hand. None of these foolish preliminaries for Herman, like
"Lovely weather we're having!" or "What's your favourite flower?"

Eloise was quick-natured, too. She put him out of the kitchen with a coal
shovel, after which Herman told her through a crack of the door that she
was a Lorelei.

Eloise, at first, misunderstood this term entirely, and wasn't much less
insulted when she found it meant one of these German hussies that hang
round creeks for no good purpose. Not that her attitude discouraged
Herman any; he played under her window that night, and also sang a rich
custard sort of tenor in his native tongue, till I had to threaten him
with the bastile to get any sleep myself.

Next day he fetched her regal gifts, consisting of two polished
abalone shells, a picture of the Crown Prince in a brass frame,
and a polished-wood paper knife with Greetings from Reno! on it.

Eloise was now like an enraged goddess or something; and if Herman hadn't
been a quick bender and light on his feet she wouldn't of missed him with
his gifts. As it was, he ducked in time and went out to the spring house
to write a poem on her beauty, which he later read to her in German
through a kitchen window that was raised. The window was screened; so he
read it all. Later he gets Sandy Sawtelle to tell her this poem is all
about how coy she is. Every once in a while you could get an idea partway
over on Herman. He was almost certain Eloise was coy.

By the end of that second day, after Herman threw kisses to her for ten
minutes from on top of the woodshed, where he was safe, she telephoned
her brother to come over here quick, if he had the soul of a man in his
frame, and kill Herman like he would a mad dog.

But Eloise left the next morning, without waiting for anything suitable
to be pulled off by her family. It was because, when she went to bed
that night, she found a letter from Herman pinned to her pillow. It had
a red heart on it, pierced by a dagger that was dropping red drops very
sentimentally; and it said would she not hasten to take her vast beauty
out in the moonlight, to walk with Herman under the quiet trees while
the nightingale warbled and the snee, or sidehill mooney, called to its
lovemate? And here, as they walked, they could plan their beautiful
future together.

This was beyond Eloise even with a full battery of kitchen utensils at
hand. She left before breakfast; and Herman had to come in and wash
dishes.

The next exci