peculiar ceremonies. Suddenly there shows itself in the interior of
the heathy wilderness a colony--another, a strange people, German
emigrants, who through industry compel the meagre country to
fruitfulness.

From Veile, Otto wished to take the road through Viborg, as the
most direct and the shortest to his grandfather's estate, which lay
between Nisumfjord and Lemvig.

The first heath-bushes accosted him as dear friends of his
childhood. The beautiful beech-woods lay behind him, the expanse of
heath began; but the heath was dear to him: it was this landscape
which formed the basis of many dear recollections.

The country became ever higher with brown heights, beyond which
nothing was visible; houses and farms became more rare, the cherry
orchards transformed themselves into cabbage-gardens. Only single
spots were free from heather, and here grew grass, but short, and
like moss or duckweed which grows upon ponds: here birds
congregated by hundreds, and fluttered twittering into the air as
the carriage drove past.

"You know where to find the green spot in the heath, and how to
become happy through it," sighed Otto. "Could I only follow your
example!"

At a greater distance rose bare hills, without ling or ploughed
land; the prickly heath looked brown and yellow on the sharp
declivities. A little boy and girl herded sheep by the way-side;
the boy played the Pandean pipe, the little girl sang a psalm,--it