ickly she turned
her head towards it, and at the same time put her hand up to her
forehead, where, waving like a plume, was a donkey's tail. She ran home
to her mother at the top of her speed, yelling with rage and despair;
and it took Lizina two hours with a big basin of hot water and two cakes
of soap to get rid of the layer of ashes with which Father Gatto had
adorned her. As for the donkey's tail, it was impossible to get rid of
that; it was as firmly fixed on her forehead as was the golden star on
Lizina's. Their mother was furious. She first beat Lizina unmercifully
with the broom, then she took her to the mouth of the well and lowered
her into it, leaving her at the bottom weeping and crying for help.

Before this happened, however, the king's son in passing the mother's
house had seen Lizina sitting sewing in the parlour, and had been
dazzled by her beauty. After coming back two or three times, he at last
ventured to approach the window and to whisper in the softest voice:
'Lovely maiden, will you be my bride?' and she had answered: 'I will.'

Next morning, when the prince arrived to claim his bride, he found her
wrapped in a large white veil. 'It is so that maidens are received from
their parents' hands,' said the mother, who hoped to make the king's son
marry Peppina in place of her sister, and had fastened the donkey's tail
round her head like a lock of hair under the veil. The prince was young
and a little timid, so he made no objections, and seated Peppina in the
carriage beside him.

Their way led past the old house inhabited by the cats, who were all at
the window, for the report had got about that the prince was going to
marry the most beautiful maiden in the world, on whose forehead shone a
golden star, and they knew that this could only be their adored Lizina.
As the carriage slowly passed in front of the old house, where cats
from all parts of world seemed to be gathered a song burst from every
throat:

Mew, mew, mew! Prince, look quick behind you!
In the well is fair Lizina,
And you've got nothing but Peppina.

When he heard this the coachman, who understood the cat's language
better than the prince, his master, stopped his horses and asked:

'Does your highness know what the grimalkins are saying?' and the song
broke forth again louder than ever.

With a turn of his hand the prince threw back the veil, and discovered
the puffed-up, swollen face of Peppina, with the donkey's ta