"Poor little Dutchy," said one, "how could your mother send you out
all alone into the cruel, wide world!" "Mercy, and among the Indians,
too," said another. When I replied that my dear mother had sent me
away because she loved me truly, as she knew that I had a better
chance to prosper in the United States than in the Fatherland, they
called me a cute little chap and smothered me with their kisses.

The tallest and sweetest of these girls (her name was Rose) pulled my
ears teasingly and asked if her big, little man was not afraid of the
Indians. "Not I, madame," I replied; "for my father charged me to be
honest and loyal, brave and true, and fear not and prove myself a
worthy scion of the noble House of Von Siebeneich." "Oh, my! Oh, my!"
cried the young ladies, and "Did you ever!" and "No, I never!" and
"Who would have thought it!" Regarding me wide-eyed with
astonishment, they listened with bated breath as I explained that I
was a lineal descendant of the Knight Hartmann von Siebeneich, who
achieved everlasting fame through impersonating the Emperor Frederick
(Barbarossa) of Germany, in order to prevent his capture by the
enemy. I told how the commander of the Italian army, inspired with
admiration by the desperate valor of the loyal knight, released him
and did honor him greatly. And how this noble knight, my father's
ancestor, followed the Emperor Frederick to the Holy Land and fought
the Saracens. "And," added I, "my father's great book of heraldry
contains the legend of the curse which fell on our house through the
villainy of the Imperial Grand Chancellor of Blazonry, who was
commanded to devise and procure a brand new heraldic escutcheon for
our family.

"He blazoned our shield with the ominous motto, 'in der fix, Haben