Catwings

There's something very special about these four kittens.

V/jdkt

CATWING

Ursula K. LeGuin

ATWINGS

by

Illustrations

S. D.

SCHINDLER A LITTLE

APPLE

PAPERBACK

SCHOLASTIC New

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London

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Orchard Books, ?87 Park Avenue South,

ISBN

New

York,

NY

10016.

0-590-42833-0

Text copyright

©

1988 by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Illustrations copyright

©

1988 by S. D. Schindler.

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.,

730 Broadway,

New

York,

NY

10003,

by arrangement with Orchard Books.

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a registered trademark of Scholastic Inc.

24 23 22 21 20 19

Printed

in the

7/9

U.S.A.

First Scholastic printing,

March 1990

40

To

all

the cats I've loved before U. K. Le G.

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2010

http://www.archive.org/details/catwingsOOIegu

ATWING

1

^ Mrs. Jane Tabby why

all

could not explain

four of her children had wings.

"I suppose their father was a fly-by-night," a neighbor said, and laughed unpleasantly,

sneaking round the dumpster.

'^Maybe they have wings because dreamed, before they were bom, that fly

away from

this

could

neighborhood," said Mrs.

Jane Tabby. "Thelma, your face it.

I

I

is

dirty;

Roger, stop hitting James. Harriet,

wash

when

you purr, you should close your eyes part way

and knead

me

the way.

How

with your front paws; yes, that's is

the milk this morning,

children?" "It's

very good. Mother, thank you," they

answered happily. They were beautiful

children, well brought up.

But Mrs. Tabby

worried about them secretly. terrible

It really

neighborhood, and getting worse. Car

wheels and truck wheels rolling past

—

was a

rubbish and

litter

all

— hungry dogs —

day

endless

shoes and boots walking, running, stamping, kicking

— nowhere

less to eat.

away.

The

safe

Most of rats

were

and

quiet,

and

less

the sparrows had fierce

moved

and dangerous; the

mice were shy and scrawny.

M4M'

and

So

the children's wings were the least of

Mrs. Tabby's worries. She washed those

silky

wings every day, along with chins and paws and tails,

and wondered about them now and then,

but she worked too hard finding food and bringing up the family to think

much about

things she didn't understand.

But when the huge dog chased

little

Harriet and cornered her behind the garbage

•M5M-

can, lunging at her with open, white-toothed

jaws, and Harriet with one desperate straight

up

staring head

into the air

and over the dog's

and lighted on

Mrs. Tabby understood.

mew flew

a rooftop

—

then

The dog went between

its

off growling,

legs.

"Come down

now, Harriet," her mother

come here

'^Children,

called.

tail

its

please,

all

of you."

They

all

Harriet was

came back

to the

trembling.

still

The

till

Mrs. Jane Tabby

said:

"Children,

I

dream before you were bom, and

up

in,

you

meant. This

it

to

that. I

saw James

— and Roger. a

is

dreamed I

see

a

now

to fly

from

it.

I

want

know you've been practicing.

I

flying across the alley last night

yes, I I

all

not a good place to grow

and you have wings

do

others

she was calm, and then

purred with her

what

dumpster.

saw you doing nose

think you are ready.

good dinner and

fly

— "But Mother

away

" said

I

—

dives, too,

want you to have far away."

Thelma, and burst

into tears.

"I have no wish to leave," said Mrs.

Tabby

quietly.

"My

proposed

work

me

to

accept him.

I

is

last

here.

Mr.

Tom

night,

and

I

Jones

intend to

don't want you children

underfoot!" All the children wept, but they that

is

way

the

it

must be,

knew

in cat families.

that

They

were proud, too, that their mother trusted

them

to look after themselves.

they had a that the

So

all

together

good dinner from the garbage can

dog had knocked

over.

Then Thelma,

Roger, James, and Harriet purred goodbye to their dear mother,

and one

after

another they

spread their wings and flew up, over the

alley,

over the roofs, away.

Mrs. Jane Tabby watched them. Her heart was

ftiU

"They said

Mr.

of fear and pride.

are remarkable children, Jane,"

Tom Jones

"Ours

will

Mrs. Tabby.

in his soft,

deep voice.

be remarkable too, Tom," said

o ^ As THELMA, Harriet flew on,

them, mile

all

Roger, James, and

they could see beneath

after mile,

was the

city's roofs,

the

city's streets.

A pigeon came swooping up to join them. It

flew along with them, peering at

uneasily

from

its little,

"What

round, red eye.

kind of birds are you, anyways?"

them

it

finally

asked.

'^Passenger pigeons," James said promptly.

Harriet

mewed

with laughter.

The pigeon jumped her,

in mid-air, stared at

and then turned and swooped away from

them

in a great,

"I wish

I

quick curve.

could

fly like that," said

Miol!§-

Roger.

