Wonderful to relate--the words were no sooner spoken than the fairy struck her wand upon the floor three times, and lo! and behold! instantly there appeared a car made of four large scallop-shells joined together, and lined with rich velvet; the wheels were studded with the whitest pearls, and it was drawn by eight silver pheasants. The fairy seated herself inside, and told the cat to step in after her. Puss obeyed, and in an instant the hut, the old woman, and the little garden, all had vanished, and she and the fairy were sailing through the air as fast as the eight pheasants could fly. “Where in the world are we going, please your Majesty?” said poor puss in a dreadfully frightened tone, clinging to the sides of the car with her claws, so that she might not be tossed out. “Hush!” said the fairy, in a voice so solemn that the cat did not venture to ask another question. On, on, on they flew, and the wild heath swelled into mountains and sank again into plain and valley; and they heard beneath them, like the distant sea, the rustling of the wind among the clumps of pine trees. On, on, the birds flew, till at length there appeared far below them, the glimmering lights and dim outlines of a stately city. On, on, the birds flew, and the city grew nearer and nearer; turrets and spires and ancient gables rose in the bright moonlight, and the houses grew thicker and thicker together. At length the pheasants flew more slowly, and the cat saw that they were approaching a marvellous building. How her heart beat, partly with fright, partly with the rapid motion, partly with hope. Yes, they were really drawing near a magnificent Palace. It had high towers and carved gate-ways, that threw strange deep shadows upon the walls, and the panes of the lattices glittered like diamonds in the moonbeams, and smoke from the chimneys curled up into the cat’s face, and got down her throat, and made her sneeze dreadfully--she wondered how the fairy could bear it. But now, slowly, slowly, slowly, the magic car began to descend, till it was just on a level with one of the windows, which happened, very conveniently, to have been left wide open; so in flew the pheasants, car and all, and alighted on the hearth-rug. “Jump out; be quick!” cried the fairy. The cat did not wait to be told twice--she was out in a twinkling; but before she could turn her head round, car, fairy, and pheasants had vanished, and she was left alone in the strange room. And what a room it was! It was so large that three or four huts like her old mistress’s would have stood in it. The floor was covered with something so thick, so warm, and so beautiful, all over flowers in bright colors, that she had never seen anything like it before: in short, everything in the room was so fine or so soft or so large or so bright, that the cat could not conceive what such strange things could be meant for.