I recognized them. They belong to the
goose family--one can see that by their walk; for no one can deny his
parentage. I kept with my own kind. I associated with the forest and
field mice, who, by the way, know very little, especially as regards
cookery, though this was the very subject that had brought me abroad.
The thought that soup might be boiled on a sausage-peg was such a
startling statement to them, that it flew at once from mouth to mouth
through the whole forest. They declared the problem could never be
solved; and little did I think that there, in the very first night, I
should be initiated into the method of its preparation. It was in the
height of summer, and that, the mice said, was the reason why the wood
smelt so strongly, and why the herbs were so fragrant, and the lakes
so transparent and yet so dark, with their white swimming swans.

"On the margin of the wood, among three or four houses, a pole as tall
as the mainmast of a ship had been erected, and from its summit hung
wreaths and fluttering ribbons: this was called a maypole. Men and
maids danced round the tree, and sang as loudly as they could, to the
violin of the fiddler. There were merry doings at sundown and in the
moonlight, but I took no part in them--what has a little mouse to do
with a May dance? I sat in the soft moss and held my sausage-peg fast.
The moon threw its beams especially upon one spot, where a tree stood,
covered with moss so exceedingly fine, I may almost venture to say it
was as fine as the skin of the mouse king; but it was of a green
colour, and that is a great relief to the eye.

"All at once, the most charming little people came marching forth.
They were only tall enough to reach to my knee. They looked like men,
but were better proportioned: they called themselves elves, and had
delicate clothes on, of flower leaves trimmed with the wings of flies
and gnats, which had a very good appearance. Directly they appeared,
they seemed to be seeking for something--I know not what; but at last
some of them came towards me, and the chief pointed to my sausage-peg,
and said, 'That is just such a one as we want--it is pointed--it is
capital!' and the longer he looked at my pilgrim's staff the more
delighted he became.

"'I will lend it,' I said, 'but not to keep.'

"'Not to keep!' they all repeated; and they seized the sausage-peg,
which I gave up to them, and danced away to the spot where the fine
moss grew; and here they set