So the Queen alighted and walked towards the house. In front of the door a cat was sitting—a black cat. But not a magnificent creature with a glossy coat that sits on the rug in front of the drawing-room fire and only drinks cream, deeming mice too vulgar. This was a long-limbed, little creature, that looked half-starved and seemed as if its proper occupation would be stealing along, very lanky and grim in the moonlight, over the dunes to catch rabbits. So the Queen stopped and looked at the cat, and the cat sat and looked at the Queen. The black pupils of its yellow eyes dilated and diminished in a most composed manner. "Poor pussy!" the Queen said, and bent to scratch its neck. But the cat took no kind of notice, so the Queen lifted the cat in her arms, whereupon it gave vent to an awe-inspiring yell. The door flew violently open, and the Queen, in alarm, let the cat go, and it dashed into the house behind an old woman, but such an ugly old woman that the Queen was quite startled. "Well, what do _you_ want?" the old woman sod. "Oh, I want something to eat," the Queen said. The old woman gave a cunning leer. "Something to eat, my dear young lady," she said, "Why, whatever made you expect to find anything to eat fit for the likes of you in such a place?" "Oh, I’m not particular," the Queen said; "only I’m very hungry." "And what will you pay me?" the old woman said. "I—I can’t pay you anything," the Queen said. "You see, I haven’t got any money." The old woman smiled again, in a nasty way. "Oh well," she said, "I’ll give you some food, if you’ll do a day’s work for it." "What sort of work?" the Queen said. "I’m not very clever at work, you know." "Oh, quite easy work—just goose-herding." The Queen said, "Oh, I dare say I could do that." And the old woman answered, "Oh, very well; come along in, then." And the Queen followed her into a dirty little room, with only a table and a long bench in it. But there was a fine wood fire crackling on the hearth, and before it a goose was slowly turning on the spit, so that it did not look quite as dismal as otherwise it might have done. The Queen sat herself down at the table, and the old woman and the cat were engaged in sitting on the hearth watching the fire. They did not seem at all talkative, and so the Queen held her peace. At last the old woman gave a grunt, for the goose was done, and so she got up and found a plate and knife and fork, and put them before the Queen, with the goose on a dish and a large hunk of bread. "There," she said, "that’s all I can give you." And so, although the food was by no meant as dainty as what she would have had at home in the palace, the Queen was so remarkably hungry that she made a much larger meal than she ever remembered to have made.