[Illustration:

  WHEN SHE WAS SEWING I JUMPED UPON HER SHOULDER. (_Page 54._)
]

------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                  THE
                          CATS’ ARABIAN NIGHTS
                                   OR
                             KING GRIMALKUM



                          BY ABBY MORTON DIAZ


                         _PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED
                BY FRANCIS, BOZ, PALMER COX, AND OTHERS_


[Illustration]


                                 BOSTON
                           D. LOTHROP COMPANY


------------------------------------------------------------------------




                            COPYRIGHT, 1881,
                                   BY
                          D. LOTHROP COMPANY.




------------------------------------------------------------------------




                               CONTENTS.


                                                       PAGE.

            KING GRIMALKUM AND PUSSYANITA                  9

            THE STORY OF PINKY-WHITE                      14

            THE STORY OF BLACK VELVET                     44

            WHAT SNOWBALL TOLD                            67

            MADAME PUSSY HUNTER’S STORY                   71

            THE SPRY WHITE KITTEN’S STORY                 77

            MRS. BEULAH BLACK’S STORY                     83

            TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE                    102

            STORY OF MISTRESS TABBY FURPURR              119

            THE STORY OF THE FEEBLE CAT AND HER NINE     141
              LIVES

            THE STORY OF THE TWO CHARCOALS AND THE       169
              FOUR SPEKKUMS

            THE STORY OF THE JANJIBO AND OF THE FROG     190
              AND THE RAT

            WHAT THE MOTHER RAT TOLD                     198

            A SPINNING STORY                             214

            THE BLIND MICE STORY                         215

            THE AIR-BALL STORY                           216


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  How It Happened.
]


One evening when a company of children and older people were looking at
funny cat-pictures and telling cat-stories, a little ten-year-old girl
asked: “Why can there not be a Cats’ Arabian Nights Story Book?”

“There would have to be a Cat King, or Emperor, or Sultan,” said her
next older sister.

“And a Cat Queen, or Empress, or Sultaness,” said their cousin Joe, the
sailor.

“And she would have to go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on,
and on, telling stories in order to save her own life,” said their
cousin Lucia.

“I propose,” said uncle Fred, “that cousin Lucia put together a Cats’
Arabian Nights for little children, and have it ready to read to our
little children when they all shall come next summer with their fathers
and mothers.”

“Oh yes! Yes! Do! Pray do! Won’t you do it? Say you will! Say you will!”
cried many voices.

“I think it will be fun to do it,” said cousin Lucia, “if you allow me
to put in some make believe and nonsense, if I want to.”

“Certainly!” was the cry. “Put in anything. Anything you please!”

Cousin Lucia said she was willing to try, and thus it happened that the
summer-children and others got a story book beginning, as all story
books should begin, with—once upon a time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  King Grimalkum and Pussyanita;

  OR,

  The Cats’ Arabian Nights.
]

ONCE upon a time the aged Tommobus, King of the Cats, went forth a
hunting and returned with a wound which caused his death. So Tommobus
died and Grimalkum the Powerful became King in his stead.

King Grimalkum was of course jet black all over without a single white
hair, or he could not have been made king, and his eyes were of the true
royal yellow.

The first act of King Grimalkum’s reign was one of cruelty. He sent
forth an order declaring that black, maltese, and gray, were the only
colors to be allowed for cats, and that all cats which were white or
yellow, or which had more white or yellow hairs than dark ones should
not be permitted to live. Judges were appointed to measure the spots.

This order caused great affright among the lighter cats. The wholly
white and wholly yellow hid themselves or fled to distant places, and
the partly white and partly yellow went in haste to have their dark
spots measured by the judges.

Among those who came before the judges was Pussyanita, a beautiful
creature just out of kittenhood. Her playfulness and sweet disposition
made her beloved by all.

Alas! it was soon made known by the judges that the dark of Pussyanita
measured many less hairs than her white ones. This caused great sorrow,
and King Grimalkum was begged to spare her life.

“Spare her life! Not if she were twenty Pussyanitas!” cried the King;
which was a foolish answer, since she could not have been twenty
Pussyanitas, or even nineteen.

Now this sweet and gentle creature was so much beloved, that no one
could be found willing to hurt a single hair of her. When King Grimalkum
heard this he became furious with anger, and commanded that she be
brought to him at once, saying that he himself would attend to the
business, and make quick work of it. So the lovely Pussyanita was
brought before the King.

Her loveliness did not soften his heart; on the contrary he was made
more furious than ever by seeing that she sat licking her fur as quietly
as if sitting in her own sunny garden spot.

“What are you doing that for, you silly thing?” he cried. “Don’t you
know you have but a few moments to live?”

“Yes, your majesty,” replied the lovely Pussyanita, “but I cannot endure
a speck of dirt, and with good reason, for in me you see a descendant,
and great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times great
grandchild of the unhappy and happy Pinky-white. Your majesty must have
heard of Pinky-white.”

“Never,” said the king, sternly. “But why do you call her unhappy and
happy? There is no sense in that.”

“She was not unhappy and happy at the same time,” said Pussyanita. “She
was first unhappy and afterwards happy.”

“How was that?” asked the king. “And supposing you _are_ the great,
great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times great granddaughter of
Pinky-white, what has that to do with your being unable to endure a
speck of dirt?”

Said the lovely Pussyanita, “It would give me pleasure, your majesty, to
explain why my great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times
great grandmother was first unhappy, and why she was afterwards happy,
also supposing I _am_ the great, great, great, great, great,
twenty-seven times great granddaughter of Pinky-white, what that has to
do with my being unable to endure a speck of dirt; it would give me
pleasure, I say, to explain all this, but it would take a longer time
than I have to live.”

