nd soon the baby began to take
notice of the kitten as she jumped about the room, and would not go to
sleep at all unless the kitten lay curled up beside her.
Two or three months went by, and though the baby was still a baby, the
kitten was fast becoming a cat, and one evening when, as usual, the
nurse came to look for her, to put her in the baby's cot, she was
nowhere to be found. What a hunt there was for that kitten, to be sure!
The servants, each anxious to find her, as the queen was certain to
reward the lucky man, searched in the most impossible places. Boxes were
opened that would hardly have held the kitten's paw; books were taken
from bookshelves, lest the kitten should have got behind them, drawers
were pulled out, for perhaps the kitten might have got shut in. But it
was all no use. The kitten had plainly run away, and nobody could tell
if it would ever choose to come back.
Years passed away, and one day, when the princess was playing ball in
the garden, she happened to throw her ball farther than usual, and it
fell into a clump of rose-bushes. The princess of course ran after it
at once, and she was stooping down to feel if it was hidden in the long
grass, when she heard a voice calling her: 'Ingibjorg! Ingibjorg!' it
said, 'have you forgotten me? I am Kisa, your sister!'
'But I never HAD a sister,' answered Ingibjorg, very much puzzled; for
she knew nothing of what had taken place so long ago.
'Don't you remember how I always slept in your cot beside you, and how
you cried till I came? But girls have no memories at all! Why, I could
find my way straight up to that cot this moment, if I was once inside
the palace.'
'Why did you go away then?' asked the princess. But before Kisa could
answer, Ingibjorg's attendants arrived breathless on the scene, and were
so horrified at the sight of a strange cat, that Kisa plunged into the
bushes and went back to the forest.
The princess was very much vexed with her ladies-in-waiting for
frightening away her old playfellow, and told the queen who came to her
room every evening to bid her good-night.
'Yes, it is quite true what Kisa said,' answered the queen; 'I should
have liked to see her again. Perhaps, some day, she will return, and
then you must bring her to me.'
Next morning it was very hot, and the princess declared that she must
go and play in the forest, where it was always cool, under the big shady
trees. As usual, her attendants let her do anythi
|