on of Stralsund when she had cleared
it, and coughed, and called out rather shyly, "Oh, _Kutscher!
Kutscher!_"

Then she remembered that oh was not German, and that Uncle Joachim had
used sonorous achs in its place, and she began again, "_Ach, Kutscher!
Kutscher!_"

Letty giggled. "Go it, Aunt Anna," she said encouragingly, "dig him in
the ribs with your umbrella--or I will, if you like."

Her mother, with her handkerchief to her nose, exhorted her not to be
vulgar. Letty explained at some length that she was only being nice, and
offering assistance.

"I really shall have to poke him," said Anna, her faint cries of
_Kutscher_ quite lost in the rattling of the carriage and the howling of
the wind. "Or perhaps you would touch his arm, Miss Leech."

Miss Leech turned, and very gingerly touched his sleeve. He at once
whistled to his horses, who stopped dead, snatched off his cap, and
looking down at Anna inquired her commands.

It was done so quickly that Anna, whose conversational German was
exceedingly rusty, was quite unable to remember the word for fish, and
sat looking up at him helplessly, while she vainly searched her brains.

"What _is_ fish in German?" she said, appealing to Susie, distressed
that the man should be waiting capless in the rain.

"Letty, what's the word for fish?" inquired Susie sternly.

"Fish?" repeated Letty, looking stupid.

"Fish?" echoed Miss Leech, trying to help.

"_Fisch?_" said the coachman himself, catching at the word.

"Oh, yes; how utterly silly I am," cried Anna blushing and showing her
dimples, "it's _Fisch_, of course. _Kutscher, wo ist Fisch?_"

The man looked blank; then his face brightened, and pointing with his
whip to the rolling sea on their right, visible across the flat
intervening fields, he said that there was much fish in it, especially
herrings.

"What does he say?" asked Susie from behind her handkerchief.

"He says there are herrings in the sea."

"Is the man a fool?"

Letty laughed uproariously. The coachman, seeing Letty and Anna laugh,
thought he must have said the right thing after all, and looked very
pleasant.

"_Aber im Wagen_," persisted Anna, "_wo ist Fisch im Wagen?_"

The coachman stared. Then he said vaguely, in a soothing voice, not in
the least knowing what she meant, "_Nein, nein, gnaediges Fraeulein_," and
evidently hoped she would be satisfied.

"_Aber es riecht, es riecht!_" cried Anna, not satisfied at all, and
lifting up her