At midnight he got up from where he was sitting and freshened the fire. Suddenly some creatures in a corner of the room began to shriek, “Mew, mew! how cold we are!”
“Simpletons!” he exclaimed, “what are you screeching for? If you are cold, come and warm yourselves by the fire.”
Immediately two big black cats sprang forth from the gloomy corner and sat down one on each side of him. They stared at him with wild, fiery eyes until they had warmed themselves, and then said, “Comrade, shall we have a game of cards?”
“Certainly,” he replied, “but show me your paws first.”
They each lifted a front foot and stretched out their claws.
“Why,” said he, “what long nails you’ve got! Wait a bit. I must cut them for you.”
He picked up a sword he had brought with him, but instead of cutting their nails he seized each cat in turn by the scruff of the neck and killed it by thrusting his sword through its body. That done, he dragged them to a window and heaved them out. But no sooner had he got rid of these cats and was about to sit down by his fire again than crowds of dogs, all jet black, swarmed out of every nook and corner of the room. They howled horribly and trampled on his fire, and tried to put it out.
For a time he looked quietly on, but at last he got angry, took up his sword, and cried, “You rascally pack, away with you!” and he let fly among them right and left. Some of them escaped, and the rest he struck dead and threw out of the window.
When he finished, he returned to the fire, scraped the embers together, and set it to blazing. At the far side of the room was a big bed, and he went and lay down on it, intending to sleep the remainder of the night. But just as he was closing his eyes the bed began to move. It crossed the room, went out at a door, and soon was tearing round and round the castle. “Very good,” he said, “the faster the better!”
