found the good old man sitting on a bench before the door, under
the shade of two large walnut-trees. At the sight of Charlotte
he seemed to gain new life, rose, forgot his stick, and ventured
to walk toward her. She ran to him, and made him sit down again;
then, placing herself by his side, she gave him a number of messages
from her father, and then caught up his youngest child, a dirty,
ugly little thing, the joy of his old age, and kissed it. I wish
you could have witnessed her attention to this old man, --how she
raised her voice on account of his deafness; how she told him of
healthy young people, who had been carried off when it was least
expected; praised the virtues of Carlsbad, and commended his
determination to spend the ensuing summer there; and assured him
that he looked better and stronger than he did when she saw him
last. I, in the meantime, paid attention to his good lady. The
old man seemed quite in spirits; and as I could not help admiring
the beauty of the walnut-trees, which formed such an agreeable
shade over our heads, he began, though with some little difficulty,
to tell us their history. "As to the oldest," said he, "we do not
know who planted it, -- some say one clergyman, and some another:
but the younger one, there behind us, is exactly the age of my wife,
fifty years old next October; her father planted it in the morning,
and in the evening she came into the world. My wife's father was
my predecessor here, and I cannot tell you how fond he was of that
tree; and it is fully as dear to me. Under the shade of that very
tree, upon a log of wood, my wife was seated knitting, when I, a
poor student, came into this court for the first time, just seven
and twenty years ago." Charlotte inquired for his daughter. He
said she was gone with Herr Schmidt to the meadows, and was with
the haymakers. The old man then resumed his story, and told us
how his predecessor had taken a fancy to him, as had his daughter