[Fritz and Eric by John Conroy Hutcheson]@TWC D-Link book
Fritz and Eric

CHAPTER FIVE
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CHAPTER FIVE.
BAD NEWS.
If it had seemed dull and lonely in the little household of the Gulden Strasse at Lubeck after Eric had gone to sea, how much more so was it not to the two sad women left alone to console each other when Fritz, also, had departed from home! For days, Madame Dort appeared borne down by a weight of woe, and even Lorischen lost that customary cheeriness with which she usually performed her daily duties in her endeavours to console her mistress.
Mouser, too, went miaow-wowing about the house at nights, as if he likewise shared in the family despondency--not once being caught in the act of stealing the breakfast cream, a predilection for which had hitherto been an abnormal failing on his part.

So changed, indeed, became the old cat that he did not possess spirit enough to put up his tail and "phit" and "fiz" at Burgher Jans' terrier, when that predatory animal made an occasional excursion into the parlour at meal times, to see what he could pick up, either on the sly or in that sneaking, fawning fashion which a well-trained dog would have despised.

This continued almost to the end of the month; but then came a bright little bit of intelligence to gladden their hearts.

It was like a gleam of sunshine breaking through the dark cloud of gloom that hung over them.
Fritz wrote home from Coblentz, close to the frontier, telling how comfortable he was, and how every one in the army of the Fatherland was confident as to the result of the campaign.

In a few weeks at the outside, they thought--everything was so carefully planned and every contingency provided against--the French army of invasion would have been dispersed to the four winds of heaven and the war be over; and, then, the Landwehr, at all events, would be enabled to return home to their several states and resume those peaceful employments which their mobilisation had interrupted.


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