elieve it." Five plates of various sizes
were piled before each individual. The smallest was of glass, for
preserved fruit and sweet pickles, four kinds of which were passed,
all to be deposited, if one partook of all, on the same plate. The
other plates and the whole service were of beautiful old Berlin china,
white, with a line of dark blue and another of gilt around the edge of
each piece, and the monogram of the grandmother to whom it originally
belonged in the centre of each piece in blue letters. The first course
was excellent chicken broth, served to each guest in a china cup, with
a roll. The second course was cold roast beef and hot potatoes, served
in three different ways, with rolls and plenty of wine. The third
course was offered to me first by a handsome serving-maid lately from
the country, with a clear face, bright dark eyes, dark hair, and rosy
cheeks. Admiring her, I cast only a brief and doubtful glance on the
large plate she bore, at one side of which were two lifelike sheep
three or four inches high, with little red ribbons around their necks
and standing in the midst of greenery. "This is confectionery," I
thought, "and these are sugar sheep for ornament." Disposed on other
parts of the plate were sundry rounds and triangles which looked
peculiar; but my custom was, at German tables, "to prove all things"
and "hold fast that which is good." So I decided on a creamy-looking
segment, covered with silver-paper, and showing at the sides a
half-inch thickness of what I hoped was custard-cake. The plate was
next passed to a lady at my right, who cut a little piece off a white
substance; and I thought, "She has ice-cream." Before I had touched my
portion, a suspicious odor diverted my attention from the
conversation. I found that the course was cheese and radishes, that my
neighbor had "Dutch cheese," that the sheep were the butter and I had
none for my roll, and that I had possessed myself of perhaps the whole
of one variety of European cheese in tin-foil, the peculiar aroma of
which was anything but agreeable to my cheese-hating sense. I begged a
German Fraeulein who sat near and who was intensely enjoying the
situation to relieve me, when she kindly took about one third of my
delicacy, leaving the rest in solitary state until the end of that
course. Fortunately, the non-winedrinkers were offered a cup of tea
just here, and I ate my roll with it in thankfulness. My American
friend laughingly made a remark