we cursed that horse instead of blessing it.




CHAPTER VII


George wonders--German love of order--"The Band of the Schwarzwald
Blackbirds will perform at seven"--The china dog--Its superiority over
all other dogs--The German and the solar system--A tidy country--The
mountain valley as it ought to be, according to the German idea--How the
waters come down in Germany--The scandal of Dresden--Harris gives an
entertainment--It is unappreciated--George and the aunt of him--George, a
cushion, and three damsels.

At a point between Berlin and Dresden, George, who had, for the last
quarter of an hour or so, been looking very attentively out of the
window, said:

"Why, in Germany, is it the custom to put the letter-box up a tree? Why
do they not fix it to the front door as we do? I should hate having to
climb up a tree to get my letters. Besides, it is not fair to the
postman. In addition to being most exhausting, the delivery of letters
must to a heavy man, on windy nights, be positively dangerous work. If
they will fix it to a tree, why not fix it lower down, why always among
the topmost branches? But, maybe, I am misjudging the country," he
continued, a new idea occurring to him. "Possibly the Germans, who are
in many matters ahead of us, have perfected a pigeon post. Even so, I
cannot help thinking they would have been wiser to train the birds, while