''Pigeons are really dumb," James muttered.

"But

my

and Thelma

wings ache already," Roger said,

somewhere and Little

"So do mine.

said,

Let's land

rest."

Harriet was already heading

down

towards a church steeple.

They clung roof,

to the carvings

on

the church

and got a drink of water from the roof

gutters.

^'Sitting in the catbird seat!"

sang

Harriet, perched on a pinnacle. **It

looks different over there," said

Thelma, pointing her nose

to the west. "It

looks softer."

They

all

gazed earnestly westward, but

cats don't see the distance clearly.

"Well,

if it's different,

James, and they fly

let's

set off again.

try

it,"

said

They could not

with untiring ease, like the pigeons. Mrs.

Ml2])$'

,

Tabby had always seen

to

it

that they ate well,

and so they were quite plump, and had their wings

hard

to

They learned how

to beat

keep their weight to glide,

their wings, letting the

aloft.

not beating

wind bear them up;

but Harriet found gliding difficult, and

wobbled

badly.

After another hour or so they landed on the roof of a huge factory, even though the air there smelled terrible, and there they slept for a while in a weary, ftirry heap.

Ml3l»'

Then, towards

I

nightfall, very

hungry

appetite like flying

The strings

sun

set.

—

—

for nothing gives an

they

The

woke and

came on, long

city lights

and chains of

flew on.

below them,

lights

stretching out towards darkness. Towards

darkness they

flew,

and

at last,

when around

them and under them everything was dark except for one light twinkling over the

descended slowly from the

air

hill,

they

and landed on

the ground.

A

soft

ground

—

a strange ground!

The

only ground they knew was pavement, asphalt,

cement. This was

dead It

all

all

new

leaves, grass, twigs,

to

them,

dirt, earth,

mushrooms, worms.

smelled extremely interesting.

creek ran nearby.

and went

They heard

to drink, for they

A

little

the song of

were very

it

thirsty.

After drinking, Roger stayed crouching on the bank, his nose almost in the water, his

eyes gazing.

"What's

The just

that in the water?" he whispered.

others

came and gazed. They could

make out something moving

in the starlight

Roger's

—

a silvery flicker, a gleam.

paw shot out

"I think

it's

in the water,

dinner," he said.

§i[l6M

After dinner, they curled up together again under a bush and

fell

asleep.

But

first

Thelma, then Roger, then James, and then small Harriet, would eye, listen a

they had alley,

lift

their head,

open an

moment, on guard. They knew

come

to a

much

better place than the

but they also knew that every place

dangerous, whether you are a

even a cat with wings.

fish,

or a

cat,

is

or

^ ''IT'S

ABSOLUTELY

unfair," the

thrush cried.

"Unjust!" the finch agreed. "Intolerable!" yelled the bluejay.

"I don't see

why"

always had wings.

a

mouse

Now they do.

said.

"\bu've

What's unfair

about that?"

The never do.

about

fish in the

creek said nothing. Fish

Few people know what

injustice,

or anything

fish

think

else.

"I was bringing a twig to the nest just this

morning, and a fi-om the top

me

cat flew

of the

down, a cat flew down,

Home

in mid-air!" the

Oak, and

thrush said, and

other songbirds cried, "Shocking! of!

Not

grinned at

allowed!"

••Mi9M

all

the

Unheard

"\bu could and trotted

The

try tunnels," said the

mouse,

ofF.

had

birds

the Flying Tabbies.

to learn to get along with

Most of the

birds, in fact,

were more frightened and outraged than

really

endangered, since they were far better

flyers

than Roger, Thelma, Harriet, and James. birds never got their wings tangled

up

The

in pine

branches and never absent-mindedly bumped into tree trunks,

and when pursued they could

escape by speeding up or taking evasive action.

But they were alarmed, and with good cause, about their fledglings. the nest now;

when

Many

birds

had eggs

the babies hatched,

could they be kept safe from a cat

in

how

who could fly

up and perch on the slenderest branch, among the thickest leaves? It this.

took a while for the

Owl

is

thinker. It

Owl

to understand

not a quick thinker. She

was

late in spring,

is

a long

one evening,

when she was gazing owlets, that she saw bats.

And

not do.

fondly at her two

James

flitting by,

new

chasing

she slowly thought, ^^This will

." .

.

And

softly

Owl

spread her great, gray

wings, and silently flew after James, her talons

opening.

The Flying Tabbies their nest in a hole halfway

fox

and coyote

to get into.

level

had made

up a big elm, above

and too small for raccoons

Thelma and Harriet were washing

each other's necks and talking over the day's adventures

when

they heard a

pitifiil

crying at

the foot of the tree.

"James!" cried Harriet.