“Time shall be granted you,” said the king, “for I am curious to know
why your great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times great
grandmother Pinky-white was unhappy and why she was happy, and to know
why your being her great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times
great granddaughter should be a reason why you are unable to endure a
speck of dirt.”

“At your majesty’s request,” replied Pussyanita, “I will tell you the
story of my great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times great
grandmother Pinky-white, as she herself told it, when ordered to do so,
at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous party.”

“Stop!” cried the king. “Why was your great, great, great, great, great,
twenty-seven times great grandmother Pinky-white ordered to tell her
story at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous party? Who was Lady Yellow-paw? Why
was her party famous?”

“Please your majesty,” replied Pussyanita, “I shall be happy to explain
to your majesty who was Lady Yellow-paw, and why her party was famous,
and why my great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times great
grandmother Pinky-white was ordered to tell her story at that party, but
your majesty must perceive that to do all this will require much time.”

“Begin then!” cried the king. “Begin with your Lady Yellow-paw and her
famous party, and then go on to your twenty-seven times great
grandmother; and do not waste time waiting or waste words in the
telling.”

The lovely Pussyanita bowed and began with Lady Yellow-paw and her
famous party, and then went on to tell the story of Pinky-white as told
by herself at that famous party.


[Illustration]


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Story of Pinky-White.
]


“The first that I knew of myself, I found myself by the side of my
mother, among some hay in a basket along with three other kittens of my
own age and size. Two of our number were quickly stolen from us. It will
thus be seen that I had scarcely begun to live before I began to be
unhappy. As I grew older I became more and more unhappy, for the place
was cold, the floor was hard, our mother cuffed us, and girl-Mary, who
owned us, knew not the best way of stroking.

[Illustration:

  Girl-Jane and Girl-Mary.
]

“One day when girl-Mary sat by our basket, girl-Jane came down there
bringing her own cat and kittens. Girl-Jane had called to see us many
times, and I had been pleased with the looks of her face, and the sounds
of her voice, and the touches of her fingers; and she knew the best way
of stroking. “Girl-Jane was smaller than girl-Mary, but she knew more.
Girl-Jane said she wanted girl-Mary to change kittens with her. She
wanted me and Minnie because we were whiter than her kittens.

“‘No, Jane,’ said girl-Mary, ‘I can’t change, for you know mine are all
named, and besides your cat would not like it. She knows what we are
talking about. Don’t you see how anxious she looks?’

“It made me unhappy to hear this. I wanted to go with girl-Jane, away
from the cold place, and the hard floor, and my cross mother and be
stroked the best way. Minnie too wished to go. She cried when girl-Mary
gave back the other kittens. As for me, I could only turn away and hide
my sorrowful face.

“My next unhappiness was the unhappiness of being whipped with a rod. An
old lady wished for a cat to catch her mice and thought she would take a
kitten and teach it to behave well. I was carried to her home. I had
here a warm place, and a carpet, and the old lady did not stroke at all,
so that I was not made unhappy by bad stroking. But my unhappiness was
great, on account of the rod. It was rod here and rod there; rod on the
pantry shelf and rod on the chair-cushion; rod on the parlor sofa and
rod on the best bed; rod at the milk pitcher, and rod at the custard
pie.

[Illustration:

  Well Made for Catching.
]

“A greater unhappiness must now be told. For this greater unhappiness
was the cause of another unhappiness even greater than this—oh, very
much greater! It was the cause of a long and dreadful unhappiness in
which I nearly starved to death. It was something which would make any
and every cat unhappy. It was this. I could not catch well. Mice, birds,
moles, bats, squirrels, rabbits, almost always got away from me. I think
I must have been born short-clawed.

“In a corner of the garden was a chicken-coop. This chicken-coop was
well made for catching. It would seem that all a cat need do was to lie
quietly on top, looking over the edge, and when a chicken popped out,
spring and catch it. Any other cat would have done all this. The next
house cat did do all this. I did not do all this. I lay quietly on top
of the chicken-coop. I looked over the edge, and when a chicken popped
out I sprang. I did everything the next house cat did _except_ to catch
the chicken.

[Illustration:

  I Did My Best.
]

“I had the same luck in fishing. There was a stream at the bottom of our
garden and at its edge were large mossy rocks on which a cat might
stretch herself in the sun, or if the day were hot she might lie in
their cool shade. Trees grew near by and any other cat would have often
caught a bird among their branches. The next house cat did this. I did
not do this. Any other cat than myself would have now and then caught a
fish in the stream at the foot of the rocks. The next house cat did
this. I did not do this. I often lay close to the water—as shown how to
do by the next house cat, and watched the fishes as they glided past.
When one rose to the top I did my best to catch it, but even did I have
the luck to touch one, it was sure to slip out and away. I used to think
sometimes that if fishes had not been made so slippery I could have held
on, but then the next house cat held on to slippery fishes. I am almost
sure I must have been born short-clawed.

[Illustration:

  Bold Little Thing!
]

“As for squirrels and rabbits, they seemed at last to be not a bit
afraid of me, even when I had become a full-grown cat. One saucy
squirrel used to tease me by coming very near and then darting out of my
reach. This squirrel became very bold. He even popped in at the doors
and windows. One day when I was asleep on the sofa by the library
window, he ran as near me as the back of the sofa—bold little thing!
and by the time I had turned over he was out of the window, and I soon
got sight of his bushy tail whisking through the tall tree-tops, and of
his little bright eyes looking down at me through the leaves. He would
not have got away so easily from the next house cat. There can be no
doubt but that I must have been born short-clawed.

