of ammonia. The courtiers hastened to inform the Queen of her husband's failing, and when he came to, he found her in tears.
"I cannot exist without a cat!" she wept.
"And I, my love," replied the King, "cannot exist with one!"
"You must learn to bear it!" said she.
"You must learn to live without it!" said he.
"But life would not be worth living without a cat!" she wailed.
"Well, well, my love, we will see what we can do," sighed the King.
"Suppose," he went on, "you kept it in the round tower over there. Then you could go to see it."
"Shut up my cat that has been used to running around in the open air?" cried the Queen. "Never!"
"Suppose," suggested the King again, "we made an enclosure for it of wire netting."
"My dear," cried the Queen, "a good strong cat like mine could climb out in a minute."
"Well," said the King once more, "suppose we give it the palace roof, and I will keep out of the way."
"That is a good scheme," said his wife, drying her eyes.
And they immediately fitted up the roof with a cushioned shelter, and a bed of catnip, and a bench where the Queen might sit. There the cat was left; and the Queen went up three times a day to feed it, and twice as many times to visit it, and for almost two days that seemed the solution of the problem. Then the cat discovered that by making a spring to the limb
