Nutcracker and the mouse king

word, a hat under his arm, and a first-class head of hair gathered into a bag behind. So splendidly adorned, he stood in his father`s shop, and out of natural politeness cracked nuts for the young ladies, on which account they called him the handsome little nutcracker.
“It is he!” cried the Astronomer, next morning, falling rapturously on the Clockmaker`s neck. “We have him – he is found! But two things, dearest colleague, must be seen to. In the first place, you must provide your excellent kinsman with a strong wooden head having an under jaw that will stand a good strain; then, on arriving at the capital, we ought to keep it carefully secret that we have brought along with us the young man to bite open the nut Crackatuck; he should come on the scene some time later. I read in the horoscope, that the King, after some others have broken their teeth over it to no purpose, will promise the hand of the Princess and succession to the kingdom, as reward for whoever can crack this nut and restore Pirlipat`s lost beauty.”
Drosselmeier`s cousin the Dollmaker was well content that his youngster should marry the Princess Pirlipat and become a prince and a king, and he left the whole charge of the business to the messengers. The head, which Drosselmeier fitted on to his hopeful young nephew, turned out very well, so that he made most successful experiments at cracking the hardest peach stones.
As soon as Drosselmeier and the Astronomer announced at the palace their arrival with the nut Crackatuck, the necessary advertisements were at once published; and these travellers being now supplied with the beauty-charm, many fine young men, some of them princes, eagerly came forward, trusting in their sound jaws to undertake Pirlipat`s disenchantment.
The messengers were not a little horrified when they saw the Princess again. Her small body, with its shrunken members, could scarcely support the huge unshapely head, while the hideousness of her countenance was enhanced by a white woolly beard that had grown over her mouth and chin.
All happened just as the Court Astronomer had read in the horoscope. One youngster in shoes after another bit away at the nut Crackatuck till he, broke his teeth and jaws, without doing the Princess the least good; and as each was then borne away, half-fainting, by the dentist kept ready at hand, he would moan out:
“That was a hard nut!”
When now the King, in the anguish of his heart, promised daughter and kingdom to whoever would perform the disenchantment, there presented himself that pretty lad from Nuremberg, and modestly begged permission to make a trial. None of the candidates had pleased the Princess so much as young Drosselmeier; she laid her little hand on her heart and sighed deeply:
“Ah, if it were he who should bite open the nut Crackatuck and become my husband!”
After most civilly saluting the King and Queen, and also the Princess Pirlipat, young Drosselmeier took the nut Crackatuck from the Chief Master of Ceremonies, put it between his teeth, worked his head powerfully, and crack-crack! the shell broke into several bits. Dexterously picking from the kernel the rough fibres about it, he handed it to the Princess with a respectful scrape of his foot, then closed his eyes and began to step backward.
The Princess at once swallowed the nut and – oh wonder! – the deformity was gone, and there in its place stood an angelic figure, the face dimpled rosy-red and lily-white, the eyes of shining blue, the long locks curled like threads of gold!
Music of trumpets and kettle-drums swelled the loud exultation of the people. The King and his whole court danced on one leg as at Pirlipat`s birth; and the Queen had to be treated with eau de cologne, having fainted away in her transports of joy.
Young Drosselmeier, who had still the seven steps backwards to accomplish, was not a little flustered by this great tumult, yet he kept his balance,and stood raising his right foot for the last step, when Lady Mouseykins, squeaking and squealing shrilly, ran out of the floor, so that in the act of setting down his foot, he trampled upon her, which made him stumble, and he had almost fallen.
Oh, mishap! Suddenly was the youth become as deformed an object as Princess Pirlipat before. His body had shrunk up, and could scarcely bear the weight of the big unshapely head with great eyes staring out of it, and broad, horribly-gaping mouth. Instead of his fine bunch of hair, there hung behind him a kind of narrow wooden cloak with which his lower jaw was worked.
Clockmaker and Astronomer stood beside themselves for dread and amazement, yet they saw how Lady Mouseykins rolled all bleeding on the floor. Her ill nature had not gone unpunished, for, with the sharp heel of his shoe, young Drosselmeier had trodden so hard on her neck that she must die. And, writhing in her death-agony, she squeaked and squawked pitiably:
“Oh, Crackatuck, hard nut that proves my end! Ah, Nutcracker, thy hour is now at hand! Hee! Hee! Woe`s me! But also woe to thee! My son, the Mouse King with the seven crowns, will soon avenge his murdered mother`s wrongs on thee, thou ugly, spoiled, conceited doll! Oh, life so fair and bright, from which I fall to shades of gloomy death – I fail for breath! my last I speak! – Oh! Ah! Eh! Squeak!”
