couldn't write it all. If it were only not so far off, Hansei; a pound
of fish here costs twice as much as with us. We're living in the summer
palace now, and just think, mother, what such a king has. He has seven
palaces, and they're all furnished, every one with a hundred beds,
rooms, kitchens and all of them filled, and when they go from one
palace to another they needn't take a fork or a spoon along. Everything
here is silver, and the doctor and the apothecary and the preacher and
the court people and the horses and the carriages, all move out here
with us. There's a whole town here in the palace, and I've the best
beer and more than I care for; and when one gets up in the morning
everything is as neat and clean as a new-laid egg. There's not a leaf
on the paths, and then there's a house all made with glass. The flowers
live in it; but I daren't go in, because it's too hot in there. They
keep it heated the whole year round, and it's filled with great palms
and other trees from the east, and, in the pond, there's a fountain,
and the water rises up as high as our church steeple. And just think of
all such a king can have. All day long, when the sun shines, there's a
rainbow there, sometimes above and sometimes below. Of course, he nor
no one else can make the sun; and they all do their best to please me.
I hardly can say I like a thing, before they give it to me at once.

"The queen is just like a companion with me. Just like you, Stasi. I
wish you much joy at your wedding. I only heard of it from Zenza. You
shall have a wedding present from me; let me know what you'd like to
have. But now I beg of you, just tell me how it goes with my child. It
didn't please me to know that you had weighed it on the butcher's
scales, and that it's so heavy. I wouldn't have thought, mother, that
you would have allowed it, or that you, Hansei, would have given way to
the innkeeper. Beware of that fellow. It was only last night that I
dreamt you and he were rowing across the lake, and that he clutched you
and dragged you into the water. Then all was over. And then the Lady of
the Lake appeared, and she looked like the good countess who is now
away. She's the best friend I have here, and promised to visit you on
her way back. You can tell her and give her everything just as if it
was myself. They've just brought me my dinner. Ah, dear mother, if I
could only give you some of it. There are so many good things here and
there's always so muc