“All this is hard to bear. I do not like to think about it, and to keep myself from thinking about it I employ myself in teaching the way of opening doors. Every cat should know how to open doors. There may be times in a cat’s life when she may save her life by knowing how to open a door. There are times in every cat’s life when she may get food by opening a door.
“Here a number of cats sprang to their feet and began to tell of particular times when they had saved themselves and got food by knowing how to open doors. Among them was the cat that hadn’t common sense. ‘One at a time, my dears,’ said Lady Yellow-paw. ‘Snowball, will you begin?’”
“But I humbly beg your Majesty’s pardon,” said the lovely Pussyanita to the King. “The particular times when all these saved themselves or got food by knowing how to open doors were not in Black Velvet’s story. You asked, oh King, for Black Velvet’s story. That is ended, I am silent.”
“You shall not be silent!” thundered King Grimalkum. “Speak! As king of all the cats, I wish particularly to know the particular times when all those saved themselves and got food by knowing how to open doors. As king of all the cats, I should be well informed on all such matters.”
She Used to Sit on a High Wall.
“To tell you what you ask,” answered the lovely Pussyanita, “would take a longer time than I have to live.”
“Time shall be granted you,” said the king. “Begin without delay to tell what Snowball told.”
