ate, from the
fact of my having witnessed all this festivity? I cannot shake it out
of the sausage-peg, and say, "Look, here is the peg, now the soup will
come." That would be a dish that could only be put on the table when
the guests had dined.'

[Illustration: THE ELVES APPLY FOR THE LOAN OF THE SAUSAGE-PEG.]

"Then the elf dipped his little finger into the cup of a blue violet,
and said to me:

"'See here! I will anoint your pilgrim's staff; and when you go back
to your country, and come to the castle of the mouse king, you have
but to touch him with the staff, and violets will spring forth and
cover its whole surface, even in the coldest winter-time. And so I
think I've given you something to carry home, and a little more than
something!'"

But before the little Mouse said what this "something more" was, she
stretched her staff out towards the king, and in very truth the most
beautiful bunch of violets burst forth; and the scent was so powerful,
that the mouse king incontinently ordered the mice who stood nearest
the chimney to thrust their tails into the fire and create a smell of
burning, for the odour of the violets was not to be borne, and was not
of the kind he liked.

"But what was the 'something more,' of which you spoke?" asked the
Mouse King.

"Why," the little Mouse answered, "I think it is what they call
effect!" and herewith she turned the staff round, and lo! there was
not a single flower to be seen upon it; she only held the naked
skewer, and lifted this up, as a musical conductor lifts his _baton_.

"'Violets,' the elf said to me, 'are for sight, and smell, and touch.
Therefore it yet remains to provide for hearing and taste!'" And now
the little Mouse began to beat time; and music was heard, not such as
sounded in the forest among the elves, but such as is heard in the
kitchen. There was a bubbling sound of boiling and roasting; and all
at once it seemed as if the sound were rushing through every chimney,
and pots and kettles were boiling over. The fire-shovel hammered upon
the brass kettle, and then, on a sudden, all was quiet again. They
heard the quiet subdued song of the tea-kettle, and it was wonderful
to hear--they could not quite tell if the kettle were beginning to
sing or leaving off; and the little pot simmered, and the big pot
simmered, and neither cared for the other: there seemed to be no
reason at all in the pots. And the little Mouse flourished her _baton_
more and more wildl