locality, that thenceforward my excursions were always made in
another direction.

This time my uncle brought me back to Dresden in the carriage. I
found my mother and sister in the deepest mourning, and remember
being received for the first time with a tenderness not usual in
our family; and I noticed that the same tenderness marked our
leave-taking, when, a few days later, my uncle took me with him
to Eisleben.

This uncle, who was a younger brother of my stepfather, had
settled there as a goldsmith, and Julius, one of my elder
brothers, had already been apprenticed to him. Our old
grandmother also lived with this bachelor son, and as it was
evident that she could not live long, she was not informed of the
death of her eldest son, which I, too, was bidden to keep to
myself. The servant carefully removed the crape from my coat,
telling me she would keep it until my grandmother died, which was
likely to be soon.

I was now often called upon to tell her about my father, and it
was no great difficulty for me to keep the secret of his death,
as I had scarcely realised it myself. She lived in a dark back
room looking out upon a narrow courtyard, and took a great
delight in watching the robins that fluttered freely about her,
and for which she always kept fresh green boughs by the stove.
When some of these robins were killed by the cat, I managed to
catch others for her in the neighbourhood, which pleased her very
much, and, in return, she kept me tidy and clean. Her death, as
had been expected, took place before long, and the crape that had