26 THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER.

person. But his father observed the hesitation, and as he
was fearful that Christian Elias’s feelings would be wounded,
he pushed his son forward, aha
thrust him into the arms of the
mechanician.
In the meantime the astrologer
had kept his eyes fixed upon the
young man with a steady attention
which seemed so singular that the
youth felt ill at his ease in being
5 so stared at, and left the room.

= The astrologer then put several
srdestione to Christopher Zecharias concerning his son; and
the father answered them with all the enthusiasm of a fond
parent.

Young Drosselmayer was, as his appearance indicated,
between seventeen and eighteen. From his earliest years he
had been so funny: and yet so tractable, that his mother had
taken a delight in dressing him like some of the puppets
which her husband: sold: namely, sometimes as a student,
sometimes as a postilion, sometimes as a Hungarian, but
always in a garb that required boots; because, as he possessed
the prettiest little foot in the world, but had a rather small
calf, the boots showed off the little foot, and concealed the
fault of the calf.

‘¢ And so,” said the astrologer to Christopher Zecharias,
‘your son has always worn boots?”

Christian Elias now stared in his turn.

‘“« My son has never worn anything but boots,” replied
the toy-man. ‘At the age of ten,” he continued, “I sent
him to the University of ‘Tubingen, where he omamied till
he was eighteen, without contracting 2 any of the bad habits
of his companions, such as drinking, swearing, and fighting.
The only weakness of which I believe him to be guilty, is
that he allows the four or five wretched hairs which he has
upon his chin to grow, without permitting a barber to touch
his countenance.”