age and despair filled her breast. The court rejoiced greatly; the
queen was very anxious, because she knew Dame Mouseyrinks' character,
and knew well that she would never allow the death of her sons and
other relatives to go unavenged. And, in fact, one day when the queen
was cooking a _fricassee_ of sheep's lights for the king (a dish to
which he was exceedingly partial), Dame Mouseyrinks suddenly made her
appearance, and said: "My sons and my uncles, my cousins and my aunts,
are now no more. Have a care, lady, lest the queen of the mice bites
your little princess in two! Have a care!"

"With which she vanished, and was no more seen. But the queen was so
frightened that she dropped the _fricassee_ into the fire; so this was
the second time Dame Mouseyrinks spoiled one of the king's favourite
dishes, at which he was very irate.

"'But this is enough for to-night; we'll go on with the rest of it
another time.'

"Sorely as Marie--who had ideas of her own about this story--begged
Godpapa Drosselmeier to go on with it, he would not be persuaded, but
jumped up, saying, 'Too much at a time wouldn't be good for you; the
rest to-morrow.'

"Just as Drosselmeier was going out of the door, Fritz said: I say,
Godpapa Drosselmeier, was it really you who invented mousetraps?'

"'How can you ask such silly questions?' cried his mother. But
Drosselmeier laughed oddly, and said: 'Well, you know I'm a clever
clockmaker. Mousetraps had to be invented some time or other.'

"And now you know, children,' said Godpapa Drosselmeier the next
evening, 'why it was the queen took such precautions about her little
Pirlipat. Had she not always the fear before her eyes of Dame
Mouseyrinks coming back and carrying out her threat of biting the
princess to death? Drosselmeier's ingenious machines were of no avail
against the clever, crafty Dame Mouseyrinks, and nobody save the court
astronomer, who was also state astrologer and reader of the stars, knew
that the family of the Cat Purr had the power to keep her at bay. This
was the reason why each of the lady nurses was obliged to keep one of
the sons of that family (each of whom was given the honorary rank and
title of "privy councillor of legation") in her lap, and render his
onerous duty less irksome by gently scratching his back.

"One night, just after midnight, one of the chief nurses stationed
close to the cradle, woke suddenly from a profound sleep. Everything
lay buried in slumber. Not