34 THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER.

Competitors poured in from all parts of Europe; and they
would even have come from Asia, Africa, and America,
and that fifth quarter of the world which had been discovered
by Christian Elias Drosselmayer and his friend the astrolo-
ger, if there had been. sufficient time.

" On this occasion the mechanician and the astrologer
thought that the moment was now come to produce young
Drosselmayer; for it was impossible for the king to offer a
higher reward than that just announced. -Only, certain of
success as they were, and although this time a host of
princes and royal and imperial jaws had presented themselves,
the mechanician and the-astronomer did not appear with
their young friend at the register-office until just as it was
about to close; so that the name of NATHANIEL DROSSsEL-
MAYER was numbered the 11,375th, and stood last.

It was on this occasion as on the preceding ones. The
11,374 rivals of young Drosselmayer were foiled; and on the
nineteenth day: of the trial, at twenty-five minutes to twelve
o'clock, and just as the .princess accomplished her fifteenth
year, the name.of Nathaniel Drosselmayer was called.

The young man presented himself, accompanied by his
two guardians, the mechanician and the astrologer. It was
the first time that these two illustrious persons had seen the
princess since they had beheld her in her cradle; and since
that period great changes had taken
place in her. But I must inform
you, with due candour, that those
changes were not to her advantage.
When a child, she was shockingly
ugly: she was now frightfully so.
Her form had lost, with its growth,
none of its important features. It
is therefore difficult to understand
how those skinny legs, those flat
hips, and that distorted body, could
have supported such a monstrous