is long.




CHAPTER VI.

THE GREAT FREDERICK

"I declare, Hans, I should think you would get tired of playing war,"
said Bertha. She was sitting under the trees rocking her doll. She
was playing it was a baby.

Hans had just come home after an afternoon of sport with his boy
friends. But all they had done, Bertha declared, was to play war and
soldiers. She had watched them from her own yard.

"Tired of it! What a silly idea, Bertha. It won't be many years
before I shall be a real soldier. Just picture me then! I shall
have a uniform, and march to music. I don't know where I may go,
either. Who knows to what part of the world the emperor will send
his soldiers at that time?"

"I know where you would like to go in our own country," said Bertha.

"To Berlin, of course. What a grand city it must be! Father has
been there. Our schoolmaster was there while he served his time as a
soldier. At this very moment, it almost seems as though I could hear
the jingling of the officers' swords as they move along the streets.
The regiments are drilled every day, and I don't know how often the