"On the sixth of March," they said, "we will confer this honour on him, give a grand fête, and have a torch-light procession."
The Crown Prince, who was thirteen now, thought this very fine, and for a few days walked about with dignity, but then he grew tired of such stiffness and joined Prince William and his friend Rudolph von Auerswald, Carl von Stork, and little Prince Carl, in their battles against the mice and rats in the old castle.
On February the first all the bells of this old city of the King rang out most joyfully.
"We have a new little sister," the Royal children told Rudolph and Carl.
"Her name," said the King, "shall be Louisa, for her mother."
"It is because I love thee so dearly," he said to the Queen, "that I have named our youngest little daughter, Louisa."
Tears started to the Queen's eyes.
"May she, dear Fritz, indeed grow up to be thy Louisa."
"I am weary," the King said, "of lords and ladies. It is the people of Prussia who have been my friends and helped me. Therefore, it is they who shall be sponsors at the baptism of my daughter."
So there came men to represent every class of the Prussian people, and they sat down to as fine a feast as the King's pocketbook would permit him to give them.