Said the younger brother: “Listen to that! Who is talking?”
They went across the river and listened, and heard the tiny little voices calling out and shouting.
“Let us go in,” said the younger brother. And he placed his foot in the hole and descended, followed by the other. They found there an enormous village of Field-mice in human form, their clothes, in the shape of Mice, hanging over the sides of the house. Some had their clothing all off down to their waists, and were betting as hard as they could and talking with one another.
As soon as the two brothers entered, they said: “Who comes?”
“Come in, come in,” cried the Mice,--they were not very polite. “Sit down and have a game. We have not anything to bet just now, but if you trust us we will bet with you.”
“What had you in mind in coming?” said an old Field-mouse with a broken tail.
They answered that they had come because they heard voices. Then they told their story.
“What is this you have to do?” asked the Mice.
“To clean all the hair off those pelts tomorrow.”
The Mice looked around at one another; their eyes fairly sparkled and burned.
“Now, then, we will help you if you will promise us something,” said they; “but we want your solemn promise.”
“Oh, yes,” said the brothers; “we will be glad to get rid of it.”
“All right,” said they; “where are the skins?” Then they all began to pour out of the place, and they were so numerous that it was like water, when the rain is falling hard, running over a rock.
When they had all run out the two War-gods drew the skins on the bank, and the Field-mice went to nibbling the hair and cleaning off the underside. They made up little bundles of the flesh from the skins for their food, and great parcels of the hair. Finally they said: “May we have them all?”
“No,” said the brothers, “we must have eight reserved, four for each, so that we will be hard at work all day tomorrow.”
“Well,” said the Mice, “we can’t consent to leaving even so many, unless you promise that you will gather up all the hair and put it somewhere so that we can get it.”
The Two promised that, and said: “Be sure to leave eight skins, will you? and we will go to bed and rest ourselves.”
“All right, all right!” responded the Field-mice.