"When they had finished the meal, they made a circle around the fire; and, the ladies not objecting, the gentlemen lit their cigars, which were in reality straw tubes.
"'I wish somebody would tell a story,' said a little lame mouse, who had been obliged to stay in the house all day, because it could not run and jump like the others, but had to hobble along on a crutch made of a lucifer match.
"'Yes, yes, Grandpapa, tell us a story,' cried all the other young mice in a breath.
"'I don't know any stories,' said Grandpapa, puffing away at his straw cigar. 'Ask your uncle.'
"So they began to clamor at the bachelor uncle, and he finally consented to amuse them. Now, of all the family, he was the most doleful mouse imaginable; and before he began his story Grandmamma whispered to one of her daughters-in-law, that he had been disappointed in love, which accounted for his melancholy. Whether this was true or not, I do not know; but he also suffered from dyspepsia, and that is apt to make one sad, it is said: so perhaps it was his liver, and not his heart, that was affected. He now drew his seat closer to the fire, and began:—
"'I fear I shall not be able to tell you any thing very wonderful: still I can give you some description of my own life since I left home; and, when I have finished, I hope some of my brothers and sisters will also tell us what they have been about. When I was a young mouse, my health was very delicate: the doctor feared a throat affection, so I decided to go farther south for change of air. There was no need for me to settle anywhere: I was not a marrying mouse.' [Here Grandmamma nodded and winked, as much as to say, "I told you so.">[
"'Ordinary society did not suit me at all: to hear a mouse talk of nothing but his dinner, seemed very tame. That reminds me it is time to take my medicine two hours after eating. Dear, dear, I nearly forgot!'
"The bachelor unfastened a bit of goose quill, corked at both ends, that was hung about his neck with a string, and took a pill from it. He then resumed his story:—
"'I journeyed on in frequent danger, until I reached the handsome town where I now live. I had to cross a broad beach, and saw the ocean rolling in great waves of foam, before I came to the houses. It was night, and the stars shone brightly overhead; but I was so tired with my day's tramp, that I crawled into a stone wall, to rest. I was soon disturbed by a squirrel's scrambling in after me.
"'"Good evening, sir," I said; for my mother had always taught me to be especially polite to strangers. "Will you tell me where I can find a night's lodging?"