At length Paul brought up the trousers, but to Fritz's dismay the patch was of different color. His father being a cloth merchant, the cloth was of good quality and Fritz had always been rather proud of it, but now to have a dark blue patch on dark brown trousers was mortifying indeed. But there was no help for it. The good woman had done the best she could, and he must wear them until he reached Frankfort.
A happy thought came to Paul. "Wear your rain-coat," he said. "It is long enough to hide the patch."
Franz, who had come up to learn the cause of delay, thought it an excellent idea, so ran down and brought up the knapsack containing the coat.
Fritz put it on, much relieved that the objectionable ornament was hidden from public view, and the three went below to resume their journey.
More than an hour had been lost by this mishap, and the landlord advised that they take the train to Frankfort in continuance of their journey.
"But we set out to walk, and told everybody that we were going to walk, and we will walk," responded Fritz resolutely.
"That would be all right if you had started early enough. You might then by steady walking have made the journey before dark. As it is, you cannot reach there until night which would be rather hard for you in a strange city, and you would have to wake your aunt out of sleep to let you in."
"But we have an hour yet until dinner time. We can walk a long distance in an hour."
"All right, then. Good-bye, and a pleasant journey."
"Good-bye, and a pleasant journey," echoed Peter, who, having cleaned the dust from the shoes of the three, carried their wash-water up to their room, and thrown water on the fighting dogs, was in evidence on the porch waiting for tips.