and only when she has eaten sufficient, can the
companion enter to eat the remainder." [Footnote: This was the daily
order of rank with the favorite dogs, for whose service two dog-lackeys,
as they were called, were always in waiting. They took them to walk]

"One could almost envy the king's greyhounds!" sighed the second
footman. "We get dogs' wages, and they the chicken and good treatment.
It is a pity!"

"The worst of it is, the king forbids us to marry!" said Kretzschmar
sadly. "All the others would leave him, but I pay no attention to old
Fritz's snarling and scolding, for he pays for it afterward; first, it
rains abusive words, then dollars, and if the stupid ass hits me over
the head, he gives me at least a ducat for it. Why should not one endure
scoldings when is well paid for it? I remain the fine handsome fellow
that I am, if the old bear does call me an ass! His majesty might well
be satisfied if he had my fine figure and good carriage."

"Yes, indeed, we are very different fellows from old Fritz!" said the
second lackey, with a satisfied air. "A princess once thought me a
handsome fellow! It is eleven years since, as I entered the guards on
account of my delicate figure. I was guard of honor in the anteroom of
the former crown princess of Prussia. It was my first experience. I
did not know the ways of the lords and ladies. Suddenly, a charming and
beautifully-dressed lady came into the anteroom, two other young ladies
following her, joking and laughing, quite at their pleasure. All at
once the elegantly-attired lady fixed her large black eyes upon me, so
earnestly, that I grew quite red, and looked down. 'See that handsome
boy,' she cried. 'I will bet that it is a girl dressed up!' She ran up
to me, and began to stroke my cheek with her soft hand, and laughed. 'I
am right. He has not the trace of a beard; it is a girl!' And before I
knew it she kissed me, then again, and a third time even. I stood still
as if enchanted, and, as I thought another kiss was coming, whack went
a stout box on my ear. 'There is a punishment for you,' said she, 'that
you may know enough to return a kiss when a handsome lady gives you when
the king did not wish them with him; in summer, in an open wagon, the
dogs upon the back-seat, and the footmen upon the forward seat, and
whenever they reproved them, to bring them to order, they addressed them
in the polite manner of one, and not stand like a libber,' and with that
she boxed m