They drifted over a little
garden gate, and there in a neat little garden the phantom halted like
a wind that has suddenly ceased. ``Look,'' it said.
Should he look? Yet he must look. The Kaiser looked; and saw a window
shining and a neat room in the cottage: there was nothing dreadful
there; thank the good German God for that; it was all right, after
all. The Kaiser had had a fright, but it was all right; there was only
a woman with a baby sitting before the fire, and two small children
and a man. And it was quite a jolly room. And the man was a young
soldier; and, why, he was a Prussian Guardsman, -- there was his
helmet hanging on the wall, -- so everything was all right. They were
jolly German children; that was well. How nice and homely the room
was. There shone before him, and showed far off in the night, the
visible reward of German thrift and industry. It was all so tidy and
neat, and yet they were quite poor people. The man had done his work
for the Fatherland, and yet beyond all that had been able to afford
all those little knickknacks that make a home so pleasant and that in
their humble little way were luxury.
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