The Ogress and the Orphans

At the Orphan House, the cobbler’s wife continues to bustle around and bring people over to be helpful, not noticing that Cass has returned safely. Though all the attention is overwhelming, the willingness with which people help out gives Anthea hope for the first time in a while. After dinner, Anthea, Bartleby, and Cass go outside, where they overhear the Mayor’s speech and the increasingly angry mob yelling about the Ogress. The kids decide to warn her, but before they can go, Harold arrives. Cass suddenly remembers everything that happened while she was away. Harold flies into her arms, crowing happily, and Cass responds, “I love you, too” (246).

Before Chapter 32, Harold and the Ogress’s dog decide to make sure Cass is safe, and they go into town, where they hear the angry mob. Harold recognizes something about the Mayor but doesn’t know what, only that his appearance is unsettling. At the Orphan House, Harold reunites with Cass in an embrace that feels both like an instant and an eternity because “time was funny when one loved this much” (250). Harold tells the children that the Ogress has been leaving the food for them. Cass writes a note to warn the Ogress and gives it to Harold, who returns to the farm, worried.

Harold returns with the note from the children, but the crows refuse to believe him about the danger because they dislike how un-crowlike Harold is. Harold brings the note to the Ogress, but she can’t read. Instead, she cries joyfully at the picture the kids drew of her with the children, making Harold nervous. As the Ogress makes her deliveries that night, she thinks about how she finally feels like she belongs in the town. Harold repeatedly tries to warn her it’s not safe, but she shrugs off his warnings because “this is my home” (258).

The next morning, the townspeople are delighted to find food on their doorsteps, sure it means the town is becoming lovely again. The Mayor ignores the pie on his doorstep in favor of hanging the signs he printed around town. The signs have short messages about how bad ogres are and how lovely the town is, and he contents himself with thinking that the signs are excellent and that “he was an excellent mayor” (262).

Anthea and Bartleby believe Cass’s story, but Myron and the Matron don’t because they are sure the Ogress is dangerous. The next market day, Anthea, Bartleby, and Cass go with Myron in hopes of seeing the Mayor so they can get him to tell everyone the Ogress isn’t bad, but there are signs hung everywhere proclaiming how the Ogress has ruined the town and is a threat. The butcher stops at their table to apologize for his outburst the other day, and Myron explains Cass has returned. The butcher doesn’t believe him, instead clinging to the idea that the Ogress is taking children, and Anthea wonders, “What is the use of truth when people refuse to believe verifiable facts?” (268).

As the day wears on, Myron looks increasingly less sturdy. Anthea runs to the junk pile at the center of town to find materials to build a chair. While there, she keeps leaning against the stone in the middle of the pile and sees visions of past events, though she doesn’t know what’s happening. The stone shows her the image of a dragon in the body of a man, followed by a dragon burning down the Library. As soon as she moves away from the stone, the images vanish, and she hurries to bring Myron the chair. When he asks where she made it, she is confused and finally says, “There is always a little bit of cast-off trash in Stone-in-the-Glen” (272).

The Mayor arrives, and a crowd gathers around him. Anthea tries to tell the Mayor the truth about the Ogress, but he pushes her aside, saying, “Children are so funny when they are wrong” (276). The Mayor orders Anthea to be removed, and the cobbler brings her back to the market, where she, Myron, and the others start home. The entire way, Anthea can’t help but feel like logic has failed her and that she’s failed everyone else.