74 LARGE YELLOW LADY'S SLIPPER 



Wllhelm Fritz whistling very loudly outside the 

 dining-room window. He does that sometimes, 

 and especially when his flowers are growing well. 

 I called out to know if he remembered it was 

 Tommy's birthday, and then he crooked up his 

 finger and nodded in a way that made me think 

 he wanted me to come out. I said I would as 

 soon as we had had breakfast, and he called back, 

 " rubber boots." Herr Wilhelm Fritz never 

 thinks a girl can go anywhere unless she wears 

 rubber boots. But I put them on before going 

 out as there is not a single thing that Herr Wil- 

 helm Fritz likes to be contradicted about. I 

 thought he was just going to show me which 

 flowers he had saved to send Tommy, only when 

 we were near Grandmother's rose garden, he said : 



" If little Miss like ter take ter der pardy der 

 most wunderschoen of all der vild flowers, Wil- 

 helm Fritz is der man ter know where it grows." 

 He never says wonderful, because he thinks wun- 

 derschoen is " near enough." 



I could hardly think what he meant. Before 

 this he had always called wild flowers, weeds, and 

 said he had better flowers in the garden. But 

 when he asked: " Yer vant ter go? " I said yes, 

 although I didn't know at all where we were 

 going. 



I waved my hand to Sallie and Grandmother, 

 who were still at the window, and went on with 

 Herr Wilhelm Fritz. He started off toward our 



