straggling children, preventing their punishment of his favorites by
means of his own stalwart arm, and then after the tumult had subsided he
would repent and tearfully sue for pardon.

Crazy Carl was laughed at for his exertions in behalf of the children,
yet to spare his feelings the necessary punishment of the children was
deferred till he was out of sight. None of the neighboring peasant
women would leave their homes, to go to the market, to a wedding, or to
a funeral, without requesting Carl to remain with the children, and upon
his compliance they would go forth untroubled, for they were well aware
of the unbounded influence "Wiseacre" possessed over the young people.

Carl's bed-room, which adjoined Nanna's apartment, contained a bedstead,
a well whittled table, and a chair mutilated in a like manner. In this
chair Carl would rock backward and forward, for hours, and with half
closed eyes would look as if by stealth, at a striped woolen waistcoat,
which was suspended against the wall, or some other little gift from
Magde.

At the same time that Nanna was seated in her room looking towards the
large tree near the spring, Carl was rocking in his chair, gazing with
his peculiar expression at a brown earthen vase, which was standing upon
the table before him. The vase contained two freshly plucked lilacs, one
blue and the other white, which emitted a fragrant odor. After Carl had
sufficiently regarded these objects, he slowly jerked his chair towards
the table, and at each pause his mouth widened into a simple simper. At
length he arrived so near the table that by bending forward he could
have easily touched the flowers with his nostrils. To accomplish this
movement, which was his evident intention, he proceeded with as much
gravity and carefulness as he had evinced in approaching the table. He