her mother; 'she
dreamt it all when she was feverish with her arm.'

"'It is all nonsense,' cried Fritz, 'and it isn't true! my red hussars
are not such cowards as all that. If they were, do you suppose I should
command them?'

"But godpapa smiled strangely, and took little Marie on his knee,
speaking more gently to her than ever he had been known to do before.

"'More is given to you, Marie dear,' he said, 'than to me, or the
others. You are a born princess, like Pirlipat, and reign in a bright
beautiful country. But you still have much to suffer, if you mean to
befriend poor transformed Nutcracker; for the king of the mice lies in
wait for him at every turn. But I cannot help him; you, and you only,
can do that. So be faithful and true.'

"Neither Marie nor any of the others knew what Godpapa Drosselmeier
meant by these words. But they struck Dr. Stahlbaum--the father--as
being so strange that he felt Drosselmeier's pulse, and said:

"'There seems a good deal of congestion about the head, my dear sir.
I'll just write you a little prescription.'

"But Marie's mother shook her head meditatively, and said:

"'I have a strong idea what Mr. Drosselmeier means, though I can't
exactly put it in words.'

"VICTORY.

"It was not very long before Marie was awakened one bright moonlight
night by a curious noise, which came from one of the corners of her
room. There was a sound as of small stones being thrown, and rolled
here and there; and between whiles came a horrid cheeping and
squeaking.

"'Oh, dear me! here come these abominable mice again!' cried Marie, in
terror, and she would have awakened her mother. But the noise suddenly
ceased; and she could not move a muscle--for she saw the king of the
mice working himself out through a hole in the wall; and at last he
came into the room, ran about in it, and got on to the little table at
her bed-head with a great jump.

"Hee-hehee!' he cried; 'give me your sweetmeats! out with your cakes,
marchpane and sugar-stick, gingerbread cakes! Don't pause to argue! If
yield them you won't, I'll chew up Nutcracker! See if I don't!'

"As he cried out these terrible words he gnashed and chattered his
teeth most frightfully, and then made off again through the hole in the
wall. This frightened Marie so that she was quite pale in the morning,
and so upset that she scarcely could utter a word. A hundred times she
felt impelled to tell her mother or h