with sand in one place, shells in another, and so on.  But we see now; the kind of bottom the lead brings up shows where a ship is when the soundings don’t, and also it confirms the soundings.

They reached Hamburg after two weeks’ stormy sailing.  They rested a few days there, then went to Hanover and Frankfort, arriving at Heidelberg early in May.

They had no lodgings selected in Heidelberg, and leaving the others at an inn, Clemens set out immediately to find apartments.  Chance or direction, or both, led him to the beautiful Schloss Hotel, on a hill overlooking the city, and as fair a view as one may find in all Germany.  He did not go back after his party.  He sent a message telling them to take carriage and drive at once to the Schloss, then he sat down to enjoy the view.

Coming up the hill they saw him standing on the veranda, waving his hat in welcome.  He led them to their rooms—­spacious apartments—­and pointed to the view.  They were looking down on beautiful Heidelberg Castle, densely wooded hills, the far-flowing Neckar, and the haze-empurpled valley of the Rhine.  By and by, pointing to a small cottage on the hilltop, he said: 

“I have been picking out my little house to work in; there it is over there; the one with the gable in the roof.  Mine is the middle room on the third floor.”

Mrs. Clemens thought the occupants of the house might be surprised if he should suddenly knock and tell them he had come to take possession of his room.  Nevertheless, they often looked over in that direction and referred to it as his office.  They amused themselves by watching his “people” and trying to make out what they were like.  One day he went over there, and sure enough there was a sign out, “Moblirte Wohnung zu Vermiethen.”  A day or two later he was established in the very room he had selected, it being the only room but one vacant.

In A Tramp Abroad Mark Twain tells of the beauty of their Heidelberg environment.  To Howells he wrote: 

Our bedroom has two great glass bird-cages (inclosed balconies), one looking toward the Rhine Valley and sunset, the other looking up the Neckar cul-de-sac, and naturally we spend pearly all our time in these.  We have tables and chairs in them; we do our reading, writing, studying, smoking, and suppering in them . . . .  It must have been a noble genius who devised this hotel.  Lord, how blessed is the repose, the tranquillity of this place!  Only two sounds:  the happy clamor of the birds in the groves and the muffled music of the Neckar tumbling over the opposing dikes.  It is no hardship to lie awake awhile nights, for this subdued roar has exactly the sound of a steady rain beating upon a roof.  It is so healing to the spirit; and it bears up the thread of one’s imaginings as the accompaniment bears up a song....

I have waited for a “call” to go to work—­I knew it would come.  Well, it began to come a week ago; my note-book