noble face of Charles
Henry Buschman was seen.

"Fritz Kober," said he, "why do you gaze at me so, and why do you follow
me?"

"Because I have been so accustomed to be where you are!" said Fritz
Kober, quietly. "When I heard Deesen call for a tailor, and you
answered, 'Here! here!' I stepped out of my tent and followed you;
nothing more! But you would also know why I look at you? Well, while it
pleases me to see you sewing, it brings strange and pleasant thoughts to
my mind."

"What sort of strange and pleasant thoughts, Fritz?" said Charles Henry,
bowing down again earnestly over his work.

"I thought," said Fritz Kober, in a trembling voice, "that if ever I
should take a wife, she must look exactly as you do, Charles Henry; she
must have the same neat little hands, and be expert with the needle as
you are. Then I thought further, that in the whole world there was
no man so good and brave, so gentle and intelligent as you. Then I
considered what would become of me when the war was at an end, and you
should desert me and go back to your village. Then I resolved to follow
you through the whole world, and not to cease my prayers and entreaties
till you promised to come into my hut, and take all that was mine--under
the condition that you would keep me always with you--at least as your
servant--and never spurn me or cast me off. Then, I thought further,
that if you said no--if you refused to come into my house, I would
wander far away in despair, and, in the anguish of my heart I would
become a bad and contemptible man. Without you, Charles Henry, there is
no joy or peace in this world for me; you fire my good angel! Charles
Henry Buschman, do you wish me to be a dissolute drunkard?"

"How can I wish that, Fritz Kober?" whispered Charles Henry. "But you
could never be a bad man; you have the best and noblest heart in the
world! No man dare injure or abuse you! You give to those who ask
of you, you help those who suffer, and you stand by those who are in
difficulty! Then you are a complete, true man, and know how to maintain
your own dignity on every occasion. All who approach you are compelled
to respect you, and no one will ever dare to cast a reproach on Fritz
Kober. You are, at the same time, a hero, a good man, and an innocent
child, and my heart rejoices in you."

"What is good in me, I owe to you," said Fritz Kober. "Before I knew
you, I was a simple blockhead, and lived on stupidly from day to day,
thinking