“The next house cat caught mice. I did not. I might have caught some had
not the mouse-holes been made so small. But then the next house cat had
the same kind of mouse-holes I had.

[Illustration:

  The Next House Cat
]

“Sometimes I thought if I had been a Tabby I might have caught as well
as the next house cat. But then I could not be a Tabby.

“One day—oh unhappy day! the next house cat’s mistress came to see my
mistress, and they talked of cats. I lay outside under the open window
and heard every word, and understood. Mistresses, as you very well know,
dear Lady Yellow-paw—as all of you at this famous party very well
know—mistresses have no idea how much their cats can understand.

“Said my mistress, ‘Pinky-white is the neatest cat that ever was seen.
She will have no dirt on her fur. She licks off every speck. She keeps
herself snow white. And I have taught her to behave well. I no longer
keep a rod. But she catches no mice.’

“‘You feed her too well,’ said the next house cat’s mistress. ‘Send her
to Miss Rhody and get you a mouser. Miss Rhody is out of a cat and is
waiting to find a neat one. Miss Rhody has managed cats these forty
years and knows how to do it. Miss Rhody never feeds a cat. If it won’t
catch mice she drowns it.’

“‘I will send Pinky-white to Miss Rhody to-morrow,’ said my mistress.

“This frightened me. Oh what should I do? What could I do? In my agony
of distress I ran round and round in a circle in the potato patch, tore
up the squash vines, and at last I sprang over the high wall, and in
that house and garden I was never seen more.

[Illustration:

  But Alas! Three Others Were Gnawing the Bone.
]

“Then began the terrible unhappiness of my life. No tongue can tell what
I suffered. Hiding behind fences, under barns, in empty pig-styes, empty
hen-houses; being driven from back doors, hooted at by boys, barked at
by dogs, and hungry, hungry, hungry, oh so hungry!—for I could not catch
well—and always dirty! Ah! none who have not felt it can know the
unhappiness of a cat without a home!

“One night I thought surely I should taste a bit of meat. A
black-and-white kitten kindly told me of a large bone she had seen in a
yard, and we scampered to that yard. But alas! three others were already
gnawing the bone and there was nothing on the bone, for a tommy cat had
kept the others away till he had eaten off all the meat and then he sat
seeing them gnaw the bare bone. I did not gnaw. I did not wish to gnaw
bare bone.

“One day a dreadful thing happened to me. It was when I was hungrier
than I had ever been before, though I had been very hungry. I was so
hungry I thought I could not live, and I went into the fields to try to
catch something. It was a silly thing for me to try to catch a rat when
I was short-clawed.

“I did. A great rat went into a field and I thought, oh if I could only
get that rat! I _must_ have that rat! I _must_!

“I put myself down flat and crept behind that rat. He went creeping
through some wheat and corn and I crept behind, quicker than he, for I
could creep quicker. He went up a large stalk to his nest. I sprang up
and grabbed him, but alas! I could not take good hold and he got away
and sprang at me and the mother rat sprang out at me and they bit me,
and would have killed me, but I got away and ran with all my might, and
lay down under some bushes, and pretty soon that same black and white
kitten came and licked the blood off me and brought me a mole to eat, or
I never should have stirred from that spot.

“As the weather grew colder I suffered more and more. I longed for a
home.

“Often at evening I ran behind persons hoping to be invited to their
houses, but they always drove me back.

“During all this time I was obliged to endure the distress of knowing
that my fur was not perfectly clean.

“When winter came my unhappiness was greater than it had ever been
before, though it had already been very great.

“But one day, oh joyful day! my unhappiness came to an end, oh joyful
end! I will tell how this happened.

[Illustration:

  He Went Up a Large Stalk to His Nest.
]

[Illustration:

  The Kind Maiden.
]

“The ground was covered with snow, slosh and mud. I had been running
hither and thither, under barns, in coal cellars, and in other places
trying to catch something, but having had the misfortune, as I have
already told your ladyship, the misfortune of being born short-clawed, I
had caught nothing. Begrimed with dirt, hungry, cold, forlorn, I was on
my way to my jumping spot. This was the corner of a wall near a back
door. It was also near to some bushes and trees all snugly fenced in,
and under these I had often hid myself and tried to clean my fur and
watched for the back door to open. I called it my jumping spot because
sometimes I jumped from that spot and got in at the back door and
snatched a bit from the plate of the cat which belonged to the house.
Sometimes a kind maiden had thrown me scraps from one of the windows.

“Now just as I was to jump from my jumping spot I saw this kind maiden
coming down the steps. She had her pet kitten in her arms and was
tending it with care. ‘Oh pet kitten! pet kitten!’ I mewed to it. ‘How
little you know the unhappiness of a cat without a home!’ Mewing this, I
hung my tail and was slinking out of sight when I heard these words.

“‘Puss! Puss! Pussy! Pussy! Puss!’ How I wished I could think they were
spoken to me! ‘Pussy! Poor Pussy! Here Pussy!’ I turned my head, but
kept moving. ‘Pussy! Pussy! Pussy! Puss! Poor Pussy! Pussy! Pussy! Here
Pussy! Poor Pussy!’ I stopped.

“‘Pussy! Here Pussy! come Pussy!’

“Yes! they were—they were spoken to me! She was looking at me! ‘Good old
Pussy! come here, good old Pussy!’

“She held out her hand. I dared not go. She went in and placed a saucer
of milk on the kitchen hearth, called me and left the door open, and
went to another room. I crept in to the hearth, and lapped, lapped,
lapped, oh how I did lap! No tongue can tell the sweetness of that milk!

