Nutcracker and the mouse king

other`s telling them it was time to go to bed.
“To tell the truth,” cried Fred at length, “my hussars would like some rest now, and so long as I am looking at them I know that not one of them dare nod!”
With this he went off; but Mary earnestly begged:
“Only a little while, dear mother, let me stay here only a little, longer; I have so much still to look after. As soon as I have finished I will go straight to bed.”
Mary was a very dutiful, sensible child, so her good mother could, without anxiety, leave her alone among the toys. But in case of her being so much enchanted by the new doll and the other playthings as to forget the candles burning by the cupboard, her mother put them all out, then only the lamp, which hung from the ceiling in the centre of the room, spread a soft, pleasant light around.
“Come soon to bed, dear Mary, or you will not be up in good time in the morning!” called out the mother, as she went off to her own bedroom.
When Mary found herself alone, she quickly set about what she had in mind to do, at which, she hardly herself knew why, she did not care to be seen by her mother. All this time she had been nursing the injured Nutcracker in her arms, wrapped in a handkerchief. Now she laid him carefully upon the table, softly, softly unwrapped him and examined his hurts. Nutcracker was very pale, but yet he smiled with such an air of melancholy kindness that it went right to Mary`s heart.
“Ah, dear little Nutcracker!” she murmured, “don`t be angry with my brother Fred for hurting you so much; he did not mean any great harm; he is only rather unfeeling through that rough soldier-life, but in other ways a real kind-hearted boy, I can assure you. But now I will take very good care of you till you have grown quite well and happy again. Your teeth shall be put in firm, and your shoulder set straight by Godfather Drosselmeier, who understands these things-“
So Mary was going to say, but could not finish the sentence, for, as she mentioned the name of Drosselmeier, Friend Nutcracker made an ugly, cross face, and his eyes seemed to shoot out green sparkles. Then, just as Mary was ready to feel terrified out of her wits, there again she saw the worthy Nutcracker`s face as placid as ever with its melancholy smile, and now she knew that a draught in the room, making the lamp flicker, must have so transmogrified his countenance for a moment.
“Am I not a foolish girl to be so easily frightened? I actually believed this wooden figure was making faces at me! But I am really getting so fond of Nutcracker, he is such a funny and such a good-natured fellow; and so he must be properly nursed as be deserves.”
With this she took Nutcracker on her arm, approached the glass cupboard, bent down before it, and thus addressed the new doll:
“I beg you very particularly, Missy Clara, to give up your bed to the sick, wounded Nutcracker, and manage as well as you can on the sofa. Remember that you are quite well and strong, or you would not have such plump, red cheeks, and that very few of the handsomest dolls possess so soft sofas as you have.”
Missy Clara, in all her Christmas finery, looked very stuck-up and sulky, and did not answer a word.
“Why should I make so much work about it?” exclaimed Mary, drawing forward the bed, where she laid Nutcracker very gently and softly, bound up his injured shoulder with a pretty little ribbon from her own dress, and covered him snugly with the bed-clothes up to his nose.
“He is not to stay beside that naughty Clara,” she said, and lifted bed, Nutcracker, and all on to the shelf above, so that he lay close to the pretty village of toy houses in which Fred`s hussars were quartered.
She shut up the cupboard, and was going off to her bedroom, when – now listen, children! – there began a soft, soft whispering and stirring and rustling all round her, behind the stove, behind the chairs, behind the cupboard. The clock ticked louder and louder, and gave a whir as if it were going to strike, but did not. Mary looked at it – the great gilded owl which sat on the top had let down its wings so as to cover the whole clock face, at the same time stretching out its ugly cat-like face and its hooked beak. And more loudly came the ticks as plain as words:
“Clock, clock, click! –
Low, softly tick!
Mouse-king`s ears are quick!
Pirr, pirr-ting, tong!
Sing out the old song!
But strike in a low tune!
It will be over soon!”
And pirr-whir, went the clock twelve times, but dully and hoarsely, as if its notes were muffled.
Mary began to creep all over, and in her fright she was on the point of running away, when she saw how Godfather Drosselmeier seemed to have taken the place of the owl, his drab coat-skirts hanging down on both sides like wings; yet she made an effort to be brave, and called out, almost crying:
“Godfather Drosselmeier, Godfather Drosselmeier, whatever are you doing up there? Come down, and don`t frighten me so terribly, you naughty Godfather Drosselmeier!”
