d; but by
many little signs he let the young man see how much he thought of him.
Reimers, fully aware of the fatherly sympathy, was happy in the
knowledge of it. His comrades were, indeed, surprised to find how
lively and almost exuberant the hitherto staid Reimers could become;
and particularly was this so during the artillery practice and the
autumn man[oe]uvres, when--garrison and parade drills at an end for a
time--conditions were somewhat akin to those of real warfare.

Then the even course of things was broken by his illness.

When, before his enforced furlough, he took leave of the colonel, the
latter's hearty liking for the first time broke through the barriers of
official form. His clear eyes became dim, and his voice slightly
trembled as he said: "Come back well, my dear Reimers--come back to me.
Be sure and do all you can to get cured!"

Now, when at last Reimers found himself once more standing face to face
with this honoured colonel, joy overpowered him, and he kissed the hand
of his fatherly friend.

The colonel tolerated this altogether unmilitary excess with a
good-natured smile. He would have been delighted to clasp in his arms
this young man, who was as dear as a son to him; but he, an old
soldier, could not allow his feelings to get the better of him as the
lieutenant had done, rejoiced though he had been by the latter's
outburst.

Out on the parade-ground Reimers looked about him with interest.
Everything seemed to have become different and delightful; even the
bare, prosaic yard of the barracks appeared no longer devoid of charm.
He passed through the gate and went slowly along the high road towards
the town. Then it was that the glad feeling of being in his native
country asserted itself in full force. He realised that it was just the
tender green of those beeches and alders edging the brook that he had
longed to see when, in Cairo, the fan-like palm-leaf hung motionless at
his window; just this slope of meadow land that he had remembered on
the arid veldt of South Africa. It was this mild sunshine of his native
land, this blue German sky that he had pined for in the glowing furnace
of the Red Sea. The tiny engine which puffed along asthmatically up the
valley, dragging its little carriages and ringing its bell from time to
time when a browsing sheep strayed between the rails, had been ever
present in his mind during his journeyings to and fro.

As he walked along, the young officer though