The Four Corners Abroad Page 11

  CHAPTER XI

  SETTLING DOWN

  THE problem of getting opera tickets was solved the next day when Dr.Woods made his visit. "I have promised myself to stand in line everyweek," he said, "and if you will commit the buying of the tickets to mycharge I promise to do my best for you. It is just as easy to buy fouror five tickets as one. I shall probably not treat myself to anythingmore expensive than places in the _Dritte Rang_, but I can get yoursanywhere you say, provided there is a chance of doing it."

  "That relieves us of a great responsibility," said Miss Helen, "thoughit seems rather an imposition upon you."

  "Not a bit of it. I should be very unhappy to know that any of youladies were on your feet out there in the cold when there was a manaround to do the standing for you."

  "Spoken like a true American and a Virginia gentleman at that," saidMiss Helen. "Nan proposed to be our opera ticket buyer, as she is themost interested, but her mother objected."

  The doctor gave a quick glance at the slender dark-haired girl, almosttoo tall for her years. "As her medical man I sternly forbid it, too,"he said. "It is not the thing for any delicately bred woman to do. Someof these sturdy Germans may be equal to it, but none of your race. No,Miss Helen, I insist upon your letting that duty fall upon me."

  "Then please accept our united thanks. We do want Nan to have as muchopera as is good for her, but we don't feel that we always shall wantto pay for the highest priced seats, if we can get any at all at lowerrates."

  "I shall frequently make a rush for Stehplatz," declared the doctor,"for I am putting all my spare cash into my work and my amusements mustbe of the cheap kind. However, there couldn't be a better place to findsuch. One can listen to a first-class concert for the meagre price offifteen or twenty cents, if you don't mind going to a concert hallwhere people sit around little tables and drink beer. It is always mostquiet and orderly and you see a good class of persons at such places,for they want to hear the music and do not want the least noise."

  "Every one in Munich drinks beer," remarked Nan. "Even the _Muenchenkindel_ is often pictured with a glass of beer in one hand and a bunchof radishes in the other."

  "Who is the _Muenchen kindel_?" asked the doctor.

  "Have you been in the city twenty-four hours and have not made itsacquaintance? Why, it is everywhere, on calendars, cards, liqueurglasses, all sorts of souvenirs, bonbon boxes, signs, and I have evenseen the little monkish hood and cloak imitated in a covering for mylady's pet dog. Here," she picked up a guide-book from the table andhanded it to him.

  "Oh, that? Yes, I have seen the little fellow, but I didn't know whatit meant except that it seemed a sign and seal of something Muenchener.Do you know its origin?"

  "I know something, though no one appears exactly to know why it happensto be a child. You probably know that Munich originally belonged to themonks who lived in a monastery on the Tegernsee. Their place was calledMuenchen. There are a number of stories about how the little _kindel_happened to be used, but Aunt Helen says it was probably adopted as theseal of those way back monks. Some one told me that there is a legendwhich says our Lord came in the form of a little child in monkish dressto bless the town and the good work of the monks, and that ever sincethe Muenchen _kindel_ has been honored. Others say that it is simplybecause as time has gone on different artists and sculptors have triedto improve on the original design and it has become what it is now. Ilike the legend best though perhaps the other is truer. I have becomevery fond of the little monk's smiling countenance. Sometimes he hasa book in one hand and two fingers of the other are outstretched inbenediction, but when he is very hilarious, he waves a stein of beer inone hand and a bunch of radishes in the other."

  "Wise Nan," said the doctor. "Whenever I want archaic information aboutthe city I shall come to you."

  "Nan may be able to tell you all about those funny old things," brokein Jack, "but what I want to hear about, Dr. Paul, is home. Did you seePhil and Gordon? How was Aunt Sarah when you left? Is Mitty there? Arethe cats looking all right? What was old Pete mule doing when you sawhim last?"

  Every one laughed and then every one turned eagerly to the doctor,for what did not Jack's questions bring before them? The old brownhouse, with the garden behind it wandering up-hill, Aunt Sarah bustlingaround, Phil with Trouble at his heels running across the field betweenhis own home and the Corners', Old Pete standing by an angle of thefence, wagging his long ears as he looked up and down the road.

  "Do tell us about everything," said Mrs. Corner drawing her chair alittle nearer.

  "Miss Sarah was very well and getting ready for her boys who hadn'tcome when I left," responded the doctor. "I saw a pair of black legsscudding across the garden and I fancy they must have been Mitty's. Asfor Pete, I am afraid I don't remember about him, and I did not see anyof the cats. Yes, I did; a big gray Angora came out and blinked at meas I was saying good-bye to Miss Sarah."

  "That must have been Lady Grey," remarked Jack.

