ing their trunks, as if on
the eve of a march or a retreat. In the morning there was divine
service, and, though the singing was loud, it is to be feared that more
thoughts were directed to earthly homes than to the heavenly one.

After taking an affectionate leave of Clement, Ivo set out, taking
short steps at first, according to the rule among pedestrians, all
impatient as he was. Bart kept him company: he was going to an aunt. He
was an unpleasant companion, for he wanted to stop at every tavern-sign
which showed itself. Ivo never assented until they had reached the
valley of the Lower March, where their roads parted. Fortunately he
here found some Jewish horse-jockeys from Nordstetten. They were very
glad to see him, and he them. They took him in their car and gave him a
lift of many miles. He heard of all the births, marriages, and deaths.
Ivo thought that these were the three fates between which vibrates the
life of the children of men; and, without halting at the redundant
spondee, he quoted to himself

"Clotho colum retinet, et Lachesis net, et Atropos occat."[9]

When the road was up hill the travelling traders took their
prayer-straps out of their pouches, fastened them to their foreheads
and arms and offered up their long devotions. Ivo compared the breath
which rose from their moving lips in whiffs of fume, to the incense of
the Bible: he honored every creed, and particularly the Jewish one, as
the oldest of all. He even glanced into the open prayer-book of his
neighbor, and pleased him by showing that he was able to read Hebrew.
Ivo admired the ease with which these horse-jockeys read the language:
even the principal could not have kept pace with them.

On setting him down again, where they travelled in a direction
different from his home, they made him promise not to go all the way to
Nordstetten that day, so that he might not injure his health. Walking
on silently, Ivo praised his beloved native village, in which every
one, Christian and Jew, appeared to be equally good.

Although his thoughts all tended homeward, he was very observant of
things around him, and even found time for some general reflections.
More than once, when a distant village-spire hove in sight, he said to
himself, "How well it is that the church-steeple is always the first
thing to be seen as you approach a village! It shows that Christians
live there, and that they dedicate their best and finest house to God."

At another