Nutcracker and the mouse king

y banquet. Next he addressed the Lady Queen in his most winning tones:
“It is well known to you, my dear, how fond I am of sausage meat.”
The Queen knew very well what he would be at: it was just this, that she herself, as she had often done before, should undertake the serious cookery business with her own royal hands. The High Treasurer must at once send the great golden sausage-pot and the silver stew-pans to the kitchen; a huge fire of sandalwood was kindled there; the Queen tied on her damask cooking apron; and soon all the pots and pans steamed with the sweet odours of pudding-making.
Right up to the Council Chamber stole this tempting smell, till the King, seized by hearty delight, could not restrain himself.
“Excuse me, my lords!” he exclaimed, flew quickly down to the kitchen, kissed the Queen, did a little stirring in the pot with his gold sceptre, and then went back well pleased to the Council.
Now it came to that important point when the bacon should be cut into little bits and broiled upon a silver gridiron. The court ladies stood aside, since the Queen, out of loyalty and respect for her royal husband, would fain perform this task alone. But as soon as the bacon began to sputter, a tiny wee whispering voice made itself heard:
“Give me, too, some of your fry, my sister – want to taste – I a queen like yourself – give me some of the fry!”
The Queen knew well that it was Lady Mouseykins who spoke thus. Lady Mouseykins had lived for many years in the king`s palace. She declared herself related to the royal family, and that she was queen in the realm of Mousedom, wherefore she also kept a great court under the hearthstone. Now our Queen was a kind good-natured lady, and while she. would not exactly recognise Lady Mouseykins as a queen and her sister, she had not the heart to grudge her a taste of the nice things on feast days, and called out:
“Come along, Lady Mouseykins; you may always taste my bacon.”
Thereupon out popped Lady Mouseykins very smartly, jumped on to the hearth, and with her pretty little paws snapped up one shred of bacon after another which the Queen held out to her. But next came leaping forth all the uncles and cousins of Lady Mouseykins, and into the bargain her seven sons – right mischievous scamps – who threw themselves on the bacon, not to be kept off for all the frightened Queen could do.
Luckily the Chief Lady-in-Waiting arrived to the rescue, and hunted away these troublesome guests, so that some of the bacon was still saved from their clutches, which had to be scientifically divided among the sausages after the directions of the Court Mathematician, called in for the purpose.
Trumpets and kettle-drums resounded, as the invited potentates and princes came in gorgeous robes of state to the sausage feast, some on white ambling palfreys, and some in crystal coaches. The King welcomed them with hearty friendliness and courtesy, then took his place, bearing the royal crown and sceptre, at the head of the table.
When the white puddings were first served, it could be seen how his Majesty grew always paler, how he raised his eyes – his bosom heaved with sighs – violent pangs were evidently raging within him.
But when they reached the course of black puddings, he sank back in his arm-chair, sobbing and moaning; he covered his face with his hands; he broke forth into loud lamentations.
All present sprang to their feet; the Body Physician in vain made an effort to feel the King`s pulse; he seemed convulsed by some deep, nameless anguish. At length, at length, after many suggestions, after the use of strong remedies, burning of feathers under his nose, and such like, his Majesty, being so far brought to himself, stammered out almost inaudibly these words:
“Too little bacon!”
“Oh, my poor, unhappy royal spouse!” sobbed the disconsolate Queen, throwing herself at his feet. “Ah, what pain must you be suffering! But here you see the guilty one before you – punish, punish her severely! Ah! Lady Mouseykins it was, with her seven sons, her uncles and cousins, who have eaten up the bacon, and” thereupon the poor Queen fell back in a swoon.
“Chief Lady-in-Waiting, how was this?” cried the King, rising up full of wrath.
The Chief Lady-in-Waiting related what had happened as well as she could; and the King vowed to take revenge on Lady Mouseykins and her family, who had eaten up the bacon out of his sausages.
The Privy Council being summoned, it was resolved to prosecute Lady Mouseykins and to confiscate her property; but as the King considered she might meanwhile go on eating his bacon, the matter was at once placed in the hands of the Court Clockmaker and Engineer.
This man, who was named, exactly like myself, Christian Elias Drosselmeier, undertook, by means of a singular piece of state-craft, to banish Lady Mouseykins and her family for ever from the royal palace. He contrived, accordingly, certain small artfully-constructed machines, in which shreds of toasted bacon were fastened upon a thread; and these Drosselmeier placed round about the habitation of the bacon-nibblers.