With this cry expired Lady Mouseykins and was carried out by the royal fire-mender.
Hitherto no one had thought of young Drosselmeier, but now Pirlipat reminded the King of his promise, and at once he ordered the hero of the day to be brought forward. But when the unfortunate fellow showed himself in all his deformity, the Princess held both hands before her eyes, crying:
“Away, away with the hideous Nutcracker!”
Forthwith the High Marshal seized him by his narrow shoulders and threw him out at the door. The King, full of rage that a Nutcracker should be forced upon him as son-in-law, put all the blame on the Clockmaker and the Astronomer, and banished them forever from his capital.
That had not appeared in the horoscope which the Astronomer cast at Nuremberg; but he did not fail to make fresh observations, and now read in the stars that young Drosselmeier might take heart in his new condition; for, in spite of his deformity, he should yet become a prince and a king. His unshapeliness, however, could disappear only when the seven-headed heir of Lady Mouseykins, whom she had borne after the death of her seven elder sons, should have been slain by his hand, and when a lady had fallen in love with him, deformed as he was.
You must have actually seen young Drosselmeier about Christmas-time in his father`s shop at Nuremberg – a Nutcracker, it is true, but also a prince in disguise.
There, children, is the story of the hard nut, and now you know why people so often say “That was a hard nut to crack!” and how it comes that nutcrackers are so ugly.
So ended the Counsellor`s tale. Mary thought that Princess Pirlipat was an ill-natured, ungrateful thing; but Fred assured her that if Nutcracker were a brave fellow, he would easily do for the Mouse King, and soon regain his former lovely appearance.
CHAPTER X
UNCLE AND NEPHEW
If it ever happened to any of my honoured hearers or readers to get cut by glass, he will know for himself how much it hurts, and what a bad thing it is altogether, since it takes so long to heal. Mary had to spend nearly a whole week in bed, and when she got up she felt quite light-headed. But at last she grew well again, and could run about the room as merrily as ever.
The glass cupboard made a fine show; for there stood, all new and clean, the trees and flowers and toy-houses, and the beautiful, splendid dolls. First of all, Mary looked for her dear Nutcracker, who, from his place on the second shelf, smiled back to her with his teeth quite in good order. As she again so affectionately surveyed her favourite, it suddenly came into her troubled heart that all Godfather Drosselmeier`s tale was nothing but the history of this Nutcracker and his feud with Lady Mouseykins and her son. Now she saw that her Nutcracker could be no other than young Drosselmeier of Nuremberg, the godfather`s handsome nephew, so unhappily transformed by Lady Mouseykins. For, that the skilful Clockmaker of the Court of Pirlipat`s father was nobody but Counsellor Drosselmeier himself, Mary had never doubted for a moment, even while listening to the tale.
“But why did your uncle not help you? Why did he not help you?” lamented Mary, as she always more and more vividly conceived the idea that in that battle of which she had been a witness, Nutcracker`s kingdom and crown were at stake. “Were not all the other toys his subjects, and was it not sure that the Court Astronomer`s prophecy would be fulfilled, and young Drosselmeier become King of Toyland?”
Wise Mary went on turning the matter over in her mind till she believed that Nutcracker and his vassals had actually the life and motion which she attributed to them in her imagination. But it was not so; everything in the cupboard remained stiffer and stiller than ever; and Mary, resolutely clinging to her inner conviction, put the blame of this on the continued enchantment worked by Lady Mouseykins and her seven-headed son.
“Yet,” she said out loud to the Nutcracker, “if you are not in a condition to move yourself, or to speak to me the least little word, I know, dear Herr Drosselmeier, that you can understand me and my good-will to you; so you may count on my assistance in the hour of need. At all events, I will ask your uncle to give you the aid of his skill where it is necessary.”
Nutcracker remained quiet and still; but to Mary it seemed that a light sigh breathed through the cupboard door, the glass panes thrilling forth almost inaudibly but in wondrously sweet tones, as if a small bell-note were singing:
“Mary mine,
Protectress dear,
I will be thine,
Oh, Mary dear!”
In the ice-cold shudder which came over her, Mary yet felt a strange joy…