There were always dikes to be repaired, ditches to be deepened, drain-pipes to be laid or improved, or artificial manure to be carted, and Paul was active from break of day till nightfall, either on foot or on horseback, hurrying from one end of the estate to the other, everywhere ordering or giving a helping hand, and always leading his troops himself to fresh onslaughts against the resisting elements.
He did it all quietly, without any fuss or attempt to reflect credit on himself, and left it to others--to strangers, poetically inclined pupils or students on their travels--to say that his conquest of the Friesenmoor was a Faust-like achievement.
He had built a whole village for his laborers, to right and left of the highroad leading to Friesenmoor House.

The cheerful, clean, whitewashed cottages, with their green-painted window-frames, were thatched with rushes and surrounded by gardens in which young fruit trees, not yet sufficiently strong to forego the support of poles, already gave promise of their first harvest of apples and pears.

The village hall and the school-house were distinguished by superior size and green-glazed tile roofs; nor was a church, with a pointed belfry and weathercock, missing.

For Paul was a model landowner, who took ample thought for the welfare of his dependents, and as soon as his means permitted it, had hastened to build a church and appoint a pastor, providing thereby, at the same time, for one of his numerous relatives.
In his ardent loyalty to his king, he had expressed the wish to call his village Kaiser-Wilhelm's Dorf, and had received the desired permission.
In Kaiser-Wilhelm's Dorf, it was evident, content and comparative prosperity reigned supreme.

Behind every house was a pigsty, behind nearly every one a cowshed.