esence in the shop sufficed to make every bird ruffle himself and
to chirp angrily in his cage. Yet Herr Strauss was most agreeable in his
manners, and was a very personable young man. As for his riches, they
spoke for themselves in his fine attire and in his fine gold watch and
chain; and he also spoke for them, making frequent allusions to his
comfortable present position in the world as his father's partner, and
to his still more comfortable prospective position as his father's sole
heir.

Ludwig, on the other hand, could not boast of any great amount of
gilding upon, as Andreas believed it to be, the sterling metal of which
he was made. But he was by no means what would be considered by the
dwellers on the East Side a poor man. He was a steady and a good
master-workman, with three or four apprentices under him; and all day
long there was to be heard in his shop the cheerful, business-like sound
of the thumping of short hammers on lap-stones, together with the loud
clicking of the sewing-machine on which the delicate stitching of
uppers was done. In the window, screened with a green curtain of growing
vines--as is the pretty custom with most of the German shoemakers on the
East Side--there always might be seen a pair or two of well-made stout
shoes drying in the sunshine on their lasts; and with these a half-dozen
or more pairs of shoes newly soled and heeled in a substantial,
workmanlike fashion that would have done credit to Hans Sachs himself.
Making and mending together, it was a very good business that Ludwig
was doing; each year a better balance was lodged to his credit in the
savings-bank, and the great golden boot that hung above his door-way
told no more than the truth of the good work that was done and of the
good money that was well earned within. From the stand-point of public
opinion on the East Side, this thriving young shoemaker already was a
man of substance, whose still more substantial future was assured.

There was in the nature of Ludwig much the same simplicity and
gentleness that characterized Andreas--which common qualities, no doubt,
had much to do with the strong friendship that there was between them;
and all his neighbors, remembering how good a son he had been, and
knowing also how deeply he still sorrowed for the dear mother lost to
him in death, were more than ready to vouch for the goodness of his
heart. Indeed, it was while trying to comfort him a little after this
great sorrow fell u