y; the pots foamed, threw up large bubbles, boiled
over, and the wind roared and whistled through the chimney. Oh! it
became so terrible, that the little Mouse lost her stick at last.

"That was a heavy soup!" said the Mouse King. "Shall we not soon hear
about the preparation?"

"That was all," said the little Mouse, with a bow.

"That is all! Then we should be glad to hear what the next has to
relate," said the Mouse King.

III.

_What the second little Mouse had to tell._

"I was born in the palace library," said the second Mouse. "I and
several members of our family never knew the happiness of getting into
the dining-room, much less into the store-room; on my journey, and
here to-day, are the only times I have seen a kitchen. We have indeed
often been compelled to suffer hunger in the library, but we got a
good deal of knowledge. The rumour penetrated even to us, of the royal
prize offered to those who could cook soup upon a sausage-peg; and it
was my old grandmother who thereupon ferreted out a manuscript, which
she certainly could not read, but which she had heard read out, and in
which it was written: 'Those who are poets can boil soup upon a
sausage-peg.' She asked me if I were a poet. I felt quite innocent on
the subject, and then she told me I must go out, and manage to become
one. I again asked what was requisite in that particular, for it was
as difficult for me to find that out, as to prepare the soup; but
grandmother had heard a good deal of reading, and she said that three
things were especially necessary: 'Understanding, imagination,
feeling--if you can manage to obtain these three, you are a poet, and
the sausage-wide peg affair will be quite easy to you.'

"And I went forth, and marched towards the west, away into the world,
to become a poet.

"Understanding is the most important thing in every affair. I knew
that, for the two other things are not held in half such respect, and
consequently I went out first to seek understanding. Yes, where does
he dwell? 'Go to the ant and be wise,' said the great King of the
Jews; I knew that from my library experience; and I never stopped till
I came to the first great ant-hill, and there I placed myself on the
watch, to become wise.

"The ants are a respectable people. They are understanding itself.
Everything with them is like a well-worked sum, that comes right. To
work and to lay eggs, they say, is to live while you live, and to
provide for posterit