in his church, and he said he might do so.  She then went and told her sister what she had done, and Mrs. Kurz was very much put out that her son wasn’t as far on as his cousin, so she went to the old parson too and asked him to allow Rudolph to preach for him some day soon.  Well the clergyman was so far left to himself as to arrange that Rudolph should preach on the same day as Godfrey.  The two young men had a great argument as to which was to have the forenoon and which the afternoon, but at last it was settled that Rudolph should preach in the morning.  Well, Godfrey set to work as hard as he could, and spent the whole day from morning till evening in the arbor.  As he has a bad memory he learnt his sermon by repeating it aloud.  Rudolph did nothing but amuse himself as usual, till the two last days, when he seated himself on the grass bank behind the arbor, and seemed to be thinking over his sermon.  On the Sunday morning, Joseph drove the two young clergymen and us to Rahnstaedt.  We went into the parsonage pew, and I can assure you I was in a great fright about Rudolph, but the rogue stood there as calmly as if he were quite sure of himself, and when the time came for him to preach, he went up into the pulpit and began his sermon.  He got on so well that every one listened attentively, and I was so pleased with the boy that I turned to whisper to Godfrey, who sat next to me, how relieved and overjoyed I was, when I saw that he was moving about restlessly in his seat, and looking as if he would like to jump up and pull Rudolph out of the pulpit:  ‘Aunt,’ he said, ‘that is my sermon.’  And so it was, Braesig.  The little wretch had got it by heart from hearing his cousin learning it aloud in the arbor.”  “Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Braesig.  “What a joke!  What a capital joke!” “Do you call it a joke?” said Mrs. Nuessler angrily.  “Do you call playing a trick like that in God’s house a joke?” “Ha, ha, ha!” roared Braesig.  “I know that it’s wicked to laugh, and I know that only the devil could have prompted the lad to play such a trick, but I can’t help it, I must laugh at it all the same.”  “Oh, of course,” said Mrs. Nuessler crossly, “of course you do nothing but laugh while we are like to break our hearts with grief and anger.”  “Never mind me,” said Braesig soothingly, “tell me, what did the Methodist do?  Ha, ha, ha!  I’d have given a good deal for a sight of his face!” “You would, would you?  Of course he couldn’t preach the same sermon in the afternoon, so the parson had to give his people one of his old sermons over again; but he was very angry, and said that if he chose to make the circumstance public, Rudolph might go and hang himself on the first willow he came across.”  “But the Methodist?” “The poor fellow was miserable, but he didn’t say a word.  However his mother said enough for two, and she spoke so harshly to her sister Mrs. Kurz about what had happened, that they’re no longer on speaking terms.  There was a frightful quarrel.