Eric luckily abstained from asking the Major what he precisely meant by this mysterious proposition, for the Major would, unfortunately, not have been able to tell him; but he was fond of the phrase, and always used it, leaving every one to find out the meaning for himself.
"To return to nature, everything is included in that," he repeated.
After a while he began:—
"Yes, what was I going to ask?—Tell me, did not you have a great deal to bear as a soldier, because you were a commoner and not a noble?"
Eric answered in the negative, and the Major stammered out,—
"Indeed, indeed—you—a liberally educated man, felt less of it. I asked for my discharge. I'll tell you about it sometime."
Eric mentioned that he had been at the priest's, and the Major said,—
"He is an excellent man, but I call for no aid of the ecclesiastics. You know I am a Freemason."
Eric assented, and the Major continued: "Whatever is good in me has its home in that; we will talk farther of it—I will be your god-father. Ah, how glad Herr Weidmann will be to know you."
And again, at the mention of Weidmann's name, it seemed as if a beautiful view of the highest mountains of the landscape was brought before the mind. The Major resumed:—