Lady Mouseykins was much too clever not to see through his cunning, but all her warnings, all her lectures were thrown away on her seven sons, and many, many of her uncles and cousins, who, enticed by the sweet smell of the bait, ventured within Drosselmeier`s machines; then, as soon as they tried to gnaw away the bacon, found themselves trapped by a grating that fell suddenly behind them, and delivered to shameful execution in the very kitchen where they had enjoyed such pleasant feasts.
With her small band of surviving subjects, Lady Mouseykins abandoned the scene of horror. Woe, despair, and revenge filled her breast. The courtiers exulted, but the Queen was troubled, knowing the nature of Mouseykins, and too well aware that she would not leave her sons and kinsmen unavenged.
Indeed, as her Majesty was one day cooking a fricassee of lights [lungs, of pork or beef], a dish much loved by her kingly husband, Lady Mouseykins appeared and said:
“My sons, my cousins, and kinsmen are dead; take good heed that the Mouse Queen bite not thy little Princess in two – take good heed! Ha! ha!”
With this she went off, and was no more seen; but the Queen stood so terrified that she let the fricassee fall into the fire, and for the second time Lady Mouseykins had spoiled one of the King`s favourite dishes, whereat he was very angry.
“But now that is enough for this evening: the rest another time.”
Earnestly as Mary, who had her own ideas about this story, begged Godfather Drosselmeier to go on with it, he would not let himself be persuaded, but jumped up, saying: “Too much at once is not good: more tomorrow.”
Then, as he was just going out of the door, Fred asked: “But do tell us, Godfather Drosselmeier, is it really true that you invented mouse-traps?”
“How can you talk such nonsense?” cried his mother; but the Counsellor laughed in his queer way:
“Am I not a clever clockmaker; and must not mouse-traps have been invented somehow or other?”
CHAPTER VIII
THE STORY OF THE HARD NUT
Now you see, children (so the Counsellor continued next evening), why the Queen had the wonderfully beautiful little Princess Pirlipat watched over with such care. Was she not right to fear that Lady Mouseykins would fulfil her threat by coming back to bite the royal baby in two? Drosselmeier`s machines were of no use at all against the cautious and crafty Mouse Queen; and only the Court Astronomer, who was also Privy Interpreter of Omens and Stars, could divine that the family of Pussy Purr had the power of keeping off mice from the cradle. So it came about that one of the sons of this family, attached to the court with the title of Chamber Councillors, was held on her lap by each nurse, whose duty was to tickle him into contented performance of such laborious public service.
It was the midnight hour, as one of the Nurses-in-Chief, who sat close to the cradle, started up from a deep sleep. All around lay buried in slumber – there was no murmur; a silence as of death, in which could be heard the faint click of a death-watch worm. But what were the feelings of the Chief Nurse when, right before her, she made out a great ugly mouse standing on its hind paws, and laying its murderous head on the face of the Princess!
With a cry of horror she sprang to her feet. Every one awoke, but in an instant Lady Mouseykins – the huge mouse on Pirlipat`s cradle could be no other – scampered off to a corner of the room. The four-footed Chamber Councillors rushed after her, too late! she had vanished through a crack in the floor. Then at the noise Pirlipat awoke, weeping piteously.
“Thank heaven!” cried the nurses. “She is still alive!”
How great was their dismay, however, when they looked at Pirlipatkin, and saw what had come to the sweet tender child! Instead of the angelic white and rosy curly-haired pate, a thick, distorted head stood on a small, shrunken, crooked body; the sky-blue eyes had changed into green goggling balls staring straight before them; and the pretty little mouth gaped from ear to ear.
The Queen was ready to die for weeping and lamentation; and the King`s study had to be hung with wadded tapestry, since again and again he ran his head against the wall, exclaiming in most lamentable tones, “Oh, unlucky monarch!”
Now might he have seen that it were better to eat his sausages without bacon, and to leave Lady Mouseykins and her kindred in peace beneath the hearthstone. But Pirlipat`s royal father had no such thought; rather he threw all the blame on the Court Clockmaker and Engineer, Christian Elias Drosselmeier of Nuremberg. Therefore he sagely gave command as follows: Within four weeks must Drosselmeier restore the Princess to her former state, or at least suggest some trustworthy means of doing so, else should he suffer a shameful death under the executioner`s axe.
Drosselmeier was not a little …