[Illustration:

  She Took Me Up.
]

“As soon as I had eaten the milk I examined the things in the room, then
I rolled over and over on the door mat to get the coal dust off, then I
sat on the hearth and licked myself clean. The cook came in and shook
the broom at me and cried: ‘Scat! Scat!’ Just then the kind maiden
showed her face at the door. ‘Here’s a strange cat!’ the cook said to
her. ‘We don’t want another cat!’

“‘Why! how white and clean she has made herself,’ said the maiden. ‘She
is a neat cat. I have often seen her cleaning herself out under the
bushes. I mean to keep her. She is just the cat for poor Ellen.’

“I went and rubbed against her clothes, rubbed hard, and tried to purr
loud enough to make her understand that I said in purr language, ‘I love
you, love you. Don’t send me away!’

“Oh the happiness of a cat with a good home! I had now a good home. I
was held in laps, stroked well, talked to, even kissed. I had warm milk,
meat scraps, and plenty of fish. I was not expected to catch. I wonder
why cats are almost always expected to catch.

“I went every day to see poor Ellen. I used to go up after breakfast and
scratch the door and get myself let in. When she combed her hair I sat
close to her looking-glass, and looked at her while she combed her hair,
and when she sat down to rest I lay on the floor and waited, and when
she put on her shoes I kept at her feet, and rubbed her feet, and then I
rubbed against her a good deal and purred to be taken up, and she took
me up. Poor Ellen could not walk much but she could hold me. She liked
me because I kept myself so clean and white.

[Illustration:

  The Hen’s Lesson in Neatness.
]

“The maiden said she never before saw a cat which could not endure a
speck of dirt. She said she believed I taught her other cats to be neat.
This might not have been true, but it was certainly true that while I
was with them the other cats were very careful to clean themselves after
eating. One day she called the family to see us. ‘Look!’ she cried.
‘Look at my cat that cannot endure a speck of dirt! I do believe that
rooster has brought his hen to make her take a lesson in neatness.’

“This might not have been true, either. He might have brought her to
make her take a lesson in neatness, or he might have brought her for the
scraps we often left.

“Speaking of hens, a chicken made something happen to me which does not
often happen to a cat. Our hen hatched out a brood of chickens and while
they were little she was carried off by a fox. All the chickens died
except two, and one of these had a weak throat. When the fox carried off
the hen he stepped on that little chicken’s neck and it had a weak
throat ever after. One day when I was in a far corner of the garden I
heard a curious noise like a choking, or a peeping, but more like a
choking than a peeping. I watched, and presently that little chicken
came out of the grass. I should have sprung upon it if I had not seen
that it was in distress and was coming to me for help. It had got a bug
stuck in its throat. It came close to me and I licked it, and purred to
it and tried to cover it over with myself just as its own mother used
to. Pretty soon it swallowed that bug.

“After this it often came to me to be licked and purred to when it had a
bug or a worm stuck in its throat, and at last it brought the other
chicken, and I tried to be a mother to them both, for my dear little
kittens had all been sent away. The other chicken grew faster than the
first one; it had a strong throat to swallow with. I took great care of
them both and licked them clean, for I could not bear a speck of dirt on
them any more than if they had been my kittens.

[Illustration:

  I Tried to Be a Mother to Them Both.
]

“Now when the maiden saw me doing this she told her brother that if I
could live peaceably with chickens I could with birds, and that she
meant to try me. She first fed me well then brought to me a tame bird.
Its wings had been clipped so that it could not fly and it was very
hungry. It was afraid of me and it hopped round crying its bird kind of
cry. But I did not touch it and when it saw me licking the chicken it
hopped near me to get some rice which both the chickens were eating. In
a few days the bird and I were good friends. He let me lick him and he
used to sit on my head and sing, and we all ate our meals together until
the chickens died. The first one died of its weak throat and the other
died of the bite of a cat. One day a girl brought her cat to see us. She
kept her up high on her shoulders, away from us, but when that other
chicken put its head out to pick up a bug, that cat jumped down quick
and caught that chicken by the head, and it died afterwards.

[Illustration:

  The Happy Family.
]

“But before these died the maiden and her brother tamed some young
guinea pigs and some young white mice, and made them grow up friends.
They stayed in a pen close to ours until we all became acquainted with
each other and then the slats between the pens were taken off, and the
two pens were made into one and we all lived together. I must own that
at first I did wish to catch a mouse just for the sake of catching one,
and though born short-clawed I could no doubt have caught one in a pen,
but the maiden thought I might have such a wish and pared my claws. I
was very happy with my new friends. After I knew the little mice I had
no wish to catch them. I played with them and let them run over my back.
When one comes to know mice, one likes their company and finds them very
agreeable and playful and lively.

“The maiden’s brother said they might as well have a Happy Family, and
he trained some big birds and other birds and they came to live with us
and we were a very Happy Family.

“When the maiden and her brother went away to live in another place they
sold us to a showman to put in his show. The showman travels about the
country showing his show. A few days ago the wagon we were in upset and
our door came open. The birds flew away, the mice hid under a rock and
the guinea pigs ran into the woods. I am on my way back home, and I
shall stay in this place only long enough to attend your ladyship’s
famous party.

“Said Lady Yellow-paw to my great, great, great, great, great,
twenty-seven times great grandmother Pinky-white, when she had ended her
story, said Lady Yellow-paw: ‘Pinky-white, you do not speak of having a
dog in your Happy Family.’

