Once upon a time, in a little village, there lived a curious cat named Milky. Each night, Milky would sit by her window, gazing at the stars twinkling in the sky. Her favorite part was when a shooting star would dart across the sky, leaving a glimmering trail behind. Whenever she saw one, she would close her eyes tight, as her little heart was full of wishes.
“I wish I could fly and dance with the stars,” she would say to herself, but each morning she would wake up in her bed, knowing that such a thing was impossible for a cat like her.
One lovely starry night, just as she was about to fall asleep, Milky opened her eyes and a shooting star zoomed past the window. How close it seemed! She quickly closed her eyes and made a special wish, “Oh, lovely shooting star, take me to the moon, for I wish to dance among the stars!”
Suddenly she felt a strange sensation. It was as if a gentle breeze had lifted her high up into the twilight sky. Milky opened her eyes wide and, to her surprise, discovered that she was flying upwards through the cool night air. Up she went, higher and higher, until at last she was among the stars.
“Oh, glorious stars, how beautiful you are,” she cried, dancing joyful circles in the empty space around her.
Milky looked all around. There was the Morning Star gleaming with health and happiness, and close by, the Milky Way, like a silver road stretching from one side of the sky to the other.
“Dear Milky, come and dance with us,” called her namesake.
So Milky danced and danced, while the stars sang bright songs that seemed to twinkle in time with her steps. All the planets were there, too, Mr. Sun, shining in his golden glory. When Milky kissed his dark red cheeks, which were hot enough to warm one a whole lifetime, she tasted the sun-rays like sweet strawberries. Further away, the Planet King with his crown of eight pearls glided back and forth in silken aliens, while the merry, laughing rings of the millionaire planet circled round her wtth bright twinkles and flashes.
Milky was so happy she scarcely noticed how quickly the time passed, until all of a sudden Mr. Sun cried out, “It’s day!”
And indeed it was.
Milky felt herself rushing down, and when she opened her eyes, she was back in her warm little bed, with the curtains shut tight. She hastily got up and ran to the window.
“Oh, I am so sorry,” she said mournfully, “that I didn’t wish to stay longer!”
At that very moment another shooting star dashed past and blinked at her, and Milky felt quite sure it was the same one that had taken her to so many nice places.
“I wish to fly up to you again soon!” she said, but not quite so loudly, for a thought had struck her.
The people of the house next door were always complaining that their neighbor’s cat, Fatima, was so very ill-tempered and disagreeable. How it might perhaps change her for the better, if she were taken for a little journey in the Milky Way!
The morning after, Milky related what had occurred to her parents, adding that every one of her wishes was bound to come true.
“No one believes in such foolish stories nowadays,” said Mama, and the little family were obliged to settle the question by laughing.
But that very evening, just as Fatima was preparing to fight with a poor little pitiful black cat, who happened to pass that way, a shooting star landed on the ground beside her. It raised her up through the air, over hill and dale, forest and mead, until it came with a plump into Milky’s little garden, and Fatima alighted on unmistakably soft ground—so soft, indeed, that she sat down at once, as she was so dreadfully tired after her long journey.
But never Dream had she heard of Milky and her adventures. She had flown so far away that it seemed the star forgot her, because nobody wished her to stay.
“Oh, I am afraid it will make you ill!” said Milky, as she ran up and began to stroke her. And she saw the same fat cheeks which he had kissed so many times, and when Milky stroked and stroked, Fatima changed from gray to blue, and this color still remained, although first gray again afterwards, wherever Milky had stroked, but her temper would not be so very ugly after all.
And thus did a little bit of starlight bring the light of good nature’s to many dark corners.