And so, before I knew it, I was Receiver of Toll. I took possession of
my dwelling, and was soon comfortably established there. The deceased
toll-gate keeper had left behind him for his successor various
articles, which I appropriated, among others a magnificent scarlet
dressing-gown dotted with yellow, a pair of green slippers, a tasseled
nightcap, and several long-stemmed pipes. I had often wished for
these things at home, where I used to see our village pastor thus
comfortably provided. All day long, therefore--I had nothing else to
do--I sat on the bench before my house in dressing-gown and nightcap,
smoking the longest pipe from the late toll-gate keeper's collection,
and looking at the people walking, driving, and riding on the
high-road. I only wished that some of the folks from our village, who
had always said that I never would be worth anything, might happen to
pass by and see me thus. The dressing-gown became my complexion, and
suited me extremely well. So I sat there and pondered many things--the
difficulty of all beginnings, the great advantages of an easier mode
of existence, for example--and privately resolved to give up travel
for the future, save money like other people, and in time do something
really great in the world. Meanwhile, with all my resolves, anxieties,
and occupations, I in no wise forgot the Lady fair.
I dug up and threw out of my little garden all the potatoes and
other vegetables that I found there, and planted it instead with the
choicest flowers, which proceeding caused the Porter from the castle
with the big Roman nose--who since I had been made Receiver often came
to see me, and had become my intimate friend--to eye me askance as a
person crazed by sudden good fortune.
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