table. "I ought to be in good spirits, for I have everything to make
me so."

"Ay, the most beautiful girl in Dantzic for a wife," said Carl.

"With a large fortune?" said Krantz, laughing.

"That will come," replied Dumiger, heated by wine.

"Large fortune!" they both exclaimed; "where are you to get it,
student? Have you found an old cave in the Grime Thor, Dumiger, with a
fortune buried, as the old romances have it?"

"Yes, I shall soon discover a fortune," exclaimed the boy, now fairly
excited, and his cheeks glowing with animation; "and more than a
fortune. Fame and honors shall be heaped upon us. Do you imagine that
I have been wasting the last three years of my life? do you believe
that the ambition which was the subject of your illusive aim at
college is dead? No! look here, Carl and Krantz, this day week will
see me famous, and ennoble my family till it vies even with the Grand
Master's."

"You are mad," said Carl.

"No, I am speaking words of soberness," said he, with an earnestness
which carried conviction even to those wild spirits. "I tell you that
I have an inward confidence that I shall win this prize which was
proclaimed to-day, that my name will be associated with the proudest
fame ever reared in Dantzic. Oh, the nights and days of toil, the
hopes and fears which have agitated me, for the last three years: