Again the landlord could not control his laughter, as he replied, “It will be ready in half an hour.”

“Suppose we stay,” said Fritz, turning to his companions.  “I am terribly hungry.”

“So am I,” echoed Paul.

“So am I,” agreed Franz.

“I was about to suggest that you take dinner with us,” said their host.  “It is quite a distance to the next public house.”

“What will you have for dinner, Mr. Swan?”

“Liverwurst, roast potatoes, stewed pears, and warm brown bread with butter.”

“I love every one of those things,” remarked Franz.

“What will the dinner cost each of us?” asked Fritz.

“What would it cost?” echoed the innkeeper as if reflecting.  “Oh, we will not talk of that.  All I can say is that we wish every one who eats here to have plenty, and after the meal is over we can tell better what it is worth.”

“We will stay,” said the boys jubilantly, and removed their knapsacks.  When dinner was served their host led the way to the dining-room and gave them places, and took his own.  His wife was already at the table, then followed Letta and Peter.  The landlord removed his skull-cap, bowed his head reverently as did the others and asked a blessing upon the meal; then he and his wife told the boys to help themselves, which they did forthwith from the large plates well-filled which they had placed before them.

Peter, who sat opposite, was filled with admiration of their powers of endurance, and said to himself, as the viands disappeared with astonishing celerity, “How much will it take to fill them when they are men?  They make me think of our William when he was a growing boy, and had eaten all he could hold, father would say, ’William, are you satisfied,’ and he would say, ’No, father.  I am full, but I am not satisfied.’”

But notwithstanding the comparison with the insatiable William, the boys expressed themselves as fully satisfied when every vessel of food had disappeared from the plates, and when they returned to the reception-room told the landlord that they had heartily enjoyed the excellent dinner and asked again the cost of it for each.

“The cost?  Well now, let me state the case as it really stands,” said the smiling landlord.  “If you had come and ordered a dinner of the kind you wished, and took seats at the public table, with a servant to wait upon you, I should have charged you the same that I would charge any other guest.  But you just sat down with us at our family table, and shared the plain dinner that had been prepared for us, so I do not charge you anything.”

“But we did have just the kind of dinner we like,” said Fritz, “and I am afraid our fathers would not like us to go away without paying for it.”

“Oh, boys, don’t worry.  Your fathers have taken many a dinner here, and, God willing, will take many more.  All I ask of you is to take my advice by going to the station and taking the train for Frankfort.  If you go now you will be in good time to catch the afternoon train for Frankfort.  Now good-bye and a pleasant journey!”