-namely, _the
truth_. The mice are an enlightened people, and the king is above them
all. He is capable of making me queen, for the sake of truth."

"Your truth is a falsehood," said the Mouse who had not yet spoken. "I
can prepare the soup, and I mean to prepare it."

V.

_How it was prepared._

"I did not travel," the third Mouse said. "I remained in my
country--that's the right thing to do. There's no necessity for
travelling; one can get everything as good here. I stayed at home.
I've not learnt what I know from supernatural beings, or gobbled it
up, or held converse with owls. I have what I know through my own
reflections. Will you make haste and put that kettle upon the fire?
So--now water must be poured in--quite full--up to the brim!--So--now
more fuel--make up the fire, that the water may boil--it must boil
over and over!--So--I now throw the peg in. Will the king now be
pleased to dip his tail in the boiling water, and to stir it round
with the said tail? The longer the king stirs it, the more powerful
will the soup become. It costs nothing at all--no further materials
are necessary, only stir it round!"

"Cannot any one else do that?" asked the Mouse King.

"No;" replied the mouse. "The power is contained only in the tail of
the Mouse King."

And the water boiled and bubbled, and the Mouse King stood close
beside the kettle--there was almost danger in it--and he put forth his
tail, as the mice do in the dairy, when they skim the cream from a
pan of milk, afterwards licking their creamy tails; but his tail only
penetrated into the hot steam, and then he sprang hastily down from
the hearth.

"Of course--certainly you are my queen," he said. "We'll adjourn the
soup question till our golden wedding in fifty years' time, so that
the poor of my subjects, who will then be fed, may have something to
which they can look forward with pleasure for a long time."

[Illustration: THE MOUSE KING UNDERSTANDS HOW THE SOUP IS MADE.]

And soon the wedding was held. But many of the mice said, as they were
returning home, that it could not be really called soup on a
sausage-peg, but rather soup on a mouse's tail. They said that some of
the stories had been very cleverly told; but the whole thing might
have been different. "_I_ should have told it so--and so--and so!"

Thus said the critics, who are always wise--after the fact.

And this story went out into the wide world, everywhere; and opinions
varied concerni