inese tea, and that he was picking the two or three
outside leaves on each twig in order to dry them for his domestic
consumption. I listened while he informed me of the details of tea
culture and the curing of the crop; then, having at the moment to take
off my hat and wipe the sweat from my brow, I said, "How would it be,
do you think, if, just for a change, one could follow one's nose to
Germany and bury it in snow or hoarfrost? At this instant perhaps the
sleighs are jingling along and the skaters are on the ice, or the south
wind is driving its blue-gray mist over the Alps--"

He interrupted me with a shake of his head, and added: "--and everybody
is coughing and spitting and wiping his nose, while the rich are
wrapped in furs like the Greenlanders and the poor are starving and
freezing. That is no joke, especially for such old bones as mine. I no
longer hanker for it. Not in this life! When you are as old as I am you
will realize what a blessing the sun is. You complain of the heat; but
I feel its benefit in the marrow of my bones and still deeper. I no
longer run away from the sun. I have been more than forty years in
Brazil, and I too often wonder how things look in the old town--whether
they still loiter about the well, whether Hannah is still living, and
how this one and that one is getting along. But--they have probably got
along very much as I have myself, well and ill; they have grown old, if
they are not dead already, and they are probably glad to be where it is
warm. No, no! Not in this life!"

"You are quite right! Later! It will be much more convenient when we
are spirits. But then you must come to see me sometime; promise me, and
do not forget your promise! I shall be established somewhere in the
Black Forest, high up in the snow, alone in a great house. The storm is
raging and the old timbers and wainscoting are creaking and groaning. I
am smoking my pipe on a bench by the stove and staring into the flame
of the burning candle. All of a sudden I hear some one clapping his
hands outside, and as I listen there comes a call, _O da casa! O da
casa!_'

"'Hello!' I say, standing up, 'the Brazilian! He has kept his word. And
he is just as courteous and respectful as ever!' I open the door for
you, prepare a fine place for you on the bench, so that you may warm
your tropical astral body, and give you the fur robe to wrap your
poor spiritual feet in. Then you shall have coffee and cigarettes and
fruit-cakes