"What do you think I have here?" said the Dream Man. "Do not be
frightened, and you shall see a little mouse." And then he held out his
hand, in which lay a lovely little creature. "It has come to invite you
to a wedding. Two little mice are going to be married to-night. They
live under the floor of your mother's storeroom, and that must be a fine
dwelling place."
"But how can I get through the little mouse-hole in the floor?" asked
the little boy.
"Leave me to manage that," said the Dream Man. "I will soon make you
small enough." And then he touched the boy with his magic wand, upon
which he became smaller and smaller until at last he was no longer than
a little finger. "Now you can borrow the dress of your tin soldier. I
think it will just fit you. It looks well to wear a uniform when you go
into company."
"Yes, certainly," said the boy, and in a moment he was dressed as neatly
as the neatest of all tin soldiers.
"Will you be so good as to seat yourself in your mamma's thimble," said
the little mouse, "that I may have the pleasure of drawing you to the
wedding?"
"Will you really take so much trouble, young lady?" said he. And so in
this way he rode to the mouse's wedding.
First they went under the floor, and then through a long passage which
was scarcely high enough to allow the thimble to drive under, and the
whole passage was lit up with the light of rotten wood.
"Does it not smell delicious?" asked the mouse, as she drew him along.
"The wall and the floor have been smeared with bacon rind; nothing could
be nicer."
Very soon they arrived at the bridal hall. On the right stood all the
little lady mice, whispering and giggling as if they were making game
of each other. To the left were the gentlemen mice, stroking their
whiskers with their forepaws. And in the center of the hall could be
seen the bridal pair, standing side by side in a hollow cheese rind and
kissing each other while all eyes were upon them.
More and more friends kept coming, till the mice were in danger of
treading each other to death; for the bridal pair now stood in the
doorway, and none could pass in or out.
The room had been rubbed over with bacon rind like the passage, which
was all the refreshment offered to the guests. But for dessert a pea was
passed around, on which a mouse had bitten the first letters of the
names of the betrothed pair. This was something quite uncommon. All the
mice said it was a very beautiful wedding, and that they had been very
agreeably entertained.
After this Hjalmar returned home. He had certainly been in grand
society, but he had been obliged to creep under a room and to make
himself small enough to wear the uniform of a tin soldier.