In many of the streets of Strasbourg are little wooden bridges, similar to canal bridges. These are built over the Ill, which intersects the city in all directions. When Eric and Johnny took their stroll, it was market-day, and, even at that early hour, the streets presented a lively scene. Carts and drays were the stalls in the open street, and people were buying and selling at a great rate. The fish stalls were surrounded by storks; but the people seemed to mind them no more than the birds minded the people. These storks are great favorites with Germans. In Strasbourg they are as tame as our domestic hens, and it is very comical to see them strutting importantly about, as if they had as good a right to the sidewalk as the other citizens. The boys returned to the hotel with ravenous appetites, but, hungry as they were, could not appreciate the described daintiness of a most apparently unpalatable pie, called _pate de foie gras_; so they were obliged to content themselves with other edibles and fragrant French coffee. "Now for the minster!" said Eric, as they arose from the table. "The _minister_?" exclaimed Johnny; "what for?" Eric laughed. "Not _minister_, but _minster_. A minster is a cathedral church." "I don't care much about the minster, then," said Johnny, running up stairs on all fours. "I've seen cathedrals till I'm sick of them. But this clock _is_ curious, and I'm anxious to see it." "Johnny," expostulated Eric, "walk properly. You ought to have been a monkey.--And that reminds me," he added, "I must feed Froll and fasten her, that she may do no mischief while we're at the cathedral." Little Froll received an ample breakfast, and her silver chain was securely fastened. Then the boys left her. When they had been gone a while, and her breakfast had disappeared, Froll became lonesome, and cast her eyes about to see with what mischief she might best employ herself. But thoughtful Eric had placed every temptation out of her reach. Meanwhile Eric and Johnny were viewing the wonders of the famous astronomical clock. This clock is in the Strasbourg Cathedral. It was built in the cathedral, before its completion, in the year 1439, and was invented by Isaac Habrecht, a Jewish astrologer. European clocks were first invented in the eleventh century, by the Saracens, and used principally for monasteries. They were very rude, simple affairs, and sometimes would only "go" when somebody pushed the pendulum, which was rather inconvenient than otherwise. So wise mathematicians tried to make improvements; and some succeeded, among whom was Isaac Habrecht, who, in the fourteenth century, invented the most wonderful clock in the world, and called it the "Clock of the Three Sages," because once in every hour the figures of the Three Kings of the Orient came out from a niche in its side, and made a reverential bow before an image of the Virgin Mary, seated just above the dial-plate, on the front of the clock.