His work was with him a hobby, almost a passion.

His shop was filled with all manner of strange things that never would, or could, be sold--things he had made for the pure love of making them.

He had contrived a mechanical donkey that would trot for two hours by means of stored electricity, and trot, too, much faster than the live article, and with less need for exertion on the part of the driver; a bird that would shoot up into the air, fly round and round in a circle, and drop to earth at the exact spot from where it started; a skeleton that, supported by an upright iron bar, would dance a hornpipe; a life-size lady doll that could play the fiddle; and a gentleman with a hollow inside who could smoke a pipe and drink more lager beer than any three average German students put together, which is saying much.
"Indeed, it was the belief of the town that old Geibel could make a man capable of doing everything that a respectable man need want to do.

One day he made a man who did too much, and it came about in this way.
"Young Doctor Follen had a baby, and the baby had a birthday.

Its first birthday put Doctor Follen's household into somewhat of a flurry, but on the occasion of its second birthday, Mrs.Doctor Follen gave a ball in honour of the event.