Frau Berger's Story

 "YOU look very happy this afternoon, Frau Berger!"

"Why not?" she  answered. "My man is coming, you know."

Frau Berger was a typical old German lady, very "thick" as to proportions and very rosy as to complexion. Her hair, which had evidently been blond, was now perfectly white, and the knitting In her fat little hands was the brightest of scarlet stockings.

We were sitting on the piazza awaitIng the arrival of the stagecoach.

Her blue eyes sparkled so pleasantly behind her eyeglasses that I involuntarlly drew my rocking chair nearer.

"How pretty she must have been as a girl!" I thought.

Perhaps she read my thoughts or something in my expression suggested confidence, for she presently smoothed out her knitting meditatively.

"Ach, ja! I have been in America 40 years, and I have also been married 40 years, fraulein."

'How did you happen to come?" I inquired eagerly, and with the funniest little accent she began:

"I tell you bout that - something very strange. One day I met my husband, next day I love him, next day I marry him! You laugh? We also laugh about it now.

"It was the first day of June. The winter had been a time of much sickness in Germany, and my father and mother had both died in less than three months. I had no brothers, no sisters, and I was but 18 years old.

"We were not rich people, and I knew not what to do at all.

 "One of my cousins was married, and I went to her house, but her husband was an old man and very cross. She was so kind as a sister to me, but he was jealous that she loved me so much and seemed always to be angry to me. I helped take care of the children and worked what I could, but he did not like me, and I was so unhappy. Many times I thought I would go away, but did not know where to go.

"One day I walked out with the little girl. She was running ahead of me, but all at once she stumbled and fell. I hurried to pick her up, but before I reached her I saw a young man stoop down and lift her up. She was generally a very shy child, but her little head lay quietly on his shoulder as he comforted her. I was frightened, but something in the way his great, strong arms held her little form gave me courage, and I tried to thank him.

" 'Your sister?' he asked, glaring from her to me.

" 'No,' I replied; 'my cousin. Shall I not take her?' And I held up my arms - so. But she only buried her face on hls shoulders and would not look at me. But he looked at me very hard. I knew my cousin's husband would scold because I had let the child fall, and I was so miserable the tears just came into my eyes and ran down my face. He saw it, I know, but he turned to the little girl again.

" 'What is your name, little one?' he asked.

" 'Lottie Muller,' she answered.

" 'And where do you live?'

" 'I show you!' And when he put her down she took hold of his hand and pulled him after her, for it was not far.

"Now you know, fraulein, there are so many Mullers in Germany like there are Smiths in America, but when we came to the house he said, 'Why, here lives my friend Muller!'

"And, sure enough, we all went in. Then I heard his name, Carl Berger, for Herr Muller had known him since he was a little boy and was very glad to see him. They talked a long time, and that young man laughed and seemed to be so happy. 'In two days,' he sald, 'I am leaving the fatherland to go to America. I seek my fortune there. A young country is better for a young man.'

"I had thought many times of America myself, and it seemed to me for a minute as if he was an angel sent to tell me about it.

" 'Oh, sir.' I cried, 'please tell us some more about America!'

" 'What have you to do with America?' asked Herr Muller, frowning.

" 'Some day I may go there,' I said.

" 'Nonsense!' he answered crossly and seemed angry that I had spoken. But the young man smiled and said, 'So, fraulein, you would like America, you think?" And then he told much about it, and by and by my cousin got some wine, and we all drank his health and luck and a good voyage, only I was very quiet afterward, because I dare not speak any more.

"And my face was burning so much because I had been spoken to so unkindly before a stranger that I left the room and went out into the little garden in front of our house. Pretty soon I heard them saying goodby and knew that he was going. I hoped he would go through the garden without noticing me, and so I turned my face away and began to break off a rose from a small bush. But he must have seen me at once, for be came just up to where I was standing and held out his hand. "Will you not say goodby to me, fraulein?" he asked. Then like a foolish child and not knowing at all what to say I put into his hand the rose which was in mine.

" 'Ah, little one.' he said, 'that is a very sweet goodby, but let us say instead, Auf wiedersehen, yes?' But suddenly hls jolly, laughlng face grew serious as he whispered earnestly: 'Are you not happy here, fraulein?' I tried to answer, but my lips were trembling so I could not, and I turned and ran quickly away into the house, but as I went into the door I looked back and he still stood In the same place holding the flower in his hand.

