SOUP FROM A SAUSAGE SKEWER


    "WE had such an excellent dinner yesterday," said an old
mouse of the female sex to another who had not been present at
the feast. "I sat number twenty-one below the mouse-king,
which was not a bad place. Shall I tell you what we had?
Everything was first rate. Mouldy bread, tallow candle, and
sausage. And then, when we had finished that course, the same
came on all over again; it was as good as two feasts. We were
very sociable, and there was as much joking and fun as if we
had been all of one family circle. Nothing was left but the
sausage skewers, and this formed a subject of conversation,
till at last it turned to the proverb, 'Soup from sausage
skins;' or, as the people in the neighboring country call it,
'Soup from a sausage skewer.' Every one had heard the proverb,
but no one had ever tasted the soup, much less prepared it. A
capital toast was drunk to the inventor of the soup, and some
one said he ought to be made a relieving officer to the poor.
Was not that witty? Then the old mouse-king rose and promised
that the young lady-mouse who should learn how best to prepare
this much-admired and savory soup should be his queen, and a
year and a day should be allowed for the purpose."

    "That was not at all a bad proposal," said the other
mouse; "but how is the soup made?"

    "Ah, that is more than I can tell you. All the young lady
mice were asking the same question. They wished very much to
be queen, but they did not want to take the trouble of going
out into the world to learn how to make soup, which was
absolutely necessary to be done first. But it is not every one
who would care to leave her family, or her happy corner by the
fire-side at home, even to be made queen. It is not always
easy to find bacon and cheese-rind in foreign lands every day,
and it is not pleasant to have to endure hunger, and be
perhaps, after all, eaten up alive by the cat."

    "Most probably some such thoughts as these discouraged the
majority from going out into the world to collect the required
information. Only four mice gave notice that they were ready
to set out on the journey. They were young and lively, but
poor. Each of them wished to visit one of the four divisions
of the world, so that it might be seen which was the most
favored by fortune. Every one took a sausage skewer as a
traveller's staff, and to remind them of the object of their
journey. They left home early in May, and none of them
returned till the first of May in the following year, and then
only three of them. Nothing was seen or heard of the fourth,
although the day of decision was close at hand. "Ah, yes,
there is always some trouble mixed up with the greatest
pleasure," said the mouse-king; but he gave orders that all
the mice within a circle of many miles should be invited at
once. They were to assemble in the kitchen, and the three
travelled mice were to stand in a row before them, while a
sausage skewer, covered with crape, was to be stuck up instead
of the missing mouse. No one dared to express an opinion until
the king spoke, and desired one of them to go on 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
mouldy flour. There I found plenty of delicate food, but no
opportunity for learning 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 what they were directly. They belong to the goose
species, one can see that by their walk. No one can attempt to
disguise 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 which
had actually made me travel abroad. The idea that soup could
be made from a sausage skewer was to them such an
out-of-the-way, unlikely thought, 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 in this place, on the
very first night, I should be initiated into the manner of its
preparation.

    "It was the height of summer, which the mice told me was
the reason that the forest smelt so strong, and that the herbs
were so fragrant, and the lakes with the white swimming swans
so dark, and yet so clear. On the margin of the wood, near to
three or four houses, a pole, as large as the mainmast of a
ship, had been erected, and from the summit hung wreaths of
flowers and fluttering ribbons; it was the Maypole. Lads and
lasses danced round the pole, and tried to outdo the violins
of the musicians with their singing. They were as merry as
ever at sunset and in the moonlight, but I took no part in the
merry-making. What has a little mouse to do with a Maypole
dance? I sat in the soft moss, and held my sausage skewer
tight. The moon threw its beams particularly on one spot where
stood a tree covered with exceedingly fine moss. I may almost
venture to say that it was as fine and soft as the fur of the
mouse-king, but it was green, which is a color very agreeable
to the eye. All at once I saw the most charming little people
marching towards me. They did not reach higher than my knee;
they looked like human beings, but were better proportioned,
and they called themselves elves. Their clothes were very
delicate and fine, for they were made of the leaves of
flowers, trimmed with the wings of flies and gnats, which had
not a bad effect. By their manner, it appeared as if they were
seeking for something. I knew not what, till at last one of
them espied me and came towards me, and the foremost pointed
to my sausage skewer, and said, 'There, that is just what we
want; see, it is pointed at the top; is it not capital?' and
the longer he looked at my pilgrim's staff, the more delighted
he became. 'I will lend it to you,' said I, 'but not to keep.'

