Tales of Magic and Meaning, Written and Illustr. by Alfred Crowquill (Paperback)

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: THE LITTLE SILVER BELL. Wilhelm Kruitzner was a good natured fellow; every body was pleased to see his happy, round, rosy face, and his bright blue eyes, that were always dancing with fun and glee. He was the joy of his old mother, whose only comfort he was, as her husband, good man, had gone to heaven long ago; but not before he had gathered, by indefatigable industry, enough of the world's necessary pelf to leave behind a comfortable cottage, a little bit of a farm, and a round sum for a rainy day. Therefore Wilhelm had a good reason for looking so happy. He had just enough labor to keep him from the megrims, and more than enough money to indulge himself in his little harmless vanities. Amongst his companions, in the quiet primitive village, he was looked upon as a small squire, and, moreover, a wonderfully clever and 'cute kind of person. His jokes were looked upon as rather marvellous and brilliant. He, with the exception of the schoolmaster, being the only one who had the courage to give his jokes a good chance by speaking them out boldly, and at a proper opportunity. He had another advantage besides, ? he was listened to, which has a great deal to do with the success of jokers. The consequence of all this glory soon gave rise to a feeling of consciousness that he was hiding his talent under a bushel. He, therefore, after many arguments pro and con, between his conscience and himself, was convinced that he ought to seek for a larger place in which to exercise the genius which it had pleased Heaven to give him. He accordingly, after gathering in his harvest, screwed up his courage firmly enough to be able to break to his astonished mother that he proposed to seek, for a short time, his fortunes in the great and busy world which he believed, from travellers' acco...