my leave-taking of all
the others, I repeat to you what I said in our early days. Go on with
your English, that you may come after me. And be I where I may, in log
hut or cabin, I shall always have a room ready for you. As soon as you
are tired of this Old World, come to me. Meanwhile, I make you my heir;
you will take possession of my rooms. For the rest, be perfectly sure
that I have done with all bad ways. And now--no emotion, my boy!--there
are no great distances nowadays on our little earth." He tore himself
away, hurried into the counting-house, returned, bowed to the ladies at
the window, clasped his friend once more to his heart, leaped into the
carriage, and away--away to the New World.

Meanwhile Anton mournfully returned to the office, and wrote a letter to
Herr Stephan in Wolfsburg, inclosing that worthy man a new price current
and several samples of sugar.

CHAPTER XIX.

A bad year came upon the country. A sudden rumor of war alarmed the
German borderers in the east, and our province among the rest. The
fearful consequences of a national panic were soon perceptible. Trade
stood still; the price of goods fell. Every one was anxious to realize
and withdraw from business, and large sums embarked in mercantile
speculations became endangered. No one had heart for new ventures.
Hundreds of ties, woven out of mutual interest, and having endured for
years, were snapped at once. Each individual existence became more
insecure, isolated, and poor. On all sides were anxious faces and
furrowed brows. The country was out of health; money, the vital blood of
business, circulated slowly from one part of the great body to the
other--the rich fearing to lose, the poor becoming unable to win. The
future was overcast all at once, like the summer sky by a heavy storm.

That word of terror, "Revolution in Poland!" was not without serious
effects in Germany. The people on the other side of the frontier,
excited by old memories and by their landed proprietors, rose, and, led
by fanatical preachers, marched up and down the frontier, falling upon
travelers and merchandise, plundering and burning small towns and
noblemen's seats, and aiming at a military organization under the
command of their favorite leaders. Arms were forged, old fowling-pieces
produced from many a hiding-place; and, finally, the insurgents took and
occupied a large Polish town not far from the frontier, and proclaimed
their independent national exist