My First Home. 269 



most eager to listen to her culinary and other revelations. As 

 the pay of officers is rather insufficient, considering the posi- 

 tion they are expected to hold in society, strict economy be- 

 comes a necessity with them, and Mrs. von S was an 



adept in all these mysteries. She had calculated to the farth- 

 ing the price of everything, and tried especially to impress 

 upon my mind the great truth that one silbergroschen spent 

 regularly a day makes twelve thalers a year ; therefore ten sil- 

 bergroschens a day make a hundred and twenty thalers, a cal- 

 culation which struck me with awe. This great truth therefore 

 became my guiding star through the maze of housekeeping, 

 and I was such an apt scholar, or at least such an eager one, 

 that I in my ambition not only adhered to the strict rules laid 



down by Airs, von S-^ , but even surpassed them. That all 



servants were thieves was a gospel with Mrs. von S ; they 



were all greedy and wasteful, and all cooks and housemaids 

 had very hungry sweethearts. The men-servants loved their 

 masters' wine and cigars, and the grooms considered it as a 

 great blessing that horses were born mute ; in a word, all re- 

 quired a very sharp look-out and great strictness. 



The manner in which I followed the housekeeping rules of 



Mrs. von S had consequences which astonished me very 



much, and made me very angry with my servants, who all held 



opinions exactly opposite to those of Mrs. von S . When 



the cook ran away and other tokens of mutiny transpired 

 amongst the rest of the servants, I was very indignant, and 

 always believed I was in the right ; but this belief was some- 

 what shaken when my dear husband revolted, and acted with 

 an energy to which I was by no means used in reference to me. 

 He said that he became thin and starved with my housekeep- 

 ing ; that he was ashamed of my stinginess ; that he wanted a 

 proper household, becoming his station ; and that Mrs. von 

 S with her starvation code might go to Jericho. He en- 

 gaged a perfect cook and made other alterations, which in- 

 creased the silbergroschens spent a day to an alarming figure. 



Though shaking my head I had to submit, and we lived as 

 he thought proper. His relatives seemed to approve of it, and 

 to be rather pleased with our house, for our spare room for 

 visitors was occupied all the year round by some of them, and 

 not rarely I had to give up my own bedroom. 



Looking over my diary of that time, I am astonished to find 



