very nearly the same effect.'

KING. "'No, don't fancy that! You must n't pound the rock-salt
small, but give it to the cattle so that they can lick it.'

ICH. "'Yes, it shall be done.'

KING. "'Are there still improvements needed here?'

ICH. "'O ja, your Majesty. Here lies the Kemmensee [Kemmen-lake]:
if that were drained out, your Majesty would gain some 1,800 acres
[MORGEN, three-fifths English acre] of pasture-land, where
colonists could be settled; and then the whole country would have
navigation too, which would help the village of Fehrbellin and the
town of Ruppin to an uncommon degree.'

KING. "'I suppose so! Be a great help to you, won't it; and many
will be ruined by the job, especially the proprietors of the ground
NICHT WAHR?' [Ha?]

ICH. "'Your Majesty's gracious pardon [EW. MAJESTAT HALTEN ZU
GNADEN,--hold me to grace]: the ground belongs to the Royal Forest,
and there grows nothing but birches on it.'

KING. "'Oh, if birchwood is all it produces, then we may see!
But you must not make your reckoning without your host either, that
the cost may not outrun the use.'

ICH. "'The cost will certainly not outrun the use. For, first, your
Majesty may securely reckon that eighteen hundred acres will be won