Miranda the Great (4 page)

Before Miranda and the kittens took possession of it, great games were held in the Colosseum for the entertainment of the emperor and the Roman people. Sometimes these games consisted of combats between people and beasts, sometimes between just beasts. There were dens, cages, and chains beneath the floor where captive beasts and men were locked.

Miranda did not know about that custom. But she did understand the language of the lion, for lions belong to the cat family. "Let me out of here. Oh, please someone let me out! Uh-rooruh-rurruh-ruh!" the lion said. "I think I should be let out," it said.

Miranda agreed. She and the lion wanted the same thing ... that the lion get out, for she had decided that this place, this great big somewhat-ruined Colosseum, was going to be her place, hers and Punka's and the little rescued kittens'. A Colosseum for cats only, especially cats lost and driven about by the fates. No lions allowed.

Miranda understood that the lion was locked up, which was a comfort. But the kittens could not rest or sleep with all that noise, and she had to get him out, chase him away. While thinking how to do this, Miranda gave herself a little bath, also a few absent-minded licks to the tiny kitten who was turning out to be white. Meanwhile, the lion roared and did not let up. All the kittens turned their eyes to Miranda to see what she would do. They were not afraid any more because they knew that their rescuer, great Mother Miranda, would not let anything hurt them, but they mewed anyway, their silent mews. And Punka said, "Wah!"

Miranda stood up. She stretched. Then she said, "I am going to chase the lion away and stop all that noise. Be good little kittens and do exactly what Punka says. Hide under that nice old toga," she told the kittens. To Punka, she said, "Don't let any get lost. There are thirty-three now..."

"Thirty-four," interrupted Punka.

Miranda gave Punka a loving lick on her face. She admired the way Punka had come to her help and often on their long way here had amused and encouraged the little ones with one of her noted perpendicular leaps. She praised her.

"Wah," said Punka, proud to be part of destiny.

"Well," said Miranda. "Now to chase the lion away. We, the cats, certain good cats, of Rome, are going to live here now. I'll be back soon," she promised. "What's one lion? Don't worry.
Vale.
Farewell."

Miranda set her square little jaw and went boldly forth toward the arena. She held her head high and her tail straight up and waving like a banner. She looked splendid. "She looks like a queen," said the tiger kitten hoarsely, and all the kittens watched her until she was out of sight.

Once out of sight, Miranda raced swiftly to the shadows. She passed several corridors that led down to the area below, but so far she had not reached the right one. The lion had not roared for a while, probably being tired out. But Miranda knew she would find him, silent or not, for cats always know where another animal is.

In the quietude, as she crouched along her way, Miranda's thoughts drifted back to all the kittens. They must have something to eat. She must bring them food. What she needed most was another mother cat, a real right milk-giving mother. First ... get the lion out. Then ... find a nice milk-giving mother, some mother or other that had some milk...

Just then, and very nearby, the lion blasted forth with a terrible roar. "Uh-rorrah-rorrah-rorrah! Get me out! Let me out!" it said.

"How unsettling," thought Miranda as she came crouching along the side of the corridor, following the roars. She sniffed the dirt pathway. It smelled strongly of lion. She cleaned a paw and said calmly to herself, "Now the time has come to let the lion out. It is not hard to let lions out," she said bravely.

Silently Miranda approached the lion's cage. The nearer she came to it, the more nervous she became, and often she had to stop and clean a paw or her stomach. She wondered when her new kittens would come. The thought of them and of the adopted ones, and of Punka, strengthened her. She put on a very sinister and hateful expression, and thus, in this malevolent fashion, she approached the lion's cage, sidewise.

There the lion was, prowling back and forth inside
its cage, uttering roars of anguish and despair. Miranda crouched down in front of the cage and studied the great beast. She may have been a colossal cat, but a lion is even more colossal, and Miranda was filled with awe. Then her eyes widened. Miranda had expected to see King Lion. Instead, she saw Queen Lion, Queen Mother Lion and filled with milk!

How extraordinary and how handy! No wonder the lion was roaring and bellowing and pleading to be let out. She wanted to find her cubs.

The next surprise for Miranda, who understood locks and bolts, was that the great bolt that locked the cage had loosened. Here was a lion who thought herself locked up. Yet all the while, if she could break the chain around her leg, all she had to do was push her huge paws against the bars, the door would swing open, and out she could go! Miranda felt she could easily outwit this lion. She decided that now was the time to present herself. She went boldly right up to the lion's cage, and she kept her malevolent look on her face, and she sat down in front of the cage. She let out a piercing cry. "Woe-woe!" she cried in the key of E. It sounded sinister and terrible. "Woe-woe," cried Miranda again. Up and down the scale she went, and it did sound terrible. It would scare anybody. The lion heard her, and, terrified, she gave a mighty leap.