  "The Lewis's are all well. Miss Polly is to be married at Christmas, asI suppose you all know."

  "Oh, dear, and we shan't be there," sighed Mary Lee. At that momentthe glories of travel, the novelties of foreign lands were as nothingcompared to the bond which linked them to old Virginia.

  "And your own family?" said Mrs. Corner. "Your mother and father?"

  "Mother is well and so is father, better than usual. A new doctor hassettled in town, an enterprising young fellow with the acquirements offoreign study still clinging to him. Father said that if I meant tohold my own in the town I must study abroad, too, and if eventually Iconcluded to step aside and let Hastings have the field I would needsome work over here wherever I might settle. He thinks he can keep upour end for six months and then I shall go back and make up my mindwhether father shall retire in my behalf, or whether he will keep a fewof his oldest patients and transfer the rest to Dr. Hastings."

  "You are not going to desert us, Dr. Paul?" said Mrs. Corner.

  "I am not sure. At all events we shall see when I get back. You allhave deserted your old neighbors, why shouldn't I follow your example?"

  "But not for always," said Nan eagerly. "We shall go back to stay someday, shan't we, mother?"

  "Are you sure you will want to, Nan?"

  "I am sure I would like to feel that I could come away sometimes, butthere is no place like home. I want to live most of my life there, andI surely want to die just where I was born."

  "It isn't a very big world, that little town of ours," said Dr. Paulsmiling at her ardor.

  "It is big enough. After we have seen the great outside world it willbe the most delightful thing to go back and think about it all."

  "And your music, your college career and all that?" said Miss Helen.

  "Don't you think it will give as much pleasure there, the music, Imean, as anywhere? And I am sure our University has brains enough init to keep my poor supply guessing. Nobody need rust out where ourUniversity is." Nan spoke proudly.

  "Good for you, Nan!" cried the doctor. "You are loyal to the core. Thatis the way to talk. I am going to sit down this very night and write tofather about what you have said. It will do him good to know how youfeel. He thinks a lot of Miss Nancy Corner."

  "Must you go?" said Mrs. Corner as he rose to take his leave.

  "Yes, I must. I am not fairly in harness yet, but I have a lot to do."

  "You will come in and see us often, I hope."

  "Won't I? Mother is depending on it, I can tell you. The fact of youall being here made it easier for her to see me go. And Mrs. Corner,remember, I am yours to command. You must not fail to call upon me foranything in the wide world that I can do for you, just as you would onTom Lewis or any of the boys at home. I want the privilege of beingyour right hand man, as I am the only one of your townsmen here."

  "You are a dear boy," said Mrs. Corner laying her hand affectionatelyon his shoulder, "and I shall be delighted to take you at your wordwhenever occasion requires on condition that you write t
o your motherthat I say she needn't worry over her son while Mary Corner is on handto have an eye to him."

  "I'll do it and it will be no end of comfort to her. She expects me tocome home with forty slashes on my face and an insatiable thirst forbeer."

  "Are you going to wear a green or a blue cap or what color?" asked Jean.

  "I'll wear my own American headgear, if you please."

  "And you won't have those sword cuts all over your face?" said Jack.

  "Not if my present stock of vanity holds out. I am afraid you wouldnever be my sweetheart if I allowed myself to be hacked up in thatstyle, Jack."

  "Oh, but I shall never be your sweetheart," returned Jack calmly. "Iam Carter's. I used to be Clarence's, but I most forget him, and hedoesn't write to me, but Carter does."

  "I see. Well, anyhow, I shall not submit to having my noble countenancemarred. Now, I must go, Mrs. Corner. It is so good to see you all andsuch a temptation to stand and talk. I'll come soon again, if I may."

  "As often as you please. I've neither music nor German to absorb me,for I intend to spare myself all I can, so when the others are busyyou will find at least one at leisure," Mrs. Corner assured him andhe went off leaving all with a feeling of nearness to home which hispresence had given.

  A new arrival at the _pension_ that day filled the last of FraeuleinBauer's rooms, and decided who was to complete the house party. Apleasant American woman with her son and daughter took rooms oppositethe Corners. The family now consisted of the six Corners with Jo Keyes,Mrs. Hoyt, son Maurice and daughter Juliet, a stout Russian lady andher son, "the Herr Professor," as the Fraeulein called him, a jovialGerman, and a severe looking dame whose nationality no one seemed toknow. Nan insisted that this last person was a Nihilist, while Jodeclared she was an American refugee. Mary Lee thought she must beItalian, because she liked macaroni and asked for more olive oil on hersalad. She did not seem to be very fluent with German, though no onehad heard her speak any other language. She sat at the extreme end ofthe table, and bowed with great stateliness to the others whenever shecame in or went out.

