hese
little men could stand firmly on their sturdy German legs, their gentle
mother taught them, deliberately taught them, to call their sister
names, the meaning being as naught to them, but enough to break a
sister's heart. To jeer at and disobey her, so that they became a pair
of burly little monsters, who laughed loud, affected laughter at the
word "love," and swore with many long-syllabled German oaths that they
would kick with their copper-toes any one who tried to kiss them. Ah!
when you find a fiercely violent temper allied to a stone-cold heart,
offer you up an earnest prayer to Him for the safety of the souls coming
under the dominion and the power of that woman.

I recall one action of Semantha's that goes far, I think, to prove what
a brave and loyal heart the untaught German girl possessed. She was very
sensitive to ridicule, and when people made fun of her, though she would
laugh good-humouredly, many times she had to keep her eyes down to hide
the brimming tears. Now her stepfathers name was a funny one to American
ears, and always provoked a laugh, while her own family name was not
funny. Yet because the man had shown her a little timid kindness, she
faithfully bore his name, and through storms of jeering laughter, clear
to the dismal end, she called herself Semantha Waacker.

Once we spoke of it, and she exclaimed in her excited way: "Yes, I am
alvays Waacker. Why not, ven he is so goot? Why, why, dat man, dat vater
Waacker, he have kissed me two time already. Vunce here" (placing her
finger on a vicious scar upon her check), "von de mutter cut me bad, und
vun odder time, ven I come very sick. Und de mutter seen him in de
glass, und first she break dat glass, und den she stand and smile a
little, und for days und days, when somebody be about, my mutter put out
de lips und make sounds like kisses, so as to shame de vater before
everybody. Oh, yes, let 'em laugh; he kiss me, und I stay Semantha
Waacker."

The unfortunate man's occupation was also something that provoked
laughter, when one first heard of it; but as Semantha herself was my
informant, and I had grown to care for her, I managed by a great effort
to keep my face serious. How deeply this fact impressed her, I was to
learn later on.

Christmas had come, and I was in high glee. I had many gifts, simple and
inexpensive most of them, but they were perfectly satisfactory to me. My
dressing-room mates had remembered me, too, in the most character