the Cats tore up the sticks and wool that the crane's nest
was made of, and the smoke came up through the top of the house. "Oh,
thanks to you, good creature, that has destroyed the cross crane's nest.
Come down on my floor now and I'll do everything that will serve you."

The King of the Cats jumped down on the floor of the Hag's house and saw
the Hag of the Ashes sitting in a corner, She was a little, little woman
in a gray cloak. All over the floor there were ashes in heaps, for
she used to light a fire in one corner and when it was burnt out light
another beside the ashes of the first. The smoke had never gone through
the hole in the roof since the crane had built her nest on the top of
the house. Her face was yellow with the smoke and her eyes were half
closed on account of it.

"Do you know who I am, Hag of the Ashes?" said the King of the Cats when
he stood on the floor.

"You are a cat, honey," said the Hag of the Ashes. "I am the King of the
Cats."

"The King of the Cats you are indeed. And it was you who let the smoke
out of the top of my little house by destroying the nest the cross crane
had built on it."

"It was I who did that."

"Welcome to you then, King of the Cats. And what service can the Hag of
the Ashes do for you in return?"

"I would go to where the Eagle-Emperor is. You must show me the way."

"By my cloak I will do that. The Eagle-Emperor lives on the top of the
Hill of Horns."

"And how can I get to the top of the Hill of Horns?"

"I don't know how you can get there at all. All over the Hill is bare
starvation. No four-footed thing can reach the top--no four-footed
thing, I mean, but my goat that's tied to the hawthorn bush outside."

"I will ride on the back of your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns."

"No, no, good King of the Cats. I have only my goat for company and how
could I bear to be parted from him?"

"Lend me your goat, and when I come back from the Hill of Horns I will
plate his horns with gold and shoe his hooves with silver."

"No, no, good King of the Cats. How could I bear my goat to be away from
me, and I having no other company?"

"If you do not let me ride on your goat to the top of the Hill of Horns
I will leave a sign on your house that will bring the cross crane to
build her nest on the top of it again."

"Then take my goat, King of the Cats, take my goat but let him come back
to me soon."

"I will. Come with me now and bid him take me to the top of