orange fairy book

Chapter 19 The Smart Cat (2)

The young man didn't make a sound at first, and after a while, he said slowly: "Since I have promised you that I will get you everything, then I will definitely do it, but can you swear that you will never leave me, and Keep the stone safe with you forever? I can't tell you anything else, but I beg you to keep it carefully."

Seeing her husband's serious attitude, the princess was a little shocked, and began to regret that she had listened to the monster and asked her husband for the stone.But she had already spoken, and could not take back what she had said, so she pretended to be very fond of the new gadget, and kissed her husband happily, thanking him for the present.

"I might as well not give the stone to that monster," she thought as she went back to sleep.

Next morning the young men went out to hunt again, and the monster who had been watching them learned of it, and came back to the palace a little later.The princess happened to be tired of everything, and her servants didn't know how to amuse her.At this time the monster knocked on the palace door, and a very tall black servant dressed in bright red went in immediately and told the princess that the monster was waiting outside, and wanted to know if the princess would like to see him.

"Bring him in immediately!" the princess shouted, and immediately jumped up from the cushion, forgetting all the decisions last night, at this moment, she was completely conquered by those shining jewels.

The monster came up to the princess, and showed her the jewels, and the maids stood beside the princess, all wanting to get closer and have a look at the beautiful jewels.The monster didn't want them to hear, so he asked the princess softly, "Have you got the stone?"

"Here it is," answered the princess, and taking the stone from her girdle, she placed it with the heap of gems which the monster had brought.Then she deliberately raised her voice and spoke quickly, pretending to start talking with the monster about the price of bracelets and necklaces. In order to deceive the servants, she pretended that she had taken a fancy to one of the pearl necklaces, bargained for a while, and called The monster put the rest away, because the remaining jewels were not worth as much as this necklace.

"Okay, let's make a deal, ma'am!" He said, bowed, and left the palace.

Not long after the monster was gone, strange things happened!You know, the walls of the room are made of ice, and because they are enchanted, they will not melt even though they reflect the warm red light of the fire.But now the princess accidentally touched it, and found that her hand was wet. She thought, is this her hallucination, or is the fire too hot?She hurried into the painting gallery in the palace. There were puddles of water on the floor of the painting gallery. She shivered. At this moment, her maid ran down the stairs in panic and shouted: "Ma'am Madame! What happened? Why is the palace disappearing little by little before our eyes!"

"My husband will be back soon," answered the princess.Although she was as scared as the maids, she felt that she should set a good example of bravery for them, "When he comes back, he will tell us what to do."

So they waited, finding the highest chairs, and sitting on them wrapped in their warmest clothes, with piles of cushions under their feet.The poor singing birds flapped their unconscious wings, flew here and there, and at last, by luck, found an open window in a forgotten corner, flew out of it, and disappeared from sight, They were never seen again.

Finally, the walls and floors of the upstairs room melted away, and the princess and her maids had to leave there and take refuge in the hall for a while.At last the young man came back, and he rode back along a tortuous road without seeing the palace, and when he approached the door of his house, he was astonished at what he saw before him.He knew at once that his wife must have betrayed him.But he would not reproach the princess, for she must have had enough of the fright, and he came across the ruins of the palace to find her, who wept with relief when she saw him.

"Come quickly," said he, "or you will freeze to death!" Then they set off for the King's palace in a desolate way, followed by the Greyhound and the Cat.

When they reached the gate of the palace, the young man refused to go in. The princess begged him repeatedly to go in with her, but he refused.

"You have betrayed me and ruined me," he said solemnly, "now I have to find a way out alone." Then he turned and left the princess without saying a word.

The young man set off.He had the Falcon on his wrist, and the Greyhound and Cat followed.They walked a long, long way, asking everyone they met if they had seen his enemy, which was the monster.But no one has seen it.He told the falcon to fly up to the sky, higher, higher, and higher, so that it could use its sharp eyes to see if it could spot the old thief.The falcon flew high, and when it came back several hours later, it told its master that in a far country by the sea the monster was sleeping in a palace of gold and gold.This was good news for the young man, and he immediately gave the falcon some meat and treated it to a good meal.

"Tomorrow," he said, "fly to the monster's palace, and while he is asleep, search him for that stone with strange symbols carved on it, and if you find it, bring it back to me. Three You're going to fly back here in a few days."

"Then I'll take the cat with me," Falcon replied.The young man agreed.

The next day, before the sun had risen, the falcon flew high into the sky, and the cat sat on his back, with its claws gripping its neck tightly.

