“Ah!” answered the little sausage, “that is because I popped myself into the pot while it was cooking.”
On the next day, as it was her turn to prepare the meals, the little mouse said to herself: “Now I will do as much for my friend as she did for me; we will have lentils for dinner, and I will jump into the pot while they are boiling,” and she let the action follow the word, without reflecting that a simple sausage can do some things which are out of the reach of even the wisest mouse.
When the sausage came home, she found the house lonely and silent. She called again and again, “My little mouse! Mouse of my heart!” but no one answered. Then she went to look at the lentils boiling on the stove, and, alas! found within the pot her good little friend, who had perished at the post of duty.
Poor mousie, with the best intentions in the world, had stayed too long at her cookery, and when she desired to climb out of the pot, had no longer the strength to do so.
And the poor sausage could never be consoled! That is why to-day, when you put one in the pan or on the gridiron, you will hear her weep and sigh, “M-my p-poor m-mouse! Ah, m-my p-poor m-mouse!”
The Three Wishes
Many years ago there was an old married man, who, although poor, had worked very diligently all his life on his little piece of ground. One winter’s night, as this old man was seated with his wife in front of their comfortable hearth in social chat, instead of giving thanks to God for the benefits they enjoyed, they spent the time in enumerating the good things possessed by their neighbors, and in wishing that they belonged to them.
“Instead of my little hut, which is on bad soil, and only fit to house a donkey in, I would like to have the farm of old Polainas!” exclaimed the old man.
“And I,” added his wife, who was annoyed that he did not aspire higher, “instead of that, would like to have our neighbor’s house, which is nearly new.”
“And I,” continued her husband, “instead of our old donkey, which can scarcely carry an empty sack, would like to have Polainas’s mule!”