o do, began to question him: "Come here! Where
did you hit yourself? On the head, eh! Let us see! Why, it is swollen
up--quite red in fact! Put some opodeldoc on it! Clementina, do you
hear?--some opodeldoc for Maksi!" So the family medicament had to be
fetched at once; but Maksi, snatching it from the worthy spinster's
hand, threw it violently to the ground, so that the whole carpet was
bespattered with it.

Nobody was allowed to scold him for this, however, as grandpapa was
instantly ready with an excuse: "Maksi must not be vexed," said he.
"Does not Maksi wear a sword by his side already? Maksi will be a great
soldier one of these days!"

"Yes," replied the lad defiantly, "I'll be a general!"

"Yes, Maksi shall be a general; nothing less than a general, of course.
But come, my boy, take your finger out of your mouth."

The English governess here thought she saw an opportunity of insinuating
a professional remark.

"He who would be a general, must, first of all, learn a great deal."

"I don't want to learn. I mean to know everything without learning it. I
say, grandpapa, if you've lots of money, you will know everything at
once without learning it, won't you?"

The old man looked around him triumphantly.

"Now that I call genius, wit!" cried he.

And with that he tenderly pressed the little urchin's head to his breast
and murmured: "Ah! he is my very grandson, my own flesh and blood."

He was well aware how aggravated all the others would be at these words.

Meanwhile the footman was laying a table. This table was of palisander
wood and supported by the semblance of a swan. It could be placed close
beside the ottoman and was filled with twelve different kinds of dishes.
All these meats were cold, for the doctor forbade his patient hot food.
The old gentleman tasted each one of the dishes with the aid of his
finger-tips, and not one of them pleased him. This was too salt, that
was too sweet, a third was burnt, a fourth was tainted. He threatened to
discharge the cook, and bitterly complained that as he did not die
quickly enough for them, they were conspiring to starve him. They might
have replied that he had ordered all these things himself yesterday; but
nobody took the trouble to contradict him any longer, so gradually the
storm died away of its own accord and the old man, turning towards
Maksi, tenderly invited him to partake of the disparaged dishes.

"Come and eat with me, Maksi, my darling."

"Tha