Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. Cjjronicle. Eisenach, 1504. CANNOT say that things have prospered much with us since Fritz left. The lumber-room itself is changed. The piles of old books are much reduced, because we have been obliged to pawn many of them for food. Some even of the father's beautiful models have had to be sold. It went terribly to his heart. But it paid our debts. Our grandmother has grown a little querulous at times lately. And I am so tempted to be cross sometimes. The boys eat so much, and wear out their clothes so fast. Indeed, I cannot see that poverty makes any of us any better, except it be my mother, who needed improvement least of all. September 1504. The father has actually brought a new inmate into the house, a little girl, called Eva von Schonberg, a distant cousin of our mother. Last week he told us she was coming, very abruptly. I think he was rather afraid of what our grandmother would say, for we all know it is not of the least use to come round her with soft speeches. She always sees what you are aiming at, and with her keen eyes cuts straight through all your circumlocutions, and obliges you to descend direct on your point, with more rapidity than grace. Accordingly, he said, quite suddenly, one day at dinner,— " I forgot to tell you, little mother, I have just had a letter from your relations in Bohemia. Your great-uncle is dead. His son, you know, died before him. A little orphan girl is left with no one to take care of her. I have desired them to send her to us. I could do no less. It was an act, not ofcharity, but of the plainest duty. And besides," he added, apologetically, " in the end it may make our fortunes. There is property somewhere in the family, if we could get it; and this little Eva is the descendant of the eldest branch. Indeed... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.