ou could
give to Kober."

"No, comrade," said Charles Henry, sadly; "I have neither father,
mother, sister, nor brother. I am alone in the world, and have no
other friend but my comrade, Fritz Kober. Will you not give him to me,
comrades? Will you tease him because he is the friend of a poor, young
fellow, against whom you have nothing to say except that he is just
seventeen years old and has no heard and his voice a little thin, not
able to make as much noise as yourself? Promise me that you will not
laugh at Fritz again because he is kind to, and loves a poor, forsaken
boy. If you tease him, he will become desperate and run off from me,
and then, when I fall in battle, he will not close my eyes as he has
promised to do."

"I will never run away from you, darling brother," said Fritz Kober. "We
two shall stay together in camp and in battle. You have won me with your
soft, black eyes: they remind me of those of my good, faithful Phylax."

"Well, well, Fritz shall do as he pleases," said one of the boys; "but
enough with our chatting, let us seek the wood for our fire."

"Wood, wood, let us seek wood," cried all, gayly, and the happy troop
separated on all sides. Only Charles Henry remained to prepare the fire.
With busy haste he took the kettle, which the soldiers had dragged near,
ran to the neighboring market and bought a groschen worth of lard to
make the noodles savory, then hastened back to cut the bacon and mix it
with the noodles. Some of the soldiers returned empty-handed--no wood
was to be found; the soldiers, who had searched before them, had taken
it all.

"It would be horrible not to have noodles this evening," said Fritz
Kober, furiously. "Who knows but they may be the last we shall eat in
this world? The balls may take our heads off to-morrow, and we never
could eat Charles Henry's noodles again."

"What you can do to-day never put off until to-morrow," cried one of the
soldiers. "We must eat noodles to-day, and we must have wood, even if
we have to steal it from the devil's kitchen." And, as he turned around,
his eye fell upon a little hut which stood on the other side of the
camp. "Boys." he cried, gleefully, "do you see that hut?"

"Certainly; that hut is the king's quarters."

"I am willing the king should occupy the hut; but it is covered with
wood, and he does not need that. Come, boys, we will have wood to cook
our noodles."

With a hurrah they started forward to the old forsaken shepherd