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Midget Nose
Many
years
ago
,
in
a
certain
city
in
Germany
,
there
lived
an
honest
cobbler
and
his
wife
.
The
good
man
sat
all
day
and
mended
boots
and
shoes
;
he
made
new
ones
too
,
if
he
could
get
a
customer
to
trust
him
with
the
job
,
but
then
he
had
first
to
buy
the
leather
,
for
he
was
too
poor
to
keep
a
stock
in
hand
.
His
wife
sold
fruit
and
vegetables
,
which
she
grew
in
a
little
plot
of
ground
outside
the
city
gates
.
She
had
many
customers
,
for
she
was
clean
and
tidy
,
and
had
a
knack
of
setting
out
her
wares
to
be
best
advantage
.
The
cobbler
and
his
wife
had
a
beautiful
litde
boy
,
named
Jacob
.
Although
he
was
eight
years
of
ge
he
was
tall
and
well-grown
,
and
so
he
sat
by
his
mother
's
side
in
the
market-place
,
and
acted
as
errand
boy
to
the
house
-
wives
and
cooks
who
made
large
purchases
from
his
mother
,
carrying
the
fruit
and
vegetables
home
for
them
.
Very
often
he
came
back
with
a
piece
of
money
in
his
pocket
,
or
at
least
with
a
cake
,
or
some
sweetmeats
,
for
he
was
so
pretty
and
obliging
that
people
liked
to
see
him
in
their
homes
.
One
morning
the
cobbler
's
wife
was
sitting
in
her
accustomed
place
in
the
market
.
She
had
a
supply
of
cabbages
and
other
vegetables
,
fresh
herbs
and
seeds
,
and
a
smaller
basket
of
earlv
pears
and
apricots
.
Little
Jacob
sat
beside
her
and
called
out
in
his
shrill
little
voice
:
"
Come
buy
,
come
buy
,
fine
cabbages
,
fresh
herbs
,
early
pears
,
fine
ripe
apples
and
apricots
.
Come
buy
,
buy
,
buy
,
my
mother
's
goods
are
cheap
today
.
"
An
old
woman
came
slowly
across
the
market
-
place
.
She
was
dressed
in
rags
and
tatters
and
had
a
little
,
pointed
face
,
all
wrinkled
and
furrowed
with
age
,
red-rimmed
eyes
,
and
a
sharp
hooked
nose
that
nearly
met
the
pointed
chin
.
She
helped
herself
along
with
a
stick
,
and
it
is
difficult
to
say
how
she
moved
,
for
she
stumbled
and
limped
and
rolled
along
almost
as
thoutjh
her
leofs
were
broken-down
wheels
which
would
soon
give
way
.
The
cobbler
's
wife
stared
hard
at
her
,
for
although
she
had
been
sitting
in
the
market-place
every
day
for
the
last
sixteen
years
she
had
never
noticed
the
queer
old
creature
before
.
But
she
shuddered
involuntarily
when
the
old
woman
hobbled
to
-
wards
her
and
stood
still
before
the
baskets
.
"
Are
you
Hannah
,
the
vegetable
dealer
?
"
she
said
in
a
cracked
unpleasant
voice
,
her
head
shaking
-
as
though
with
palsy
.
"
Yes
,
that
is
my
name
,
"
replied
the
cobbler
's
wife
,
"
is
there
anything
-
I
can
serve
you
with
?
"
"
To
must
see
,
I
must
see
,
"
she
replied
.
"
Let
me
look
at
our
herbs
and
see
if
you
have
anything
I
require
.
"
She
plunged
her
brown
skinny
fingers
into
the
basket
of
herbs
which
had
been
so
neatly
set
out
,
and
,
grasping
handful
after
handful
,
put
them
to
her
long
hooked
nose
and
smelt
them
.
The
cobbler
's
wife
was
much
put
out
to
see
her
rare
herbs
handled
in
this
way
,
but
she
did
not
like
to
say
anything
,
for
it
was
the
customer
's
right
to
examine
the
goods
,
and
besides
she
was
half
afraid
of
the
old
woman
.
When
the
whole
of
the
basket
of
herbs
had
been
handled
and
turned
over
the
old
woman
muttered
--
"
Rubbish
,
rubbish
,
the
whole
lot
of
it
.
Fifty
years
ago
I
could
have
bought
what
I
wanted
;
this
is
good
for
nothing
.
"
These
words
angered
little
Jacob
.
"
You
are
a
rude
old
woman
,
"
he
said
angrily
;
"
first
you
take
up
our
beautiful
fresh
herbs
in
your
nasty
between
fingers
and
crush
them
,
then
you
put
them
to
Our
long
,
hooked
nose
,
so
that
nobody
else
who
had
seen
you
,
would
want
to
buy
them
,
and
then
you
miscall
our
wares
,
as
bad
stuff
and
rubbish
when
even
the
Duke
's
cook
does
not
disdain
to
buy
from
us
.
"
The
old
woman
looked
fixedly
at
the
spirited
lad
and
laughed
in
a
repulsive
manner
.
Then
said
she
,
in
a
hoarse
croaking
voice
,
"
Ah
,
my
little
man
,
do
you
like
my
nose
,
my
nice
long
nose
?
Then
you
shall
have
a
nice
long
nose
too
,
one
that
shall
reach
from
the
middle
of
your
face
right
down
below
your
chin
.
"
As
she
talked
she
shuffled
along
to
the
other
basket
in
which
the
cabbages
were
placed
.
She
took
the
finest
creamy
crisp
heads
and
crushed
them
in
her
hands
until
they
creaked
and
cracked
,
then
threw
them
back
into
the
basket
anyhow
.
"
Bad
goods
,
bad
cabbages
,
"
she
said
.
