a miser? It is a
shame!--it is a sin!--it is a judgment! Nothing better could come of it.
At all events, you might afford to have a light burning in the house.
People are ever likely to rob you. They see a house as dark as an oven;
they see nobody in it; they go in and steal; nobody can see them come
out--and that is just it. But were there a light burning, they would
always think there was somebody in. At all events, you might have a
light."

"There is something in that," said Hans. He was not at all unreasonable:
so he determined to have a light in future: and he fell to work again.

Bad as his luck had been, he resolved not to be cast down: he was as
diligent and as thrifty as ever; and he resolved, when he became
Buergermeister of Rapps, to be especially severe on sneaking thieves, who
crept into houses that were left to the care of Providence and the
municipal authorities. A light was everlastingly burning in his window;
and the people, as they passed in the morning, said, "This man must have
a good business that requires him to be up thus early;" and they who
passed in the evening, said, "This man must be making a fortune, for he
is busy early and late." At length Hans leaped down from his board with
the work that was to complete his sum, a second time; went; returned,
with the future Buergermeister growing rapidly upon him; when, as he
turned the corner of the street--men and mercies!--what a spectacle! His
house was in a full burst of flame, illuminating, with a ruddy glow,
half the town, and all the faces of the inhabitants, who were collected
to witness the catastrophe. Money, fiddle, shop-board--all were
consumed! and when poor Hans danced and capered, in the very ecstasy of
his distraction--"Ay," said his neighbors, "this comes of leaving a
light in an empty house. It was just the thing to happen. Why don't you
get somebody to take care of things in your absence?"

Hans stood corrected; for, as I have said, he was soon touched to the
quick, and though in his anger he did think it rather unkind that they,
who advised the light, now prophesied after the event; when that was a
little abated, he thought there was reason in what they now said. So,
bating not a jot of his determination to save, and to be Buergermeister
of Rapps, he took the very next house, which luckily happened to be at
liberty, and he got a journeyman. For a long time, his case appeared
hard and hopeless. He had to pay three hundred per cent,