Back Aa

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

Close

<hr style="width: 65%;" />[76] <h2>THE BRAMBLE BUSH MAN</h2> <div class='poem'><div class='cap'> THERE was a man in our town, And he was wondrous wise. He jumped into a bramble bush And scratched out both his eyes. And when he found his eyes were out He cried with grief and pain, And jumped into another bush And scratched them in again. </div> </div> "That's the man I'm looking for," cried little Puss, Junior. "I wonder where he lives. Maybe he can tell me where to find my father." "You hold your horse while I ask the baker's wife," said the farmer's pretty daughter. Pretty soon she came back and said: "He lives in a little house just outside the town. It's not far from our place." So she and Puss rode away, and she was mighty careful, let me tell you, not to drop the package containing the silk gown which Puss had given her. Well, by and by they came to the wise man's little house, surrounded by a hedge of bramble bushes; but the wise man himself was nowhere to be seen. "Let's go around to the barn," said the[77] farmer's pretty daughter. "It's milking time, you know." And, sure enough, there they found him. "Are you the man who jumped into the bramble bush?" asked Puss. "Yes, I am. But let me tell you something. They call me a wise man, but I think a man who jumps into a bramble bush is a silly goose." And then, all of a sudden, the Bramble-bush Man exclaimed: "Goodness me! I once knew a cat who wore red-top boots. A good many years ago there lived near here a miller who had three sons. When he died he left all his property to the two eldest, but to the youngest only a cat. Well, this cat turned out to be a most wonderful cat. Indeed, I heard that he secured a magnificent castle for his young master, as well as the hand of a lovely princess." "Where does he live?" cried Puss, in great excitement. "That I cannot tell," replied the Bramble-bush Man, "for I never heard where he went after leaving here." "Oh, dear me!" sighed little Puss, Junior. "Nobody knows where my father lives." Then he and the farmer's pretty daughter rode away, and in the next story you shall hear what happened at the old farmhouse. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2