Suddenly, as she passed him for the third time, Gobbolino received a painful poke in the ribs from the stick, and at once the witch stopped short.
She poked again, and Gobbolino was forced to move away to avoid the painful prods that seemed likely to crack his ribs if he did not escape from them.
"So there you are!" cried the witch in triumph, hitting out with her stick where she thought he might be. Gobbolino shot out of his corner and took refuge behind the cauldron.
"Lazy good-for-nothing creature!" cried the witch, slashing at the rocks. "Why didn’t you answer when I called you? Afraid I was going to set you to work, were you? Where are you? Come out and show yourself, wherever you are!"
Gobbolino thought it best to obey her, while keeping well out of the way of her stick.
She saw him now, and flung a little clay pot in his direction.
"Go and fetch me some honey, now that you have taken the trouble to show yourself!" she ordered him. "I’m hungry, and I want something sweet. You know where the bees' nest is. Round the corner between the rocks! Go quickly!"
Gobbolino did as he was told. He snatched up the pot and ran from the cave, glad to be out of her reach, though not at all sure where to find the honey.
Fortunately the bees were busying to and fro, and he had only to watch them to find the hole between the rocks where they had their honeycombs. He could even see the sticky golden honey gleaming inside the cleft, and closing his eyes he bravely plunged his paw inside and filled the pot.
Where a true witch's cat would have escaped without harm, the bees were quick to set about a mere kitchen cat raiding their store, and Gobbolino had several painful stings on his paw before the pot was full. He was forced to stop and lick it to ease the pain, and it was not until he had given the whole foot a long and comforting wash that he saw to his horror he had licked off the black covering his sister had painted on to hide his white markings.
He did not know what to do, and meanwhile the witch was bellowing at him from the cave, so carrying the pot carefully in his other paw he limped along to serve her.
"That’s better!" the witch said, smacking her lips over the honey. "Now I shall have another little doze. But first you can go and get me a drink of milk from the wild goats. They are just over the crest there. I can hear them. And the pipkin is hanging by the door."
Gobbolino was only too glad to escape out of her sight. He snatched the milk jug and limped across the rocks to find the goats, who, when they looked up and saw him, knew in a moment that he was not Sootica, and proceeded to tease him and lead him a merry dance from crag to crag.
"Oh, please! Oh, please!" he begged them. "Just a little drop of milk! Not much! Please stop just for one moment and let me fill my little jug! The witch will kill me if you don’t!" sobbed Gobbolino, quite out of breath and at the end of his endurance.
At last one of the goats felt sorry for him and stopped her cavorting.
"Why, you don’t even know how to milk a goat, my poor cat!" it said pityingly. "Don’t they teach you common cats anything at all?"
Gobbolino was ashamed to explain that his paws were swollen with stings from the bees. He did the best he could, and the goat was patient.
Presently the jug was full, but not fast enough to please the witch, who was standing at the mouth of the cave, shrieking at him when at last he arrived with the milk.
"Dawdling and gossiping!" she scolded. "The goats are the worst gossips in the world, next to you, lazy, good-for-nothing cat! Fetch me a cup and pour me out a drink!. You can keep a drop for yourself, but only a drop, mind!"
She followed Gobbolino back into the cave, where he spent a little time in finding a cup, and took the opportunity of rubbing a fresh coating of dirt over his paw. He was rewarded by a prod in the ribs and a fresh burst of scolding.
Fortunately he was able to pour out the milk with his back turned towards the witch, and he passed it to her with his left paw. He was very grateful to have a good drink himself, and the goat's milk tasted very good and wholesome. He was just returning to his own corner when the witch called him out again.
"Feel the water in the cauldron, Sootica! Feel if it is getting hot! I want it ready and boiling by nightfall!"
Gobbolino put a paw nervously on the side of the cauldron, expecting to be burned, but it was only lukewarm.
"Not like that, you lazy cat! Get up on your hind legs and feel the water inside it!" the witch cried sharply, and she came to stand over him while he dipped his right paw into the liquid, where the oily bubbles swam round and round at his stirring.
"Not that paw! Will you never remember what I have taught you?" screeched the witch. "You must always stir a spell with your left paw, or you may spoil it before you begin! Go on then! Tell me if it is getting hot!"
Gobbolino was forced to obey her, and almost immediately the dirt was washed off his paw, which gleamed pure white in the murky cave before he could hide it out of sight.
The witch stared at it, and gave a gasp of horror. Then she seized Gobbolino by the neck and held him up in front of her, staring into his face.
"Sootica! Sootica!" she cried aloud. "Why, you wretched little impostor, you are not my cat at all!"
"No, ma’am! I’m sorry, ma’am!" gasped Gobbolino, his eyes wide with fright. "But I’ll do my best to serve you, ma’am! I assure you I will!"
He expected at any moment to be thrown into the cauldron, or else taken to the entrance of the cavern and hurled down the Hurricane Mountains as the witch had threatened to do long ago, but for the moment she dropped him on the ground and stared at him very thoughtfully.
"White paw!… Blue eyes!" she muttered. "Why I do believe… I do declare I have seen you before! I believe you are brother to my own good-for-nothing cat! And once, long ago,' you were both here together in my cavern. Am I right, cat?"
"Yes, ma’am! If you please, ma’am!" said Gobbolino, lowering his beautiful blue eyes to the floor.
"Then what are you doing here now?" thundered the witch in a terrible voice.
Gobbolino could think of nothing better to say than: "I beg your pardon, ma’am!"
"And where is my cat Sootica?" demanded the witch.
Gobbolino was in a terrible quandary. He did not know how far on her journey his sister might have travelled, but he was almost certain the witch would be after her in a minute if he confessed their plans. What he did not know was that witches can see very little by day, and are afraid of sunlight. It was most unlikely that she would chase after Sootica until nightfall.
He went on looking at the floor and said nothing.
"Do you mean to tell me you have not seen her at all?" asked the witch.
"Oh yes, ma'am, I saw her!" confessed Gobbolino.
"WHERE did you see her?" demanded the witch.
"Why, in the cave, ma'am, all in the moonlight," said Gobbolino.
"But this morning.. when the sun rose..?"
"When I woke up in the morning she was gone," said Gobbolino truthfully.
"I see it all! I see it all!" raged the witch. "She has left me! My cat has deserted me! And she put you in her place to deceive me while she escaped! Isn't that true, kitchen cat?"
"Yes, ma'am!" said Gobbolino, trembling and expecting to be destroyed at any minute.
But the witch sat down on her stool and rocked herself to and fro.
"Why did she leave me… oh why?" she moaned, with grey tears pouring down her shrivelled cheeks. "All these months I fed and trained her, and taught her all she knows. She had become the best witch's cat in all the world! Why should she want to leave me here alone now that I am old and getting helpless? She knows I can’t get on without her! She knows I can’t even make a spell without her to read it to me out of my book. How could she desert me? How could she be so cruel? Has she gone to find a younger witch, who can teach her more than I can? So selfish! So unkind! If I had anything more to show her I would have taught it to her.. she knows that! I’m so old! I can’t go on for ever! Witches depend on their cats to stay beside them till they die! Didn’t she know it would kill me to let her go?"