and musk. The girls carried their "posies," as they called them, in
their neatly folded pocket-handkerchiefs. Two musicians--one quite
a young blade, in a laced coat with a stiff cravat, mid the other
the well-known Peter Cripple, "Musikanti" as he was called--led the
procession. They both played one and the same piece, but each
according to his own manner. It was both good and old.

They now began to draw lots, who should dance before the door of
the family and who before that of the steward; after which the two
parties drew lots for the musicians. The girls seated themselves in
a row upon the bench, from whence they were chosen. The gallantry
accorded with the ball-room,--the hard stone pavement. Not even had
the grass been pulled up, but that would be all right after dancing
there the first day. "Nay, why art thou sitting there?" spoken with
a kind of morose friendliness, was the invitation to dance; and
this served for seven dances. "Only don't be melancholy!" resounded
from the company, and now the greater portion moved phlegmatically
along, as if in sleep or in a forced dance: the girl with her eyes
staring at her own feet, her partner with his head bent toward one
side, and his eyes in a direct line with the girl's head-dress. A
few of the most active exhibited, it is true, a kind of animation,
by stamping so lustily upon the stone pavement that the dust
whirled up around them. That was a joy! a joy which had occupied
them many weeks, but as yet the joy had not reached its height;
"but that will soon come!" said Wilhelm, who, with his sister
and Otto, had taken his place at an open window.

The old people meanwhile kept to the ale-barrels, and the brandy.
The latter was offered to the girls, and they were obliged, at
least, to sip. Wilhelm soon discovered the prettiest, and threw