bag, with difficulty. His
knees, it seemed to him, must certainly give way beneath him. Seeing
this gave M'riar something other than her fears to think of.

"Gimme th' bag, now, guvnor," she said quietly, although both she and
Anna already were well burdened.

"Nein," said the old man, gravely. "Child, you could not carry it."

"_I_ could," said Anna, quickly, and tried to take it from his hand,
abashed that the small servant should have been more thoughtful of
him than she was.

"Not much yer cawn't," said M'riar, positively. "I 'yn't goin' ter let
yer, miss. Ketch me! _Me_ let yer carry _bags_! My heye!"

"But M'riarrr," Anna answered. "You are so very little and it iss so
very big!"

"Carry ten of 'em," said M'riar, nonchalantly and nobly rose to the
occasion despite the protests of both Anna and the flute-player.

There was little time for argument, for, an instant later, they were
forced forward irresistibly by the pressure of the crowd behind them
and soon found themselves, to their inexpressible relief, in the clear
air of an open-sided deck on one of the big barges. In another quarter
of an hour they had started on their little voyage to the landing
station upon Ellis Island, where Uncle Sam decides upon the fitness of
such applicants for admission to his domain as have reached his
shores "third-class."

The ordeal at Ellis Island was less formidable, for Kreutzer and his
daughter, than the gossip of the steerage had led them to expect. Both
were in good health, he had the money which the law requires each
immigrant to bring with him, letters avowed his full ability to make a
living for himself and daughter, he had not come over under contract.
But poor M'riar! Her skinny little form, weak eyes, flat chest, barely
passed the medical examination; Herr Kreutzer did not understand some
of the questions put to her and thus she nearly went on record as
being without friends or means of winning her support. Indeed he did
not realize the situation until a uniformed official had begun to lead
the screaming child away and then he made things worse by letting his
rare German temper rise as he protested. Had not Anna laid restraining
fingers on his arm he might have found himself charged with a serious
offense, upon the very threshold of the new land he had journeyed to.

They now formed a thoroughly dismayed, disheartened group of three
there under the high, girdered roof of Uncle Sam's reception chamber
for p