THE HISTORY OF A NUT-CRACKER 75.

Damascus steel. At table, and when the dessert was placed
upon it, the amiable youth cracked nuts for all the company:
the hardest could not resist his ae

teeth for a moment. He placed
them in his mouth with his
right hand; with the left he
pulled his hair behind; and,
crack! the shell was broken. =

Mary had become very red
when she first saw that pretty
little gentleman ; but she
blushed deeper still, when, after the dessert, he invited her
to go with him into the room where the glass cupboard was.

“Yes, go, my dear children, and amuse yourselves to-
gether,” said Godpapa Drosselmayer : ‘I do not want that
room any more to-day, since all the clocks of my friend the
judge now go well.”

The two young people proceeded to the room; but
scarcely was young Drosselmayer alone with Mary, when
he fell upon one knee, and spoke thus:—

‘My dear Miss Silberhaus, you see at your feet the
happy Nathaniel Drosselmayer, whose life you saved on this

> very spot. You also said
that you would not have
repulsed me, as Princess
Pirlipata did, if, im ser-
ving you, I had become
hideous. Now, as the spell
which the queen of the
mice threw upon me was
= destined to lose all its
power on that day when,
“~*~ in spite of my ugly face,
I should be beloved by a young and beautiful girl, I at that
moment ceased to be a vile Nut-cracker and resumed my
proper shape, which is not disagreeable, as you may see.
F

   

   

 

Ar =