The collector roared at them for
about ten minutes, and they smiled pleasantly and said they wanted
to go to Hanover. He went and fetched the station-master, and the
station-master explained to them for another ten minutes that, if
they did not pay eighteen shillings each, he should do the German
equivalent for summonsing them; and they smiled and nodded, and told
him that they wanted to go to Hanover. Then a very important-
looking personage in a cocked-hat came up, and was very angry; and
he and the station-master and the collector took it in turns to
explain to B. and his two friends the state of the law on the
matter.
They stormed and raged, and threatened and pleaded for a quarter of
an hour or so, and then they got sick, and slammed the door, and
went off, leaving the Government to lose the fifty-four marks.
We passed the German frontier on Wednesday, and have been in Belgium
since.
I like the Germans. B. says I ought not to let them know this,
because it will make them conceited; but I have no fear of such a
result. I am sure they possess too much common-sense for their
heads to be turned by praise, no matter from whom.
B. also says that I am displaying more energy than prudence in
forming an opinion of a people merely from a few weeks' travel
amongst them. But my experience is that first impressions are the
most reliable.
At all events, in my case they are. I often arrive at quite
sensible ideas and judgments, on the spur of the moment. It is when
I stop to think that I become foolish.
Our first thoughts are the thoughts that are given to us; our second
thoughts are the thoughts that we make for ourselves. I prefer to
trust to the former.
The Germans are a big, square-shouldered, deep-chested race. They
do not talk much, but look as though they thought. Like all big
things, they are easy-going and good-tempered.
Anti-tobacconists, teetotallers, and such-like faddists, would fare
badly in Germany. A German has no anti-nature notions as to its
being wicked for him to enjoy his life, and still more criminal for
him to let anybody else enjoy theirs. He likes his huge pipe, and
he likes his mug of beer, and as these become empty he likes to have
them filled again; and he likes to see other people like THEIR pipe
and THEIR mug of beer. If you were to go dancing round a German,
shrieking out entreaties to him to sign a pledge that he would never
drink another drop of beer again as long as he lived, he would ask
you to remember that you were talking to a man, not to a child or an
imbecile, and he would probably impress the request upon you by
boxing your ears for your impertinence.
