year
came when he got neither the salmon nor the marten skin, neither the
live cricket nor the cow's horn. Then he got righteously and royally
indignant. He stood up on his four paws on the floor of his palace, and
declared to his wife that he himself was going to Ireland to know what
prevented the sending of his lawful tribute to him. He called for
his Prime Minister then and said, "Prepare for Us our Speech from the
Throne."

The Prime Minister went to the Parliament House and wrote down "Oyez,
Oyez, Oyez!" But he could not remember any more of the ancient language
in which the speeches from the Throne were always written. He went home
and hanged himself with a measure of tape and his wife buried the body
under the hearth-stone.

"Speech or no speech," said the King of the Cats, "I'm going to pay a
royal visit to my subjects in Ireland."

He went to the top of the cliff and he made a spring. He landed on the
deck of a ship that was bringing the King of Norway's daughter to be
married to the King of Scotland's son. The ship nearly sank with the
crash of his body on it. He ran up the sails and placed himself on the
mast of the ship. There he gathered his feet together and made another
spring. This time he landed on a boat that was bringing oak-timber to
build a King's Palace in London. He stood where the timber was highest
and made another spring. This time he landed on the Giant's Causeway
that runs from Ireland out into the sea. He picked his steps from
boulder to boulder, and then walked royally and resolutely on the ground
of Ireland. A man was riding on horseback with a woman seated on the
saddle behind him. The King of the Cats waited until they came up.

"My good man," said he very grandly, "when you go back to your house,
tell the ash-covered cat in the corner that the King of the Cats has come
to Ireland to see him."

His manner was so grand that the man took off his hat and the woman made
a courtesy. Then the King of the Cats sprang into the branch of a tree
of the forest and slept till it was past the mid-day heat.

I nearly forgot to tell you that as he slept on the branch his whiskers
stood around his face the breadth of a dinner-dish either way.

II

The next day the King's Son rode abroad and where he went that day he
saw no man nor woman nor living creature in the land around. But coming
back he saw a falcon sailing in the air above. He rode on and the falcon
sailed above, never rising hig