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    The Cat and the King


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      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 1 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      For Alison

      First published in 2016 by Scholastic Children’s Books

      Euston House, 24 Eversholt Street

      London NW1 1DB

      a division of Scholastic Ltd

      www.scholastic.co.uk

      London ~ New York ~ Toronto ~ Sydney ~ Auckland

      Mexico City ~ New Delhi ~ Hong Kong

      Text and illustrations copyright © 2016 Nick Sharratt

      eISBN 978 1407 17879 0

      All rights reserved

      The moral rights of Nick Sharratt have been asserted

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 2 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      Nick Sharratt

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 3 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      Chapter 1

      Once upon a time there was a

      king who lived in a rather grand

      castle, with his best friend,

      the cat.

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      6

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      The king was very good at doing all the

      things that kings do, like walking on red

      carpets, making speeches, cutting ribbons,

      and balancing a heavy crown on his head.

      We hereby take great

      delight in the cutting

      of this ribbon.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 6 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      The Cat and the King

      7

      He had a dozen servants to do everything else.

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      The Cat and the King

      8

      The cat was very good at making sure

      everything ran smoothly in the castle.

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      The Cat and the King

      9

      He didn’t say much, because cats don’t

      actually talk, but he had nice, neat handwriting

      and a big supply of sticky notes on which he

      could write instructions.

      Everything ticked along nicely in the castle –

      until an Unfortunate Incident that the cat could

      not prevent.

      Let’s just say it involved a fire-breathing

      dragon.

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      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

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      The Cat and the King

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      12

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      Fortunately no one was hurt, but the king and

      the cat had to move out of the castle and find

      somewhere else to live.

      They looked at lots of places . . .

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 12 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      The Cat and the King

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      13

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 13 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      14

      . . . and finally settled on Number 37, Castle

      Close, because the address had a nice,

      comforting ring to it.

      Number 37 wasn’t as grand as their previous

      home, but it didn’t need to be, because now it

      was just the two of them, the cat and the king.

      The Cat and the King

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 14 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      Right after the Unfortunate

      Incident, the servants had

      decided they didn’t fancy

      being servants any more

      and had run off to find

      other jobs.

      15

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 15 18/08/16 3:40 pm

      16

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      And Number 37 didn’t need to be grand because

      the king and the cat had next to no furniture left

      and hardly any possessions.

      The king had his

      four-poster bed which,

      since the Unfortunate

      Incident, was now a

      three-poster bed.

      He also had a trunk

      filled with bits and bobs

      (including his pyjamas and

      toothbrush),

      and his crown (which

      he NEVER took off.)

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 16 18/08/16 3:41 pm

      The Cat and the King

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      17

      The cat had his sticky notes,

      his felt-tip pens,

      his laptop,

      his Swiss penknife

      and the Royal Money Box.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 17 18/08/16 3:41 pm

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      The Cat and the King

      He also had his driving licence, which meant

      they were able to hire a van to take themselves

      and what little they had to the new house.

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      19

      The two of them stood outside the front door.

      The king had never needed to open a door before

      (there had always been a servant to do it for him)

      and he wasn’t sure how keys worked, either. So

      the cat let them in – and that is how their life in

      Castle Close began.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 19 18/08/16 3:41 pm

      20

      The Cat and the King

      Chapter 2

      The next morning, the king and the cat were

      having a nice long lie-in after unpacking the

      van the night before.

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      The Cat and the King

      21

      It had been quite hard work for the king,

      because he wasn’t used to lifting and carrying

      anything except sceptres and orbs and

      ceremonial swords.

      It had been quite hard

      work for the cat, too.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 21 18/08/16 3:41 pm

      22

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      The cat’s bed had been destroyed in the

      Unfortunate Incident so, that first night, he

      and the king shared the three-poster bed, after

      the cat had reassembled it with the help of the

      screwdriver blade in his Swiss penknife.

      They were still dozing when the doorbell

      rang. The cat leapt out of bed and ran down to

      open the front door.

      There on the doorstep were a friendly looking

      lady and two smiley children, a girl and a boy.

      “Hello!” said the lady. “Welcome to Castle

      Close. We saw you moving in yesterday. We’re

      your neighbours from Number 35. I’m Caroline

      and this is Cressida and Christopher. We’re the

      Cromwells.”

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      The Cat and the King

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      “We are in the

      bedchamber!” boomed a

      voice. �
    ��Hasten forth!”

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      24

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      The cat led everyone upstairs

      and presented them to the king.

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      The Cat and the King

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      25

      Mrs Cromwell and Cressida curtsied and

      Christopher burtsied. (A burtsey is a bow and

      a curtsey mixed together and Christopher had

      invented it.)

      The king nodded, but said nothing.

      “Welcome to Castle Close, Your Majesty,”

      said Mrs Cromwell, and she handed the king

      a large round tin that had been decorated with

      glued-on paper crowns.

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      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      The king wasn’t familiar with opening tins,

      and waited silently for the cat to take off the

      lid. Inside were golden-coloured, finger-shaped

      biscuits, dipped in chocolate.

      “A house-warming present,” said Mrs Cromwell.

      “We made them ourselves,” added Cressida.

      “ROYAL Shortbread,” announced

      Christopher.

