The queen was delighted , and soon the baby began to take notice of the kitten as she jumped about the room , and would not go to sleep at all unless the kitten lay curled up beside her . Two or three months went by , and though the baby was still a baby , the kitten was fast becoming a cat , and one evening when , as usual , the nurse came to look for her , to put her in the baby 's cot , she was nowhere to be found . What a hunt there was for that kitten , to be sure ! The servants , each anxious to find her , as the queen was certain to reward the lucky man , searched in the most impossible places . Boxes were opened that would hardly have held the kitten 's paw ; books were taken from bookshelves , lest the kitten should have got behind them , drawers were pulled out , for perhaps the kitten might have got shut in . But it was all no use . The kitten had plainly run away , and nobody could tell if it would ever choose to come back . Years passed away , and one day , when the princess was playing ball in the garden , she happened to throw her ball farther than usual , and it fell into a clump of rose-bushes . The princess of course ran after it at once , and she was stooping down to feel if it was hidden in the long grass , when she heard a voice calling her : ` Ingibjorg ! Ingibjorg ! ' it said , ` have you forgotten me ? I am Kisa , your sister ! ' ` But I never HAD a sister , ' answered Ingibjorg , very much puzzled ; for she knew nothing of what had taken place so long ago . ` Do n't you remember how I always slept in your cot beside you , and how you cried till I came ? But girls have no memories at all ! Why , I could find my way straight up to that cot this moment , if I was once inside the palace . ' ` Why did you go away then ? ' asked the princess . But before Kisa could answer , Ingibjorg 's attendants arrived breathless on the scene , and were so horrified at the sight of a strange cat , that Kisa plunged into the bushes and went back to the forest . The princess was very much vexed with her ladies-in-waiting for frightening away her old playfellow , and told the queen who came to her room every evening to bid her good-night .
` Yes , it is quite true what Kisa said , ' answered the queen ; ' I should have liked XXXXX see her again .
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