Once upon a time a little mouse and a little sausage, who loved each
other like sisters, decided to live together. They planned it so that
every day one would go to walk in the fields, or to buy things in the
town, and the other would stay at home to keep the house.
One day, when the little sausage had prepared cabbage for dinner, the
little mouse, who had come back from town with a good appetite, enjoyed
it so heartily that she exclaimed: “How delicious the cabbage is to-day,
my dear!”
“Ah!” answered the little sausage, “that is because I popped myself into
the pot while it was cooking.”
On the next day, when it was her turn to prepare the meals, the little
mouse said to herself: “Now I will do as much for my friend as she did
for me; we shall have lentils for dinner, and I will jump into the pot
while they are boiling.” So she did, without stopping to think that a
simple sausage can do some things not to be attempted by even the wisest
mouse.
When the sausage came home, she found the house lonely and silent. She
called again and again, “My little mouse! Mouse of my heart!” but no one
answered. Then she went to look at the lentils boiling on the stove, and,
alas! found within the pot her good little friend, who had perished for
love of her. Poor mousie had stayed too long at her cookery, and when she
tried to climb out of the pot, she had no longer the strength to do so.
The little sausage could never be consoled! That is why to-day, when you
put one in the pan or on the gridiron, you will hear her weep and sigh,
“M-my p-poor m-mouse! Ah, m-my p-poor m-mouse!”
—FRENCH FOLK TALE