Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-06
QUEEN FOR Al NAY By EDITH 01 WYATT
By EDITH
 WYATT
Copwt0ht, 1908, bu Edttn Wyott

TTILIE WOLFGANG was the flower of her family, so that lN Nb when an aunt living in Bata- via, a large manufacturing town in Missouri, asked that two Of her brothers children be sent to visit her, Otttlie was the first selected for that pleasure.
 Walter, the noisiest and thus regard ed as the brightest among the little stepbrothers. accompanied her at the special request of the aunt, who had been charmed by his lively habits of strutting and squirming and of pufing and footing through his fat lips.
 The aunt was timid and supersti- hous German lady. She could not speak word of English, Ahe kept no servants for fear of collision with bur glars, and she led a life of maps, of locking windows and of making lace in small, hot. one story house, with no grass plot in front or behind, only a little, bare back yard with & summer house overgrown by coarse, feathery cucumber vine.
 Walter played and showed oE all day with new found little friends next door. Ottiie had mended all hor aunt's clothes when she first came. She did all the homework. but to her quickness and vfgor this occupied only a very little time. She longed to go out walk ing and seeing the sights of the pave ment, but her aunt was too fearful of kidnapers and abductors to permit of this. She tried to read Nathan der Weise," the only book in the house, but this was more of task to her than q pleasure, so she used to sit in the summer house, with her book open in her lap, and watch the backs of the rows of houses on the next street.
 This street was much more pretenl tious than the one where her aunt lived, and few of it's people seemed to stay in the backs of their houses, One room, however, was frequented in the morning by a thin, dark young man. with low collar and pufiing head of hair, who used sometimes to sit in his window and read excitedly and some times to practice on the flute.
 He had a piano, and occasionally he would amuse himself by picking out popular airs on its keys with one fin ger.
 When he did this Ottilie always ac- companied him softly with her voice.
 He spent some endeavor on "Die Lorelei." He did not know it all, and when be had come to the end of his memory he would wait for moment and finish conventionally.
 Once he waited for several rests, and Ottilie's voice was left rising conspicu- ously alone. The young man evidently heard 1t, for he played correctly as far as Ottilie had sung and then waited. Ottilie sang to the end of the song. The young man followed her as far as he caught the notes and then waited again. Ottilie sang again, and by de grees the young man learned all the song.
 When he had finished he came to the window and looked out into the aunt's back yard, but the cucumber vines pre- vented him from seeing in the summer house anything but the light folds of Ottilie's fresh pink gingham dress. Z
 On the next morning Ottilie heard him playing "Die Lorelei'' again, and again she slipped out into the summer house and had a lovely time singing with him.
 He could not see her, but he prostrat- ed himself from his window and flung over the fence a bunch of sweet peas and forgetmenots such as one sees in the morning standing with dewy cab bage leaves and earthly beets on the market stalls of Batavia.
 Tied to his bouquet with small green ribbon was an embossed card, with purple and gilt edges, and "Die Lorelei'' printed in script and signed at the bottom in a flowing German hand, From Sigurd Bhaer." v
 Ottilie came out of the summer house, her pink gingham rustling coolly in the silence of the alley, her smooth yellow braids glancing ill the sunlight. She picked up tho bouquet, smiled radiant ly at the young man and went back to the summer house and the singing.
 After this she came regularly every morning.
 A week had passed since the bouquet was thrown when one evening the post raan brought letter.
 I11S III 1LSGlI3 Wd6 QuuSuStA, LUZ %AO Wo.fgangs followed the habit of genius in writing only under the sway of some excitement. The letter, however, was not from the Wolfgangs, but an invita- ton from the Batavia Knights of ReveI.
 It seemed that every fall there was in the town series of amusements ar ranged by the Knights of Revel, an or ganization of business men and of oth- CT public spirited citizens. There were a labor parade, baseball game, field day with sack racing and hammer throwing, road race, tilting tourna- ment and ball.
 The aunt said instantly on giving this information that she never visited any of these amusements. They wer0 all attended by crowds, interspersed, of course, with pickpockets, or else they were at night, and the aunt went to bed at o'clock.
 When Walter had heard her words through, as he held the invitation, he