ntly supplied with plain but wholesome food, and the
cheerful conversation which ensued gave evidence that the cares of their
position had not exerted a depressing influence on their spirits. Each
seemed thoroughly in love with his work, and in harmony with all the
rest. Dr. Wichern mentioned that I was from America.

"Have you," inquired one of the Brothers, "any institutions like this in
your country?"

"We have," I answered, "Reform Schools, Houses of Refuge, Juvenile
Asylums, and other reformatory institutions; but I am afraid I must say,
nothing like this. We are making progress, however, in Juvenile Reform,
and I hope that ere long we, too, may have a Rough House whose influence
shall pervade our country, as yours has done Central Europe."

"Dr. Wichern," inquired another, "have our friends visited the 'God's
Acre?'"[A]

[Footnote A: The German name of a grave-yard.]

"Not yet," was the reply; "but I will go thither with them after we have
dined, if they can remain so long."

We assented, and one of the Brothers remarked,--

"Our boys have taken especial pains to beautify that favorite spot, this
season."

"This disposition to adorn the resting-place of the body, so common
among us, is becoming popular in your country, I believe," said our
host, courteously.

I replied, that it was,--that in our larger towns the place of burial
was generally rendered attractive, but that in the rural districts the
burying-grounds were yet neglected and unsightly; and ventured the
opinion, that this neglect might be partly traceable to the iconoclastic
tendencies of our Puritan ancestors.

Dr. Wichern thought not; the neglect of the earthly home of the dead
resulted from the prevalence of indifference to the glorious doctrine of
the Resurrection; and whatever a people might profess, he could not but
believe them infidel at heart, if they were entirely neglectful of the
resting-place of their dead.

The close of our repast precluded further discussion, and at our host's
invitation we accompanied him to the rural cemetery, where such of the
pupils and Brothers as died during their connection with the school were
buried. An English writer has very appropriately called the Rauhe Haus a
"Home among the Flowers"; but the title is far more appropriate to this
beautiful spot. Whatever a pure and exquisite taste could conceive as
becoming in a place consecrated to such a purpose, willing hands have
executed; and early every Sa