Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/377

Rh of butter and tallow, and cheese-cakes and tipsy-cake, and much else that was nice. In the jar under the ale-tap she had drink enough, and the whole room was full of all kinds of dainties. They fed and lived well, and there was no end to the fell-mouse's greediness. Such fare she had never tasted. At last she got thirsty, for the food was both strong and rich, and now she must have a drink of water.

"It is not far off to the ale," said the town-mouse; "that's the drink for us;" and with that she jumped up on the edge of the jar, and drank her thirst out; but she drank no more than she could carry, for she knew the Yule ale, and how strong it was. But as for the fell-mouse, she thought it famous drink, for she had never tasted anything but water, and now she took sip after sip; but she was no judge of strong drink, and so the end was she got drunk, for she tumbled down and got wild in her head, and felt her feet tingle, till she began to run and to jump about from one beer-barrel to the other, and to dance and cut capers on the shelves among the cups and jugs, and to whistle and whine, just as though she were tipsy and silly; and tipsy she was, there was no gainsaying it.

"You mustn't behave as though you had just come from the hills," said the town-mouse. "Don't make such a noise, and don't lead us such a life; we have a hard master here."

But the fell-mouse said she cared not a pin for man or master.

But all this while the cat sat up on the trap-door above the cellar, and listened and spied both to their