I was very much pleased, as you may readily suppose, and, taking the jug, entered at once upon my duties as water carrier. Well, dear mother, as I was just lighting the lamp to-night, the maid came in and handed me six kreuzers. I was delighted with the money. It was fresh from the mint, and though it was only copper, shone just like gold. I thought myself amazingly rich. But the pieces will be far more valuable to you than to me; here I have every thing I need. These new coins I now send to you; I shall send you at the end of each month, all the kreuzers I get. All my letters the carrier has promised to take free. I know that the present is a small one, but the will must be taken for the deed. If the pieces were gold instead of copper, they would better testify the love and affection of your daughter, MARGARET KAURNER. [Illustration] [Illustration] LETTER III. MRS. KAURNER TO HER DAUGHTER MARGARET. MY DEAREST MARGARET:—I write to you in a state of the greatest surprise. My dearest child, what can you have been doing? I know not what to make of your last letter; there you talk of copper coins, and in it you enclose solid gold pieces. My heart misgave me; surely, thought I, in the gay city my dearest Margaret cannot have forgotten the lessons of virtue which were instilled into her mind in days long gone by. Surely, she cannot have been blinded by the glitter of gold, and betrayed into such an evil deed as robbery. Dearest Margaret, you cannot tell the grief that these thoughts cost me. I then read your letter; you speak of shining kreuzers, and call them a poor present. This language puzzled me. Copper, thought I, cannot have turned into gold; perhaps, said I, one of her fellow-servants may have played a trick upon her, and put brass counterfeits into the letter instead of the kreuzers, in order to raise my hopes at first, and then disappoint them. But of this I soon satisfied myself, by taking the coins to a money changer, who assured me that they were perfectly pure gold; every piece worth more than ten florins. I told him the whole circumstances of the case, and he advised me to send the money back at once. "No doubt," he said, "the lady has given the gold coins by mistake for kreuzers. You say it was night, and then the blunder might very easily occur; send them back, by all means; otherwise, this little incident may become a bad business."