vine-dressers, shinglers, and woodcutters; every sort of
heavy work had been turned for once into play. The horses and oxen that
were harnessed to the wagons wore garlands and ribbons, and everybody
was shouting, rejoicing, and welcoming the fresh arrivals.

They entered the village.

Flags were streaming from the Rathhaus; they said that Weidmann was
there delivering a discourse.

They went in.

In the great hall Weidmann was standing behind a table, and giving to
the people a scientific and at the same time a perfectly comprehensible
and directly practical essay on the best method of "making flesh;" for
such was the term he continually used in speaking of feeding. "Making
flesh" was his constantly recurring theme; and he pointed out the
different kinds and quantities of food, how roots and oil-cakes must be
alternated and supplied so as to give the most nourishment, laying a
special emphasis upon the necessity of accurate calculation in order to
receive the proper returns.

He had a thermometer in his stable, and the heat there was never
allowed to be above 63 1-2 deg. Fahrenheit; he had also a telegraphic
clock which communicated from the stable to his study, so that he could
know, to a minute, whether the servants foddered the cattle at the
proper time.

He represented to the people how much better off they were with a small
amount of landed property, for they could have it all under their own
eye, while he had to be at the mercy of hired laborers; and one could
know very well when Monday came, for on Sunday there was always bad
foddering. Each cow has its own name, and a register is kept of the
amount of milk from each, and any one that does not come up to the
requisite standard to yield a profit is got rid of.

He repeated to his hearers often, how, within the circuit of a few
miles, more than a million was thrown away by cutting the grass too
late, and not getting it in until it had become dead ripe. And he
succeeded in setting all this off in a humorous way.

If he had occasion to show that his method was profitable pecuniarily,
he would strike his hand upon his pantaloons' pocket, and say:--

"Then there's something goes in here."

There was much merriment when he illustrated with his hand the
remark:--

"Profit--profit is the whole Story. Just look at this! The human hand
moves its fingers inward towards us, not outwards to give away."

He was strongly opposed to pasturing in common; and everyt