olling thither, he laid himself down under the tree, and surveyed
the landscape with a joyful glance.

"In grass and flowers I love to lie,
And hear afar the flute's sweet sigh,"

he said almost aloud to himself. And since in our steam-puffing times
there is no flute to be heard, Knopf screwed his cane, which was
intended also for a flute, into the right shape, and played upon it the
tune set by Conrad Kreuzer to Uhland's song. He was more pleased at the
thought that others would hear this at a distance, than that he was
hearing it himself.

No boat went up or down the stream that he did not signalize it with a
white handkerchief. What matter if those on board were strangers? He
has given them a sign that he on the height here is happy; they below
there are to be happy too. The signal may tell them that.

Yes, Knopf deserves to be known more intimately.

The son of a poor schoolmaster, Knopf had gone through his university
course with great difficulty, and had passed his examination; but now
he fell into great misfortune. On the very first day of his year of
probation, the boys stamped and hissed, and the more he bade them be
quiet, so much the more noisy were they; and the more enraged he
became, so much the more insolent was their derision. The director came
to his assistance, but as soon as he went away from the schoolroom, the
noise and stamping began afresh. It was granted to Knopf to pass his
year of probation in a distant city; but some invisible sprite must
have spread abroad his mishap, for very soon after he began teaching,
the same thing happened here. And now he gave up entirely the office of
a public school teacher.

Knopf was abundantly liked at the capital as a teacher of girls.
Inasmuch as he was so fabulously ugly, mothers could entrust their
half-grown daughters to his private instruction, without the least
anxiety lest they should fall in love with him. He was conscientious
and painstaking, but he did not succeed. He was liked in all the
families, but no one wished to employ him exclusively, or for any
considerable length of time; he was only a temporary teacher. No other
one had so many deceased scholars as he, for many were committed to his
instruction only after they became ailing.

Knopf had been much at the watering-places, and when the parents could
not go with their children to the baths, he was entrusted with that
service; he was both tutor and attendant. He was