know!" and she
gave way to a burst of tears.

"Say not so, darling mother," said Madaleine, throwing her arms round
her and joining in her weeping with a sympathetic heart, feeling quite
as great grief at the idea of parting with her lover. "He will return
for us both bye-and-bye. He is only going to make that home for us in
the Far West we've read about so often lately, which he cannot hope to
establish here; and then, my mother,--for you are my mother too, now,
are you not?--he will come back for you and me, or we will go out and
join him."

"And I should like to know what will become of me, Fraulein Madaleine,"
interposed Lorischen indignantly. "Am I to be left behind to be
bothered all my life long by that little plague, Burgher Jans?"

"No, no, Lorischen," laughed Fritz; "a home across the sea in America
would not be a home without you--or Mouser, either," he added.

"That's all right, then," said the old nurse affably; her digression
serving to break the gravity of the conversation, and make Madame Dort
take a better view of the matter.

"But, it's a terrible journey, though, a terrible journey--almost worse
than parting with him to go to the war," said the widow sadly to
herself.

"Ah, but you did not have Madaleine with you then," replied Fritz,
turning a look of affection to the fair girl clinging to his mother.
"She will be a daughter to you, and comfort you in my absence, I know."

"Aye, that I will," exclaimed Madaleine fondly, caressing her adopted
parent and gazing at Fritz with the blue eyes full of love, although
blinded with tears. "I shall love her dearly for your sake, my darling,
as well as for her own--and my own too; and we will all look forward to
meeting again happily after our present parting, with hope and trust in
the good God who will protect and watch over you in return for our
prayers!"

"Amen to that," said Lorischen heartily. "And I tell you what it is,
Master Fritz--we'll be all ready when you give the word to follow you
across the sea to that wonderful America! I declare I'm quite longing
to see it, for I don't think much of this Lubeck now, with such curious,
meddling, impertinent people in it like that odious little fat man,
Burgher Jans."

These words of the old nurse put them all in a merry mood, and the
family council thus terminated more cheerily than it had begun.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

Fritz was as prompt in action as he was rapid in