Aghast, Miranda saw that the lion's leap had broken her shackles. They had already been weakened by her desperate struggling, were old and rusty anyway, and probably dated from the days of Hadrian the Great. Although the lion could now easily get herself out of her cage, fortunately she had not taken in this fact, and she kept pacing back and forth with head bowed and her eyes on Miranda. Both the lion and the cat looked narrow-eyed and sinister and sized each other up.

Miranda thought that the lion might soon catch on to the fact that all she had to do now was open the door and go free, so Miranda had to act quickly. She wanted to strike a bargain with the lion.

"Woe-woe," said Miranda in a conversational way, not quite so sinister.

The lion stopped pacing and looked at Miranda and then said, as though asking a question, "Uh-roor-rooruh?"

This meant, could Miranda help her get out of the cage? Having put the question, she continued her pacing inside the cage, and Miranda paced outside the cage, and so the two paced and twitched their tails and watched each other with sidewise glances.

Suddenly Miranda paused. "I can get you out of the cage. I, Miranda, and only I know how to get you out. I promise to do this, but on two conditions. One, that you do not repay me for my kindness by eating me up ... I have heard of lions who do this. You let a lion out, and what does he do? Thank you politely and go away to the woods? No. Eat you up, turn right around and eat you up!"

"How rough!"' said the lion. "I would never do that."

Miranda paced again; the lion, too. Then Miranda stated the other condition. This was that, before the lion raced off to wherever she wanted to go, she would pause long enough to give Miranda's children some milk.

"I said," Miranda repeated, for the lion seemed astonished at the request, "do you have some milk to spare? Because I have thirty-three kittens ... Punka counted thirty-four; perhaps she is including herself ... and they are all crying and they need milk. I say, as one mother to another, will you let them have some? Or," and now Miranda turned around as though to leave, "must I go away and leave you here to die of thirst and hunger? And try to find some nicer lion, a more generous one, a kinder one?"

The lioness stood stock-still, and she cocked her head. Stock-still, she studied Miranda, who resumed her malevolent and sinister expression.

"You! You have thirty-three cubs!" said the lion incredulously.

"Or thirty-four," said Miranda nonchalantly, licking a paw. "Kittens, not cubs," she corrected.

"No wonder you need more milk," said the lion.

"Woe-woe," said Miranda. Then, deciding that this conversation had gone on long enough, she said, "Well, will you or won't you? Give them some milk. Otherwise, here you stay! Good-by, my friend." Miranda pretended she was leaving.

"Oh, stay! Stay!" implored the lion. "Yes, I have some spare milk, and your kittens can have all they want. I have only two cubs, and I don't even know where they are." The lion sobbed, "Uh-roora-rooh!"

"You'll find them." Miranda comforted her. "Now, come along, and remember your promises.

Miranda stood up, tugged at the bars with her front paws, working them this way and that, the door swung open, and the lion walked out. Miranda bristled her fur and made her legs as tall as possible and arched her back. She bounced up and down like a boxer. She was frightened. Would the lion remember her first promise, not to eat Miranda up? Yes, she remembered, and she did not eat Miranda up. But she was forgetting all about promise number two and was about to bolt when Miranda danced right in front of her and said, "What about the milk? Want me to put you back in the cage?"

The lion stopped short, sat back on her haunches, and then she said, "That's right. Thirty-three or four!" she roared. "Where are they?"

"Follow me," said Miranda.

The lion willingly loped along behind Miranda to where all the little kittens were, mewing hungrily and steadily. They had recovered their voices, somewhat.

The lioness gave each one of the kittens a drop of milk. Then, not stopping to grant one more favor, not waiting for "Thank you, kind lion" (Miranda was already trying to teach the kittens manners), she tore out of the Colosseum and disappeared in the direction of the seventh hill of Rome. There she told all she met that she knew a cat who had thirty-three kittens!

"Astonishing!" said an owlet and went back to sleep.

Thus was the last lion expelled from the Colosseum. Now there were only cats there. The kittens all had little round full stomachs. A drop of lion's milk is equal to an ounce of ordinary milk and is far more strengthening. The kittens closed their eyes and went to sleep, some with a little milk still left on their tiny pink mouths.