He

was crouching under the bushes,

all

scratched and bleeding, and one of his wings

dragged upon the ground. "It

was the Owl," he

had helped him climb trunk to their

home

caught me, but for a

I

said,

painfully

his sisters

up the

hole. "I just escaped.

scratched her, and she

tree

She

let

go

moment."

And

just then

Roger came scrambling

into the nest with his eyes

and

when

full

of

fear.

"The Owl!"

round and black

"She's after me!" he cried.

They fell

all

washed James's wounds

till

he

asleep.

"Now said

we know how

Thelma,

"What

the

little

birds feel,"

grimly. will

James do?" Harriet whis-

pered. "Will he ever

fly

again?"

''He'd better not," said a soft, large voice just outside their door. sitting there.

m^^u-

The Owl was

The

Tabbies looked at one another.

did not say a

At

word

sunrise

The Owl was

till

They

morning came.

Thelma peered

gone. "Until

cautiously out.

this evening," said

Thelma.

From

then on they had to hunt in the

daytime and hide

Owl

thinks slowly, but the

James was at

in their nest all night; for the

all.

for days

thinks long.

and could not hunt

When he recovered, he was very thin and

could not

fly

much,

and lame.

stiff

ill

Owl

He

for his left

wing soon grew

never complained.

He

sat

for hours by the creek, his wings folded, fishing.

The

fish did

not complain either.

They

never do.

One were

all

night of early

curled in their

and discouraged.

summer

home

A

hole, rather tired

raccoon family was

quarreling loudly in the next tree.

found nothing

to eat

all

the Tabbies

Thelma had

day but a shrew, which

§S[25]!$-

gave her indigestion.

A

coyote had chased

Roger away from the wood

rat

he had been

about to catch that afternoon. James's fishing

had been past

on

unsuccessfiil.

The Owl

kept flying

silent wings, saying nothing.

Two young male

raccoons in the next tree

started a fight, cursing

and shouting

The

joined

other raccoons

all

in,

insults.

screeching

and scratching and swearing. "It sounds just like the old alley,"

remarked.

James

"Do

you remember the Shoes?" Harriet

asked dreamily. She was looking quite plump,

Her

perhaps because she was so small.

sister

and brothers had become thin and rather scrufiy.

"\es,"

me

James

"Some of them chased

said.

once."

"Do

you remember the Hands?" Roger

asked.

Thelma

"\es," picked

me up

"What

once.

said.

When I

did they

"Some of them was just a

do— the

kitten."

Hands?"

Harriet asked.

"They squeezed me. hands person was shouting It

has wings!'

its silly

voice.

"What "I bit

"I bit

it,

—

that's

And

It

—

what

it

hurt.

And

the

'Wings! Wings! kept shouting in

squeezing me."

did you do?"

it,"

and

Thelma it

said, with

dropped me, and

modest I

pride.

ran back to

Mother, under the dumpster.

how

I

know

didn't

to fly yet."

"I saw one today," said Harriet.

"What?

A

Hands?

A

Shoes?"

said

Thelma.

"A human bean?"

said James.

"A human being?" Roger

said.

"\es," said Harriet. "It saw me, too."

And

"Did

It

chase you?"

"Did

It

kick you?"

"Did

it

throw things

"No.

It just

its

at

you?"

stood and watched

me

eyes got round, just like ours."

•«[28M-

flying.

'^^"'^^'^^i

%

k:

"Mother

Thelma remarked,

always said,"

thoughtfully, "that if

you found the

of Hands, you'd never have if you

to

found the wrong kind,

it

right kind

hunt again. But

would be worse

than dogs, she said." "I think this one

is

the right kind," said

Harriet.

"What makes you

think so?" Roger

asked, sounding like their mother.

"Because

it

ran off and

§![29]S$

came back with

a

of dinner," Harriet

plate full

the dinner

of the

down on

field,

that day,

that big

the field where

you know.

"And

said.

stump

it

at the

put

edge

we scared the cows

And then it went off quite a

way, and sat down, and just watched me.

flew over and ate the dinner. interesting dinner. Like

So

I

It

was an

what we used

to get in

the alley, but fresher. And," said Harriet,

sounding there

like their

mother, "I'm going back

tomorrow and see what's on

"\bu just be

carefiil,

that stump."

Harriet Tabby!" said

Thelma, sounding even more mother.

like their

A ^ THE NEXT DAY, to the big

stump

flying low pie-plate

when Harriet went

edge of the cow pasture,

at the

and cautiously, she found

a tin

of meat scraps and kibbled catfood

waiting for her.

The

was also waiting for

girl

from Overhill Farm

her, sitting

about twenty

feet

away from the stump, and holding very

still.

Susan Brown was her name, and she was

eight years old.

the

She watched Harriet

woods and hover

like a fat

fly

out of

hummingbird

over the stump, then settle down, fold her

wings neatly, and breath.

Her

The

eat.

