"WE HAD such an excellent dinner yesterday," said an old lady-mouse to
another who had not been present at the feast. "I sat number twenty-one
below the mouse-king, which was not a bad place. Shall I tell you what
we had? Everything was excellent--moldy bread, tallow candle, and
sausage.
"Then, when we had finished that course, the same came on all over
again; it was as good as two feasts. We were very sociable, and there
was as much joking and fun as if we had been all of one family circle.
Nothing was left but the sausage skewers, and this formed a subject of
conversation till at last some one used the expression, 'Soup from
sausage sticks'; or, as the people in the neighboring country call it,
'Soup from a sausage skewer.'
"Every one had heard the expression, but no one had ever tasted the
soup, much less prepared it. A capital toast was drunk to the inventor
of the soup, and some one said he ought to be made a relieving officer
to the poor. Was not that witty?
"Then the old mouse-king rose and promised that the young lady-mouse who
should learn how best to prepare this much-admired and savory soup
should be his queen, and a year and a day should be allowed for the
purpose."
"That was not at all a bad proposal," said the other mouse; "but how is
the soup made?"
"Ah, that is more than I can tell you. All the young lady-mice were
asking the same question. They wish very much to be the queen, but they
do not want to take the trouble to go out into the world to learn how to
make soup, which it is absolutely necessary to do first.
"It is not every one who would care to leave her family or her happy
corner by the fireside at home, even to be made queen. It is not always
easy in foreign lands to find bacon and cheese rind every day, and,
after all, it is not pleasant to endure hunger and perhaps be eaten
alive by the cat."
Probably some such thoughts as these discouraged the majority from going
out into the world to collect the required information. Only four mice
gave notice that they were ready to set out on the journey.
They were young and sprightly, but poor. Each of them wished to visit
one of the four divisions of the world, to see which of them would be
most favored by fortune. Each took a sausage skewer as a traveler's
staff and to remind her of the object of her journey.
They left home early in May, and none of them returned till the first of
May in the following year, and then only three of them. Nothing was seen
or heard of the fourth, although the day of decision was close at hand.
"Ah, yes, there is always some trouble mingled with the greatest
pleasure," said the mouse-king. But he gave orders that all the mice
within a circle of many miles should be invited at once.
They were to assemble in the kitchen, and the three travelers were to
stand in a row before them, and a sausage skewer covered with crape was
to stand in the place of the missing mouse. No one dared express an
opinion until the king spoke and desired one of them to proceed with her
story. And now we shall hear what she said.