no prohibition against entering
a tavern, though we knew that M. de Fellenberg objected to our
contracting the latter habit. Our practice on Sundays may illustrate
this. That day was strictly kept and devoted to religious exercises
until midday, when we dined. After dinner it was given up to recreation,
and our favorite Sunday recreation was, to form into parties of two or
three and sally forth, _Ziegenhainer_ in hand, on excursions many miles
into the beautiful and richly cultivated rolling country that surrounded
us, usually ascending some eminence whence we could command a full view
of the magnificent Bernese Alps, their summits covered with eternal
snow. It sometimes happened that on these excursions we were overtaken
by a storm, or perhaps, having wandered farther than we intended, were
tired and hungry. In either case, we did not scruple to enter some
country tavern and procure refreshments there. But whenever we did so,
it was a custom--not a written law, but a custom sanctioned by all our
college traditions--to visit, on our return, the professor who had
charge of the domestic department of our institution,--a short, stout,
middle-aged man, the picture of good-humor, but not deficient in
decision and energy when occasion demanded,--it was our uniform custom
to call upon this gentleman, Herr Lippe, and inform him that we _had_
visited such or such a tavern, and the occasion of our doing so. A
benignant smile, and his usual "It is very well, my sons," closed such
interviews.

But the use of tobacco--passing strange, that, in a German college!--was
forbidden by our rules; so also was a departure, after the usual hour of
rest, from the college buildings, except for good reason shown. Thus Max
and Fritz Taxis (so the youths were called) had become offenders,
amenable to justice.

The irregularity of which they had been guilty, the only one of the kind
I recollect, became known accidentally to one of our number. There
existed among us not even the name of informer; it was considered a duty
to give notice to the proper authorities of any breach of our laws. This
was accordingly done in the present instance; and the brothers were
officially notified that on the following day their case would be
brought up, and they would be heard in their own defence. The elder of
the two, Max, held some minor office; and the sentence would probably
have been a vote of censure or a fine for both, and a forfeiture of the
office in the