without
agreeable ones; thus I succeeded in submitting to a great deal that
seemed intolerably burdensome to others. When I was a boy, it was a
holiday for me, for instance, when the entremets at dinner consisted of
omelet, while I see that our Prince Fred is no better satisfied with
that than with the cabbage."

"Your majesty is right; I do not like either," said the crown prince,
"and it was in vain that I consoled myself with the hope that there was
something more to my taste."

"What?" exclaimed the queen, smiling. "You do not like omelet? If you
are a true son of mine, it must become a favorite dish, for when I was
your age, I greatly liked it; and if you will now eat a good plate of
it, I will tell you a story about omelet and salad."

"Oh, mamma, just see, I have liberally supplied my plate; I am,
therefore, entitled to the story," exclaimed the crown prince.

"I will tell the story if the king will permit me," said the queen,
looking at her husband.

"The king requests you to do so," said Frederick William, nodding
pleasantly. "I wish to hear your story, Louisa; you always know new and
very pretty ones; your memory is really a little treasury!"

"It is not a very interesting story, after all," said the queen,
thoughtfully, "except to myself as a youthful reminiscence.--I had gone
with my father and my brother George to Frankfort-on-the-Main to witness
the coronation of the Emperor Leopold. I remember but little of the
festivities, for at that time I was only fourteen years old, and the
pompous ceremonies, together with the deafening shouts of the populace
(who cheered the roast ox, larded with rabbits, no less enthusiastically
than the German emperor), were indescribably tedious to me."

"Dear mamma," exclaimed the crown prince, "possibly the people may have
taken the roast ox for the German emperor."

"Possibly my witty son may be right," said the queen, "and the people
may have rejoiced in so boisterous a manner because they were better
pleased with the roast ox than with the emperor himself. The ceremonies
lasted too long for me, and as all eyes were fixed on the emperor, and
no one paid any attention to the daughter of a younger son of
Mecklenburg, I softly slipped from the gallery of the princes, beckoned
to my sister Frederica, and, followed by our governess, dear Madame
Gelieux, we left the Roemer, and entered our carriage, which made but
slow headway through the dense crowd, but finally conveyed