our discretion. This, be it understood, was for the behoof of some
of our gentlemen friends; the ladies had long been prepared with their
offerings, which almost, in every case, were the work of their own hands.

We started on foot; it was genial frosty weather. At Oslebshausen, which
is half-way, we rested, and took a glass of wine. Then we continued our
march, and at last caught sight of the windmill, which marks the entrance
to the town. Breakfast was the first thing to be thought of, so we went
and breakfasted in a house situated in a street called the "Bishop's
Needle." Then we hunted about in various shops, and finally arrived, not a
little laden, at the office of the Lesmona omnibus. Here we deposited our
goods, and secured our places; after which, as we had a couple of hours
before us, we repaired to Stehely and Jansen's, the chief cafe of Bremen,
to pass the time and read the papers.

Toward dusk we reached Lesmona, and our constituents immediately selected,
each according to his taste, the articles we had brought them. For my
part, as I was that evening a guest at the house of my friend the pastor,
I betook myself thither with the trifling gifts I had bought for his
children. I was destined to receive in return presents from them and other
members of his family. How they were exchanged, I shall presently relate.
I begin at the beginning of the ceremony; for the celebration of
Christmas-day is, indeed, a ceremony in most parts of Germany.

The pastor's house is, when you look at it in front, a long, low building,
with a prodigiously high thatched roof. If you go to the gable, however,
you will find that there are actually three stories in it, two being in
the said roof. The middle of the ground floor is occupied by a large hall,
which gives access to all the chambers, and has a branch leading to one
end of the edifice. At this end there is a door, on passing by which, you
find yourself in the place where the cows, pigs, and other animals are
kept. When I speak of the other animals, I should except the storks, who,
on their arrival in spring, from Egypt or elsewhere, find their usual
basket-work habitations about the chimneys all ready to receive them. One
would imagine, by the way, that they brought from their winter quarters
something like the superstition of the old inhabitants of the Nile valley,
so great is the worship of the Germans for these birds, and so
enthusiastically is their arrival hailed. No one w