The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, The Shoe King's Son, Catherine Besterman [ebooks children's books free txt] 📗

his stinginess. And groaning again, almost desperately, he said, "I don't have to tell you again, dear nephew, how poor I am. There is no doubt that I cannot provide the quantities of food your crocodilish appetite requires. But, if you wish, I can give you the dogs and the bear and you may go into the forest, mountains and valleys beyond the border of my ruined lands and look for food over there. But, first of all, look for the leather for my jacket and my shoes. I will tell the animals to obey you."

As Johnny could clearly see, his stingy uncle wasn't giving him a thing. In fact, Johnny not only had to find his own food, but feed his uncle's animals as well. But the little shoemaker's boy was cheerful and brave, and he thought, It will be lots of fun to go out in search of food under the protection of a powerful bear and three big dogs. This uncle of mine would starve me if I stayed here and the fresh air makes me hungrier than ever.

So he said, "With great pleasure, Uncle Lucas. We will go now and we will bring back something good to eat."

"If you really do that -- you can... you... you... you can use my oven to cook this 'something good,' on condition, of course, that you bring some wood to make the fire and -- "

"And that I build you a castle and work for you for a hundred years," said Johnny. Hunger was making him feel angry.

"Well, my boy, I didn't steal that oven, you know. I had to pay for the bricks in real, good money, and bricks get worn out by fire. I am not so rich as you, crocodile-boy."

With this Uncle Lucas crossed his thin arms on his chest and looked at Johnny angrily.

"All right, all right," said Johnny. "Tell the animals to follow me. I am very hungry."

Uncle Lucas shouted his orders to the animals and sighed with relief when he saw his nephew going away.

"Terrible boy," he muttered to himself. "One more day and he would have ruined me completely."

Then he sat down on a bench, took from a hiding place a piece of stale, dry bread, wet it with tears from his shell and started to eat.

"All of this made me so tired," he said, "I really need this rich dinner."

Chapter 3

 

JOHNNY, the dogs and the bear left Uncle Lucas' estate and soon found themselves on a large meadow.

"What shall we do now?" asked Curly. "We have been hungry for five whole years. We have forgotten how it feels to have a full stomach. You must be very smart, prince, since you were able to talk our master into letting us go. Now be even smarter and find us something to eat."

Johnny looked at the scrawny dogs, at Fuzzy's eyes dimmed with hunger, and said pityingly, "Poor animals, my very unusual uncle is a rich man. He owns forests and fields, yet he doesn't even feed you. Let's go straight ahead and I'll look around very carefully. We don't know what luck might come to us."

They walked briskly and Johnny looked to the right, then to the left, to the right again and to the left again. His neck ached from turning his head. He even squinted his eyes, looking and looking for luck.

One, two, three hours passed. Fuzzy was growling softly from hunger. Johnny comforted the animals as best he could. But there was no food anywhere in sight.

Suddenly Johnny stopped in amazement.

He was standing at the edge of a big forest. On one tree a piece of bark had been cut off very neatly and an inscription had been written on the wood.

"What is this!" he exclaimed.

He read with growing wonder, for here is what it said:

We, Barnac the Cat, summon to Catnap, our famous estate, all the skillful, the very skillful and the most skillful shoemakers of the world. A princely reward lies in store for the man who performs a dangerous task.

Signed: Barnac the Cat,

Squire of Catnap.

"Who is this Barnac and what is this all about?" asked Johnny. "Ever since I left my father's workshop, all the people and all the animals have been behaving very strangely."

"I don't know what this is all about, but I can tell you who Barnac the Cat is," answered Curly. "He is a black cat with white stripes. He has extremely green eyes, placed very wide apart, and they shine very brightly at night. For many years he worked for many people in many countries. Then others started working for him. Finally he came to this country, bought himself a magnificent estate and lives there surrounded by a number of faithful cats."

"That means that we can have a grand dinner at his home," cried Johnny. "Let's go!"

Pressing his red leather box under his arm, Johnny quickened his step. Luckily, Barnac's estate was not far from there, and in a few minutes they could see Catnap, high on a steep hill.

"Oh!" exclaimed Johnny. "How wonderful and how strange!"

Indeed, never in his life had Johnny seen anything like Catnap. Barnac and his cats loved to walk on roofs and in attics. Everything lower than the top floor was as unpleasant for them as the basement itself. Therefore Barnac had had built on a cliff many very steep, sloping roofs with chimneys and small windows leading into attics. Underneath these roofs there was no eighth floor, no seventh floor, no sixth floor -- there were no floors at all. There was just the cliff with its extraordinary roofs.

