'Godpapa,' said Frederick, who had been examining the nutcracker, 'what have you done with his sword?'

I know nothing about his sword!' replied godpapa, if he wants a sword, let him get one.'

The history, the history!' said Mary.

'I hope,' said Mrs. S., that this tale is not so frightful as some that you tell?'

'No, no,' answered godpapa; it is a merry one, and will do no harm.'

The history, the history!' shouted the two children, and godpapa commenced thus:

CHAPTER VI.-History of the Hard Nut:

'The mother of Pearlo price was the wife of a king, consequently a queen, and Pearloprice, as soon as she was born, was herself a princess. The king was quite beside himself with joy. He sang, he danced, he hopped upon one leg, and cried out twenty times, "Did you ever see anything so beautiful as my little Pearloprice?"

The cabinet ministers, the law officers, the generals, the bench of magi, all the court hopped, like their sovereign, upon one leg, exclaiming, in a loud voice, "No! we never did see anything half so beautiful!"

Indeed, it could not be denied that the princess Pearloprice was the finest child ever seen. Her face was like a beautiful tissue of silk; mingled lilies and roses her eyes were brilliantly azure: her hair fell around her in long curling ringlets: she was born with two rows of teeth, like seed pearl, with which, soon after her birth, she bit the lord chancellor so hard, that his lordship hollowed out pretty loudly.

'As I said before, all the court was ravished; but her majesty the queen was melancholy, peevish, and no one knew why. But it was remarked that the doors of the nursery were guarded; that six ladies and two nurses watched by the cradle day and night; that, which was the strangest of all, these six ladies held each of them a cat upon their knees, which they caressed so as to keep up a continual purring. You cannot possibly guess, my dear children, why the mother of Pearloprice took these precautions; I know why, and will now tell you.

It came to pass one day, that several powerful kings and very agreeable princes, assembled at the court of the father of princess Pearloprice; and on that occasion a number of brilliant fêtes and balls were given. His majesty determined to give an extraordinary grand party, and, after having conferred with the principal pastrycook of the court and the chief astrologer, he issued out his invitations; afterwards he said to the queen, "You know, my dear love, how fond we are of puddings?"

'The queen understood very well that this speech signified that she should, herself, look after the puddings. The grand chamberlain was ordered to bring the large golden pot and silver stewpans; a fire of sandal wood was lighted, and, in a very short time, delicious fumes spread on all sides. The smell of the boiling pudding even reached the chamber where his majesty was sitting in council; he could not contain himself, but jumping up, said, "Gentlemen, with your leave!" and he

bolted off to the kitchen, embraced the queen, took off the lid of the pot with his sceptre, sniffed it, and then returned to the council-board.

The important moment arrived when the lard, which had been cut into little slices, was to be roasted upon the silver gridirons, and then thrown into the stewpan. The ladies in waiting, out of respect to her majesty, who wished to execute the affair by herself, stood aloof; but, at the moment when the lard began to fry, a strange, little whistling voice exclaimed: "Give me some of this, sister; I mean to feast; I am also a queen!" The queen knew that it was dame Greymouse who spoke. Dame Greymouse had lived many years in the palace; for she asserted that she was allied to the royal family. Now the queen, who was really a very good-natured and benevolent lady, though she would not acknowledge dame Greymouse for a relation, yet had no objection to let her share in the feast, and so she said, "Well, dame Greymouse, you may taste the lard." Greymouse went very pleased and eat up all the little bits of lard that the queen gave her. But, before long, the relations of Greymouse, and her seven sons, very bad fellows, came running in and fell upon the lard. By great good luck the grand chamberlain came in just at this instant; he drove them away, and what remained of the lard was put into the puddings, after the relative proportions had been adjusted by the court mathematician.

'The drums, the trumpets, and the cymbals sounded; and the potentates and the princes, who were invited to the banquet, arrived at the palace, in gorgeous dresses, riding in coaches of crystal. The king received them with the greatest courtesy, and took his place on a throne at the table, with his crown on his head, and his sceptre in his hand. The banquet proceeded, when suddenly the king changed countenance; he raised his eyes to heaven; he sighed profoundly; he appeared convulsed; at last he threw himself back upon his throne, covered his face with his hands, and groaned audibly. Everybody rose from table in the greatest confusion. The court physician endeavoured in vain to feel the pulse of the unfortunate king; but, at last, after some feathers had been burnt under his nose, and other strong measures used, he came to himself and stammered out in words scarcely intelligible, "Not enough. lard."