[Illustration:

  I Used to Play With a Dog’s Tail!
]

“She had hardly said this before a tittering, chuckling, clicking noise
was heard and out spoke a pert little spotted black-and-white kitten and
said, ‘Te! he! he! I used to play with a dog’s tail! A black,
peeked-nosed dog’s tail, and his name was Trippy; and he was good to me.
He had a curly tail.’

“‘Silence!’ cried the spotted black-and-white kitten’s mother. ‘Don’t
you know better than to speak up at a famous party—a little thing like
you? Silence!’

“‘Trippy liked me after you went away,’ cried another kitten; a white
one. ‘He liked me better than he liked you. He let me play with his
ears, and sleep on his neck, and he cried for me when I was out of his
sight. When somebody threw me in the water, Trippy took me out with his
mouth.’

[Illustration:

  He Took Me Out.
]

“This kitten’s mother was not at the party, but its snappish old aunt,
Black Velvet, was there and she gave it a smart box on the ear. ‘It is a
pity,’ said she, ‘if at a famous party like this we older ones cannot be
heard for the noise of these pert little minxes. I myself could tell a
strange story; a story stranger far than even the one just heard from
that very neat puss, Pinky-white, with her Happy and her Unhappy, and
her Not a Speck of Dirt! Was she blown off a tree in a whirlwind? Answer
me that; or did she go to sea in a baby’s crib? Answer me that.’

“Said Lady Yellow-paw to Black Velvet, ‘Let me hear your strange story,
how you were blown off a tree in a whirlwind, and how you came to go to
sea in a baby’s crib.’

“Here the cat that hadn’t common sense rushed round the ring and stood
on her head and said, ‘I can tell the strangest story of all, for I can
tell why I haven’t got common sense.’”

When the lovely Pussyanita had told thus far she stopped suddenly and
said to King Grimalkum, “I beg your majesty’s pardon. Oh King Grimalkum,
you only wished to hear the story of my great, great, great, great,
great, twenty-seven times great grandmother Pinky-white, and I have
told, besides this, of the spotted black-and-white kitten who played
with the peeked-nosed little black dog’s tail, and of the white kitten
he took out of the water, and have also spoken of Black Velvet who was
blown off a tree in a whirlwind and afterwards went to sea in a baby’s
crib, and of the cat who hadn’t common sense—I will say no more.”

“You shall say more,” said King Grimalkum, sternly. “I can never close
my eyes to slumber until I know how it happened that Black Velvet was
blown off a tree in a whirlwind and afterwards went to sea in a baby’s
crib.

“A baby’s crib is a strange thing to go to sea in; why not in a boat? or
in a tub? or even on a board? Why go to sea at all, when there is plenty
of ground, and when cats hate water? And as for that other cat, why had
she not common sense? She needed common sense. Every cat needs common
sense.”

“I can tell your majesty in a few words why the cat that hadn’t common
sense hadn’t common sense,” replied Pussyanita. “It was because she lost
it. Do you ask how? I answer by a looking-glass and a clock.

“When quite young she looked in a looking-glass and saw herself there,
and thought it was another cat staring at her, and got mad at that other
cat, and flew at it, and broke the glass, and frightened herself so that
she ran all over the house and when she came to the clock the clock door
was open and she jumped in. The clock door got shut and she had long to
stay there, and the noises in the clock almost made her crazy, and she
never had common sense afterwards. This tells why the cat that hadn’t
common sense hadn’t common sense,” continued Pussyanita; “but to tell
all about Black Velvet, and how it happened that she was blown off a
tree in a whirlwind, why she went to sea at all when there was plenty of
ground and cats hate water, will take a longer time than I have to
live.”

“Time shall be granted you,” cried King Grimalkum. “Go on! go on at
once!”

The lovely Pussyanita then went on, and went on at once, to tell the
Story of Black Velvet as told by herself at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous
party.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Story of Black Velvet.
]


“I was born in a barn. My brothers and sisters were born in the same
place. There were four of us, all of the same age and size. As soon as
we could run our mother took us all over the great barn-country. She did
everything for our good. She showed us the holes and told us which were
mouse-holes and which were rat-holes. She showed us how to spring and
how to catch, and how to hold. She brought us many kinds of eatable bugs
and taught us to snap at flies and to beware of wasps. At night she went
forth to hunt for us the slippery mole which slips so swiftly through
the grass. At day she purred us sweetly to sleep, or sometimes she let
us go with her to the wheatfields and get a peep at the moles and watch
the field mice running up and down the wheat stalks.

[Illustration:

  Moles.
]

“We lived in the hayloft and oh what frolics we used to have! What
frolics! What frolics! We raced, we scampered, we skipped, we hopped, we
tumbled over each other, we tumbled over ourselves, we chased each
others’ tails, we chased our own tails, we played hide-and-seek in the
hay, we scrambled up the beams, we ran along the rafters, we peeped
down, we took turns sitting in our sunbeam—I speak now of a sunbeam
which shone through a knot-hole.

[Illustration:

  With Her Eyes Half Shut.
]

“Our mother liked to curl herself up and sit with her eyes half shut
watching our sports. She would sit a long, long time, scarcely moving,
except to stir the end of her tail. We were happy to have her near us.
She was gentle in her manners, though of course when she was watching,
or catching, or holding, she looked fierce. Any cat would do so. She was
not one of the cross kind, always cuffing and boxing and snapping and
growling and spitting. She never punished us but once and that was when
we were very little. We fell down the crooked stairs which led up to our
home. She had always made us keep away from the small ends of the
crooked stairs because there was no room there to put our paws.

