“This hand, or that? 
      Burned is the tail of the cat. 
      Which do you choose? 
      Upper or under will lose!”

If I said “upper,” the stone was always in the lower hand, and vice versa.  And Lipp would take my apple from me with a smile, and devour it as if he were half-famished.

Why did I allow it?  In the first place because Lipp was beyond me in years and in strength, and in the second place, because he was the son of a very important personage.  His father was nothing less than the doorkeeper of the theatre; a splendid man with a shining red nose and coal-black beard reaching to his waist.  The wise reader now knows how young Lipp came by a light-blue coat and red vest.

My new friend from his earliest years had been constantly on the stage.  He played the gamin in folk-scenes and the monster in burlesques.  Besides, he was an adept at thunder and lightning; by means of cracking a whip and the close imitation of the neighing of horses, he announced the approaching stage-coach; he lighted the moon in “Der Freischutz;” and with a kettle and pair of tongs gave forewarning of the witches’ hour.  When I opened my heart to Lipp and confided to him that I wanted to go on the stage, he reached out his broad hand to me with emotion and said, “And so do I.”  Hereupon we swore eternal friendship, and Lipp promised as soon as possible to procure me an opportunity for putting my dramatic qualifications to the test.  From that hour his manner changed towards me.  Before, he had treated me with some condescension, but now his behavior towards me was more like that of a colleague.  Moreover, the game of chance for my lunch came to an end, for from that time forth I shared it with him like a brother.

The fine fellow kept his promise to make a way for me to go on the stage.  A few evenings later ("Der Freischutz” was being played), I stood with a beating heart behind the scenes, and friend Lipp stood by my side.  In my hand I held a string, with which I set the wings of the owl in the wolf’s glen in rhythmic motion.  My companion performed the wild chase.  By turns he whistled through his fingers, cracked a whip, and imitated the yelping of the hounds.  It was awfully fine.

“You did your part splendidly,” said Lipp to me at the end of the scene; “next time you must go out on the stage.”

I swam in a sea of delight.  A short time after, “Preciosa” was given, and Lipp told me that I could play the gypsy boy.  They put a white frock on me and wound red bands crosswise about my legs.  Then a chorister took me by the hand and led me up and down the back of the stage two or three times.  That was my first appearance.

It was also my last.  The affair became known.  In school I received a severe reprimand, and in addition, as a consequence of the airy gypsy costume, a cold with a cough, which kept me in bed for a day or two.

“It serves you right,” said Frau Eberlein.  “He who will not hear must feel.  This comes from playing in the theatre.  If your blessed grandmother knew that you had been with play-actors she would turn in her grave.”