r their feet, cushions to lean on, books and bags laid
commodiously at hand.

As they sailed up the lovely Rhine they grew more and more
enthusiastic in their admiration and curiosity, and finding the meagre
description of the guide-books very unsatisfactory, Amy begged her
uncle to tell her all the legends of picturesque ruin, rock and river,
as they passed.

"Bless me, child, I know nothing; but here's Hoffman, a German born,
who will tell you everything, I dare say. Karl, what's that old castle
up there? The young ladies want to know about it."

Leaning on the railing, Hoffman told the story so well that he was
kept explaining and describing for an hour, and when he went away to
order lunch, Amy declared it was as pleasant as reading fairy tales to
listen to his dramatic histories and legends.

At lunch the major was charmed to find his favorite wines and dishes
without any need of consulting dictionary or phrase-book beforehand,
or losing his temper in vain attempts to make himself understood.

On reaching Biebrich, tired and hungry, at nightfall, everything was
ready for them, and all went to bed praising Karl, the courier, though
Amy, with unusual prudence, added,--

"He is a new broom now; let us wait a little before we judge."

All went well next day till nightfall, when a most untoward accident
occurred, and Helen's adventures began in earnest. The three occupied
a _coupe_, and being weary with long sitting, Helen got out at one of
the stations where the train paused for ten minutes. A rosy sunset
tempted her to the end of the platform, and there she found, what
nearly all foreign railway stations possess, a charming little garden.

Amy was very tired, rather cross, and passionately fond of flowers, so
when an old woman offered to pull a nosegay for "the gracious lady,"
Helen gladly waited for it, hoping to please the invalid. Twice the
whistle warned her, and at last she ran back, but only in time to see
the train move away, with her uncle gesticulating wildly to the guard,
who shook his stupid German head, and refused to see the dismayed
young lady imploring him to wait for her.

Just as the train was vanishing from the station, a man leaped from
a second-class carriage at the risk of his neck, and hurried back to
find Helen looking pale and bewildered, as well she might, left alone
and moneyless at night in a strange town.

"Mademoiselle, it is I; rest easy; we can soon go on; a train passes
in t