th flowers and diamonds, and I could no longer recognize my sausage
skewer. Such a Maypole as this has never been seen in all the world.

"Then came a great company of real elves. Nothing could be finer than
their clothes. They invited me to be present at the feast, but I was to
keep at a certain distance because I was too large for them. Then began
music that sounded like a thousand glass bells, and was so full and
strong that I thought it must be the song of the swans. I fancied also
that I heard the voices of the cuckoo and the blackbird, and it seemed
at last as if the whole forest sent forth glorious melodies--the voices
of children, the tinkling of bells, and the songs of the birds. And all
this wonderful melody came from the elfin Maypole. My sausage peg was a
complete peal of bells. I could scarcely believe that so much could have
been produced from it, till I remembered into what hands it had fallen.
I was so much affected that I wept tears such as a little mouse can
weep, but they were tears of joy.

"The night was far too short for me; there are no long nights there in
summer, as we often have in this part of the world. When the morning
dawned and the gentle breeze rippled the glassy mirror of the forest
lake, all the delicate veils and flags fluttered away into thin air. The
waving garlands of the spider's web, the hanging bridges and galleries,
or whatever else they may be called, vanished away as if they had never
been. Six elves brought me back my sausage skewer and at the same time
asked me to make any request, which they would grant if it lay in their
power. So I begged them, if they could, to tell me how to make soup from
a sausage skewer.

"'How do we make it?' asked the chief of the elves, with a smile. 'Why,
you have just seen us. You scarcely knew your sausage skewer again, I am
sure.'

"'They think themselves very wise,' thought I to myself. Then I told
them all about it, and why I had traveled so far, and also what promise
had been made at home to the one who should discover the method of
preparing this soup.

"'What good will it do the mouse-king or our whole mighty kingdom,' I
asked, 'for me to have seen all these beautiful things? I cannot shake
the sausage peg and say, "Look, here is the skewer, and now the soup
will come." That would only produce a dish to be served when people were
keeping a fast.'

"Then the elf dipped his finger into the cup of a violet and said,
'Look, I will anoi