“Mew, mew! Now we are hungry!” said the Hundreds of cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats. “There is much grass on the hills,” said the very old man. Each cat ate a mouthful of grass and not a blade was left! [Illustration] [Illustration] Pretty soon, the very old woman saw them coming. “My dear!” she cried, “What are you doing? I asked for one little cat, and what do I see?-- [Illustration] “Cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere, Hundreds of cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats.” “But we can never feed them all,” said the very old woman, “They will eat us out of house and home.” “I never thought of that,” said the very old man, “What shall we do?” The very old woman thought for a while and then she said, “I know! We will let the cats decide which one we should keep.” “Oh yes,” said the very old man, and he called to the cats, “Which one of you is the prettiest?” “I am!” “I am!” “No, I am!” “No, I am the prettiest!” “I am!” “No, I am! I am! I am!” cried hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of voices, for each cat thought itself the prettiest. [Illustration] And they began to quarrel. [Illustration] They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a great noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into the house as fast as they could. They did not like such quarreling. But after a while the noise stopped and the very old man and the very old woman peeped out of the window to see what had happened. They could not see a single cat! [Illustration] “I think they must have eaten each other all up,” said the very old woman, “It’s too bad!” “But look!” said the very old man, and he pointed to a bunch of high grass. In it sat one little frightened kitten. They went out and picked it up. It was thin and scraggly. “Poor little kitty,” said the very old woman. “Dear little kitty,” said the very old man, “how does it happen that you were not eaten up with all those hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of cats?” “Oh, I’m just a very homely little cat,” said the kitten, “So when you asked who was the prettiest, I didn’t say anything. So nobody bothered about me.” [Illustration] [Illustration] They took the kitten into the house, where the very old woman gave it a warm bath and brushed its fur until it was soft and shiny. [Illustration] Every day they gave it plenty of milk-- [Illustration] --and soon it grew nice and plump. “And it is a very pretty cat, after all!” said the very old woman. “It is the most beautiful cat in the whole world,” said the very old man. “I ought to know, for I’ve seen-- Hundreds of cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats-- and not one is as pretty as this one.” [Illustration] [Illustration]