There were birds and squirrels everywhere!  I actually saw a sky-blue bird with a topknot, and another of a bright scarlet color, and gorgeous woodpeckers who were too busy hammering to look at me even.  Oh, but they did not sing like the 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 a day.  We exchanged confidences, and they warned me to beware of the landlord, who had been known to rob people.  They advised me to secrete my money, if perchance I had any.  I thanked them kindly, replying that I had only one dollar in my purse.  This was true, but I did not tell them that I had sewed a large sum in banknotes and some German silver into my kite’s tail when I set out on my journey to the West.

I complimented these charming girls on their good fortune to be in the service of so generous a gentleman as their landlord seemed to be; for I saw that they wore very fine dresses and had many jewels.  “Why, you little greenie,” said Miss Rose, “he does not pay us high wages.”  “Oh, I see, how romantic! how nice!” exclaimed I.  “You do as the ladies in the good old time of chivalry, when knights donned their colors and sallied forth to battle with lions and tigers.  You crave largesse, and the gentlemen favor you with money and jewels.”  Then the youngest girl laughed