For this had the shepherd of the village near Haerlem labored twenty
years; for this had he spent the savings of those twenty years, in giving
an education to this young nobleman.
John was buried deep in these reveries--too deep for his age--when some
one came up smiling to him. This was a little, fat, chubby-faced man, as
round as a barrel, with a low brown hat on his head. He had on a large
brown cloak, a handsome yellow doublet, black breeches in the old
fashion, and square-toed glossy shoes, with large roses of purple ribbon.
The glance of this man, whose hair was already becoming gray, was keen
and penetrating. Though his lips were thick, there was an open, honest
expression about his mouth; while his clear eyes and sharply-cut eyebrows
seemed to belong to a man of strict uprightness.
"I do not like to see youth melancholy," said the little man, coming
close to John Durer, and examining him--"it is a sign of the disease too
common among young people--which is a desire to be something and somebody
before they are well born into the world.
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