by Ruth Chew
Puss went quietly across the wooden drawbridge. Peggy and Brian tiptoed after him.
On the other side of the bridge they came to two stone towers. There was a heavy wooden door between them. Brian gave the door a shove. It swung open.
Puss ran through an archway into an open courtyard. Peggy and Brian slipped in behind him.
They looked around. There were buildings in the courtyard. Peggy peeked into a long, low shed. It was dark inside. She turned on her flashlight. “Look at the stalls in there.”
“It must be a stable,” Brian said. “But where are the horses?”
In another building they saw a big brick oven. It looked as if it hadn’t been used for a long time.
The cat led them across the courtyard to the main building of the castle. There were towers on the corners. Turrets with pointed roofs jutted into the sky.
Puss walked over to a great door in the side of the castle. It had iron hinges and a big iron lock. Peggy tried the handle of the door. “It’s locked.”
“Use your key,” the cat said.
Peggy felt sure the key was much too small for the lock. But she didn’t want to argue. She poked the little golden key into the big keyhole.
Click! The door opened.
Peggy and Brian followed Puss into a dark hallway.
As soon as he was inside the castle, Puss turned and ran up a curving stairway. Peggy and Brian went after him. The moonlight came through narrow slits in the thick stone walls.
Puss ducked into a little round room. The children saw a four-poster bed and a large carved wardrobe. The cat poked his nose under the bed and all around the shadowy room. Peggy turned on the flashlight. And Brian opened the wardrobe for Puss to look into it.
“Not here.” The cat ran out of the room and raced farther up the winding stairs to a room higher in the tower.
Brian and Peggy followed him from room to room. They went up one stairway and down the next. Everywhere the cat kept searching.
“What are you looking for, Puss?” Brian asked.
“I’ll show you when I find it,” the cat said.
Nobody seemed to be living in any of the rooms. They were covered with dust. There were cobwebs on the stairs. And mice scampered out of the way of the cat.
“There’s one more place to look,” the cat said. He went down a stairway.
Peggy and Brian walked down after him. At the bottom of the stairs they came to a hallway. Light glowed from an open doorway at one end of it. And they could hear a loud buzzing noise.
The two children followed the cat down the hallway. The buzzing got louder and louder. They stepped through the doorway into a large room with a high ceiling.
The stone floor was covered with animal skins. Beautiful pictures on cloth hung on the walls. Between the pictures there were shields and spears. The light came from a fire blazing in a great stone fireplace at the far end of the room.
There were heavy benches and chairs along the sides of the room. And down the center was a long, long table.
“What’s that?” Brian pointed to a mound of cloth on the table. The mound was so big that it went from one end of the table to the other.
Suddenly the mound stirred.
“It’s alive!” Peggy whispered.
The next thing they knew, an enormous hand moved over to the edge of the table. And a huge foot dangled over the end.
The buzzing stopped. Peggy and Brian heard a snort. Then the steady buzzing sound began again.
A giant was lying on the table. He was asleep and snoring.
“Let’s get out of here, Peg.” Brian started for the door.
Peggy went after him.
Puss came running over. “You can’t go now,” he said. “I’ve found it at last.”
“You mean what you were looking for all over the castle?” Brian asked.
“Yes,” the cat told him. “And I need Peggy to open it with her key.”
Peggy took a look at the long table. The giant had rolled over onto his side. His cheek rested on his enormous hand. He had stopped snoring, but his eyes were closed. And he seemed to be fast asleep.
The cat trotted across the room to a small black leather chest which stood against one of the walls. The chest had fancy brass corners and a carved brass lock.
Peggy and Brian tiptoed across the room to look at the chest. Peggy bent down and put the golden key into the lock. She gave it a turn, and the lock opened.
Peggy pulled out the key and put it back into her pocket. Brian lifted the lid of the chest.
Puss stood on his hind legs and rested his paws on the edge of the chest. He looked inside. Peggy and Brian leaned over the cat.
It was dark inside the chest.
“Use your flashlight, Peg,” Brian whispered.
She clicked it on. Now they could see that the inside of the chest was lined in red leather. But there wasn’t anything in it.
The cat stared. “It’s empty!” he wailed.
“Of course,” a loud voice boomed. “What did you expect?”
Peggy’s heart seemed to stop beating. She turned to look at the giant. He was sitting up on the table. His head nearly touched the rafters of the tall room. Peggy saw a sharp dagger in the giant’s belt.
“Turn off the flashlight, Peg,” Brian said softly.
Peggy’s hand was shaking so much that she could hardly click the switch. Brian began to pull her toward the door.
“Keep close to the wall, Brian,” Peggy whispered. “Maybe the giant will think we’re part of one of the pictures.”
The children moved inch by inch closer to the door. All the while they could hear the cat talking to the giant.
“Puss is keeping him busy so we can sneak out,” Brian said.
The giant raised his voice. Peggy put her hands over her ears. But still she could hear him. He sounded angry.
“Where have you been all this time?” the giant thundered.
Puss started walking toward the door. “Don’t get excited. I can explain everything.”
