t the lion would not dare to go out
without him and his ball for fear of meeting a bear or a snake.

The quarrel went on, and for many days neither of the brothers spoke
to each other, and what made them still more cross was, that they
could get very little to eat, and we know that people are often cross
when they are hungry. At last it occurred to the lion that if he could
only steal the magic ball he could kill bears and snakes for himself,
and then the cat might be as sulky as he liked for anything that it
would matter. But how was the stealing to be done? The cat had the
ball hung round his neck day and night, and he was such a light
sleeper that it was useless to think of taking it while he slept. No!
the only thing was to get him to lend it of his own accord, and after
some days the lion (who was not at all clever) hit upon a plan that he
thought would do.

'Dear me, how dull it is here!' said the lion one afternoon, when the
rain was pouring down in such torrents that, however sharp your eyes
or your nose might be, you could not spy a single bird or beast among
the bushes. 'Dear me, how dull, how dreadfully dull I am. Couldn't we
have a game of catch with that golden ball of yours?'

'I don't care about playing catch, it does not amuse me,' answered the
cat, who was as cross as ever; for no cat, even to this day, ever
forgets an injury done to him.

'Well, then, lend me the ball for a little, and I will play by
myself,' replied the lion, stretching out a paw as he spoke.

'You can't play in the rain, and if you did, you would only lose it in
the bushes,' said the cat.

'Oh, no, I won't; I will play in here. Don't be so ill-natured.' And
with a very bad grace the cat untied the string and threw the golden
ball into the lion's lap, and composed himself to sleep again.

* * * * *

For a long while the lion tossed it up and down gaily, feeling that,
however sound asleep the boy-brother might _look_, he was sure to have
one eye open; but gradually he began to edge closer to the opening,
and at last gave such a toss that the ball went up high into the air,
and he could not see what became of it.

'Oh, how stupid of me!' he cried, as the cat sprang up angrily, 'let
us go at once and search for it. It can't really have fallen very
far.' But though they searched that day and the next, and the next
after that, they never found it, because it never came down.

After the loss of his