ent order from those who plod in the fields, he could not but
come to the conclusion that the peasantry were far beneath him. Not
that he really enjoyed the society of this sort of people, who never
objected to his standing treat for a stoup of wine; "but," thought he,
"a man must have some company, and it's better than farmers' gossip,
after all." At last, without avowing it even to himself, he enjoyed the
stimulus to his vanity which their conversation afforded.

Such is life. The manor-house farmer quarrelled with himself, with his
wife, with his fellow-men, with everybody and every thing, because he
would not humble himself to surrender a jot or tittle of these old
feudal rights, or rather wrongs, when he had enough and to spare
without them: the confusion of his heart and of his mind increased from
day to day, and he undermined his happiness and that of his family when
they might all have enjoyed so much good fortune.

After a time, a few old farmers, who had no warm stoves at home, or
whose scolding wives made their dwellings too hot to hold them, would
drop in to see the manor-house farmer of a winter evening; but he
received them sullenly, vexed that these only came and not the more
important and influential. Their visits soon ceased.

The mother and daughters often spent a week with her father at
Baisingen, but the manor-house farmer did not go with them. He never
saw his father-in-law again until he lay upon his bier.

[Illustration: Hard times did not leave a single farm-house unvisited.]

The life in the village became more and more disagreeable. It is a sad
thing to go into the fields and not receive a friendly greeting from
all you meet. The manor-house farmer, to make the time pass away, was
forced to talk to his dog, Sultan,--a poor entertainment for a man at
any time.

The hard times brought upon Europe by Napoleon did not leave a single
farm-house of the Black Forest unvisited. Strasbourg was not far away,
and those who had good hearing maintained that they had heard the shots
fired off there in honor of the French victories. This was said to be a
sign of great trouble in the land,--just as if any sign were needed to
show that things would be turned upside-down.

The preparations for the Russian campaign were going on briskly. The
manor-house farmer's oldest sons, Philip and Caspar, were forced to go:
their father would rather have gone himself, for he was tired of every
thing. He saw the depart