To DR. EGBERT GUERNSEY.
DEAR DOCTOR:
I can never expect adequately to repay you for your manyvaluable services to me and mine. Nevertheless, in recognition ofwhat you have been to us, allow me to dedicate this unpretentiousvolume to you. I shall have more respect for my little stories ifin some way they are associated with your name.
Very sincerely yours,
HJALMAR H.BOYESEN.
NEW YORK, January, 1881.
CONTENTS
Mr. Julius Hahn and his son Fritz were on a summer journey inthe Tyrol. They had started from Mayrhofen early in the afternoon,on two meek-eyed, spiritless farm horses, and they intended toreach Ginzling before night-fall.
There was a great blaze of splendor hidden somewhere behind thewestern mountain-tops; broad bars of fiery light were climbing thesky, and the châlets and the Alpine meadows shone in a softcrimson illumination. The Zemmbach, which is of a cholerictemperament, was seething and brawling in its rocky bed, and nowand then sent up a fierce gust of spray, which blew like an icyshower-bath, into the faces of the travellers.
"Ach, welch verfluchtes Wetter!" cried Mr. Hahnfretfully, wiping off the streaming perspiration. "I'll be blastedif you catch me going to the Tyrol again for the sake of beingfashionable!"
"But the scenery, father, the scenery!" exclaimed Fritz,pointing toward a great, sun-flushed peak, which rose in majesticisolation toward the north.
"The scenery—bah!" growled the senior Hahn. "For scenery, recommend me to Saxon Switzerland, whereyou may sit in an easy cushioned carriage without blistering yourlegs, as I have been doing to-day in this blasted saddle."
"Father, you are too fat," remarked the son, with a mischievouschuckle.
"And you promise fair to tread in my footsteps, son," retortedthe elder, relaxing somewhat in his ill-humor.
This allusion to Mr. Fritz's prospective corpulence was not wellreceived by the latter. He gave his horse a smart cut of the whip,which made the jaded animal start off at a sort of pathetic mazurkagait up the side of the mountain.
Mr. Julius Hahn was a person of no small consequence in Berlin.He was the proprietor of the "Haute Noblesse" Concert garden, ahighly respectable place of amusement, which enjoyed the especialpatronage of the officers of the Royal Guard. Weissbeer, Bairisch,Seidel, Pilzner, in fact all varieties of beer, and as connoisseursasserted, of exceptional excellence, could be procured at the"Haute Noblesse;" and the most ingenious novelties in the way ofgas illumination, besides two military bands, tended greatly toheighten the flavor of the beer, and to put the guests in a festivehumor. Mr. Hahn had begun life in a small wa