[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
GARGANTUA COMES BACK FROM FAIRY-LAND.—AFTER WHICH PANTAGRUEL PREPARES FOR ANOTHER TRIP.
One day Gargantua came back from Fairy-land.
It was a day above all others long to be remembered by Pantagruel, when he first heard, on coming home from a visit to one of his cities, where he had gone to decide a knotty case between that city and a neighboring town, the sharp bark of a dog. "Why! I know that bark," he said. "That is the bark of little Kyne, my father's dog. My father must surely have come back!" So, joyfully, he followed Kyne, who went bounding and frisking back to the great door of the Palace. There he found his old father, with his arms stretched wide open to clasp his son. Everybody was glad to see that wonderful meeting of father and son high up in the air.
"My dear son!"
"My dear and honored father!"
That was all they could hear, as the old Giant and the young Giant, arm in arm, passed through the door, and went up the broad stairway into the great hall. We may be sure that Snapsauce and the two other Very Fat Cooks were soon doing their best to get together a good dinner, during which Pantagruel heard all about Fairy-land, its Queen, and her kind Fairies. When a fresh flagon of wine rested between them, Father Gargantua said:—
"I praise God, my beloved son, that he has given thee such wisdom and virtue. Had it not been for thee, I would still have been in Fairy-land, for thou hast been wise while I was away. I would like to speak to thee now on a subject which much troubled me there. Thou art now old enough to take a wife, and I desire to see thee marry. Hast thou ever thought of a wife?"