The Cricket's Friends Part 11

"'"Oh, dear!" I panted, "I never was so warm in my life."

"'"What is easier than to carry an umbrella, then?" suggested my companion; and with that he nibbled the stems of two toad-stools until they separated, and carrying one above his own head, gave me the other.

This was a delightful change, for the toad-stools spread so as to shelter our faces from the sun. We trotted along comfortably after this, and finally came to the brink of a brook, where we paused, because we did not know how to get across.

"'"The mountains look such a little way off," said my cousin dismally; yet the brook still whirled on, seeming to laugh at our discomfiture.

"'"I believe we could skip from stone to stone," urged the gray mouse, who was determined not to turn back, if he could possibly help it.

"'So I tried the bits of stone for some distance; and then I found myself away out where the water was ever so deep, and I was seized with fright, not daring to move an inch either way, but clinging to the wet, slimy rock. Presently a beautiful trout came swimming towards me, its sides all clothed in variegated scales, and its handsome eyes sparkling with fun.

"'"What is the matter; are you sea-sick?" laughed the trout, splashing the foam from its tail in my face.

"'"Oh! don't, if you please, I am so giddy now," I cried, and then tumbled headlong into the water.

"'Ugh! what a cold bath that was: it makes me shiver only to think of it. The wicked fish took me on his back, and gave me such a sail as I hope I may never have again in this world. It went up and down, and up and down again, approaching the sh.o.r.e occasionally only to dart off for a fresh trip, until I fairly squealed with fright, clasping its slippery back the while. At last it flung me off, and I landed by my cousin, who did nothing but laugh at me. I was very cross by this time; so, after trying to dry myself upon some blades of gra.s.s, I determined to return home. Just then a fat old bull-frog paddled lazily towards the bank.

"'"Will you carry us across the brook?" inquired my cousin eagerly.

"'"How much do you weigh?" asked the bull-frog, winking slowly.

"Just take up this fellow, and see." He then lifted me upon the bull-frog's back, who carried me safely across before I could say a single word. Afterward he brought my cousin over also, and we were able to resume our journey.

"'Fortunately we overtook a field mouse soon after, who invited us to visit his family in the stump of a tree, which we were glad enough to do, as we were both hungry and tired. That night I was very ill with chills and fever,--probably owing to the cold bath I had taken; and the field mice had to give me a dose of some kind of bark that they always kept in the house, as they lived in a swampy region, which made me better. They none of them thought I could go on the next morning; and, as the gray mouse was so anxious to climb the mountains, I proposed his starting without me. This he consented to do, when one of the young field mice offered to be his guide; and if I felt well enough, I was to join them after a while. I had a very nice visit, indeed: the field mice were so hospitable and kind. I spent most of my time in the house with the ladies, and the eldest daughter was--who do you think? Why, your mother, of course; and a prettier young mouse I never saw.'

"'Don't be foolish,' interrupted Grandmamma.

"'Yes; but you were just as pretty as ever you could be,' urged Grandpapa, politely.

"'I know I was considered the belle of our society;' and Grandmamma tossed her head when she thought of the admirers of her youth.

"'I concluded I would not join my cousin at all,' went on Grandpapa; 'but this I was finally obliged to do, for days pa.s.sed on and they did not return. At this we all began to look grave; so the father field-mouse told me that he was afraid something had happened, and he thought we had better search for them. We made a party of eight, and set out towards the mountains, antic.i.p.ating something dreadful must have befallen the travellers. Ah, what a time we had!

"'We came to a place where the rock rose so steep and straight before us, that I did not consider it possible to climb it. What do you suppose we did? We tied ourselves together, as travellers do when ascending the Alps in Switzerland, although not with such ropes as they use; we fastened the tips of our tails together with bits of gra.s.s, then marched along side by side. This was an excellent arrangement, as we afterwards found; for at one time they all slipped, obliging me to bear their weight upon my tail. It was a terrible moment: I feared it would break, or be pulled out from the roots entirely!

"'At last we reached a shelf of rock where we could rest awhile. The view from this place was splendid. The valleys lay below blooming with verdure, many-colored flowers, and golden grain almost ready for the harvest; the rivers sparkled under the clear sunlight in silvery threads; and of the towns scattered along the the hillside as far as I could see, the church steeples looked like mere arrowy spikes. When I gazed down upon this beautiful smiling earth, and up at the blue sky where the soft white clouds were floating idly along, it seemed to me very wonderful that the good G.o.d, who had made such grand things, had made also little me.

"'We climbed up and up for several days, following footprints that were certainly those of mice; and we hoped belonged to our friends. At last, even such traces ceased; and we were fairly at our wits' end, when we heard faint sounds behind a large leaf. Peering cautiously around the corner, we saw the gray mouse and his companion stretched upon a bed of moss, groaning in the most dismal manner. They were overjoyed to see us again, for they had supposed they must die up there alone. My cousin had slipped, and sprained his ankle terribly; while the field-mouse had lost his balance, in trying to a.s.sist him, and fallen down a precipice some twenty inches high, thus injuring his spine. It was all very well having found them; but how were we to get them away, when neither of them could move a step? We sat for a long time looking at each other in doubt, and then a bright idea struck me.

"'"We can braid this sword-gra.s.s together, and lower them down by it," I said.

"'We soon joined a quant.i.ty in this way, then fastened one end about the waist of my cousin, and let him down to the next ledge. In this way we got them both to the foot of the mountain. Now it remained to carry them across the country; so we tore a mullein leaf in two halves, and, placing the pieces upon birch twigs, formed excellent litters for our invalids. We reached the stump of the field-mice again, after an absence of a month. The surgeon mended my cousin's ankle, which was broken; and, as for the young field-mouse, I am told he has not known what it was to feel well a day since.

