an of grave wonder at the foreign accent and strange ways of
this new figure obtruded upon her limited horizon. She answers honestly,
frankly, prettily, but gravely. There is a remote possibility that I
might bite; and, with this suspicion plainly indicated in her round
blue eyes, she quietly slips her little red hand from mine, and moves
solemnly away. I remember once to have stopped in the street with a fair
countrywoman of mine to interrogate a little figure in sabots,--the
one quaint object in the long, formal perspective of narrow, gray
bastard-Italian facaded houses of a Rhenish German Strasse. The sweet
little figure wore a dark-blue woollen petticoat that came to its knees;
gray woollen stockings covered the shapely little limbs below; and
its very blonde hair, the color of a bright dandelion, was tied in a
pathetic little knot at the back of its round head, and garnished with
an absurd green ribbon. Now, although this gentlewoman's sympathies were
catholic and universal, unfortunately their expression was limited to
her own mother-tongue. She could not help pouring out upon the child the
maternal love that was in her own womanly breast, nor could she withhold
the "baby-talk" through which it was expressed. But, alas! it was in
English. Hence ensued a colloquy, tender and extravagant on the part of
the elder, grave and wondering on the part of the child. But the lady
had a natural feminine desire for reciprocity, particularly in the
presence of our emotion-scorning sex, and as a last resource she emptied
the small silver of her purse into the lap of the coy maiden. It was
a declaration of love, susceptible of translation at the nearest
cake-shop. But the little maid, whose dress and manner certainly did not
betray an habitual disregard of gifts of this kind, looked at the coin
thoughtfully, but not regretfully. Some innate sense of duty, equally
strong with that of being polite to strangers, filled her consciousness.
With the utterly unexpected remark that her father 'did not allow her
to take money', the queer little figure moved away, leaving the two
Americans covered with mortification. The rare American child who could
have done this would have done it with an attitude. This little German
bourgeoise did it naturally. I do not intend to rush to the deduction
that German children of the lower classes habitually refuse pecuniary
gratuities: indeed, I remember to have wickedly suggested to my
companion, that, to a