im. All at once such a madcap
spirit had come over him, he felt so happy and refreshed; as if he had
never had to suffer dull cares, or put up with the whims of a hysterical
wife, or practise medicine in a musty, out-of-the-way corner of the
country. Never, it seemed to him, had he studied bacteriology, still
less, suffered a fiasco. Never had he been so in love as he appeared to
have been only a short time before.

He laughed, bending his head before the gale, filled his lungs with the
salty air, and felt better and stronger.

A burst of laughter from the steerage passengers mounted to his ears. At
the same instant something lashed him in the face, something that he had
seen rearing, white and tremendous, before the bow. It almost blinded
him, and he felt the wet penetrate to his skin. The first wave had swept
overboard.

Who would not find it humiliating to have his sublime meditations
interrupted in such a tricky, brutal way? A moment before, he felt as
if to be a Viking were his real calling, and now, inwardly shaking and
shivering, amid general ridicule, he crawled ignominiously down the
iron ladder.

He was wearing a round grey hat. His overcoat was padded and lined with
silk. His gloves were of dressed kid, his buttoned boots of thin leather.
All these garments were now drenched with a cold, salty wash. Leaving a
damp trail behind, he made his way, not exactly a glorious way, through
the steerage passengers, who rolled with laughter. In the midst of his
annoyance Frederick heard a voice calling his name. He looked up and
scarcely trusted his eyes on seeing a large fellow in whom he thought he
recognised a peasant from the Heuscheuer Mountains, a peasant with an
evil reputation for drunkenness and all sorts of misdeeds.

"Wilke, is that you?"

"Yes, Doctor, I'm Wilke."

The little town in which Frederick had practised was called Plassenberg
an der Heuscheuer, that is, Plassenberg by the Heuscheuer Mountains, a
range in the county of Glatz where excellent sandstone is quarried. The
people of the district loved Frederick both as a man and a physician. He
was the wonder-worker who had performed a number of splendid cures and he
was the human being, without pride of caste, whose heart beat warmly for
the good of the lowliest of his fellow-men. They loved his natural way
with them, always cordial, always outspoken, and sometimes harsh.

Wilke was bound for New England to join his brother.

"The people in the