      The king clapped his hands

      and burst into a huge smile.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 26 18/08/16 3:41 pm

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      27

      “Bravo!” he cried. “Bravo! We are most

      pleased.”

      (He liked to say “we” instead of “I” when he

      was addressing anyone other than the cat – it

      was something kings did.)

      The cat opened the trunk, rummaged around

      and pulled out three gold medals.

      Then, one by one, Mrs Cromwell, Cressida

      and Christopher were solemnly

      commanded by the king to step

      forward and receive a special

      honour each, for Services

      to Baking.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 27 18/08/16 3:41 pm

      Chapter 3

      After the Cromwells had left, the king and the

      cat sat in the bed, nibbling fingers of Royal

      Shortbread. Even though the biscuits were

      delicious, the king looked a bit forlorn.

      “I miss my hunting,” he sighed.

      Hunting was one of the “king things” that

      he’d liked doing most before the Unfortunate

      Incident. But it wasn’t foxes or deer or boars

      or hares that the king

      had hunted.

      It was thimbles.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 28 18/08/16 3:41 pm

      On a hunting day, the cat would go out

      and hide a gold thimble in the grounds

      of the castle and the king would try

      to find it. It was much more fun

      than chasing wild animals.

      29

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      The Cat and the King

      30

      It was much more of a challenge, too, because

      thimbles are so tiny, but the cat would provide a

      few clues to make it a bit easier.

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      The Cat and the King

      31

      Of course, all the thimbles had been lost in

      the Unfortunate Incident, so there could be no

      Hunt-the-Thimble this Sunday morning.

      But the cat was a clever cat and had another

      kind of hunting planned . . . Bargain Hunting!

      The king and the cat got into the van and

      drove to a car-boot sale on the outskirts of the

      town where they now lived.

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      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      The aim of the Bargain Hunt was to buy

      all the things they needed for their new home

      without spending a huge amount of money. The

      king was very excited by this challenge, but

      he’d never actually bought anything before and

      had absolutely no idea about what things should

      cost, because the cat always dealt with that kind

      of thing.

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      The Cat and the King

      33

      Together they approached the first stall and

      looked hard at all the things on sale. The king

      saw something he liked, took a guess at what

      he should pay, and proclaimed in his special

      speech-making voice:

      We hereby, on this third Sunday in June,

      do make payment of one royal penny in

      exchange for one armchair.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 33 18/08/16 3:42 pm

      34

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      The stallholder, who wasn’t used to seeing

      kings at car-boot sales (or cats with money

      boxes, come to that) was so surprised that he

      just nodded his head and took the coin without

      saying a word.

      The king and the cat moved on to the next

      stall and again examined everything closely.

      The cat pointed to a few items, the king had a

      ponder, and then declared:

      We hereby, on

      this third Sunday in June,

      do make payment of one royal

      penny in exchange for one

      saucepan, one kettle and

      one mixing bowl.

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      The Cat and the King

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      35

      The lady behind the stall, who never normally

      sold anything for less than 50p, was speechless.

      She opened her mouth but made no sound as the

      king pressed a little coin into her hand.

      So it went on. By midday, the king and the

      cat had spent one single penny at each and every

      stall.

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      36

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      This is what they’d purchased:

      an armchair,

      a saucepan, a kettle

      and a mixing bowl,

      an artificial Christmas tree,

      a laundry basket with

      towels, tablecloths and

      a feather boa inside it,

      a beanbag,

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 36 18/08/16 3:42 pm

      The Cat and the King

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      37

      an extendable

      dining table and

      two dining chairs,

      a spice rack,

      a mirror in the

      shape of a butterfly,

      a clock in the

      shape of a dog,

      a teapot in the

      shape of a caravan,

      a hammock,

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 37 18/08/16 3:42 pm

      38

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      a wheelbarrow,

      a coffee table,

      a tool box with

      some tools in it,

      a ceramic hen

      to keep eggs in,

      a filing cabinet full of

      cutlery and crockery,

      two deck chairs,

      Cat and the King_inter
    iorEbook.indd 38 18/08/16 3:42 pm

      The Cat and the King

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      39

      a cactus that

      was also a lamp,

      a lamp that

      was also a globe,

      a dictionary, a bumper book

      of jokes and a book all

      about making party cakes,

      a set of giant

      dominoes,

      and a pirate-shaped

      bottle of bubble bath.

      They’d spent a grand total of twenty-two

      pence.

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      40

      The Cat and the King

      The Cat and the King

      Between them they loaded up the van (the king

      felt he was really beginning to get the hang

      of this lifting-and-carrying business)

      and drove off, very pleased

      with their purchases.

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      The Cat and the King

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      41

      Later on, when the stallholders had finally

      recovered, they looked closely at their pennies

      and saw that they weren’t just ordinary pennies.

      They were stamped with the king’s head on one

      side and an image of the cat on the other, and

      they were made of pure, solid gold.

      Cat and the King_interiorEbook.indd 41 18/08/16 3:42 pm

      The Cat and the King

      42

      Chapter 4

      On the way back home the cat and the king

      stopped to buy some groceries.

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      The Cat and the King

      43

      It was the king’s first time shopping in a

      supermarket and he was delighted to find that

      it was just another kind of jolly hunting game.

     


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