and show them to my mother, she was perfectly willing. I could turn
over and over and look for hours at a time at beautiful picture books,
which I had seen in the book stores with my father, but which were made
only for very good children. Everything which belonged to the young
princes belonged also to me--so I thought, at least. Furthermore, I
was not only allowed to carry away what I wished, but I often gave away
the playthings to other children. In short, I was a young Communist,
in the full sense of the term. I remember at one time the Princess had
a golden snake which coiled itself around her arm as if it were alive,
and she gave it to us for a plaything. As I was going home I put the
snake on my arm and thought I would give my mother a real fright with
it. On the way, however, I met a woman who noticed the snake and
begged me to show it to her; and then she said if she could only keep
the golden snake, she could release her husband from prison with it.
Naturally I did not stop to think for a minute, but ran away and left
the woman alone with the golden serpent-bracelet. The next day there
was much excitement. The poor woman was brought to the castle and the
people said she had stolen it. Thereupon I grew very angry and
explained with holy zeal that I had given her the bracelet and that I
would not take it back again. What further occurred I know not, but I
remember that after that time, I showed the Princess everything I took
home with me.

It was a long time before my conceptions of Meum and Tuum were fully
settled, and at a very late period they were at times confused, just as
it was a long time before I could distinguish between the blue and red
colors. The last time I remember my friends laughing at me on this
account was when my mother gave me some money to buy apples. She gave
me a groschen. The apples cost only a sechser, and when I gave the
woman the groschen, she said, very sadly as it seemed to me, that she