THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER. 23

Master Drosselmayer had
done; but shaking his head,
he replied, ‘I should also
be of the same opinion as
yourself and brother, if the
nut were not gilt; but I have
not seen anything in the
stars showing that the nut
which’ we are in search of
ought to be so ornamented.
Besides, how came your bro-
ther by the Crackatook
nut?”

“J will explain the whole
thing to you,” said Chris-
topher, ‘and tell you how
the nut fell into my hands,
and how it came to have that: gildmg which prevents
you from recognising it, and which indeed is not its own
naturally.”

Then—having made them
sit down, for he very wisely:
thought that after travelling for
fourteen years and nine months,
they must be tired—he began as
follows:—

“The very day on which
the Be sent for you under pre-
tence of giving you an Order of
Knighthood, a stranger arrived
at Nuremberg, carrying with him a bag of nuts which he
had to sell. But the nut-merchants of this town, being anx-
ious to keep the monopoly to themselves, quarrelled with him
just opposite my shop. The stranger, with a view to defend
himself more easily, placed his bag of nuts upon the ground,
and the fight continued, to the great delight of the little boys