hat Liebenau could not be
far distant. Hunger and thirst were, however, beginning to be rather
inconveniently felt; and as our calculations might after all be
erroneous, we judged it prudent to seek, in a little ale-house by the
way-side, such refreshment as could be procured. Our hotel was of the
very humblest description; namely, the beer-house of a small hamlet,
and could furnish only brown bread, cheese, butter, and beer. These, in
the existing state of our appetites, went down famously; and a pipe of
good tobacco to wind up withal, was not out of place. Neither was even
this unpretending house of call destitute to us of subjects of
interest. We found when we entered the tap-room two young men asleep on
the benches, and a couple of large packs lying beside them. They awoke
shortly afterwards, and proved to be, as we had expected, journeymen
mechanics. For in Germany a custom universally prevails, that young
men, after serving their apprenticeship to the trade which they intend
to practise, go forth upon their travels, and dispose of their wares,
not only in remote towns and villages of their native state, but in
foreign lands. Some of these journeymen travel from Saxony, for
example, as far as Hamburg and Copenhagen. Several make their way into
France; and I have even heard of them penetrating both the wilds of
Russia, and the classical and fair fields of Italy. The consequence
is, that they return home with minds very much enlarged, and an
acquaintance, more or less accurate, not only with the systems of
commerce, but with the languages of foreign countries, and that a
stranger is surprised on entering a shop in Dresden or Zittau, to find
that French, and perhaps Italian and English, are understood by the
tradesman who keeps it.

The young men whom we found in occupation of the tap-room were by trade
cutlers. Natives of some obscure town in Prussian Silesia, of which I
have forgotten the name, they were wandering about through Bohemia with
the intention by-and-by of proceeding into Saxony, and so round by
Berlin and Potsdam to their homes. Their knapsacks, which they hastened
according to established usage to unbuckle, contained a plentiful
supply of knives, forks, scissors, and razors; but the poor fellows
were not successful in driving a bargain, for their charges were
exorbitantly high, and their goods of an indifferent quality. Even the
host himself bid but one-half their demand, and neither he nor we could
br