er him, and the others who were grouped
around Adolph where he was writhing on the ground with pain and rage,
there was not one who had any fancy for a taste of the smith's fists.

After this day the Waltheimers had something more to complain of.

"The smith doesn't want his boy to be jeered at. Then what did he give
him such a name for?"

The landlord of the "Star" at first talked as if he would bring suit
against the smith; but finally, when he reflected that his own young
scapegrace was considerably to blame for the punishment he had
received, he dropped the subject. But although the Waltheimers kept on
gossiping, they were prudently quiet about it; for there were very few
among them who were not afraid of Stephen Fausch. Even those who teased
or tormented the smith's boy, or talked about him, and people always
will have something to talk about, became cautious, but whispered and
talked in secret all the more. For Cain Fausch could not get rid of his
name nor wash away the stain upon his birth. The boy grew more and more
quiet and reserved. He made no more complaints at home, but any one
with sharp eyes could see that something weighed upon him. He gradually
came to see that people had a certain right to despise him. This
sharpened his hearing and made him notice how people busied themselves
about him, with glances, words and gestures, whenever he came in sight.
This made him grow serious quite early, and gave him a certain timidity
with people. But he was inwardly sound and strong. Perhaps he had
Katharine to thank for this, for in keeping his outward appearance
always so neat and dainty, she might have unconsciously brought him up
with a sort of inner purity and refinement. Thus it did not occur to
him, since he was himself the cause of his own solitude, to seek, as he
easily might have done, evil or at least lightminded distractions, to
console himself for the fact that he was not of equal standing with
others. Instead of this, he learned to love work, first such as he
found in his schoolbooks, but later that which he found in his father's
workshop. During the boy's leisure hours, Stephen Fausch began to avail
himself of his help, and Cain took as much pleasure in this activity,
which brought bodily fatigue, as in the other, which occupied his mind,
and found the change from the one to the other refreshing and not
wearing. But he retained the peculiarity, that he would not permit the
traces of his work to remain