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CHAPTER 14 - THE UNHAPPY FERRYMAN
Leaving the grove where they had slept, the Frogman and the Cookie Cook
turned to the east to seek another house, and after a short walk came to one
where the people received them very politely. The children stared rather hard
at the big, pompous Frogman, but the woman of the house, when Cayke
asked for something to eat, at once brought them food and said they were
welcome to it. "Few people in need of help pass this way," she remarked, "for
the Winkies are all prosperous and love to stay in their own homes. But
perhaps you are not a Winkie," she added.
"
No," said Cayke, "I am a Yip, and my home is on a high mountain at the
southeast of your country."
"
"
And the Frogman, is he also a Yip?"
I do not know what he is, other than a very remarkable and highly educated
creature," replied the Cookie Cook. "But he has lived many years among the
Yips, who have found him so wise and intelligent that they always go to him
for advice."
"
May I ask why you have left your home and where you are going?" said the
Winkie woman.
Then Cayke told her of the diamond-studded gold dishpan and how it had
been mysteriously stolen from her house, after which she had discovered that
she could no longer cook good cookies. So she had resolved to search until
she found her dishpan again, because a Cookie cook who cannot cook good
cookies is not of much use. The Frogman, who had wanted to see more of the
world, had accompanied her to assist in the search. When the woman had
listened to this story, she asked, "Then you have no idea as yet who has stolen
your dishpan?"
"
I only know it must have been some mischievous fairy, or a magician, or
some such powerful person, because none other could have climbed the steep
mountain to the Yip Country. And who else could have carried away my
beautiful magic dishpan without being seen?"
The woman thought about this during the time that Cayke and the Frogman
ate their breakfast. When they had finished, she said, "Where are you going
next?"
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