deed in Nuremberg could have spent more.

My eldest brother was the only one of us three who might keep any
remembrance of our father, whose trade with Venice and Flanders had
yielded great profits, and he could yet mind him how full the house had
ever been of guests, and the stables of horses. Now, therefor, he was
fain to live on the same wise, and this he deemed was right and seemly,
inasmuch as he took the moneys which I gave him as half the clear
profits of the Im Hoff trade, which were his by right. And I was fain to
suffer him to enjoy that belief, albeit at that time concerns looked but
badly. It was I, not he, whose part it was to care for those concerns;
and I rejoiced with all my heart when he and his lovely young wife
rode forth in such bravery, when he sat as host at the head of a table
well-furnished with guests, and won all hearts by his lofty and fiery
spirit, which conquered even the least well-disposed. Yet was it not
easy to supply that which was needed, or to refrain from speech or
reproof when, for instance, my brother must need have from the land of
Egypt for Ann such another noble horse as the Emirs there are wont to
ride. Or could I require him to pay when, after that Heaven had blessed
him with a first born child, Herdegen, radiant with pride and joy,
showed me a cradle all of ivory overlaid with costly carved work which
he had commanded to be wrought for his darling by the most skilled
master known far and wide, for a sum which at that time would have
purchased a small house? Albeit it was nigh upon quarter day, I would
have taken this and much more upon me rather than have quenched his
heart's great gladness; and when I saw thee, Margery the younger, who
art now thyself a grandmother, sleeping like a king's daughter in that
precious cradle, and perceived with how great joy it filled thy parents
to have their jewel in so costly a bed, I rejoiced over my own patience.

It did my heart good, though I spoke not, to hear the Schoppers' house
praised as the friendliest in all Nuremberg; yet at other times meseemed
I saw shame and poverty standing at the door; and whereas, indeed, those
years of magnificence, which for sure were the hardest in all my life,
came to no evil issue, I owe this, next to Heaven's grace, to the trust
which many folks in Nuremberg placed in my honesty and judgment, far
beyond my desert. And when once, not long before my brother's over-early
death, I found myself to the very