The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-03-28
LEBERECHT HUHNcHEN.


From the German of r. Seidel, By Anna knight, in
The Outlook.
By the merest chance l learned
that my good old friend and class
mate, Leberecht Huhnchen, had some
time since taken up his residence in
Berlin, and held a position in one of
the large machine-shops near the
Granienburg Gate.
As often happens, our correspon-
dence, lively in the beginning, had
gradually diminished, and finally we
had completely lost sight of each
other. The last news 1 had had of
him was some seven years ago, when
had seen an announcement of his
marriage in small town in the prov
ince of Westphalia.
Memories of happy college life
were closely bound up with the name
of this friend and I decided at once
to hunt him up and renew the remem-
brance of the good times we had had
together.
Leberecht Huhnchen was one of
those fortunate people to whom a
good fairy had given at his birth the
best gift of all-the art Of being hap
py he was able to extract honey
from all flowers, even from poisonous
ones. I cannot recall that I ever saw
him out of humor more than FIVE min
utes at time, for at the end of that
time his imperturbable sunny nature
always gained the upper hand, and he
was able so to turn and twist the most
disagreeable things as to cover them
with rosy sheen. At Hanover,
where we were both attending the
Institute of Technology, he received
mere pittance from his home, and
was able to provide himself with the
necessities of life only by giving pri-
vate lessons at ridicu1ously small
charge. However, this fact did not
nrevent-hiIu franst talzip,o mart in all
derstood least of all, he usually had
some money so that he was able to
lend others.
One winter evening l had found
myself bankrupt { l must confess a
not unusual state of affairs, and my
allowance not due for several days.
After a most dilligent search in all
pockets and frantic upheaval of all
bureau drawers, it was possible to
bring to light but thirty pfennige
az cts, and with these coins in
my pocket jangling melancholy ac-
compartment to my steps, saunter-
ed through the streets lost in earnest
thought as to the best disposition to
make of my capital. From this brown
study l was interrupted by HUM
chen, who suddenly stood before me,
and with the happiest face in the world
asked me whether I could lend him
three dollars Now, as I had about
reached the conclusion to make a
similar request of him, I could not re-
frain from bursting into a hearty
laugh, and Immediately proceeded to
set before him the true state of affairs.
"Thirty pfennige !" he said !;
"why, that's fine If we put our
piles together we would not have any
more, for have just given away my
last cent to Brown, Our townsman, who
must take part in a fraternity ami
vessary banquet, and, of course, needs
the money badly. So you still have
thirty pfennige; why, with that we
will have jolly evening" regular
feast, l tell you p
I could only stare in astonishment.
Just hand over the money to me" 4"
he went on. II will do the buying !;
I have lot Of things at home; I tell
you we are going to dine sumptuous-
ly tonight-like a Crnsus !"
Together we walked through sew
eral narrow passages in the suburb of
Egidii to his lodgings. On the way
he suddenly disappeared in a small,
miserable looking shop which adver-
tised itself by displaying couple of
clay pipes, some dusty packs of chic
ory and tobacco, some dingy boxes
of blacking and mustard-pots OIL the
outside, and in a short time appeared
again with two packages under his
arm.
Leberecht Huhnchen lived in the
attic of a laughably small and low
house, set in an equally tiny garden.
There was just enough space in his
sitting-room to allow two people of
modest ideas to stretch their legs COM
fortably, and adjoining was his bed
room, almost entirely taken up with
his bed-so small that, in order to put
on his boots while sitting on the edge
of his bed, Huhnchen was obliged
first to open the door. But with all
its tininess there was something sin
gularly attractive about this little
apartment; the sunny nature of its
owner seemed to have become part
of it.
Now, first of ALL" said Huhn-
chen, "let's make a fire. You just
sit down on the sofa, but be sure to
pick out valley the sofa is some
what mountainous it is always good
policy to find valley to rest in"
Through the energetic efforts of my
friend fire was soon burning in the
little round iron stove, which bore
about the same proportion to an ordi-
nary stove as a dachshund bears to q
Newfoundland. This little stove was
for Huhnchen continual source oi
joy.
"I can't understand" he remark.
ed, ''what objection people can have