e winds with his hind legs. From the German
point of view, he is the ideal dog. He stops where you put him, and he
is never where you do not want him. You can have him perfect in all
points, according to the latest requirements of the Kennel Club; or you
can indulge your own fancy and have something unique. You are not, as
with other dogs, limited to breed. In china, you can have a blue dog or
a pink dog. For a little extra, you can have a double-headed dog.

On a certain fixed date in the autumn the German stakes his flowers and
bushes to the earth, and covers them with Chinese matting; and on a
certain fixed date in the spring he uncovers them, and stands them up
again. If it happens to be an exceptionally fine autumn, or an
exceptionally late spring, so much the worse for the unfortunate
vegetable. No true German would allow his arrangements to be interfered
with by so unruly a thing as the solar system. Unable to regulate the
weather, he ignores it.

Among trees, your German's favourite is the poplar. Other disorderly
nations may sing the charms of the rugged oak, the spreading chestnut, or
the waving elm. To the German all such, with their wilful, untidy ways,
are eyesores. The poplar grows where it is planted, and how it is
planted. It has no improper rugged ideas of its own. It does not want
to wave or to spread itself. It just grows straight and upright as a
German tree should grow; and so gradually the German is rooting out all
other trees, and replacing them with poplars.

Your German likes the country, but he prefers it as the lady thought she
would the noble savage--more dressed. He likes his walk through the
wood--to a restaurant. But the pathway must not be too steep, it must
have a brick gutter running down one side of it to drain it, and every
twenty yards or so it must have its seat on which he can rest and mop his
brow; for your German would no more think of sitting on the grass than
would an English bishop dream of rolling down One Tree Hill. He likes
his view from the summit of the hill, but he likes to find there a stone
tablet telling him what to look at, find a table and bench at which he
can sit to partake of the frugal beer and "belegte Semmel" he has been
careful to bring with him. If, in addition, he can find a police notice
posted on a tree, forbidding him to do something or other, that gives him
an extra sense of comfort and security.

Your German is not averse even to