se the children could do nothing without me at last, and used to
throng after me at all times. The schoolmaster was my greatest enemy
in the end! I had many enemies, and all because of the children. Even
Schneider reproached me. What were they afraid of? One can tell a child
everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents
know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from
them. How well even little children understand that their parents
conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to
understand! Children are capable of giving advice in the most important
matters. How can one deceive these dear little birds, when they look
at one so sweetly and confidingly? I call them birds because there is
nothing in the world better than birds!

"However, most of the people were angry with me about one and the same
thing; but Thibaut simply was jealous of me. At first he had wagged his
head and wondered how it was that the children understood what I told
them so well, and could not learn from him; and he laughed like anything
when I replied that neither he nor I could teach them very much, but
that THEY might teach us a good deal.

"How he could hate me and tell scandalous stories about me, living among
children as he did, is what I cannot understand. Children soothe and
heal the wounded heart. I remember there was one poor fellow at our
professor's who was being treated for madness, and you have no idea what
those children did for him, eventually. I don't think he was mad, but
only terribly unhappy. But I'll tell you all about him another day. Now
I must get on with this story.

"The children did not love me at first; I was such a sickly, awkward
kind of a fellow then--and I know I am ugly. Besides, I was a foreigner.
The children used to laugh at me, at first; and they even went so far
as to throw stones at me, when they saw me kiss Marie. I only kissed her
once in my life--no, no, don't laugh!" The prince hastened to suppress
the smiles of his audience at this point. "It was not a matter of LOVE
at all! If only you knew what a miserable creature she was, you would
have pitied her, just as I did. She belonged to our village. Her mother
was an old, old woman, and they used to sell string and thread, and soap
and tobacco, out of the window of their little house, and lived on the
pittance they gained by this trade. The old woman was ill and very old,
and could hardly move. Ma