e others. She said she would share the
gift. She had thought that morning would never pass. Lull was getting
the drawing-room ready for the visitor, and once or twice she had
warned Fly that she might be disappointed.

"I wouldn't marvel if she niver come near the place at all," she said.
"She's a bird-witted ould lady, an' niver in the wan way a' thinkin'
two minutes thegether." But Fly could not have been calm if she had
tried. She had spent her time going backwards and forwards to look at
the kitchen clock. Now the time had come, dinner was over, Fly had her
clean pinafore on, the godmother was, perhaps, already in the house,
but Fly was so busy thinking of something else that she had almost
forgotten her. The second wonderful thing had happened. There were
days, Fly told herself, when things took jumps--when, instead of
growing up at the usual pace, so slow you could not feel it, something
happened that made you older and richer and cleverer all in a minute.
To-day life had taken two jumps. As she was sitting there quietly on
the wall, thinking only of her godmother, a big yellow cat had come out
of the wood. Everybody at Rowallan hated cats--they were deadly
enemies, poachers, and destroyers. Andy had been in trouble for the
past week over the wickedness of a cat who, night after night, had been
at the rabbits in his traps. Rabbits were a source of income to
Rowallan, and it was a serious matter when six rabbits were destroyed
in one night. Fly had been in the kitchen that morning when Andy came
in to tell Lull his trouble.

"I niver seen the cat that could get the better av me afore," he said
dejectedly. "I'm thinkin' I'm gettin' too ould for this game." Fly
remembered this as she watched the cat coming towards her through the
wood. If only Andy were there now with his gun. It was a terrible
pity that such a chance should be lost. She sat quite still, waiting
to see what the cat would do. It never seemed to notice her, but came
boldly on, with no sense of shame, straight towards her, till it was
beneath her feet. The wall was high, and the cat had jumped before Fly
realised that it meant to use her legs as a ladder to the top.
Indignation on Andy's account now gave place to wild rage at personal
injury. The cat's claws were in her leg. She kicked it off, then,
quick as thought, seized a big flat stone off the top of the wall, and
dropped it on the cat's neck. The yellow head bowed, and with