picture-book--and this is all I can recall of the first scattered
leaves of my childhood.

Afterwards it grows brighter and clearer. Names and faces appear--not
only father and mother, but brothers and sisters, friends and teachers,
and a multitude of _strange people_. Ah! yes, of these _strange
people_ there is so much recorded in memory.




SECOND MEMORY.

Not far from our house, and opposite the old church with the golden
cross, stood a large building, even larger than the church, and having
many towers. They looked exceedingly gray and old and had no golden
cross, but stone eagles tipped the summits and a great white and blue
banner fluttered from the highest tower, directly over the lofty
doorway at the top of the steps, where, on either side, two mounted
soldiers stood sentinels. The building had many windows, and behind
the windows you could distinguish red-silk curtains with golden
tassels. Old lindens encircled the grounds, which, in summer,
overshadowed the gray masonry with their green leaves and bestrewed the
turf with their fragrant white blossoms. I had often looked in there,
and at evening when the lindens exhaled their perfumes and the windows
were illuminated, I saw many figures pass and repass like shadows.
Music swept down from on high, and carriages drove up, from which
ladies and gentlemen alighted and ascended the stairs. They all looked
so beautiful and good! The gentlemen had stars upon their breasts, and
the ladies wore fresh flowers in their hair; and I often thought,--Why