zen outside his window, to Claus, who knew how to stuff birds.

All the events of the past day seemed to have vanished from his mind,
leaving no trace, in the joy he felt in his splendid shot.

"Stop!" cried Roland suddenly, as he was stretching out the owl's
wings, "stop; I've just thought of what a man said to me in my dreams;
he looked like Benjamin Franklin, but he was thinner. I dreamed that I
was going to battle; the music was making a great noise, discordant,
and broken by shouts, and every now and then the man said: 'A good
name--a good name'--and then there suddenly appeared thousands of black
heads, nothing but black heads, a perfect sea of them; and they all
gnashed their teeth, and I woke up in dreadful agony."

Eric could not answer, and Roland went on:--

"To-day is the last day of the year; we ought to enter upon a wholly
new world tomorrow; I don't know why, but I long to have it so."

Eric laid his hand on the boy's brow, which was feverishly hot.

Roland was summoned to his mother, who wanted him; Eric watched him
thoughtfully as he went; he felt also that a new page was to be turned,
without knowing what it was to be. He looked towards the door, for he
expected that Sonnenkamp would send for him. The man had shown on the
previous day such new and strange moods that an explanation was
necessary. What would it be? This could not be guessed. As if in a
vision, Eric saw Sonnenkamp in his own room, in a state of the greatest
excitement, sometimes bursting out violently, then calming himself
again. He heard the steps of two people approach his room. Roland
entered, holding his father's hand.

"Mother is asleep again," he said, "but there is some news. Eric, we
are going to the capital together, to stay all winter."

"Yes, I have decided upon it," said Sonnenkamp, in confirmation, after
saying good-morning to Eric, "and I hope that your mother will go with
us."

With calm deliberation, he went on to say that gay society would be
good for all of them, after the loneliness of their retired life in the
country; and, with a watchful look at Eric, he added:--

"We shall meet your friend Clodwig, and his charming wife, at the
capital."

Eric looked at him calmly, and said that he should feel it to be his
duty to meet all of Herr Sonnenkamp's social acquaintances.

"I have thought much about last evening," began Sonnenkamp, seating
himself near Eric. "You are a learned and also a bold man."

His mann