Willy got his photograph this morning after three hours' hard work.
From the post-office he was sent to the custom-house, and there was
obliged to sign his name and to go to some neighbouring bookstore
to buy a seal. On returning to the custom-house he was sent back to
the post-office to get some document or other. After obtaining this
article he turned his steps once more to the custom-house, where an
insolent officer told him he must wait an hour. W. informed him
that he would return at the end of the hour, and accordingly for
the third time went to the C.H., and was conducted by the clerk to
a cellar where the packages were kept, and there told to take off
his hat. He obeyed, raging, and then was a fourth time sent to the
P.O.--this time to pay money. Happily he is now in possession of
his property. H. and he took a walk this afternoon to a
fruit-garden, where plums, cherries, gooseberries and currants were
abundant. After half an hour's good work H. left W. finishing
merely the plums--the cherry and gooseberry course to come later.
He was so enchanted that he thought H. a great fool to leave so
soon. How does Paris now strike you? It can't be as nice as Bonn.
You had better write to Bob.
Bob, our youngest brother, had been left at Geneva with excellent M.
Maquelin and was at that time _en course_, over the Alps, with this
gentleman and their young companions; a most desirable, delicious
excursion, which I remember following in envious fancy, as it included a
descent to the Italian Lakes and a push on as far as Genoa. In reference
to which excursion I cull a line or two from a faded scrap of a letter
addressed a little later by this youngest of us to his "Beloved Brother"
William. "This is about our Grande Course. We started at 5 o'clock in
the morning with our faces and hands all nicely washed and our nails
clean. The morning was superb, and as we waited in the court the soft
balmy air of the mountains came in bringing with it the melodious sound
of the rappel for breakfast. This finished we bade adieu, and I could
see the emotions of the kind and ever-watchful Madame Maquelin as a few
silent drops trickled down her fair cheeks. We at last arrived at the
boat, where we met Mr. Peters, a portly gentleman from the city of
Philadelphia, with his two sweet sons, one twelve, the other seven years
old, the eldest coming from Mr. E.'s school with no very good opinion of
the principal--saying he had seen him in a state of tightness several
times during his stay there." Mr. Peters appears to have been something
of a pessimist, for, when at a later stage "it began to rain hard, and
half the road was a foot deep in water, and the cocher had stopped
somewhere to get lanterns and had at the same time indulged in certain
potations which didn't make him drive any the straighter," this
gentleman "insinuated that we had all better have been with our
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