[Illustration:

  Watching a Mouse.
]

“One day our mother had been watching a mouse at the bottom of the
crooked stairs while we played at the top. I hopped too near the small
ends and peeped down and my brothers and sisters hopped at me, and down
we all went, heels over head. Our mother was angry, for she lost the
mouse. We went without our dinner and had other punishment which I need
not mention.

[Illustration:

  White Satin at Home.
]

“Now the noise we made in falling down and in being punished was heard
by some girls playing on the barn floor and they scrambled up a ladder
to find out what was the matter. When one of the girls who climbed up
the ladder saw me she said, ‘Oh! oh! A black kitten! Do give it to me!
She will make three! Then I shall have three black ones and three white
ones!’

“‘Yes! do take her!’ said the other girl. ‘If you don’t take her she
will be drowned.’

“The next day I was put in a box with holes in the cover and carried a
long, long way to a strange place. This made me sorrowful, but still I
was glad not to be drowned, and after the first day the five other
kittens began to be friendly, and the two black ones were glad I came,
for there were then as many black ones as white ones. I was named Black
Velvet to match White Velvet. The others were Black Floss and White
Floss and Black Satin and White Satin.

“White Satin used to run away and go home to her mother and her sisters.
She had a gray mother and two gray sisters. Sometimes we went with her.
She liked to play with her sisters and show them her ribbon. Our
mistress wished us not to go and tried to keep us in the house. I did
not like this, I wanted to scamper across the garden, or down to the
river, or across a field to an old barn. I peeped all about and found
good places to get out by. Then I used to coax White Velvet, and White
Floss, and White Satin, and Black Floss, and Black Satin to go. I always
went first and they followed.

[Illustration:

  They Looked Down Upon Us.
]

“There were two gray kittens living in the barn, and the first day we
went there these two ran and jumped into a wheelbarrow and looked down
upon us. Pretty soon they began to stretch out their necks, and shake
their tails. Then they crept down, then they crept towards us, and began
to glare and spit, and sputter, and their tails grew so big we thought
we had better go home.

“We liked to go to the barn on account of the chances to catch mice. The
gray kittens flew at us every time we went, and at last one of them hit
White Velvet in the eye and made it bleed. Our mistress kept us in the
house after that, but we had fun racing over the beds and playing in the
curtains. We played in the curtains so much that our claws had to be cut
at the points. We were almost as well treated as children. Our milk was
warmed, we had plenty of squash, and fish, and a good deal of chicken
meat. Catnip was brought for us. We had each a basket to sleep in, and
the baskets were trimmed with ribbons and had cushions. We had ribbons
on our necks; the catnip was good.

“But I did not like staying in the house all the time and every chance
there was I jumped out at an open window or door, and White Velvet,
White Floss, White Satin, Black Floss and Black Satin all jumped and
went wherever I went. But after the Great Whirlwind, I was kept in the
house. I will now speak of the Great Whirlwind.

“It was a cold day and it seemed as if a door never would be left open,
but one was left open at last, and out I went, and out went White
Velvet, White Floss, White Satin, Black Floss and Black Satin after me.
We raced across the fields to the barn. The gray kittens were not at
home and we watched mouse-holes, and chased mice till a man came and
drove us out and shut the door tight.

[Illustration:

  We Saw a Great Dog Coming.
]

“The wind blew; the sky was dark; the sun did not shine. We felt rain
drops. This set us scampering. When we were in the field we saw a great
dog coming and we ran to a tree and scampered up. I stopped to spit at
the dog and was the last one up. The sky grew blacker, the wind blew
harder and harder. The dog lay down on the ground and howled. Not one of
us durst come down. The rain came hard upon us. The tree branches
whirled round and round. It was a great wind. It was a whirlwind. It
blew off all the leaves that had been left on and then it blew us off.
For it was a great wind. Yes, a whirlwind. A dreadful whirlwind. I hope,
dear Lady Yellow-paw, that neither you nor any one at this famous party
will ever know the feeling of being blown off a tree in a whirlwind. I
hope you nor any one at this famous party will know the feeling of being
in a tree in a whirlwind with claws that have been pared down at the
points. None of our bones were broken. How thankful we all ought to be
that we are cats and not children, for we have cushions on our feet, so
that we can be blown down without having any bones broken.

“None of our bones were broken but we were drenched with the wet rain.
We were almost dead with the fright and the wet rain and we crawled all
the way home.

[Illustration:

  Off a Tree in a Whirlwind.
]

“Our mistress was looking for us. She said, ‘Oh you naughties, come in
quick!’ We crawled in and she wiped us with a dry cloth and laid us in a
row in front of the stove, and gave us a warm supper and then some
catnip.

“After this she kept me in the house. Said she, ‘Black Velvet, you put
mischief into the others’ heads and I will keep you in. Black Satin,
Black Floss, White Velvet, White Floss and White Satin you may go. Black
Velvet shall stay with me.’

“It was hard to see Black Floss, Black Satin, White Velvet, White Floss
and White Satin skipping in the yard, over fences, up and down
clothes-poles, and be myself shut up indoors. But how little we know
what is best for us! One day those others did of themselves go to a
corn-house, and there they tasted bad meat which had been put there to
kill rats, and they all died! Every one, Black Floss, Black Satin, White
Velvet, White Floss, White Satin, every one died. Oh how my mistress did
cry! And I too. Yes, I was sad and lonely. I went crying round from room
to room, calling for my lost playmates. I looked in all their baskets.

