Privately, And Unknown To Any One, I Painted My Great Picture, "Heidelberg Castle Illuminated" - My First Really Important Work In Oils - And Had It Hung Up In The Midst Of A Wilderness Of Oil-Pictures In The Art Exhibition, With No Name Attached To It.

To my great gratification it was instantly recognized as mine. All the town flocked to see it, and people even came from neighboring localities to visit it.

It made more stir than any other work in the Exhibition. But the most gratifying thing of all was, that chance strangers, passing through, who had not heard of my picture, were not only drawn to it, as by a lodestone, the moment they entered the gallery, but always took it for a "Turner."

Apparently nobody had ever done that. There were ruined castles on the overhanging cliffs and crags all the way; these were said to have their legends, like those on the Rhine, and what was better still, they had never been in print. There was nothing in the books about that lovely region; it had been neglected by the tourist, it was virgin soil for the literary pioneer.

Meantime the knapsacks, the rough walking-suits and the stout walking-shoes which we had ordered, were finished and brought to us. A Mr. X and a young Mr. Z had agreed to go with us. We went around one evening and bade good-by to our friends, and afterward had a little farewell banquet at the hotel. We got to bed early, for we wanted to make an early start, so as to take advantage of the cool of the morning.

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