“You spoke of a great demand for their services; I can easily imagine that men so trained should be in demand; but what are the callings they pursue after leaving you? for you need but a limited number as house-fathers and teachers.”

“The Inner Mission,” he replied, “has a wide field of usefulness.  It furnishes directors and house-fathers for reform schools organized on our plan, of which there are a number in Germany; overseers, instructors, and assistants in agricultural and other schools; directors and subordinate officers for prisons; directors, overseers, and assistants in hospitals and infirmaries; city and home missionaries; and missionaries to colonies of emigrants in America.”

“What is your annual expenditure above the products of your farm and workshops?” I asked.

“Somewhat less than fifty dollars a head for our entire population,” was the reply.

It was by this time high noon, and as we returned to the Mutter-Haus, the benevolent superintendent insisted that we should remain and partake with him of the mid-day meal.  We complied, and presently were summoned to the dining-hall, where we found a small circle of the Brothers, and the two head teachers.  After a brief but appropriate grace, we took our seats, being introduced by the director.

“At supper all our teachers assemble here,” said Dr. Wichern, “and with them those children whose birthday it is; but at dinner the Brothers remain with their own families.”

The table was abundantly supplied with plain but wholesome food, and the cheerful conversation which ensued gave evidence that the cares of their position had not exerted a depressing influence on their spirits.  Each seemed thoroughly in love with his work, and in harmony with all the rest.  Dr. Wichern mentioned that I was from America.

“Have you,” inquired one of the Brothers, “any institutions like this in your country?”

“We have,” I answered, “Reform Schools, Houses of Refuge, Juvenile Asylums, and other reformatory institutions; but I am afraid I must say, nothing like this.  We are making progress, however, in Juvenile Reform, and I hope that ere long we, too, may have a Rough House whose influence shall pervade our country, as yours has done Central Europe.”

“Dr. Wichern,” inquired another, “have our friends visited the ’God’s Acre?’"[A]

[Footnote A:  The German name of a grave-yard.]

“Not yet,” was the reply; “but I will go thither with them after we have dined, if they can remain so long.”

We assented, and one of the Brothers remarked,—­

“Our boys have taken especial pains to beautify that favorite spot, this season.”

“This disposition to adorn the resting-place of the body, so common among us, is becoming popular in your country, I believe,” said our host, courteously.

I replied, that it was,—­that in our larger towns the place of burial was generally rendered attractive, but that in the rural districts the burying-grounds were yet neglected and unsightly; and ventured the opinion, that this neglect might be partly traceable to the iconoclastic tendencies of our Puritan ancestors.