[Illustration: Camel, fox, and mice.]
Long, long ago and far, far away, there lived in a forest many, many
little mice. They had a wonderful city of their own with their own
little shops and churches and a beautiful large palace for their King.
Each little mouse had his own little house, with his own little chairs
and tables and beds and everything complete. And they all lived very
happily in their Kingdom of Mouseland, until one day a terrible thing
happened to them. A great caravan came through the kingdom, and none of
the men in the caravan knew that their camels were trampling down the
forts and big buildings of Mouseland. To them these buildings looked
like mounds of sand and Mouseland seemed like any other part of the
forest.
So these men, on the backs of the big camels, not knowing what great
havoc they were working with the mice, encamped in Mouseland for the
night.
One of the Camels became sick and, as the owner thought that it was
going to die, he left it in the forest and went on with the caravan. But
the Camel did not die. Very soon he got well and, when he was well, he
became very hungry. So he strolled all about Mouseland, eating up the
crops of the Mice, and treading down their houses until at last he came
to the Mouse King’s park. He ate a great many trees and trampled down
the grass and flowers; and the Keeper ran in a hurry to tell the King.
“Ee-ee-ee-ee!” squeaked the Keeper. “Oh, King, great King! there’s a
large mountain several miles high out in our garden, eating everything
up that is within sight. What shall we do?”
“We must make an example of this mountain,” said the King, “or the whole
earth will be moving and we shall all be destroyed.”
Then the King called to his Prime Minister who was a Fox, named Sandy.
“Go, and command that mountain to come to me at once!”
So Sandy, the Prime Minister, went to find the mountain. And the next
day he came back, leading the Camel by his nose-string. But, when the
Camel saw how very little the King of the Mice was, he began to grunt
and to gurgle, to wrinkle up his nose and make scornful faces at the
King.
“Hello, is this little thing your King? I thought that your King was a
lion at least. I should never have come for such a tiny creature. Bah!
you are no more than a speck.” Then he turned about and stamped out of
the court, eating everything that came in his way.
What could the King do? He was very, very angry, but he had to swallow
his wrath and make the best of it. However, he made up his mind that he
would take revenge.
And one day, the Camel’s nose-string became caught in a creeper so that
he could not get away.
Then Sandy, the Fox, came along and he laughed, “He-he-he! You are at
our mercy now. He-he-he!” And away ran the Fox and told the King.
The King came with the Fox and when he found that the Camel was a
prisoner he said, “Oh, Camel, boastful Camel, you despised my words and
now see the result of your wickedness. You are punished for your sins.”
“Oh, mighty King,” said the Camel very humbly, for he knew now that he
was caught, “I do indeed confess my fault and I pray you to forgive me.
I will be your faithful servant from now on, if you will only save me.”
The Mouse King was not spiteful and, as soon as he heard the Camel beg
for forgiveness, his heart grew very soft and he said, “Camel, oh,
Camel, I will set you free but hereafter you shall be my servant.”
Then the little Mouse climbed up on the creeper and gnawed, and gnawed
through the Camel’s nose-string and set the camel free.
The big Camel kept his word and he became the servant of the Mouse King.
He was so big and strong that he could carry loads which would have
needed thousands of Mice, and so he could do more work in one day than a
whole army of Mice could do in a week.
The Mouse King commanded the Camel to build strong walls and forts
around the city and to make everything so strong that he had no fear of
his enemies.
For a long, long time, things went on very smoothly, but one day some
Woodcutters came into the forest. These men lived in a strong village of
their own and they used the forest wood to build houses. When anyone
wanted a new house, the Woodcutters went into the forest and chopped
down trees, sawed them into planks, and built a house.
Now, in the course of their wanderings, the Woodcutters found the stray
Camel. They seized him and carried him away to serve them by drawing
wood.
[Illustration: “Pooh! You silly little mouse,” laughed the
Woodcutters.... “Come and get your Camel if you want him.”]
[Illustration: “Pooh! You silly little mouse,” laughed the
Woodcutters.... “Come and get your Camel if you want him.”]
When Sandy told the King that their Camel was caught by the Woodcutters,
the Mouse King sent the Fox with a bodyguard to bring the Woodcutters to
him. Two of the Woodcutters came before the King, but when they saw the
tiny Mouse King, they laughed in his face and mocked him.
“I demand that you return my Camel at once!” squeaked the Mouse King.
“Pooh! You silly little Mouse,” laughed the Woodcutters. “Come and get
your Camel if you want him!”
“That is what I will do,” said the Mouse King. “You may tell your Chief
that I will make war upon him unless he gives me back my Camel.”
Then the Mouse King called his subjects—millions and millions of
them—and they all set out for the village of the Woodcutters.
The Woodcutters had just finished their work and they had been paid a
good sum of money, so they were all feeling very happy.
Now the tiny Mice were not able to meet the big Woodcutters out in the
field, and fight them, but they had their own way of waging warfare.
Night and day, day and night, they burrowed and burrowed under the
earth. First they gnawed under the treasury, where no danger was
expected; and, one by one, they carried off every coin until it was all
empty. Then they burrowed underneath all the houses in the village.
Millions of Mice were busy all day and all night, carrying out little
baskets of earth from under the foundations. They worked and worked and
they gnawed and gnawed, until very soon the Woodcutters’ village was
standing on a thin shell of earth, while underneath them was a big dark
hole.
At last the Mouse King felt that the time had come to strike a blow. He
knew that the crust of earth was so thin that the least shock would
destroy it. So the Mouse King wrote a letter to the Woodcutter Chief
asking once more for his Camel. And in this letter he hid a small
package of snuff. He put the letter in the mail and then all of the Mice
went away and waited.
When the postman brought the letter to the Woodcutter Chief, he read it
through and laughed heartily.
“Ha-ha-ha! that’s a good joke. His majesty, the Mouse King, demands that
I send back the Camel, or he will wage war against us. Well, let him
come on. We will soon wipe the Mice from the face of the earth.”
He waved the letter in the air and said, “Let them come on at once!”
Now, as he waved the letter about, all the snuff fell out of it and flew
up his nose.
“Kerchoo-Kerchoo-Kerchoo-oo!” sneezed the Chief. And
“Kerchoo-Kerchoo-Kerchoo-oo!” sneezed all the men who were near him.
They sneezed so loud and so long that the house shook. The thin crust of
earth under them trembled and gave way, and all the Woodcutters fell in,
and all the houses in the village tumbled and sank down into the deep
dark hole.
After this victory, the Mouse King led his Camel and his army back to
Mouseland where they lived in peace the rest of their lives.
[Illustration: Lion]