Puss in Boots (4)

Puss in Boots (4)

The cat,　still running on ahead, now met some reapers.

He said to them, " Good people, you who are reaping, if you do not tell the King that all this corn belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as fine as mincemeat. "

The King, who passed by a moment after, wished to know whom all that corn belonged.

" To My Lord Marquis of Carabas, " replied the reapers.

The King was still more impressed.

The cat, going on ahead, said the same words to all he met.

The King grew astonished at the vast lands held by the Marquis of Carabas.

Puss came at last to a stately castle.

The master of this was an ogre, the richest ever known.

He owned all the lands which the King had been riding through.

The cat had taken care to find out who this ogre was and what he could do.

He asked to speak with him, saying smoothly that he could not pass so near his castle without paying his respects.

The ogre received him as politely as an ogre could, and made him sit down.

" I have been told, " said the cat, " that you have the gift of being able to chang yourself into any sort of creature.
You can, for example, turn yourself into a lion or an elephant. "
That is true, " answered the ogre roughly.
" To prove it, I shall now become a lion. "

(つづく　4/6)