CHAPTER VI

A WHOLE DAY OF SIGHT-SEEING

The four descended the steps, Fritz leading Pixy, and were soon in the main streets of the city, where the constant hurrying of feet and the rush of traffic was a continual subject of wonder to the country boys.

In the windows of the large stores they saw so many things that were new to them, some of them from foreign countries, that they could scarcely move on and Uncle Braun waited patiently, answering innumerable questions.

"Is this the first time that you have ever seen diamonds, pearls and other precious gems?" he asked when they remained long at the windows of a large jewelry store.

"Yes," Fritz replied, "our parents have none, nor have our neighbors.

Oh, how beautiful they are! and just see the price that is upon the earrings."

"Yes, ten thousand marks."

"Ten thousand marks," echoed Franz. "Why, that would buy a house and garden in the Odenwald."

"Does any person except queens and other royal people wear such things?"

asked Paul.

"Certainly! There are many people in Frankfort who buy and wear them. If you are surprised at the price of the earrings, I am sure that you would be more astonished did we know the price of the diamond necklace."

"Uncle Braun, do you suppose that it was this jewelry store that was robbed a few weeks ago?" asked Fritz. "I saw an account of it in a Frankfort paper."

"I cannot say. There are many jewelry stores here, also many thieves."

"Oh," cried the boy, at the remembrance of his own loss, "my new, bright gold-piece--"

"With the likeness of Kaiser Frederick upon it!" completed Franz. "You see we can repeat that wail all right."

"Don't tease him, Franz, my boy," remarked Uncle Braun in a kind, yet rebuking tone. "You have not as yet had the opportunity to show us how you would act if all your money was stolen. Fritz has nothing to be ashamed of that he was deceived by the smooth-tongued stranger. I will tell you what happened to a baker, a middle-aged man, who has lived in Frankfort all his life. He was sitting in his bakery one day when he heard the footsteps of a man going up the steps of his house, which had two front doors, one leading into the bakery and the other up the stairway to the bedrooms.

"He went to the door and looked up and there was a man who appeared to be going up, but was in reality coming down backwards. He halted when he heard the sound at the door.

"He had a large bundle tied up in a compact roll, consisting of bed, pillows and bed clothing and did not appear to be in the least haste.

"'What are you doing there?' called the baker.

"'Isn't this the p.a.w.n-broker's shop?' asked the stranger.

"'No, that is on the next square. You go to the corner and turn to the right, and there you are.'

"'Thank you!'

"The baker returned to his bakery and the man went out and down the street. When night came and the family went to retire there was no bed or bed-clothing in the baker's room. The clever thief had made off with them."

Fritz seemed somewhat comforted to hear that he was not the only one who had been outwitted.

Farther on the boys took keen interest in a bicycle race.

"Oh, look at them!" Fritz exclaimed. "A whole regiment of them! How can the dealer sell so many?"

"He must sell a great many more than you see there in order to pay the rent of his store."

"Yes," agreed Fritz, knowingly, "the rents are high with us, too; there is one man in our village who pays one hundred and eighty marks for the rent of his store."

"That is quite a sum of money, my boy," smiled Uncle Braun, "but look at this small store we are pa.s.sing. I happen to know that the rent of it is ten times your one hundred and eighty marks."

"Is that possible? Then if he got but a mark for each pair of shoes, he would have to sell eighteen hundred pairs in a year to make the rent."

"I don't know how many he sells, but I do know that he has been there for a long time and does a flourishing business."

"Oh, listen to the music in this store!" exclaimed Paul, "singing, and no singer to be seen."

"I thought it would surprise you. That is a phonograph. Now listen, do you know the air?"

"Yes, it is from '_Der Freischutz_,' and oh, how beautifully it is done!

How can it be possible for it to sing so correctly?" and the triplets listened with delight. They would have lingered much longer but Uncle Braun reminded them that time was pa.s.sing, and there was much more to see.

"Do you know anything of the poet Goethe?" he asked as they pa.s.sed along.

"Oh, yes!" they all exclaimed eagerly.

"Would you like to see the house in which he was born? I am sure you would, so we will go directly to it. The old house has been restored and is just as it was when he lived there. He was born in 1749. How old would he be if living?"

It did not take the triplets an instant to state exactly the number of years, then their old friend asked which of Goethe's poems they liked most.

"I like the 'Singer,'" said Paul, "and I like the 'Erlking,' but when my father read it aloud to us last winter my little sister crept under the sofa. She was afraid."

By this time they had reached the old house, and it was a delight to the triplets to see the rooms in which he had played when a boy like them.

They looked from the windows from which he had gazed at the fields beyond, and did not wonder that every intelligent stranger who came to Frankfort paid a visit to the old house, where the greatest poet that Germany has ever known--John Wolfgang von Goethe--lived and wrote.

"Where would you like to go next?" asked Uncle Braun.

"To the bridge over the Main," they answered promptly, for they believed that they would never grow weary of watching the cool, rippling water making its way to the Rhine and from thence to the sea. So to the bridge they went and leaned upon the parapet and gazed upon the scene as they had done the evening before.

"Did you ever hear how Frankfort got its name?" asked their guide.

"No, we never heard."

"It is said that at that point," he continued, designating it with his cane, "the river was at one time so shallow, owing to a ridge of rocks under its bed, that it could be forded by persons on foot. One time when Charlemagne--or Charles the Great--was battling against the Saxons, he was compelled to retreat before them, and they were in hot pursuit.

The French forces were weak, while the Saxons were strong, but if he and his army could cross the Main, all would be safe. A heavy fog rested upon the river and they could not find the safe fording. The French ran up and down the sh.o.r.e, hoping to see someone who could tell them the location of the ford, but found no one. The enemy was advancing rapidly upon them and they had about given up in despair, when they saw a deer with her young step into the water and cross safely. In full confidence that the instinct of the animal had guided her correctly, they followed and reached the south side of the Main safely. The Saxons followed, but could not find the shallow place to cross, for there was no deer to guide them, and the city, dating from that time, was called _Frankenfurt_ or Frankfort."

This narrative was of deep interest to the boys, who gazed at the spot where Charlemagne had crossed more than eleven hundred years before.

"Did he live in Frankfort?" asked Paul.