"
Now Ervic was as brave as any ordinary young man, and
he knew the fishes who spoke to him were truthful and
to be relied upon, nevertheless he experienced a
strange sinking of the heart as he picked up the kettle
and approached the door of the cottage. His hand
trembled as he raised the latch, but he was resolved to
obey his instructions. He pushed the door open, took
three strides into the middle of the one room the
cottage contained, and then stood still and looked
around him.
The sights that met his gaze were enough to frighten
anyone who had not been properly warned. On the floor
just before Ervic lay a great crocodile, its red eyes
gleaming wickedly and its wide open mouth displaying
rows of sharp teeth. Horned toads hopped about; each
of the four upper corners of the room was festooned
with a thick cobweb, in the center of which sat a
spider as big around as a washbasin, and armed with
pincher-like claws; a red-and-green lizard was
stretched at full length on the window-sill and black
rats darted in and out of the holes they had gnawed in
the floor of the cottage.
But the most startling thing was a huge gray ape
which sat upon a bench and knitted.
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