le letters; nay,
villainous school-boy pot-hooks often spoiled the best lines. "And
then," continued Archivarius Lindhorst, "your ink will not stand." He
dipped his finger in a glass of water, and as he just skimmed it over
the lines they vanished without vestige. The student Anselmus felt as
if some monster were throttling him; he could not utter a word. There
stood he with the unlucky sheet in his hand; but Archivarius Lindhorst
laughed aloud, and said: "Never mind it, dearest Herr Anselmus; what
you could not accomplish before, will perhaps do better here. At any
rate, you shall have better materials than you have been accustomed
to. Begin, in Heaven's name!"

From a locked press Archivarius Lindhorst now brought out a black
fluid substance, which diffused a most peculiar odor; also pens,
sharply pointed and of strange color, together with a sheet of
especial whiteness and smoothness; then at last an Arabic manuscript;
and as Anselmus sat down to work, the Archivarius left the room. The
student Anselmus had often before copied Arabic manuscripts; the first
problem, therefore, seemed to him not so very difficult to solve. "How
these pot-hooks came into my fine English current-hand, Heaven and
Archivarius Lindhorst know best," said he; "but that they are not from
_my_ hand, I will testify to the death!" At every new word that stood
fair and perfect on the parchment, his courage increased, and with it
his adroitness. In truth, these pens wrote exquisitely well; and the
mysterious ink flowed pliantly and black as jet, on the bright white
parchment. And as he worked along so diligently and with such strained
attention, he began to feel more and more at home in the solitary
room; and already he had quite fitted himself into his task, which he
now hoped to finish well, when at the stroke of three the Archivarius
called him into the side-room to a savory dinner. At table,
Archivarius Lindhorst was in special gaiety of heart; he inquired
about the student Anselmus' friends, Conrector Paulmann, and
Registrator Heerbrand, and of the latter especially he had a store
of merry anecdotes to tell. The good old Rhenish was particularly
grateful to the student Anselmus, and made him more talkative than he
was wont to be. At the stroke of four he rose to resume his labor; and
this punctuality appeared to please the Archivarius.

If the copying of these Arabic manuscripts had prospered in his hands
before dinner, the task now went for