My first fight secured my position forever.  We doubtless owed our initiation on the second day into everything which was done by the pupils, both openly and secretly, to the good impression made by Martin.  There was nothing wrong, and even where mischief was concerned I can term it to-day “harmless.”  The new boys or “foxes” were not neglected or “hazed,” as in many other schools.  Only every one, even the newly arrived younger teachers, was obliged to submit to the “initiation.”  This took place in winter, and consisted in being buried in the snow and having pockets, clothing, nay, even shirts, filled with the clean but wet mass.  Yet I remember no cold caused by this rude baptism.  My mother remained several days with us, and as the weather was fine she accompanied us to the neighbouring heights—­the Kirschberg, to which, after the peaceful cemetery of the institute was left behind, a zigzag path led; the Kohn, at whose foot rose the Upper House; and the Steiger, from whose base flowed the Schaalbach, and whose summit afforded a view of a great portion of the Thuringian mountains.

We older pupils afterwards had a tall tower erected there as a monument to Barop, and the prospect from its lofty summit, which is more that a thousand feet high, is magnificent.

Even before the completion of this lookout, the view was one of the most beautiful and widest far or near, and we were treated like most new-comers.  During the ascent our eyes were bandaged, and when the handkerchief was removed a marvellous picture appeared before our astonished gaze.  In the foreground, toward the left, rose the wooded height crowned by the stately ruins of the Blankenburg.  Beyond opened the beautiful leafy bed of the Saale, proudly dominated by the Leuchtenburg.  Before us there was scarcely any barrier to the vision; for behind the nearer ranges of hills one chain of the wooded Thuringian Mountains towered beyond another, and where the horizon seemed to close the grand picture, peak after peak blended with the sky and the clouds, and the light veil of mist floating about them seemed to merge all into an indivisible whole.

I have gazed from this spot into the distance at every hour of the day and season of the year.  But the fairest time of all on the Steiger was at sunset, on clear autumn days, when the scene close at hand, where the threads of gossamer were floating, was steeped in golden light, the distance in such exquisite tints-from crimson to the deepest violet blue, edged with a line of light-the Saale glimmered with a silvery lustre amid its fringe of alders, and the sun flashed on the glittering panes of the Leuchtenburg.

We were now old enough to enjoy the magnificence of this prospect.  My young heart swelled at the sight; and if in after years my eyes could grasp the charm of a beautiful landscape and my pen successfully describe it, I learned the art here.

It was pleasant, too, that my mother saw all this with us, though she must often have gone to rest very much wearied from her rambles.  But teachers and pupils vied with each other in attentions to her.  She had won all hearts.  We noticed and rejoiced in it till the day came when she left us.