their pleasant, healthy faces, which betrayed no
embarrassment whatever, made a very agreeable impression. The woman
carried on her arm a basket carefully covered with green leaves. The man
held in his right hand a small gray bag, which seemed to be heavy. Both
saluted the royal couple very reverentially--the woman making a deep
courtesy, and the man bowing, without, however, taking off his
broad-brimmed hat.

"I suppose thee to be the king, our good sovereign," said the peasant,
fixing his fine lustrous eyes on the king's countenance.

"I am the king," said Frederick William, kindly.

"And I see by thy beautiful face," exclaimed the woman, pointing with
her hand at Louisa, "thee is the queen, the dear mother of our
country--Louisa, whom all love--for whom we are always praying, and whom
we are teaching our children to love and pray for."

"I thank you, kind folks," exclaimed the queen, feelingly, "I thank you.
Yes, pray for me, and above all, pray for Prussia; pray that she may be
saved and protected, for when Prussia is happy I am."

"Prussia will be happy again, and the Lord will not forsake her!"
exclaimed the woman. "All of us hope for it, and we wandered hither to
bring to our beloved king and queen the greetings of their faithful
subjects in the lowlands of Culm, and to tell their majesties that we
are praying day and night that God may drive the French from the
country, and render our king and queen again powerful. But with your
leave we should like to give you a small proof of our regard in the
presents we have brought."

The king nodded his consent, while the queen smiled and said: "What you
give us with loving hearts we will accept with loving hearts."

"What I have brought is but little," said the woman. "But I have been
told that our gracious queen likes to eat good fresh butter, and that
the young princes and princesses are also fond of sandwiches; now," she
added, removing the leaves from the basket, "this butter is clean and
good; I churned it myself in my dairy, and as the article is so very
scarce at present, I thought it would be acceptable, and the gracious
queen would not spurn my humble gift. Thee looks so kind-hearted and
good, dear queen, and I am glad to see thee face to face, and shall be
doubly so if thee will be so kind as to accept my butter."

"I accept it joyfully," exclaimed the queen, taking the basket which the
woman presented to her. "I thank you for your nice present, my dear