withstanding, you will let me have some dinner, I
suppose? I have come a long way, and it is far to the next town. Besides,
it rains!"

"Certainly, it rains!" replied the man, with a phlegmatic look over the
puddles in the court-yard.

At this moment a clattering of plates, a steam of soup, and a sweet odor
of fresh cucumber, attracted my attention. I said immediately that I was
quite willing to dine at their table. By this time the child had got over
its fear, and was at play with my riding-whip; a few caressing words of
mine toward the little one, had reassured its mother. She spoke for a
moment in _patois_ with her husband; and then bade the servant lay another
knife and fork.

I rather liked my landlord's eccentricity; so, tapping him upon the
shoulder in a friendly way, I desired that he would let me have a bottle
of his very best wine; and by way of propitiating him still more, I
feigned to have heard a good deal of his cellar, and requested to see it.
"O, very well," he said; "follow me if you please.'"

He took me down into a cellar capitally stocked, and there we tasted a
good many wines. My landlord seemed to be in the best temper.

"And what," I asked, "is the price of that white wine in the thin
long-necked bottles?"

I despair of getting its colossal name down upon paper, or I would try it;
he gave it a great many syllables, and said it was the choicest and most
expensive wine he had.

"Then," said I, "that is what we will drink to-day. I will take a bottle
to myself, and you another; you shall drink it with me."

"You are very kind," he said; "but let me recommend some other bin; this
wine you will find is--is very heady."

I thought that, like a thrifty host, he had some qualm about my means of
paying for it; so I seized, manfully, a bottle in each hand, and crying
"Come along!" accompanied the host into the dining-room.

The wine deserved its praise; opening our hearts, it soon made us famous
friends. I had been pleased with the scenery about this quiet nook, and,
being master of my time, and very comfortable, I made up my mind and said,

"I tell you what, my friend. I shall send for my things from Heidelberg,
and stay here for a week or two."

The laughter again pealed out; but my host, who probably had seen quite
enough of a guest who insisted upon drinking his best wine, put on a grave
face. It looked like an innkeeper's face, when he is buckling himself up
to strike a bargain. To save h