    "'Oh no, we won't keep it!' they all cried; and then they
seized the skewer, which I gave up to them, and danced with it
to the spot where the delicate moss grew, and set it up in the
middle of the green. They wanted a maypole, and the one they
now had seemed cut out on purpose for them. Then they
decorated it so beautifully that it was quite dazzling to look
at. Little spiders spun golden threads around it, and then it
was hung with fluttering veils and flags so delicately white
that they glittered like snow in the moonshine. After that
they took colors from the butterfly's wing, and sprinkled them
over the white drapery "which gleamed as if covered with
flowers and diamonds, so that I could not recognize my sausage
skewer at all. Such a maypole had never been seen in all the
world as this. Then came a great company of real elves.
Nothing could be finer than their clothes, and 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 commenced
such music that it 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 black-bird, 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 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?' said the chief of the elves with a
smile. 'Why you have just seen it; 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 travelled so far,
and also what promise had been made at home to the one who
should discover the method of preparing this soup. 'What use
will it be,' I asked, 'to the mouse-king or to our whole
mighty kingdom that I 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 to me, 'Look here, I will anoint your pilgrim's
staff, so that when you return to your own home and enter the
king's castle, you have only to touch the king with your
staff, and violets will spring forth and cover the whole of
it, even in the coldest winter time; so I think I have given
you really something to carry home, and a little more than
something.'"

    But before the little mouse explained what this something
more was, she stretched her staff out to the king, and as it
touched him the most beautiful bunch of violets sprang forth
and filled the place with perfume. The smell was so powerful
that the mouse-king ordered the mice who stood nearest the
chimney to thrust their tails into the fire, that there might
be a smell of burning, for the perfume of the violets was
overpowering, and not the sort of scent that every one liked.

    "But what was the something more of which you spoke just
now?" asked the mouse-king.

    "Why," answered the little mouse, "I think it is what they
call 'effect;'" and thereupon she turned the staff round, and
behold not a single flower was to be seen upon it! She now
only held the naked skewer, and lifted it up as a conductor
lifts his baton at a concert. "Violets, the elf told me,"
continued the mouse, "are for the sight, the smell, and the
touch; so we have only now to produce the effect of hearing
and tasting;" and then, as the little mouse beat time with her
staff, there came sounds of music, not such music as was heard
in the forest, at the elfin feast, but such as is often heard
in the kitchen- the sounds of boiling and roasting. It came
quite suddenly, like wind rushing through the chimneys, and
seemed as if every pot and kettle were boiling over. The
fire-shovel clattered down on the brass fender; and then,
quite as suddenly, all was still,- nothing could be heard but
the light, vapory song of the tea-kettle, which was quite
wonderful to hear, for no one could rightly distinguish
whether the kettle was just beginning to boil or going to
stop. And the little pot steamed, and the great pot simmered,
but without any regard for each; indeed there seemed no sense
in the pots at all. And as the little mouse waved her baton
still more wildly, the pots foamed and threw up bubbles, and
boiled over; while again the wind roared and whistled through
the chimney, and at last there was such a terrible hubbub,
that the little mouse let her stick fall.

    "That is a strange sort of soup," said the mouse-king;
"shall we not now hear about the preparation?"

    "That is all," answered the little mouse, with a bow.

    "That all!" said the mouse-king; "then we shall be glad to
hear what information the next may have to give us."

             WHAT THE SECOND MOUSE HAD TO TELL


    "I was born in the library, at a castle," said the second
mouse. "Very few members of our family ever had the good
fortune to get into the dining-room, much less the store-room.
On my journey, and here to-day, are the only times I have ever
seen a kitchen. We were often obliged to suffer hunger in the
library, but then we gained a great deal of knowledge. The
rumor reached us of the royal prize offered to those who
should be able to make soup from a sausage skewer. Then my old
grandmother sought out a manuscript which, however, she could
not read, but had heard it read, and in it was written, 'Those
who are poets can make soup of sausage skewers.' She then
asked me if I was a poet. I felt myself quite innocent of any
such pretensions. Then she said I must go out and make myself
a poet. I asked again what I should be required to do, for it
seemed to me quite as difficult as to find out how to make
soup of a sausage skewer. My grandmother had heard a great
deal of reading in her day, and she told me three principal
qualifications were necessary- understanding, imagination, and
feeling. 'If you can manage to acquire these three, you will
be a poet, and the sausage-skewer soup will be quite easy to
you.'

