You're the unsociable and crabbed and disagreeable one,
and so I like you, and bear with your grumpiness. It's
time for my midday meal; are you hungry?"
"No," said Ervic, although he really desired food.
"Well, I am," Reera declared and clapped her hands
together. Instantly a table appeared, spread with linen
and bearing dishes of various foods, some smoking hot.
There were two plates laid, one at each end of the
table, and as soon as Reera seated herself all her
creatures gathered around her, as if they were
accustomed to be fed when she ate. The wolf squatted at
her right hand and the kittens and chipmunks gathered
at her left.
"Come, Stranger, sit down and eat," she called
cheerfully, "and while we're eating let us decide into
what forms we shall change your fishes."
"They're all right as they are," asserted Ervic,
drawing up his bench to the table. "The fishes are
beauties -- one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Nothing that has life is more lovely than a beautiful
fish."
"What! Am I not more lovely?" Reera asked, smiling at
his serious face.
"I don't object to you -- for a Yookoohoo, you know,"
he said, helping himself to the food and eating with
good appetite.
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