` Dear me , how dull , how dreadfully dull I am . Could n't we have a game of catch with that golden ball of yours ? ' ' I do n't care about playing catch , it does not amuse me , ' answered the cat , who was as cross as ever ; for no cat , even to this day , ever forgets an injury done to him . ` Well , then , lend me the ball for a little , and I will play by myself , ' replied the lion , stretching out a paw as he spoke . ` You ca n't play in the rain , and if you did , you would only lose it in the bushes , ' said the cat . ` Oh , no , I wo n't ; I will play in here . Do n't be so ill-natured . ' And with a very bad grace the cat untied the string and threw the golden ball into the lion 's lap , and composed himself to sleep again . For a long while the lion tossed it up and down gaily , feeling that , however sound asleep the boy-brother might LOOK , he was sure to have one eye open ; but gradually he began to edge closer to the opening , and at last gave such a toss that the ball went up high into the air , and he could not see what became of it . ` Oh , how stupid of me ! ' he cried , as the cat sprang up angrily , ` let us go at once and search for it . It ca n't really have fallen very far . ' But though they searched that day and the next , and the next after that , they never found it , because it never came down . After the loss of his ball the cat refused to live with the lion any longer , but wandered away to the north , always hoping he might meet with his ball again . But months passed , and years passed , and though he travelled over hundreds of miles , he never saw any traces of it . At length , when he was getting quite old , he came to a place unlike any that he had ever seen before , where a big river rolled right to the foot of some high mountains . The ground all about the river bank was damp and marshy , and as no cat likes to wet its feet , this one climbed a tree that rose high above the water , and thought sadly of his lost ball , which would have helped him out of this horrible place . Suddenly he saw a beautiful ball , for all the world like his own , dangling from a branch of the tree he was on . He longed to get at it ; but was the branch strong enough to bear his weight ? It was no use , after all he had done , getting drowned in the water .
However , it could do no harm , if he was XXXXX go a little way ; he could always manage to get back somehow .
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