pleasure; you find there moats, towers, guard-rooms, ghosts, and
hobgoblins, such as belong to an old estate. The black chamber!
after all, it is not quite secure there; is it, Herr Baron?"

"No, the deuce remain a night with you!" said Wilhelm; "one gets to
bed late, and even then it is not permitted one to close one's
eyes. You, your sister, and the Mamsell,--yes, you are a pretty
clover-leaf! Yes, Thostrup, you cannot believe what pranks are
hatched upon the Kammerjunker's estate! One must be prepared for
it! It is said to be haunted, but if the dead will not take that
trouble the living do. The Kammerjunker is in the plot with his
women-folk. They sewed me lately live cockchafers into my pillow,
and they crawled and scrambled about till I did not know what the
deuce it could be! A live cock they had also placed under my bed,
and just in the morning, when I would go to sleep, the creature
began to crow!"

"The women-folk had done that," said the Kammerjunker. "Did they
not the very same night fasten a door-bell to the head of my bed? I
never thought of it; fat Laender slept in the same room, and had
fastened along the wall a string to the bell. I awoke with the
ringing. 'What the devil is that bell?' said I, and glanced about
the room, for I could not conceive what it was. 'Bell?' asked
Laender--'there is no bell here!' The ringing also ceased. I
thought I must have dreamed, or that our merry evening must have
left some buzzing in my ears. Again it began to ring. Laender
looked so innocent all the time, I could not comprehend myself;
I thought it must be my imagination. I became quite fainthearted, I
denied my own hearing, and said, 'No, I have only dreamed!' and
commenced reckoning and counting to employ my mind; but that did