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The Spectre Barber.
9

equal in strength to twelve ordinary men. The venerable Theuerdauk, was at that time, the great model of German art and skill, and his work was the latest production of our country’s intellect but he was only admired by the beaux esprits, poets and philosophers of the age. Frank belonged to neither of these classes, and had, therefore, no other occupation but to strum on his lute, or to look out of the window, and make observations on the weather; which led, however, to no more just conclusions, than the numerous theories of the airy meteorologists of the present day. Fortunately, he soon found a more attractive object for his observations, which filled at once the empty space in his head and heart.

Opposite his windows, in the same narrow street, lived a respectable widow, who, in expectation of better times, gained a scanty livelihood, by means of her spinning-wheel, on which, with the assistance of an exquisitely beautiful maiden, her only daughter, she produced every day such a quantity of yarn, that it would have reached round the whole city of Bremen, ditch, walls, suburbs and all.