use it's more impressive than 'you.' Don't you know that all
animals talk that way in English?" said the Moo Kow.

"And they also say 'thou,' and don't you forget it!" interrupted Miaow
from the tree. "I learnt that from a Man Cub."

The animals were silent. They did not like Miaow's slang, and were
jealous of her occasionally sitting on a Man Cub's lap. Once Dunkee, a
poor relation of the Gee Gees, had tried it on, disastrously--but that
is also Another and a more Aged Story.

"We are ridden by The English--please to observe the Capital letters,"
said Pi Bol, the leader of the Gee Gees, proudly. "They are a mighty
race who ride anything and everybody. D'ye mind that--I mean, look ye
well to it!"

"What should they know of England who only England know?" said Miaow.

"Is that a conundrum?" asked the Moo Kow.

"No; it's poetry," said the Miaow.

"I know England," said Pi Bol prancingly. "I used to go from the Bank
to Islington three times a day--I mean," he added hurriedly, "before I
became a screw--I should say, a screw-gun horse."

"And I," said the Moo Kow, "am terrible. When the young women and
children in the village see me approach they fly shriekingly. My
presence alone has scattered their sacred festival--The Sundes Kool
Piknik. I strike terror to their inmost souls, and am more feared by
them than even Kreep-mows, the insidious! And yet, behold! I have
taken the place of the mothers of men, and I have nourished the mighty
ones of the earth! But that," said the Moo Kow, turning her head aside
bashfully, "that is Anudder Story."

A dead silence fell on the pool.

"And I," said Miaow, lifting up her voice, "I am the horror and haunter
of the night season. When I pass like the night wind over the roofs of
the houses men shudder in their beds and tremble. When they hear my
voice as I creep stealthily along their balconies they cry to their
gods for succor. They arise, and from their windows they offer me
their priceless household treasures--the sacred vessels dedicated to
their great god Shiv--which they call 'Shivin Mugs'--the Kloes Brosh,
the Boo-jak, urging me to fly them! And yet," said Miaow mournfully,
"it is but my love-song! Think ye what they would do if I were on the
war-path."

Another dead silence fell on the pool. Then arose that strange,
mysterious, indefinable Thing, known as "The Scent." The animals
sniffed.

"It heralds the approach of the Stalkies--the most famous of