in its season, that no one seems to steal from
them. I have talked with elderly Germans, who remembered buying 3
pounds of cherries for 6 kreuzers, a little more than a penny, when
they were boys. But those days are over. The small sweet-water grapes
from the vineyards of South Germany are to be had for the asking where
they are grown, and apricots are plentiful in some districts, and the
little golden plums called _Mirabellen_ that are dried in quantities
and make the best winter compote there is. When I see English grocers'
shops loaded up with dried American apples and apricots that are not
worth eating, however carefully they are cooked, I always wonder why
we do not import _Mirabellen_ instead.

Sweetbreads in the Berlin markets were about 1 mark 10 pf. each last
year, small tongues were 1 mark 10 pf. _Morscheln_, a poor kind of
fungus much used in Germany, were 65 pf. a pound, real mushrooms were
1 mark 50 pf., and the dried ones used for flavouring sauces were the
same price. Butter and milk are usually about the same price as with
us, but eggs are cheaper. You get twenty for a mark still in spring,
and I remember making an English plumcake once in a Bavarian village
and being charged 6 pf. for the three eggs I used. A rye loaf weighing
4 pounds costs 50 pf., the little white rolls cost 3 pf. each. In
Berlin last year vegetables were nearly as dear as in London, but in
many parts of Germany they are much cheaper. I know of one housewife
who fed her family largely on vegetables, and would not spend more
than 10 pf. a day on them, but she lived in a small country town where
green stuff was a drug in the market. Asparagus is cheaper than here,
for it costs 35 pf. to 40 pf. a pound, and is eaten in such quantities
that even an asparagus lover gets tired of it. Meat has risen terribly
in price of late years. In the open market you can get fillet of beef
for 1 mark 60 pf., sirloin for 90 pf., good cuts of mutton for 90 pf.
to 1 mark, and veal for 1 mark, but all these prices are higher at a
butcher's shop. Fillet of beef, for instance, is 2 marks 40 pf. a
pound there.

The budget of a family living on L250 a year does not call for so much
comment as the smaller one, because L250 is a fairly comfortable
income in Germany. Either a schoolmaster or a soldier must have risen
in his profession before he gets it; but the following estimate is
made out for a business man who does not get a house free or any other
aid from