nce.

"They are not beggars, but _handwerksburschen_."

"What are they?"

"Travelling journeymen. No apprentice can obtain his freedom, and be
competent to set up in business for himself, till he has spent several
years in travelling, and in working at his trade in foreign countries.
This is to increase his knowledge and his skill, and you will see
hundreds of them on the roads all over Germany. They become, under this
system, very skilful workmen, for they learn the various methods of
work in different countries. They often understood two or three
languages besides their own. They keep a kind of diary of their travels
in a book furnished to them by the trade-society to which they belong,
in which also their employers write testimonials of their good conduct.
It is often the case that they cannot obtain work, and are compelled to
ask charity on the roads. It is a hard life to lead, but it produces
skilful mechanics."

"What was that man's trade?" asked Grace.

"He is a baker."

At a solitary inn in Steig the party found a dinner ready for them,
consisting mainly of trout, which were very nice. From this point the
road went up a steep hill, which required an extra horse to each
diligence, though most of the boys walked up. At Neustadt, a town of
fifteen hundred inhabitants, vast numbers of wooden clocks are
manufactured, and the raising of singing birds is a common occupation.
Just before sunset the excursionists arrived at Donaueschingen, where
they were to spend the night. The place contains about three thousand
inhabitants, and is the residence of Prince Fuerstenberg, who was one of
the mediatized sovereigns--his territory having by treaty been assigned
to Baden.

A walk to his palace was immediately taken by the tourists. It is a
plain modern edifice, with an extensive garden, which the travellers
were permitted to visit. In one corner a circular basin was pointed out
to them by their guide. The water, clear as crystal, bubbled up from a
spring in the bottom, and was conveyed from the basin, by an
underground tunnel, into the Briegach, a stream which flows down from
the mountains.

"This spring is said to be the source of the Danube," said Dr.
Winstock. "From this point the stream takes the name of Danube, though
that into which it flows comes from miles away."

"'Large streams from little fountains flow,'" replied Paul.

"Yes; and from a great many of them," added the surgeon. "The country
in this vici