could read best
when he got up at six o'clock.

"Well, well," said the captain, "do you call this going early to bed? I
assure you I always turn in at nine o'clock."

Vexation on vexation! Hans said good-night hastily, and rushed
down-stairs.

The captain accompanied him to the landing, candle in hand, and called
after him cordially, "Good-night--happy to see you again."

"Thanks!" shouted Hans from below; but he vowed in his inmost soul
that he would never set foot in that house again.----When the old man
returned to the parlor, he found his daughter busy opening the windows.

"What are you doing that for?" asked the captain.

"I'm airing the room after him," answered Miss Betty.

"Come, come, Betty, you are really too hard upon him. But I must admit
that the young gentleman did not improve upon closer acquaintance. I
don't understand young people nowadays."

Thereupon the captain retired to his bedroom, after giving his daughter
the usual evening exhortation, "Now don't sit up too long."

When she was left alone, Miss Betty put out the lamp, moved the flowers
away from the corner window, and seated herself on the window-sill with
her feet upon a chair.

On clear moonlight evenings she could descry a little strip of the fiord
between two high houses. It was not much; but it was a glimpse of the
great highway that leads to the south, and to foreign lands.

And her desires and longings flew away, following the same course which
has wearied the wings of so many a longing--down the narrow fiord to
the south, where the horizon is wide, where the heart expands, and the
thoughts grow great and daring.

And Miss Betty sighed as she gazed at the little strip of the fiord
which she could see between the two high houses.--She gave no thought,
as she sat there, to Cousin Hans; but he thought of Miss Schrappe as he
passed with hasty steps up the street.

Never had he met a young lady who was less to his taste. The fact that
he had been rude to her did not make him like her better. We are not
inclined to find those people amiable who have been the occasion of
misbehavior on our own part. It was a sort of comfort to him to repeat
to himself, "Who would want to marry her?"

Then his thoughts wandered to the charmer who was to leave town
to-morrow. He realized his fate in all its bitterness, and he felt a
great longing to pour forth the sorrow of his soul to a friend who could
understand him.

But it was not easy to