h us every day and to eat his
potatoes like any other honest man. Then my little girls turned right
round. Mina took Godfrey's part; and Lina took Rudolph's, for Rudolph
said that Godfrey didn't speak from a Christian standpoint." "Ugh!" said
Braesig, "he oughtn't to have said that. But wait a bit! Is he really
that sort of fellow, and can't he ever catch a good-sized perch?" "And
then," cried Mrs. Nuessler indignantly, "they were all at sixes and
sevens again, because of that horrible perch fishing, for as soon as
spring returned and the perch began to bite, Rudolph cared no more about
the Christian standpoint. He took his fishing-rod, and went out after
you all day long. The other went back to his old opinion about the
existence of the devil, you see he was preparing for his examination and
couldn't get through it properly without that. My two girls didn't know
which of their cousins to trust to." "They're a couple of rascals,"
cried Braesig, "but it's all the Methodist's fault, what business had he
to bother the other about the devil and the Christian standpoint?" "No,
no, Braesig, I've nothing to say against him for that. He has learnt
something, has passed his examination, and may be ordained any day. But
Rudolph does nothing at all, he only makes mischief in the house." "Why,
what has he been after now? Has he been fishing for whitings?" asked
Braesig raising his eyebrows. "Whitings!" said Mrs. Nuessler scornfully.
"He has been fishing for a sermon. You must know that Mrs. Baldrian
wanted to hear her son preach, so she asked the clergyman at Rahnstaedt
to let him preach in his church, and he said he might do so. She then
went and told her sister what she had done, and Mrs. Kurz was very much
put out that her son wasn't as far on as his cousin, so she went to the
old parson too and asked him to allow Rudolph to preach for him some day
soon. Well the clergyman was so far left to himself as to arrange that
Rudolph should preach on the same day as Godfrey. The two young men had
a great argument as to which was to have the forenoon and which the
afternoon, but at last it was settled that Rudolph should preach in the
morning. Well, Godfrey set to work as hard as he could, and spent the
whole day from morning till evening in the arbor. As he has a bad memory
he learnt his sermon by repeating it aloud. Rudolph did nothing but
amuse himself as usual, till the two last days, when he seated himself
on the grass bank behind the