Von Kronen.--Without a joke, this is one of the three riddles that I will lay before you. If you can solve them, you shall smoke the whole evening genuine Havanna cigars, that I have received from Hamburgh as a Christmas present. Freisleben.--That's worth something! Hoffmann.--Samiel, help! Von Kronen.--The first you have; so solve it. Freisleben.--I will explain it to thee. The nose has here stretched the skin too much outwards, so that it has cracked it on both sides, exactly where the eyes are. Von Kronen.--Well hit! Now for the second. Why do the hares sleep with open eyes? Hoffmann.--Because their skin is too short to permit them to shut their eyes. Von Kronen.--Bravo! Now the third. Where go the cats when they are three years old? Hoffmann.--With thy confounded cats! If the talk was of foxes, or of some other reasonable cattle? Von Kronen.--Yes! dear Lord Abbot[44] put it together, or I must pronounce sentence of asses on you. Hoffmann.--Stop! I have it. They go into their fourth year! Von Kronen:-- O damsel! O damsel! O damsel! now marry I thee, Now marry I thee! Mr. Traveller enters.--How are you, gentlemen? What an Egyptian darkness there is in the streets! It was all I could do to find the house. Hoffmann.--There is moonshine in the calendar to-day. Freisleben.--The police regulations in our city are very much like the clapper-mills in the cherry-trees. They stand still when the rattle is most needed, and make a terrible larum when, on account of the high wind, the sparrows don't come. Von Kronen.--Tell me, Hoffmann, can a man blush red in the dark? Hoffmann.--Another hard question! That a man may become pale with fear in the dark, I can believe; but blush red scarcely, since a man may be pale of himself, but blush only on account of himself and another. Von Kronen.--Ay, that is true; but the question whether ladies can become red in the dark is a very difficult question; at least, one that cannot be settled in the light. Freisleben.--Ask the magistrate why he does not light the streets better; that would be much more serviceable than these subtleties. Von Kronen.--Dear Freisleben, in a country where the eyes of people who are in love shine in the dark, there is no need of lanterns. Freisleben.--For thy satirical impertinence thou shalt go into the streets with me, on a voyage of discovery after some red wine. We will make booty of some bottles in one of the kneips, and then manufacture some glee-wine. It will relish with the cigars. Mr. Traveller.--Capital! Hoffmann! let us hasten out too. We will buy sugar and spices. Hoffmann.--Good! So every one makes himself a useful member of society.