with him; but it can't be helped."

He found Koch the carpenter untying a heifer from the crib, complaining
bitterly of hard times. He went away without mentioning the object of
his visit. The College Chap had left home already, and Florian made up
his mind to go to the Eagle and say that the College Chap had sent him
to ask for a loan of six dollars: he scorned to ask for a trifle. Mine
host of the Eagle answered, "I won't lend any thing to anybody: it only
sets the best of friends by the ears." "Just what I said myself," said
Florian, laughing bitterly, as he turned away.

With a feeling of utter desolation, he walked about, thinking, "Without
money a man's a stranger in his own house." Suffused with perspiration,
he ran up one street and down another: it seemed as if every minute
wasted was a loss not to be retrieved. He now bethought himself of the
aristocratic expedient of borrowing from a Jew. Like the noble lords
and ladies who first invented this practice, he had no reason to fear
the reproving looks of these people in his further extravagances and
vain-glory. "Jews' claims are no disgrace," he said to himself, and
applied to Mendle's son Meyer, who was going to market with a belt full
of money, for the loan of some ducats at a high rate of interest. The
offer was rejected.

At last it occurred to him to go straight to Horb and pretend that he
had lost or forgotten his money. Vexed with himself for not having
thought of this before, he set out immediately. He passed George the
blacksmith, sitting at his front door as usual, and in the best of
spirits,--for the marketers afforded him plenty of entertainment.

"Where bound so fast, Florian? You look as if you could buy the world
out."

Florian stared, and stood still. He forgot that it was George's
peculiar delight, when people passed with a heavy burden, a sack of
corn, or a bundle of clover, to hold them fast with questions. Many
were caught in this trap; and then the old gossip would rejoice that he
could sit there doing nothing while others toiled and struggled. He was
equally fond of laying hands on such as had heavy loads upon their
hearts; for it was just at such times that they were likely to be most
communicative. All this escaped Florian; and he inquired,--

"How do you know that?"

"Can't you tell by looking at a stocking when the leg's out of it? I
know all about it. Crescence went up just now, with her mother's
husband, going to market, too."