scarcely any barrier to the vision; for behind the
nearer ranges of hills one chain of the wooded Thuringian Mountains
towered beyond another, and where the horizon seemed to close the grand
picture, peak after peak blended with the sky and the clouds, and the
light veil of mist floating about them seemed to merge all into an
indivisible whole.

I have gazed from this spot into the distance at every hour of the day
and season of the year. But the fairest time of all on the Steiger was at
sunset, on clear autumn days, when the scene close at hand, where the
threads of gossamer were floating, was steeped in golden light, the
distance in such exquisite tints-from crimson to the deepest violet blue,
edged with a line of light-the Saale glimmered with a silvery lustre amid
its fringe of alders, and the sun flashed on the glittering panes of the
Leuchtenburg.

We were now old enough to enjoy the magnificence of this prospect. My
young heart swelled at the sight; and if in after years my eyes could
grasp the charm of a beautiful landscape and my pen successfully describe
it, I learned the art here.

It was pleasant, too, that my mother saw all this with us, though she
must often have gone to rest very much wearied from her rambles. But
teachers and pupils vied with each other in attentions to her. She had
won all hearts. We noticed and rejoiced in it till the day came when she
left us.

She was obliged to start very early in the morning, in order to reach
Berlin the same evening. The other boys were not up, but Barop,
Middendorf, and several other teachers had risen to take leave of her. A
few more kisses, a wave of her handkerchief, and the carriage vanished in
the village. Ludo and I were alone, and I vividly remember the moment
when we suddenly began to weep and sob as bitterly as if it had been an
eternal farewell. How often one human being becomes the sun of another's
life! And it is most frequently the mother who plays this beautiful part.

Yet the anguish of parting did not last very long, and whoever had
watched the boys playing ball an hour later would have heard our voices
among the merriest. Afterwards we rarely had attacks of homesickness,
there were so many new things in Keilhau, and even familiar objects
seemed changed in form and purpose.

From the city we were in every sense transferred to the woods.

True, we had grown up in the beautiful park of the Thiergarten, but only
on its edge; to live in and wi