Max and Maurice

Max and Maurice are two irrepressible boys whose delight in mischief turns every corner of village life upside down. Rather than study or behave, they devise prank after prank, first trapping Widow Tibbets's chickens, then stealing the roasted birds while she is distracted and letting an innocent dog take the blame. Their tricks grow bolder as they sabotage tailor Buck's bridge, send him splashing into the stream, and wreck pious Master Lämpel's beloved pipe in a sudden explosion. No adult is spared: labor, religion, and domestic routine all become targets of their escalating cruelty. They torment Uncle Fritz with a bed full of biting maybugs, attempt to steal Easter cakes, and are instead baked and battered in the baker's oven. Their final scheme against a farmer ends in complete disaster, with the boys stuffed into sacks, ground in a mill, and eaten by ducks. Playful in tone but dark in outcome, the story turns their downfall into a sharp moral lesson about the price of relentless bad behavior. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.