birds in Germany! All were very grave and sad. They seemed to know,
as everybody else did, that I was a stranger in their land, for they
gave me all sorts of useful Information and advice, with many nods of
their little heads.

"Peep, peep!" counseled the bluebird. "Thank you," I replied, "seeing
is believing." "Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will," cried a large,
spotted bird. "That," thought I, "is a prize fighter." "Cheat,
cheat!" urged a pious-looking cardinal, who evidently mistook me for
a gambler. "Don't," roared a bullfrog, who was seated on a log and
winked his eye at me. "There is an honest man," I thought. "Shake,
good sir." In consternation and surprise, I instantly released his
hand. "HOW is it possible to be both honest and slippery at the same
time! This must be a Yankee-man," thought I. I saw real moss, green
and velvety as the richest carpet, and I drank of singing, bubbling
waters. Many kinds of berries and nuts, hard to crack, grew in the
wild glens of the forest. I gathered flowers, larger and more
beautiful than any I had ever seen, but they lacked the perfume of
German flowers; only the roses were the same.

Many children did I see, but they had not the rosy cheeks of German
children. And I met the strongest of all beasts on earth and tracked
him to his native lair; and there, in the sacred groves of the
Illini, I worried him sorely, and as David did unto Goliath, so did I
unto him; and sundown come, I slew him. And for three-score days and
ten the smoke of battle scented the balmy air.

The young ladles laughed heartily and said that never before had they
been so delightfully entertained, and they gave me sweets and nice
things to eat, and said they hoped I might stay with them forever and