gure, with open surprise,
and smiled as his eye glanced at his daughter. If asked why I made this
silly display of lower-form learning, I can only say that I chafed at
being fancied a mere every-day street musician, that had left his monkey
at home, by the charming girl who stood gracefully bending over her
father's elbow, as the latter examined the inscription that was stamped
on a small piece of ivory which had been let into the instrument. I
could see that Mary shrunk back a little under the sensitive feeling, so
natural to her sex, that she was manifesting too much freedom of manner
for the presence of a youth who was nearer to her own class than she
could have supposed it possible for a player on the hurdy-gurdy to be. A
blush succeeded; but the glance of the soft blue eye that instantly
followed, seemed to set all at rest, and she leaned over her father's
elbow again.

"You understand Latin, then?" demanded the parent, examining me over his
spectacles from head to foot.

"A leetle, sir--just a ferry leetle. In my coontry, efery mans isht
obliget to be a soldier some time, and them t'at knows Latin can be made
sergeants and corporals."

"That is Prussia, is it?"

"Ya--Preussen, vere so late did reign de goot Koenig Wilhelm."

"And is Latin much understood among you? I have heard that, in Hungary,
most well-informed persons even speak the tongue."

"In Charmany it isht not so. We all l'arnts somet'ing, but not all dost
l'arn efery t'ing."

I could see a smile struggling around the sweet lips of that dear girl,
after I had thus delivered myself, as I fancied, with a most accurate
inaccuracy; but she succeeded in repressing it, though those provoking
eyes of hers continued to laugh, much of the time our interview lasted.

"Oh! I very well know that in Prussia the schools are quite good, and
that your government pays great attention to the wants of all classes,"
rejoined the clergyman; "but I confess some surprise that _you_ should
understand anything of Latin. Now, even in this country, where we boast
so much----"

"Ye-e-s," I could not refrain from drawling out, "dey does poast a great
teal in dis coontry!"

Mary actually laughed; whether it was at my words, or at the somewhat
comical manner I had assumed--a manner in which simplicity was _tant
soit peu_ blended with irony--I shall not pretend to say. As for the
father, his simplicity was of proof; and, after civilly waiting until my
interruption was don