h, no! I have ice cream whenever I want it. All the mountains up here
are covered with ice cream instead of snow, and I have only to send a
beam out a few steps and I have all I want; pink or white, or any color
I choose."

"Oh, how lovely!" sighed Fluff. "Tell us more, Mr. Moonman!"

So I told them about my neighbors, the stars, and my elder brother in
the Sun, with his splendid palace of gold and diamond. We are very fond
of each other, but we cannot often visit each other, so we send letters
and messages by the comets, who come and go, or by the merry meteors.

Well, well, how many questions they did ask, those mice. I had been
telling them about my big mirror, and "Oh!" cried Puff, "can you really
see all the people in the world?"

"Yes, indeed, but not all at once. As I tip my glass this way or that,
so I see this place or that place. Yesterday I saw a fine sight, I can
tell you."

"Oh! what was it? what was it?" cried the three mice.

"You shall hear," I said, "if you will be quiet. Listen now, for it is
nearly time for me to go home, and Flash is looking pale.

[Illustration]

"Well, I saw some wolves go to a concert, and that is more than any of
you ever saw, I'll warrant. In a certain wild part of northern Germany,
there lived three good brothers whom I know very well. Their names are
Hans, Karl, and Wilhelm; and they are musicians by trade; that is to
say, Hans plays on the violoncello, which is a very big fiddle, about
half as big as himself, while Wilhelm has a small fiddle, and Karl toots
away on a kind of little brass trumpet called a cornet. So, now you
know about the men as if you had seen them, for they do nothing in the
world but play on their several instruments. Now, yesterday there was to
be a wedding, and the three brothers were asked to come and play for the
guests to dance. Their way led through a wild and gloomy forest, where
many wild beasts roamed about; but the three started merrily, and
strolled along singing and talking together. Suddenly they stopped
singing, for they heard a noise that was not so pleasant as their song;
it was a long, low howl, and soon came another, and another. Then they
knew that the wolves were coming, and their hearts sank within them.
Anxiously they looked about them. They were in an open space in the
wood. Now a rustling was heard, and out came a gray wolf and looked at
them. The teeth of the three brothers chattered in their heads; it was
like the sound o