  It was Miss Helen who at last discovered the lady's nationality, andannounced with great glee that she knew.

  "I am positive she is Russian or Polish or something like that,"declared Nan. "I am sure she has a bomb concealed in her room and hasdesigns upon the Prince Regent."

  "I am convinced she is Italian," Mary Lee differed from her sister."She has such black eyes and hair, and I saw her with a letter in herhand that had an Italian stamp on it, and it was addressed to Signorinasomething or other."

  This seemed fairly good proof, but still Miss Helen shook her head.

  "She might be Spanish," ventured Jo, "for, as you say, Mary Lee, sheis very dark. If she were Russian why doesn't she talk to the otherRussians at the table?"

  "I hadn't thought of that," said Nan, "though maybe she doesn't wantthem to know she is Russian for fear they will find out her plots."

  Miss Helen laughed aloud. "You are away off, Nan," she said.

  "Perhaps she is a Greek." Jack thought up this.

  "Or a-a-Austrian," Jean ventured.

  "Then she'd speak better German," objected Nan.

  "What do you say, Mary?" asked Miss Helen. "No one so far has guessedright. You must have a chance."

  "She might be French, perhaps Canadian French."

  "But the Italian letter," spoke up Mary Lee.

  "I had one from Italy myself this morning addressed to Signora Corner,"Mrs. Corner told her.

  "Then that falls through," said Jo. "Give it up, Miss Helen."

  "My dears, she's plain, dyed-in-the-wool, United States American, fromChelsea, Massachusetts."

  "Oh, oh," came a chorus of laughing exclamations. "The very idea! Howdid you find it out?"

  "I encountered her on my way down-stairs this morning, and she asked meif I knew where she could find a second-hand book-shop. I happened toknow of one and I told her. We were going in the same direction and wewalked together a little way."

  "Is she any kind of an anything?" asked Jack.

  "That is rather a vague question," said Miss Helen. "Couldn't you be alittle more exact, Jack dear?"

  "I mean is she a doctor or a teacher or anything like that? She lookslike she might be something besides just a plain woman."

  "She certainly is a plain enough woman," remarked Nan with a laugh.

  "She didn't mention that she had a profession, though I think she ishere for a special purpose, perhaps," Miss Helen told them.

  "American," said Jo reminiscently; "that's the limit. It shows that onecan never tell. Why, we might have discussed our most intimate affairsbefore her, and never have dreamed she could understand a word of whatwe said."

  "Which goes to show that one must be very careful about one's speechwhen traveling abroad," said Mrs. Corner.

  "What do you think of the new girl and boy?" Jo asked Nan that same day.

  "They're rather nice, I think. The boy seems a jolly sort of somebodyand the girl is very friendly. They are going to school and seem tohave a number of friends here, which will make it pleasant for us.Mother likes Mrs. Hoyt. They know some of the same people at home andspent an hour reminiscing after dinner. I am glad on mother's account,and Aunt Helen's, too, that she is so nice."

  The American part of the _pension_ soon resolved itself into a verycongenial party. Nan struck up a friendship with Juliet Hoyt, whileMaurice dangled after Jo and Mary Lee. Maurice was a merry, gentlemanlylad with dancing brown eyes, and a frank mouth. He was always ready forfun, and as both Mary Lee and Jo were very fond of outdoor sports thethree had long walks together and promised themselves later that theywould skate and _rodel_ and _ski_ as often as they could.

  It was not long before Maurice's schoolmates found out that Mrs. Hoyt'ssitting-room was a very pleasant place, and that she herself was asympathetic person into whose ears they could pour their woes or whomthey could come to in hours of homesickness to be comforted, thereforethere was scarcely a day passed but some one of Dr. Mann's schoolboyswandered into _Pension_ Bauer for cheer.

  Nan and Mary Lee had always been thrown a great deal with their boycousins, and Jo was so full of life that she naturally attracted boys,so it must be confessed that Mrs. Hoyt was not the one chiefly sought."But there is safety in numbers," she said to Mrs. Corner, "and I wantmy children to have good honest friendships among both boys and girls,so do please let your young people frolic with mine; it won't hurt themone bit. Moreover I think it is much the better plan to allow them tohave their friends here where I can overlook them and take part in whatgoes on. It seems to me that the surest way of keeping the confidenceof both my boy and girl is not to be too severely critical, and to makewhatever place stands for home as happy as possible."

  Mrs. Corner quite agreed with her, and though half a dozen boys viedwith one another to see which could nearest match in socks and necktiesthe color of Jo's winter suit, the Sunday after she appeared in it,and though Maurice insisted upon sending daily notes to Mary Lee thesewere all very harmless matters. It was something to make even theirelders laugh to see the six boys in green socks and neckties as near ofa color as possible, and when Mrs. Corner read the little jokes whichpassed for notes she saw what very innocent nonsense it all was. So theyoung folks had the best of times and afforded much amusement to theirfamilies.

