Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX [My Precious, Priceless Tear-Jug]

Next morning brought good news--our trunks had arrived from Hamburg
at last. Let this be a warning to the reader. The Germans are very
conscientious, and this trait makes them very particular. Therefore if
you tell a German you want a thing done immediately, he takes you
at your word; he thinks you mean what you say; so he does that thing
immediately--according to his idea of immediately--which is about a
week; that is, it is a week if it refers to the building of a garment,
or it is an hour and a half if it refers to the cooking of a trout. Very
well; if you tell a German to send your trunk to you by "slow freight,"
he takes you at your word; he sends it by "slow freight," and you
cannot imagine how long you will go on enlarging your admiration of the
expressiveness of that phrase in the German tongue, before you get that
trunk. The hair on my trunk was soft and thick and youthful, when I
got it ready for shipment in Hamburg; it was baldheaded when it reached
Heidelberg. However, it was still sound, that was a comfort, it was
not battered in the least; the baggagemen seemed to be conscientiously
careful, in Germany, of the baggage entrusted to their hands. There
was nothing now in the way of our departure, therefore we set about our
preparations.

Naturally my chief solicitude was about my collection of Ceramics. Of
course I could not take it with me, that would be inconvenient, and
dangerous besides. I took advice, but the best brick-a-brackers were
divided as to the wisest course to pursue; some said pack the collection
and warehouse it; others said try to get it into the Grand Ducal Museum
at Mannheim for safe keeping. So I divided the collection, and followed
the advice of both parties. I set aside, for the Museum, those articles
which were the most frail and precious.

Among these was my Etruscan tear-jug. I have made a little sketch of it
here; [Figure 6] that thing creeping up the side is not a bug, it is a
hole. I bought this tear-jug of a dealer in antiquities for four hundred
and fifty dollars. It is very rare. The man said the Etruscans used to
keep tears or something in these things, and that it was very hard to
get hold of a broken one, now. I also set aside my Henri II. plate. See
sketch from my pencil; [Figure 7] it is in the main correct, though I
think I have foreshortened one end of it a little too much, perhaps.
This is very fine and rare; the shape is exceedingly beautiful and
unusual. It has wonderful decorations on it, but I am not able to
reproduce them. It cost more than the tear-jug, as the dealer said there
was not another plate just like it in the world. He said there was much
false Henri II ware around,