ier to study history if we could have come to
this Kaiser Hall first," remarked Franz. "I know a good deal of Charles
the Great, but I like better to hear of Frederick Barbarossa."

"You are making a great chasm in your likings," laughed Uncle Braun;
"see how many emperors come between them. Besides, I think you are
mistaken in thinking it would have made history easier had you come here
first. Instead, your knowledge of history has made you take interest in
these portraits which you could not have taken had you not known
something of them. So it is with all travelers. The more they have read
of a place, the more intelligent appreciation they have of it when they
see it."

The boys gazed with great interest at each portrait, and also at the
white marble statue of Emperor William I, which had been placed there
and unveiled in March, 1892.

"Now that we have enjoyed living in the past, let us step out upon the
balcony and look at the present in the form of the beautiful Romerberg
Square, its green lawn, and its fountain," suggested their guide.

It was a stirring scene upon which they gazed. People were going to and
fro; and among them Franz saw two familiar figures.

"Fritz," he said, "there is Aunt Steiner and Pixy."

"So it is Aunt Fanny," cried Fritz, joyously; "Aunt Fanny, do you see
us? Pixy! Pixy!"

Scarcely had the sound of the loved voice reached the dog, when he
sprang forward, dragging the weak little woman, who was compelled to
leap and bound over the grass at a pace which was, to say the least,
unaccustomed. She called, coaxed and upbraided by turns, but Pixy never
halted in his race, nor looked back to see how she was faring, but was
making with all speed for the balcony. At length Mrs. Steiner could hold
out no longer. She dropped the line and sank into a seat on the lawn,
and Pixy, released from his burden, sprang up the steps of the Council
House where he was met by a watchman.

"What are you doing in here, you black Satan?" cried the surprised man
as Pixy ran in. "Out with you! Out with you!"

But Pixy had seen the open door into the balcony, had spied his master,
and ran to greet him with every evidence of delight.

"Whom does that black beast belong to?" asked the watchman, hurrying
out.

"To me," replied Fritz, "but--"

"How dare you bring him in here? Come out, both of you."

Uncle Braun advised Fritz to pacify the angry man by telling how it
happened that Pixy got in, but the watchma