“Then there is so much beautiful carving!  And there are such fine statues.  Oh, children, you must certainly come to Strasburg before long and see the cathedral of which all Germany is so proud.”

“Strasburg was for a time the home of our greatest poet,” said Bertha.  “I want to go there to see where he lived.”

The child was very fond of poetry, even though she was a little country girl.  Her father had a book containing some of Goethe’s ballads, and she loved to lie under the trees in the pleasant summer-time and repeat some of these poems.

“They are just like music,” she would say to herself.

“A marble slab has been set up in the old Fish Market to mark the spot where Goethe lived,” said Uncle Fritz.  “They say he loved the grand cathedral of the city, and it helped him to become a great writer when he was a young student there.  I suppose its beauty awakened his own beautiful thoughts.”

The children became quiet as they thought of their country and the men who had made her so strong and great,—­the poets, and the musicians, and the brave soldiers who had defended her from her enemies.

Uncle Fritz was the first one to speak.

“I will tell you a story of Strasburg,” he said.  “It is about something that happened there a long time ago.  You know, the city isn’t on the Rhine itself, but it is on a little stream flowing into the greater river.

“Well, once upon a time the people of Zurich, in Switzerland, asked the people of Strasburg to join with them in a bond of friendship.  Each should help the other in times of danger.  The people of Strasburg did not think much of the idea.  They said among themselves:  ’What good can the little town of Zurich do us?  And, besides, it is too far away.’  So they sent back word that they did not care to make such a bond.  They were scarcely polite in their message, either.

“When they heard the reply, the men of Zurich were quite angry.  They were almost ready to fight.  But the youngest one of their councillors said: 

“’We will force them to eat their own words.  Indeed, they shall be made to give us a different answer.  And it will come soon, too, if you will only leave the matter with me.’

“‘Do as you please,’ said the other councillors.  They went back to their own houses, while the young man hurried home, rushed out into the kitchen and picked out the largest kettle there.

“‘Wife, cook as much oatmeal as this pot will hold,’ he commanded.

“The woman wondered what in the world her husband could be thinking of.  But she lost no time in guessing.  She ordered her servants to make a big fire, while she herself stirred and cooked the great kettleful of oatmeal.

“In the meanwhile, her husband hurried down to the pier, and got his swiftest boat ready for a trip down the river.  Then he gathered the best rowers in the town.