p to them.

The dogs, Rose and Thistle, had forced their way aboard. Roland, who
had likewise been standing lost in thought, suddenly brightened up, for
Griffin was also with them.

And now they had a fresh surprise. No one had noticed that the Major
had not been among those who had bid them goodbye. He now emerged from
the cabin with his wife. He was now making his wedding tour, and
accompanied the wanderers as far as the Lower Rhine. It seemed as if
they had with them a goodly portion of the home.

There was music on board, and the Major soon brought up the steward and
stewardess, to whom he introduced himself and his wife, and Eric and
Manna, as newly-married couples.

"Yes," said he to Eric, "you know I have been a drummer. I'll tell you
the story some time or other. Yes, when you come back you shall have
it."

At the station before the Island, the Major and wife disembarked. Here
they had dwelt in the first days of their union, and here they wished
to be again for a day, and to show themselves as married people to
those who had then been friendly toward them. The Major still waved his
hand from the row-boat, and strove to show a cheerful countenance, but
the tears ran down his cheeks, and as he bent over the side of the
skiff, they flowed into the Rhine.

Silently they glided on, and, as they passed the Cloister Island, a
flock of white doves were winging their way over it. The nightingales
were singing so loud as to be heard, in spite of the continual plash of
the paddle-wheels. The children of the Island were walking along the
shore, two by two, and singing.

Manna sighed deeply, and wafted a greeting over to them.

No one imagined, who was passing by, away, away to the New World.

When, at evening, the vessel stopped for the night, Eric remembered a
sheet of paper which Weidmann had given him. He read it. It contained
words from the close of Humboldt's Cosmos:--

"There are some races more civilized, more highly ennobled by culture
than others, but there are no races nobler by nature. All are equally
destined for freedom."

BOOK XV.

EXTRACTS OF LETTERS FROM AND TO THE NEW WORLD.

[Eric to his Mother.]

On board the BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Our ship bears the name which my father always uttered with peculiar
fervor.

My mother!

I am transformed into a life full of novel excitement. I have s