The queen threw herself weeping at his feet. "O my dear husband," cried she, "that you should suffer such misery! But I am the faulty one; punish me, punish me severely. Alas! dame Greymouse, her seven sons, her cousins, and the rest of her relations eat almost all the lard; and "

So saying, the queen fell back motionless. The king, enraged, called out, Grand chamberlain, we wish to know how all this happened."

'The grand chamberlain related all that he knew, and the king swore vengeance upon dame Greymouse and her relations. The privy council was immediately summoned; the council determined to confiscate her goods first, and then to proceed against her er officio; so gave the attorney general his orders. But, suddenly it was recollected that none of these measures would prevent the family of Greymouse from eating lard, so the affair was laid before the court watchmaker and mechanician. This man, whose name was the same as mine, William Frederick Pivot, promised to do his best to banish the family of Greymice for ever.

He invented a little machine, within which hung, by a wire, a bit of lard, and it was placed near the dwelling of dame Greymouse. She was up to the snare; but all her advice and warning could not prevent her seven sons and numbers of her relations from falling into it. As soon as they touched the lard, a door behind them fell, and they found themselves in a grated dungeon. Their after fate was an ignominious end, in the kitchen. Dame Greymouse and her surviving relations quitted, at last, that place of terror. Anger, despair, and a hope of revenge, possessed her soul. The court rejoiced greatly at her departure, but the queen was ill at ease; for she knew that dame Greymouse would never forgive the death of her sons and her relations.

But that is enough for one evening,' said godpapa Pivot, rising from his chair; to-morrow, children, I will tell you the rest.'

CHAPTER VII.-The History of the Hard Nut concluded.

'Now, children,' continued godpapa Pivot, you know why the queen had the pretty little princess Pearloprice guarded so carefully. She dreaded the revenge of dame Greymouse, who had threatened to give the princess a mortal bite. The machine of the mechanician could not prevent this, and the king's astrologer declared, that the family of the cat Tortoiseshell only was able to protect the princess from the family of Greymouse. It was on this account that each waiting lady was attended by a young scion of the noble house of Tortoiseshell; they were appointed to the dignity of sergeants at law, and sworn in to watch the princess incessantly.

One night, about twelve o'clock, a nurse awoke from sleep, and, looking around, she discovered all her companions napping; the king's sergeants at law-I speak it with pain-not excepted. A deathlike silence reigned, occasionally broken by a snore. Suddenly the nurse saw a very ugly mouse, standing upon its hind legs, and regarding attentively her royal highness. She jumped up, uttering a piercing shriek, and dame Greymouse (for she it was) darted into a corner. The king's sergeants at law pursued, but alas! too late; she disappeared through a hole in the floor. The princess Pearloprice, awoke by the tumult, began to squall loudly. "Thank heavens," said the nurses and ladies in waiting, "she is alive!" but, terrible was their fright when they looked at her and saw the transformation that had occurred. Her head was enormously large, her body distorted, her eyes changed from azure to green, her mouth stretched from ear to ear.

The queen nearly died of the shock, and they were obliged to hang the king's private cabinet with wadding; so continually did he knock his head against the walls, exclaiming, "Wretched monarch that I am!"

Without considering whether it was possible or not, his majesty ordered the mechanician, William Frederick Pivot, to re-establish the princess in her original appearance, or, else to perish by the axe of the executioner.

Pivot felt rather nervous about it; nevertheless, having confidence in his skill and good fortune, he commenced operations. He did all in his power, but it was useless, she grew more and more deformed. The two months elapsed, and the king, foaming with rage, waved his sceptre, exclaiming, "Pivot, cure the princess, or prepare for death to-morrow!"

Pivot wept bitterly, and the princess cracked nuts like fun. All at once, this taste of the princess for nuts struck the mechanician; he also recollected that she came into the world with teeth. He immediately asked permission to speak with the court astrologer. They retired into a private room, consulted many books, passed the night in contemplating the stars, and, at last, it became as clear as day to them, that the princess, to regain her former beauty, must eat the kernel of the nut cratacrack.

The nut cratacrack has a shell so hard that an eighteen-pounder might be fired against it, and not break it. It was also to be presented to the princess by a man who had never been shaved, who had never worn boots, and who gave it with closed eyes. The king consented to suspend the execution, and he allowed the mechanician and the astronomer to set out in search of the man who could restore Pearloprice to her natural state.

'Fifteen years did Pivot and the astrologer seek all over the world, vainly, any trace of the nut cratacrack. Their adventures are too long to recount. At the end of that time, Pivot felt a violent desire to see once more his native place, Tonbridge Wells. This violent longing seized him one day as they were smoking a pipe of tobacco, in a forest in Asia.

"O beautiful Tonbridge Wells," said he, "how I long to see you once more !"

