Isat in the soft moss, and held my sausage skewer tight. The moon threwits beams particularly on one spot where stood a tree covered withexceedingly fine moss. I may almost venture to say that it was as fineand soft as the fur of the mouse-king, but it was green, which is acolor very agreeable to the eye. All at once I saw the most charminglittle people marching towards me. They did not reach higher than myknee; they looked like human beings, but were better proportioned, andthey called themselves elves. Their clothes were very delicate andfine, for they were made of the leaves of flowers, trimmed with thewings of flies and gnats, which had not a bad effect. By their manner,it appeared as if they were seeking for something. I knew not what,till at last one of them espied me and came towards me, and theforemost pointed to my sausage skewer, and said, 'There, that isjust what we want; see, it is pointed at the top; is it notcapital?' and the longer he looked at my pilgrim's staff, the moredelighted he became. 'I will lend it to you,' said I, 'but not tokeep.'
  "'Oh no, we won't keep it!' they all cried; and then they seizedthe skewer, which I gave up to them, and danced with it to the spotwhere the delicate moss grew, and set it up in the middle of thegreen. They wanted a maypole, and the one they now had seemed cutout on purpose for them. Then they decorated it so beautifully that itwas quite dazzling to look at. Little spiders spun golden threadsaround it, and then it was hung with fluttering veils and flags sodelicately white that they glittered like snow in the moonshine. Afterthat they took colors from the butterfly's wing, and sprinkled themover the white drapery "which gleamed as if covered with flowers anddiamonds, so that I could not recognize my sausage skewer at all. Sucha maypole had never been seen in all the world as this. Then came agreat company of real elves. Nothing could be finer than theirclothes, and they invited me to be present at the feast; but I wasto keep at a certain distance, because I was too large for them.Then commenced such music that it sounded like a thousand glass bells,and was so full and strong that I thought it must be the song of theswans. I fancied also that I heard the voices of the cuckoo and theblack-bird, and it seemed at last as if the whole forest sent forthglorious melodies- the voices of children, the tinkling of bells,and the songs of the birds; and all this wonderful melody came fromthe elfin maypole. My sausage peg was a complete peal of bells. Icould scarcely believe that so much could have been produced fromit, till I remembered into what hands it had fallen. I was so muchaffected that I wept tears such as a little mouse can weep, but theywere tears of joy. The night was far too short for me; there are nolong nights there in summer, as we often have in this part of theworld. When the morning dawned, and the gentle breeze rippled theglassy mirror of the forest lake, all the delicate veils and flagsfluttered away into thin air; the waving garlands of the spider's web,the hanging bridges and galleries, or whatever else they may becalled, vanished away as if they had never been. Six elves broughtme back my sausage skewer, and at the same time asked me to make anyrequest, which they would grant if in their power; so I begged them,if they could, to tell me how to make soup from a sausage skewer.
  "'How do we make it?' said the chief of the elves with a smile.'Why you have just seen it; you scarcely knew your sausage skeweragain, I am sure.'
  "They think themselves very wise, thought I to myself. Then I toldthem all about it, and why I had travelled so far, and also whatpromise had been made at home to the one who should discover themethod of preparing this soup. 'What use will it be,' I asked, 'to themouse-king or to our whole mighty kingdom that I have seen all thesebeautiful things?