Poor Jacob did not know what to make of all this. Indeed it seemed to him that he had that very morning, as usual, gone to market with his mother, had helped her to lay out her fruit, and had afterwards gone with the old woman to her house, eaten some soup, slept a little while, and had now come back; and yet his mother and her neighbours talked of seven years, calling him at the same time an ugly dwarf. What then was the change that had come over him? Seeing, at length, that his mother would no longer listen to anything he said, he felt the tears come in his eyes, and went sorrowfully down the street towards the stall where his father sat in the daytime mending shoes. 'I am curious to see,' he thought to himself, 'whether he, too, will disown me? I will place myself in the doorway and talk to him.' And having come there he did so and looked in. The cobbler was so busily engaged at work that he did not see him; but happening to cast a look towards the door, he dropped shoe, twine, and awl on the ground, and cried with astonishment, 'For Heaven's sake, what is that?' 'Good evening, master' said the little dwarf, stepping inside the booth. 'How fare you?' 'Badly, badly, my little gentleman,' replied Jacob's father, to his utter amazement; for he, too, did not seem to recognise him. 'I have to do all the work myself, for I am alone and now getting old, and yet I cannot afford to keep a journeyman.' 'But have you no son to assist you in your work?' inquired the dwarf further. 'Indeed I had one, whose name was Jacob, and he now must be a handsome, quick lad, twenty years old, who might effectually assist me. Ah! what a pleasant life I should lead. Even when he was twelve years old he showed himself quite handy and clever, and understood a great deal of the business. He was a fine engaging little fellow; he would soon have brought me plenty of custom, so that I should no longer have been mending shoes and boots but making new ones. But so goes the world.' 'Where is your son, then?' asked Jacob in a tremulous voice. 'That God only knows,' replied his father. 'Seven years ago, yes! it is just that now, he was stolen from us in the market-place.' 'Seven years ago, you say?' cried Jacob with astonishment.