Suddenly, they met a man who certainly must be a German: the long blue coat--the high-crowned and broad-brimmed hat--the short pipe--there could be no mistake. Schmidt accordingly walked confidently up to him, and taking off his hat, bade him good day, and inquired whether he had the honour to address a German. The man thus accosted, however, stared at him awhile, and seemed in doubt whether he should answer or not; at last, he drew a long whiff from his short pipe, stared at the Emigrants all round, one after the other, and answered, in a drawling tone--"Yes." "Oh, then, perhaps you can tell us the way to Perl, or Pirl Street?" (for they had all, by this time, noticed the meaning of the English word, "Yes.") "What number?" asked their countryman, who was sparing of words, looking this time upwards towards the roof of the houses. What number!--oh, yes, there they all were, but not one could remember it. Schmidt owned this at last, and added-- "Well, the street can't be so _very_ long; if we can only get to the one end of it--I know the house, if I see it again. Whereabouts is Pearl Street?" "There--and there--and there!" said their friendly countryman, pointing up the broad street in which they were standing, then down again, and then to the left, towards a cross street; and, puffing another long cloud from his pipe, left the Germans looking at each other. "There--and there--and there!" said the tailor, at last, after a pause. "Oh my! he must be making game of us--the street can't go all round about!" But the street did go all round about--at least, it took a large curve, and the poor devils might have stood there a long time, without knowing what to do, had not a more obliging countryman of theirs at last assisted them, and put them on their road again. The Committee, in the meanwhile, had made themselves pretty comfortable at the French tavern, in Hudson Street, whither several of the steerage passengers had followed them, and a large meeting was convened to be held there on the fourth day, in order to agree upon the next measures to be taken, and to determine what was to be done. In the interim, the elder Siebert had been busily engaged collecting more accurate information concerning the interior of the country, and the fittest place for a settlement, and had made the acquaintance of a certain Dr. Normann, who promised to lend him a helping hand, as he had already, according to his own account, been serviceable to many Germans in this particular, and they could trust him the more implicitly as he did not make a business of it, but merely did it out of friendship for his countrymen.