od, and there were many
kinds of it, as there were, for instance, Bremen, and Prussinger, and
Sous beer, and even Brunswick mumm; and quantities of spices were
sold--saffron, and aniseed, and ginger, and especially pepper. Yes,
pepper was the chief article here, and so it happened that the German
clerks got the nickname "pepper gentry;" and there was a condition
made with them in Lubeck and in Bremen, that they would not marry at
Copenhagen, and many of them became very old. They had to care for
themselves, and to look after their own comforts, and to put out their
own fires--when they had any; and some of them became very solitary
old boys, with eccentric ideas and eccentric habits. From them all
unmarried men, who have attained a certain age, are called in Denmark
"pepper gentry;" and this must be understood by all who wish to
comprehend this history.

The "pepper gentleman" becomes a butt for ridicule, and is continually
told that he ought to put on his nightcap, and draw it down over his
eyes, and do nothing but sleep. The boys sing,

"Cut, cut wood!
Poor bachelor so good.
Go, take your nightcap, go to rest,
For 'tis the nightcap suits you best!"

Yes, that's what they sing about the "pepperer"--thus they make game
of the poor bachelor and his nightcap, and turn it into ridicule, just
because they know very little about either. Ah, that kind of nightcap
no one should wish to earn! And why not?--We shall hear.

[Illustration: THE PEPPERER'S BOOTH.]

In the old times the "Housekin Street" was not paved, and the people
stumbled out of one hole into another, as in a neglected bye-way; and
it was narrow too. The booths leaned side by side, and stood so close
together that in the summer time a sail was often stretched from one
booth to its opposite neighbour, on which occasion the fragrance of
pepper, saffron, and ginger became doubly powerful. Behind the
counters young men were seldom seen. The clerks were generally old
boys; but they did not look like what we should fancy them, namely,
with wig, and nightcap, and plush small-clothes, and with waistcoat
and coat buttoned up to the chin. No, grandfather's great-grandfather
may look like that, and has been thus portrayed, but the "pepper
gentry" had no superfluous means, and accordingly did not have their
portraits taken; though, indeed, it would be interesting now to have a
picture of one of them, as he stood behind the counter or went to
church on