tempt to peddle matches and pencils from house to house also
failed to produce an income, he sank to be a charge on the community.
In these years he had become suddenly old and wretched; but from the
days of his ruined splendor he had retained a certain provision of
small arts and an external manner which helped him over some rough
places and still produced their effect in the lower class of
public-houses. He took with him to these places certain majestic and
sweeping gestures and well-sounding habits of speech which had long
corresponded to no inner reality, but on the strength of which he still
enjoyed a standing among the good-for-nothings of the town.

At that time there was no poorhouse in Gerbersau; but people who were
of no use to the community were maintained at a small provision from
the town funds here and there in private families as lodgers. Here they
were furnished with the absolute necessities of life and employed
according to their capacity in small domestic labors. Since, however,
all sorts of inconveniences arose from this system, and since no one at
all was willing to receive the broken-down manufacturer, who enjoyed
the hatred of the whole population, the community saw itself compelled
to establish a special house as an asylum. And as at that particular
moment the miserable old "Sun" tavern came under the hammer, the town
acquired it and placed there as the first inmate, with a manager, Karl
Huerlin. Others soon followed him; and they became known as the
"Sun-Brothers."

Now Huerlin had long had close relations with the "Sun," since in the
course of his decline he had frequented always lower and more wretched
places, and finally had made his main headquarters there. He was
expected among the daily visitors, and sat in the evenings at the same
table with several boon companions who, when their time too came, were
to follow him as despised paupers into the very same house. He was
really glad to take up his abode there. In the days after the purchase
of the property, when carpenters were busy transforming the old place
to its new condition, he stood watching them from morning till night.

One mild, sunshiny morning he had arrived there as usual and taken up
his position near the main door to watch the workmen at their task
inside. One of the floors was broken and had to be relaid, the rickety
stairs had to be patched up and provided with a firm balustrade, a
couple of thin partitions put in. The town f