Once upon a time a little mouse and a little sausage, who loved
each other like sisters, decided to live together, and made their
arrangements in such a way that every day one would go to walk in the
fields, or make purchases in town, while the other remained 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 fine appetite,
enjoyed it so greatly 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, as 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 will have lentils for dinner, and I will jump into the
pot while they are boiling," and she let the action follow the word,
without reflecting that a simple sausage can do some things which are
out of the reach of 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 at the post of duty.
Poor mousie, with the best intentions in the world, had stayed too
long at her cookery, and when she desired to climb out of the pot, had
no longer the strength to do so.
And the poor 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!"
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