e devil himself. Never mind, I am free at all events. And now
I have sought you out for two reasons; first, to see and chat with you;
next, seriously to discuss my future life; and I may as well say at once
that I wish you to share it. I have missed you sadly every day. I do not
know what I find in you, for, in point of fact, you are but a dry
fellow, and more contradictious than often suits me. But, in spite of
all, I felt a certain longing for you all the time I was away. I have
come to an understanding with my father, not without hot discussion and
subsequent coolness. And now I repeat my former offer--come with me.
Over the waters to England, across the seas, any where and every where.
We will together ponder and decide upon what to undertake. We are both
free now, and the world is open to us."

Anton threw his arm round his friend's neck. "My dear Fritz," cried he,
"we will suppose that I have expressed all that your noble proposal
causes me to feel. But you see, for the present, I have duties here."

"According to your own most official statement, I presume that they will
not last forever," rejoined Fink.

"That is true; but still we are not on equal terms. See," said Anton,
stretching out his hand, "barren as this landscape is, and disagreeable
the majority of its inhabitants, yet I look upon them with different
eyes to yours. You are much more a citizen of the world than I, and
would feel no great interest in the life of the state of which this
plain and your friend are component parts, however small."

"No, indeed," said Fink, looking in amazement at Anton. "I have no great
interest in it, and all that I now see and hear makes the state, a
fragment of which you so complacently style yourself, appear to me any
thing but respectable."

"I, however, am of a different opinion," broke in Anton. "No one who is
not compelled to do so should leave this country at the present time."

"What do I hear?" cried Fink, in amazement.

"Look you," continued Anton; "in one wild hour I discovered how my heart
clung to this country. Since then, I know why I am here. For the time
being, all law and order is dissolved; I carry arms in self-defense, and
so do hundreds like me in the midst of a foreign race. Whatever may have
led me individually here, I stand here now as one of the conquerors who,
in the behalf of free labor and civilization, have usurped the dominion
of the country from a weaker race. There is an old warfare be