The Mouse

There was a mouse who wanted something to eat; so he went to a garden,
where many kinds of grain, and fruit, and cabbages, and other
vegetables were growing. All round the garden the people to whom it
belonged had planted a hedge of thorns, that nothing might get in. The
mouse scrambled through the hedge, but great thorns pierced his tail,
and he began to cry. He came out of the garden again through the
hedge, and on his way home he met a barber.

"You must take out these thorns," said he to the barber.

"I cannot," said the barber, "without cutting off your tail with my
razor."

"Never mind cutting off my tail," said the mouse.

The barber cut off the mouse's tail. But the mouse was in a rage. He
seized the razor and ran away with it. At this the poor barber was
very unhappy and began to cry, for he had no pice wherewith to buy
another.

The mouse ran on and on until at last he came to another country, in
which there were no knives or sickles to cut the grass with. There the
mouse saw a man pulling the grass out of the ground with his hands.

"You will cut your hands," said the mouse.

"There are no knives here," said the man, "so I must pull up the grass
in this way."

"You must take my razor then," said the mouse.

"Suppose your razor should break? I could not buy you another," said
the man.

"Never mind if it does break," said the mouse, "I give it to you as a
present."

So the man took the razor and began cutting the grass, and as he was
cutting, the razor broke.

"Oh, why have you broken my razor?" exclaimed the mouse.

"Did not I tell you it would break?" answered the man.

The mouse snatched up the man's blanket and ran off with it. The
grass-cutter began to cry. "What shall I do?" said he. "The mouse has
carried away my blanket, and I have not money wherewith to buy
another." And he went home very sad.

Meanwhile the mouse ran on and on until he arrived at another country,
where he saw a grain merchant chopping up sugar-canes; only as he had
no blanket or cloth to lay the canes on, he chopped them up on the
ground, and so they got dirty.

"Why do you chop up your canes on the ground?" said the mouse; "they
all get dirty."

"What can I do?" answered the man. "I have no pice wherewith to buy a
blanket to chop them on."

"Then why don't you take mine?" said the mouse.

"If I took yours it would get cut, and I have no money to buy you
another," said the grain merchant.

"Never mind; I don't want another," said the mouse.

So the man took the blanket, and of course he cut it. When he had
finished chopping up his sugar-canes, he gave it back to the mouse.

When the mouse saw the blanket was full of holes, he was very angry
indeed with the man, and seizing all the sugar-canes he ran away with
them as fast as he could. The grain merchant began to cry. "What shall
I do?" said he; "I have no more sugar-canes." And he went home very
sorrowful.

Then the mouse ran on and on till he came to another country, where he
stopped at a sweetmeat-seller's shop. Now in this country there was no
salt and no sugar. And the sweetmeat-seller made his sweetmeats of
flour and ghee without either sugar or salt, so that they were very
nasty.

"Will you give me some sweetmeats for a pice?" said the mouse to the
sweetmeat-seller. "Yes," answered the man, and he gave one. The mouse
began to eat it and thought it very nasty indeed.

"Why, there is no sugar in it!" exclaimed the mouse.

"No," said the man; "we have no sugar in this country. The few
sugar-canes we have are so dear, that poor people like myself cannot
buy them."

"Then take my sugar-canes," cried the mouse.

"No," said the man. "Where should I find the money to pay you for
them? They would be all used in making sweetmeats."

"Take them," said the mouse; "I give them to you."

The sweetmeat-seller took them and began making sweetmeats of all
kinds, so that he used all the sugar-canes.

"Why have you used all my sugar-canes?" cried the mouse.

"Did not I tell you I should do so?" said the man.

"You are a thief!" cried the mouse, and he knocked down the
sweetmeat-seller, seized all his sweetmeats, and ran off with them.

"What shall I do now?" cried the sweetmeat-seller. "I have no money to
buy flour and ghee to make more sweetmeats with; and if I quarrel with
the mouse, he will doubtless kill me."

Meanwhile the mouse ran on and on till he reached a country, the Raja
of which had a great many cows--hundreds of cows. The mouse stopped at
the pasture-ground of these cows. Now, the cowherds were so poor they
could not buy bread every day, and sometimes they ate bread which was
twelve days old. When the mouse arrived, the cowherds were eating
their bread, and it was very stale and mouldy.

"Why do you eat that stale bread?" said the mouse.

"Because we have no money to buy any other with," answered the
cowherds.

