When he told her of the adventure of the little brothers in the Lord Mayor’s coach:
“One day I shall ride in a coach again!” she cried.
When he told her of his friends, the crew of theMary Maud:
“One day I too shall go to sea!” she said.
Gobbolino would sit long hours on the windowsill telling her about what went on in the street below.
Sometimes musicians came round the corner, and when Gobbolino had described how well they played and how the crowds gathered to hear them, the little princess had them brought up to her nursery, where they played her the sweetest airs they knew.
Another day a performing bear came down the street, so clumsy and droll, and playing such merry pranks that Gobbolino nearly fell off the windowsill with laughter, and the little princess would not rest until the bear too, and its master, were brought up the stairs to her room, though her parents, the nurse, the servants, and even the doctor, did all in their power to prevent it.
Sometimes it was a flower-seller, with a basket of yellow, pink, heliotrope, blue, all the colours of the rainbow, who was brought to the little princess’s bedside, and sometimes an acrobat who stood on his hands and walked about the room, or a juggler that tossed a dozen balls in the air at once, and balanced dishes on his nose.
The days were never dull for the little princess now. The roses bloomed in her cheeks and her eyes sparkled.
Her doctor, her nurse, and her parents were delighted with her.
“Soon she will be running about again, and then she will be able to go to boarding-school like the other princesses,” they said.
“Can I take Gobbolino with me when I go to school?” the little princess asked.
“Oh, no, of course not!” said her parents, her nurse, and her doctor, looking quite shocked. “You will have so much to do there you will have no time to play with your cat!”
“Then I don’t want to get better and go to school!” sobbed the little princess when she and Gobbolino were left together again. “I want to stay here in my nursery with you, and have fun together! I shan’t get well after all!”
So the little princess refused her meals and lay on her back looking up at the ceiling.
She no longer asked for the singers, the performing animals, the acrobats and the jugglers to be brought up to her room as before. She wanted everyone to think she was very ill, or they would send her to school immediately.
But when her parents, the doctor, and the nurse were out of the room, the little princess sat up on her satin pillows and asked:
“What can you see in the street, Gobbolino?” and Gobbolino would reply:
“I can see a procession, Your Highness!” or “I can see a farmer going to market!” or “A circus!” or “A fair!” and the little princess would cry:
“Tell me all about it!”
But one day Gobbolino cried out all by himself:
“Oh! Oh! Oh! I can see a Punch and Judy show coming round the corner!”
“Tell me all about it! Tell me all about it!” cried the little princess, but Gobbolino was so doubled up with laughter at the antics of the cherry-nosed Punch, the policeman, and the dog Toby that he could not speak fast enough to please her, and at last the little princess skipped out of bed, ran across the room, and knelt on the window seat beside him where she began to split her sides, crying:
“Oh! Oh! Oh! I’d rather belong to a Punch and Judy show than anything in the world!”
Gobbolino and the little princess were so busy clapping their hands at the Punch and Judy show, shouting:
“Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!” and bouncing up and down, that they did not hear the door open behind them, until a whole chorus of voices exclaimed:
“Princess! Princess! Your Highness! Your Highness! What is the meaning of all this?” and there on the threshold stood the princess’s parents, her nurse, her doctor, and all the palace servants, staring with astonishment into the room.
The little princess skipped back to bed and drew the bedclothes over her head.
“Did you see that?” said her parents.
“She is perfectly well!” said her nurse.
“There is nothing whatever wrong with her!” said the doctor, and they all added:
“She must go to boarding-school at once!”
“I don’t feel well at all!” sobbed the little princess, but nobody believed her any longer.
The very next morning she was packed into her father’s coach and galloped away to boarding-school with a dozen or so other princesses, where I feel bound to tell you she was very happy indeed.
She had only time to fling her arms round Gobbolino’s neck before she went.
“Goodbye, my dear, darling, little cat!” she said. “How lucky you are, Gobbolino! You can go anywhere in the wide world that you please, but look at me!”
“I don’t know where to go,” said Gobbolino, with tears standing in his beautiful blue eyes at the thought of being alone in the world once more.
“Why don’t you join the Punch and Judy show?” said the little princess. “That’s what I would do if I were free.”
At that moment she was bundled into her father’s coach with all her boxes and trunks, and before long a cloud of dust hid them all from view.
Gobbolino sat on the nursery windowsill watching the coach until it disappeared with the princess’s tiny white handkerchief still fluttering from the window.
The nursery seemed so empty and silent without her, he did not care to stay even a night longer in the king’s palace, but slipped silently down the stairs and out into the street the first time the door was opened.
12
Punch and Judy
[Êàðòèíêà: img_5]
Gobbolino left the town as quickly as possible and trotted down the country lanes.
Often he stopped a passer-by to ask politely:
“Please, sir, or ma’am, can you tell me, has a Punch and Judy show passed this way?” and often he had the answer:
“Why, yes, my little cat. I saw it playing on the village green back yonder. You will certainly catch it up if you trot fast enough.”
And Gobbolino trotted as fast as his paws would carry him to the next village and the next and the next.
At the entrance of every village he was sure to ask:
“Please, has a Punch and Judy show been here lately?”
And he always had the answer:
“Why, yes, my little cat, it was here only yesterday. You will certainly catch it up if you trot fast enough.”
At last in the distance he saw a crowd gathered under a tree, and there sure enough was the striped show-box, and the gaudy figures of Punch and Judy.
But they were not playing today to an eager crowd. The show-people sat around sad and despondent. Some bent their heads on their hands, while others stared into the distance, saying nothing at all. It was a pitiful sight to behold, and Gobbolino lost no time in asking a woman on the outskirts of the crowd what the matter could be, and whether he could give them any help in their distress.
“Our dog Toby has died!” the woman told him, wiping away a tear. “And of course Punch and Judy cannot perform without him. We shall all be ruined.”
“Oh dear! Oh dear! That is very sad!” said Gobbolino with much sympathy. “I was just about to join your show and travel the country with you, but I see now I shall hardly be wanted since there is not a show any longer.”
The woman looked him up and down. Then she called the showman, who was gloomily mending a rent in the show-box.
“Dandy! Dandy? Come here and look at this kitten! He talks of joining our show. Why shouldn’t he take Toby’s place and go along with us? With a ruff round his neck, who is to notice? Only a black face instead of a white, and such beautiful blue eyes! He may save our fortunes yet!”
Dandy the showman stared at Gobbolino and finally said:
“Well, why not? He looks pretty enough and clever enough, and if we have no Toby we shall be ruined. Will you do your best for us, little cat with the blue eyes, if we give you a home in our company?”