`` Atisha ! atisha ! '' sneezed the old man , but he did not wake , and the shock made the bronze ring jump out of his mouth . Quick as thought the lame mouse snatched up the precious talisman and carried it off to the boat . 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 can not go back to our country ; let us land on this desert island and there end our miserable lives . '' No sooner said than done . The boat reached the island , and the mice landed .
The blind mouse was speedily deserted XXXXX her two sisters , who went off to hunt flies , but as she wandered sadly along the shore she found a dead fish , and was eating it , when she felt something very hard .
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