Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/34

30 At these words Reinhold, for that was the name of the young man, threw himself on the grass by the side of Frederick, and continuing his questions—"Are you not," said he, "an artist goldsmith? I suppose, after what I have seen you model, that you generally work in materials of gold and silver?"

"Alas, my dear sir," answered Frederick, without raising his eyes, which were fixed on the earth, "I am neither worthy of the fine name of artist, nor capable of executing what you suppose. I am nothing, I must tell you, but a poor journeyman cooper, and I am going to Nuremberg with the hope of working with a master whose renown is spread throughout Germany. Instead of moulding or chiselling figures, I simply make cask hoops."

"Well," exclaimed Reinhold, "do you believe me stupid enough to disdain your profession? One confidence is well worth another; know then that I also am a cooper."

Frederick questioned by a glance the person who thus spoke to him; for the equipment of Reinhold resembled but little the costume of a journeyman cooper. His black small clothes were of fine stuff, with velvet slashes. A broad and short sword hung by his side, and his head-dress was a cap ornamented with a long floating feather. It would have been said, on seeing him, that he was some rich merchant; and yet there was in his whole person I know not what of eccentricity and extreme freedom, that silenced such a supposition.

Reinhold, understanding the doubt of Frederick, took from his travelling bag a cooper's apron and an adz—"Look here, my friend," said he to Frederick; "dost thou still think that I have lied, and that I am not a simple workman like thyself? I conceive thy surprise at seeing me thus splendidly costumed; but it will immediately cease, when I tell thee that I come from Strasburg, where all the journeymen coopers are dressed like princes. Formerly, I sought strenuously to get out of the rut, and enter the adventurous career of art; but I am well cured of that fancy, so far that now I see nothing above