uished by superior size and
green-glazed tile roofs; nor was a church, with a pointed belfry and
weathercock, missing. For Paul was a model landowner, who took ample
thought for the welfare of his dependents, and as soon as his means
permitted it, had hastened to build a church and appoint a pastor,
providing thereby, at the same time, for one of his numerous relatives.
In his ardent loyalty to his king, he had expressed the wish to call
his village Kaiser-Wilhelm's Dorf, and had received the desired
permission.

In Kaiser-Wilhelm's Dorf, it was evident, content and comparative
prosperity reigned supreme. Behind every house was a pigsty, behind
nearly every one a cowshed. The men looked strong and hearty; the
women, carrying dinner to their husbands in the fields, or sitting
knitting on the benches in front of their doors, all presented bright
and cheerful faces, and the school would hardly contain the crowd of
flaxen-haired, blue-eyed children, whose rounded cheeks gave evidence
of a never-failing and amply spread dinner-table.

In the beginning, all this made a vast impression on Wilhelm. As the
struggle with nature is man's real and normal task, he instinctively
feels an emotion almost amounting to joy wherever he comes upon
evidences of victory. But, as usual with Wilhelm, this first
instinctive emotion was followed by the usual fatal speculations, and
he said to himself, "Paul has converted swamps into cornfields, has
enriched himself thereby, and supports some hundreds of families. Good!
but what further? This great achievement has as its primary result,
that people are fed who otherwise perhaps would not eat so much or so
well, or merely would not feed on this spot at all. But is the filling
of one's own and other people's stomachs the first and highest aim of
life?"

Paul tried hard to interest him in the details of farming. He took him
about, showed and explained everything to him, and finally brought out
his pet scheme--that he should sell the house in Berlin, and buy
instead some marshland near by, which was to be had for a moderate sum;
he would give him a helping hand at first, and as property of that kind
could very well afford a steward, he could easily get him a first-rate
one. They would be neighbors, Wilhelm would have a larger income and
fewer wants, and live in peace and comfort. Wilhelm was profoundly
touched by the affection which was manifest in Paul's every word and
thought, but the prospects