ring the hours of recreation. After that comes the great main building
that encloses a square court, which is called the 'Karreehof,' and
there, too, the cadets used to walk. Passing by from the outside, you
can't see into the court."

I nodded again in confirmation.

"And then comes still a third court; it is smaller, and on it stands
a house. Don't know what it is used for now; at that time it was the
infirmary. You can still see there the roof of the gymnasium as you pass
by; then next to the infirmary was the principal outdoor gymnasium. In
it was a jumping ditch and a climbing apparatus and every other possible
thing--now it has all gone. From the infirmary a door led out into the
gymnasium, but it was always kept locked. When one wanted to go into the
infirmary, one had to cross the court and enter in front. The door
then, as I said, was always locked; that is, it was opened only on some
special occasion, and that, indeed, was always a very mournful occasion.
For behind the door was the mortuary, and when a cadet died he was laid
therein, and the door remained open until the other cadets had filed by,
and looked at him once more--and he was then taken out--yes--h'm."

A long pause followed.

"Concerning the new house over there in Lichterfelde," continued the old
colonel in* a somewhat disparaging tone, "I know nothing, as I said, but
have heard that it is become a big affair with a great number of
cadets. Here in New Friedrich Street there were not so many, only four
companies, and they divided themselves into two classes: Sekundaner
and Primaner, and to these two were added the Selektaner, or special
students, who afterward entered the army as officers, and who were
nicknamed 'The Onions,' because they had authority over the others and
were barely tolerated in consequence.

"Now in the company to which I belonged--it was the fourth--there
were two brothers who sat together in the same class with me, the
Sekun-daner. Their name is of no consequence--but--well, they were
called, then, von L; the older of the two was called by the superiors
L No. I, and the smaller, who was a year and a half younger than the
other, L No. II. Among the cadets, however, they were called Big and
Little L. Little L, indeed--h'm--"

He moved in his chair, his eyes gazed out into vacancy. It appeared that
he had reached the subject of his reveries.

"Such a contrast between brothers I have never seen," he continued,
blowing a thi