"'For my part,' remarked the city mouse, 'I have had rather a tough time of it so far. Now, indeed, I enjoy my ease; but, as I have said, it has been hardly earned. My desire in going to town was, first, to learn something of life, and then aspire to belonging to the class of business mice, which seemed to me the most enviable lot imaginable. I was very near losing sight of this aim once; still I persevered, until now I am reckoned among the most influential people. When I began my career, I was extremely gay; that is, I enjoyed the company of a number of other young mice, who did nothing but frolic the whole day. I might have kept on in this way for any length of time, had I not been suddenly checked.
"'I was invited to a ball given by a wealthy mouse at his country residence, which was located in a nook of the wall of an ice-house. It was really the finest place for the time of year I ever visited, and the wealthy mouse had spared no expense in fitting it up nicely. The coolness of the house was so refreshing in the sultry heat of July; for, if one was too hot, all one had to do was to skip down where the great blocks of ice were piled, and soon get cooled off again. Well, we were all to attend the silver wedding of the old couple. The young mice had the greatest time at the tailor's, wondering what to wear; for we were expected to assume the character of some distinguished person, as it was to be a fancy masquerade. I thought the tailor would have been crazed with getting our costumes made, we altered our minds so often; but, finally, all was ready, and, with our dresses wrapped in brown paper, we started.
"'At the entrance door,—a crack in the stonework,—we were shown by two waiters, in white jackets and aprons, to the dressing-room, where any number of guests were tying on their masks, made of scraps of various colored silks, that certainly had a very stylish appearance. The reception rooms below were truly magnificent. The walls were hung with strips of red and blue paper, gnawed into all manner of fanciful shapes, while a row of glow-worms, placed at intervals, lit up the place in the most beautiful way. At one end of the room stood the host and hostess upon a platform an inch high (she wearing her wedding-dress of lily leaves, which had a very old-fashioned effect, because every one wears swan's-down nowadays), to receive the company, who marched up to make a bow, each in turn. I represented Bluebeard, with a green turban round my head, a red sash with a dagger of a rose-thorn, and a pair of yellow Turkish trousers. This was all very elegant; but I found I could not dance the polka very well, I was so much bundled up. A friend of mine was dressed in a long-tailed coat of scarlet plush, with gold knee-breeches; another had on for armor half of a nutmeg-grater, with a tin shield made of the top of a spice-box, and a thistle-cup for helmet.
"'As for the ladies' toilets, I cannot begin to describe them, there was such a variety of beauty and elegance. One lady's costume I remember especially, however: it was so very dainty. She was equipped as a flower-girl, with a short dress of sea-lettuce, looped by tufts of dandelion down; she wore pink slippers, laced across the instep, a bodice of wasp-wings, and a hat made of a silver three-cent piece, ornamented by a flower in the side. I danced with this lady a great many times, although, as she was masked, I could not see her face at all; and we became quite well acquainted. The dancing-room grew very hot; and the band played splendidly (they were katydids, and worked so hard with their fiddles, it is only a wonder their legs were not worn out entirely), when I proposed to the young lady-mouse to take a walk in the moonlight. We found a good many others strolling along arm in arm; and she had just consented to give me a whisker (as mortals would exchange a lock of hair), when we heard a shrill voice behind us in the distance.
"'"Oh, that is my grandmother!" exclaimed my lovely companion in a whisper, and then she fainted away.
"'The grandmother hobbled up, and she was certainly the ugliest little old mouse I ever saw in my life. Her nose was very long, she wore green spectacles, and used a cane in walking. When she beheld the insensible form of her grand-daughter, she fairly shook her cane at me.
"'"What do you mean?" she said in a hoarse, croaking voice. "I came to the ball to watch this young mouse; and now you have skipped out into the moonlight to take cold, have you?"
"'She attempted to box my ears, while I tried to dodge her sharp claws; and, in so doing, the fair young mouse fell to the ground, thus ruining her pretty hat. The grandmother screamed with rage to see so nice a costume spoiled, and this sent all the guests out to find what was the matter. The noise brought still another guest to the scene that we did not expect: a great cat, with eyes like green fire, came creeping through the grass; but we never noticed her, we were so busy bickering and quarrelling among ourselves.
"'Suddenly she gave a pounce into our midst; and we all ran for our lives, tearing our dresses, losing caps and shoes, tumbling over each other, until we arrived breathless under shelter. We then began to count our number, and found that the poor flower-girl mouse was missing. I peeped out of the crack fearfully, and sure enough the horrible cat was stepping away lightly with our poor companion in her cruel mouth.
"'Of course the ball was closed after this dreadful accident; and as for the grandmother, I have heard she was crazy afterward, so that she had to be confined in an egg-shell with wire bars at the entrance. This event sobered me very much. I began to think that there was something more to be done in the world than frisk about and dress finely.