of course, you must know what a microscope is, that round magnifying glass which makes everything look hundreds of times larger than it really is. if you take it and hold it close to your eye and look at a single drop of ditchwater, you'll see thousands of strange little creatures, such as you couldn't imagine living in a drop of water. but they are really there. they look almost like a plateful of shrimp, all jumping and crowding against each other, and they are so ferocious they tear off each other's arm and legs; yet in their own way they are happy and merry.
now, once there was an old man whom his neighbors called krible-krable, for that was his name. he always tried to make the best of everything, and if he couldn't do it any other way he would try magic.
one day he sat with his eye glued to his microscope, peering at a drop of water taken from a puddle in the ditch. my! how it crawled and squirmed! all those thousands of little imps leaping and springing about, devouring each other, or pulling each other to pieces.
"this is too hideous for words!" said the old krible-krable. "there must be some way to make them live in peace and quiet and each mind his own business." but though he thought and thought he couldn't find the answer. so he decided to use magic. "at least i can give them a color," he said, "so i can see them better." and then he let fall into the water a tiny drop of something that looked like red wine, but was really witches' blood, the very finest kind, and worth two pennies. instantly the strange little creatures became red all over, and the drop of water now looked like a whole town full of naked wild men.
