CHAPTER IV 
ZOE 
THE day on which the first swallow came was 
marked with white in Grimalkin's calendar. He 
was looking for chaffinches' nests in the big white- 
thorn hedge at the back of Ballymore Rectory, when 
he suddenly spied a rat. The rat was sitting up 
eating a snail, and every now and then it cast a 
beady glance around ; but Grimalkin slid through 
the grass like a snake, and it did not see him. He 
had cramped his limbs together for a spring when 
all at once something fell like a miniature thunder- 
bolt from a neighbouring crab-tree, and alighted just 
six inches behind the rat, who dropped his supper 
and vanished in a twinkling. 
Grimalkin was astonished. It was a cat but 
what a cat ! She was small, but such was the 
length of her fur that she appeared much larger than 
she really was. She had a foam-white vest and 
socks, but the rest of her coat was deep mouse colour, 
and a wide ruffle stood out on either side of her face. 
Had it been a tom-cat who had leaped at his game, 
Grimalkin's paw would speedily have buffeted his 
ears. As it was, he crept forward humbly and tried 
to attract her attention. Zoe's back gradually 
rose to a semicircle, and when he touched her she 
