m. He took me in his hand,
certainly, but it was to place me in a cage like a treadmill. Oh, how
dreadful it was! I had to run round and round without getting any
farther, and only to make everybody laugh.

"The jailer's granddaughter was a charming little thing. She had merry
eyes, curly hair like the brightest gold, and such a smiling mouth.

"'You poor little mouse,' said she one day, as she peeped into my cage,
'I will set you free.' She then drew forth the iron fastening, and I
sprang out on the window-sill, and from thence to the roof. Free! free!
that was all I could think of, and not of the object of my journey.

"It grew dark, and as night was coming on I found a lodging in an old
tower, where dwelt a watchman and an owl. I had no confidence in either
of them, least of all in the owl, which is like a cat and has a great
failing, for she eats mice. One may, however, be mistaken sometimes, and
I was now, for this was a respectable and well-educated old owl, who
knew more than the watchman and even as much as I did myself. The young
owls made a great fuss about everything, but the only rough words she
would say to them were, 'You had better go and try to make some soup
from sausage skewers.' She was very indulgent and loving to her own
children. Her conduct gave me such confidence in her that from the crack
where I sat I called out 'Squeak.'

"This confidence pleased her so much that she assured me she would take
me under her own protection and that not a creature should do me harm.
The fact was, she wickedly meant to keep me in reserve for her own
eating in the winter, when food would be scarce. Yet she was a very
clever lady-owl. She explained to me that the watchman could only hoot
with the horn that hung loose at his side and that he was so terribly
proud of it that he imagined himself an owl in the tower, wanted to do
great things, but only succeeded in small--soup from a sausage skewer.

"Then I begged the owl to give me the recipe for this soup. 'Soup from a
sausage skewer,' said she, 'is only a proverb amongst mankind and may be
understood in many ways. Each believes his own way the best, and, after
all, the proverb signifies nothing.' 'Nothing!' I exclaimed. I was quite
struck. Truth is not always agreeable, but truth is above everything
else, as the old owl said. I thought over all this and saw quite plainly
that if truth was really so far above everything else, it must be much
more valuable than sou