But now there broke out from all sides a wild creaking and squeaking, and soon, behind the walls, there was a trotting and galloping as of a thousand tiny feet, and a thousand little lights shone through the chinks in the floor. They were not tapers – no! – but small sparkling eyes; and Mary perceived that a host of mice were everywhere peeping forth and working themselves out. Presently they were going trot, trot, hop, hop, round the room; troops of mice, always growing more numerous and spirited, galloped up and down, and at length formed themselves in ranks, as Fred was accustomed to draw up his troops, when he gave orders for a battle. This struck Mary as very comical; and, not having any natural horror of mice, like many other children, her dread would have passed off, when all at once there came a squeak so piercing and startling that an ice-cold shudder ran down her back.
Oh! what did she now see? Yes, indeed, my worthy reader, Fred, or whatever your name be, I know that your heart is as much in the right place as that of the clever and brave field-marshal Fred Stahlbaum; but, all the same, had you only seen what came before Mary`s eyes, you would have run away on the spot; I believe you would even have jumped quickly into bed and drawn the clothes farther over your ears than there was any need for.
Ah! that is just what Mary could not do, for – would you believe it? – right under her feet burst up sand and lime and crumbled stone, as if thrown out by some subterranean power, and from the floor arose seven mouse-heads with seven glittering crowns, hissing and squeaking terribly. Before long, the body also squeezed itself clear, on the neck of which grew these seven heads, and the huge seven-crowned mouse shrieked with all his throats, three times piping out a greeting to his army, that at once set itself in motion, and charged trot, trot, pit, pit, dot, dot, straight upon the cupboard, straight upon Mary, who still stood by its glass front.
The girl`s heart had been beating so violently for distress and terror that she believed it would soon burst out of her bosom, and then she would die; but now all the blood seemed to freeze in her veins. Half-fainting she staggered back – something went klirr, crack! crash! – and the pane of the cupboard, which she had struck with her elbow, was shivered to pieces.
At the same moment she felt a smarting pain in her right arm, but at once a weight seemed to be taken off her heart, for she heard no more squeaking and shrieking; all had become still, and, though she durst not look, she thought the mice, scared by the crash of glass, must have scurried back into their holes.
But what happened next? Right behind Mary there arose a strange stir and bustle in the cupboard, and tiny voices began to be heard:
“Awake, awake!
Arms to take!
This is the night!
Rouse for the fight!”
And then pealed out a pleasant, pretty chime of bells.
“That is my little bell-toy!” cried Mary joyfully, springing quickly up to look.
Now she saw how the cupboard was lighted up in some wonderful fashion, and how all its inhabitants were on foot. There were several figures there, besides the dolls, running about in confusion and striking with their little arms. All of a sudden, Nutcracker jumped up, threw the blankets far away, and sprang to his feet on the bed, shouting loudly his war-cry of defiance:
“Knick, knack, knack!
Stupid mousey-pack!
Krick, krack, whack!
Hew, hick, and hack!”
And with this he drew his little sword and waved it in the air, and cried:
“You, my dear vassals, friends, and brothers, will you stand by me in the hard battle?”
At once spiritedly replied three Clowns, a Pantaloon, four Chimney-sweepers, two Fiddlers, and a Drummer:
“Yes, lord, we hold to you with steadfast loyalty, – with you we march to combat – to victory or death!”
And they pressed after the martial Nutcracker, who ventured a dangerous spring from the upper shelf.
They, for their part, could well manage the jump, for not only were they thickly clothed in cloth and silk, but there was nothing inside of them but cotton and bran, so down they plumped as softly as bags of wool. But the poor Nutcracker, he would surely have broken arms and legs, for, remember, it was nearly two feet high from the shelf on which he stood to the one below, and his body was as brittle as if cut out of match-wood – yes, Nutcracker would surely have broken his limbs, had not, at the moment he leaped down, Missy Clara sprung from the sofa, and in her soft arms received the hero with his drawn sword.
“Ah, dear, kind Clara, how have I mistaken you!” sobbed out Mary. “I am sure you must have given up your bed to Friend Nutcracker with a good will, after all.”
And now Missy Clara said, pressing the young hero gently to her silken breast:
“Oh, sir, will you, sick and wounded as you are, yet expose yourself to combat and peril? See how eager for the fray are your bold vassals, and how they troop t…