Envy; A Tale (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...could always suggest new games for them to play together, he was so inventive and so imaginative; but the younger one, let him try never so hard, had no ideas of his own. So, when they walked together through field and wood, Schnudri would always wait to hear what his brother had thought out to please him or what new game he had in store, and when the big brother had divulged his new scheme his eyes would dance in his head with delight and he at once set to work to master the intricacies of the new game that his brother might be satisfied with him. They played all sorts of games: Merchant for one. When we played that we generally strolled along the sands of the shore that adjoined our town. In some parts of the coast lay heaps of pebbles; of these we selected such as took our fancy. Every pebble represented a coin; some were Silbergroschen, others fiveGroschen pieces, still others we called ten-Groschen--at that time there were no Marks--but the finest of all we called a Thaler. We gathered a hundred of these pebbles together and who by that time could boast of the largest number of the handsomest in his collection had won the game and was the richest merchant. At home we had a little toy grocery shop which mother usually kept under lock and key. It was stocked with all sorts of goodies; almonds, licorice and cakes, anise-seed and pfefferkuchen. With our pebble money we bought these goodies from mother who was the shopkeeper. Mother always played with us, our father never did. He only spoiled and disturbed our fun when he joined us. As a rule he only passed quickly through the room on his way to his study, but on this day I remember he stopped and inquired what we were playing and all about the game and...