ahn, Vefela's father, was called the
Manor-House Farmer. He was not a native of the village, but had moved
there from Baisingen, which is five miles away. Baisingen is one of
those fertile villages called "straw shires," and the Baisingers were
nicknamed "straw-boots," from their custom of strewing the streets of
the village with straw. The German peasantry are not difficult to
please in point of cleanliness; and such a device suits their tastes
for two reasons: it saves street-sweeping and helps to make manure
for the numerous fields of such rich folk as the Baisingers. The
Manor-House Farmer lived in the village thirty years; but he never had
a dispute without hearing himself reviled as the Baisingen straw-boots,
and his wife as the Baisingen cripple. Mrs. Zahn had a fine figure and
a good carriage; but her left leg was a little short and made her limp
in walking. This defect was a chief cause of her unusual wealth. Her
father, whose name was Staufer, once said publicly at the inn that the
short leg shouldn't hurt his daughter, because he would put a peck of
crown-thalers under it as her wedding-portion, and see if that wouldn't
make it straight.

He kept his word; for when his daughter married Zahn he filled a
peck-measure with as many dollars as would go into it, stroked it as if
it had been wheat, and said, "There! what's in it is yours." To keep up
the joke, his daughter was told to set her foot upon it, and the peck
of silver flourished on the wedding-table as one of the dishes.

With this money Zahn bought the manorial estate of the counts of
Schleitheim, and built the fine house from which he took his nickname.
Of nine children born to him, five lived,--three sons and two
daughters. The youngest child was Vefela. She was so pretty and of such
delicate frame that they used to call her, half in scorn and half in
earnest, "the lady." Partly from pity and partly from malice, every one
said in speaking of her that she was "marked," for she had inherited
the short leg of her mother. This expression has an evil meaning: it is
applied to humpbacks, to one-eyed and lame persons, as if to insinuate
that God had marked them as dangerous and evil-disposed. Being too
frequently treated with scorn and suspicion, these unfortunates are
often bitter, crabbed, and deceitful: the prejudice against them
provokes the very consequences afterward alleged in proof of its truth.

It was not that Vefela did harm to any one: she was k