Susan Brown held her

eyes grew round.

next day,

when Harriet and Roger

flew cautiously out of the

woods and hovered

over the stump, Susan was sitting about

M3lM-

fifteen feet away,

and beside her

twelve-year-old brother

word she

believed a his eyes

Hank.

He

sat her

had not

said about flying cats.

Now

were perfectly round, and he was

holding his breath.

Harriet and Roger settled

"\bu

Hank

didn't say there

whispered to his

down

to eat,

were two of them,"

sister.

Harriet and Roger sat on the stump licking their whiskers clean.

"\bu

didn't say there

Roger whispered

were two of them,"

to his sister.

"I didn't know!" both the sisters whis-

pered back. ''There was only one, yesterday.

But they look nice

THE NEXT DAY,

—

don't they?"

Hank and Susan

put

out two pie-tins of cat dinner on the stump,

then went ten steps away, sat

and waited.

down

in the grass,

Harriet flew boldly from the woods and alighted

on

the stump.

Then — "Oh, Thelma,

Roger followed

look!" Susan whispered

her.

— came — "Oh,

flying very slowly, with a disapproving

expression

on her

face.

And

Susan whispered

look, look^^

finally

—James,

flying

low and lame, flapped over to the stump, landed on

and

ate.

it,

He

who moved

and began to

eat.

He ate, and ate,

even growled once at Thelma,

to the other pie-tin.

M34M-

j..l,Hi».^,4-.,.*

The two

children watched the four winged

cats.

Harriet, quite

full,

washed her

face,

and

watched the children.

Thelma her

left

finished a last tasty kibble,

front paw,

and gazed

M35]!$-

washed

at the children.

Suddenly she flew up from the stump and straight at them. over.

She flew

They ducked round both

right

as she

went

their heads

and

then back to the stump. "Testing," she said to Harriet, James, and

Roger.

"If she does

Hank

it

again, don't catch her,"

said to Susan. "It'd scare her off."

"\bu think I'm

They

sat

grass nearby. "Kitty,"

stupid?^^

The

still.

The sun Susan

Susan

cats sat

hissed.

still.

Cows

ate

shone.

said in a soft, high voice.

"Kitty kit-kit-kit-kit-kit-cat, kitty-cat, kittywings, kittywings, catwings!"

Harriet jumped off the stump into the

air,

performed a cartwheel, and flew loop-the-loop over to Susan. She landed on Susan's shoulder

and

sat there, holding

on

tight

and purring

in

Susan's ear. "I will never never never ever catch you, or

"

cage you, or do anything to you you don't want

me

to do,"

Susan

said to Harriet. "I promise.

Hank, you promise

too."

"Purr," said Harriet.

And

"I promise.

anybody

else,"

Hank

we'll

never ever

said, rather fiercely.

— you know how — saw them

"Ever! Because

people

tell

people are. If

"I promise," Susan said. She and

Hank

shook hands, promising.

Roger flew graceRilly over and landed on Hank's shoulder. "Purr," said Roger.

"They could said.

live in

the old bam," Susan

"Nobody ever goes

there but us. There's

that dovecote in the wall

up

in the loft, with all those holes

where the doves flew

in

and

out."

"We can take hay up there and make them a place to sleep,"

Hank

"Purr," said Roger.

said.

Very

softly

and gently

hand and stroked Roger

Hank

right

raised his

between the

wings.

**Oooh," said James, watching.

jumped down

off the

over to the children.

stump and came

He

sat

He

trotting

down near Susan's

shoes. Very softly and gently Susan reached

down and

scratched James under the chin and

behind the ears.

«[39]S$.

"Purr,"

James

said,

and drooled a

little

on

Susans shoe.

"Oh, up the the

last

air,

down

well!" said

in

Thelma, having cleaned

of the cold roast beef. She arose

in

flew over with great dignity, sat right

Hank's

lap, folded

her wings, and said,

"Purr, purr, purr..."

"Oh, Hank," Susan whispered, wings are

"their

Rirry."

"Oh, James," Harriet whispered, hands are kind."

"their

"A

captivating fantasy. ..."

—

Starred review,

Bulletin

of the Center for ChiUrens Books

Mrs. Jane Tabby could not explain why of her children had wings. But for her kittens

it

meant

would someday come

Harriet, Roger, and James could

dangerous

city

fly

four

all

Thelma,

true.

away from the

slum and find a safer place to

The day came. But who

dreams

that her

could have

live.

known what

the four kittens would find in the woods...?

An

American Bookseller/Pick of the

"I drew a picture of a cat with wings on said.

"The

cat kept flying around in

the story." Ursula K. Le Guin's

my

my head

shopping

until I sat

a

the author

list,"

down and wrote

many award-winning books

and adults include The Tom^s of Atuan,

List

for children

Newbery Honor. She

lives in

Portland, Oregon.

et8060-l03 9 Zii

I

-

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