44 THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER.

son, the reigning king, on the other side. She, therefore,
knew that the Nut-cracker could be neither more nor less
than Nathaniel Drosselmayer, of Nuremberg, the amiable but
enchanted nephew of her godfather; for that the skilful mech-
anician who had figured at the court of Pirlipata’s father, was
Doctor Drosselmayer, she had never doubted from the
moment when he introduced his drab frock-coat into his tale.
This belief was strengthened when she found him losing first
his hair by a sun-stroke, and then his eye by an arrow, events
which had rendered necessary the invention of the ugly black
patch, and of the ingenious glass wig, of which I have already
spoken.
ee But why did not your uncle help you, poor Nut-
cracker ?” said Mary, as she stood at the glass cupboard,
gazing up at her favourite; for she remembered that on the
success of the battle depended the disenchantment of the
ee little man and _his elevation to the rank of king of the
ingdom of toys. Then she thought that all the dolls, pup-
pets, and little men must be well prepared to receive him as
their king; for did they not obey the Nut-cracker- as soldiers
obey a general? That indifference on the part of Godfather
Drosselmayer was so much the more annoying to little Mary,
because she was certain that those dolls and puppets to which,
in her imagination, she gave life and motion, really did live
and move.

Nevertheless, there was now no appearance of either life
or motion in the cupboard, where everything was still and
quiet. But Mary, rather than give up her sincere belief,
thought that all this was occasioned by the sorcery of the late
queen of the mice and her son; and so firm was she in this
belief, that, while she gazed up at the Nut-cracker, she con-
tinued to say aloud what she had only begun to say to herself.

“And yet,” she resumed, “although you are unable to
move, and are prevented by enchantment from saying a sin-
gle word to me, I am very sure, my dear Mr. Drosselmayer,
that you understand me perfectly, and that you are well