The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries V4

Long ages ago there lived in the far west a guileless youth. He was very good, but at the same time peculiar beyond measure. He constantly grieved over nothing at all, always went about alone and silent, sat down by himself whenever the others played and were happy, and was always thinking about strange things. Woods and caves were his favorite haunts, and there he talked constantly with birds and animals, with rocks and trees–naturally not a word of sense, nothing but stuff silly enough to make one die a-laughing.