m to shed around them, from their bright, good-tempered
faces, a healthy atmosphere of all that is homely, and simple, and good.
Looking into their quiet, steadfast eyes, one dreams of white household
linen, folded in great presses; of sweet-smelling herbs; of savoury,
appetising things being cooked for supper; of bright-polished furniture;
of the patter of tiny feet; of little high-pitched voices, asking silly
questions; of quiet talks in the lamp-lit parlour after the children are
in bed, upon important questions of house management and home politics,
while long stockings are being darned.

They are not the sort of women to turn a man's head, but they are the
sort of women to lay hold of a man's heart--very gently at first, so that
he hardly knows that they have touched it, and then, with soft, clinging
tendrils that wrap themselves tighter and tighter year by year around it,
and draw him closer and closer--till, as, one by one, the false visions
and hot passions of his youth fade away, the plain homely figure fills
more and more his days--till it grows to mean for him all the better,
more lasting, true part of life--till he feels that the strong, gentle
mother-nature that has stood so long beside him has been welded firmly
into his own, and that they twain are now at last one finished whole.

We had our dinner at a beer-garden the day before yesterday. We thought
it would be pleasant to eat and drink to the accompaniment of music, but
we found that in practice this was not so. To dine successfully to music
needs a very strong digestion--especially in Bavaria.

The band that performs at a Munich beer-garden is not the sort of band
that can be ignored. The members of a Munich military band are big,
broad-chested fellows, and they are not afraid of work. They do not talk
much, and they never whistle. They keep all their breath to do their
duty with. They do not blow their very hardest, for fear of bursting
their instruments; but whatever pressure to the square inch the trumpet,
cornet, or trombone, as the case may be, is calculated to be capable of
sustaining without permanent injury (and they are tolerably sound and
well-seasoned utensils), that pressure the conscientious German bandsman
puts upon each square inch of the trumpet, cornet, or trombone, as the
case may be.

If you are within a mile of a Munich military band, and are not stone
deaf, you listen to it, and do not think of much else. It compels your