istance the smooth-flowing watercourses
which bounded the landscape. The picture was laid on from a meager
palette; a few browns and greens, slightly relieved and enlivened by
the vigorous tones of the whitewashed walls of the laborers' cottages,
some standing apart, some collected together like a little village.

And yet, though the view from the tower might not seem very attractive,
a walk through the country revealed many a peculiar charm to the
observant and divining eye. Here one stood upon ground where man had
wrestled with Nature and subdued her. At every step one encountered the
marks of that struggle and victory, reminding one of Jacob's mysterious
encounter with the angel. The waters of the marsh were now forced
within the prescribed limits of a system of drains and canals.
Luxuriant crops triumphed over reeds and rushes, which were now only
permitted to fringe the edges of the ditches. Sleek, mild-eyed cows
grazed and ruminated where formerly the wildfowl built her nest. Chaos
was vanquished, and had to own man for her lord and master.

Here, upon the scene of his labors, Paul's figure assumed a certain
epic dignity. As a stern lord with a handful of armed followers keeps
down a subjugated people, so Paul, at the head of a few hundred
workmen, held sway over the unruly forces of Nature always more or less
ready to revolt. There were always dikes to be repaired, ditches to be
deepened, drain-pipes to be laid or improved, or artificial manure to
be carted, and Paul was active from break of day till nightfall, either
on foot or on horseback, hurrying from one end of the estate to the
other, everywhere ordering or giving a helping hand, and always leading
his troops himself to fresh onslaughts against the resisting elements.
He did it all quietly, without any fuss or attempt to reflect credit on
himself, and left it to others--to strangers, poetically inclined
pupils or students on their travels--to say that his conquest of the
Friesenmoor was a Faust-like achievement.

He had built a whole village for his laborers, to right and left of the
highroad leading to Friesenmoor House. The cheerful, clean, whitewashed
cottages, with their green-painted window-frames, were thatched with
rushes and surrounded by gardens in which young fruit trees, not yet
sufficiently strong to forego the support of poles, already gave
promise of their first harvest of apples and pears. The village hall
and the school-house were disting