The further adventures of Gobbolino and the little wooden horse

10 IN THE WITCH’S CAVE

If IT SEEMED A LONG TIME to the little wooden horse it seemed ten times as long to Gobbolino, curled up in a dark corner of the witch’s cave beside the ugly old woman whose face he remembered so well. He shrank into the shadows among the cobwebs and dust, hoping she would not notice him if she woke up. Sootica had assured him that she would sleep till sunset, but his heart beat so loudly he was afraid it might rouse her, and the harder he tried to suppress it the louder it beat.

There next to her was the same cauldron he had been forced to stir, and beside which he had fallen asleep in the middle of making the witch’s most important spell. He wondered what the cauldron contained today.

There too were the spiders, and one or two lazy bats, hanging in the rocks above the cauldron. It was all so familiar he began to feel he had never left it, and yet how different it all was from his happy farmyard home!

He tried to imagine his sister Sootica at the farm, but he could not. It was much more natural to think of her in this shadowy cave beside the snoring witch. Gobbolino tried not to look at the witch, but her snoring made him very nervous, especially when it stopped for a little and then went on again.

He pictured Sootica tearing down the mountainside, past the little wooden horse, who he hoped was now starting for home, but he knew his loyal little friend was more likely to be waiting for him in the cave below.

He hoped Sootica would remember to stop and tell the bats that by evening their caves would be free for them. And suddenly he remembered how the bats had carried them to the mountain. Perhaps they would help them again! In gratitude for the caves they might even carry them back to the river! This thought was so hopeful and comforting that his heart actually settled down and began to beat less noisily but that only made the witch’s snores the louder.

Through the open doorway he could see the sun painting the crags with gold.

"When it reaches that one…" Sootica had told him, pointing with her paw, "it will be midday, and I shall be safely across the river, so you can leave the cave and come after me. You will have arrived there yourself by the time my mistress wakes up, so you have nothing to fear!"

The long morning crawled by. Outside, Gobbolino could see that the view from the mountain top was very beautiful. The sun warmed the rocks below and beyond, slowly spreading a flush of colour higher and higher like the sweep of a gigantic paintbrush. Yet it moved so slowly Gobbolino wondered if it would ever reach the rock Sootica had pointed out to him, and allow him to go free.

What would happen, he asked himself, if he left the cave early, before the sun reached midday?

For one thing, the witch could easily awake early herself, and find her cat gone. Searching and calling, she might fly down the mountainside and overtake him, or she might soar very high into the sky on her broomstick and see, not only himself, but Sootica making her way to the river across the plain. And when she had pounced down on her cat, and brought her back to the cave the bats would be forbidden the caves below, and things would be just as bad as they had been before. What his own punishment would be Gobbolino did not dare to think. At the moment he was more concerned about Sootica and the bats.

One thing consoled him. The witch had nothing against the little wooden horse. She did not even know he was there, and provided he kept himself out of her sight he was quite safe, whether plodding home across the plain, or hiding in the cave where they had passed the night. Gobbolino preferred to think that he was on his way back to the forest, and that by nightfall they might be there together.

The bats and the spiders in the witch’s cave took no notice of him, and a wrinkled old toad in the corner merely stared at him for a while and then shut its eyes again and went back to sleep.

Gobbolino was very thirsty. He was hungry too, for he had not eaten since the tasty dinner brought to them in the church by the old priest the day before, but he dared not touch the strange-looking food in the witch’s cooking pan, nor take a drink from the cauldron, for fear of the magic it might hold. Presently, above the snores of the witch, he noticed the steady drip of water not far from him, and saw a tiny spring far above his head, that spattered a drop or so of crystal clear water on to the stones at every minute.

Very thankfully and carefully Gobbolino moved towards it and held out a grateful tongue to the drops of water. They tasted very cold and sweet. Some of the water had formed a tiny pool in the hollow of a rock, and this he drank too, but very quietly, in case the witch should hear his lapping.

He felt better now, and told himself that at least three hours must have passed since Sootica went away, for the sun had moved quite a distance across the rocks.

Presently he noticed that the witch’s snoring had changed a little. It was no longer so loud and regular as it had been in the early morning, when it had been rather like listening to a clock ticking. Even the short pauses that had frightened him so much had become part of a rhythm that seemed set to go on for ever. But now the snoring became lighter, and rather quicker, as if the witch were dreaming… as if her dreams were disturbing her… as if they were waking her up..

She gave a little shriek… a cough… a hiccup.. and then the snoring stopped altogether.

Gobbolino froze with terror. He was in the darkest, most shadowy corner of the cave, but who could tell how much witches were able to see in the dark?

