apparelled youth from a distance, he stilted towards him, and gave him kindly welcome. Franz answered his salutation, and said: “Friend, canst thou take a walk with me into the Neustadt, to transact a small affair? Thy trouble shall not be unpaid.”
“Ah; why not?” replied the old blade; “though I have a wooden leg, I can step you with it as stoutly as the lame dwarf that crept round the city-common;[1] for the wooden leg, you must know, has this good property, it never tires. But excuse me a little while till Graycloak is come: he never misses to pass along the Bridge between day and night.”
“What of Graycloak?” inquired Franz: “let me know about him.”
“Graycloak brings me daily about nightfall a silver groschen, I know not from whom. It is of no use prying into things, so I never mind. Sometimes it occurs to me Graycloak must be the devil, and means to buy my soul with the money. But devil or no devil, what care I? I did not strike him on the bargain, so it cannot hold.”
“I should not wonder,” answered Franz, with a smile, “if Graycloak were a piece of a knave. But do thou follow me: the silver groschen shall not fail thee.”
Timbertoe set forth, hitched on briskly after his guide, who conducted him up one street and down another, to a distant quarter of the city, near the wall; then halted before a neat little new-built house, and knocked at the door. When it was opened: “Friend,” said he, “thou madest one evening of my life cheerful; it is just that I should make the evening of thy life cheerful also. This house, with its appurtenances, and the garden where it stands, are thine; kitchen and cellar are full; an attendant is appointed to wait upon thee; and the silver groschen, over and above, thou wilt find every noon lying under thy plate. Nor will I hide from thee that Graycloak was my servant, whom I sent to give thee daily an honourable alms, till I had got this house made ready for thee. If thou like,
- ↑ There is an old tradition, that a neighbouring Countess promised in jest to give the Bremers as much land as a cripple, who was just asking her for alms, would creep round in a day. They took her at her word; and the cripple crawled so well, that the town obtained this large common by means of him.
