d his
countenance was as mobile as if made of gutta-percha.

The new-comer winked to the bar-maid, who knew what kind of liquor he
drank; then he established himself comfortably in a chair, threw open
his wraps, and drew some cigar-ends out of his pocket.

"What's the news?" asked the guests.

The man gave the usual answer: "Fair weather, and nothing beside."

"Where have you been for these three days, that we have seen nothing of
you?"

"Where a man can prolong his life."

"What sort of a place is that?"

"I have been in the dullnesses of the capital: and there you can
prolong your life; for every day is as long as two."

"Old, old!" cried the drinkers. "Give us something new!"

"Something new! I tell you many lies have no truth in them, and those
often the best. But go out among the boats yonder; there's a jolly life
going on in the cabin. Each one brings his own cook-book to the
wedding, and then they marry the messes together."

The speaker was ridiculed on all sides for having nothing but such
nonsense, such dry husks, to give them.

"If you will keep quiet, I will tell you a story; but first, one of you
must go out to the Rhine, that he may be able to bear me witness
afterwards that my story is true, as the old forester says."

A cooper was sent out to the boat that lay at anchor in the Rhine, and,
after letting him know what he was to inquire about, the man began,--

"I do have the luck of falling in with the best stories! they come
without my looking for them."

"Let us hear! let us hear! Is it about that big Sonnenkamp, or about
the handsome Countess?"

"Ah, bah! that would be stale: this is one fresh from the oven. It is
called the loves of the 'Lorelei' and the 'Beethoven,' or a sucking pig
as matchmaker. Oh, yes! you may laugh, but you will see that it is all
true. To begin, then. You know the steward of the 'Lorelei?'--the great
Multiplication-table they call him. A man of standing he is, and an
honest one, too; for he honestly confesses, that, by a skilful adding
up of accounts, he has added together a pretty little property for
himself. Now, he is single, frightfully so. He can eat and drink,
but"--

"Yes, yes; we know him. What next?"

"Don't interrupt me. I must not anticipate my story: it is enough for
me if I know it myself. So, then, the state of the case is this: the
captain of the 'Lorelei,' you know him, that tall Baumlange, he was
steersman on board the 'Adolph' for some yea