“Mamma!” said Amelia.
“Ja!” said Hans, in his surprise returning to the use of his native tongue.
“She looks very neat and nice, Amelia,” said Mrs. Ellsworth.
So it happened that our heroine Gretchen was confronted by a dignified-looking personage of her race, who informed her that a Frau from America desired her presence in the balcony across the street. Gretchen was frightened, and vaguely wondered if she had in any way committed treason against the United States Government, but her trembling limbs carried her to the Frau Krant’s balcony, where Mrs. Ellsworth questioned her, through her interpreter.
The story all came out, in German and in English, how Gretchen had given up her place because of the King and his Son, whom she wanted to please. Said she, “I am only a little mädchen, but I thought He might know.”
By this time there came the sound of drum and fife and martial footsteps, from around the corner, and the eyes of all on Steinstrasse were turned toward the place whence the sound proceeded. Mrs. Ellsworth desired Hans to tell the little girl she could stay where she was until the procession passed, thus relieving her fears that she was to be arrested for treason, and she, in turn, committed her overwhelming thanks to the good Frau for a good place to stand.
That isn’t the end, though I am almost through. Gretchen says she would have been satisfied without a place on the balcony, or anything else, if she could have known that she pleased the King and his Son by not pleasing herself, but that didn’t hinder her being very thankful that she could see the Emperor and his troops, and Mrs. Ellsworth made up her mind that she wanted a nice little German girl to take home to America, and educate and help in various ways, in return for her services, and a nice German woman who could do her washing, and live with her, too.
So the week after the procession found the Frau Van Cortlandt and her daughter bidding the Herr Van Breyck good-by, as they boarded the steamer bound for America, at the Hamburg wharves.
Gretchen and her mother are still living with the Ellsworths, and though they are sometimes a little homesick for the “Fatherland,” they are enjoying their home in America very much.
The week after they reached home they ate the Thanksgiving dinner, with a huge turkey and its regular belongings, and though they had never been used to the day at home, Gretchen and her mother were as thankful, they thought, as anyone could have been. And the way to be happy and thankful as they would tell you, is to try to make others so. “And it all came about,” said Mrs. Ellsworth, “because of that kind and unselfish act of yours, Gretchen.”