s a moderate
profit from the little piece of woodland that we now have there. Its
value increases from year to year.

My cousin Linker had been a book-keeper in the glass-house down in the
valley. He married a daughter of the richest farmer in the village, and
became quite a farmer himself.

I learnt a great deal from him. In business matters he was greatly my
superior, for he was shrewder, or in other words, more distrustful,
than I.

Until about five years ago, we were partners in an extensive lumber
business. We built the first large saw-mill in the valley. It had three
saws, and all the new appliances, and a part of our business was to saw
up logs and beams. I also built a saw-mill, which is conducted on the
co-operative system, for the benefit of the villagers.

When the Parliament had determined upon having a fortress erected
in our neighborhood, our business friends offered us their
congratulations. They well knew that this would require so much lumber
as to give rise to a profitable business. And this, I must confess, is
a point which I would like to forget. But who, after all, leads a life
which is entirely pure, and without being in the slightest spoiled with
intercourse with the world.

Cousin Linker conducted a large business in his name and mine. I did
not take any active part in the negotiations, although I was
responsible for what was done. He would often say, "You are absurdly
virtuous. One like you will never get on in the world."

Joseph, my cousin's only son, and of the same age as our Ludwig, had
married my daughter Martina, who died shortly after the birth of their
first child. Her son Julius was a forester's apprentice. Joseph married
again, but he is still faithful to me and mine, while we are quite
attached to his second wife and her three daughters.

Joseph is now burgomaster, and I hope he will one day occupy my
position as a member of the Parliament. He works zealously for the
public good, and has one great advantage that did not exist in my time.
For nowadays there are numerous good burgomasters in the neighborhood,
and it is therefore easier to carry out desirable measures.

Last winter, Joseph induced the people of Brauneck, the next village,
to combine with ours in laying out a road through the common woods, and
the wood taken out was worth more than twice the cost of the labor.

Joseph inherited my cousin's shrewd business notions. He caused
hundreds of little branches to be ga