Once there was a cat,\nand a parrot. And they had agreed to ask each other to dinner, turn and turn\nabout: first the cat should ask the parrot, then the parrot should invite the\ncat, and so on. It was the cat’s turn first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the cat was very\nmean. He provided nothing at all for dinner except a pint of milk, a little\nslice of fish, and a biscuit. The parrot was too polite to com\u00adplain, but he\ndid not have a very good time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it was his turn\nto invite the cat, he cooked a fine dinner. He had a roast of meat, a pot of\ntea, a basket of fruit, and, best of all, he baked a whole\nclothes-basketful of little cakes! —\nlittle, brown, crispy, spicy cakes! Oh, I should say as many as five hundred.\nAnd he put four hundred and ninety-eight of the cakes before the cat, keeping\nonly two for himself. Well, the cat ate the roast, and drank the tea, and\nsucked the fruit, and then he began on the pile of cakes. He ate all the four\nhundred and ninety-eight cakes, and then he looked round and said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m hungry;\nhaven\u2019t you anything to eat?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Why,” said\nthe parrot, “here are my two cakes, if you want them?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cat ate up the\ntwo cakes, and then he licked his chops and said, “I am beginning to get\nan appetite; have you anything to eat?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Well,\nreally,” said the parrot, who was now rather angry, “I don’t see\nanything more, unless you wish to eat me!” He thought the cat would be\nashamed when he heard that – but the cat just looked at him and licked his\nchops again, — and slip! slop! gobble! down his throat went the parrot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the cat started\ndown the street. An old wo\u00adman was standing by, and she had seen the whole\nthing, and she was shocked that the cat should eat his friend. “Why,\ncat!” she said, “how dreadful of you to eat your friend the parrot!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Parrot,\nindeed!” said the cat. “What’s a parrot to me? — I’ve a great mind\nto eat you, too.” And –\u00ad before you could say “Jack Robinson”\n— slip! slop! gobble! down went the old woman!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the cat started\ndown the road again, walking like this, because he felt so fine. Pretty soon he\nmet a man driving a donkey. The man was beating the donkey, to hurry him up,\nand when he saw the cat he said, “Get out of my way, cat; I’m in a hurry\nand my donkey might tread on you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Donkey,\nindeed!” said the cat, “much I care for a donkey! I have eaten five\nhundred cakes, I’ve eaten my friend the parrot, I’ve eaten an old woman, —\n\u00adwhat’s to hinder my eating a miserable man and a donkey?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And slip! slop!\ngobble! down went the old man and the donkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the cat walked\non down the road, jauntily, like this. After a little, he met a procession,\ncoming that way. The king was at the head, walking proudly with his newly\nmarried bride, and behind him were his soldiers, marching, and behind them were\never and ever so many elephants, walking two by two. The king felt very kind to\neverybody, because he had just been married, and he said to the cat, “Get\nout of my way, pussy, get out of my way, — my elephants might hurt you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Hurt me!”\nsaid the cat, shaking his fat sides.\u00ad “Ho, ho! I’ve eaten five hundred\ncakes, I’ve eaten my friend the parrot, I’ve eaten an old woman, I’ve eaten a\nman and a donkey; what’s to hinder my eating a beggarly king?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And slip! slop!\ngobble! down went the king; down went the queen; down went the soldiers, — and\ndown went all the elephants!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the cat went on,\nmore slowly; he had really had enough to eat, now. But a little farther on he\nmet two land-crabs, scuttling along in the dust. “Get out of our way,\npussy,” they squeaked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Ho, ho,\nho!” cried the cat in a terrible voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’ve eaten five\nhundred cakes, I’ve eaten my friend the parrot, I’ve eaten an old woman, a man\nwith a donkey, a king, a queen, his men-at-arms, and all his elephants; and now\nI’ll eat you too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And slip! slop!\ngobble! down went the two land\u00ad-crabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the land-crabs\ngot down inside, they began to look around. It was very dark, but they could\nsee the poor king sitting in a corner with his bride on his arm; she had\nfainted. Near them were the men-at-\u00adarms, treading on one another’s toes, and\nthe elephants still trying to form in twos, — but they couldn\u2019t be\u00adcause there\nwas not room. In the opposite corner sat the old woman, and near her stood the\nman and his donkey. But in the other corner was a great pile of cakes, and by them\nperched the parrot, his feathers all drooping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Let’s get to work!” said the land-crabs. And snip, snap, they began to make a little hole in the side, with their sharp claws. Snip, snap, snip, snap, \u00adtill it was big enough to get through. Then out they scuttled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then out walked the\nking, carrying his bride; out marched the men-at-arms; out tramped the\nelephants, two by two; out came the old man, beating his donkey; out walked the\nold woman, scolding the cat; and last of all, out hopped the parrot, holding a\ncake in each claw. (You remember, two cakes was all he wanted?)\n\nBut the poor cat had to spend the whole day sewing\nup the hole in his coat!\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false},"resource_format":[40],"resource_type":[41],"resource_origin":[45],"resource_genre":[58],"resource_theme":[66],"resource_difficulty":[61],"subtitles":[],"video_language":[],"thematic_cat":[],"class_list":["post-2440","resources","type-resources","status-publish","hentry","resource_format-text","resource_type-tale","resource_origin-western-europe","resource_genre-tales","resource_theme-alimentation","resource_difficulty-level1"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n