" You don't believe it ? Well, as a
shoemaker, you should know something



about it. Hasn't train-oil gone up since
last year ? "

"Well, children," said Wimmersdorf,
the tailor, "so much I say, no good can
come of it."

" Well," cried another, " it is all one to
me I If the skies fall, the sparrows will
drop dead. But so much I say, we have
to work, and shall those lazy dogs at the
north pole sit with their hands in their
laps ? Grammelin, another glass of
beer I"

From these stories one may perceive
three things ; first, that the advocate, Rein,
read not merely out of the papers, but oc-
casionally out of his head, and that he was
a waggish fellow, and, secondly, that the
Rahnstadt burghers were not yet quite
ripe for the newspapers, and, thirdly, that
men, as a general tning, look at a matter
very coolly, when it does not aflFect their
own interests.
But it was coming nearer to us. Or e
fine day, the Berlin post did not arrive,
and the Rahnstadters stood in a great
crowd before the post-office, asking them-
selves, what was the meaning of this ? and
the grooms who had come to fetch the
post-bags for the country places, asked
themselves whether they should wait or
not ; and the only contented man, in all
this disturbance, was the Herr Postmaster,
who stood before tho door, with his hands
folded on his stomach, twirling his thumbs,
and saying, for thirty years he had not had
such a quiet time, between eleven and
twelve o'clock in the morning, as to-day.
