of Herr Sohn-stein's grip about her waist.

"Thou hadst better come, Hans," added Herr Sohnstein, jollily.

"_Wilt_ thou come, Hans--and forgive me?" Gottlieb asked.

But it was not until Minna said, very faintly, yet with a heavenly
sweetness in her voice: "Thou _mayst_ come, Hans!" that Hans actually
came.

[Illustration: Thou mayst come, Hans 248]

And then for a while there was such hearty embracing of as much of
the other four as each of them could grasp that the like of it all for
good-will and lovingness never had been seen in a bakery before. And
Gottlieb's good angel exulted greatly; and the devil, who had lingered
about the premises in the hope that even at the eleventh hour the powers
of evil might get the better of the powers of good, acknowledged his
defeat with a howl of baffled rage: and then fled away in a blue flame
and a flash of lightning that made the waters of the East River (which
stream he was compelled to wade, thanks to General Newton, who took away
his stepping-stones) fairly hiss and bubble. And never did he dare to
show so much as the end of his wicked nose in the Cafe Nuernberg again!

"But thou wilt not take from me this little one, my daughter, Hans?"
Gottlieb asked, when they had somewhat disentangled themselves. "Thou
wilt come and live with us, and be my partner, and together we will make
the good lebkuchen once more. Is it not so?"

Hans found this a trying question. He looked at Herr Sohnstein,
doubtfully. "Ah," said Herr Sohnstein, "thou meanest that a very
hard-hearted, money-lending man has hired a shop for thee and has made
it the most splendid bakery and the finest restaurant on all the East
Side, eh? And thou art afraid that this man, this old miser man, will
keep thee to thy bargainings, already?"

Hans gave a deprecating nod of assent.

"Well, my boy Hans," Herr Sohnstein continued, with great good-humor,
and sliding his arm well around Aunt Hedwig's generous waist again as he
spoke--"well, my boy Hans, let me tell thee that that bad old miser man
is not one-half so bad as thou wouldst think. Dost thou remember that
when he had a garden made upon the roof of that fine bakery, and thou
toldst to him that to make a garden there was to waste his money, what
he said? Did he not say that if he made the garden God would send the
flowers? And when that fine sign was made with 'Nuernberger Baekerei' upon
it, and thou toldst to him that to take that name of Nuernberg was not