IN THE YEAR 13

In presenting to the public this, the first English translation of one of Reuter's works, it may not be superfluous to say a few words concerning their author. Though his name is unknown in England , in Germany he is one of the most popular authors of the day. His stories and poems are written in Platt-deutsch, and are read wherever that dialect is spoken that is to say throughout Northern, or Lower, Germany, — extending from Memel in the extreme North East to Aix-la-Chapelle in the South West, — and even the Germans of the more southern and higher-lying States, where Platt-deutsch is unknown, now frequently learn it for the sole purpose of reading Reuter's works.

The following story, called in the original “Ut de Franzosentid”, was published in 1860, and rapidly passed through several editions. It is one of a series to which Reuter has given the name of “Olle Kamellen” literally “old camomile-flowers”, by which he means “old tales, old recollections, useful as homely remedies.” It is one of the most popular of his works, and perhaps also the most translateable. Hence the reason for bringing it first before the English public...