up the peg in the midst of the green.
They wanted to have a maypole of their own, and the one they now had
seemed cut out for them; and they decorated it so that it was
beautiful to behold.

"First, little spiders spun it round with gold thread, and hung it all
over with fluttering veils and flags, so finely woven, bleached so
snowy white in the moonshine, that they dazzled my eyes. They took
colours from the butterfly's wing, and strewed these over the white
linen, and flowers and diamonds gleamed upon it, so that I did not
know my sausage-peg again: there is not in all the world such a
maypole as they had made of it. And now came the real great party of
elves. They were quite without clothes, and looked as genteel as
possible; and they invited me to be present at the feast; but I was to
keep at a certain distance, for I was too large for them.

"And now began such music! It sounded like thousands of glass bells,
so full, so rich, that I thought the swans were singing. I fancied
also that I heard the voice of the cuckoo and the blackbird, and at
last the whole forest seemed to join in. I heard children's voices,
the sound of bells, and the song of birds; the most glorious
melodies--and all came from the elves' maypole, namely, my
sausage-peg. I should never have believed that so much could come out
of it; but that depends very much upon the hands into which it falls.
I was quite touched. I wept, as a little mouse may weep, with pure
pleasure.

"The night was far too short; but it is not longer up yonder at that
season. In the morning dawn the breeze began to blow, the mirror of
the forest lake was covered with ripples, and all the delicate veils
and flags fluttered away in the air. The waving garlands of spider's
web, the hanging bridges and balustrades, and whatever else they are
called, flew away as if they were nothing at all. Six elves brought me
back my sausage-peg, and asked me at the same time if I had any wish
that they could gratify; so I asked them if they could tell me how
soup was made on a sausage-peg.

"'How _we_ do it?' asked the chief of the elves, with a smile. 'Why,
you have just seen it. I fancy you hardly knew your sausage-peg
again?'

"'You only mean that as a joke," I replied. And then I told them in so
many words, why I had undertaken a journey, and what great hopes were
founded on the operation at home. 'What advantage,' I asked, 'can
accrue to our mouse king, and to our whole powerful st