tion, must try it!"

"And do the cherry-trees bear well this year?" asked Wilhelm.

"No, no," answered the Kammerjunker, "they are good for nothing; but
the apples are good! All the old trees in the hill-garden stand in full
splendor: I've brought them into condition! Two years ago there was not,
on all the trees together, a bushel of fruit. But I had all the horses
which had to be bled led under the trees, and had the warm blood
sprinkled upon the roots; this happened several times, and it has been a
real inoculation for life."

"The wind is certainly favorable," said Otto, whom this conversation
began to weary.

"No, just the contrary!" said the Kammerjunker. "The vane upon the
little house yonder lies; it points always to Nyborg, always shows a
good wind for us when we want to leave. In Nyborg is also a vane, which
stands even as firmly as this, and prates to the folk there of good
wind. I regard both vanes as a kind of guide-post, which merely says,
There goes the way! No, if we had had a wind I should have gone with the
boat, and not with the little splashing thing, as the seamen call the
steamboat. The carriage is doubtless awaiting the young gentleman in
Nyborg?" pursued he. "I will join company with you--my brown horse
waits for me at Schalburg. You should see him! He has sinews like steel
springs, and legs like a dancing-master! He is my own brown."

"No one knows that we are coming," answered Wilhelm. "We shall,
therefore, take a carriage from Nyborg."

"We will join company," said the Kammerjunker, "and then you will pay me
a visit with the young gentleman. You shall sleep in the black chamber!
Yes, you will give me the pleasure?" said he to Otto. "If you are a
lover of the antique, my estate will afford you pleasure; you find there
moats, towers, guard-rooms, ghosts, and hobgoblins, such as belong to an
old estate. The black chamber! after all, it is not quite secure there;
is it, Herr Baron?"

"No, the deuce remain a night with you!" said Wilhelm; "one gets to bed
late, and even then it is not permitted one to close one's eyes. You,
your sister, and the Mamsell,--yes, you are a pretty clover-leaf!
Yes, Thostrup, you cannot believe what pranks are hatched upon the
Kammerjunker's estate! One must be prepared for it! It is said to be
haunted, but if the dead will not take that trouble the living do. The
Kammerjunker is in the plot with his women-folk. They sewed me lately
live cockchafers into my pillo