The Little Barefoot by Berthold Auerbach

While Barefoot, whether in the village, the field, or the wood, dreamed, and toiled, and sorrowed, -- sometimes trembling with strange anticipations of joy, sometimes feeling as though thrust out from the whole world, -- two parents in another parish were sending out their son, that he might return to them far richer than he went forth.

In Allgäu, in the hall of the great farm-house sat the farmer and his wife, with their youngest son. The farmer began, -- "Listen, my son; it is now more than a year since you returned from your journey. I know not what happened to you, but you came home like a whipped hound, and said, you would rather seek a wife here in this place. I do not see that you are likely to succeed. Will you, for once, follow my advice. Afterwards, I will never say another word. "