all, and probably father as well, are
absolutely convinced that there is not a living creature in it
except one or two old women gathering firewood. Then Ihle, Karl,
and the two dogs make their way through the cover, emitting the
most strange and horrible sounds, especially Ihle; father stands
there motionless and on the alert with his gun cocked, just as
though he really expected to see something. Ihle comes out just
in front of him, shouting 'Hoo lala, hey heay, hold him, hie,
hie,' in the strangest and most astonishing manner. Then father
asks me if I have seen nothing, and I with the most natural tone
of astonishment that I can command, answer 'No, nothing at all.'
Then after abusing the weather we start off to another wood,
while Ihle with a confidence that he assumes in the most natural
manner praises its wealth in game, and there we play over the
game again _dal segno_. So it goes on for three or four hours;
father's, Ihle's, and Fingal's passion does not seem to cool for
a moment. Besides that, we look at the orange house twice a day
and the sheep once a day, observe the four thermometers in the
room once every hour, set the weather-glass, and, since the
weather has been fine, have set all the clocks by the sun and
adjusted them so closely that the clock in the dining-room is the
only one which ever gives a sound after the others have struck.
Charles V. was a stupid fellow. You will understand that with so
multifarious an occupation I have little time left to call on the
clergymen; as they have no vote for the election it was quite
impossible.

"The Elbe is full of ice, the wind E.S.E., the latest thermometer
from Berlin shews 8 degrees, the barometer is rising and at 8.28.
I tell you this as an example how in your letters you might write
to father more the small events of your life; they amuse him
immensely; tell him who has been to see you, whom you have been
calling on, what you had for dinner, how the horses are, how the
servants behave, if the doors creak and the windows are firm--in
short, facts and events. Besides this, he does not like to be
called papa, he dislikes the expression. _Avis au lecteur_."

On another occasion he says:

"Only with difficulty can I resist the temptation of filling a
whole letter with agricultural lamentations over frosts, sick
cattle, bad reap, bad roads, dead lambs, hungry sheep, want of
straw, f