ecome naturalized. On the roads and
mountains could be seen rows of bare-throated boys with heads
uncovered, staff in hand, and Alpine knapsack on the back, occupying
their leisure with pleasure excursions that were at the same time,
perhaps, a foresighted study.

These Germans had all come from South America,--especially from Brazil,
Argentina, and Chile. From Barcelona they had, at the beginning of the
war, tried to return to their own country but were now interned, unable
to continue their voyage for fear of the French and English cruisers
patrolling the Mediterranean.

At first no one had wished to take the trouble to settle down in this
land, and they had all clustered together in sight of the sea with the
hope of being the first to embark at the very moment that the road of
navigation might open for them.

The war was going to be very short.... Exceedingly short! The Kaiser
and his irresistible army would require but six months to impose their
rule upon all Europe. The Germans enriched by commerce were lodged in
the hotels. The poor who had been working in the new world as farmers
or shop clerks were quartered in a slaughter house on the outskirts.
Some, who were musicians, had acquired old instruments and, forming
strolling street bands, were imploring alms for their roarings from
village to village.

But the months were passing by, the war was being prolonged, and nobody
could now discern the end. The number of those taking arms against the
medieval imperialism of Berlin was constantly growing greater, and the
German refugees, finally convinced that their wait was going to be a
very long one, were scattering themselves through the interior of the
state, hunting a more satisfying and less expensive existence. Those
who had been living in luxurious hotels were establishing themselves in
villas and chalets of the suburbs; the poor, tired of the rations of
the slaughter-house, were exerting themselves to find jobs in the
public works of the interior.

Many were still remaining in Barcelona, meeting together in certain
beer gardens to read the home periodicals and talk mysteriously of the
works of war.

Ferragut recognized them at once upon passing them in the Rambla. Some
were dealers, traders established for a long time in the country,
bragging of their Catalan connections with that lying facility of
adaptability peculiar to their race. Others came from South America and
were associated with those in Barcel