However, in the mean time it had transpired that the men employed to calk the raft had found that the leak was not a leak at all, but only a crack between the logs—­a crack that belonged there, and was not dangerous, but had been magnified into a leak by the disordered imagination of the mate.  Therefore we went aboard again with a good degree of confidence, and presently got to sea without accident.  As we swam smoothly along between the enchanting shores, we fell to swapping notes about manners and customs in Germany and elsewhere.

As I write, now, many months later, I perceive that each of us, by observing and noting and inquiring, diligently and day by day, had managed to lay in a most varied and opulent stock of misinformation.  But this is not surprising; it is very difficult to get accurate details in any country.  For example, I had the idea once, in Heidelberg, to find out all about those five student-corps.  I started with the White Cap corps.  I began to inquire of this and that and the other citizen, and here is what I found out: 

1.  It is called the Prussian Corps, because none but Prussians are admitted to it.

2.  It is called the Prussian Corps for no particular reason.  It has simply pleased each corps to name itself after some German state.

3.  It is not named the Prussian Corps at all, but only the White Cap Corps.

4.  Any student can belong to it who is a German by birth.

5.  Any student can belong to it who is European by birth.

6.  Any European-born student can belong to it, except he be a Frenchman.

7.  Any student can belong to it, no matter where he was born.

8.  No student can belong to it who is not of noble blood.

9.  No student can belong to it who cannot show three full generations of noble descent.

10.  Nobility is not a necessary qualification.

11.  No moneyless student can belong to it.

12.  Money qualification is nonsense—­such a thing has never been thought of.

I got some of this information from students themselves —­students who did not belong to the corps.

I finally went to headquarters—­to the White Caps—­where I would have gone in the first place if I had been acquainted.  But even at headquarters I found difficulties; I perceived that there were things about the White Cap Corps which one member knew and another one didn’t.  It was natural; for very few members of any organization know all that can be known about it.  I doubt there is a man or a woman in Heidelberg who would not answer promptly and confidently three out of every five questions about the White Cap Corps which a stranger might ask; yet it is a very safe bet that two of the three answers would be incorrect every time.