The Magic Flutes/The Quarrel
THE QUARREL
The second Mouse son wrote a letter home. His papa had to burn the lamp until midnight reading it. It ran:
“My dearest parents: Listen to what happened in the cottage by the fish-pond. Liza, the Pussy-Cat, was quarreling with the Dog, Lap, over a rabbit fur. Liza argued: ‘This is mine, for I found it by the flax-house. You must buy yourself another!‘
“‘What! Spend my pennies for another fur,‘ jeered Lap the Dog, ‘that rabbit fell beneath my paw!‘
“‘That is not so,‘ said Liza Puss; ‘my Aunt Mica says you stole it from the store-room! And that you can’t deny!‘
“‘What your Aunt tells you is all slander,‘ Lap snapped back. ‘If the cellar could speak, we’d hear tales of her sneaking about with her children! And as for that ill-mannered kitten of hers, White-Whiskers, who still goes about barefoot, he has already scratched my father’s nose!‘
“‘Your Old Man!‘ countered Lisa. ‘It’s a pity to waste words on him! He’s nothing but a brawler. Wherever he goes, there is fighting!‘
“So,things went from bad to worse till finally the case was brought to court. All the Dogs and the 
Cats came to hear the judgment. They sharpened up their tongues for talking and their claws for fighting, until the Justice was forced to threaten them with his whip.
“Then beneath the court room window, I began to play my flute. Oh, it was a song like honey; at once from the Judge’s desk to the entrance door all was still! All these hearts boiling with wrath opened wide. Anger fled from them. And when I ended my song, Liza gave Lap her paw as a sign of peace.
“The Justice filled his pipe with pleasure, clapped shut his book of laws, placed the briefs behind a rafter. He put the whip back upon a nail. Then he spoke forth his solemn judgment:
“‘This is the decree: That we lock away anger and malice behind prison walls. Come, clarionets, pipe out your merry music! Boom out, ye big bass-viols!‘
“When, dearest parents, people heard this wise judgment—through the court room and over the whole village all began to embrace. You can imagine what a splendid ball was held in honor of the occasion!
Everyone came to it prinked up as if the King himself had been invited! There were dances, banquets, and every sort of festivity, and I was rewarded with a fine slab of bacon.
“Everywhere today there is great joy. But I can’t say if it will last until tomorrow. And now, dear parents,—I send greetings even to my mouse-hole, and to you each, a good-night kiss.‘“
