Happening to remember my mother’s admonishment not to annoy people with too much talk, I apologized to the young ladies.  Smilingly, they begged me to continue, for they seemed to enjoy my boyish prattle.

“Listen, now, girls,” said Rose laughingly to her companions, “now, I shall make him open his mother’s closet and show us her choicest family skeleton.”  “Oh, no, Miss Rose,” I protested, “my mother has indeed a great closet, but it is full of good things to eat and contains no skeletons.”  “You little goosie-gander; you don’t understand,” replied Miss Rose; “I was only joking.  Of course your mother kept the door carefully locked to keep you boys from foraging?” “No madame,” said I, “it was not necessary to lock the door.”  “Did she keep a guard, then?” said Rose.  “Oh, yes,” I replied, “and it was very hard to pass in without being knocked down.”  “Was it a man?” she asked mischievously.  “Why, yes; mamma kept a strong, old Limburger right behind the door,” I said.

When the girls had ceased laughing, Rose said, “What did your mother tell you when you left for America?” “My mother,” I answered, “implored me with tearful eyes to ever remember how my father’s great-great-grandmother Brunhilde (who was exceedingly beautiful) was enticed into the depths of a dark forest by a wily, old German King.  Indiscreetly and unsuspectingly she followed him.  There clandestinely did he favor her graciously by adding a bar sinister to our knightly escutcheon and a strain of the blood royal to our family.  This happened long, long ago in the dark ages or some other dark place—­it may have been the Schwarzwald—­and it was the curse of the stony field that did it.

" ‘Oh, my son,’ mother urged me, ’we count on you to restore the unaccountably long-lost prestige of our ancient family.  In America, behind the counters of your uncle’s counting-rooms, you shall acquire great wealth, and his Majesty the Kaiser will be pleased to re-invest you with the coronet of a count.  Then, as a noble count will you be of some account in the exclusive circle of the four hundred of the great city of New York.  Beautiful heiresses will crave the favor of your acquaintance, and if wise, you will lead the most desirable one on the market, the lovely Miss Billiona Roque-a-Fellaire to the altar.  His Majesty the Kaiser will then graciously change the “no-account” words on our family’s escutcheon to the joyful motto, “Mit Geld,” and lift the blighting curse from our noble house.’ "

Next I related how surprised I was when I saw the great city of New York.  However, I expected to see a large city of many houses, ever so high and some higher yet, and therefore I was not so very much surprised, after all.  But in Illinois I first saw the wonderful forest.  Oh, the virgin forest!  Never had I seen such grand, beautiful trees, oak and hickory, ash and sycamore, maple, elm, and many more giant trees, unknown to me, and peopled by a multitude of wild birds of the brightest plumage.