ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. 21 



As the entrance examination was not to take 

 place till the end of October I had still three months 

 for preparation. I therefore moved to Rhoden on 

 the northern slope of the Harz, where a brother of 

 my father owned some property, and there spent a 

 few weeks in familiar intercourse with my relations, 

 of whom the two pretty and amiable grown-up daughters 

 in particular made a great impression upon me; I 

 willingly allowed them to exercise their refining in- 

 fluence on the young and still somewhat unpolished 

 cousin. Then I went with my cousin Louis Siemens, 

 my junior by a few years, to Halberstadt, where I 

 prepared myself in good earnest for the entrance 

 examination. 



The programme of the examination placed in my 

 hands by Colonel von Scharnhorst caused me however 

 a good deal of uneasiness. In addition to Mathematics, 

 History Geography and French were especially required, 

 and these subjects had been taught at the Ltibeck 

 grammar-school only in a very superficial manner. 

 I could scarcely hope to make good my deficiences in a 

 couple of months. There w r as still wanting my discharge 

 from the Mecklenburg military service, which my father 

 would have to purchase, and the permission of the 

 King to enter the Prussian army. I inarched, therefore, 

 towards the middle of October with a heavy heart to 

 Magdeburg, where I was disappointed in not finding 

 the expected letter from home along with the necessary 

 papers. When nevertheless I was just about to start 

 for the examination at the prescribed hour, to my 



