Two men, the one a horse-dealer, the other a tax-collector or receiver, who were sitting at a table beneath the large linden in front of the house and imbibing their drink, had been watching the work of the robust old man.

“It must be true!” one of them, the horse-dealer, called out.  “You would have made an excellent blacksmith, Judge!”

The Justice washed his hands and face in a pail of water which was standing beside the anvil, poured the water into the fire to extinguish it, and said: 

“He is a fool who gives to the blacksmith what he can earn himself!”

He picked up the anvil as if it were a feather, and carried it, along with the hammer and tongs, under a little shed which stood between the house and the barn, and in which there were standing, or hanging, a work-bench, saws, chisels, and whatever other tools pertain to the carpenter’s or joiner’s trade, as well as a quantity of wood and boards of many kinds.

While the old man was still busying himself under the shed, the horse-dealer said to the receiver: 

“Would you believe it that he also repairs with his own hands all the posts, doors, thresholds, boxes, and cases in the house, or if luck favors him makes new ones himself?  I believe that he could be an expert joiner, if he wanted to, and put together a first-class cabinet.”

“You are wrong there,” said the Justice, who had overheard the latter remark and who, having taken off his leather apron, now emerged from the shed in a smock-frock of white linen and sat down at the table with the two men.

[Illustration:  The Master of the Oberhof]

A maid brought a glass to him also, and, after drinking the health of his guests, he continued:  “To make a post or a door or a threshold, all you need is a pair of sound eyes and a steady hand, but a cabinet-maker has to have more than that.  I once allowed my conceit to deceive me into thinking that I could put together, as you call it, a first-class cabinet, because I had handled plane and chisel and T-square more or less doing carpenter’s work.  I measured and marked and squared off the wood and had everything fitted down to the inch.  Yes, but now when it came to the joining and gluing together, everything was all wrong; the sides were warped and wouldn’t come together, the lid in front was too large, and the drawers too small for the openings.  You can still see the contraption; I let it stand on the sill to guard me from future temptation.  For it always does a man good to have a reminder of his weakness constantly before his eyes.”

At this moment a loud neigh was heard from the stable across the yard.  The horse-dealer cleared his throat, spat, struck a light for his pipe, blew a dense cloud of smoke into the receiver’s face, and looked first longingly toward the stable, and then thoughtfully down at the ground.  Then he spat once more, removed the varnished hat from his head, wiped his brow with his sleeve, and said:  “Still this sultry weather!” Thereupon he unbuckled his leather money-pouch from his body, threw it down on the table with a bang, so that its contents rattled and jingled, untied the strings, and counted out twenty bright gold pieces, the sight of which caused the receiver’s eyes to sparkle, while the old Justice did not even look at them.