iday if such couples would come to be married; he had had
his joy of them. When he heard that the bill had been paid, Johannes
insisted that the host bring another bottle at his expense; and the
stars were shining in the sky when, after a most affectionate farewell,
such as unrelated people seldom bid one another, the spirited Blackie
swiftly pulled a happy couple away--toward Paradise.

Yes, dear Reader, Freneli and Uli are in Paradise--that is, they live in
unclouded love, blessed by God with four boys and two girls; they live
in growing prosperity, for the blessing of God is their luck; their name
has good repute in the land, and far and wide they stand in high esteem;
for their aspiration is high, so high as to try to write their names in
Heaven. But not in a day, but after many a severe conflict did they
reach the level road and become certain of the goal.

* * * *

THE BRAeSIG EPISODES FROM UT MINE STROMTID[4]

TRANSLATED BY M.W. MACDOWALL

EDITED AND ABRIDGED BY EDMUND VON MACH, PH.D.

[UT MIND STROMTID: A story of my youth, depicts the joys and sorrows of
a North German country community during the lean years of the second
quarter of the nineteenth century. Human passions rent the hearts of men
then as now. Nobility of soul distinguished some, and was lacking in
many. Education was not universal, but common sense perhaps rather
frequent. The best road to a happy life, however, was then as always, a
kindly heart, a strict sense of justice, and a dash of unconscious
humor. This lucky combination endeared Uncle Braesig to everyone, and
enabled him to make his blustering way cheerfully, yet serenely
conscious of all joys and sorrows, amid the vicissitudes of life. He
understood the human heart, whether it beat in the breast of a child or
a tired old man, of a villain or of a loving wife. Nobody, however, was
dearer to him than Mina and Lina Nuessler, his god-children. And naughty
little girls these angelic twins were too, without respect for
grandfather's peruke or grandmother's Sunday cap. They placed them on
their own curly locks, and danced the "Kringelkranz-Rosendanz," and in
so doing broke Mina's favorite toy-jar. In their eagerness to have it
mended they ran from the house.]

* * * * *

Just as the children entered the yard a little man came in at the gate.
And this little man had a red face, and a very imposing red nose which
he always