""Oh dear! the most elegant society, I a.s.sure your lordship," cried the magpie. "I have lived here myself these ten years," she continued, drawing up and trying to look twice her size, "and the great heiress the cat yonder, attracts a vast number of strangers."
""Pooh! fiddlesticks!" said the griffin, "much _you_ know about heiresses; there is only one heiress in the whole world, and that is my daughter."
""Bless me! has your lordship a family? I beg you a thousand pardons, I thought you were a bachelor. I only saw your lordship"s own carriage last night, and did not know you brought any one with you."
""My daughter went first, and was all settled before I arrived. She did not disturb you, I dare say, as I did, for she sails along like a swan; but I have the gout in my left claw, and am rather apoplectic, and that is the reason I puff and groan like an express engine, when I take a journey."
""Ah, indeed! quite sorry, I declare! Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after the fatigue of her journey?" said the magpie, walking up.
""You are too kind, but I don"t intend her to be seen while I stay here; she is such a wild young thing, I am afraid of the young beasts running away with her, if they once heard how very handsome she is; she is the very picture of me, but she is so terribly giddy! not that I should care, if she went off with a rich and fashionable young fellow, if I did not have to give her her fortune, which is enormous, and I don"t like parting with money, ma"am, when I have once got it, that"s a fact.
Ha, ha! ho, ho!"
""Dear me! you are too witty, my lord. But, if you refused your consent, what then?" said the curious magpie, who was crazy to know all about so grand a family.
""Oh, I should have to pay it all the same, ma"am; it was left to her by her uncle, the dragon. But don"t tell, I beg of you."
""Oh my! not for the world; your lordship may be quite easy. I wish your lordship a very good morning."
"Away flew the magpie, and she did not stop till she got to the cat"s house. The cat and the fox were at breakfast; they had cream, fricaseed chicken, stewed mice, fried oysters, boiled fish, roasted b.u.t.terflies, baked gra.s.shoppers, and frizzled frogs; a breakfast fit for a king. The fox was just making a tender speech, for he had his paw on his heart.
"Beautiful scene!" cried the magpie, which made the cat turn scarlet, and she invited the magpie to take a seat.
"Then off went the magpie"s tongue, like a sewing machine, "glib, glib, glib; chatter, chatter, chatter; clup, clup, clup; tick-a, tick-a, ticka.""
This made Willie laugh. "What a tell-tale," he cried, rising up in his seat and b.u.mping down again, two or three times.
"Yes, indeed," continued his mother, "for she did not stop till she had related the whole story of the griffin and his daughter, and ever so much besides, that the griffin had never told her.
"The cat listened with the greatest attention. Another young lady in the place, and richer than her--she felt a little jealous. "But is Miss Griffin handsome?" said she, smoothing her beautiful long whiskers.
""Handsome!" cried the magpie, "O if you could only see the father! such a splendid mouth! a mile wide; such eyes! as yellow as an orange; and such a complexion! all manner of colors--and he declares she is the very image of him! But what do you say, Mr. Reynard? You, who have travelled so much, have, perhaps, seen the young lady."
""Why, I can"t say I have," answered the fox, who had been in a brown study; "but she must be wonderfully rich! I dare say that jackanapes, the dog, will be making up to her."
""Ah! by the way, my dear," said the magpie, "what a fuss he made at your door yesterday; why would you not permit him to enter?"
""Oh!" said the cat, looking very proper and demure, "Mr. Reynard says he is a dog of very bad character--pretending to be good-natured, and then biting your nose off, if he can. Dear me! I hope he won"t quarrel with you, dear Reynard."
""With me! O, the poor wretch, no! he might bl.u.s.ter a little; but he very well knows, that if I am once angry he is a goner--I should make mince meat of him; but I did not mean to boast of myself."
"In the evening, Reynard would have given his ears to go to see the griffin, but what could he do? There was the dog, sitting under the opposite tree, watching for him, and Reynard had no wish to prove his boasted courage. But, as usual, he resolved on a trick to get rid of Beppo.
"A young buck of a rabbit, a sort of country beau, had called in upon his cousin the cat, to pay her his respects, and Reynard, taking him aside, said: "Look here, my young friend, do you see that shabby-looking dog under the tree? Well, he has insulted the cat, your cousin, and you ought to punish him. In my situation, you know, I can do nothing; but if you do not notice it you will have that horrid old magpie calling you a coward."
"The rabbit looked very foolish; he was a timid little fellow, and he did not want to fight; he told the fox he was no match for Beppo, and, although he was very fond of his cousin, he did not wish to interfere in her domestic affairs, and he tried every possible way to get out of the sc.r.a.pe; but the artful fox flattered him, and told him that Beppo was the biggest coward in the whole world, and would not fight, but would make him an humble apology, which would be a great feather in his (the rabbit"s) cap, and at last the rabbit promised to go and ask the dog to fight.