Everything at Catnap was steep, tall and vertical. Big poles rose toward the sky. Windmills turned swiftly. And on all the hills, cliffs and roofs and at the swiftly turning windmills there were cats, jumping, miaowing, turning somersaults, dancing on four paws, on two paws, on one, on their tails, or on the tip of their noses.

Seeing all this, the dogs closed their eyes and Curly said, "I shall go crazy! What repulsive cats! I just can't stand it! I'll have to chase some of these monsters!"

"If you or Brownie or Spotty," warned Johnny, "even so much as bark once at the smallest cat in this catty Catnap, Fuzzy will attend to you on my orders. Thanks to these monsters, as you call them, you will have a good dinner. I give you my word for it. I, the prince and king's son."

This time Johnny forgot to add "shoemaker's apprentice" and "son of the Shoe King."

In any case, the dogs held their tongues. But they were nervous from being near so many cats. Their noses twitched and they kept sniffing the air. Fuzzy said in a low voice, "Those cats are much cleverer than you! I have yet to see a dog who could jump on a roof. Keep quiet -- or I will make you keep quiet."

On the highest chimney of the highest roof Barnac the Cat was sitting. He was eating a smoked mouse as an appetizer before dinner.

The sight of him eating was more than Johnny could stand. In a voice coming right from the bottom of his empty stomach he exclaimed, "The Cat is eating!"

"The Cat is eating!" howled the dogs and the bear.

In the meantime, all the cats had become aware of the strangers. Two cats with sharp claws approached the travelers.

"What are you doing here?" one of them asked. "Don't you know that dogs are not permitted here? Squire Barnac hates those stupid animals. And how did the bear get in? And you, little man in a long coat with a red box under your arm? You look like a gypsy, because you are traveling with a bear, or like an organ-grinder, but you have no barrel organ. Altogether, the whole thing looks rather suspicious." And the cat's voice rose threateningly.

Johnny knew that a critical moment had come. He had to impress these cats right away, or everything would be lost. He turned his head a little so as not to see the unpleasant long sharp claws ready to scratch him, and said, "How do you do? I am glad to know you. But you don't seem to know who I am. Be quiet and listen closely! You have an unusual visitor before you. Behold Prince Johnny, son of the Shoe King, a shoemaker's son of great renown. Not another word! Be off! Twirl around on your paws and run to your master. Tell him I am here!"

Hearing these words, the cat bowed deeply and apologized, "My fault, my fault, Your Excellency, my fault. I beg your pardon."

And off he ran to Barnac. A moment later something whirled and swished through the air. It was Barnac, who lightning-like was descending in circular jumps from his chimney. After one last, final, magnificent jump he landed just two inches from Johnny.

"Do you know how to repair shoes?" he asked, without any introduction. "That's the only thing that interests me at the moment. It is of no importance whatsoever whether you are a prince traveling with dogs and bears, or whether you're a prince traveling with a whole zoo."

This is a very clever cat, indeed, thought Johnny. He doesn't lose time talking about unimportant matters.

"I am Johnny the shoemaker, son of Peter the Shoe King," he said loudly. "I know all the secrets of the shoemaking art, and I carry with me the best tools in the world. I am able to repair any shoe known to man, even one without soles, heels or uppers."

"That would mean you could repair a shoe which does not exist," remarked Barnac. "I wouldn't demand so much as that. But I do have an important task for you to perform. If you complete it successfully, I will give you three pounds of gold, half a pound of precious stones and a shorter coat. You would look much better in a shorter one, you know. But should you fail, my cats will scratch you into ribbons."

Without any hesitation Johnny answered, "The idea of the task interests me. But I can't continue discussing these matters with you until my animals and I have had a filling dinner. We have just come from Mr. Lucas Longfoot's and "

Barnac the Cat laughed heartily.

"And Mr. Longfoot is v-e-e-e-e-ry thrifty," he interrupted, "and the whole neighborhood knows it. Hungry people don't work efficiently. I know that very well. Even lowly mice get food on my estate. Not much, of course, but anyway something."

"And then they are eaten up," said Johnny. He pointed his finger at the last bit of smoked mouse, which Barnac still held in his paw.

"These are my neighbor's mice," answered Barnac calmly. "I never eat my own mice, except when they ask me too many questions."

He stared at Johnny with a cold, green look. Suddenly the gay little shoemaker's apprentice didn't feel like talking any more.

Barnac miaowed shrilly and two fat cats, wearing white aprons and starched white caps, came bounding up.

"Listen, cooks," Barnac said to them, "I give you three minutes and twelve seconds to prepare a delicious dinner for this boy. Another dinner, as delicious, for the dogs and a third, as delicious, for the bear. While you cook, my secretary will read you a