So smoke your pipe, and I'll read my book, to while
awav the ume *

" Veil, all right," and Fritz set himself to refilling
his pipe, while Katrina placed herself by his side,
and was soon absorbed in her book.
Fritz was the son of a smalt tradesman in an ob-
scure German village. His mother died in liis
infancy, and his youth was not a happy one. His
father was cross and brutal, and his food was often
scant, for, as a rale, he received more blows than
bread.
Katrina was born in the same village, in the very
next house to the one in which Fritz lived, and the
children grew up together, till Fritz was about four-
teen years of age and Katrina about eleven. Then
Katnna's parents were both taken from her by the
cholera, and, as tliey had been poor, Katrina would
have been dependent upon the charity of the vil-
lagers, had it not been that an English family, trav-
eling through Germany, saw and became interested
in the pretty orphan, and, by permission of the town
authonties, took her away with them to England,
where they educated her, and, in the course of a
few years, she became governess in the fkmily of
the daughter of the lady who had befriended her.
"* When Katrina went away, the poor, abused Fritz
lost his only playmate, his only confidant, to whom
he told all his youthful troubles, and who shared his
few joys and all his sorrows, and ever gave him kind
words and sympathy.
He worked and toiled from morning till night, and
did all he could to win the love of his father, but
in vain.
