"I have no intention of not obeying," answered Puss, "nor would I endanger our safety by biting off a piece. Should the bridge fall into the water I should be forced to swim, and swimming is no easy matter for a cat, especially with high-top boots."
"Wisely said," replied the retainer. "And now that we have crossed over safely, I will leave you to pursue your journey, for you need no further help from me."
"Thank you," cried Puss, Jr.
"Yet there is one thing I would warn you of," replied the retainer, pausing before taking himself off. "In yonder forest is a gingerbread cottage. Beware of it, for within lives a wicked witch." With these words he turned away and crossed the gingerbread bridge that led back to Cranberry Tart Island.
"A gingerbread cottage," laughed Puss to himself, following the path that led into the forest:
"A gingerbread bridge
And a gingerbread house,
A gingerbread cat
And a gingerbread mouse.
But the gingerbread cat
Ate the gingerbread mouse
As she ran on the bridge
From the gingerbread house."
PUSS IN BOOTS, JR., VISITS THE OLD WOMAN IN THE SHOE
IT was now about high noon; but the air was cool and balmy, for the sun hardly penetrated the deep recesses of the green forest. As Puss trudged along he sang a little song to himself. I think he must have been something of a poet, for unconsciously his words rhymed and the air also was of his own making. A little brown wren, who was hopping along on the green moss that covered the floor of the great forest, heard him, and she told it to some one who afterward told it to me. And this is the way the little song went:
Through the woods, the cool woods,
The green woods, sweet with balm and fir,
To the music of the breeze
Singing softly through the trees
This the song I purr:—
Happy he who travels far,
Travels far and free,
Over valley, over hill,
Over smiling lea;
Never weary of the road,
Happy that he be
Just a jolly traveler
Wandering, like me!