Stories for Pleasure and Edification

earthball, only let me not experience the most terrible thing in nature—the ingratitude of a child. — — —

The hour in which Adelaide lost her father was the beginning of her misfortune. Scarcely were the first days of mourning past, and scarcely had Adelaide paid the last of the honors to her father’s ashes The "ashes" here refers poetically to his remains or memory, as traditional burial was the norm, but "ashes" was a common literary term for the deceased, when a crowd of creditors forced their way into the house of the unfortunate family and seized all their belongings.

With tears in her eyes, Adelaide saw the cruel devastation. Bare, empty walls The original "Geräthlose Wände" literally means walls without furniture or tools surrounded the unfortunate women, who were very soon forced to leave their house as well.

Already Adelaide wandered about at her mother’s side like a beggar woman, seeking some humble shelter just to protect themselves from the wind and rain.

The friends of good fortune A reference to "fair-weather friends" who disappear when wealth is lost had already fled from Adelaide, and wealthier relatives no longer recognized those who had fallen into such poverty. Proudly they looked down from their heights,