d learned of the guinea-pigs. He
stood there a long time thinking over his fate, when his father finally
asked him: "Is there any thing in my line you would like, young master?
A pair of new slippers, or," he added, smiling, "perhaps a covering for
your nose."

"What's that about my nose?" asked Jacob. "What do I want of a cover
for it?"

"Well," responded the shoemaker, "every one to his taste; but I must
say this much to you: if I had such a terrible nose, I would make for
it a case of rose-colored patent leather. Look! I have a fine piece of
it in my hand here; it would take at least a yard. But how well your
nose would be protected! As it is now, I know you can't help striking
your nose on every door-post, and against every wagon that you try to
get out of the way of."

Jacob stood mute with terror. He felt of his nose; it was thick, and at
least two hands long! So, too, had the old woman changed his figure so
that his mother did not know him, and everybody had called him an ugly
dwarf!

"Master," said he, half crying, "have you a mirror handy, where I can
look at myself?"

"Young master," replied his father gravely. "You do not possess a
figure that should make you vain, and you can have no reason to look in
a glass every hour. Break off the habit; it is an especially silly one
for you to indulge in."

"Oh, do but let me look in the glass!" cried Jacob. "I assure you it is
not from vanity I ask it."

"Leave me in peace--I have none. My wife has a small one, but I don't
know where she keeps it. But if you are bound to look in a glass,
across the street lives Urban, the barber, who has a mirror twice as
large as your head; look into that; and in the meantime, good morning!"

With these words, his father pushed him gently out of the door, closed
it after him, and sat down once more to his work. Jacob, very much
cast-down, went across the street to Urban, whom he had known well in
the past.

"Good morning, Urban," said he to the barber. "I have come to beg a
small favor of you; be so good as to let me look into your glass a
moment."

"With pleasure; there it is," laughed the barber, and his customers,
who were waiting for a shave, laughed with him. "You are a pretty
fellow, tall and slim, with a neck like a swan, hands like a queen, and
a stumpy nose that can not be equalled for beauty. You are a little
vain of it, to be sure; but keep on looking; it shall not be said of me
that I was so jealous I would