ibbons.

Everything about the two little rooms was marvelously clean and neat.
There was a big round globe lamp on a black oak table, ornamented with
the quaint carvings of the Fatherland, on the standard. Nearby was a
capacious rocking chair where the good frau had been sitting, and her
knitting was on the table. On a cushion in front of the chair was a huge
gray striped cat, comfortably curled and sound asleep. Jim who loved
all animals could not resist stroking it and then gave its ears a twitch
which made his catship raise his big head and open his mouth in that
silent feline protest, which is so amusing.

"Ah, the Kaiser Fritz is a very spoiled cat. Is it not so liebchen?" and
she lifted him bodily from his comfortable cushion. But the Kaiser was
decidedly peeved by all this attention and showed it very plainly.

"Ach! you are a tiger! a French tiger! you deserve not the good name of
Fritz!" and with a temper as quick as her kindness, she threw him into
the chair.

"The Kaiser Fritz is a fine animal, Frau Scheff," said Jim pleasantly;
"I should like to own him."

"He eats as much as two kinder," said the frau with a sigh, "and he is
not so grateful. Now you two gentlemen make yourselves welcome. Here are
plenty towels."

Jim and the engineer thanked her, the former briefly, the latter with a
pleasing grace that he could use when he so wished. But it was to be
noted that while she surveyed John Berwick with a careful and
noncommittal eye, she regarded Jim with a simple kindness that fairly
beamed, which is not insinuating that the chief engineer of the _Sea
Eagle_ was a rascal but that he did not have the straightforward
sincerity characteristic of Jim.

There were indeed towels enough hanging on the rack by the washstand,
which with its drapings of white and blue was so dainty, that Jim
regarded it as much too fine for mere washing.

"Look at this blue and white china washbowl and pitcher, Jim," remarked
Berwick in a casual tone. "It is really beautiful. It is made in a town,
in southern Germany, where I once spent a couple of months."

"Seems to me you have been everywhere on this created earth, John, and
say," continued Jim, "see that mountain of a feather bed covered with
the snow of the coverlet. You know that they make those in southern
France where once I spent some months." The chief engineer grinned.

CHAPTER XVII

THE GOOD FRAU

After a thorough wash, the two compatriots felt very mu