Excerpt from The House of Unfulfilled Desire<br><br>Dad Begg was short and grizzled and old. There were wrinkles about his eyes, and wrinkles and seams were hidden beneath his bushy whiskers. The few teeth that he had were blackened stubs that were not pleasant to see when he laughed, which was often, and he wore huge, steel rimmed spectacles. It was his eyes, which looked out from be hind these, which were his saving grace, for within them dwelt youth, inexhaustible.<br><br>Dad Begg, for that was the only name by which he was known in the community, slept and did his light house-kee ing in a tin lean to built along one side of the shop, as e had neither kith nor kin. In a little garden in the rear he raised the vegetables that sup plied his simple wants, - and a bed of flow ers. But most of his waking hours were spent at the cobbler's bench beside the win dow that looked out upon the street. Here the world came to him and was served, and as mankind makes no footwear so perfect but that sooner or later there is need of the cobbler's offices there was seldom a time through the hours of the day when the chair before his bench was not occupied by some one, either man or woman or child.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.