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… when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone. |
This is from “The Cat that Walked by Himself,” in Just So Stories. In the Beginning all creatures are wild, including the Man, until he is tamed by the Woman, and settles down to live tidily with her in their cave. They make bargains with the dog and the horse and the cow by which they agree to serve the Man for always and always. The Cat is different. He treats with the Woman on his own terms. He will play with the baby and kill mice in the cave if he can sit by the fire and drink warm milk. But he is not a servant. When the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone. Kipling himself was a lifelong night walker. In Something of Myself (p.18 line 22) he writes of when, aged eleven, he was staying for a time with his sister in a London lodging house: Here, for the first time, it happened that the night got into my head. I rose up and wandered about that still house till daybreak, when I slipped out into the little brick-walled garden and saw the dawn break. |
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