ederic Kapp
calls it, unfolded into a high state of culture; and that sad weakness
and compromise, which did not immediately abolish slavery, also
constituted a knotty point of investigation.

"Do you think the Niggers are human beings like us?" asked Roland.

"Undoubtedly; they have language and the power of thought, just as we
have."

"I once heard it said, that they could not learn mathematics,"
interposed Roland.

"I never heard that before, and probably it is a mistake."

Eric did not go any farther in this exposition; he wished to cast no
imputation upon the father, who had owned large plantations tilled by
slaves. It was sufficient that questions were coming up in the boy's
mind.

Nothing better could have been contrived for Eric and Roland; than for
them to learn something together. The architect, a man skilled in his
business, and happy to have so early in life such an excellent
commission entrusted to him, was communicative and full of information.
The castle had been destroyed, as so many others were, by the barbarous
soldiers of Louis XIV. encamped in Germany, exactly a hundred years
before the French Revolution. An old main-tower, the so-called Keep,
had still some remains of Roman walls, concrete walls, as the architect
called them.

"What is concrete?" asked Roland. The architect explained that the
inside and outside layers consisted of quarry stone laid in regular
masonry, and between, stones of all sizes were thrown in, and then the
whole was evidently cemented together with a sort of heated mortar.

Only one-third of the tower had apertures for light; the rest was solid
stone wall.

The whole region had made use of the castle as a stone-quarry, and the
corners had especially suffered, because they contained the best
stones. The whole was grown over with shrubbery, the castle-dwelling
had wholly disappeared, and the castle itself, originally Roman, had
probably been rebuilt in the style of the tenth century. From a drawing
found in the archives only a few additional characteristics could be
made out; but from single stones and angles much of the general
structure could be copied, and the architect showed how he had planned
the whole, and he was particularly glad to have discovered the spring,
out of which they had taken, to use his own expression, "a great deal
of rubbish and dirt."

The insight into the inner mystery of a man's active calling produced a
deep impression upon the youth, and