for Mecklenburg is no wine country. It was the quarter-day and
pay-day of the carpenters, who were about to celebrate the date as usual
with a supper. I went to sit down in the small travellers' room, and was
assailed instantly by the whole army of joiners, some with bleared eyes;
with flushed faces under caps of every shape and colour; and a flexible
pipe hanging from every mouth--Who was I?--What was I?--Whence did I
come?--Where was I born? and whither was I going? etc., etc. When they
had found out all about me and confirmed their knowledge by examination
of my passport, which one dull dog persisted in regarding as a book of
ballads, out of which he sang, I began to ask concerning food. "Nothing
warm in the house," said the housefather, a carpenter himself. "There
will be a grand supper at six o'clock, and everything and everybody is
wanted in the preparation of it. Make yourself easy for the present with
brown bread and dripping, and a glass of beer, and then you can make your
dinner with us when we sup." That suited me well enough.

The carpenters flowed out into the street, to take a stroll and get their
appetites, leaving behind them one besotted man, who propped himself
against the oven, and there gave himself a lecture on the blessings of
equanimity under all circumstances of distress.

"Do you sleep here to-night?" inquired the host. Certainly, I desired to
do so. "Then you must go to the police bureau for a permission."--"But
you have my passport; is not that sufficient?"--"Not in Ludwigslust; your
passport must be held by the police, and they will give you in exchange
for it a ticket, which I must hold, or else I dare not let you have a
lodging." I went to the police office at once; through the ill-paved
street into the middle of the town. I went by a large gravelled square,
which serves as a riding ground for the cavalry in the adjoining
barracks; and a long broad street of no great beauty, ending in a flight
of steps, led me then to the police office, and would have led me also,
had that been my destination, to the ducal palace. The palace fronts to
a paved square; it is a massive, noble edifice of stone, having before it
a fine cascade with a treble fall. To the left, across a green meadow, I
observed the church--the only church--a simple whitewashed building with
a colonnaded front. At the foot of the low flight of steps was the
police office, in which I found one man, who civilly copied m