rd? Why haven't you given
him a sword?'

"Oh,' cried Drosselmeier, annoyed, 'you must always be bothering and
finding fault with something or other, boy. What have I to do with
Nutcracker's sword? I've put his mouth to rights for him; he must look
out for a sword for himself.'

"Yes, yes,' said Fritz, 'so he must, of course, if he's a right sort of
fellow.'

"'So tell me, Marie,' continued Drosselmeier, 'if you know the story of
Princess Pirlipat?'

"'Oh no,' said Marie. 'Tell it me, please--do tell it me!'

"'I hope it won't be as strange and terrible as your stories generally
are,' said her mother.

"'Oh no, nothing of the kind,' said Drosselmeier. 'On the contrary,
it's quite a funny story which I'm going to have the honour of telling
this time.'

"'Go on then--do tell it to us,' cried the children; and Drosselmeier
commenced as follows:--

"THE STORY OF THE HARD NUT.

"Pirlipat's mother was a king's wife, so that, of course, she was a
queen; and Pirlipat herself was a princess by birth as soon as ever she
was born. The king was quite beside himself with joy over his beautiful
little daughter as she lay in her cradle, and he danced round and round
upon one leg, crying again and again,

"'"Hurrah! hurrah! hip, hip, hurrah! Did anybody ever see anything so
lovely as my little Pirlipat?"

"'And all the ministers of state, and the generals, the presidents, and
the officers of the staff, danced about on one leg, as the king did,
and cried as loud as they could, "No, no--never!"

"Indeed, there was no denying that a lovelier baby than Princess
Pirlipat was never born since the world began. Her little face looked
as if it were woven of the most delicate white and rose-coloured silk;
her eyes were of sparkling azure, and her hair all in little curls like
threads of gold. Moreover, she had come into the world with two rows of
little pearly teeth, with which, two hours after her birth, she bit the
Lord High Chancellor in the fingers, when he was making a careful
examination of her features, so that he cried, "Oh! Gemini!" quite
loud.

"'There are persons who assert that "Oh Lord" was the expression he
employed, and opinions are still considerably divided on this point. At
all events, she bit him in the fingers; and the realm learned, with
much gratification, that both intelligence and discrimination dwelt
within her angelical little frame.

"'All was joy and gladness, as I have said,