Then he learnt to catch the little sun moths and rub them through the finest sieves , and the flour from them he made into soft bread for the toothless old woman . In this way he passed from one kind of service to another , spending a year in each , till in the fourth year he was promoted to the kitchen . Here he worked his way up from under-scullion to head-pastrycook , and reached the greatest perfection . He could make all the most difficult dishes , and two hundred different kinds of patties , soup flavoured with every sort of herb -- he had learnt it all , and learnt it well and quickly . When he had lived seven years with the old woman she ordered him one day , as she was going out , to kill and pluck a chicken , stuff it with herbs , and have it very nicely roasted by the time she got back . He did this quite according to rule . He wrung the chicken 's neck , plunged it into boiling water , carefully plucked out all the feathers , and rubbed the skin nice and smooth . Then he went to fetch the herbs to stuff it with . In the store-room he noticed a half-opened cupboard which he did not remember having seen before . He peeped in and saw a lot of baskets from which came a strong and pleasant smell . He opened one and found a very uncommon herb in it . The stems and leaves were a bluish green , and above them was a little flower of a deep bright red , edged with yellow . He gazed at the flower , smelt it , and found it gave the same strong strange perfume which came from the soup the old woman had made him . But the smell was so sharp that he began to sneeze again and again , and at last -- he woke up ! There he lay on the old woman 's sofa and stared about him in surprise . ` Well , what odd dreams one does have to be sure ! ' he said to himself . ` Why , I could have sworn I had been a squirrel , a companion of guinea pigs and such creatures , and had become a great cook , too . How mother will laugh when I tell her ! But wo n't she scold me , though , for sleeping away here in a strange house , instead of helping her at market ! '
He jumped up and prepared to go : all his limbs still seemed quite stiff XXXXX his long sleep , especially his neck , for he could not move his head easily , and he laughed at his own stupidity at being still so drowsy that he kept knocking his nose against the wall or cupboards .
In about above as before for of on that with