    "So I went forth into the world, and turned my steps
towards the west, that I might become a poet. Understanding is
the most important matter in everything. I knew that, for the
two other qualifications are not thought much of; so I went
first to seek for understanding. Where was I to find it? 'Go
to the ant and learn wisdom,' said the great Jewish king. I
knew that from living in a library. So I went straight on till
I came to the first great ant-hill, and then I set myself to
watch, that I might become wise. The ants are a very
respectable people, they are wisdom itself. All they do is
like the working of a sum in arithmetic, which comes right.
'To work and to lay eggs,' say they, and to provide for
posterity, is to live out your time properly;' and that they
truly do. They are divided into the clean and the dirty ants,
their rank is pointed out by a number, and the ant-queen is
number ONE; and her opinion is the only correct one on
everything; she seems to have the whole wisdom of the world in
her, which was just the important matter I wished to acquire.
She said a great deal which was no doubt very clever; yet to
me it sounded like nonsense. She said the ant-hill was the
loftiest thing in the world, and yet close to the mound stood
a tall tree, which no one could deny was loftier, much
loftier, but no mention was made of the tree. One evening an
ant lost herself on this tree; she had crept up the stem, not
nearly to the top, but higher than any ant had ever ventured;
and when at last she returned home she said that she had found
something in her travels much higher than the ant-hill. The
rest of the ants considered this an insult to the whole
community; so she was condemned to wear a muzzle and to live
in perpetual solitude. A short time afterwards another ant got
on the tree, and made the same journey and the same discovery,
but she spoke of it cautiously and indefinitely, and as she
was one of the superior ants and very much respected, they
believed her, and when she died they erected an eggshell as a
monument to her memory, for they cultivated a great respect
for science. I saw," said the little mouse, "that the ants
were always running to and fro with her burdens on their
backs. Once I saw one of them drop her load; she gave herself
a great deal of trouble in trying to raise it again, but she
could not succeed. Then two others came up and tried with all
their strength to help her, till they nearly dropped their own
burdens in doing so; then they were obliged to stop for a
moment in their help, for every one must think of himself
first. And the ant-queen remarked that their conduct that day
showed that they possessed kind hearts and good understanding.
'These two qualities,' she continued, 'place us ants in the
highest degree above all other reasonable beings.
Understanding must therefore be seen among us in the most
prominent manner, and my wisdom is greater than all.' And so
saying she raised herself on her two hind legs, that no one
else might be mistaken for her. I could not therefore make an
error, so I ate her up. We are to go to the ants to learn
wisdom, and I had got the queen.

    "I now turned and went nearer to the lofty tree already
mentioned, which was an oak. It had a tall trunk with a
wide-spreading top, and was very old. I knew that a living
being dwelt here, a dryad as she is called, who is born with
the tree and dies with it. I had heard this in the library,
and here was just such a tree, and in it an oak-maiden. She
uttered a terrible scream when she caught sight of me so near
to her; like many women, she was very much afraid of mice. And
she had more real cause for fear than they have, for I might
have gnawed through the tree on which her life depended. I
spoke to her in a kind and friendly manner, and begged her to
take courage. At last she took me up in her delicate hand, and
then I told her what had brought me out into the world, and
she promised me that perhaps on that very evening she should
be able to obtain for me one of the two treasures for which I
was seeking. She told me that Phantaesus was her very dear
friend, that he was as beautiful as the god of love, that he
remained often for many hours with her under the leafy boughs
of the tree which then rustled and waved more than ever over
them both. He called her his dryad, she said, and the tree his
tree; for the grand old oak, with its gnarled trunk, was just
to his taste. The root, spreading deep into the earth, the top
rising high in the fresh air, knew the value of the drifted
snow, the keen wind, and the warm sunshine, as it ought to be
known. 'Yes,' continued the dryad, 'the birds sing up above in
the branches, and talk to each other about the beautiful
fields they have visited in foreign lands; and on one of the
withered boughs a stork has built his nest,- it is beautifully
arranged, and besides it is pleasant to hear a little about
the land of the pyramids. All this pleases Phantaesus, but it
is not enough for him; I am obliged to relate to him of my
life in the woods; and to go back to my childhood, when I was
little, and the tree so small and delicate that a
stinging-nettle could overshadow it, and I have to tell
everything that has happened since then till now that the tree
is so large and strong. Sit you down now under the green
bindwood and pay attention, when Phantaesus comes I will find
an opportunity to lay hold of his wing and to pull out one of
the little feathers. That feather you shall have; a better was
never given to any poet, it will be quite enough for you.'

