been fluttering around me this whole while, and how it is anxious to approach me? And that squirrel over there by the pine tree is constantly glancing towards me, and here again a small beetle is creeping up my leg and will not go away. Surely, it must be feeling comfortable with me, the tiny thing."