ertain place the cat stopped, and would go no farther. Roderick
lifted it up, but it leapt from him as if displeased, and at last he
left it reluctantly. In a moment he came within sight of the cross in
the hilltop, so that he saw the road was near. Often he looked round
and saw the great cat regarding him as though it were sorry to be
left; till at last he could see it no more.

He went home well pleased, his head full of happy thoughts; he had
gone half expecting to see some dreadful thing, but had found instead
a creature who seemed to love him.

The next day he went again; and this time he found the cat sitting by
the pool; as soon as it saw him, it ran to him with a glad and
yearning cry, as though it had feared he would not return; to-day it
seemed brighter and larger to look upon; and he was pleased that when
he returned by the stream it followed him much farther, leaping
lightly from stone to stone; but at a certain place, where the valley
began to turn eastward, just before the little church came in sight,
it sate down as before and took its leave of him.

The third day he began to go up the valley again; but while he rested
in a little wood that came down to the stream, to his surprise and
delight the cat sprang out of a bush, and seemed more than ever glad
of his presence. While he sate fondling it, he heard the sound of
footsteps coming up the path; but the cat heard the sound too, and as
he rose to see who was coming, the cat sprang lightly into a tree
beside him and was hidden from his sight. It was the old priest on his
way to an upland farm, who spoke fondly to Roderick, and asked him of
his father and mother. Roderick told him that they were to return that
night, and said that it was too bright to remain indoors and yet too
bright to fish; the priest agreed, and after a little more talk rose
to go, and as his manner was, holding Roderick by the hand, he blessed
him, saying that he was growing a tall boy. When he was gone--and
Roderick was ashamed to find how eager he was that the priest should
go--he called low to the cat to come back; but the cat came not, and
though Roderick searched the tree into which it had sprung, he could
find no sign of it, and supposed that it had crept into the wood.

That evening the travellers returned, the knight seeming cheerful,
because the vexatious journey was over; but Roderick was half ashamed
to think that his mind had been so full of his new plaything that he
wa