He listened, hoping that she would settle down and begin to snore again, but meanwhile she was moving, and clearing her throat… yes, and muttering.. the witch was awake Silence fell. Gobbolino could hear her shuffling her feet, and then — horror of horrors! — she was getting up!

Gobbolino froze with terror.

He shut his eyes as tightly as possible, so that the gleam in them should not catch her attention, and heard her shuffling across the floor to the doorway.

She stood there for a while, looking out at the morning, but it seemed that the sunshine was not to her liking, for she came back grumbling, and began to move round the cavern looking for her stick.

"Sootica!" she muttered, and then louder, "Sootica! Puss! Puss! Where are you? I’m calling you, Sootica!"

Gobbolino froze.

Perhaps if he did not move she would think her cat had gone outside on to the mountain. She might even fall asleep again, waiting for Sootica to come back.

But the witch did not seem inclined to settle down and go to sleep. She walked round and round the cave grumbling and calling for her cat in a louder and louder voice till Gobbolino cringed with fear. Once she passed so close to him that she scuffed him with her shoe, but she did not know what she had touched.

Gobbolino remembered that his sister had told him that her mistress was getting rather blind.

At last she found her stick, and now the search for Sootica began in earnest, as if the witch knew by instinct that her cat was not far away. The stick went tap tap tap across the floor as she poked and prodded in the corners, and in the holes behind the rocks. Now and then she went to the doorway and yelled Sootica’s name in louder and louder tones, but she always came back into the cave, looking very puzzled and dissatisfied.

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?"

The more the witch sobbed and cried the less like a witch she appeared and the more like a lonely old woman.

"Wasn’t I wicked enough for her?" she moaned; till Gobbolino’s heart was touched; and he cautiously rubbed his body against her legs.

"I think my sister had got tired of being a witch’s cat!" he told her. "I think she wanted to be a good cat for a change."

"Good?" said the witch, quite startled. "How could she be good? She was born and bred a witch’s cat!"

Gobbolino said nothing, and the witch’s eye fell on him again. "Oh you!" she said scornfully. "You were only born half a witch’s kitten! Look at your white paw and your blue eyes! Poor miserable little creature, when I changed you back into a kitchen cat I had only to finish off what was already begun. But my beautiful black Sootica! How could she treat me so badly? How could she break my old heart? She has left me. And where is she now?"

The old witch went back to sobbing and crying and rocking herself to and fro, till Gobbolino did not know how to comfort her. She seemed to have lost all her desire to punish him, in fact one of her claw-like hands was actually caressing and rubbing his neck as if he were Sootica his sister. The feel of his fur seemed to comfort her a little.

"What shall I do? What shall I do?" she sobbed over and over again, and Gobbolino was so overcome with pity that he crept on to her lap, and lay down as close to her crabby old heart as he could push himself.

But her tears and sobs went on and on. He had never known anyone cry so long or so bitterly He found himself blaming his sister Sootica for her selfishness and her desertion. If he had known how her escape would affect the old witch he would never have agreed to help her. Danger was one thing, desertion was another, and here was a poor old woman in the throes of bitter despair. Gobbolino was bitterly ashamed of his sister, and wondered how in the world he could fetch her back.

The old woman slowly sobbed herself off to sleep, but Gobbolino would not creep from her lap for fear of waking her to a new sense of loss. He was willing to give her what little comfort he could.

Meanwhile the sun crept slowly up the rocks and touched the crag that signified midday.

Gobbolino watched it.

Now Sootica would have reached the river! Now she would have swum across it and the witch could no longer capture her and bring her home. Half of Gobbolino rejoiced at her escape. The other half reproached her for her selfishness and cruelty in leaving her old mistress. Could she really hope to become a good kitchen cat if she began with such behaviour?

He shifted his paws, and the witch gave a little sobbing moan.

"Puss! Pretty Pusskins!" she murmured, but Gobbolino knew she was mistaking him for his sister.

Slowly the sun crossed the sky and moved across the rocks. He had a long way to go before nightfall, but if he left now he might just cross the plain before it became too dark to see his way. His friend, the little wooden horse, would be waiting for him in the shade of the forest, and oh, the joy of having his companionship again! He felt comforted by the very thought.

His fur was damp with the witch’s tears. He could not find it in his heart to leave her just yet. Perhaps, a little later, when she woke up, and seemed a little less wretched, he would go down the path and maybe spend the night in one of the caves with the bats below. He did not think the witch would want to harm him now. And she could not have any real interest in a common kitchen cat.

He dozed off on her skinny lap, and slept for a couple of hours.

When he awoke the cave entrance was golden with afternoon sunshine, and he thought he heard someone coming up the hill. It must be Sootica!

But the person who suddenly appeared in the cavern entrance was not Sootica, but the little wooden horse!