""Well," said the fox, "all right; go to the great field the other side of the woods, and I"ll follow in half an hour; and, I say--hark! In case he does agree to fight, and you feel the least afraid, I"ll be there and take it off your hands, with the greatest pleasure. Depend upon _me_, my dear sir."
"Away went the rabbit. The dog was astonished at the great show of courage; but on hearing that the fox would be present, he consented in a moment to go. This did not gratify the rabbit very much; he went very slowly, and, seeing no fox there, his heart sank down to his paws; and while the dog had his nose to the ground to smell if the fox was coming, the rabbit took to his heels, slipped into a burrow, and left Beppo to walk back again.
"Meanwhile, the fox went softly to the rock; he looked about very carefully, for he had a notion that a griffin papa would not be very civil to foxes.
"There were two holes in the rock--one below, and one above; and while Reynard was peering about, he saw a great claw from the upper hole beckoning to him.
""Ah! oh!" said the fox, "that must be Miss Griffin;" so he approached, and a voice said: "Charming Mr. Reynard, I am locked up in this dismal hole; do you not think you could contrive to deliver me?"
""O goodness!" cried the fox, tenderly, "what a beautiful voice, and ah!
my poor heart, what a lovely claw! Is it possible that I hear the daughter of my lord, the griffin?"
""Hush, flatterer! not so loud if you please. My father is taking a walk, and is very quick of hearing. He has tied me up by my poor wings in the corner, for he is terribly afraid of some one running away with me. You know, I have all my fortune settled on myself."
""Talk not of fortune," cried the fox, "but how can I deliver you? Shall I enter, and knaw the cord?"
""Alas!" answered Miss Griffin, "it is an immense chain I am bound with.
However, you may come in and talk more at your ease."
"The fox peeped all round, and seeing no sign of the griffin, he entered the lower cave, and stole up-stairs to the upper story; but, as he went on, he saw such immense piles of jewels and gold, and all sorts of treasure, that he did not wonder at the old griffin sneering at the cat"s calling herself an heiress. He was so delighted with this wealth, that he entered the upper cave, resolved to consider Miss Griffin the most beautiful creature in the world.
"There was, unfortunately, a great chasm between the landing-place and the spot where the young lady was chained, and he found it impossible to pa.s.s. The cavern was very dark, but he saw enough of Miss Griffin"s figure to perceive, in spite of her hooped petticoat, that she was the image of her father, and the most hideous scarecrow the earth ever saw.
"However, he concealed his disgust, and began to compliment her about her beauty, and did it so well, that she was, or pretended to be, enchanted with him. He implored her to run away with him the moment she was unchained.
""That is impossible," said she, "you might as well ask me for a piece of my nose, for my father never unchains me except in his presence, and then I cannot stir out of his sight."
""The good-for-nothing wretch!" said Reynard; "I wish the rocks would come down about his ears: what is to be done?"
""Why, there is only one thing that I know of," answered Miss Griffin, "which is this: I always make his soup for him, and if I could mix something in it that would put him fast asleep, before he had time to chain me up again, I might slip softly down, and carry off all the treasure on my back."
"Oh! delightful!" exclaimed Reynard, "what invention! what wit! I will go and get some poppies, that will set him snoring directly."
""Alas!" sighed Miss Griffin, "poppies have no effect upon griffins; the only thing that can ever put my father fast asleep, is a nice young cat boiled in his soup; it is perfectly astonishing what a charm it is. But where to get a cat? it must be a young lady cat, too!"
"Reynard was a little startled when he heard this; so very singular, that a boiled cat would put any one to sleep; but he thought that griffins were different from the rest of the world, and, of course, nothing was too hard to do to win such a rich heiress.
""I know a cat, a maiden cat," said he; "but I feel rather unpleasant at the thought of having her boiled in the griffin"s soup. Would not a dog do as well?"
""Oh, you mean thing!" said Miss Griffin, pretending to weep, you love the cat; "it"s as plain to be seen as your ears; go and many her, and leave me here to die of grief!" and she began to cry and bo-hoo like ten hyenas.
"In vain the fox said that he did not care a straw for the cat; nothing now would satisfy her but a solemn promise that he would bring poor puss to the cave, to be boiled for the griffin"s soup."
"Oh! what a bad, bad, wicked fox!" cried Willie; "if I knew how to fire a gun, I would shoot him--I would pull his tail off--I would give him soup made of stones and sticks--that I would!"
"Yes, he was a mean, wicked fellow," said his mother; "but wait till you hear the end." And now, Miss Griffin and he had a grand consultation, how they should entrap the poor cat, and Reynard said at last: "The best way will be to put a basket out of the window, and draw it up by a cord; the moment it arrives at the window be sure to clap your claw on the cat, for she is terribly active."
""Fiddle!" answered Miss Griffin; "I should think myself a goose, if I did not know how to catch a cat!"
""It must be when your father is out," said the fox.
""Oh! certainly; he takes a walk, you know, every evening."