  "Winter is at hand," said Nan one day as she came in from her lessons."They are covering up our beautiful fountain that we all love so, andthey are beginning to pack up the rosebushes and plants in the parks.I wish you would see how beautifully they do it. They have loads andloads of evergreen stuff that they put around the bushes, so when theyare done up, instead of looking like scarecrows wrapped in straw theyare nice, neat, well-shaped cubes and cylinders of green that don'toffend the eye in the least. Of course they can't do the fountain thatway, for it is too big, and it has to have an actual house of boardsbuilt over it. I am thankful for one thing, for though they cover upso much else they can'
t do anything to the Frauenkirche."

  "I am glad of that myself," returned Miss Helen. "I love the way thosetwo big towers dominate the city."

  "It is such a nice orderly place," Nan went on. "If a pile of boardsand building materials must be in the street, it is piled up ascarefully as possible so as to take up the least room; it isn't pitchedhelter-skelter all over the place as it is so often at home."

  "They certainly do things of that kind very carefully; I supposebecause they take more time. We are always in such a rush at home."

  "Another thing I like," Nan went on, "is the number of big landmarksthere are. Somehow, although it is really quite a large city, itdoesn't seem so. There is plenty of space, and buildings are set soyou can see them easily. They aren't crowded in little narrow streetsso they make no show at all. When I see the big fountain I know I amnearly home. The Neue Rathaus is another landmark, the Isarthor isanother, the Odeonsplatz still another, while if you catch sight ofthe Frauenkirche no matter where you are you can tell in exactly whatdirection you ought to go."

  "I am glad you are so contented, my dear," said Miss Helen, "as longas you are to be here for the winter. I think the others are, too."

  "Yes, I am sure they are. Jack was delighted because she happened tobe with you when the figures came out on the clock in the tower of theNeue Rathaus."

  "Yes, we happened to be just in time."

  "It certainly is a fine building. Indeed, it seems to me that Munichhas nothing but fine buildings wherever you go; fine gateways andarches and parks. I like those old painted houses, too. In fact I thinkMunich is delightful beyond words, and if Italy surpasses it I shallnot be able to stay in my skin."

  "It doesn't exactly surpass it. Each has its own attraction. To methere is no place quite like Italy; it has an indescribable charm. I amafraid we shall not find the sunshine here that we should get there."

  "I am sure it has been lovely for a whole month, scarcely a rainyday. Think how beautiful and sunny it was that day we went to theStarnberger See."

  "Yes, but I am told in winter the sun shines seldom. You see Munichis on a plain where the mists gather and remain. While the sun may beshining brightly on the mountains above, here it will be dull and grayfor weeks at a time. You remember that even at the Isarthal it wasclear and bright, yet we found Munich wrapped in mist when we cameback. It is said to be healthful nevertheless."

  "I don't like the not seeing the sun, but maybe we won't miss it sovery much so long as it doesn't rain much. There is one thing that isvery funny to me, Aunt Helen, and that is to see how the women work.It looks ridiculous to see a woman in an absurd Tyrolese hat with afeather sticking up straight behind, turning the tram switches, and tosee them carrying heavy loads of wood on their backs or pushing a bigcart through the streets is something I cannot get used to. Look at ourlittle Anna here at the _pension_, she goes down into the bowels of theearth somewhere and brings up coal, great buckets of it, over two longflights. Imagine expecting a servant to do that at home."

  "The German point of view is quite different from ours in more than onedirection, you will find."

  "I have noticed that. The other day when we all went out to theIsarthal with Fraeulein Bauer and her brother, although he was as politeas a dancing-master in most ways, he never offered to help her or anyone up those hundreds of steps one must climb to get to the station atHoellriegelsgreuth-Gruenwald."

  Miss Helen laughed. "How did you ever remember that long name, Nan?"

  "Oh, I made a point of it because it was so nice and long. As I wassaying Herr Bauer seemed quite a pig by the side of Dr. Paul who isalways so lovely and courteous to every one. Fraeulein Bauer was quiteovercome when he rushed back to help her. I don't believe a man everdid such a thing before for her."

  "As we were just saying their standards are very different from ours,although you will not find so great differences in the upper classes.Generally speaking, a woman must be a good _hausfrau_ and make the mencomfortable to reach the proper ideal; failing this she is a worthlesscreature in the estimation of most of the men."

  "Give me my own, my native land," sang Nan, "and above all, give me theblessed men from our own part of the country. There are none like themin the whole wide world."

  CHAPTER XII

  ALL SAINTS]