party were
entering the carriage, and did not put it on again till they were ready
to start.

"Quite as though we were royalties," said Susie.

"But the rest of him isn't," replied Anna, who was greatly amused by the
turn-out. "Do you like my horses, Susie? Or do you suspect them of
having been ploughing all the morning? Oh, well," she added quickly,
ashamed of laughing at any part of her dear uncle's gift, "I suppose one
has to have heavily built horses in this part of the world, where the
roads are probably frightfully bad."

"Their tails might be a little shorter," said Susie.

"They might," agreed Anna serenely.

With the aid of the porter, who knew all about Uncle Joachim's will and
was deeply interested, they were at last somehow packed into the
carriage, and away they rattled over the rough stones, threading the
outskirts of the town on the mainland, the hail and wind in their faces,
out into the open country, with their horses' heads turned towards the
north. The fly containing Hilton followed more leisurely behind, and the
farm cart containing the unused sack of straw followed the fly.

"We can't see much of Stralsund," said Anna, trying to peep round the
hood at the old town across the lakes separating it from the mainland.

"It's a very historical town," observed Susie, who had happened to
notice, as she idly turned over the pages of her Baedeker on the way
down, that there was a long description of it with dates. "As of course
you know," she added, turning sharply to her daughter.

"Rather," said Letty. "Wallenstein said he'd take it if it were chained
to heaven, and when he found it wasn't he was frightfully sick, and went
away and left them all in the fields."

Miss Leech, who was on the little seat, struggling to defend herself
from the fury of the elements with an umbrella, looked anxious, but
Susie only said in a gratified voice, "I'm glad you remember what you've
been taught." To which Letty, who was in great spirits, and thought this
drive in the wet huge fun, again replied heartily, "Rather," and her
mother congratulated herself on having done the right thing in bringing
her to Germany, home of erudition and profundity, already evidently
beginning to do its work.

The carriage smelt of fish, which presently upset Susie, who,
unfortunately for her, had a nose that smelt everything. While they were
in the town she thought the smell was in the streets, and bore it; but
out in the open, where