"Patricia C. Wrede - Enchanted Forest 4 - Calling on Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wrede Patricia C)

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EPILOGUE
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Calling on Dragons
 1
In Which a Great Many Cats Express Opinions
Deep in the Enchanted Forest , in a neat gray house with a wide porch and a red roof, lived the witch
Morwen and her nine cats. The cats were named Murgatroyd, Fiddlesticks, Miss F. Ilza Tudor, Scorn,
Jasmine, Trouble, Jasper Darlington Higgins IV, Chaos, and Aura Ophelia, and not one of them looked
anything like a witch's cat. They were tabby, gray, white, tortoiseshell, ginger, seal brown, and every
other cat color in the world except a proper and witchy black.
Morwen didn't look like a witch any more than her cats looked as if they should belong to one. For
one thing, she was much too young-less than thirty-and she had neither wrinkles nor warts. In fact, if she
hadn't been a witch people might have said she was quite pretty. Her hair was the same ginger color as
Jasmine's fur, and she had hazel eyes and a delicate, pointed chin. Because she was very short, she had
to stand quite straight (instead of hunching over in correct witch fashion) if she wanted people to pay
attention to her. And she was nearsighted, so she always had to wear glasses; hers had rectangular
lenses. She refused even to put on the tall, pointed hats most witches wore, and she dressed in loose
black robes because they were comfortable and practical, not because they were traditional.
All of this occasionally annoyed people who cared more about the propriety of her dress than the
quality of her spells.
"You ought to turn him into a toad," Trouble said, looking up from washing his right front paw. Trouble
was a large, lean gray tomcat with a crooked tail and a recently acquired ragged ear. He had never told
Morwen exactly how he had damaged either the tail or the ear, but from the way he acted she assumed
he had won a fight with something.
"Who should I turn into a toad?" Morwen asked, looking an unusually long way down. She was sitting
sideways on her broomstick, floating comfortably next to the top of the front door, with a can of gold
paint in one hand and a small paintbrush in the other. Above the door, in black letters partly edged in
gold, ran the message "NONE OF THIS NONSENSE, PLEASE," which Morwen was engaged in
repainting.
"That fellow who's making all the fuss about pointy hats and respect for tradition," Trouble replied.