The magician himself came to the door, but he opened it only the tiniest little bit.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” he said in a very gruff voice.
“I am a poor wandering musician,” said the cat. “May I come in and give you a tune?”
The wizard looked at him suspiciously. “What have you got in that bag?” he asked, giving it a kick with his foot, so that the bundle of lightning made a rattling noise.
“I’ve got all the major and minor keys in there,” said the Rainbow Cat. “A bunch of them. That’s what makes such a rattle. But I can’t do without them.”
“Sing me a song,” said the wizard, “and then I’ll see whether I’ll let you in or not.”
So the Rainbow Cat sat down on the doorstep and sang this little song, and the wizard stood just inside the door and listened.
“There once was a goose who lived on a green, Gold was his beak and his feathers were clean, A handsomer creature there never was seen, Heydiddle ho, never was seen; He lived on a green and he waddled about, For he said, ‘To be sure I don’t want to get stout, And, anyway, exercise keeps off the gout; Heydiddle ho, keeps off the gout.’”
“I don’t think much of that song,” said the wizard.
“The next verse is very good,” said the Rainbow Cat. “But I’m not going to sing it out here in the cold night air. I shall ruin my voice.”
“Well, come in,” said the wizard, for he wanted to hear the end of the song, and he let the Rainbow Cat in.
But no sooner were they inside the wizard’s room than the Rainbow Cat opened his bag and pulled out the bundle of lightning and let it loose all over the place. You never heard such a commotion!
Meanwhile he threw off his cloak, leapt upon the table, and stood there with his hair all standing on end and his eyes darting green and blue fire, while the lightning flashed all round him and round the terrified wizard, who threw himself down on his knees, crying “Mercy, Mercy!”--for he had never seen anything like it before and he was anyway but a cowardly creature at heart.
Presently the wizard’s attendants came running to see what was the matter.
They dare not come into the room, but stood trembling in the doorway.
“Tie him up,” commanded the Rainbow Cat in a great loud voice.
The attendants were not at all fond of their master, but in any case they were so frightened of the strange and terrible creature on the table that they did not dare to disobey.