places are alike to me. Why should I not go too and see and look
and come away at my own liking.' So he slipped after Wild Dog softly,
very softly, and hid himself where he could hear everything.

When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the dried
horse-skin with his nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of the roast
mutton, and the Woman, looking at the blade-bone, heard him, and
laughed, and said, 'Here comes the first. Wild Thing out of the Wild
Woods, what do you want?'

Wild Dog said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, what is this that
smells so good in the Wild Woods?'

Then the Woman picked up a roasted mutton-bone and threw it to Wild Dog,
and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, taste and try.' Wild Dog
gnawed the bone, and it was more delicious than anything he had ever
tasted, and he said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.'

The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt
through the day and guard this Cave at night, and I will give you as
many roast bones as you need.'

'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. 'This is a very wise Woman, but she is
not so wise as I am.'

Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid his head on the Woman's lap, and
said, 'O my Friend and Wife of my Friend, I will help Your Man to hunt
through the day, and at night I will guard your Cave.'

'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. 'That is a very foolish Dog.' And he went
back through the Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail, and walking by his
wild lone. But he never told anybody.

When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the
Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend,
because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him
with you when you go hunting.'

Next night the Woman cut great green armfuls of fresh grass from the
water-meadows, and dried it before the fire, so that it smelt like
new-mown hay, and she sat at the mouth of the Cave and plaited a halter
out of horse-hide, and she looked at the shoulder of mutton-bone--at the
big broad blade-bone--and she made a Magic. She made the Second Singing
Magic in the world.

Out in the Wild Woods all the wild animals wondered what had happened to
Wild Dog, and at last Wild Horse stamped with his foot and said, 'I will
go and see and say why Wild Dog has not returned. Cat, come with me.'

'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all
places are al