Turning to his children, he said: "God gives and He also takes away. He
may restore all things unto us when His wise purposes have been
fulfilled. You can see that this is true, when you review the lives of
your grandparents and great-grandparents, whose pictures in the golden
frames grace this room so beautifully.

"Your great-grandfather, Lucas Vollmar, was the richest man in the city.
All that we once had and now have would not have equalled his fortune by
one quarter. Owing to the 'Thirty Years' War,' he lost all. He was
obliged to flee from the enemy. His wife did not survive the journey.
Their only son, my father, was then but a tender youth, and suffered
much during those troublous times.

"Soon this city was invaded by the enemy and plundered. Many bombs were
fired into it and homes were reduced to ashes. Into this very house,
which belonged to him, fell a great cannon ball which did much damage
but did not set it on fire. All the families, too, suffered the greatest
misery. Hunger and pestilence carried off many of them.

"Your worthy great-grandfather sought refuge in strange lands and
suffered many hardships. He had taken as much money with him as he could
carry, but on the way he was robbed. He earned his livelihood in various
ways, and soon put his son out as an apprentice. When the lad was
fourteen years old, he was called upon to face another hardship in the
loss of his father, who died in misery and poverty, although he had once
been the richest man in this city.

"This son, my father, now alone in the world, continued as an apprentice
and made progress in his trade. At last, when the war was over and peace
had been restored, he returned to this city, poor in the world's goods,