the joint possession of all. It was not _mine_, but _ours_, as the
inscription, "For the Children," written on the blank leaf testified;
which inscription was hereafter to be a pathetic memorial to aged eyes
of days when "the children" were not yet separated, and took their
pleasures, like their meals, together.

And after all this, with the full consent of a council of the owners,
the _Märchen-Frau_ was to be "walled up."

But before I attempt to explain, or in any way excuse this seemingly
ungracious act, it may be well to give some account of the doers
thereof. Well, then:--

Providence had blessed a certain respectable tradesman, in a certain
town in Germany, with a large and promising family of children. He had
married very early the beloved of his boyhood, and had been left a
widower with one motherless baby almost before he was a man. A
neighbour, with womanly compassion, took pity upon this desolate
father, and more desolate child; and it was not until she had nursed
the babe in her own house through a dangerous sickness, and had for
long been chief adviser to the parent, that he awoke to the fact that
she had become necessary to him, and they were married.

Of this union came a family of eight, the two eldest of whom were laid
in turn in the quiet grave. The others survived, and, with the first
wife's daughter, made a goodly family party, which sometimes sorely
taxed the resources of the tradesman to provide for, though his
business was good and his wife careful. They scrambled up, however, as
children are wont to do in such circumstances; and at the time our
story opens the youngest had turned his back upon babyhood, and Marie,