ball the cat refused to live with the lion any
longer, but wandered away to the north, always hoping he might meet
with his ball again. But months passed, and years passed, and though
he travelled over hundreds of miles, he never saw any traces of it.

At length, when he was getting quite old, he came to a place unlike
any that he had ever seen before, where a big river rolled right to
the foot of some high mountains. The ground all about the river bank
was damp and marshy, and as no cat likes to wet its feet, this one
climbed a tree that rose high above the water, and thought sadly of
his lost ball, which would have helped him out of this horrible place.
Suddenly he saw a beautiful ball, for all the world like his own,
dangling from a branch of the tree he was on. He longed to get at it;
but was the branch strong enough to bear his weight? It was no use,
after all he had done, getting drowned in the water. However, it could
do no harm, if he was to go a little way; he could always manage to
get back somehow.

So he stretched himself at full length upon the branch, and wriggled
his body cautiously along. To his delight it seemed thick and stout.
Another movement, and, by stretching out his paw, he would be able to
draw the string towards him, when the branch gave a loud crack, and
the cat made haste to wriggle himself back the way he had come.

But when cats make up their minds to do anything they generally _do_
it; and this cat began to look about to see if there was really no way
of getting at his ball. Yes! there was, and it was much surer than the
other, though rather more difficult. Above the bough where the ball
hung was another bough much thicker, which he knew could not break
with his weight; and by holding on tight to this with all his four
paws he could just manage to touch the ball with his tail. He would
thus be able to whisk the ball to and fro till, by-and-by, the string
would become quite loose, and it would fall to the ground. It might
take some time, but the lion's little brother was patient, like most
cats.

Well, it all happened just as the cat intended it should, and when the
ball dropped on the ground the cat ran down the tree like lightning,
and, picking it up, tucked it away in the snake's skin round his neck.
Then he began jumping along the shore of the Big Water from one place
to another, trying to find a boat, or even a log of wood, that would
take him across. But there was nothing; only,