nabling them to battle successfully against the might of Neptune.

They blunted the angry sea-god's trident with their plows and shovels
and repulsed him at the very threshold of his element, stemming the
inroads of hungry seas with their stupendous handiwork which still
stands intact, an imposing monument to the memory of my forebears,
being their children's children's most precious inheritance.

On the soil which my ancestors reclaimed from the sea they founded
their homes and sowed grasses and cereals.

But ere long a dire calamity came over the land, for at the command of
the revengeful Neptune his mermaids spewed sea-foam into the river's
fresh water addling it with their fish-tails into a nasty brine.

Luckily the good dwarf who in his youth had served his term of
apprenticeship at the court of King Gambrinus and was therefore master
of the noble craft of brewing kindly taught my forefathers to brew a
foaming draught from the malt of barleycorn, which thereafter they
drank instead of water.

And now all seafaring men who navigate the river Elbe between Cuxhaven
and Hamburg are still troubled with a tremendous thirst which nothing
but foaming lager beer may quench.

The founding of the village's church dates from the conversion of Saxon
tribes who inhabited that country. The chapel's original walls were
built of rock, but its newer part was constructed of brick-work during
the fourteenth century.

Our domicile, the parsonage, although not quite as ancient, was a very
picturesque ruin with its moss-covered roof of thatched straw, under
which a flock of sparrows made their homes; but a modern building, how
prosaic-looking it might be, or deficient in uniqueness and the charm
of its surroundings, would undeniably have made a better, more sanitary
and comfortable residence.

Mother, at least, thought this when father landed her, his blushing
bride at the ancient parsonage in a rain storm which compelled them to
retire for the night under the shelter of an umbrella; and thus the
honeymoon of their married life waxed with uncommon hardship.

Later the old leaky house received a tile roof, part of it was removed
and with it the room where first I saw the light of day.

That was a cold day for father indeed, as there was another mouth to be
fed then, a very serious problem for a poor parson to solve.

When my aunt remarked that I looked like a "monk" father eyed me
thoughtfully, saying: "Perhaps there is someth