time came a falcon and struck at the eagle, so that he let the cat fall into the sea; but when the cat felt the cold water, she got so frightened she dropped the ring and swam to shore. She had not shaken the water off her, and smoothed her coat, before she met the dog which his master had bought for the lad.
"Nay! nay!" said the cat, and purred and was in a sad way, "what's to be done now? The ring is gone and they will take the lad's life."
"I'm sure I don't know," said the dog; "all I know is that something is riving and rending my inside. It couldn't be worse if I were going to turn inside out."
"Now you see what comes of over-eating yourself," said the cat.
"I never eat more than I can carry," said the dog; "and this time I have eaten nothing but a dead fish which lay floating up and down on the ebb."
"May be that fish had swallowed the ring," said the cat. "And now I dare say you are going to pay for it too, for you know you can't digest gold."
"It may well be," said the dog. "It's much the same whether one loses life first or last. Perhaps the lad's life might then be saved."
"Oh!" said the rat, for he was there too, "don't say that. I don't want much of a hole to creep into, and if the ring is there, may I never tell the truth if I don't poke it out."
Well! the rat crept down the dog's throat, and it was not long before he came out again with the ring. Then the cat set off to the tower and clambered up about it, till she found a hole into which she could put her paw, and so she gave back his ring to the lad.
