ly preposterous assertion, and he combated it
with a rather supercilious mien, till it was finally shown to be
substantially correct. Then my father's arrogance, growing out of a
conviction of his superior knowledge, was transformed first into
respect and later into friendship, and even twenty years after,
whenever we drove from our Oderbruch village to the neighboring city
of Kuestrin, he never had much to say about Crown Prince Fritz, or
Katte's decapitation, but regularly remarked: "Oh yes, Necker, who may
be called the father of the French Revolution, traced his ancestry
back to this city of Kuestrin. I owe the information to Ferber, Captain
Ferber, whom we called Teinturier. It is a pity he could not give up
his _aqua vitae_. At times it was pitiable."

Yes, pitiable it was, but not to us children, who, on the contrary,
always broke out into cheers whenever the captain, usually in rather
desolate costume, came staggering up the Great Church Street to find a
place to continue his breakfast. We used to follow close behind him
and tease and taunt him till he would try to catch and thrash one or
the other of us. Occasionally he succeeded; but I always escaped with
ease, because I chose for my teasings only days when it had rained a
short time before. Then there stood in the street between our house
and the church on the other side a huge pool of water, which became my
harbor of refuge. Holding my stilts at the proper angle, I sprang
quickly upon them as soon as I saw that Teinturier, in spite of his
condition, was close on my heels, and then I marched triumphantly into
the pool of water. There I stood like a stork on one stilt and
presented arms with the other, as I continued scoffing at him. Cursing
and threatening he marched away, the poor captain. But he took care
not to make good his threats, because in his good moments he did not
like to be reminded of the bad ones.

We had several playgrounds. The one we liked best perhaps was along
the "Bulwark," at the point where the side street branched off from
our house. The whole surroundings were very picturesque, especially in
the winter time, when the ships, stripped of their topmasts, lay at
their moorings, often in three rows, the last pretty far out in the
river. We were allowed to play along the "Bulwark" and practice our
rope-walking art on the stretched hawsers as far as they hung close to
the ground. Only one thing was prohibited. We were not allowed to go
on b