ght it all over,
everything else will be made by machinery, men are very clever, but
drum and trumpet-signals can not be made by machinery, human hands and
mouths are needed for that; I was a drummer, for example, I'll tell you
about it. Look you, I know by the sound what sort of a heart a man has,
when he beats a drum; where you, my brother, hear nothing but noise and
confusion, I hear music and deep meaning. Therefore, for God's sake, no
strife about religions; one is worth as much or as little as another,
they only lead the march; but the main thing is, how every man marches
for himself, how he has drilled himself, and what sort of a heart he
has in his body."

Eric was amused by the eccentricity of this man, who had a deep
earnestness and moral freedom peculiar to himself.

Standing his pipe near him, the Major asked,--

"Is there any human being in the world whom you hate, at the sight of
whom the heart in your body gives a twist?"

Eric answered in the negative, and said that his father had always
impressed it upon him, that nothing injured one's own soul like hatred;
and that for his own sake, a man ought not to let such a feeling take
root within him.

"That's the man for me! that's the man for me!" cried the Major. "Now
we shall get on together. Whoever has had such a father is the man for
me!"

He then told Eric that there was a man in the village whom he hated: he
was the tax-collector, who wore the St. Helena medal given by the
present Napoleon to the veterans, for the heroic deeds in which they
had taken part in the subjugation of their fatherland. "And would you
believe it!" exclaimed the Major, "the man has had himself painted with
the St. Helena medal; the portrait hangs framed in his room of state,
and under it, in a separate frame, the diploma signed by the French
minister. I don't bow to the man, nor return his bow, nor sit down at
the same table with him; he has a different principle of honor from,
mine. And tell me, ought there not to be some way of punishing such
men? I can only do it by showing my contempt; it is painful to me, but
must I not do it?"

The old man looked much astonished when Eric represented to him that
the man ought to be judged mildly, since vanity had great powers to
mislead, and besides, many governments had been well pleased to have
their subjects win the St. Helena medal, and the man, who was in the
service of the State, was not to be sentenced without hearing.

"T