nique and incomparable in the life of man that one dares not place it
in the same category with any other. In Susanna's gloomy school-room,
namely, I learned to know love, and that, too, in the very same hour in
which I entered it; therefore in my fourth year.

The first love! Who does not smile when he reads these words; before
whose vision does not an Aennchen or a Gretchen hover, who once seemed
to him to wear a starry crown and be arrayed in the blue of heaven and
the gold of the morning, and who now perhaps--it would be criminal to
paint the reverse of the picture. But who does not say to himself, too,
that at that time he was carried, as though on wings, past every
honey-cup in the garden of earth, too quickly indeed to become
intoxicated, but slowly enough to breathe in the sacred morning
fragrance. It is therefore with emotion that I now smile when I think of
the beautiful May morning on which actually took place that great event,
long since resolved upon, repeatedly deferred, and at last unalterably
appointed for a definite day--I mean my departure from the paternal home
to school. "He will cry!" said Meta on the evening before, and nodded
sibylline fashion, as though she knew everything. "He will not cry, but
he will get up too late!" rejoined neighbor Ohl's wife. "He will behave
bravely, and be out of his bed at the right time, too!" threw in the
good-natured old man. Then he added, "I have something for him, and I'll
give it to him when he comes in at my door at seven o'clock tomorrow
morning, washed and combed."

At seven o'clock I was at our neighbor's and as a reward was presented
with a little wooden cuckoo. Up to half past seven I was in good spirits
and played with our pug-dog, at quarter to eight I began to weaken, but
toward eight I was a man again, because Meta entered with a face full of
malicious enjoyment, and I sat out courageously, the new primer, with
John Ballhorn's egg-laying cock under my arm. My mother went with me in
order to introduce me ceremoniously; the pug followed; I was not yet
entirely forsaken, and stood in Susanna's presence before I realized it.
In school-master fashion Susanna patted me on the cheek and stroked back
my hair. My mother, in a severe tone which she had great pains in
assuming, bade me be industrious and obedient, and departed hastily, so
as not to allow her emotion to get the better of her; the pug was
undecided for some little time, but at last he went off to jo