'Listening to these exclamations of Pivot, the astrologer also became melancholy. At last, wiping his eye, he said, "But, my honourable colleague, why should we stop here lamenting? let us be off to Tonbridge Wells at once: we may as well look for that beastly nut cratacrack there as anywhere else."

"Why that is true," said Pivot, consoled.

Putting their pipes away, off they went, straight to Tonbridge Wells. When they arrived there, Pivot hastened to call upon a cousin whom he had not seen for many years. He was a large toy manufacturer, his name Christopher Zacharias Pivot. The skilful watchmaker related to his relative the history of the princess Pearloprice, dame Greymouse, and the hard nut. At almost every word Christopher Zacharias scratched his ear, saying, “Very strange, cousin, upon my honour."

'Pivot related all the adventures of their long travel; how they had passed two years at the court of the king of dates; how they had been banished the dominions of the king of almonds: how they had vainly consulted the Royal Society in the kingdom of squirrels; in short, how they had searched everywhere for the nut cratacrack. During the recital, Christopher Zacharias twisted his fingers, bit his tongue, turned upon one leg, and, at last, threw his wig into the air, embraced his cousin, and exclaimed, "Cousin, cousin, you are saved; if I am not very much deceived, I, myself, possess this wonderful nut!"

'So saying, he unlocked his desk and produced a gilt nut of a moderate size. "This is the history of the nut," said he, presenting it to his cousin. "Some years ago, at Christmas time, a stranger offered to sell me a sack of nuts. But the regular nut-sellers did not like a stranger to interfere with their sale, and they quarrelled with him just before my shop, so that he was obliged to put down his sack to defend himself. Just at that time a broad-wheeled waggon, heavily laden, passed by my house and over the sack of nuts, breaking them all, except one, which the stranger gave me, with a singular smile, in gratitude for a plaster to

a broken nose he had received in the scuffle. I had the nut gilded, and have kept it carefully ever since, without knowing the reason why I attached any value to it."

'All doubts concerning the authenticity of the nut disappeared, when the court astrologer rubbed off the gilding, and was able to read upon a ridge of the shell, the word cratacrack, in Chinese characters. Great was the joy of the travellers. When bedtime came, the astrologer said to the mechanician, "My dear colleague, we are very fortunate; I think we have not only found the nut cratacrack, but also the person who can crack it, and restore the princess her beauty. I speak of your cousin's son. No, I will not go to bed; I will pass the night in drawing his horoscope."

So speaking, the astrologer pulled off his night-cap, and raised his nose towards the planets, in an angle of 85°.

The son of Christopher Zacharias Pivot was a hobby-de-hoy, not yet

shaveable, nor arrived at the dignity of a pair of wellingtons.'

The next morning the astrologer threw himself upon the neck of the mechanician. "He is indeed the person," said he; "now, my dear colleague, we have only to keep our secret safe, when we arrive again at court; and I know that he who restores the princess her beauty will be her husband, and succeed to the throne."

'When Pivot and the astronomer reached the court, from which they had so long been absent, they quickly made known that they had found the hard nut, and a crowd of persons, including many princes, who reckoned upon the goodness of their teeth, presented themselves to restore the princess her beauty. One after another broke their jaws, and went away crying, "Oh! what a hard nut!"

6 At last, the king, in despair, promised solemnly his daughter in marriage to the person who restored her beauty; then did young Pivot step forward. After saluting the king and queen most politely, he took the nut from the hands of the master of the ceremonies, placed it betwixt his teeth, cracked it, and gracefully presented the kernel to the princess, who swallowed it. In a moment, marvellous to relate, she vanished, and in her place was seen a young lady of ravishing beauty. The trumpets, the cymbals, the mouth-organs, the jews'-harps flourished; the king and all the court danced upon one leg, as they danced when Pearloprice was born; the queen was so overcome with joy, that they were obliged to inundate her with eau de Cologne.

In the midst of all this tumult, young Mr. Pivot did not forget his manners. Preparing for a very superlative bow, he stepped back three paces, and threw himself into the first position. At that instant, a little piercing cry was heard; he stood upon dame Greymouse, who had peeped out of her hole. The unfortunate young man underwent the fate of the princess; his head became immediately enormous, his body unshapely. Meanwhile, dame Greymouse, on the floor bleeding, made a terrible lamentation, "O, cursed hard nut," said she, "to thee I owe my death. But Nutcracker shall also die; my children will avenge O life, so full of sweets, must I relinquish thee? Death-awayoh-s-q-u-e-a-k!" So, squeaking, dame Greymouse expired, and they threw her out of the window.

me.

'As for young Mr. Pivot, when the princess saw his transformation, she shrieked with horror. The king was determined that his daughter