WHY THE CAT ALWAYS FALLS UPON HER FEET.
Reading edition
A Legend.
Louise Jamison.
ONE day a magician was traveling through a great forest. He was a very good magician, and always ready to help any creature in need.
After he had gone a long way through the forest, he was very tired; and, as the sun was growing hot, he lay down at the foot of a big tree, and was soon asleep. While he slept, a great serpent came softly out of the thicket, and, as soon as it saw the man, it began to hiss to itself:
“Ah, ha! ah, ha, I’ve got him now! He’ll not spoil my supper again in a hurry. I could have eaten that cat last night if he had not driven me away. I’ll kill him for it now.”
So it crept nearer and nearer, and the magician slept on, without any thought of danger.
But it happened that the cat was watching. She was up in the tree, and she had not forgotten how the magician had saved her from this cruel serpent.
The serpent was very large and she was only a small cat, and she was terribly afraid, but she meant to save her good friend if she could.
So, just as the serpent was about to spring, she leaped down upon his back and stuck her paws deep into his head.
Wild with pain and anger, he tried to reach her with his deadly fangs, but she was always too quick for him, and she used her claws to such good purpose that her enemy soon lay dead.
Then she was so tired after her hard struggle that she had to lie down herself.
The magician found her beside him when he awoke, and when he saw the dead serpent he knew his life had been saved by his brave little friend.
“Dear little cat,” he said, “what can I do to show how much I thank you? Your eyes are quick to see, and your ears quick to hear; and for running your feet have been made swift, but one thing I can give you. All men shall know you as their friend, and your home shall be with them, and for your sake all cats shall leap where they will, and fall ever upon their feet.”