But nobody was ever so happy as not to want something more. One day the Rat said, “I am tired of living on this island. Let us go and find a village to live in. There you can have food without catching birds, and I can have food without digging in the ground.”
“That will be delightful,” said the Cat. “But how are we to cross this great water?”
“Nothing is more easy,” said the Rat. “We will carve a boat from the root of a manioc.”
Then the Cat and the Rat dug up a large manioc root and began making it into a boat.
The Rat gnawed and gnawed and gnawed with his sharp teeth, until he had made a hollow large enough to hold the two friends. While he was busy at this, the Cat scratched and scratched and scratched, to make the outside of the boat smooth and to scrape off all the earth that clung to the great root.
[“Look! look!” cried Nkunda, laughing, for her cat was standing on two legs, scratching at a tree, just as if she wanted to show what cat-claws can do.]
Then the Cat and the Rat [went on the Alo Man] made two little paddles and started out in their boat.
It was much farther across the great water than it had looked from their island. Also they had forgotten to put any food into the boat. Presently the Cat began to say “Caungu! Caungu!” which means “I am hungry! I am hungry!”
And the Rat said “Quee! Quee!” which means in his language “I am hungry! I am hungry!”
But that did not do any good. They grew hungrier and hungrier. At last the Cat said “Caungu! Caungu!” very faintly, and curled herself up to sleep. And the Rat said “Quee! Quee!” very faintly, and curled himself up also, at the other end of the boat.