Hardly had he reached his own house when, taking the ring, he said, “Bronze ring, obey thy master.  I desire that the golden ship shall turn to black wood, and the crew to hideous negroes; that St. Nicholas shall leave the helm and that the only cargo shall be black cats.”

And the genii of the bronze ring obeyed him.

Finding himself upon the sea in this miserable condition, the young captain understood that some one must have stolen the bronze ring from him, and he lamented his misfortune loudly; but that did him no good.

“Alas!” he said to himself, “whoever has taken my ring has probably taken my dear wife also.  What good will it do me to go back to my own country?” And he sailed about from island to island, and from shore to shore, believing that wherever he went everybody was laughing at him, and very soon his poverty was so great that he and his crew and the poor black cats had nothing to eat but herbs and roots.  After wandering about a long time he reached an island inhabited by mice.  The captain landed upon the shore and began to explore the country.  There were mice everywhere, and nothing but mice.  Some of the black cats had followed him, and, not having been fed for several days, they were fearfully hungry, and made terrible havoc among the mice.

Then the queen of the mice held a council.

“These cats will eat every one of us,” she said, “if the captain of the ship does not shut the ferocious animals up.  Let us send a deputation to him of the bravest among us.”

Several mice offered themselves for this mission and set out to find the young captain.

“Captain,” said they, “go away quickly from our island, or we shall perish, every mouse of us.”

“Willingly,” replied the young captain, “upon one condition.  That is that you shall first bring me back a bronze ring which some clever magician has stolen from me.  If you do not do this I will land all my cats upon your island, and you shall be exterminated.”

The mice withdrew in great dismay.  “What is to be done?” said the Queen.  “How can we find this bronze ring?” She held a new council, calling in mice from every quarter of the globe, but nobody knew where the bronze ring was.  Suddenly three mice arrived from a very distant country.  One was blind, the second lame, and the third had her ears cropped.

“Ho, ho, ho!” said the new-comers.  “We come from a far distant country.”

“Do you know where the bronze ring is which the genii obey?”

“Ho, ho, ho! we know; an old sorcerer has taken possession of it, and now he keeps it in his pocket by day and in his mouth by night.”

“Go and take it from him, and come back as soon as possible.”

So the three mice made themselves a boat and set sail for the magician’s country.  When they reached the capital they landed and ran to the palace, leaving only the blind mouse on the shore to take care of the boat.  Then they waited till it was night.  The wicked old man lay down in bed and put the bronze ring into his mouth, and very soon he was asleep.