"'During the period that we remained, I made a proposal of marriage to your mother, and was accepted; so, with the understanding that I should return in the spring, we finally started home. My mother forgot to scold us, she was so frightened by our long absence. Besides, she received very sad news just at this time. My father, who was away on business, as I have said, was taken with the cholera suddenly, after eating a late supper of bacon rinds, and died. I tried to be a good son ever after,'

concluded he, wiping a tear from his left eye, 'although if I had not been naughty this time, I should never have known your mother.'

"'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 cla.s.s 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 a.s.sume 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 ap.r.o.ns, to the dressing-room, where any number of guests were tying on their masks, made of sc.r.a.ps 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 hoa.r.s.e, 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 gra.s.s; 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-sh.e.l.l 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.

"'When I returned to the city, I went to a merchant mouse of great reputation to seek employment. After some delay, I was shown into his counting-room (behind the fireplace of a lawyer's office), where I found him, as was to be expected, busily engaged at his desk. I told him I should like to be appointed one of his clerks, as I hoped to rise, like himself, to the rank of wealth and importance. He put his pen behind his ear,--it was the pin-feather of a bird,--and smiled rather grimly, as though he fancied a good many mice would enjoy growing as great as he had. The salary I should receive was very small, he told me, and I would have to work very hard for it; still I was not discouraged by all this, so the next morning I entered his store.

"'He was one of the most influential provision mice in the city, doing a large wholesale business with other cities, and the country as well. I belonged at first to the number of young clerks whose duty it was to go about the streets and houses with bags, like rag-pickers, to find odd sc.r.a.ps of bread, cheese, sugar, nuts, raisins, and starch, which we brought to the warehouse, where they were taken in charge by other clerks, who packed them to be carried away, or sold them in piles at a time.

"'It was terribly fatiguing, for we were expected to bring a full bag always by nightfall; but I determined to be industrious; so I persevered, although the time seemed _so_ long before I was promoted to the rank of clerk in the receiving department. From this I have progressed slowly enough, yet I have gained much knowledge. Dear me! I could tell you where a crumb of cheese came from in the dark. Now I am the head of the house; for my employer has retired from business, leaving me in charge. I have also married his only daughter,' said the city mouse, with a proud air.

"'I am glad you have succeeded;' commented Grandpapa kindly; 'only be careful that prosperity does not make you arrogant, as it is apt to.

"'Now, my dear daughter;' he added, turning to the mouse who had arrived second on Christmas Eve, 'what have you been doing this long time?'

"'I went to visit my cousin, as you will doubtless remember. She is a great matchmaker, and perhaps you knew that when you sent me to her; for I was then quite mature in age, and did not inherit any of my mother's beauty, besides. Well, she found me plenty of suitors, and before long I married. I enjoyed life very much at first; but sorrows in plenty awaited me,' sighed the daughter, arranging her c.r.a.pe head-dress.

"'I had four beautiful children; and my pride in them was so great that I decided to take them to the mouse fair, where prizes were to be given to the handsomest babies. The mice were flocking from all quarters to this splendid exhibition, which was given in order to raise funds for an orphan asylum that was much needed in the region.

"'The place selected was under a rock on the margin of a wood. The tent was made of rags joined together; and at the entrance we all paid the admittance fee,--a kernel of corn, which was to go towards the fund. The collection within was very fine. There were a few grains of maize brought all the way from Egypt at immense expense. There was a portrait of one of our distinguished ancestors, painted in brickdust by a young mouse artist of great talent; there was a sc.r.a.p of bacon sent from England; and there were two whole figs given to the fair by a wealthy mouse of high rank. There were also a number of articles to be sold by lottery; a work-box formed of a filbert hollowed out, and lined with moss, besides being fitted up with needles and scissors of fish-bone; a pony carriage made of a scallop sh.e.l.l upon spool wheels, the most luxurious thing to drive in I ever beheld; a candlestick of brown sugar, beautifully nibbled into filigree work by a blind mouse of large experience; and a blanket composed of a sheep's tail, embroidered with cat-whiskers.

"'These are a few of the things I remember, because I nearly ruined my husband by taking shares in them all; and I actually drew nothing, so all that money, or corn rather, was lost.

"'Behind the tables stood rows of young lady-mice, all dressed alike, with b.u.t.tercup caps upon their heads, and wearing ap.r.o.ns, the pockets trimmed with gold thread. This gave them a very pretty appearance; and they sold much more among the gentlemen mice than they would have done, had they been more plainly dressed.

"'At last it was time for the prizes to be given to the finest children; and the committee of ten old mice, who were to decide the important question took their places, and all mothers were told to come forward.

How lovely my dear babies did look! They never cried, or crumpled their little white bibs in the least; and I felt so proud of them I could hardly stand.

"'Well, they took all the prizes: one for his large weight, one for the size of his nose, which was very remarkable for his age; one for the smallness of his feet; and the last for the great length of his tail.

Oh! the other mothers were so enraged and jealous, I was afraid they would tear my eyes out.'

"Here the daughter mouse began to sob and cry, while all of the family tried to comfort her.

"'I will tell the rest: she will not be able,' piped her husband, holding a smelling-bottle to her nose.

"'No, no,' she said in a faint voice, while Grandmamma fanned her: 'I will finish.

"'We started home again with the little dears, and on our way paused to rest for the purpose of eating a few wild berries in the wood, as a luncheon, leaving our nurse at some little distance in charge of the children. We were startled by a sudden squeal, and beheld the nurse trotting towards us, her eyes wild with fright.