"There lives a man in Hamburg, and he is a greengrocer, and his name is Klotz. And this man's wife, Madame Klotz, could never bear to have her husband play in my lottery. So when he wanted to play, I never came with the lottery tickets to his house, but he would always tell me on the street, 'I want to play on such and such a number, and here is the money for it, Hirsch.' And I, when I got home, would put up the number for him, and write on the envelope, in German script: On account of Christian Heinrich Klotz.' And now listen and marvel:

"It was a beautiful spring day, and the trees at the exchange were green, and the breezy air was pleasant, and the sun shone in the sky, as I stood by the Bank of Hamburg. And behold, Klotz comes with his stout Madame Klotz, and greets me, and speaks of the beauty of God's springtide, makes some patriotic remarks about the militia, and asks me how business is, and so in the course of conversation says to me, 'Last night I dreamed that number 1,538 will win the first prize'; and at the same moment, while Madame Klotz was contemplating the town hall, he presses thirteen good, full-weighted louis d'or into my hand-I feel them there to this day—and, even before Madame Klotz turns round, says I, 'All right, Klotz!' Then, away I go, straight to the main lottery office, and get number 1,538, and put it in an envelope; and as soon as I get home, I write on the envelope, 'On account of Christian Heinrich Klotz.' And what does God do? A fortnight later, in order to put my honesty to the test, He lets the number 1,538 turn up and win fifty thousand Thaler. But what does Hirsch do-the identical Hirsch who stands before you now? This same Hirsch puts on a clean little white dickey and a clean white neckerchief, and takes a cab and gets the fifty thousand Thaler from the

main office. As Klotz sees me coming, he asks, ‘Hirsch, why are you dressed up so to-day?' I, however, answer not a word, but put the large surprise-package on the table, and say solemnly, 'My dear friend, Christian Heinrich Klotz, number 1,538, which you had the kindness to play in my lottery, has had the good fortune to win fifty thousand Thaler. I have the honor of presenting you with the money in this bag, and I take the liberty of asking for a receipt.' When Klotz heard that, he began to weep. When Madame Klotz heard the story, she wept, the red-headed servant-girl wept, the squinting clerk wept, the children wept. And I? A man of feeling like myself could not even weep at first; but I fell into a swoon, and only afterward the tears came out of my eyes like a river, and I wept for three hours."

The voice of the little man shook as he related this, and solemnly he pulled a little parcel out of his pocket, unwound from it the faded pink ribbon, and showed me the signed acknowledgment of Christian Heinrich Klotz for the receipt of fifty thousand Thaler. "When I die," said Hirsch, with a tear in his eye, "let them put this receipt into my grave, and when the time comes, on the Day of Judgment, for me to render an account of my actions, then will I step before the throne of the Almighty with this receipt in my hand. And when my bad angel begins to read the list of the bad deeds which I did in this world, and my good angel the list of my good deeds, I will say calmly, 'Be silent. All I want to know is, Is this receipt genuine? Is this the handwriting of Christian Heinrich Klotz?' Then comes a tiny angel a-flying, and says, 'I know Klotz's handwriting quite well,' and he relates at the same time the story of the remarkable honesty which I once perpetrated. The Creator of eternity, however, the All-Knowing One Who Knows

Everything, remembers the story, and praises me in the presence of sun and moon and stars, and immediately computes in His Head, that if all my evil deeds be subtracted from fifty thousand Thaler's worth of honesty, there will yet remain a considerable balance in my favor, and so He says, 'Hirsch, I appoint thee as an angel of the first rank, and thou mayest wear wings with white and red feathers!'" -"The Baths of Lucca," in "Travel Pictures."

Marchese di Gumpelino

"You have no idea, doctor," said the Marchese di Gumpelino, "how much money I am obliged to spend, though I manage to do with a single servant, and have a private chaplain only when I am in Rome. I see there comes Hyacinth."

The little figure which just then emerged from a crease in the hillside would rather have deserved the name of FireLily. It was a capacious scarlet coat sown with gold tresses, on which the sun gleamed, and out of this glaring magnificence sweated a little head that nodded to me familiarly, And, to be sure, when I took a nearer view of the pallid, anxious little face and the clever, twinkling little eyes, I recognized some one whom I would sooner have expected to find on Mount Sinai than on the Apennines, for it was none other than Herr Hirsch, of Hamburg, who was not only known as an honest collector of lottery tickets, but who also possessed unusual skill in the handling of corns and jewels, so that he could not only distinguish the former from the latter, but could operate on the corns and estimate the value of the jewels.

"I hope," he said, as he approached, "that you still know me, although my name is no longer Hirsch. My name now is Hyacinth, and I am Herr Gumpel's valet."

"Hyacinth!" cried the latter in astonishment at his servitor's indiscretion.

"Never mind, Herr Gumpel, or Herr Gumpelino, or Marchese, or Excellenza. We need not be embarrassed on account of this gentleman; he knows me, has played in my lottery, and, I believe, still owes me a trifling sum. I am indeed glad to see you, doctor. Are you here, too, on the pleasurehunting business? There is nothing else to be done in this heat, in which one has to climb mountains all day. I am as tired here at night as if I had walked twenty times from the Altona Gate to the Stone Gate at Hamburg, without earning a penny for my trouble."

"Heavens!" cried the marchese, "keep still! I must get

another servant!"

"Why should I keep still?" said Hirsch-Hyacinth. "I am glad to be able to speak good German to some one whom I used to know in Hamburg; for when I think of Hamburg"

And at the memory of his little stepfatherland the man's eyes shimmered suspiciously, and sighing, he said:

"What is man, after all? You take a pleasant walk beyond the Altona Gate on the Hamburg Hill, and look at all the sights the lions, the pigeons, the cockatoos, the monkeys, the people; you ride on the merry-go-round, or buy an electric shock, and you think, how fine it must be in a country two hundred miles from here, where the oranges and lemons grow-in Italy! What is man? Put him at the Altona Gate, and he would like to be in Italy; put him in Italy, and he longs for the Altona Gate! Oh, if I were only there, and

could see the clock on St. Michael's tower with the golden numbers on its dial, that used to gleam at me in such friendly fashion in the afternoon sun that I should often have liked to kiss them! Now I am in Italy, where the oranges and lemons grow, and when I see them grow I wish I were on the Stone Road at Hamburg, where you see whole wagons full of them, and can eat them in comfort, without climbing all these dangerous mountains and suffering all this fiery heat. As sure as I stand here, marchese, if it were not for the sake of honor and culture, I would never have followed you here. But it is not to be denied that honor is done one in your service, and that one gets culture."

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"Hyacinth," said Gumpelino, pacified by this flattery, Hyacinth, you are now to go

"I tell you that you do not know, Hyacinth!'

"I tell you, Herr Gumpel, that I know. Your Excellency is going to send me to Lady Maxfield. I don't need orders. I know all your thoughts-even those that you have not thought yet, and perhaps never will think. You won't easily get another man like me, and I do it all for the sake of honor and culture, for one gets both in your service." And the little man wiped his nose with a large, snowy handkerchief.

"Hyacinth," said the marchese, "you are now to go to Lady Julia Maxfield, to my Julia, and give her this tulip. Be careful of it, for it cost five paoli, and say to her

"I know—__"

"You know nothing! Say, 'To other flowers is the tulip ’———_—_—___”

"I know. You want to tell her something by means of the flower. Often and often I have written mottoes on my lottery tickets."