The quarrel grew louder and louder, and above all Oscar's voice rose the loudest, crying angrily:-- "We will show you by and by, when we are old enough, what fraternity and equality and love of our country means.

We will found a society for the whole of Switzerland, and every year we will celebrate the Feast of the Foundation, in which all the inhabitants of all the cantons shall take part; and at the feasts they shall sit in the order in which they joined the society.

The first members shall sit at the head, and then you will see who they are!" "Yes; then you'll see!" screamed the Finks, and Feklitus raised his voice still more furiously:-- "Well, you won't come anywhere near the first, you St.Gall fellows, not by a long piece!" Just here the door was thrown wide-open by a very elegant waiter, who looked anxiously at the windows, as if he was afraid they had been broken in the fray.

Then he placed himself in the door-way with a very polite air, as if to intimate that he would there await the close of the entertainment.
Oscar found it quite time to lower his voice, and to invite his friends to go with him to the place chosen for the Festival.

The polite spectator waiting at the door seemed to exercise a subduing influence upon all the young patriots; for they became suddenly silent, and followed Oscar readily.