and tickled it under
its fat chin with his tail. And the Baby laughed; and the Woman heard
him and smiled.

Then the Bat--the little upside-down Bat--that hung in the mouth of the
Cave said, 'O my Hostess and Wife of my Host and Mother of my Host's
Son, a Wild Thing from the Wild Woods is most beautifully playing with
your Baby.'

'A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,' said the Woman,
straightening her back, 'for I was a busy woman this morning and he has
done me a service.'

The very minute and second, Best Beloved, the dried horse-skin Curtain
that was stretched tail-down at the mouth of the Cave fell
down--_woosh!_--because it remembered the bargain she had made with the
Cat, and when the Woman went to pick it up--lo and behold!--the Cat was
sitting quite comfy inside the Cave.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said 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 que