He seldom went into the streets, for the reason that ill-bred children there followed and annoyed him. They used to cry after him,—
“Little Mook, O Little Mook,
Turn, oh, turn about and look!
Once a month you leave your room,
With your head like a balloon:
Try to catch us, if you can;
Turn and look, my little man.”
ENTRANCE TO HEIDELBERG CASTLE.
His father was a hard-hearted man, and treated him unkindly because he was deformed. The old man at last died, and his relatives drove the dwarf away from his home.
He wandered into the strange world with a cheerful spirit, for the strange world was more kind to him than his kin had been.