E-text prepared by Louise Hope, David Edwards, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from digital material generously made available by Internet Archive/Children's Library (http://www.archive.org/details/iacl) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 21004-h.htm or 21004-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/0/0/21004/21004-h/21004-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/0/0/21004/21004-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Children's Library. See http://www.archive.org/details/singingmouse00hougrich THE SINGING MOUSE STORIES by EMERSON HOUGH Author of The Purchase Price, 54-40 or Fight, Etc. With Decorations by Mayo Bunker [Illustration] [Illustration] New York Hurst & Company Publishers Copyright 1910 by Emerson Hough [Illustration] CONTENTS The Land of the Singing Mouse _Page_ 11 The Burden of a Song 19 The Little River 31 What the Waters Said 41 Lake Belle-Marie 55 The Skull and the Rose 67 The Man of the Mountain 77 At the Place of the Oaks 83 The Birth of the Hours 99 The Stone That Had No Thought 107 The Tear and the Smile 113 How the Mountains Ate Up the Plains 123 The Savage and Its Heart 131 The Beast Terrible 137 The Passing of Men 155 The House of Truth 167 Where the City Went 181 The Bell and the Shadows 193 Of the Greatest Sorrow 205 The Shoes of the Princess 215 Of White Moths 225 The House of Dreams 231 THE SINGING MOUSE STORIES [Illustration] [Illustration: The Land of the Singing Mouse] [Illustration] THE LAND OF THE SINGING MOUSE This is my room. I live here; and my friends come here sometimes, such as I have left. There is little to offer them, but they are welcome to what there is. There is the table. There is the fire. There are not any keys. That is my coat upon the wall. It is worn, a little. The barrels of the old gun are worn; and the stock of the rifle, broken in the mountains long ago, is mended but rudely; and the tip of the old rod is broken, and the silk is fraying in the lashings, and upon the hand-grasp the cord is loose. The silver cord will loosen and break in the best of men in time; wherefore, I beseech you, mock not at these belongings, though your own may far surpass them. You are welcome to anything there is here....