Page:Nutcracker and Mouse-King (1853).djvu/143

Rh them to her mother, saying: "See here, dear mother, here are the seven crowns of the Mouse-King, which young Master Drosselmeier gave me last night, as a token of his victory." Her mother examined the little crowns in great astonishment; they were made of a strange but very shining metal, and were so delicately worked, that it seemed impossible that mortal hands could have formed them. Her father, likewise, could not gaze enough at them, and he insisted very seriously that Maria should confess how she obtained them. But she could give no other account of them, and kept firm to what she had said; and, as her father spoke very harshly to her, and even called her a little story-teller, she began to cry bitterly, and said: "Oh, what, what then shall I say?"

At this moment the door opened. The Counsellor entered, and exclaimed: "What's this? what's this?" The doctor told him of all that had happened, and showed him the little