counsels,
have much aided in raising Prussia and Germany to their present
height in Europe.

[Illustration: KING WILLIAM'S HELMET.]

Beneath his commanding and rugged exterior there beats a very kindly
heart. Many incidents have been related to show the simple
good-nature of his character. In his study, on the table at which he
writes, there has long remained a rusty old cavalry helmet, the
relic of some military association of the emperor.

Whenever the death-warrant of a condemned criminal is brought to him
to sign, the emperor looks at it, and then slyly slips the fatal
document under the helmet. Sometimes his ministers, anxious that the
warrants should be signed, take occasion, in his absence from the
study, to pull the papers out from beneath the helmet, just enough
to catch their master's eye.

Most often, however William, on perceiving them, quietly pushes them
back again, without a word. So great is his repugnance to dooming
even a hardened criminal to death, by a mere scratch of his pen.

At eighty-six, the stalwart old kaiser cannot hope to dwell much
longer among his people; but it will be very long before his fine
qualities, soldierly courage, and affectionate nature will grow dim
in the memory of the fatherland.

The stories related at this meeting were largely from Grimm and
Fouque, and are to be found in American books.

The most pleasing of the stories, told by Herman Reed, is not so well
known, and we give it here.

SNEEZE WITH DELIGHT.

Many, many years ago there lived in an old German town a good
cobbler and his wife. They had one child, Jamie, a handsome boy of
some eight years. They were poor people; and the good wife, to help
her husband, had a stall in the great market, where she sold fruit
and herbs.

One day the cobbler's wife was at the market as usual, and her
little boy was with her, when a strange old woman entered the
stalls.

The woman hardly seemed human. She had red eyes, a wizened,
pinched-up face, and her nose was sharp and hooked, and almost
reached to her chin. Her dress was made up of rags and tatters.
Never before had there entered the market such a repulsive-looking
person.

"Are you Hannah the herb-woman?" she asked, bobbing her head to and
fro. "Eh?"

"Yes."

"Let me see, let me see; you may have some herbs I want."

She thrust her skinny hands into the herbs, took them up