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THE DREAM-WOBLD. 47
Silver, the nursemaid, was firmly convinced that her
favorite story about this stone cat, which her grand-
mother had often told her, was true. Here it is :
One day the wife of Mr. O. became two persons
exactly alike, so that the husband was puzzled to
know which was his real wife and which the counterpart.
Their faces, dresses, general appearance, and
voice were exactly the same, and each declared she
was his dear wife unchanged. To find out the truth
he arranged one night to give a feast before the
moon had risen. It was hot weather, and the insects
were very troublesome. Without pretending to no-
tice anything, he watched carefully the two females,
and saw that the ears of one of them moved like a
cat's. Then he got his bow and arrow and shot the
woman dead, and her body at once turned into a
huge cat. The old habit of whisking away the flies
with her ears had betrayed her even in the human
form which she had taken.
" "
Nonsense ! said Mr. Rai one day, when Kine*
repeated this story to her father.
" The facts are
that Mr. O.'s wife had a pet cat that followed her
around everywhere and so much that it vexed her,
and one day she flew in a passion because she saw
something in the cat's mouth which soiled the mats.
She took a sword and cut off the cat's head, dropping
it in a hole in the garden. The servants looked
at the cat's head and found that it held in its mouth
the head of a large snake of a poisonous kind, and
it was thought that the cat had been troubled for
the danger of its mistress and had finally saved her