"How dare you!" he cried; "how dare you enter my forest?"
Marvel jerked his bridle from the man's grasp and said in return:
"Who are you?"
"Me! Who am I? Why, I am the great and powerful Kwytoffle! So
beware! Beware my sorcery!"
They all looked at the man curiously. He was short and very fat, and
had a face like a puff-ball, with little red eyes and scarcely any
nose at all. He wore a black gown with scarlet grasshoppers and
june-bugs embroidered upon the cloth; and his hat was high and peaked,
with an imitation grasshopper of extraordinary size perched upon its
point. In his right hand he carried a small black wand, and around
his neck hung a silver whistle on a silver cord.
Seeing that the strangers were gazing on him so earnestly, Kwytoffle
thought they were frightened; so he said again, in a big voice:
"Beware my vengeance!"
"Beware yourself!" retorted the prince. "For if you do not treat us
more respectfully, I shall have you flogged."
"What! Flog me!" shouted Kwytoffle, furiously. "For this I will turn
every one of you into grasshoppers--unless you at once give me all the
wealth you possess!"
"Poor man!" exclaimed Nerle; "I can see you are longing for that
flogging.
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