She addressed him by the name of Middendorf, and we recognized him as one of the heads of the institute, of whom we had heard many pleasant things.
He had driven to Rudolstadt with the "old bay," but he willingly accepted a seat in our carriage.
We had scarcely left the street with the hotel behind us, when he began to speak of Schiller, and pointed out the mountain which bore his name and to which in his "Walk" he had cried: "Hail! oh my Mount, with radiant crimson peak." Then he told us of the Lengefeld sisters, whom the poet had so often met here, and one of whom, Charlotte, afterward became his wife.

All this was done in a way which had no touch of pedagogy or of anything specially prepared for children, yet every word was easily understood and interested us.

Besides, his voice had a deep, musical tone, to which my ear was susceptible at an early age.

He understood children of our disposition and knew what pleased them.
In Schaale, the first village through which we passed, he said, pointing to the stream which flowed into the Saale close by: "Look, boys, now we are coming into our own neighbourhood, the valley of the Schaal.

It owes its name to this brook, which rises in our own meadows, and I suppose you would like to know why our village is called Keilhau ?" While speaking, he pointed up the stream and briefly described its course.
We assented.
We had passed the village of Schaale.