wet time we had of it. When we
reached our destination I left the vessel: this was far away up in the
north.

"One has a strange feeling on leaving one's own mouse-hole at home,
being carried away in a ship, which becomes a home for the time, and
suddenly finding one's self, at the distance of more than a hundred
miles, standing alone in a foreign land. I saw myself amidst a large
tangled wood full of pine and birch trees. Their scent was so strong!
It is not at all my taste; but the perfume from the wild plants was so
spicy that I was quite charmed, and thought of the sausage and the
seasoning for the soup. There were lakes amidst the forest, the water
was beautifully clear close at hand, but looking in the distance as
black as ink. There were white swans upon the lake. I mistook them at
first for foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them fly I
recognised them. They, however, belong to the race of geese. No one
can deny his kindred. I like mine, and I hastened to seek the field
mice, who, truth to tell, know very little except what concerns their
food; and it was just that on account of which I had travelled to a
foreign country. That any one should think of making soup out of a
sausage-stick seemed to them so extraordinary an idea, that it was
speedily circulated through the whole wood; but that the problem
should be solved they considered an impossibility. Little did I think
then that the very same night I should be initiated into the process.

"It was midsummer; therefore it was that the woods scented so
strongly, they said; therefore were the plants so aromatic in their
perfume, the lake so clear, and yet so dark with the white swans upon
them. On the borders of the forest, amidst three or four houses, was
erected a pole as high as a mainmast, and around it hung wreaths and
ribbons. This was the Maypole. Girls and young men danced round it,
and sang to the accompaniment of the fiddler's violin. All went on
merrily till after the sun had set, and the moon had risen, but I took
no part in the festivity; for what had a little mouse to do with a
forest ball? I sat down amidst the soft moss, and held fast my
sausage-stick. The moon shone brightly on a place where there was a
solitary tree surrounded by moss so fine--yes, I venture to say as
fine as the Mice-King's skin--but it had a green tint, and its colour
was very soothing to the eye. All at once I saw approaching a set of
the most beautiful little people, so