Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/179

 The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could do, and made him sit down.

‘I have been assured,’ said the Cat, ‘that you have the gift of being able to change yourself into all sorts of creatures you have a mind to; you can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, or elephant, and the like.’

‘That is true,’ answered the ogre very briskly; ‘and to convince you, you shall see me now become a lion.’



Puss was so sadly terrified at the sight of a lion so near him that he immediately got into the gutter, not without abundance of trouble and danger, because of his boots, which were of no use at all to him in walking upon the tiles. A little while after, when Puss saw that the ogre had resumed his natural form, he came down, and owned he had been very much frightened.

‘I have been moreover informed,’ said the Cat, ‘but I know not how to believe it, that you have also the power to take on you the shape of the smallest animals; for example, to change