urgher!"

The Kammerjunker now entered, attired in the same riding dress in which
we made his acquaintance. He had visited his hay and oats, had seen
after the people who were working at the fences, and had been also in
the plantation. It had been a warm forenoon.

"Now, Miss Sophie," said he, "do you see how I am clearing out the
court? It costs me above five hundred dollars; and still they are
the peasants of the estate who clear away the mud. But I shall get a
delicate manure-heap, so fit and rich that it's quite a pleasure. But,
Jakoba, where is the coffee?"

"Only let it come in through the door," said Jakoba, somewhat angrily.
"You certainly ate something before you went from home. Let me attend to
the affairs of the ladies, and do thou attend to the gentlemen, so that
they may not stand and get weary."

The Kammerjunker conducted the friends up the winding stone stairs into
the old tower.

"All solid and good!" said he. "We no longer build in this manner. The
loop-holes here, close under the roof, were walled up already in my
father's time. But only notice this timber!"

The whole loft appeared a gigantic skeleton composed of beams, one
crossing the other. On either side of the loft was a small vaulted
chamber, with a brick fire-place. Probably these chambers had been used
as guard-rooms; a kind of warder's walk led from these, between the
beam-palisade and the broad wall.

"Yes, here," said the Kammerjunker, "they could have had a good lookout
toward the enemy. Look through my telescope. You have here the whole
country from Vissenberg to Munkebobanke, the Belt, and the heights
of Svendborg. Only see! The air is clear. We see both Langeland and
Zealand. Here one could, in 1807, have well observed the English fleet."

The three climbed up the narrow ladder and came past the great clock,
the leaden weights of which, had they fallen, would have dashed through
the stone steps, and soon the gentlemen sat on the highest point. The
Kammerjunker requested the telescope, placed it and exclaimed:--

"Did I not think so? If one has not them always under one's eyes they
begin playing pranks! Yes, I see it very well! There, now, the fellows
who are working at the fences have begun to romp with the girls! they do
nothing! Yes, they don't believe that I am sitting here in the tower and
looking at them!"

"Then a telescope is, after all, a dangerous weapon!" exclaimed Wilhelm.
"You can look at people when they least