"Well, you see, my dear sir," replied Mr. Bemperlein, "how it could be I cannot tell you, but that it was so I can swear to. I am the oldest of them all, and born the twenty-second of March; then comes a sister, two years younger, for she was born on the twenty-first of March; then a brother, then again a sister, then a brother, and again a sister. How many does that make?"
"Half a dozen, I should say," replied Oswald, smiling.
"Quite right--half a dozen, all two years apart, and all born in March with the exception of my youngest sister, whose birthday is in April. But then she is a kind of comet in the planetary system of our family. Just imagine, only eighteen, and already engaged!"
"I do not see anything extraordinary in that, with so lovely a sister as she no doubt is," observed Oswald.
"Nothing extraordinary!" cried Mr. Bemperlein--"nothing extraordinary? Such a baby! Marry! At eighteen! I do not even know if that can be done. You are laughing? Maybe. I never understood women, and I am sure I do not know how I should have learnt to understand them, unless the knowledge was given to me, on account of my special simplicity, in a dream. I remained, therefore, two years longer in Grunwald, coaching students and giving private lessons, by which I made enough to live very well--the fast day I still observed, but merely from old habit and to support my brother, as was my bounden duty. This brother gave me some trouble, which afterwards appeared to have been unnecessary, for he is already assistant-minister, although only four and twenty; but he learnt rather slowly, had weak eyes, and was inconceivably sensitive to cold and hunger. I saw, therefore, that it would be barbarous to put upon him the care of his next younger brother, who was then coming up to town, especially as he was weakly; he is now a hearty fellow of twenty, a brave, diligent youth, who will shortly pass his theological examination--well, but what was I going to say? Oh yes! He was then rather weakly and sickly, and needed much attention. But to provide for two----"
"And for yourself?" suggested Oswald.
"Well, that was the smallest part. But I saw the thing could not go on any longer so, and the offer to become tutor at Berkow was, therefore, most welcome. Full board, a fabulous salary--I was beside myself. Now I had both hands free, and could at last do something for my family."
"I should think you had been doing that to your full power, or rather beyond your power," said Oswald.
"Oh, nonsense," said the other. "My wish was good enough, but my strength very feeble, and now they needed support more than ever. My poor mamma had been suffering for some time, now father also was taken dangerously ill, and his iron constitution so undermined that he has never fully recovered, and we feared, of course, the worst. My three sisters, too, were still unprovided. How fortunate, therefore, that I had two hundred dollars in gold! I gave half to my brothers----"
"And the other half to your sisters?"