The giant rolled off the long table. There wasn’t room for him to stand up. He got down on his hands and knees and started to crawl after the cat.
Puss ran past Brian and Peggy and streaked out the door. They started after him.
The giant stretched out his long arm and grabbed the two children. They tried to jump out of his hand. But no matter how they struggled, they couldn’t get away.
Peggy and Brian looked up into the giant’s face. He had green eyes and a scraggly red beard and the biggest freckles they had ever seen.
“Please don’t run away,” the giant thundered. “I want to talk to you.”
Brian put his hands over his ears. “Please don’t talk so loud!”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the giant said in a much smaller voice. “I keep forgetting. Is this better?”
“Yes, thank you,” Peggy said. “And please don’t hold us so tight. I can hardly breathe.”
“Why don’t you sit here?” The giant set the children down on top of the long table. He lay on the floor beside it and rested on one elbow.
Peggy and Brian hung their legs over the edge of the table and looked up at the giant.
“I would offer you something to eat,” he said. “But I’ve eaten everything I cooked for supper. It’s a bother to be so big. Just shelling enough peas takes me all day.”
“So that’s what happened to the people and the horses who used to live in the castle!” Brian said. “I guess if you’re hungry enough you’ll eat anything.”
Peggy felt a chill run down her back. How could Brian say such things? Now the giant really would be angry.
But the giant just stared at Brian. “That must have been what everybody thought,” he said. “They all ran away when I got to be this size. Only Puss stayed to keep me company. And now he’s gone.”
Peggy thought she saw a tear start in one of the giant’s enormous green eyes. But he blinked it away and smiled. “I’m glad the cat is all right
. I was worried about him.”
Peggy wasn’t afraid anymore. “What do you mean about getting to be this size?” she asked. “Weren’t you always this big?”
“A year ago I was about the same size as any other man,” the giant told her.
Brian looked around. “Then that’s why the castle is too small for you.”
Peggy stood up. “Did you eat something that made you grow?”
“No. It happened all at once,” the giant said. “I was trying to get Puss out of a tree. He had climbed all the way to the top and was stuck there. I was tired and didn’t feel like climbing up after the cat. But suddenly I was so tall I could just pick him out of the branches.”
The giant tried to stretch his arms and legs. He had to be careful not to bump into the walls. “Do you mind if we go outdoors? I’d like to stand up.” He started to crawl toward the doorway of the big room.
Peggy and Brian jumped off the table and walked after him.
The giant lay on his stomach and slid through the hall and out of the door to the courtyard. Then he stood up. Peggy and Brian came out after him into the moonlight.
It felt good to be in the open air again.
The giant crossed the courtyard. He looked at the stable. “There’s no use my keeping horses now.” He ducked under the archway between the stone towers. The children ran to keep up with him.
When he reached the garden, the giant bent down to smell the roses. He saw something hiding under the drawbridge. The giant picked it up between his thumb and forefinger.
It was the cat.
“Take it easy, Fred! I told you I could explain everything.” Puss wiggled between the giant’s fingers.
The giant stood up. He put the cat on the palm of his hand. “You ran out without introducing me to your friends. I see they found the key my father hid. What were you looking for in the leather chest?”
“I was just trying to help you, Fred,” the cat said. “Somebody once told me there was something in that chest that would keep anybody from going hungry.”
“At one time I used to keep my tablecloth in the chest. That was before I met you, Puss,” the giant said. “But I got tired of locking and unlocking it. So I put the tablecloth in the bottom drawer of the sideboard. I thought everybody would think it was still in the chest. You were the only one who knew where it was.” The giant scratched his beard. “But now I can’t find the tablecloth anywhere.”
“Was it blue?” Brian asked.
The giant looked down at him. “What do you know about it?”
Puss interrupted. “This is Brian. And this is his sister, Peggy.”
The giant picked Brian off the ground and set him on top of the wall that ran around the castle. Now he was as high as the giant’s head. “What do you know about the tablecloth, Brian?”
“I met somebody who has a magic tablecloth that covers itself with food,” Brian told him.
“Is that what you lost?”
Peggy was still on the ground at the giant’s feet. She was afraid he might step on her. She climbed onto his shoe. “Fred,” she called up to him, “Annie needs the tablecloth.”
Puss arched his back and stretched his neck to look up at the giant. “That’s what I thought when I lent it to her.”
Fred bent down to pick up Peggy. He put her on the wall beside Brian. But he held onto the cat. “It sounds as if you have a story to tell, Puss. Let’s hear it.”
“Annie didn’t have a place to stay or anything to eat. I lent her the tablecloth for a day or two,” the cat said. “Now she doesn’t want to give it back. I thought there was something in the leather chest that you could use instead. Then Annie could keep the tablecloth.”
“If I had something in the chest, why wouldn’t I open it and use it?” Fred asked.
“I thought you didn’t have the key.” Puss smoothed his whiskers. “What was all the talk about the golden key your father hid?”
“My father said that key could cause trouble—if the wrong person got hold of it,” Fred told him.
“You mean you have a different key to the leather chest?” the cat said.
