CHAPTER VII.
George wonders--German love of order--"The Band of the Schwarzwald Blackbirds will perform at seven"-- The china dog--Its superiority over all other dogs--The German and the solar system--A tidy country--The mountain valley as it ought to be, according to the German idea--How the waters come down in Germany--The scandal of Dresden--Harris gives an entertainment--It is unappreciated--George and the aunt of him--George, a cushion, and three damsels.
At a point between Berlin and Dresden, George, who had, for the last quarter of an hour or so, been looking very attentively out of the window, said: "Why, in Germany, is it the custom to put the letter-box up a tree?
Why do they not fix it to the front door as we do?
I should hate having to climb up a tree to get my letters.

Besides, it is not fair to the postman.

In addition to being most exhausting, the delivery of letters must to a heavy man, on windy nights, be positively dangerous work.

If they will fix it to a tree, why not fix it lower down, why always among the topmost branches?
But, maybe, I am misjudging the country," he continued, a new idea occurring to him.

"Possibly the Germans, who are in many matters ahead of us, have perfected a pigeon post.