consul's parole for the appearance of the "deserter" or his papers,
without the aid of prolonged diplomacy. In this way the consul had saved
to Milwaukee a worthy but imprudent brewer, and to New York an excellent
sausage butcher and possible alderman; but had returned to martial duty
one or two tramps or journeymen who had never seen America except from
the decks of the ships in which they were "stowaways," and on which they
were returned,--and thus the temper and peace of two great nations were
preserved.
"He says," said the inspector severely, "that he is an American citizen,
but has lost his naturalization papers. Yet he has made the damaging
admission to others that he lived several years in Rome! And," continued
the inspector, looking over his shoulder at the closed door as he placed
his finger beside his nose, "he says he has relations living
at Palmyra, whom he frequently visited. Ach! Observe this
unheard-of-and-not-to-be-trusted statement!"
The consul, however, smiled with a slight flash of intelligence. "Let me
see him," he said.
They passed into the outer office; another policeman and a corporal of
infantry saluted and rose. In the centre of an admiring and sympathetic
crowd of Dienstmadchen sat the culprit, the least concerned of the
party; a stripling--a boy--scarcely out of his teens! Indeed, it was
impossible to conceive of a more innocent, bucolic, and almost angelic
looking derelict. With a skin that had the peculiar white and rosiness
of fresh pork, he had blue eyes, celestially wide open and staring, and
the thick flocculent yellow curls of the sun god! He might have been
an overgrown and badly dressed Cupid who had innocently wandered from
Paphian shores. He smiled as the consul entered, and wiped from his
full red lips with the back of his hand the traces of a sausage he was
eating. The consul recognized the flavor at once,--he had smelled it
before in Lieschen's little hand-basket.
"You say you lived at Rome?" began the consul pleasantly. "Did you take
out your first declaration of your intention of becoming an American
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