“Of course. But it’s just an ordinary key.” Fred put the cat on the wall beside the children. “You’re not a bad cat, Puss,” he said. “But you certainly have made a mess of things.”
“What happened to your moat, Fred?” Brian asked.
“Moats are used to keep enemies out,” the giant said. “But my father didn’t have any enemies. He was always making friends. One dry summer there wasn’t enough water in the mill stream down there.” Fred pointed to the meadows at the foot of the hill. “So my father let most of the water in the moat flow into the mill stream. Then the mill wheel turned. And the miller could grind the farmers’ grain into flour.”
“Is the mill still there?” Peggy asked. “I’d like to see it.”
“The mill is there. But the miller is afraid of me now that I’m so big,” the giant said. “I don’t often go into the meadows anymore.”
Peggy thought he sounded sad. She changed the subject. “You have a beautiful garden. Who planted it?”
“I did,” Fred told her. “I like to grow things.”
Brian looked at the rows of cabbages. “It’s lucky you planted vegetables. You have something to eat even though you don’t have the magic tablecloth anymore.”
“I’m waiting for my apples to ripen.” The giant looked at the children. “Do you like cherries?”
“Cherries! I love cherries,” Peggy said.
“So do I.” Brian looked down into the garden. “Which is the cherry tree?”
The giant picked up Brian with one hand and Peggy with the other. He turned around and leaned over the trees growing on the bank of the stream.
Peggy clicked on her flashlight and shone it into the branches. She saw apples on two of the trees and pears on another. Little green peaches grew on the fourth tree. And the fifth was loaded with cherries.
“You look like a firefly with that magic lamp of yours, Peggy.” The giant held the children close to the branches of the cherry tree.
Peggy climbed into a crotch of the tree. She shone the flashlight on a cluster of cherries that hung just over her head. Peggy picked one and popped it into her mouth. “Yum!”
Brian was sitting on a thick branch. “It looks as if every one of them is ripe, Fred. Why don’t you eat them?”
“My fingers are so big,” the giant told him, “that I squash the cherries when I try to pick them.”
“I’ll pick some for you, Fred,” Peggy said.
“That’s nice of you, Peggy. But you’d have to pick cherries all night to get enough to make one mouthful for me.” The giant sat down cross-legged beside the tree. “It’s fun for me just to see you eat them.”
Puss was still on the stone wall. He watched Brian and Peggy stuffing themselves with cherries. All at once there was a whirr of wings. A bird dived out of the sky. When it saw the cat, the bird flew up again.
Peggy thought she heard someone calling her name. “Here I am,” she cried from the tree.
The bird flew down toward her. Now Peggy saw that it was the mockingbird.
“Come quickly,” the bird called. “Annie needs you!”
The bird was flying around and around the cherry tree. He seemed to want Peggy and Brian to follow him.
The giant stood up. “It would be faster if I carried you,” he said to the children. “Would you mind sitting on my head? I’m sorry my hair is such a mess. I don’t have the right size comb. I tried using a rake. But even that wasn’t big enough.”
“Hurry!” the bird cried.
Fred picked Brian and Peggy out of the cherry tree and put them on his head. Then he lifted the cat off the wall and set him beside the children.
“Hold tight.” The giant climbed over the stone wall and strode along the dirt road that led down the hill.
Brian and Peggy grabbed onto the giant’s hair and tried to keep from bouncing up and down.
&
nbsp; “It’s like going on a hayride,” Brian said.
Peggy held the cat on her lap. “Just don’t use your claws to hang on,” she told him.
The giant’s head was higher than the trees in the woods on the side of the hill. He walked almost as fast as the mockingbird could fly.
They crossed the meadows and followed the bird over a line of low hills. Peggy pointed ahead of them. “Look, Brian, there’s the magic tree.”
The giant stopped walking. He stared at the beech tree. “Puss, that looks like the tree you were stuck in.”
The mockingbird flew to the tree and perched on one of the branches. Fred reached up and took the children and the cat off his head. He put them on the ground near the tree.
Puss dived at the little hole in the trunk and pushed his way into the tree. Brian went after the cat.
The bird flew down to the hole. Then he flew back up to the branch.
“Why don’t you go into the tree?” Peggy asked.
“A cat’s a cat,” the mockingbird said. “I don’t want to be too close to one.”
Peggy got down on all fours. She put her hand on the lumpy trunk. “I wish you and Puss could be friends,” she said to the bird.
At once the mockingbird flew down to the little hole. He poked his beak in. Then all the rest of him went in until only his tail feathers stuck out. In a second they too were gone.
The giant watched the bird. “If only I were the size I used to be, I’d go too. But it’s your turn now, Peggy. You’d better go.”
Peggy pushed her finger into the hole in the trunk. “I wish you could come with us, Fred.” The bark stretched big enough for Peggy’s arm to go in. Soon her head was inside the tree. And then all of Peggy was in.
It was very dark. Peggy turned on her flashlight. She looked into the pit. Brian and the cat were there. And so was the mockingbird. He was perched on the cat’s back. And Puss was purring.