ht in
regard to his youngest brother; and as the journals of that day
contained a call for participants in the German Expedition to the North
Pole, Richard would gladly have seen Ernst take a part in the
enterprise. He maintained that Ernst was endowed with qualities that
would gain him distinction as a student of nature, and that a voyage of
discovery would make a hero of him. For he had invincible courage,
fertility of invention, fine perception, and much general knowledge,
combined with the ability to see things as they are.

Ernst was full of youthful buoyancy, just as he had been in the
earliest years of his student life. He was the life of the house,
constantly singing and yodling; and his special enthusiastic friend,
Rothfuss, one day said to me while in the stable, "I knew it. I knew
all about it. Our Ernst cannot come to harm. Why, just listen to his
singing. A tree where a bird builds its nest is in no danger from
vermin."

CHAPTER XV.

At a meeting of the burgomasters of the neighborhood, held on New
Year's day, it was determined to call a general meeting of electors, to
assemble in the chief town of the district, and to receive a report in
regard to the last session of the Parliament.

On New Year's Day Ernst left us, as the Prince and his ministers
intended to hunt during the next few days in the district which was in
charge of his chief.

When he was about to leave, Martella said to him, "You have good reason
to feel happy. The walls have heard you with joy, and every being in
there thinks well of you and me."

"And you?" asked he.

"I need not be thinking of you. For you are my other self."

It was a clear, mild, winter day when, accompanied by Joseph and
Richard, I drove to the neighboring town in which the meeting was to be
held. It was Richard's intention to return to the University at the
close of the meeting.

Rothfuss had fully recovered. Displaying his new stockings, and wearing
his forester's coat, he sat up on the driver's box, while he managed
the bays. Although he entertained a deep contempt for mankind in
general, and for that portion of it that lived in our neighborhood in
particular, he was always willing to take part in anything that was
done in my honor.

He often remarked that the people did not deserve that one should walk
three steps for their sake. He would never forget the way in which they
had treated the chieftains of 1848; or that