the Singer had to
sing up to B-flat before she could wake her. Then she was very cross and
the Black Cat put up his back and spit at the Aldermen.

"Give 'em a spanking all 'round," she snapped out, "and if that don't
work put 'em to bed without their supper."

Then the Aldermen marched back to try that; and all the children in the
city were spanked, and when that didn't do any good they were put to bed
without any supper. But the next morning when they woke up they were
worse than ever.

The Mayor and Aldermen were very indignant, and considered that they had
been imposed upon and insulted. So they set out for the Wise Woman
again, with the high Soprano Singer.

She sang in G-sharp how the Aldermen and the Mayor considered her an
impostor, and did not think she was wise at all, and they wished her to
take her Black Cat and move beyond the limits of the city. She sang it
beautifully; it sounded like the very finest Italian opera music.

"Deary me," piped the Wise Woman, when she had finished, "how very grand
these gentlemen are." Her Black Cat put up his back and spit.

"Five times one Black Cat are five Black Cats," said the Wise Woman. And
directly there were five Black Cats spitting and miauling.

"Five times five Black Cats are twenty-five Black Cats." And then there
were twenty-five of the angry little beasts.

"Five times twenty-five Black Cats are one hundred and twenty-five Black
Cats," added the Wise Woman with a chuckle.

Then the Mayor and the Aldermen and the high Soprano Singer fled
precipitately out the door and back to the city. One hundred and
twenty-five Black Cats had seemed to fill the Wise Woman's hut full, and
when they all spit and miauled together it was dreadful. The visitors
could not wait for her to multiply Black Cats any longer.

As winter wore on and spring came, the condition of things grew more
intolerable. Physicians had been consulted, who advised that the
children should be allowed to follow their own bents, for fear of injury
to their constitutions. So the rich Aldermen's daughters were actually
out in the fields herding sheep, and their sons sweeping chimneys or
carrying newspapers; and while the poor charwomen's and coal-heavers
children spent their time like princesses and fairies. Such a
topsy-turvy state of society was shocking. While the Mayor's little
daughter was tending geese out in the meadow like any common goose-girl,
her pretty elder sister, Violetta, felt very