one half hour the dreams which visited me on your
grey-green pillows, when I was a lad of fourteen or fifteen.

I have passed over the Rudolstadt Schutzenfest, its music, its
merry-go-round, and the capital sausages cooked in the open air, and have
intentionally omitted many other delightful things. I cannot help
wondering now where we found time for all these summer pleasures.

True, with the exception of a few days at Whitsuntide, we had no vacation
from Easter until the first of September. But even in August one thought,
one joyous anticipation, filled every heart. The annual autumn excursion
was coming!

After we were divided into travelling parties and had ascertained which
teacher was to accompany us--a matter that seemed very important--we
diligently practised the most beautiful songs; and on many an evening
Barop or Middendorf told us of the places through which we were to pass,
their history, and the legends which were associated with them. They were
aided in this by one of the sub-teachers, Bagge, a poetically gifted
young clergyman, who possessed great personal beauty and a heart capable
of entering into the intellectual life of the boys who were entrusted to
his care.

He instructed us in the German language and literature. Possibly because
he thought that he discovered in me a talent for poetic expression, he
showed me unusual favor, even read his own verses aloud to me, and set me
special tasks in verse-writing, which he criticised with me when I had
finished. The first long poem I wrote of my own impulse was a description
of the wonderful forms assumed by the stalactite formations in the Sophie
Cave in Switzerland, which we had visited. Unfortunately, the book
containing it is lost, but I remember the following lines, referring to
the industrious sprites which I imagined as the sculptors of the wondrous
shapes:

"Priestly robes and a high altar the sprites created here,
And in the rock-hewn cauldron poured the holy water clear,
Within whose depths reflected, by the torches' flickering rays,
Beneath the surface glimmering my own face met my gaze;
And when I thus beheld it, so small it seemed to me,
That yonder stone-carved giant looked on with mocking glee.
Ay, laugh, if that's your pleasure, Goliath huge and old,
I soon shall fare forth singing, you still your place must hold."

Another sub-teacher was also a favourite travelling-companion. His name
was Schaffner, and he, to