"Now, don't be bashful! Thou art of a good family--that one can see from thy appearance! Art not thou thy mother's son?
I will give thee stockings and--the deuce! here is a pair of boots which are too small for me; if thou dost not get drowned in them they shall be thy property: but now thou must sing." And he seated himself at the piano-forte and struck the keys.

"Now, where art thou ?" he cried, rather displeased.

The little one gazed upon the ground.
"How! dost thou weep; or is it the rain which hangs in thy black eyelashes ?" said Otto, and raised his head: "we only wish to do thee a kindness.

There--thou hast another skilling from me." The little one still remained somewhat laconic.

All that they learned was that he was named Jonas, and that his grandmother thought so much of him.
"Here thou hast the stockings!" said Wilhelm; "and see here! a coat with a velvet collar, a much-to-be-prized keepsake! The boots! Thou canst certainly stick both legs into one boot! See! that is as good as having two pairs to change about with! Let us see!" The boy's eyes sparkled with joy; the boots he drew on, the stockings went into his pocket, and the bundle he took under his arm.
"But thou must sing us a little song!" said Wilhelm, and the little one commenced the old song out of the "Woman-hater," "Cupid never can be trusted!" The lively expression in the dark eyes, the boy himself in his wet, wretched clothes and big boots, with the bundle under his arm; nay, the whole had something so characteristic in it, that had it been painted, and had the painter called the picture "Cupid on his Wanderings," every one would have found the little god strikingly excellent, although he were not blind.
"Something might be made of the boy and of his voice!" said Wilhelm, when little Jonas, in a joyous mood, had left the house with the other lads.
"The poor child!" sighed Otto.