s till morning. Eric
also now went to bed.

Everything was late in the house of the professor's wife the next
morning; Eric slept longest. When he entered the sitting-room, he found
Roland already with his mother, holding a small wooden coffee-mill in
his left hand and turning it with his right. This mill was an heir-loom
which had belonged to Eric's grandfather, who had been a distinguished
anatomist at the university. The mother had already told Roland this,
and had shown him all sorts of ancient household furniture, also relics
of the times of the Huguenots.

"Ah, how pleasant it is here with you!" cried Roland to Eric, as he
entered.

Something of long-established family existence opened upon the young
spirit, and, at this morning hour, with the friendly eyes of three
people resting upon him, Roland felt very content in the simple,
old-fashioned, domestic life.

CHAPTER XV.

AN EXTRA TRAIN.

"I've been through a great deal, but that I should ever be obliged to
go through this! If we can only come out of this with a whole skin!
This may be called a wanton exposure of one's life--and one has no
weapons of defence."

Such were the Major's words, stammered out at intervals, as he held on
to a tassel of a first-class railway car, and looked sorrowfully at the
dog Laadi lying at his feet, while he was travelling with Herr
Sonnenkamp in an extra train. Herr Sonnenkamp appeared to feel a joy in
this mad speed.

"In America," he said, "they go three times as fast in an extra train."

He seemed to experience a secret satisfaction in showing the Major that
there was a courage wholly different from that of the battle-field,
which he possessed and the Major did not. He had accounts to tell of
trips made in America on wagers. And when they stopped to take in
water, Sonnenkamp took leave of the Major, saying that he was going to
ride on the locomotive, for he must try once more how that seemed.

The Major sat with Laadi alone in the only car attached to the
locomotive; he stared fixedly out of the window, where trees,
mountains, and villages flew by like a whirlwind, and he thanked God
that Fraeulein Milch knew nothing of his consenting to make such a mad
trip with Herr Sonnenkamp on an extra train.

And why is this man in such a hurry? The Major does not understand it.
Sometimes he was stingy about a kreuzer, and so very modest that he
wished to make