maternal heart. The daily increasing
heat of the sun, the milder air, and the grateful receptivity of earth:
all betokened the end of idle winter and the beginning of a new year of
fruitfulness, the gospel of labour and of blessing. The ardent forces
of nature welled up also in the hearts of men; and though his father
had seemed to him old in the short cold days of winter, the scent of
spring-time always made him young again.

He almost felt like a deserter not to be at home working. But no! the
contrary was really the case. It was these thoughts that were disloyal.
Was he not now a soldier, called to protect the soil of his beloved
fatherland, if an enemy threatened it?

If----? he reflected further. There had been peace for thirty years
now, and it might quite well last thirty more, or even a hundred. Was
not this, then, mere waste of time? But, on the other hand, there was
nothing to prevent a war breaking out to-morrow. He knew that it was
improbable, but not impossible. The devil! then of course war must be
prevented. But how?

His simple mind saw no solution of these contradictions. He gazed
contemplatively at his sentry-box, and almost omitted to present arms
to his captain, who was passing to the riding-school with the remount
division.

After being relieved he watched two comrades who were playing at _skat_
in the guard-room with dreadfully dirty cards. Suddenly he had a kind
of waking vision. It was like the taking of the oath, when each man
stretched out an arm to swear. The tattooed letters on Weise's arm,
where the sleeve had slipped off, began suddenly to glow as brightly
and clearly as if the sun were shining on them. Fraternity! that was
not merely an empty word, then, not simply talk? If all men, Germans,
French, Russians, and all others, stretched forth their arms and swore
to be brothers, then--yes, then--there would be no more war.

But would that ever happen?

The card-players brought his reflections on the question of fraternity
to a hasty close; they began to quarrel furiously, and wound up by
throwing the cards at each other's heads in a very unbrotherly manner.

The recruit had to pick up the scattered cards, and when a king and a
ten were missing there was nearly a fight. Finally the corporal in
charge angrily stopped the noise.

When Vogt returned from his sentry-duty between eleven and one, he
found his comrade Klitzing singularly depressed, and after a time the
clerk confided to