I can't bear to lose Nikolaus, he is my loving playmate and friend; and think of Lisa's poor mother!" I clung to him and begged and pleaded, but he was not moved.

He made me sit down again, and told me I must hear him out.
"I have changed Nikolaus's life, and this has changed Lisa's.

If I had not done this, Nikolaus would save Lisa, then he would catch cold from his drenching; one of your race's fantastic and desolating scarlet fevers would follow, with pathetic after-effects; for forty-six years he would lie in his bed a paralytic log, deaf, dumb, blind, and praying night and day for the blessed relief of death.

Shall I change his life back ?" "Oh no! Oh, not for the world! In charity and pity leave it as it is." "It is best so.

I could not have changed any other link in his life and done him so good a service.