“If you don’t come till that log is done, I’ll have Widow Brown’s pig-pen in apple pie order,” cried Jack, in high good humor.
ONLY A LITTLE MÄDCHEN.
GRETCHEN VAN CORTLANDT was a little German mädchen, as you see by her name, and she lived in the great city of Berlin. She and her mother occupied two rooms in a tenement house on “Steinstrasse,” as her father had died when she was very young. Gretchen had very few play-things, and spent much of the time in helping her mother earn what little money she could.
One Sunday Gretchen went out for a walk, and while going along the crowded street, reached a large brick building, from which came the sound of singing. Above the door there was a sign which she spelled out, and found to be, “Wilkommen!” As that meant “Welcome!” to a little German girl, Gretchen hesitated, and finally pushed open the door, and walked in. It was a large room, with seats full of people, many of whom were poorly and even raggedly dressed. At one end was a desk, and behind it stood a man who was reading something out of a big book.