"'"Dear me, cousin, these things are really wonderful--very wonderful, indeed!"
"'Drosselmeier told him, further, some of the adventures he had met with on his long journey--how he had spent two years at the court of the King of Dates; how the Prince of Almonds had expelled him with ignominy from his territory; how he had applied in vain to the Natural History Society at Squirreltown--in short, how he had been everywhere utterly unsuccessful in discovering the faintest trace of the nut Crackatook. During this narrative, Christoph Zacharias had kept frequently snapping his fingers, twisting himself round on one foot, smacking with his tongue, etc.; then he cried:
"'"Ee--aye--oh!--that really would be the very deuce and all."
"'At last he threw his hat and wig in the air, warmly embraced his cousin, and cried:
"'"Cousin, cousin, you're a made man--a made man you are--for either I am much deceived, or I have got the nut Crackatook myself!"
"'He immediately produced a little cardboard box, out of which he took a gilded nut of medium size.
"'"Look there!" he said, showing this nut to his cousin; "the state of matters as regards this nut is this. Several years ago, at Christmas time, a stranger man came here with a sack of nuts, which he offered for sale. Just in front of my shop he got into a quarrel, and put the sack down the better to defend himself from the nut-sellers of the place, who attacked him. Just then a heavily-loaded waggon drove over the sack, and all the nuts were smashed but one. The stranger man, with an odd smile, offered to sell me this nut for a twenty-kreuzer piece of the year 1796. This struck me as strange. I found just such a coin in my pocket, so I bought the nut, and I gilt it over, though I didn't know why I took the trouble quite, or should have given so much for it."
"'All question as to its being really the long-sought nut Crackatook was dispelled when the Court Astronomer carefully scraped away the gilding, and found the word "Crackatook" graven on the shell in Chinese characters.
"The joy of the exiles was great, as you may imagine; and the cousin was even happier, for Drosselmeier assured him that he was a made man too, as he was sure of a good pension, and all the gold leaf he would want for the rest of his life for his gilding, free, gratis, for nothing.
"'The Arcanist and the Astronomer had both got on their nightcaps, and were going to turn into bed, when the astronomer said: