lew up, often in large flocks, to
tease the old cross-patch which sat blinking angrily, they were shot down
from loop-holes which had been left in the hut. The hawks which prey upon
doves and hares, the crows and magpies, can thus easily be decimated.

We had learned to use our guns in the playground. The utmost caution was
enforced, and although, as I have already remarked, we handled our own
guns when we were only lads of twelve years old, I can not recall a
single accident which occurred.

Once, during the summer, there was a Schutzenfest, in which a large
wooden eagle was shot from the pole. Whoever brought down the last
splinter became king. This honour once fell to my share, and I was
permitted to choose a queen. I crowned Marie Breimann, a pretty, slender
young girl from Brunswick, whose Greek profile and thick silken hair had
captivated my fancy. She and Adelheid Barop, the head-master's daughter,
were taught in our classes, but Marie attracted me more strongly than the
diligent Keilhau lassies with their beautiful black eyes and the other
two blooming and graceful Westphalian girls who were also schoolmates.
But the girls occupied a very small place in our lives. They could
neither wrestle, shoot, nor climb, so we gave them little thought, and
anything like actual flirtation was unknown--we had so many better things
in our heads. Wrestling and other sports threw everything else into the
shade. Pretty Marie, however, probably suspected which of my school-mates
I liked best, and up to the time of my leaving the institute I allowed no
other goddess to rival her. But there were plenty of amusements at
Keilhau besides bird-shooting.

I will mention the principal ones which came during the year, for to
describe them in regular order would be impossible.

Of the longer walks which we took in the spring and summer the most
beautiful was the one leading through Blankenburg to the entrance of the
Schwarzathal, and thence through the lofty, majestically formed group of
cliffs at whose foot the clear, swift Schwarza flows, dashing and
foaming, to Schwarzburg.

How clearly our songs echoed from the granite walls of the river valley,
and how lively it always was at "The Stag," whose landlord possessed a
certain power of attraction to us boys in his own person; for, as the
stoutest man in Thuringia, he was a feast for the eyes! His jollity
equalled his corpulence, and how merrily he used to jest with us lads!

Of the sh