    "And when Phantaesus came the feather was plucked, and,"
said the little mouse, "I seized and put it in water, and kept
it there till it was quite soft. It was very heavy and
indigestible, but I managed to nibble it up at last. It is not
so easy to nibble one's self into a poet, there are so many
things to get through. Now, however, I had two of them,
understanding and imagination; and through these I knew that
the third was to be found in the library. A great man has said
and written that there are novels whose sole and only use
appeared to be that they might relieve mankind of overflowing
tears- a kind of sponge, in fact, for sucking up feelings and
emotions. I remembered a few of these books, they had always
appeared tempting to the appetite; they had been much read,
and were so greasy, that they must have absorbed no end of
emotions in themselves. I retraced my steps to the library,
and literally devoured a whole novel, that is, properly
speaking, the interior or soft part of it; the crust, or
binding, I left. When I had digested not only this, but a
second, I felt a stirring within me; then I ate a small piece
of a third romance, and felt myself a poet. I said it to
myself, and told others the same. I had head-ache and
back-ache, and I cannot tell what aches besides. I thought
over all the stories that may be said to be connected with
sausage pegs, and all that has ever been written about
skewers, and sticks, and staves, and splinters came to my
thoughts; the ant-queen must have had a wonderfully clear
understanding. I remembered the man who placed a white stick
in his mouth by which he could make himself and the stick
invisible. I thought of sticks as hobby-horses, staves of
music or rhyme, of breaking a stick over a man's back, and
heaven knows how many more phrases of the same sort relating
to sticks, staves, and skewers. All my thoughts rein on
skewers, sticks of wood, and staves; and as I am, at last, a
poet, and I have worked terribly hard to make myself one, I
can of course make poetry on anything. I shall therefore be
able to wait upon you every day in the week with a poetical
history of a skewer. And that is my soup."

    "In that case," said the mouse-king, "we will hear what
the third mouse has to say."

    "Squeak, squeak," cried a little mouse at the kitchen
door; it was the fourth, and not the third, of the four who
were contending for the prize, one whom the rest supposed to
be dead. She shot in like an arrow, and overturned the sausage
peg that had been covered with crape. She had been running day
and night. She had watched an opportunity to get into a goods
train, and had travelled by the railway; and yet she had
arrived almost too late. She pressed forward, looking very
much ruffled. She had lost her sausage skewer, but not her
voice; for she began to speak at once as if they only waited
for her, and would hear her only, and as if nothing else in
the world was of the least consequence. She spoke out so
clearly and plainly, and she had come in so suddenly, that no
one had time to stop her or to say a word while she was
speaking. And now let us hear what she said.

             WHAT THE FOURTH MOUSE, WHO SPOKE
               BEFORE THE THIRD, HAD TO TELL


    "I started off at once to the largest town," said she,
"but the name of it has escaped me. I have a very bad memory
for names. I was carried from the railway, with some forfeited
goods, to the jail, and on arriving I made my escape, and ran
into the house of the turnkey. The turnkey was speaking of his
prisoners, especially of one who had uttered thoughtless
words. These words had given rise to other words, and at
length they were written down and registered: 'The whole
affair is like making soup of sausage skewers,' said he, 'but
the soup may cost him his neck.'