[Illustration:

  My Mistress.
]

“My mistress seemed to love me more than ever. ‘I have only you, now,
Black Velvet,’ she would say. Then she would hug me and hug me. She let
me do what I pleased. I had thick cream. When she was sewing I jumped on
her shoulder and played in her hair, and I went to sleep in her hat, if
I wanted to, and in her work-basket. When she went out to walk she used
to take me with her and wrap me up in her apron, and talk to me. But
when I grew to be a cat she made me a blanket of my own. It was a good
one. It was my own blanket. She loved me a great deal.

“I said at the beginning of my story that it is a wonderful story. You
will say that this is true when you hear what happened to me next.

[Illustration:

  I Felt Safe.
]

“One day the river grew very big and spread up to the houses, yes, up
over the windows of the houses, and broke the houses in pieces. I was
sleeping in a rocking chair and the water wet me and waked me from sleep
and I sprang up on top the rocking chair back, and the water swashed and
there was a great noise and the rocking chair went sailing off and many
other things went, and the chair began to go down deeper and then I
jumped off on to a bucket. Something hit that a knock and I had only
time to catch hold of a box; a small one. There was just room to get all
my paws on and I had to stick my back up high. I expected every moment
to be drowned. I little thought I should live to tell the story. But a
piece of board was knocked against me. I sprang upon that. Then came a
chair. I sprang upon that. Then came something else; some thing
wonderful, but I said at the beginning that this is a wonderful story.
This next thing was a baby’s crib with the baby in it! The curtains were
open and the baby was looking out. I jumped from the chair to the cradle
and lay down on the baby. I was glad enough to get that resting place. I
felt safe with the baby. Somebody would come to get the baby. The baby
put out its hands and took hold of me.

“I don’t know what became of that poor baby. The crib tipped over. I
heard a man speak, and perhaps he went and got the baby. I was lucky
enough to jump on to a firkin, and on this I floated down, down, down,
down, I don’t know where, but I cried, cried, cried, oh how I cried!

“I bumped against something hard, something very big. I scrambled up.
Men were on it, and a woman, and a girl, and boys. They clapped and
shouted and laughed. Oh what a noise! Don’t people know that loud noises
make our ears ache? Don’t they know that our ears are made to hear very
little faint mouse-taps, butterfly-wing noises, and we can’t bear loud
noises? No, they don’t know. But I must go on with my story.

[Illustration:

  I Used to Get Into the Place Where the Girl Slept.
]

“That big hard thing was not a house nor a barn. It moved over the
water. You cats that have lived only on ground cannot think how dreadful
it is to stay in the midst of water. Not a bit of ground! No grass to
eat. Oh I thought I should die for want of a bit of something green! No
trees to climb! But there were some very high poles set for me to climb;
poles taller than trees, and ropes and everything handy fixed for me to
hang on by. I was treated well. The men fed me, the women fed me, the
girl fed me, the boys fed me. The cook taught me some tricks which I
shall be happy to show to those present at this famous party, if I shall
be properly invited. A little girl held me and she put me around her
neck for a comforter. I let her do it. The cook hung a bell round my
neck. The noise of it pained my ears, and I was glad when the woman took
it off. She took it off because I used to get into the place where the
girl slept, and wake her up.

“Now when the ship came to the ground the cook put me into a bag and got
into a cart. He was going to give me away. Pretty soon I smelled grass.
Then I scratched and cried. Oh how I did want a piece of something green
and to roll in the grass! Every cat here knows it would be a hard thing
to live without something green. I soon got something green, and plenty
of it. The cook opened the bag a little, to show me to another man and I
took a sudden spring and away I went, and the more he called, ‘Puss!
Puss! Puss!’ the faster I ran, and at last I found myself all alone in
the fields, in a strange country.

[Illustration:

  Two Live Things Sitting Together.
]

“I rolled over and over, and tore up the grass, and ran up and down
trees, and then I lay down behind a bush and watched to see if there
were any moles or field mice in that country. Pretty soon I saw two live
things sitting together. They looked like rats, but they had white on
them. They were sitting in the sun. I was going to spring at them, but I
stopped. I was in a strange country. How did I know if the creatures
were good to eat? They might be bad as that bad meat which killed poor
White Velvet, White Satin, White Floss, Black Satin, and Black Floss; or
they might have dreadful teeth, or dreadful claws.

“While I was waiting a minute to think about it, I heard a sound in the
grass; a creep, creep, creep, creeping sound in the grass. It was a cat.
But she did not spring quick enough. They heard her and skipped out of
sight quicker than a wink.

“As the cat sprang past me I could see that she had no tail. ‘Poor
thing,’ I said, ‘she has lost it in a trap!’ Pretty soon I saw another
cat without any tail. Then some kittens without any tails. I thought
that must be a dreadful place for traps. I dared not step in the grass
to hunt.

“I got very hungry keeping still without hunting for mice and moles, and
at last I went to a house. In the yard of the house a black-and-white
cat without a tail stood and looked at me.

“‘What do you want here?’ said she.

“‘I want to go in the house,’ said I.

“‘Be off!’ said she.

“‘I won’t!’ said I.

[Illustration:

  The Black-And-White Cat.
]

“Then she began to spit, and she flew at me, and I flew at her. A woman
came running out and took me up. ‘Oh you beautiful creature!’ she said.
‘You’ve got a tail! I’m so glad to get a cat with a tail.’ I must tell
you, dear Lady Yellow-paw and all present at this famous party that the
cats of that strange place did not have any tails. ‘No tails!’ cried
Lady Yellow-paw and others. ‘How then do they show when they are glad
and when they are mad?’

