Imagine the despair of the magician when he awoke and
the bronze ring was nowhere to be found!

But by that time our three mice had set sail with their
prize. A favoring breeze was carrying them toward the
island where the queen of the mice was awaiting them.
Naturally they began to talk about the bronze ring.

"Which of us deserves the most credit?" they cried all
at once.

"I do," said the blind mouse, "for without my
watchfulness our boat would have drifted away to the open sea."

"No, indeed," cried the mouse with the cropped ears;
"the credit is mine. Did I not cause the ring to jump out
of the man's mouth?"

"No, it is mine," cried the lame one, "for I ran off with
the ring."

And from high words they soon came to blows, and,
alas! when the quarrel was fiercest the bronze ring fell into
the sea.

"How are we to face our queen," said the three mice
"when by our folly we have lost the talisman and condemned
our people to be utterly exterminated? We cannot
go back to our country; let us land on this desert
island and there end our miserable lives." No sooner said