Page 23 - The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Jr.

"Come, chick," cried the giant, not noticing Puss. "Come, chick, and lay me a gold egg!"

"I'm so tired to-day," she replied, "won't you let me off just for once?"

"No, siree!" roared the giant. "Lay! lay!"

"How dare you be so cruel, Sir Giant!" roared Puss as loud as he could, stepping forward and brandishing his
staff.

"Heighty tighty!" laughed the giant, "on one condition will I let off the little hen, and that is that you spend the
night in my house and tell me some of your adventures."

Puss, Jr., bowed low and graciously. He was able now to reward the little hen for showing him the way, and as
the guest of the giant, it would be much easier to find Jack. Puss made up his mind toward midnight to hunt
over the entire house for him.

PUSS DISCOVERS WHERE JACK IS HIDING

Puss, Jr., found the giant a very agreeable host. Perhaps it was because Puss told so many interesting stories of
what he had seen and done since leaving the garret.

"By the time you find your father," roared the giant, for even when he whispered it sounded like thunder, "you
will have traveled far and wide, my dear friend."

They were seated in the giant's great living-room. A huge pipe was in his mouth, the smoke from which rose
in a cloud as big as that from a factory chimney. Puss, Jr., was not the least bit dismayed, however, for he was
naturally a brave cat, and his many adventures had given him an air of assurance as well as a liberal education.
He sat opposite the giant and recounted his adventures one after another, much to the delight of his great host.
All the while, however, Puss was scheming as to the best way to discover Jack. He had made up his mind
firmly that after his long climb up the bean-stalk, and the fact that he had been so lucky as to make a friend of
the giant, he would allow nothing to turn him aside.

Finally the giant fell sound asleep. Puss carefully opened the door and tiptoed into the kitchen, where the
giant's wife was washing up the supper-dishes. As he entered he noticed that the oven door was open just a
crack. "My good woman," said Puss, "your husband is asleep, so I have taken this opportunity to thank you
for the very fine supper of which I have just partaken."

The giant's wife started at the sound of his voice and immediately walked over and stood in front of the oven
as if to guard it from view.

"Ha, ha!" said Puss to himself. "I'll wager Jack is in the oven. I wonder why the good woman mistrusts me.

"Madam," said Puss, "I'm in search of a little boy named Jack, and I have a message from his mother for him.
Jack of the wonderful bean-stalk, and I am sure he is in yonder oven."

Puss, Jr., heard a scratching sound, then a creak, and in a moment Jack stepped from behind the giant's wife,
after carefully closing the oven door.

"How do you do," said Jack, coming forward, "and what does mother want?"

"She is worried about you," replied Puss, Jr., "and asked me to tell you, should I have the good fortune of
meeting you, that she hoped you would return home, for she is so lonely."