going to introduce books like these.  Cousin Ferdinand is getting very full of American ideas and he says that what you want to know about a man is not his line of descent but his line of credit.  And he says that the whole King business in Europe has been mismanaged.  He says that there should have been millions in it.  I forgot to say in my diary sooner that Cousin Ferdinand’s two friends, Mr. Mosenhammer and Mr. Sheehan, took him into their clothing business at once as a sort of partner.  The reason was that they found that he could wear clothes; the effect on the customers when they see Cousin Ferdinand walking up and down in front of the store is wonderful.  Of course all kings can wear clothes and in the old days in the Potsdam palace we thought nothing of it.  But Cousin Ferdinand says that the kings should have known enough to stop trying to be soldiers and to put themselves at the head of the export clothing trade.  He wishes, he says, that he had some of his Bulgarian generals here now in their blue coats trimmed with black fur; he says that with a little alteration, which he showed us how to do, he could have sent them out “on the road,” wherever that is, and have made the biggest boom in gentlemen’s winter fur trimmings that the trade ever saw.

Cousin Ferdinand, when he comes over in the evenings now, is always beautifully dressed and I can notice that Mrs. O’Halloran, the landlady, is much impressed with him.  I am glad of this because we have not yet been able to pay her any money and I was afraid she might say something about it.  But what is stranger is that now that Cousin Ferdinand has good clothes, Uncle William and Uncle Henry seem much impressed too.  Uncle Henry looks so plain and common in his sailor’s jersey, and Uncle William in his old frock coat looks faded and shabby and his face always vacant and wondering.  So now when Cousin Ferdinand comes in they stand up and get a chair for him and listen to his advice on everything.

So, as I said, Cousin Ferdinand looked up the salary of the President of Harvard in a book and he was strongly against Uncle William’s taking the position.  But Uncle William says this kind of position is the nearest thing in this country to what he had in Germany.  He thinks that he could do for Harvard what he did for Germany.  He has written out on a big sheet of paper all the things that he calls the Chief Needs of America, because he is always busy like this and never still.  I forget the whole list, especially as he changes it every day according to the way that people treat Uncle William on the street, but the things that he always puts first are Culture, Religion, and Light.  These he says he can supply, and he thought that the presidency of Harvard would be the best place to do it from.  In the end he accepted the position against Cousin Ferdinand’s advice, or at least I mean he said that he would be willing to take it and he told Uncle Henry to pack up all his degrees and diplomas and to send them to Harvard and say that he was coming.