I did not sleep, and I can tell you
to-day all that Charles Henry related."

"Well, what was it?" said Fritz Kober, with great delight.

The king reflected a moment, and then said, in a soft voice:

"He told of a king who was so fondly loved by a beautiful fairy, that
she changed herself into a sword when the king went to war and helped
him to defeat his enemies! Is that it. Fritz Kober?"

"Nearly so, sir king; I wish you had such a fairy at your side to-day."

"Still, Fritz," whispered Charles Henry Buschman, "our king does not
need the help of a fairy; our king can maintain his own cause, and God
is with his sword."

"Do you truly believe that, my son?" said the king, deeply moved. "Have
you still this great confidence in me? Do you still believe that I can
sustain myself and that God is with me?"

"We have this confidence, and we will never lose it!" cried Charles
Henry, quickly. "Our enemies over there have no Frederick to lead them
on, no commander-in-chief to share with them hunger and thirst, and
danger and fatigue; therefore they cannot love their leaders as we do
ours."

"And then," said Fritz Kober, thoughtfully, "I am always thinking that
this war is like a battle of the cats and hounds. Sometimes it looks as
if the little cats would get the better of the great bulldogs; they have
sharp claws, and scratch the dogs in the face till they can neither
see nor hear, and must for a while give way; they go off, however, give
themselves a good shake, and open their eyes, and spring forward as
great and strong and full of courage as ever; they seize upon the poor
cats in the nape of the neck and bite them deadly with their strong,
powerful teeth. What care they if the cats do scratch in the mean while?
No, no, sir king, the cats cannot hold out to the end; claws are neither
so strong nor so lasting as teeth."

"Yes," said the king, laughing, "but how do you know but our foes over
there are the hounds and we are the little cats?"

"What!" cried Fritz Kober, amazed, "we shall be the cats? No, no, sir
king, we are the great hounds."

"But how can you prove this?"

"How shall I prove it?" said Fritz Kober, somewhat embarrassed. After
a short pause, he cried out, gayly, "I have it--I will prove it. Those
over there are the cats because they are Russians and Austrians, and do
not serve a king as we do; they have only two empresses, two women. Now,
sir king, am I not right? Women and cats, are they not alike? S