"You know, I was but 18 years old, and joys and sorrows were all very great to me- very real, indeed. Am I tiring you?" asked Frau Berger.

"Please go on," I begged. "I am afraid the coach will come before I hear the rest."

"It is really not much of a story. In truth it was far too short. Well, the next morning I was dusting, when suddenly the bell rang. Herr Muller was just going out, so he opened the door.

"I stopped and listened. I knew that voice. Had I not been dreaming of it all night? It was his. In a moment they would both come into the wohnstube. Ach! I remembered the rose of yesterday and was so ashamed. What if Herr Muller should know of that? Was it very wrong? Why did he come back after saying goodby? A hundred thoughts like that went through my mind in a moment. What could I say? Where could I go. I was standing near the sofa. It was a high backed, old fashioned one.

"'Come in! Come in!' I heard Herr Muller saying. 'Very friendly, I am sure, to come to see us again before you go.'

"Ah, how I had wished to see him again, and now I would rather have seen the whole German army come into that room as that same pleasant young man, and just as the door opened I fell on my knees behind the sofa and was quite out of sight.

"Then they took seats and began to talk. Every word they said I remember like it was only yesterday.

"'Herr Muller, I have something to ask you.'

" 'So? What you want ask me, eh?' And that young man answered, 'I want you to let me ask the fraulein, your wife's cousin, if she will marry me.' 'Thunder weather!' roared Herr Muller, which in the German language is an extremely bad swear. 'What man! You will go to a strange land to make your fortune, and now you want to take that "kind," that child, with you for your bride! You can never be such a fool!'

"Then I heard that young man laugh a little. 'I understand how you think about it,' he said. 'Most always a man in love is called a fool, but I cannot help it. I love her more than all the world. Since yesterday I have thought of nothing else. It is true, I have not much money, but so long as I have two hands she shall want for nothing.'

"By and by my cousin come in and talk a long whlie. His family, she said, were old friends of hers, and she knew he was a 'very fine young man also,' but America was such a very far country, and I was very young. Oh, how my heart beat there behind tbe sofa on my knees! It seemed to me that they must hear it almost.

"I nearly tried to stop my breathing, I was so stlll- so afraid they would find me, you know.

"After awhile I heard young Berger say: 'All I ask is that you allow me to speak to her. If she will not marry me now, I wlll go and work alone, and after a few years I will come back for her, for of one thing I am entirely sure- only with her can I be happy.'

"Then my cousin went to cali me, and she called and called, but I made no answer, and Herr Muller became angry. "

'Where is she gone?' he asked. 'She is never there when you want her. What a crazy harum scarum that girl is!'

"Then he called very loud, and at last he ran out into the garden, where I often used to go, to seek me. I was trembling all over, but I peeked out from behind the sofa, and there sat my poor Berger with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. I got up very softly and came out. The first thing I noticed was that he had a faded rose in his coat. I stood quite still for a moment looking at him, and presently he sighed and raised his face and saw me. Ach, I don't know how that was any more now, but when my cousin and her husband came back into the wohnstube Herr Berger's arm was around my waist, and, somehow, I was afraid of nothing- not even of Herr Muller.

"Well, the next morning after that we got married. Yes, it is true, it was very quick, but you see he had bought his ticket already, and he must go. I had not indeed much - what you call trousseau. I had some linen of my mother's, like every German girl have, and my cousin gave me some more things.

"Berger laughed, and I thought he looked so nice when he laughed. " 'The greatest travelers,' he said to me, 'always have the least luggage to bother them. Everybody will think we are old travelers.'

"But it all seemed like one dream to me until we stood on the deck of the big ship and I saw Deutschland and my cousins' faces growing farther and farther away every minute and at last could see them no more, and the ocean and the life before me seemed so strange, so wide.

"But my husband's arm was around me, and I tried to look up at him and smile, although the tears would come into my eyes, and I was so glad when he said I was a brave girl."

"Thank God, I can say now, when I am a white haired old woman, that a better man never lived, and we have also had very good luck. At first we both worked hard, but now we have all that we could wish, and the best thing that I could ever say to my children is that they should try to be like their father."

"Ah, here is the coach!" And in another moment all my romantic imaginings were shattered by beholding my fat little heroine, panting with the exertion and delight, towing into the hotel a huge, corpulent, florid faced, baldheaded and very jolly looking German, whom I afterward learned to know as the millionaire brewer, Mr. Carl Berger.