get as far in Hebrew as my
watch did, which had much intimate intercourse with pawnbrokers and in
consequence acquired many Jewish habits--for instance, it would not go
on Saturday, and it also learned the sacred language, subsequently even
studying it grammatically; for often when sleepless in the night I have,
to my amazement, heard it industriously ticking away to itself: _katal,
katalta, katalti, kittel, kittalta, katalti-pokat, pokadeti-pikat, pik,
pik_.

Meanwhile I learned more of German than of any other tongue, though
German itself is not such child's play, after all. For we poor Germans,
who have already been sufficiently vexed with having soldiers quartered
on us, military duties, poll-taxes, and a thousand other exactions, must
needs, over and above all this, bag Mr. Adelung and torment one another
with accusatives and datives. I learned much German from the old Rector
Schallmeyer, a brave, clerical gentleman, whose protege I was from
childhood. But I also learned something of the kind from Professor
Schramm, a man who had written a book on eternal peace, and in whose
class my school-fellows quarreled and fought more than in any other.

And while I have thus been writing away without a pause and thinking
about all sorts of things, I have unexpectedly chattered myself back
among old school stories, and I avail myself of this opportunity to
mention, Madame, that it was not my fault if I learned so little of
geography that later in life I could not make my way in the world. For
in those days the French displaced all boundaries; every day the
countries were recolored on the world's map; those which were once blue
suddenly became green, many indeed were even dyed blood-red; the old
stereotyped souls of the school-books became so confused and confounded
that the devil himself would never have recognized them. The products of
the country were also changed; chickory and beets now grew where only
hares and country gentlemen pursuing them were once to be seen; even the
character of the nations changed; the Germans became pliant, the French
paid compliments no longer; the English ceased making ducks and drakes
of their money, and the Venetians were not subtle enough; there was
promotion among princes, old kings received new uniforms, new kingdoms
were cooked up and sold like hot cakes; many potentates were chased, on
the other hand, from house and home, and had to find some new way of
earning their bread, and some the