soldiers have sham battles."

Hans jumped up from his seat under the tree and began to march up and
down as though he were a soldier already.

"Attention, battalion! Forward, march!" Bertha called after him.
But she was laughing as she spoke. She could not help it, Hans
looked so serious. At the same time she couldn't help envying her
brother a little, and wishing she were a boy, too. It must be so
grand to be a soldier and be ready to fight for the emperor who ruled
over her country.

"The schoolmaster told us boys yesterday about the grand palace at
Berlin. The emperor lives in it when he is in the city," said Hans,
wheeling around suddenly and stopping in front of Bertha.

"I think you must have caught my thoughts," said the little girl,
"for the emperor was in my mind when you began to speak."

"Well, never mind that. Do you wish to hear about the palace?"

"Of course I do, Hans."

"The schoolmaster says it has six hundred rooms. Just think of it!
And one of them, called the White Room, is furnished so grandly that
2,400,000 marks were spent on it. You can't imagine it, Bertha, of
course. I can't, either."

A German mark is worth about twenty-four cents of American money, so
the furnishing of the room Hans spoke of must have cost about