Puss in Boots, Jr., and the Good Gray Horse

<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>"DONKEY, DONKEY, OLD AND GRAY"</h2> <div class='poem'><div class='cap'> "DONKEY, donkey, old and gray,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Open your mouth and gently bray;</span><br/> Lift your ears and blow your horn<br/> To wake the world this sleepy morn,"<br/></div> </div> <div class='unindent'>sang little Puss, Junior.</div> <p>"I'm no rooster," replied the little donkey. But he gave a gentle bray, just the same, and then the Good Gray Horse neighed, and after that a little adder crawled out of a hole in the ground and said:</p> <p>"Gracious me! What's all this noise?" And that only goes to show what a dreadful din it must have been, for adders are deaf, so they tell me.</p> <p>Well, anyhow, Puss didn't wait any longer, but rode away, and by and by, after a while, he met a funny little man with a sack over his back.</p> <p>"What have you in your bag?" asked Puss, for he felt sorry for the little old man and meant to give him a lift in case he had a heavy load, you see.</p> <p>"What's that to you?" asked the little old man, with a scowl. And before you could say "Jack Robinson!" he disappeared inside a stump.</p> <p>Puss jumped off his Good Gray Horse and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</SPAN></span> peeped in. But he couldn't see anything, only a big black hole. Well, he was just going to turn away when he heard a voice say:</p> <div class='poem'> "Mother, I've brought you a bag of gold<br/> <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">For the little pink-and-white pig I sold."</span><br/></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/gs18.png" width-obs="299" height-obs="350" alt="The Donkey" title="" /></div> <p>So Puss peeped in again, and pretty soon he saw a tiny light way down deep, like the flicker of a candle. And by and by, as his eyes grew used to the darkness, he saw a flight of stairs. Then what do you think he did? Jump into the hollow stump and climb down? That's just<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</SPAN></span> what he did, and it wasn't long before he found himself in a little hall opposite a small door with a glass knob inside of which was an electric light, which I suppose had been put there by the little old man in case he got home after twelve at night and his wife had blown out the candle.</p> <p>All of a sudden the door opened and a little old woman, bent and withered, asked, in a shrill voice:</p> <div class='poem'> "How dare you come down to our Hollow Stump hall?<br/> <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I'll cut off your whiskers, tail and all."</span><br/></div> <p>"Please, ma'am," said little Puss, Junior, "I won't tell anybody." And I guess he would have climbed up the stairs then and there if he hadn't feared she might cut off his tail when he turned around.</p> <p>"Let him go, mother," said the little old man. "He would have given me a ride on his horse on my way home had we met sooner." But how he knew that is more than I can tell. "Here, Sir Cat. Take this gold piece and tell neither man nor beast where you got it." And he pushed Puss up the little flight of stairs.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />