sician, and he took occasion to give some
account of his own life. His grandfather and father had been boat-men,
and the doctor had been present at the golden wedding of both, and
expressed his hope to celebrate also his own. And after he had
portrayed his own struggle with life, he proceeded to ask Eric about
his pecuniary affairs, and those of his mother.

Eric disclosed the whole state of the case; he described how his mother
had noble and rich friends; on whom she placed great expectations, but
he did not believe in, and to speak honestly, he did not desire, any
help of that sort. The doctor asserted in confirmation, that no one
would help them substantially and handsomely; he unfolded, as he went
along, wholly heretical views upon beneficence; he expatiated upon the
nonsense of leaving endowments and legacies in one's will, and on
scattering small donations. He thought it was much handsomer, and more
permanently beneficial, to make an individual or a family entirely
independent, so that they may thereby be the means of accomplishing
greater good. He stated that he had often attempted to bring this
about; nothing of this kind was to be effected with Herr Sonnenkamp,
who would have nothing further to do with people into whose hat he had
cast an alms.

The conversation, in this way, having once more turned upon Sonnenkamp,
the doctor offered to take upon himself all the external financial
arrangements with Sonnenkamp, insisting upon Eric's consent to his
doing so.

"And do you take no farther trouble about this man," said the doctor,
opening an egg. "See, it is all a fair exchange. We devour this egg
with the greatest zest, while the hen got her living out of the
manure-heap."

Eric was happy with this lively, practical man. He expressed his
satisfaction that, here in this little town, there were so many noble
persons, who could constitute a rich social environment. The doctor
contested this, for he considered that the necessity of being thrown
upon one another, and the not being able to make a selection, as one
can do in a great city, belittled, contracted, and created gossip. One
had, indeed, in a great city, no larger circle than was here formed for
the direct participation in the various duties of life, but the
necessity of contracting marriages within such a limited circle did not
permit the existence of a free social community.

"On the whole," he said in conclusion, "we are no more to each other
than a g