“‘Well, this is a jolly party,’ I heard some one call out behind me.  It was the grocer, just returning home.  ’People who love each other are fond of teasing each other,’ he said.  ’Come out, Barbara, don’t be foolish.  There’s naught amiss in an honest kiss.’  But she didn’t come out.  I took my leave after having stammered a few words of apology, scarcely knowing what I was saying.  In my confusion I took the grocer’s hat instead of my own, and he laughingly corrected the mistake.  This was, as I called it before, the happiest day of my life—­I had almost said, the only happy day.  But that wouldn’t be true, for man receives many favors from God.

“I didn’t know exactly what the girl’s feelings toward me were.  Was she angry or had I conciliated her?  The next visit cost me a great effort.  But I found her amiable.  She sat over her work, humble and quiet, not irritable as usual, and motioned with her head toward a stool standing near, intimating that I should sit down and help her.  Thus we sat and worked.  The old man prepared to go out.  ‘You needn’t go, Father,’ she said, ‘what you want to do has already been attended to.’  He stamped his foot on the floor and remained.  Walking up and down he talked of different things, but I didn’t dare take part in the conversation.  Suddenly the girl uttered a low scream.  She had cut her finger slightly and, although she didn’t usually pay any attention to such trifles, she shook her hand back and forth.  I wanted to examine the cut, but she beckoned to me to continue my work.  ’There is no end to your tomfoolery,’ the old man grumbled; and, stepping before the girl, he said in a loud voice, ’What I was going to do hasn’t been attended to at all,’ and with a heavy tread he went out of the door.  Then I started to make apologies for the day before, but she interrupted me and said, ’Let us forget that, and talk of more sensible things.’

“She raised her head, looked at me from head to foot, and continued in a calm tone of voice, ’I scarcely remember the beginning of our acquaintance, but for some time you have been calling more and more frequently, and we have become accustomed to you.  Nobody will deny that you have an honest heart, but you are weak and always interested in matters of secondary importance, so that you are hardly capable of managing your own affairs.  It is therefore the duty of your friends and acquaintances to look out for you, in order that people may not take advantage of you.  Frequently you sit here in the store half the day, counting and weighing, measuring and bargaining, but what good does that do you?  How do you expect to make your living in future?’ I mentioned the inheritance from my father.  ‘I suppose it’s quite large,’ she said.  I named the amount.  ‘That’s much and little,’ she replied.  ’Much to invest, little to live upon.  My father made you a proposition, but I dissuaded you.  For, on the one hand, he has lost money himself in similar ventures, and on