Village Tales from the Black Forest (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. 1847 edition. Excerpt: ...barked and howled, and shut his eyes close, that it went to my very soul to see him. Whenever I spoke a harsh word to him, he would not touch food the whole day. Ah he was an animal indeed+ only too good for this world." " Do dogs go to heaven?" asked Ivo. " I don't know," replied Nazi; " there is nothing written about it in the Bible." Nazi was especially pleased that Ivo, like himself, was fond of animals. Children and lonely old people share this feeling of attachment; these creatures exact little, and above all they never contradict, which neither old folks nor children can bear. " A sow is a poor beast," said Ivo one day; " fit for nothing in the world but to be killed; while other animals are useful to us alive." Nazi nodded, pleased with the boy's remark; after a minute he said, " It may be that for this very reason a sow squeaks and squalls more than any other animal when it is killed." By such questions, remarks and observations, Ivo got the reputation throughout the village of a conversable and intelligent boy. Nobody could guess who was his instructor. The schoolmaster was dissatisfied. with him, because he never went home quietly, as the rules of the school required, but was always dancing and jumping about, and singing or shouting for. glee. Poor children obliged to sit huddled up at a desk for hours together; when they are at length let loose, how natural for them to shake ofi' constraint, and enjoy their sports and freedom in the open air Ivo was so pious and so wellbehaved, that every one felt sure he would one day be a good priest; and Valentine once even boasted in the "Eagle," that his boy Ivo would soon overtake...