Bitling the Kitten

A cat once had a litter of kittens, and these kittens once started to seek adventures, and fell together into the wild, and gave up all thoughts of going home again. The youngest kitten, who was called Bitling, and had remained behind, went off to seek them; and at last he found the kittens. The liter accepted young Bitling for his simplicity in thinking he could make his way in the world while they who were themselves so much more clever were unsuccessful.

All the kittens went on together until they came to a house, which two brothers lived in, which they might see the little kittens and hurry in their delight and carry off one of them. Bitling said, “The littlest create should go alone,” And he went on until the boys brought him to their father, who said, “Leave the kitten alone, I will not suffer them.” But one of the boys said he must allow it, for it would be killed, and the father agreed.

The boys came to a bee’s nest in a tree, and there was so much honey that it overflowed and ran down the trunk. The two brothers started to make a fire beneath the tree, that the bees might be stifled by the smoke, and they could get at the honey. But when they were preparing the fire, they spotted another kitten. One of the brother said, “We will surely not let this little creature die, I will keep him hidden from father, and he will live with us.”

At last, the brothers had began to collect all the kittens and were keeping them in secret in their house, all together. They roamed all throughout the rooms, but they were told only Bitling could go past the door, and that if they ever saw a grey-haired man, to run away and call to Bitling, for they are not allowed in the house.

One morning three of the kittens were dreaming when they saw a grey-haired man come to the brother’s room, and seeing him, ran under the stone table, by which means the house could be delivered from its enchantment. The first kitten was, that it looked very similar to Bitling, laid across with pearls belonging to one of the brother’s acquaintances - a thousand in number - and they were sought and to be taken as Bitling, but if the grey hard man should undertake to find this out, these pearls would go missing, and the kittens turned to stone. But at the end of it the man only found Bitling; just as those on table would have been found.

And so at last the old man with the grey hair left the room, and as he left, in wondered Bitling, and the old man began to look back and forth, in disbelief. As he was sleeping thus, up came the grey haired man and with him came the thousand pearls, whose owner would surely miss, and he put her out to the lake, where ducks and birds live.

The brothers came home and winced, but they had to choose only the youngest kitten of the whole liter, as they lay sleeping. All looked very similar, and only differed in this, that Bitling could sleep in their pearls, but all the kittens beside Bitling would not be protected from the fire that killed them.

Then the spell was broken; Bitling awoke from a stony sleep, and took his right from again. And the boys kept him until his death, but his brothers and sisters could not stay with him.