Miranda the Great Read Online Free PDF Page A

Punka, my daughter, and to the thirty-three. Come in," she said and purred.
    The three big cats came slowly in and warily watched lest there be a trap of some sort. The thirty-three kittens raised their heads and said "mew-mew," for they recognized mothers.
    One mother went right up to little sooty-paws and gave him some milk. It was probably her own son. "Now," said Miranda. "You must be hungry. Follow your noses. You will find juicy drippings all the way to guide you. And Punka," she said to her daughter, "suppose you lead the way since you are the hostess." This Punka did.
    When Punka and the three big cats returned, each of them had a sweet, juicy morsel for the kittens. Since most of the kittens had only baby teeth, the big cats tenderized the meat in their own mouths before dropping it into the little pink mouths of the babies. The big cats smiled as they watched the tiny ones climbing over each other to get a taste of this new food and scrunching their eyes tightly in order to savor it thoroughly. What a day it had been for the kittens! First a drop of lion's milk and now roast meat! "Not many kittens have such an opportunity," thought Miranda proudly.
    Then everyone, filled with delicious food and feeling safe and sound, went to sleep. Miranda slept, too, but with one eye slightly open, guarding all, as always. In the middle of the night Miranda had her new little kittens, and there were four. When Punka saw them, she was astonished. "More kittens?" she said.
    But Miranda was very proud and purred. "Yes," she said. "Your little brothers and sisters."
    "Wah!" said Punka.
    Miranda's only regret was that the kittens had not been born soon enough to have had a drop of lion's milk. "Still," she thought, "things are going along nicely, very nicely indeed."
    A growl from outside the arcade interrupted this peaceful reverie.
    "Oof!"
    Miranda stole down the arcade to the entrance. There were sixteen dogs out there, and perhaps they were the same sixteen she had chased off her street after the blizzard. Well, they would have to go. They would never get into her Colosseum. She had not rescued thirty-three kittens (with Punka's help, of course), chased away a lion, and had four more in fire and smoke and sacking only to stand aside for dogs. "No, they will have to go," she thought as she watched the dogs. They were having some sort of restless consultation with their leader, a gaunt gray dog.
    The only dog that Miranda liked was Zag. She really loved Zag. But she knew where Zag was. Gone with Hamilcar Barca and the family to the villa, lying at her master's feet, no doubt, asleep and snoring. Well, those days were over for Miranda.
    The dogs had not yet seen Miranda where she lay crouching and awaiting the right moment to attack. Suddenly she gave a terrible and awful "woe-woe," all the way up the scale and all the way down. It echoed through the arcade and aroused the sleeping cats. Punka and the three mother cats came musically, sidewise on stiff legs, and took up their position behind Miranda. The kittens, left behind, said, "Mew, mew." The lizard cat from Barcelona with the broken tail appeared from somewhere, and that made six big cats. However, Miranda could have done all the chasing away herself, and the other cats watched her in awe as round and round in front of the dogs she circled, singing her song of warning and rejection.

    But these dogs were famished. They had smelled the meat, and they were loath to depart. Miranda had to charge the great gaunt leader dog, and she had to scratch him. At the same moment, though she had not been instructed to do this—she just had the idea herself—Punka performed her perpendicular leap. She landed on gaunt dog's back, hissed in his ear, jumped off, and he fled howling, followed by the others. Punka retired to the shadows, trembling with terror at the idea of her courageous act, and her mother said, "
Io!
"
    Miranda watched the dogs dashing down the street and disappearing around