Page 33 - Il Gatto Mammone

you! What are you simpletons messing about
for?”
Then she took away all of their tools, and she
drilled the paws of some cats with needles, she
dipped the paws of others in boiling water, beat
the back of other cats with a broom and with
spindles. There rose a mess, an unutterable
babbling; meowing, the cats ran here and there
mad with pain and so the Mammone cat appeared
among them. Crying, the cats told him the how
the ugly sister had tortured them. So Mammone
sternly said, "Now then, girl, you must be
hungry. What would you like, brown bread and
onions or white bread and cheese?’ The ugly
sister answered, "What politeness! If you would
come to see me, I would give you neither brown
bread and onions, nor would I break your finger
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