Gerson Brandt went about his duties with a listless air. The boys who gathered every morning in the learning-school noticed that he was less exacting about their lessons, and that often his thoughts appeared far away. When he ascended to the little platform, after returning from morning prayers in the meeting-house, he looked down upon them with compassion in his glance. It was noticed that his thin face was pinched and that his eyes were sunken. When they opened their word-books for the spelling-class he showed slight interest. During recess he sat with his head resting on his hands and his eyes fixed on the old desk. One day, when he was even more preoccupied than usual, Adolph Schneider and Karl Weisel visited the school in order to inquire into the progress of the boys of Zanah. Gerson Brandt called his pupils to order. “The Herr Doktor would speak with you,” he said. “Yea, I would know whether you are diligent in your lessons,” announced Adolph Schneider. He pounded on the floor with his cane, and spoke in a tone that frightened the more timid of the children. “Why was Adam cast out of the Garden of Eden?” There was a moment of silence. All the tow-headed boys, with arms folded across their breasts, stared straight ahead of them. Karl Weisel, who had taken the school-master’s chair, tipped it back against the black-board, twirled his thumbs, and stared at the rows of benches with something like a sneer on his heavy features. The school-master, standing on the floor beside the platform, looked out of the nearest window and waited patiently for the tardy answer. “Can any one tell me why Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden?” The Herr Doktor repeated his question in a thundering tone. “Because he ate an apple,” piped a small voice from a far corner of the room. “And art thou taught that it is wicked to eat an apple?” A dozen tow-heads were shaken emphatically. “The apple grew on the tree of knowledge.” It was a pale, red-haired child who spoke. “It is Johann Werther who knows about the tree of knowledge,” said the Herr Doktor. “At the _gasthaus_ Johann sometimes hath a glimpse of forbidden things.” Scores of round eyes immediately were turned upon Johann with glances of envy. “But did man fall through his own sinful desires?” questioned the Herr Doktor, standing very straight, throwing out his chest, and lifting his chin out of his big stock. “It was Eve who did tempt him,” announced a small boy that sat on the front seat. “Right. Sin came into the world through a woman, and ever since then the man who would reach heaven hath to guard against the wiles of the temptress. If it had not been for a woman, we might now be living in the Garden of Eden.”