"This river begins near one end of the island and flows into the ocean at the other. "Wild Island is practically cut in two by a very wide and muddy river," continued the cat. It certainly is an interesting place, but I saw something there that made me want to weep." So I decided to go across the rocks and explore it for myself. Wild Island and Tangerina are joined together by a long string of rocks, but people never go to Wild Island because it's mostly jungle and inhabited by very wild animals. I was particularly interested in a place called Wild Island, which we had passed on our way to Tangerina. Well, it just so happened that I missed the boat, and while waiting for the next I thought I'd look around a bit. My traveling days are over but last spring I took just one more trip and sailed to the Island of Tangerina, stopping at the port of Cranberry. As you can see, I'm an old cat now, but in my younger days I was quite a traveler. "Well, not exactly an airplane, but something even better. "You mean you know where I could get an airplane?" "Well," said the cat, "if you'd really like to fly that much, I think I know of a sort of a way you might get to fly while you're still a little boy." "Would you like to fly very, very much?" asked the cat. Wouldn't it be wonderful to fly just anywhere you might think of!" My father said, "When I grow up I'm going to have an airplane. Together they went for a walk in the park and tried to think of nice things to talk about. She whipped my father and threw the cat out the door, but later on my father sneaked out and found the cat. My father fed the cat for three weeks, but one day his mother found the cat's saucer in the cellar and she was extremely angry. He told the cat to stay anyway, and that somehow he would bring her a saucer of milk each day.
This made my father very sad, and he apologized to the cat because his mother had been so rude. Once you start feeding stray alley cats you might as well expect to feed every stray in town, and I am not going to do it!"
"Elmer Elevator," she said to my father, "if you think I'm going to give that cat a saucer of milk, you're very wrong. She hatedĬats, particularly ugly old alley cats. My father and the cat became good friends but my father's mother was very upset about the cat. "We have a very nice furnace to sit by," said my father, "and I'm sure my mother has an extra saucer of milk." This surprised the cat – she had never before met anyone who cared about old alley cats – but she said, "I'd be very much obliged if I could sit by a warm furnace, and perhaps have a saucer of milk." The cat was very drippy and uncomfortable so my father said, "Wouldn't you like to come home with me?"
One cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street. TORONTO, CANADA BY RANDOM HOUSE OF CANADA, PUBLISHED IN NEW YORKīY RANDOM HOUSE, INC. RESERVED UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND PAN AMERICANĬOPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS. A Celebration of Women Writers My Father's DragonĬOPYRIGHT 1948 BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.