" When I heard
that, I sprang to my feet. "Doesn't he play on the bassoon?" I
cried. "Is he not tall and straight, with a big, prominent nose?" The
cornetist nodded, upon which I embraced him so enthusiastically that
his three-cornered hat fell off, and we all immediately determined
to take the mail-boat on the Danube to the castle of the beautiful
Countess.
When we arrived at the wharf all was ready for departure. The fat host
before whose inn the ship had lain all night was standing broad and
cheery in his door-way, which he quite filled, shouting out all sorts
of jokes and farewell speeches, while from every window a girl's head
was poked out nodding to the sailors, who were just carrying the last
packages aboard. An elderly gentleman with a gray overcoat and a
black neckerchief, who was also going in the boat, stood on the shore
talking very earnestly with a slim young fellow in leather breeches
and a trig scarlet jacket, mounted on a magnificent chestnut. To my
great surprise, they seemed to glance at times toward me, and to be
speaking of me. At last the old gentleman laughed, and the slim young
fellow cracked his riding-whip and galloped off through the fresh
morning across the shining landscape, with the larks soaring above
him.
Meanwhile, the students and I had combined our resources. The
captain laughed and shook his head when the cornetist counted out our
passage-money to him in coppers, for which we had diligently searched
every corner of our pockets.
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