There's something very special about these four kittens.
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CATWING
Ursula K. LeGuin
ATWINGS
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Illustratio...
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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
York
Toronto
London
INC. Auckland
Sydney
No in
part of this publication
whole or
in part,
or transmitted
in
may be reproduced
or stored
in a retrieval
system,
any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission of the publisher.
For information regarding permission write to
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.
APPLE PAPERBACKS
is
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
-
$3.50 US $4.50 CAN
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00000, eeses.i, p
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SCHOLASTIC ISBN D-STD-HSfl33-D
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