all the mice
within a circle of many miles should be invited at once.

They were to assemble in the kitchen, and the three travelers were to
stand in a row before them, and a sausage skewer covered with crape was
to stand in the place of the missing mouse. No one dared express an
opinion until the king spoke and desired one of them to proceed with her
story. And now we shall hear what she said.

WHAT THE FIRST LITTLE MOUSE SAW AND HEARD ON HER TRAVELS

"When I first went out into the world," said the little mouse, "I
fancied, as so many of my age do, that I already knew everything--but it
was not so. It takes years to acquire great knowledge.

"I went at once to sea, in a ship bound for the north. I had been told
that the ship's cook must know how to prepare every dish at sea, and it
is easy enough to do that with plenty of sides of bacon, and large tubs
of salt meat and musty flour. There I found plenty of delicate food but
no opportunity to learn how to make soup from a sausage skewer.

"We sailed on for many days and nights; the ship rocked fearfully, and
we did not escape without a wetting. As soon as we arrived at the port
to which the ship was bound, I left it and went on shore at a place far
towards the north. It is a wonderful thing to leave your own little
corner at home, to hide yourself in a ship where there are sure to be
some nice snug corners for shelter, then suddenly to find yourself
thousands of miles away in a foreign land.

"I saw large, pathless forests of pine and birch trees, which smelt so
strong that I sneezed and thought of sausage. There were great lakes
also, which looked as black as ink at a distance but were quite clear
when I came close to them. Large swans were floating upon them, and I
thought at first they were only foam, they lay so still; but when I saw
them walk and fly, I knew directly what they were. They belonged to the
goose species. One could see that by their walk, for no one can
successfully disguise his family descent.

"I kept with my own kind and associated with the forest and field mice,
who, however, knew very little--especially about what I wanted to know
and what had actually made me travel abroad.

"The idea that soup could be made from a sausage skewer was so startling
to them that it was repeated from one to another through the whole
forest. They declared that the problem would never be solved--that the
thing was an impossibility. How little I thought that i