Krilof and His Fables/The Mice

"Oh, sister! have you heard the terrible news?" said one Mouse on board a vessel to another. "The ship must have sprung a leak! Down below there, the water has risen as high as the very tip of my snout." (But in reality she had scarcely got her paws wet.) "And no wonder! our captain is either drunk or suffering from the effects of drunkenness, and the sailors are all each one lazier than the other. In fact, there is no kind of order anywhere. I cried out immediately, and let every one know that our ship was going to the bottom. What was the use? No one lent me an ear, just as if I had been spreading false news. But the fact is plain enough: one has only to look into the hold to see that the ship has not another hour to live. Surely, sister, it is not good that we should perish with the rest? Come, let us fling ourselves at once from the ship! Perchance the land is not far off."

With that our strange friends sprang into the sea, and—were drowned. But the ship, steered by a skilful hand, reached the harbour safe and sound.

Now will come questions: "But how about the captain, and the sailors, and the leak?"

​The teak was a little one, and besides, it was stopped im­mediately. But the rest—was mere calumny.

[It is not clear to what this fable, which was first printed in 1833, has special reference, but Trutofsky's illustration of it will serve to give an idea of its general meaning. Two ladies of the landed proprietor class are talking about the emancipation of the serfs. One of them has in her hand a copy of the famous decree of February 19, 1861, by which serfdom was abolished in Russia, and is evidently whispering fearful forebodings into the ear of the other, who holds up her hands in horror. From a corner of the room a bare­ footed peasant girl quietly watches the two terrified ladies. The slaveholding Mice evidently think that the ship of the State is sinking fast.]