Preparations for a party--The assignment of rÙles--The conflict between wishing and being--Some tricks of fancy--The two sawmills--Amalia and the ducks 34
Poetry and wigs--The vexation and despair of the latter 42
A tea-evening, and how it began--Some gaps in the author's knowledge--Stoffel's zoˆlogical joke--The cause of the last Punic war--And the advantage of smoking 48
Echoes of the last Punic war--The defeat of Hannibal (Laps) by Scipio (Pennewip) 61
Causes of the tedious peace in Europe, showing the value of a "tea-evening" as a study--Specimens of school-verse concluded--Suitable for society poets and clever children 68
Report on the condition of the leading characters after the catastrophe--Walter again: a character-study 75
Leentje as a comforter and questioner--Prince Walter and his dominions 80
Convincing proofs of Walter's improvement--His first invitation--A study in love--Paradise and Peri 87
Great changes in the Pieterse family--Walter becomes poet-laureate at the court of Juffrouw Laps--The mountains of Asia--The bridge, Glorioso, and love--again 102
Walter's dream--A swell coachman--Juffrouw Laps's difficulties 117
Femke hunts for Walter, and finds him under peculiar circumstances--Her adventures by the way 125
The widower's birthday--Klaasje's poem, and how a surprise may involve further surprises 132
Walter's recovery--The doctor's pictures--Amsterdam dramaturgy 138
Pastors, sermons, and Juffrouw Laps--Chocolate, timidity, and love--The fire that didn't break out--Some details of religious belief 150
Our hero calls on the doctor--Some strange happenings--How Walter delivered his present 161
Ophelia reaches her destination, and Femke becomes a queen--Walter's first experience "proposing"--Choosing a profession 170
Walter enters the real world--The firm Motto, Business & Co.--The technique of the novel--And the snuff of the Romans 180
How one may become a "prodigal" by studying the story of the Prodigal Son 194
Why Walter did not see Femke--The worldliness of a servant of the church--The secret of Father Jansen's deafness in his left ear 201
Kings and doughnuts--How the masses soar and fall--Walter's cowardice and remorse of conscience--A good remedy for the blues 211