Previous - Next

the Cat, 'it is I: for you have spoken a word in my praise, and
now I can sit within the Cave for always and always and always.
But still I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are
alike to me.'

The Woman was very angry, and shut her lips tight and took up her
spinning-wheel and began to spin. But the Baby cried because the
Cat had gone away, and the Woman could not hush it, for it
struggled and kicked and grew black in the face.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'take a strand of the wire that you are spinning and tie
it to your spinning-whorl and drag it along the floor, and I will
show you a magic that shall make your Baby laugh as loudly as he
is now crying.'

'I will do so,' said the Woman, 'because I am at my wits' end;
but I will not thank you for it.'

She tied the thread to the little clay spindle whorl and drew it
across the floor, and the Cat ran after it and patted it with his
paws and rolled head over heels, and tossed it backward over his
shoulder and chased it between his hind-legs and pretended to
lose it, and pounced down upon it again, till the Baby laughed as
loudly as it had been crying, and scrambled after the Cat and
frolicked all over the Cave till it grew tired and settled down
to sleep with the Cat in its arms.

'Now,' said the Cat, 'I will sing the Baby a song that shall keep
him asleep for an hour. And he began to purr, loud and low, low
and loud, till the Baby fell fast asleep. The Woman smiled as she
looked down upon the two of them and said, 'That was wonderfully
done. No question but you are very clever, O Cat.'

That very minute and second, Best Beloved, the smoke of the fire
at the back of the Cave came down in clouds from the roof--puff!--
because it remembered the bargain she had made with the Cat, and
when it had cleared away--lo and behold!--the Cat was sitting quite
comfy close to the fire.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of My Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'it is I, for you have spoken a second word in my
praise, and now I can sit by the warm fire at the back of the
Cave for always and always and always. But still I am the Cat who
walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.'

Then the Woman was very very angry, and let down her hair and put
more wood on the fire and brought out the broad blade-bone of the
shoulder of mutton and began to make a Magic that should prevent
her from saying a third word in praise of the Cat. It was not a
Singing Magic, Best Beloved, it was a Still Magic; and by and by
the Cave grew so still that a little wee-wee mouse crept out of a
corner and ran across the floor.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'is that little mouse part of your magic?'

'Ouh! Chee! No indeed!' said the Woman, and she dropped the

Previous - Next