the frosty wind whistling round the trees,
stripping away more and more of the leaves at every gust, did the poor
cat, in her cold and hunger, think of the nice bright fire on her old
mistress's hearth, and her brown bread and milk, till she was ready to
cry her eyes out with vexation at her own folly--and what was still
worse, her own ingratitude--in being willing to leave the good old
woman, her best friend, who had taken care of her all her life long,
merely because she fancied it would be very grand to live in a palace.
People sometimes find out their mistakes when it is too late.

But, to make a long story short--three or four more days and
nights--melancholy days, and cold wretched nights--passed over in much
the same miserable way, or, rather, things grew worse: for the
weather became stormy, the trees were almost stripped of their
leaves, so that they scarcely afforded her any shelter from the wind,
and the cat was so dreadfully cold!

It became still more difficult, too, to procure any food; and the
birds became very shy of venturing within her reach: the poor cat did
not know what to do--she was really half dead with cold and hunger!

'Oh!' groaned she, stretching herself out upon some of the fallen
leaves at the foot of the tree--'Oh, that I had never listened to that
deceitful, mischievous magpie!'

And, indeed, she had good cause to say so.

It was drawing towards sunset; there had been several storms during
the day, but, as the evening came on, the weather had a little cleared
up; and a gleam of sunshine just then shot out from among the black
clouds, and fell upon something glittering beside her.

She lifted her eyes languidly, for she had no strength to be alert
now, and saw the bright and beautiful Fairy, with her car drawn by
the silver pheasants.

'Have you learnt yet to be contented with plain fare at home?' said
the Fairy to the cat, with an expression in her countenance that the
cat could hardly make out: she did not know whether her strange
visitor meant to be kind or not to her.

'Oh! if you would but take me back to my old mistress again!' cried
the poor cat, clasping her paws in an agony of entreaty, 'I would
never be discontented any more!'

The Fairy smiled, and touching her lightly with her silver wand, bade
her close her eyes--another moment, and she bade her open them; and,
most wonderful of all the wonderful things that had happened to her,
the trees, the country, the distant