then takes his pipe out of his mouth to say,
and I lie back in my chair and stare at the stars, and I think and
think, and wonder and wonder. And what do you suppose I think and
wonder about, little mother? You and love. I don't know why I say you
and love, for it's the same thing. And so is all this beauty of summer
in the woods, and so is music, and my violin when it gets playing to
me; and the future is full of it, and oh, I do so badly want to say
thank you to some one!

Good night my most precious mother.

Your Chris.

Schuppenfelde, Friday, July 17,1914.

This morning when I came down to breakfast, sweet mother, there at the
foot of the stairs was Herr von Inster. He didn't say anything, but
watched me coming down with the contented look he has I like so much.
I was frightfully pleased to see him, and smiled all over myself.
"Oh," I exclaimed, "so you've come."

He held out his hand and helped me down the last steps. He was in
green shooting clothes, like the Oberforster's, but without the
official buttons, and looked very nice. You'd like him, I'm sure.
You'd like what he looks like, and like what he is.

He had been in the forest since four this morning, shooting with his
colonel, who came down with him to Koseritz last night. The colonel
and Graf Koseritz, who came down from Berlin with them, were both
breakfasting, attended by the Bornsteds, and it shows how soundly I
sleep here that I hadn't heard anything.

"And aren't you having any breakfast?" I asked.

"I will now," he said. "I was listening for your door to open,"

I think you'd like him _very_ much, little mother.

The colonel, whose name is Graf Hohenfeld, was being very pleasant to
Frau Bornsted, watching her admiringly as she brought him things to
eat. He was very pleasant to me too, and got up and put his heels
together and said, "Old England for ever" when I appeared, and asked
the Graf whether Frau Bornsted and I didn't remind him of a nosegay of
flowers. Obviously we didn't. The Graf doesn't look as if anybody
ever reminded him of anything. He greeted me briefly, and then sat
staring abstractedly at the tablecloth, as he did in Berlin. The
Colonel did all the talking. Both he and the Graf had on those pretty
green shooting things they wear in Germany, with the becoming soft hats
and little feathers. He was very jovial indeed, seemed fond and proud
of his lieutenant, Herr von Inster, slapped the Oberforster ev