IV.

Norderney, 9th Sept., 1844.

DARLING LITTLE ONE,—A fortnight ago I intended to write to you, without being able, amidst the throng of business and pleasure, to do so. If you are curious to know the nature of the business, I am really unable, with the sparseness of my time and paper, to give you a complete picture, as its series and nature, according to the change of ebb and flood, every day produces the most manifold variety. Bathing, for instance, only takes place at flood tide, the waves being then strongest; this happens between six in the morning and six in the evening, every day one hour later, and is enjoyed with the advantages of a breezy, rainy, summer morning, sometimes in God’s beautiful nature with the glorious impressions of land and water, sometimes in my landlord’s _Mousse Omne Fimmen_ bed, five feet long, with the delightful ideas inspired by a seaweed mattress. In the same way, the _table d’hôte_ changes its times between one and five o’clock, its component parts varying between shell-fish, beans, and mutton on the odd days, and soles, peas, and veal on the even days of the month, in which case sweet porridge with fruit sauce accompanies the former, and currant pudding the latter. That the eye may not envy the palate, a lady from Denmark sits beside me, whose appearance fills me with sorrow and longings for home, for she reminds me of the pepper at Kniephof, when it is very thin. Her mind must be heavenly, or Fate was very much unjust to her, for she offers me, in a sweet voice, two helpings from every dish before her. Opposite sits the old minister ——, one of those beings we only behold in dreams, when we are somnolently ill; a fat frog without legs, who opens his mouth before every morsel like a carpet-bag, right up to his shoulders, so that I am obliged to hold on to the table for giddiness. My other neighbor is a Russian officer; a good fellow, built like a bootjack, with a long slender body, and short crooked legs. Most of the people have left, and our dinner company has melted from two or three hundred down to twelve or fifteen. My holiday at the baths is now over, and I shall leave by the next steamboat, expected the day after to-morrow (the 11th) for Heligoland, and then by Hamburg to Schönhausen. I can not, however, fix the day of my arrival, because it is uncertain that the steamer will arrive the day after to-morrow; the notices say so, but they often retard the later passages if there are not sufficient passengers to bear the expense. The Bremen steamships have long since stopped, and I do not like travelling by land, the roads being so bad that it is only possible to reach Hanover by the third day, and the post-coaches are abominable. If, therefore, the steamer does not come the day after to-morrow, I propose to go by sailing vessel to Heligoland; thence there is a twice-a-week boat to Hamburg, but I do not know on what days. Father wrote me word that you would go to Berlin on the 15th; if I therefore find, on reaching Hamburg, that I can not reach you per steamer by the 15th, I shall try and get the Potsdam boat, and go direct to Berlin, to talk about art and industrial matters with you. If you receive this letter in time, which, considering the slowness of the post here, I scarcely think you will, you might send me a couple of lines to Hamburg—Old Stadt London Hotel—to say whether father has changed his travelling plans. The bathing here pleases me, and I should not mind stopping a few days longer. The shore is splendid—very flat, even, soft sand, without any stones, and a surf such as I have neither seen in the Baltic nor at Dieppe. Even when I am only knee-high in the water, a wave comes as high as a house (but the houses here are not so high as the palace at Berlin), turns me over ten times, and throws me on the sand some twenty paces off—a simple amusement which I daily enjoy, _con amore_, as long as the medical men advise. I have made great friends with the lake; every day I sail for some hours, fish, and shoot at seals. I only killed one of the last; such a gentle dog’s face, with large, handsome eyes; I was really sorry. A fortnight ago we had heavy storms; some twenty ships, of all nations, came ashore here, and for several days the shore was covered with innumerable fragments of wreck, utensils, goods in casks, bodies, clothes, and papers. I have, myself, had some sample of what a storm is. With a piscatorial friend, Tonke Hams, I had sailed in four hours to the island of Wangeroge; on our return we were tossed about for twenty-four hours in the little boat, and in the first hour had not a dry thread on us, although I lay in an apology for a cabin; fortunately, we were well provided with ham and port wine, or the voyage would have been very distressing. Hearty greetings to father, and thanks for his letter; the same to Antonie and Arnim. Farewell, my treasure, my heart. Your loving brother,

BISMARCK.

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