Gudgekin the Thistle Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

thought and thought. In the middle of that afternoon the griffin, while walking through a schoolroom, abruptly frowned, his eagle head cocked sharply, and reflected, “For three days I’ve been watching these people steadily and like a hawk, trying to find out how it is that though they never succeed at doing anything, they manage to get things done; and for three days I have seen, by unmistakable evidence, that in fact they do not get anything done. It was clearly an illusion, when it seemed to me before that they did get things done. Now that that’s settled, why am I wasting my time with these fools, since they no longer even amuse me any more? I will go back to my castle and never again waste my head on them.” And he flew out the schoolroom window and straight to his castle, which he never left again in all his life.
    Meanwhile the wise old philosopher and his wife were standing before the king’s throne, and the king had called in all his servants and a great crowd of citizens from the street, for this was a great occasion, at least in the king’s mind, though the philosopher, standing with his arms folded over his great white beard and his head tipped forward, his spectacles fallen to the tip of his nose, was beginning to drift off.
    At last, in a booming voice that woke the philosopher, the king said, “Well, old philosopher, have you rid me of that griffin?”
    â€œLet me understand this,” the philosopher said. “Whenever people see the griffin, they immediately become utterly befuddled, so they don’t know anything at all. Is that so?”
    â€œCertainly that’s so,” said the king. “Everyone knows that.”
    â€œThey aren’t sure of anything? ” inquired the philosopher.
    â€œNothing,” snapped the king impatiently. “Get to the point. Have you rid me of the griffin or haven’t you?”
    â€œWhat griffin?” asked the wise old philosopher.
    All the people were shocked. The king was furious. But in the days that followed, as the kingdom gradually came back to proper order, and no one felt confused—except, as usual, the philosopher—it was seen that the wise old philosopher was right as rain.

The Shape-Shifters
of Shorm

    T hey were known as the terrible Shape-Shifters of Shorm, and whenever their name was mentioned even the emperor himself went deathly pale, and rightly. For a man might be walking the road at dusk, speaking casually of this and that with a man he had met that day in town—some kind old peasant with a gentle face, or some traveling tinker with stories to tell, some friendly creature who would never harm a fly—and suddenly, quick as the blink of an eye, the stranger might stand transformed to, for instance, an owl. It was unnatural, illogical, a violation of order—though the shape-shifters, it is true, did no one any damage.
    The emperor sent out an urgent call for aid through the whole of the empire, and he swore that the person who could cleanse the empire of the terrible shape-shifters would have as his reward whatever he dared to name.
    Now in a certain village there lived a woodchopper who had grown too old and feeble to chop wood. Everyone knew him as a troublesome fellow, unpredictable and cranky. When people tried to reason with him, all the old woodchopper would say was “Bah!” When they tried to organize some community effort, the woodchopper would lock his doors and refuse to come out.
    On the day the emperor’s proclamation was nailed up, the woodchopper was sitting with his ax on the curbstone, peacefully thinking about the good old days, chopping down trees and occasionally slicing off the head of a wolf; but sunk in thought as he was, he couldn’t help but notice the proclamation being posted and the people all gathering to read it. After a while, against his better judgment, he went over to look at it too.
    All the people were saying excitedly,