"You'd better close your eyes, or you will get dizzy," said the Falcon to the cat.The cat had never left the ground before, except for climbing trees, so it obediently listened to it and closed its eyes.

They flew all day and all night, and next morning they saw the monster's palace just below them.

"My God," said the cat, opening his eyes at last, "it looks like a city of mice to me. Let's go down, and the mice may help us."

They landed in a pile of bushes outside the Mouse City.The Falcon remained in the bushes, while the Cat crept outside the main gate and lay down on the ground.Word of the matter soon spread, and there was a great commotion among the mice.

Seeing that the cat had not moved, a bold mouse put his head out of the upper window of the castle tower, and said in a trembling voice, "Why do you come here? What do you want? If you need any help from us, Just tell us, if it's something we can do, we'll help you."

"I have come today as a friend," replied the Cat, "and I would be very obliged if you would send four of your strongest and most cunning mice to do me a favor."

"Oh, we'd love to help you," said the mouse with a sigh of relief. "Will you tell me what you want them to do, so that I can choose the best one for you."

"Thank you," said the cat, "what I want them to do is to dig a burrow under the city wall tonight, and the burrow will lead into the room where a monster sleeps, and beside the monster is hidden a stone with some strange words carved on it." Symbol, I want the mouse to go from the burrow to its room to find the stone, and then bring it back to me, but it cannot wake up the monster."

"Yes!" replied the mouse.With that said, it went out to give orders and deploy everything.

In the middle of the night, the head of the mouse poured a basin of water from the castle tower to wake up the cat who was still sleeping at the gate of the city.It was really a last resort for the mouse to wake up the cat in this way, because it still didn't dare to come out and open the door.

"The stone you want is here!" it said, and the cat jumped up with a "meow" when it heard it, "You catch it with your paw, I'm going to put it down." The cat caught the stone. "Well, good-bye," said the mouse, "you have a long way to go, and it would be better to start before daybreak."

"Your suggestion is good." The cat replied with a smile, put the stone in its mouth, and went to find the falcon.

The falcon flew into the sky with the cat on its back.The two of them hadn't eaten for a whole day, and with the cat on their backs, the falcon was exhausted soon. At night, the falcon said it couldn't fly anymore and wanted to rest by the river for the night.

"Now it's my turn to keep the stone," said the Falcon, "or it will look as if you did all the work and I did nothing."

"No, I got the stone, and I will keep it," replied the Cat, who was tired and ill-tempered, and so the two of them began to quarrel.

Bad luck happened!They were quarreling, and the cat suddenly raised its voice. At this moment, the stone in its mouth accidentally fell into the river and fell into the ear of a big fish that just swam by. The cat and the falcon immediately got close. Then he jumped into the water, trying to chase the fish back, but it was too late.

These two faithful fellows were half drowned in the river, almost breathless, and finally had to climb ashore.The falcon flew up a tree, and spread its wings in the sun, trying to dry them, while the cat shook itself, and began to scrape sand from the ground, and threw it into the river.

"Why did you do that?" asked a little fish. "You know, you made the river very muddy."

"It's none of my business," replied the Cat, "I'm going to fill up the river so that the fish will die."

"Why did you do this? We have never harmed you." Xiaoyu replied, "Why do you hate us so much?"

"Because one of you fish took one of my stones. It's a stone with strange symbols. If you will promise to help me get the stone back, I won't pollute your river."

"I'll try it now," Xiaoyu quickly replied, "but you have to be patient, it's not an easy task." Then it swam away with a flash of scales.

The sea was not very far away, and the little fish swam into the sea as fast as it could. It called all its relatives who lived nearby and told them the danger they were about to face, which frightened the residents in the river.

"We didn't take that stone." The fish shook their heads and said, "By the way, there is a tuna in the bay over there. Although it is very old, it still swims around all day long. Maybe it I will know." So the little fish swam to find the tuna and told the story again.

"Yeah, I just swam up to that river a few hours ago!" cried the tuna. "When I came back, something fell into my ear, and I forgot about it when I got back." , and went to sleep, now it is still in my ear! This may be what you want." Saying that, the tuna shook its body, and the stone flew out of its ear.

"Ah, I think it should be this thing!" Xiaoyu said excitedly.He took the stone in his mouth and went back to where the cat was waiting for him.

The little fish put the stone on the sand. The cat saw it and said, "Thank you so much. In return, I won't pollute your river." It flew back to its owner.

Oh, look how glad the young people were when they saw them come back with that rare gem!Immediately he made a wish upon the stone, and a palace was conjured up, but this time a palace of green marble, and there they lived many years, and when the old King died, he took the throne and ruled over the country.

(End of this chapter)