Then the King went out into the kitchen, and when he saw the fine plump reindeer, he was very glad.
“But, my dear friend”, he said, “who in the world is it that sends me such a fine gift?”
“Oh!” said Peter, “who should send it but Lord Peter.”
“Lord Peter! Lord Peter!” said the King. “Pray tell me where he lives”; for he thought it a shame not to know so great a man. But that was just what the lad wouldn’t tell him; he daren’t do it, he said, because his master had forbidden him.
So the King gave him a good bit of money to drink his health, and bade him be sure and say all kind of pretty things, and many thanks for the present to his master when he got home.
Next day the Cat went again into the wood, and jumped up on a red deer’s head, and sat between his horns, and forced him to go to the palace. Then Peter went again into the kitchen, and said he was come with a little present for the King, if he would be pleased to take it. And the King was still more glad to get the red deer than he had been to get the reindeer, and asked again who it was that sent so fine a present.
“Why, it’s Lord Peter, of course”, said the lad; but when the King wanted to know where Lord Peter lived, he got the same answer as the day before; and this day, too, he gave Peter a good lump of money to drink his health with.
The third day the Cat came with an elk. And so when Peter got into the palace kitchen, and said he had a little present for the King, if he’d be pleased to take it, the King came out at once into the kitchen; and when he saw the grand big elk, he was so glad he scarce knew which leg to stand on; and this day, too, he gave Peter many many more dollars—at least a hundred. He wished now, once for all, to know where this Lord Peter lived, and asked and asked about this thing and that, but the lad said he daren’t say, for his master’s sake, who had strictly forbidden him to tell.
“Well, then”, said the King, “beg Lord Peter to come and see me.”
Yes, the lad would take that message; but when Peter got out into the yard again, and met the Cat, he said,