peace has held so long that the roads stand open like my door; and a
man will make no more of the frontier than the very birds
themselves.'

'Ay,' said Otto, 'it has been a long peace - a peace of centuries.'

'Centuries, as you say,' returned Killian; 'the more the pity that
it should not be for ever. Well, sir, this Kuno was one day in
fault, and Otto, who has a quick temper, up with his whip and
thrashed him, they do say, soundly. Kuno took it as best he could,
but at last he broke out, and dared the Prince to throw his whip
away and wrestle like a man; for we are all great at wrestling in
these parts, and it's so that we generally settle our disputes.
Well, sir, the Prince did so; and, being a weakly creature, found
the tables turned; for the man whom he had just been thrashing like
a negro slave, lifted him with a back grip and threw him heels
overhead.'

'He broke his bridle-arm,' cried Fritz - 'and some say his nose.
Serve him right, say I! Man to man, which is the better at that?'

'And then?' asked Otto.

'O, then Kuno carried him home; and they were the best of friends
from that day forth. I don't say it's a discreditable story, you
observe,' continued Mr. Gottesheim; 'but it's droll, and that's the
fact. A man should think before he strikes; for, as my nephew says,
man to man was the old valuation.'

'Now, if you were to ask me,' said Otto, 'I should perhaps surprise