he time
struck by his beauty; for his feathers displayed every possible color,
varying from a most beautiful light blue to a glowing red, and when he
sang he puffed himself out proudly, so that his feathers shone even
more gorgeously.

"The old woman often went out and did not return until evening. Then I
would go with the dog to meet her and she would call me child and
daughter. Finally I came to like her heartily; for our minds,
especially in childhood, quickly accustom themselves to everything. In
the evening hours she taught me to read; I soon learned the art, and
afterward it was a source of endless pleasure to me in my solitude,
for she had a few old, hand-written books which contained wonderful
stories.

"The memory of the life I led at that time still gives me a strange
feeling even now. I was never visited by any human being, and felt at
home only in that little family circle; for the dog and the bird made
the same impression on me which ordinarily only old and intimate
friends create. Often as I used it at that time, I have never been
able to recall the dog's strange name.

"In this way I had lived with the old woman for four years, and I must
have been at any rate about twelve years old when she finally began to
grow more confidential and revealed a secret to me. It was this: every
day the bird laid one egg, and in this egg there was always a pearl or
a gem. I had already noticed that she often did something in the cage
secretly, but had never particularly concerned myself about it. She
now charged me with the task of taking out these eggs during her
absence, and of carefully preserving them in the vessels. She would
leave food for me and stay away quite a long time--weeks and months.
My little spinning-wheel hummed, the dog barked, the wonderful bird
sang, and meanwhile everything was so quiet in the region round about
that I cannot recall a single high wind or a thunder-storm during the
entire time. Not a human being strayed thither, not a wild animal came
near our habitation. I was happy, and sang and worked away from one
day to the next. Man would perhaps be right happy if he could thus
spend his entire life, unseen by others.

"From the little reading that I did I formed quite wonderful
impressions of the world and of mankind. They were all drawn from
myself and the company I lived in; thus, if whimsical people were
spoken of I could not imagine them other than the little dog,
beautiful women alway