In consequence of this "a walk in the fresh air" always suggested to his
mind, damp clothes, wet feet, ruined shoes, a cold in the head, and an
attack of indigestion--the result of his sister's greasy cooking. His
wife, too, preferred the inside of the city walls, "where" as she was so
fond of saying, "you know where you are."
Thus even in summer Herr Schimmel was always on hand to help the doctor,
nor had he cause to complain of being over worked, for the master seemed
as fond of a walk in the open air as the assistant was averse to one, and
when May came and the fruit trees were in blossom, when the delicate
green leaves of the beeches burst from the bud, and the oaks shed their
dry brown foliage in order to deck themselves out in young green, and the
dandelions embroidered the fields with gold and then sprinkled them over
with silver tissue, when the cowslips and daisies and violets and their
spring companions in purple and yellow appeared, and the larches on the
banks of the Pleisse turned green, when the nightingale sang and rejoiced
in the woods, then Doctor Melchior Ueberhell rarely spent a sunny
afternoon at home.
With his beautiful young wife on his arm he wandered through the lovely
Laubwald--that precious possession of the city--and though he had often
said while in Italy, where it is dryer and the foliage sparser than in
Germany, that there was nothing so beautiful as the abounding brooks and
the dense greenery of his native forests, it gave him sincere joy, that
spring, to have his opinion confirmed and to see that his dearly loved
wife cared as much for the German woods as he did.
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