tables.
But when the boy was old enough, he was turned off to pick up his own
subsistence like the redbreasts, the sparrows, and the woodpeckers.
'Listen, my lad,' quoth Daddy Thaddaeus; 'this is the spring. Look for
sloes and elderberries, rose-leaves and others for ointment; marjoram,
spurge, and thyme, wherever thou mayst and canst. These we will sell
to the apothecaries. In summer, gather basketfuls of strawberries,
bilberries, and raspberries; carry them to the houses: they will yield
money. In winter, let us gather and dry locks of wool, for the
saddlers and tapestry-makers, and withes for the basket and mat
manufacturers. From the table of the bountiful God, a thousand crumbs
are falling for us: these we will pick up. They will give thee cheese
to thy bread, and a piece of meat to thy potatoes. Only get to work! I
will give thee a little barrow, and a belt for thy shoulders.'

This was his first essay in business on his own account, and he worked
hard and throve well. His separation from his father taught him how to
stand on his own legs--an important piece of knowledge in a world that
is as full of leave-takings as of meetings; and when they did come
together, and the boy counted out his kreutzers, and the father patted
him approvingly on the cheek, that boy would have changed places with
no prince that ever sat on a throne. Jonas was at length apprenticed
to a girdler, or worker in metals; and the old tinker in due time
died, leaving his son the parting advice, to 'work, save, and pray,'
and a box containing a thousand guilders.

Jonas's apprenticeship passed on pretty much according to universal
rule; that is, he did the drudgery of the house as well as learned the
trade, and received kicks and cuffs from the journeymen. But in five
years his servitude was out, and he was a journeyman himself. He was
now, by the rules of his guild, obliged to travel for improvement; he
spent five or six years in going to and fro upon the earth, and then
came back to Altenheim an accomplished girdler. To become a master, it
was necessary to prepare his 'master-piece,' as a specimen of what he
could do; and the task allotted to him was to engrave on copper,
without rule or compass, the prince's family-crest, and then to gild
the work richly. This accomplished, he was received into the guild of
masters with much pomp, strange ceremonies, and old-fashioned
feasting--all at the charge of the poor beginner. 'Without reckoning
the