Читать книгу Forty Good-Night Tales - Rose Amy Fyleman - Страница 5
ОглавлениеCAT'S TROUSERS
Have you heard people say that it won't rain if there's enough blue sky to make a cat a pair of trousers? And do you know where that saying comes from?
I don't suppose you do, so I'll tell you.
The cat was once invited to the Fairy Queen's party. He was very poor, and had no nice clothes. It was the Queen's birthday party, and every one was asked to wear blue, because that is the Queen's favourite colour.
The cat went to the weather-clerk on the morning of the party and asked him if he would give him a bit of sky to make a pair of trousers of. He had tried everywhere and was almost in despair.
"What will you give me?" said the weather-clerk, who is a rather mean old thing.
"I've just got all the clouds together for a good spell of rain, and they're so lazy and bad-tempered that if I unsettle them now I shall have the greatest difficulty in getting them together again."
"If you wait half-an-hour, I'll get you a bag of gold," said the cat.
So the weather-clerk promised to wait half-an-hour.
The cat rushed down the sky to the Fairy Queen's Major-domo, who arranges all her parties. "Look here," he said, "the weather-clerk's making a storm. The Queen's party will be ruined if it's not stopped."
"Dear, dear," said the Major-domo, and he wrung his hands. "I'd give anything for fine weather."
"Would you give a bag of gold?" said the cat.
"Of course," said the Major-domo.
So he gave the cat a bag of gold, and the cat rushed back to the weather-clerk.
"Here you are," he said. "Now what about my trousers?"
The weather-clerk found a tiny patch of blue between two clouds, and he pushed them a little farther apart.
"A little more," said the cat. "They mustn't be skimpy."
So the clerk pushed them a little farther.
"A little more," said the cat. "Trousers are worn longer than they used to be."
So the clerk pushed the clouds a little farther apart (though they grumbled at being moved) until there was quite a nice piece of blue showing.
"That will do beautifully," said the cat; and the weather-clerk gave him the piece of blue sky, and he hurried home with it and ran up a pair of trousers in no time.
But the lazy clouds were so angry at being moved that they wouldn't come back. They drifted slowly away in the directions in which they had been pushed, and took no notice of the weather-clerk's efforts to get them to come together again.
But the Queen got her fine weather, and the cat got his trousers, and the weather-clerk got his bag of gold, and what more do you want?
