The next morning, Glumdalclitch told me what she had found out.
"Our neighbor thought you were very rude and he's angry with you.
He told my father that people would pay him to see you.
Papa is going to take you to town on the next market day and put you on display."
She was crying now.
"People will stare at you."
"Hmm," I said, "perhaps nothing bad will happen."
"But what if people hurt you or drop you?" she said.
"Papa told me you were mine, but now he wants to show you off to get money.
It's just like what he did last year when he gave me a lamb."
She cried harder.
"What happened?" I asked nervously.
"I cared for the lamb, and it grew into a fine, fat sheep.
Then Papa sold it to the butcher."
She sobbed unhappily at the memory of her lost pet lamb.
But I was not quite as worried as Glumdalclitch.
And I still had hope that one day I would be free again.
On market day, my master put me in a box.
It had an opening for a door and some holes in the top to let in air.
I remembered keeping a frog in a similar box when I was a little boy.
"How strange to be treated like a captive frog," I said to myself.
My master put Glumdalclitch on his horse and got on in front of her.
"Hold the box tightly. Don't drop it!"
he told her as we set off for the town.
As the horse trotted along, I was bounced around violently.
I felt as if I were on a ship in a very bad storm.
But soon we arrived at the hotel where my master stayed on market days.
"I want to rent your largest meeting room," he said to the hotel man.
"I will have many guests tonight."
My master hired a man to spread the word about the strange creature that would be on show at the hotel that night.
"Come and see the tiny man!" this man shouted in the streets.
"It walks, it talks, but it's only the size of a small doll!"
Many people came to the hotel that evening.
My master put me on the table in the meeting room.
"Glumdalclitch," he said to his daughter, "make Grildig show the people what he can do."
"I'm sorry," she whispered to me, "but please do what my father wants."
She sat nearby while I bowed to the crowd.
"I'm delighted to meet you all," I said.
I walked about and answered the people's questions in a loud voice.
They clapped and cheered when I pulled out my sword and pretended to fight.
My master let only thirty people into the room at a time so that all could see me well.
I performed for 12 groups that night, and everyone paid my master for the show.
He watched the people carefully and would not let anyone touch me.
I was valuable to him, so he did not want me to get hurt.
Throughout the evening, the crowd outside the hotel grew.
"Come again on the next market day.
Send your friends," my master told the people.
I was so exhausted after the last show that I could hardly stand up.
The next day, we went home, and after three days I began to feel a little better.
But even at the farmer's house, people demanded to see me.
My master got more and more money, and I got more and more tired.