Forthwith to him replied the excellent sensible mother "Father, you're always unjust whenever you speak of your son, and That is the least likely way to obtain your wishes' fulfillment, For we cannot fashion our children after our fancy. We must have them and love them, as God has given them to us, Bring them up for the best, and let each do as he listeth. One has one kind of gift, another possesses another, Each one employs them, and each in turn in his separate fashion Good and happy becomes. My Hermann shall not be upbraided, For I know that he well deserves the wealth he'll inherit; He'll be an excellent landlord, a pattern to burghers and peasants, And, as I clearly foresee, by no means the last in the Council. But with your blame and reproaches, you daily dishearten him sadly, As you have done just now, and make the poor fellow unhappy." Then she left the apartment, and after her son hasten'd quickly, Hoping somewhere to find him, and with her words of affection Gladden his heart, for he, the excellent son, well deserved it. Smilingly, when she had closed the door, continued the father "What a wonderful race of people are women and children. All of them fain would do whatever pleases their fancy, And we're only alow'd to praise them and flatter them freely. Once for all there's truth in the ancient proverb which tells us: He who moves not forward, goes backward! a capital saying!" Speaking with much circumspection, the druggist made answer as follows "What you say, good neighbour, is certainly true, and my plan is Always to think of improvement, provided tho' new, 'tis not costly. But what avails it in truth, unless one has plenty of money, Active and fussy to he, improving both inside and outside? Sadly confined are the means of a burgher; e'en when he knows it, Little that's good he is able to do, his purse is too narrow, And the sum wanted too great; and so he is always prevented. I have had plenty of schemes! but then I was terribly frighten'd At the expense, especially during a time of such danger. Long had my house smiled upon me, decked out in modish exterior, Long had my windows with large panes of glass resplendently glitterd. Who can compete with a merchant, however, who, rolling in riches, Also knows the manner in which what is best can be purchased? Only look at the house up yonder, the new one: how handsome Looks the stucco of those white scrolls on the green-colour'd panels! Large are the plates of the windows--how shining and brilliant the panes are, Quite eclipsing the rest of the houses that stand in the market! Yet at the time of the fire, our two were by far the most handsome, Mine at the sign of the Angel, and yours at the old Golden Lion. Then my garden was famous throughout the whole country, and strangers Used to stop as they pass'd and peep through my red-colourd palings At my beggars of stone, and at my dwarfs, which were painted, He to whom I gave coffee inside my beautiful grotto,