The Ogress and the Orphans

The orphans and Ogress spend all night making books, which they leave for the townspeople to find in the morning. The stories are about the Ogress, the dog, and other characters without mentioning them by name, and the townspeople are moved by the tales. Upon reading the stories, they suddenly have positive opinions of ogres, crows, and other beings they formerly thought of as pests or wicked. After a few days, the people realize the stories are really about them and how they’ve lost their trust in anything. The cobbler’s wife calls for a book swap, and the people gather to exchange books and talk about what they are reading.

Meanwhile, the Mayor paces his house, thinking about how wonderful he is and how much he deserves everything he has. He made a mistake in the ogre village that forced him to reveal himself, but Stone-in-the-Glen is different because people, not ogres, populate it, and people “don’t believe what’s right in front of their eyes if a clever person tells them not to” (329). On his front steps, there’s a book about a king who hoards all his money, and the illustrations look suspiciously like him, which sends him into a rage.