lost. The ivy creeps over their conceptions in stone
and marble, and the traveller exclaims in awe, 'Can it be that all
this glory was created for destruction?'

[Illustration: PALACE AT HEIDELBERG.]

"We visited the castle at noon. A ruin green with ivy rose before
us. The sunlight fell through the open doorways, and the swallows
flitted in and out of the window-frames into roofless chambers.

"I was dreaming of the past: of the counts-palatine of the Rhine, of
stately dames, orange-gardens, and splendid festivals, when one of the
boys recalled my thoughts to the present.

"'Where is the tun?'

"'What tun?'

"'The one _we have come to see_,--the big wine-cask. It is said to
hold two hundred and thirty-six thousand bottles of wine, or did in
the days of the nobles.'

"'I remember: when I was a boy my mental picture of Heidelberg was a
big wine-cask.'

"'Yes; well, please, sir, I am a boy now.'"

* * * * *

Mr. Beal then gave a brief account of

GERMAN STUDENT LIFE.

The town of Heidelberg nestles in one of the loveliest valleys in
Europe. The Neckar winds between a series of steep, high, thickly
wooded hills.

It is amid such pleasant scenes that the famous university is
situated, and that several hundred German students are gathered to
pursue their studies.

One of my chief objects in visiting Heidelberg was to see the
university, and to observe the curious student customs of which I
had heard so much; and my journey was amply repaid by what I saw.

The university itself was far less imposing than I had imagined;
compared with the picturesque and hoary old college palaces of
Oxford and Cambridge, or even with our own cosey Harvard and Yale
edifices and greens, it seemed very insignificant.

The buildings occupy a cheerless square in a central part of the
quaint old German town. They are very plain, modest, and
unpretending. The lecture-rooms are on one side of the square; in
the rear are the museum and reading room, while opposite the
lecture-rooms is a row of jewelry, clothing, confectionery, and
other shops. I was most interested, however, in the students and
their ways.

As soon as you enter the town and pass up the main street, you espy
groups of the students here and there. You are at once struck with
the contrast they present to American or English students. Very odd
to American eyes are their dress and