m
the lips of both. And she was gentle and strong, as a wife can be; and
from her came the consoling words,

"God's will is always the best."

Then her husband asked her,

"From whence hast thou all at once derived this strength--this feeling
of consolation?"

And she kissed him, and kissed her children, and said, "They came from
God, through the child in the grave."

SOUP ON A SAUSAGE-PEG.

I.

"That was a remarkably fine dinner yesterday," observed an old Mouse
of the female sex to another who had not been at the festive
gathering. "I sat number twenty-one from the old mouse king, so that I
was not badly placed. Should you like to hear the order of the
banquet? The courses were very well arranged--mouldy bread,
bacon-rind, tallow candle, and sausage--and then the same dishes over
again from the beginning: it was just as good as having two banquets
in succession. There was as much joviality and agreeable jesting as in
the family circle. Nothing was left but the pegs at the ends of the
sausages. And the discourse turned upon these; and at last the
expression, 'Soup on sausage-rinds,' or, as they have the proverb in
the neighbouring country, 'Soup on a sausage-peg,' was mentioned.
Every one had heard the proverb, but no one had ever tasted the
sausage-peg soup, much less prepared it. A capital toast was drunk to
the inventor of the soup, and it was said he deserved to be a
relieving officer. Was not that witty? And the old mouse king stood
up, and promised that the young female mouse who could best prepare
that soup should be his queen; and a year was allowed for the trial."

"That was not at all bad," said the other Mouse; "but how does one
prepare this soup?"

"Ah, how is it prepared? That is just what all the young female mice,
and the old ones too, are asking. They would all very much like to be
queen; but they don't want to take the trouble to go out into the
world to learn how to prepare the soup, and that they would certainly
have to do. But every one has not the gift of leaving the family
circle and the chimney corner. In foreign parts one can't get
cheese-rinds and bacon every day. No, one must bear hunger, and
perhaps be eaten up alive by a cat."

Such were probably the considerations by which the majority were
deterred from going out into the wide world and gaining information.
Only four mice announced themselves ready to depart. They were young
and brisk, but poor. Each of them wish