JOURNEY TO BERLIN. 19 



departure a deputation of the most respected peasants 

 of the place had presented itself to my father with the 

 petition not to send "so good a lad'' to that famine- 

 stricken land Prussia: I should always find plenty to 

 eat at home! The peasants would hardly credit my 

 father, that beyond the desolate sandy borders lay 

 also fertile land in Prussia. Despite my firm resolve 

 to seek my advancement in the world through my 

 own efforts, it did indeed for a moment seem as 

 if the peasants were right and I was wending towards 

 a sorry future. It was therefore a consolation when 

 I met in my journeying a cheery and cultivated 

 young man, who like me was tramping knapsack 

 on back Berlinwards. He was no stranger there, and 

 proposed that I should go w r ith him to his inn, which 

 he greatly praised. 



It was the button-maker's inn in which I took up 

 my quarters for the first night in Berlin. The host 

 soon perceived that I did not belong to his regular 

 patrons, and accorded me his good will. He protected 

 me from the tricks of the young button - makers, 

 and assisted me on the following day to discover the 

 address of a distant relative, Lieutenant von Huet, in 

 the Horse Artillery of the Guards. Cousin Huet 

 received me kindly, was seized by a mortal terror how- 

 ever when he heard I had put up at the button- 

 maker's inn. He at once gave orders to his servant 

 to fetch my knapsack from the inn and to engage a 

 room for me in a small hotel in the new Friedrich- 

 strasse, offered also after the needful improvement of 



