"Dost thou know what?" said Olé Luckoiè. "Now do not be afraid, and
thou shalt see a little mouse!" and with that he held out his hand with
the pretty little creature in it.
"It is come to invite thee to a wedding," said he. "There are two
little mice who are going to be married to-night; they live down
under the floor of thy mother's store-closet; it will be such a nice
opportunity for thee."
"But how can I get through the little mouse-hole in the floor?" asked
Yalmar.
"Leave that to me," said Olé Luckoiè; "I shall make thee little
enough!" And with that he touched Yalmar with his wand, and immediately
he grew less and less, until at last he was no bigger than my finger.
"Now thou canst borrow the tin soldier's clothes," said Olé Luckoiè; "I
think they would fit thee, and it looks so proper to have uniform on
when people go into company."
"Yes, to be sure!" said Yalmar; and in a moment he was dressed up like
the most beautiful new tin soldier.
"Will you be so good as to seat yourself in your mother's thimble,"
said the little mouse; "and then I shall have the honor of driving you!"
"Goodness!" said Yalmar; "will the young lady herself take the
trouble?" and with that they drove to the mouse's wedding.
First of all, after going under the floor, they came into a long
passage, which was so low that they could hardly drive in the thimble,
and the whole passage was illuminated with touchwood.
"Does it not smell delicious?" said the mouse as they drove along; "the
whole passage has been rubbed with bacon-sward; nothing can be more
delicious!"
They now came into the wedding-hall. On the right hand stood the little
she-mice, and they all whispered and tittered as if they were making
fun of one another; on the left hand all the he-mice, and stroked their
mustachios with their paws. In the middle of the floor were to be seen
the bridal pair, who stood in a hollow cheese-paring; and they kept
kissing one another before everybody, for they were desperately in
love, and were going to be married directly.
And all this time there kept coming in more and more strangers, till
one mouse was ready to trample another to death; and the bridal pair
had placed themselves in a doorway, so that people could neither go in
nor come out. The whole room, like the passage, had been smeared with
sward of bacon; that was all the entertainment: but as a dessert a pea
was produced, on which a little mouse of family had bitten the name of
the bridal pair,--that is to say, the first letters of their name; that
was something quite out of the common way.
All the mice said that it was a charming wedding, and that the
conversation had been so good!
Yalmar drove home again; he had really been in very grand society, but
he must have been regularly squeezed together to make himself small
enough for a tin soldier's uniform.