r final 'r'," went
on the accuser.

Hannah laughed. "You can't hear an 'r' unless it's rolled over the
tongue like macaroni, Karl Von Arndtheim! Just wait till you hear the
western girls talk, and you'll be satisfied. Look! Look! It's as much as
an inch nearer. Give me the glasses again. I do believe that's Frieda.
No, not the red one, but the blue one with the veil floating. Can you
see?"

Karl pushed his way through the crowd, drawing Hannah safely along into
a little open space at one side. Stationing himself against a pile of
boxes, he helped her climb to the top and support herself by clinging to
his shoulder.

"There, child, you can sit and watch, and she'll see you better than if
you were mixed up in the crowd. Put up that sunshade and wave it. She
will think you are a great blue bird ready to fly out and meet her."

"I wish I were a gull. I'd fly right to her dear shoulder and peck her
cheek. But are you sure I'm not too heavy, Karl? This thing is wobbly
and I lean on you awfully for such a fat lady as I am."

"I can endure it! I say, Hannah, now she is so nearly here, I'm
beginning to get excited myself. _Die niedliche Kleine!_ It doesn't
seem two years ago that you youngsters used to send cakes and things
down to my window from yours. You were a pair of ministering angels."

"Wasn't it fun? Poor Karl! I did pity you so, cooped up in the house
that way. And you played the violin like an angel yourself, like a
grieving one."

"Well, we've all given up the angel hypothesis by this time, though it
was useful in getting us interested in each other. There! This time I
see her, not in red nor in blue, but in brown. See! She is jumping up
and down and waving to us."

The moments that followed while the great vessel swung heavily into
place alongside the pier, and the ropes were made fast, and the
gangplank was flung across, seemed interminable to impatient Hannah.
Frieda was almost the first to land, and as she stepped on shore, she
found herself lifted in a mighty hug, which she returned with all the
strength of two muscular arms, gasping little cries of "_Ach, meine
Hannah!_" as she did so.

When the embracing stopped for a moment, Karl stepped forward, hat in
hand, to greet Frieda in his turn. She seized his hand and wrung it,
repeating: "_Ach_, my heart could burst for gladness. My dears! My
dears! But where is Miss Lyndesay?"

"Miss Lyndesay?" cried Hannah, looking wildly about. "Not my Miss
Lyndesa