do that, dear Mr. Tutor Ink?" the baron asked, rather
annoyed.

The tutor answered, "Well, it is my way; I can't alter it!" With which
he stuck his hands in his sides, and went on laughing, till at length
his laughter sounded as ugly as the noise of a broken rattle.

"You seem to be a person fond of your little jokes, Master Tutor Ink!"
the baron said. But he, and his wife, and most particularly the
children, were beginning to feel very eery and uncomfortable. "Well,
well," said Tutor Ink, "what sort of a state are these little crabs
here in? Pretty well grounded in the sciences? We'll see directly."
With which he began to ask questions of Felix and Christlieb, of the
sort that their uncle and aunt had asked of their cousins. But, as they
both declared that, as yet, they did not know any of the sciences, by
heart, Tutor Ink beat his hands over his head till everything rang
again, and cried, like a man possessed, "A pretty story indeed! No
sciences! Then we've got our work cut out for us. However, we shall
soon make a job of it."

Felix and Christlieb could both write fairly well, and, from many old
books which their father put in their hands, and which they were fond
of reading, they had learned a good many pretty stories, and could
repeat them. But Tutor Ink despised all this, and said it was stupid
nonsense.

Alas! there was no more running about in the woods to be so much as
thought of. Instead of that, the children had to sit within the four
walls of the house all day long, and babble, after Tutor Ink,
things which they did not in the least understand. It was really a
heart-breaking business. With what longing eyes they looked at the
woods! Often it was as if they heard, amidst the happy songs of the
birds, and the rustling of the trees, the Stranger Child's voice
calling to them and saying, "Felix! Christlieb! are you not coming any
more to play with me? Oh, come! I have made you a palace, all of
flowers; we will sit there, and I will give you all sorts of beautiful
stones, and then we'll soar into the air, and build ourselves
cloud-castles. Come! oh come!"

At this, the children were drawn to the woods with all their thoughts,
and neither saw nor heard their tutor any longer. But he would get very
angry, thump on the table with both his fists, and hum, and growl, and
snarl, "Pim--sim--prr--srr knurr kirr--what's all this? Wait a little!
"Felix, however, did not endure this very long; he jumped up, and
crie