    "Now this raised in me an interest for the prisoner,"
continued the little mouse, "and I watched my opportunity, and
slipped into his apartment, for there is a mouse-hole to be
found behind every closed door. The prisoner looked pale; he
had a great beard and large, sparkling eyes. There was a lamp
burning, but the walls were so black that they only looked the
blacker for it. The prisoner scratched pictures and verses
with white chalk on the black walls, but I did not read the
verses. I think he found his confinement wearisome, so that I
was a welcome guest. He enticed me with bread-crumbs, with
whistling, and with gentle words, and seemed so friendly
towards me, that by degrees I gained confidence in him, and we
became friends; he divided his bread and water with me, gave
me cheese and sausage, and I really began to love him.
Altogether, I must own that it was a very pleasant intimacy.
He let me run about on his hand, and on his arm, and into his
sleeve; and I even crept into his beard, and he called me his
little friend. I forgot what I had come out into the world
for; forgot my sausage skewer which I had laid in a crack in
the floor- it is lying there still. I wished to stay with him
always where I was, for I knew that if I went away the poor
prisoner would have no one to be his friend, which is a sad
thing. I stayed, but he did not. He spoke to me so mournfully
for the last time, gave me double as much bread and cheese as
usual, and kissed his hand to me. Then he went away, and never
came back. I know nothing more of his history.

    "The jailer took possession of me now. He said something
about soup from a sausage skewer, but I could not trust him.
He took me in his hand certainly, but it was to place me in a
cage like a tread-mill. Oh how dreadful it was! I had to run
round and round without getting any farther in advance, and
only to make everybody laugh. The jailer's grand-daughter was
a charming little thing. She had curly hair like the brightest
gold, merry eyes, 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;
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 so was I, 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 make some soup from sausage
skewers.' She was very indulgent and loving to her children.
Her conduct gave me such confidence in her, that from the
crack where I sat I called out 'squeak.' This confidence of
mine 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 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 then she said he is so terribly proud of it, that he
imagines himself an owl in the tower;- wants to do great
things, but only succeeds in small; all soup on 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 soup from
a sausage skewer. So I hastened to get away, that I might be
home in time, and bring what was highest and best, and above
everything- namely, the truth. The mice are an enlightened
people, and the mouse-king is above them all. He is therefore
capable of making me queen for the sake of truth."

    "Your truth is a falsehood," said the mouse who had not
yet spoken; "I can prepare the soup, and I mean to do so."

                  HOW IT WAS PREPARED


    "I did not travel," said the third mouse; "I stayed in
this country: that was the right way. One gains nothing by
travelling- everything can be acquired here quite as easily;
so I stayed at home. I have not obtained what I know from
supernatural beings. I have neither swallowed it, nor learnt
it from conversing with owls. I have got it all from my
reflections and thoughts. Will you now set the kettle on the
fire- so? Now pour the water in- quite full- up to the brim;
place it on the fire; make up a good blaze; keep it burning,
that the water may boil; it must boil over and over. There,
now I throw in the skewer. Will the mouse-king be pleased now
to dip his tail into the boiling water, and stir it round with
the tail. The longer the king stirs it, the stronger the soup
will become. Nothing more is necessary, only to stir it."

    "Can no one else do this?" asked the king.

    "No," said the mouse; "only in the tail of the mouse-king
is this power contained."

    And the water boiled and bubbled, as the mouse-king stood
close beside the kettle. It seemed rather a dangerous
performance; but he turned round, and put out his tail, as
mice do in a dairy, when they wish to skim the cream from a
pan of milk with their tails and afterwards lick it off. But
the mouse-king's tail had only just touched the hot steam,
when he sprang away from the chimney in a great hurry,
exclaiming, "Oh, certainly, by all means, you must be my
queen; and we will let the soup question rest till our golden
wedding, fifty years hence; so that the poor in my kingdom,
who are then to have plenty of food, will have something to
look forward to for a long time, with great joy."

    And very soon the wedding took place. But many of the
mice, as they were returning home, said that the soup could
not be properly called "soup from a sausage skewer," but "soup
from a mouse's tail." They acknowledged also that some of the
stories were very well told; but that the whole could have
been managed differently. "I should have told it so- and so-
and so." These were the critics who are always so clever
afterwards.

    When this story was circulated all over the world, the
opinions upon it were divided; but the story remained the
same. And, after all, the best way in everything you
undertake, great as well as small, is to expect no thanks for
anything you may do, even when it refers to "soup from a
sausage skewer."


                            THE END