right have they to come over here, as they do, and grumble
about our weather?"

"Well, as a matter of fact," he replied, "they haven't any right; but you
can't stop them--they will do it. No, you take my advice, and be
prepared for everything. Take a cool suit and some thin things, for if
it's hot, and plenty of warm things in case it is cold."

When I got home I found Mrs. Briggs there, she having looked in to see
how the baby was. She said:--

"Oh! if you're going anywhere near Germany, you take a bit of soap with
you."

She said that Mr. Briggs had been called over to Germany once in a hurry,
on business, and had forgotten to take a piece of soap with him, and
didn't know enough German to ask for any when he got over there, and
didn't see any to ask for even if he had known, and was away for three
weeks, and wasn't able to wash himself all the time, and came home so
dirty that they didn't know him, and mistook him for the man that was to
come to see what was the matter with the kitchen boiler.

Mrs. Briggs also advised me to take some towels with me, as they give you
such small towels to wipe on.

I went out after lunch, and met our Vicar. He said:

"Take a blanket with you."

He said that not only did the German hotel-keepers never give you
sufficient bedclothes to keep you warm of a night, but they never
properly aired their sheets. He said that a young friend of his had gone
for a tour through Germany once, and had slept in a damp bed, and had
caught rheumatic fever, and had come home and died.

His wife joined us at this point. (He was waiting for her outside a
draper's shop when I met him.) He explained to her that I was going to
Germany, and she said:

"Oh! take a pillow with you. They don't give you any pillows--not like
our pillows--and it's _so_ wretched, you'll never get a decent night's
rest if you don't take a pillow." She said: "You can have a little bag
made for it, and it doesn't look anything."

I met our doctor a few yards further on. He said:

"Don't forget to take a bottle of brandy with you. It doesn't take up
much room, and, if you're not used to German cooking, you'll find it
handy in the night."

He added that the brandy you get at foreign hotels was mere poison, and
that it was really unsafe to travel abroad without a bottle of brandy.
He said that a simple thing like a bottle of brandy in your bag might
often save your life.

Coming home, I ran against a literary