When she was clean and tidy she looked quite respectable. As she smiled at them, and thanked them from the bottom of her heart she looked, just for a moment, like a pretty old lady.
As before, her spirits improved as the day went on, and by evening she was almost lively.
The little wooden horse was afraid that she might want to go riding again, but to his great relief she did not suggest it.
Instead, she got out her book of spells and drew her stool up close to the fire.
“Your eyes are better than mine, my dear!” she said to Gobbolino. “I want to make a spell.. just a little spell, so that you and your friend will be happy here with me, and not want to leave me ever again!
[Êàðòèíêà: i_037.jpg]
They dressed her and combed her hair…
I will make just a little spell so that we shall all three live in comfort in this cave of mine for ever and ever and ever!”
But as Gobbolino opened his mouth in a pitiful miaow of protest there came an answering miaow from the door of the cave.
All three looked up startled, to see the shape of a black cat standing in the doorway. And it was Sootica!
19THE LAST SPELL [Êàðòèíêà: i_038.jpg]
The WITCH uttered one shriek of joy.
Sootica uttered another.
The next moment they were in each other’s arms, and purrs, duckings and endearments mingled so thickly together that it was difficult to distinguish witch from cat or cat from witch.
“Is it really you, my little cat?” cried the witch, when the first excitement of their meeting had died down.
“Yes it’s really me! Me! ME!” shrieked Sootica. “And is it really you, my dear mistress? So thin! So old and pale! Hardly a witch any longer!”
“I don’t want to be a witch any more!” said the old witch, wildly swinging Sootica round by the tail, which she did not seem to mind at all. “All I want is a little company, a little love and affection, and a nice warm cavern to live in for ever and ever! I don’t like the outside world at all!”
“Why, you sound just like my brother Gobbolino!” said Sootica, still licking the witch’s chin, when she could get a perch on her shoulder. “And the strange thing is that all I want is just exactly the same thing! I had a dreadful time out in the wide world, trying to find a comfortable home to live in! Nobody wanted a witch’s cat like me! The more I promised to be good the less they trusted me. I’ve been turned out of doors with a boot behind me, or a broom, or a bucket of water! You have no idea how cruel people are out there in the places where people live and work and call themselves human beings. Mind you, nobody got away with treating me like that! The person who kicked me found thesole of his boot dropped off when he next set out from home! And all the bristles fell out of the broom! It was almost new, too! As for the pail of water, there is such a hole in the bottom now it will never hold water again! Serve them all right!”
Gobbolino stared at his sister with his beautiful blue eyes. It did not sound as if Sootica had altered her character very much since she went away.
She noticed him at last.
“So you are still here, brother, are you?” she said, fixing him with an impudent stare. “And your wooden friend with you! Are you sorry I have come back? Have you enjoyed being a witch’s cat after all?”
The witch seized her by the scruff of her neck and shook her soundly.
“You wicked little wretch!” she cried indignantly. “Don’t you know I nearly died of grief when I found you had deserted me? If it hadn’t been for your good little brother and his friend I would have been dead by now!They looked after me!They cared for me!They nursed me back to life! Get into your corner, miss, and count your blessings, for you may well find yourself shrivelled into a hazelnut in return for your heartless behaviour. I don’t need your companionship now! These good friends have come to live with me for ever, and I shall reward them as they deserve. Tell me, Gobbolino, my good cat, and tell me, my little horse, now that I have my Sootica back to help me read my book of spells, I can grant you any wish you may utter.What would you like me to do for you?”
Both Gobbolino and the little wooden horse announced in the same breath:
“Please, ma’am! We would like to go home!”
The witch’s face fell, but Sootica cackled with laughter, and immediately dashed for the book of spells and began to turn the pages.
“Let them go! Let them go!” she babbled. “Who wants to keep them?”
“Only, when we were crossing the plain, the hounds chased us!” said the little wooden horse.
“They chased me too,” boasted Sootica, “but I was too quick for them!”
“The bats might carry us back again!” Gobbolino said hopefully.
“Or my mistress might carry you on her broomstick!” said Sootica.
But the witch closed her lips angrily and shook her head.
“Two would be too heavy, and my stick won’t fly these days!” she muttered. “They put a kind of spell on it and it has never been the same since. Besides.. she began to sob, “if these two go home and leave me, how am I to know that you will stay with me and not desert me for a second time? What is to prevent you from flying off again onemorning and never coming back?”
“Oh no I shan’t!” said Sootica decidedly “I shall stay here for ever and be just a common cat for the rest of my days.”
“Do you promise that?” asked the little wooden horse.
“I promise,” said Sootica.
“No more making of wicked spells?”
“No more… not ever.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Cross your heart?” said the little wooden horse. “No, cross my ear! The old priest blessed it, so you must swear on my wooden ear that you will never be a witch’s cat again.”
“I promise! Oh, I promise!” agreed Sootica. “And my mistress must promise never again to be a witch.”
“I promise too!” said the witch.
“Will you swear it on my wooden ear?” said the little wooden horse.
“Oh I will, I will!”
The little wooden horse took off his charred wooden ear.
“But how are we going to get home?” asked Gobbolino. “Supposing the bats won’t take us?”
“Wait!” said the witch. “Before we swear these very important things on the wooden ear, let me make just one more spell. Just one little one!”
Gobbolino and the little wooden horse jumped to their feet in a fright. They did not trust the witch’s spells at all. She was whispering now to Sootica, but they could not hear a word that she said.
Sootica smiled and nodded her head. She began feverishly to turn over the pages of the book of spells with her paw.
“No thank you,” Gobbolino said, edging towards the door of the cavern. “I think we will start on our journey now! We wish you well, ma’am, and you too, sister Sootica, but it is time that we went on our own way.”
Secretly, he felt more ready to face the dangers of the long journey than to risk another moment or another spell in the cavern of the witch.
But both Sootica and her mistress were searching the pages with excited smiles on their faces, and uttering little cries of delight when they seemed close to finding what they wanted.
“Here it is! No herd Not quite! Two pages further on!”
It could only be a trick to keep them longer in the cave. The little wooden horse stooped down to pick up his ear, and trotted after Gobbolino to the entrance.
“Wait! Wait!” cried the witch. “Don’t be afraid! We aren’t going to harm you! We only mean to wish you well! Quickly, Sootica! Get the cauldron ready! Put in this!… and this!… and that! Don’t lose a moment!”
At these words the little wooden horse and Gobbolino fairly bolted out of the door. The little wooden horse dropped his ear in the entrance but dared not stop to pick it up. “Uncle Peder will make me another one if I ever get safely back to him again!” he panted.