"Look at all these sweetmeats," said the mouse. "Take them and eat
them instead of that stale bread."

"But if we eat them, we must pay you for them, and where shall we get
the money?" said the cowherds.

"Oh, never mind the money," said the mouse.

So the cowherds took the sweetmeats and ate them all up. At this the
mouse was furious. He stuck a pole into the ground, and ran and
fetched ropes, and tied the cowherds hand and foot to the pole. Then
he took all the cows and ran off with them.

He ran on and on till he got to a country where there were no fowls,
no cows, no buffaloes, no meat of any kind; and the people in it did
not even know what milk and meat were. The day the mouse arrived was
the day the Raja's daughter was to be married, and a great many people
were assembled together. The Raja's cooks were cooking, but they had
neither meat nor ghee.

"Why are all these people assembled together?" said the mouse.

"To-day is our Raja's daughter's wedding-day, and we are cooking the
dinner," answered the cooks.

"But you have no meat," said the mouse.

"No," said the cooks. "There is no meat of any kind in our country."

"Take my cows," said the mouse.

"No," said the cooks; "our Raja could not pay for them; he is too
poor." (He was only a petty Raja.)

"It does not matter," said the mouse. "I don't want money."

So the cooks took the cows and the sheep and killed them, and dressed
their flesh in different ways; made pilaus and curries; they roasted
some and boiled some, and gave it to the people to eat. In this way
they made an end of all the cows.

"Why have you made an end of all my cows?" cried the mouse.

"Did not we tell you we should make use of them all?" said the cooks.

"Give me my cows," said the mouse.

"We can't. The people have eaten them all up," said the cooks.

The mouse was in a great rage. He ran off to the bridegroom, who was
walking near the kitchen, saying to himself, "Now I will go and fetch
my bride."

"Give me the money for my cows," cried the mouse to him. "Your people
have eaten them all up, and your cooks won't pay me, so you must."

"What have I to do with your cows?" said the bridegroom. "I won't pay
you for them."

"Then if you won't pay me, your wife's father must," said the mouse.

"Oh, _he_ is too poor to pay for your cows," said the bridegroom, "and
I won't."

"Then if I am not paid, I will take away your bride," said the mouse;
and he ran off and carried away the bride.

The Raja was very angry at this; but the mouse ran on and on with his
wife (so he called the Raja's daughter) till he came to another
country.

Now, on the day he arrived in it there were going to be grand sights
and fun to please its Raja. Some jugglers and rope-dancers were going
to perform.

"Take my wife and let her walk on the rope; she is young, and your
wives are old," said the mouse to the rope-dancers.

"No," they answered, "for she does not know how to walk on a rope and
carry at the same time a wooden plate on her head. She would fall and
break her neck."

"But you must take my wife," said the mouse. "She won't fall; she is
young, and your wives are old. You really must take her."

So the rope-dancers took her, much against their will, and when she
began to walk on the rope with the wooden plate on her head, she fell
and died.

"Oh, why have you killed my wife?" cried the mouse.

"Did we not tell you she would fall and kill herself?" answered the
rope-dancers.

The mouse seized all the jugglers' and rope-dancers' wives, and the
things they used in dancing and juggling, and ran off with them. Then
the rope-dancers and jugglers began to cry, and said, "What shall we
do? Our wives and our property are all gone!"

Meanwhile the mouse ran on and on until he came to another country,
where he got a house to live in. And he ate a great deal, and grew so
fat that he could not get through the door of his house.

"Send for a carpenter," said he to the rope-dancers' and jugglers'
wives, "and tell him to cut off some of my flesh. Then I shall be able
to get into my house."

The women sent for a carpenter, and when he came the mouse said to
him, "cut off some of my flesh, then I shall be able to go into my
house."

"If I do," said the carpenter, "you will die."

"No, I shan't die," said the mouse. "Do as I bid you."

So the carpenter took his knife, and cut off some of the mouse's
flesh.

"Oh, dear! oh, dear!" cried the mouse; "how it does hurt! What can I
do to make it stop paining me?"

"You must go to a certain place, where a particular kind of grain
grows, and rub the grain on your wounds. Then they will get quite
well," said the carpenter.

So the mouse ran off to the place to which the carpenter had told him
to go, and rubbed his wounds with the grain. This gave him such pain
that he fell down and died.

The rope-dancers' and jugglers' wives went home to their husbands with
all the things the mouse had carried away, and they all lived happily
ever after.