ure to say it; so she answered, quite good-naturedly:

'I am very sorry, cousin Glumdalkin, that I was out when the princess
called for me, but _indeed_ I was in no mischief; I was seeing such
strange sights, it has made me quite unhappy ever since I came back.'

'Humph!' said Glumdalkin, 'and pray what wonderful things have you
been seeing?'

'Why,' replied Friskarina, 'I got uncommonly tired this morning of the
palace garden, I know every stick and stone in it so well. I had been
racing nine times round the gravel walk, and had got half way round to
make up ten, when, luckily, I saw that the gardener had left the outer
door ajar; so I thought I might as well take the opportunity of seeing
what there was on the other side of the wall; accordingly I peeped out
and found that I was in a kind of road, with some such odd looking
things, here and there, I don't know what to call them, but I fancy
people live in them, for I saw some persons going into one of them.
They were not in the least like this house that the princess lives in;
I am sure Grandmagnificolowsky, the tall page, could never have stood
upright in any one of them--and so black and dismal and dirty they
looked!'

'And you went into one of the nasty places, of course?' growled
Glumdalkin; '_cottages_, child, they are called.'

'You shall hear all, in good time,' answered Friskarina; 'I was
peeping about, outside our garden door, rather afraid to venture
further, when I saw _such_ a cat come out of one of these cottages, as
you call them--O Glumdalkin! it really would have made your heart ache
to have seen her. I had no idea there were such cats in the world. It
was dreadful to look at her; she was so horribly thin, you might have
counted her bones, and as dirty as if she had lived all her life in a
coal-hole: she crawled out of the door as if she had hardly strength
to walk, and _such_ a thin tail she had; it made me shudder to look at
her. I couldn't help going up and asking her what was the matter with
her----'

'What!' interrupted Glumdalkin, rousing herself up, her eyes flashing
fire, and her whiskers standing on end, 'do you mean to say, that
_you_--a cat descended from such an honorable and distinguished
family as ours--one of the most ancient in Catland--that you actually
demeaned yourself so far as to enter into conversation with a filthy,
beggarly wretch, crawling out of a miserable cottage? Friskarina, on
the honor of a cat, I am ashamed of you