the dairy, and you shall have the cream of an entire pan of milk."

"The milk also, if you please, aunty, I feel myself able to devour every
thing, pan and all."

"Well, satisfy yourself. By and by we will go to my bleachery and you
may select a piece of linen.--Do you understand?"

"Not a word. It is all a mystery. But I do know that there is not a
nephew on the entire Scandinavian peninsula, who possesses an aunt with
such an affectionate disposition."

"Ah, you flatterer, it is well that you are my nephew or else Fabian
might be jealous."

"Well I am not sure but that he may yet have an occasion, for, I am not
aware that nephews are forbidden to love their aunts."

From that day forward Gottlieb was taken under the especial protection
of his aunt, and as her favorite he was certain of a comfortable and
pleasant life. When she became acquainted with his manners, virtues and
accomplishments, her esteem for him was, if possible, doubly increased.

What could he not do, the dear boy? Not to speak of his wonderful
success in amusing little Jean Ulrick, Mr. Fabian's sole heir, he was
able to read aloud to his aunt from her favorite volume, and to repeat
with almost sublime patience, all those tender passages to which she in
a plaintive tone would sigh _de capo_. More than all this. He could
sing--the model nephew--and accompany his voice with the guitar not only
to the tune of "my love and I," but also to his aunt's favorite ballad,