own cell when Milwaukee's just got four more games t' win
the pennant?'

"Sa-a-a-ay, girl, w'en I got through huggin' him around the neck an'
buyin' him drinks I knew it was me for the big ship. 'Mother,' I says,
'if you got anybody on your mind that you neglected t' send picture
postals to, now's' your last chance. 'F I got to die I'm going out with
m' scissors in one mitt, and m' trusty paste-pot by m' side!' An' we
hits it up for old Milwaukee. I ain't been away since, except w'en I
was out with the ball team, sending in sportin' extry dope for the pink
sheet. The last time I was in at Baumbach's in comes Von Gerhard an'--"

"Who are Baumbach's?" I interrupted.

Blackie regarded me pityingly. "You ain't never been to Baumbach's?
Why girl, if you don't know Baumbach's, you ain't never been properly
introduced to Milwaukee. No wonder you ain't hep to the ways of this
little community. There ain't what the s'ciety editor would call the
proper ontong cordyal between you and the natives if you haven't had
coffee at Baumbach's. It ain't hardly legal t' live in Milwaukee all
this time without ever having been inside of B--"

"Stop! If you do not tell me at once just where this wonderful place
may be found, and what one does when one finds it, and how I happened to
miss it, and why it is so necessary to the proper understanding of the
city--"

"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Blackie, grinning, "I'll romp you
over there to-morrow afternoon at four o'clock. Ach Himmel! What will
that for a grand time be, no?"

"Blackie, you're a dear to be so polite to an old married cratur' like
me. Did you notice--that is, does Ernst von Gerhard drop in often at
Baumbach's?"

CHAPTER VIII. KAFFEE AND KAFFEEKUCHEN

I have visited Baumbach's. I have heard Milwaukee drinking its afternoon
Kaffee.

O Baumbach's, with your deliciously crumbling butter cookies and your
kaffee kuchen, and your thick cream, and your thicker waitresses and
your cockroaches, and your dinginess and your dowdy German ladies and
your black, black Kaffee, where in this country is there another like
you!

Blackie, true to his promise, had hailed me from the doorway on the
afternoon of the following day. In the rush of the day's work I had
quite forgotten about Blackie and Baumbach's.

"Come, Kindchen!" he called. "Get your bonnet on. We will by Baumbach's
go, no?"

Ruefully I gazed at the grimy cuffs of my blouse, and felt of my
dishevelled hair.