[Illustration:

  The Mouse That Black Velvet Caught.
]

“I said at the beginning, dear Lady Yellow-paw, that this is a wonderful
story. Let me tell you that the cats of that place do not wish to have
tails. ‘Not _wish_ to have tails?’ cried Lady Yellow-paw and others at
the famous party. No, your ladyship. But let us not be conceited and
think our own ways are always the best. To be sure a tail does add to
the good looks of a cat, still we all know that a tail _is_ a great
care; always likely to get rocked on, or stepped on, or pulled, and is
sometimes in the way when you want to sit down. That no-tailed cat made
my tail a way of hurting me. All present must have seen that its tip is
gone, though all have been so polite as to seem not to notice this. It
was the doings of that jealous no-tailed cat. She was jealous because so
much notice was taken of me. She could not bear me to come into the
house. She clawed, and bit, and spit at me so that my mistress had to
let me sleep in the room with herself and her little boy. One night I
did what pleased my mistress very much. One night a mouse jumped on her
boy’s bed, and waked him up, just as I used to wake up that girl when I
had that bell on my neck. I caught this mouse, and found him quite as
good as any in our own country. My mistress praised me more than ever,
after this, and held me, and stroked me a great deal, but her doing so
made that other cat maul me worse than ever, and I should have run away
if my mistress herself had not come away. My mistress came to this
country and brought me with her. Here I am, out of reach of that jealous
cat’s teeth and claws. Here I am well-fed and tended. Here I live an
easy life. Yet still I am not happy. Would you know the reason why? My
mistress has another cat, a partly white cat. People call her a
beautiful cat. So she may be to any one who fancies white paws and white
noses. I do not like to see my mistress hold that cat and stroke her. I
am obliged to see it. I am obliged to see the boy like that cat; hug
that cat; I am even obliged to see her allowed to jump up and eat milk
from the same bowl with him, something _I_ have never been allowed to
do!

[Illustration:

  Something Black Velvet Was Never, Never Allowed to Do.
]

“All this is hard to bear. I do not like to think about it, and to keep
myself from thinking about it I employ myself in teaching the way of
opening doors. Every cat should know how to open doors. There may be
times in a cat’s life when she may save her life by knowing how to open
a door. There are times in every cat’s life when she may get food by
opening a door.

“Here a number of cats sprang to their feet and began to tell of
particular times when they had saved themselves and got food by knowing
how to open doors. Among them was the cat that hadn’t common sense. ‘One
at a time, my dears,’ said Lady Yellow-paw. ‘Snowball, will you begin?’”

                  *       *       *       *       *

“But I humbly beg your Majesty’s pardon,” said the lovely Pussyanita to
the King. “The particular times when all these saved themselves or got
food by knowing how to open doors were not in Black Velvet’s story. You
asked, oh King, for Black Velvet’s story. That is ended, I am silent.”

“You shall not be silent!” thundered King Grimalkum. “Speak! As king of
all the cats, I wish particularly to know the particular times when all
those saved themselves and got food by knowing how to open doors. As
king of all the cats, I should be well informed on all such matters.”

[Illustration:

  She Used to Sit on a High Wall.
]

“To tell you what you ask,” answered the lovely Pussyanita, “would take
a longer time than I have to live.”

“Time shall be granted you,” said the king. “Begin without delay to tell
what Snowball told.”


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  What Snowball Told.
]


“When my sister Lily and myself were quite young, but not very, the
people who lived in the house began to talk of drowning us. Now all
present at this famous party will agree with me that if we are to be
drowned at all we should be drowned when we are too young to know
anything about it. I suppose there is not one here present who would not
rather have been drowned when she knew nothing about it, than to be
drowned now.

“When our mother heard drowning spoken of she took us under the barn,
and there we stayed a long time. We lived under the barn. Our mother
would not let us come out. She used to sit on a high wall and we wanted
to, but she said dogs would get us and boys would scare us. A small boy
used to come out there with his books and his slates and his other
things, and this small boy crawled under the barn and found us and
dragged us out, and then our mother moved back to the house to live. On
the very day we moved back, I was put into a covered basket and sent
away in a rattling thing called a carriage. The noise it made frightened
me almost to death. I scratched the basket and clawed the cover, and
stuck my paws through, and mewed and cried, for I was dreadfully
frightened at the rattling! At last they put me in a house. I was afraid
to stay in that house. Everything in that house was strange to me. The
people were strangers. It seemed like a dreadful place. The people put
their own things on all the good high places, and every time I jumped on
a good high place, there would be a running and a screaming enough to
scare you out of your senses. As if kittens would knock things off! As
if kittens were clumsy as people and could not walk _between_ things!
You know kittens, and cats too, need high places to jump up to.

[Illustration:

  Just Right to Spring At.
]

“There was a small boy in the house and he had a whip. I need say no
more. You all know or can understand, what it is to live in the house
with a boy and a whip. But I was going to say that even the oldest of us
have been kittens once and we know that a kitten must spring at things
a-moving. I did. The boy rode on a wooden horse, and the horse had a
tail just right to spring at. It was placed behind the boy so that he
could not see me. But the people could, and they punished me for doing
what I could not help doing. A kitten would not be a kitten did it hold
back from springing at such a beautiful tail a-moving.

“I was whipped and put down cellar a great many times and even when I
had grown quite large; for I was always of a lively turn.

[Illustration:

  Curled Up on the Best Rug.
]

“Oh what fun I had with the people after I learned to open the cellar
door! Mornings they would say ‘I wonder who let the cat up?’ Sometimes
just after I had been put down cellar for meddling with tassels or
knitting work, they would find me on the best bed or in the best chair,
or in the best room curled up on the best rug. At last these people took
all their things and went away and left me there with nothing to eat.
Every day I had to go forth to seek my food. Pinky-white has told you
something of what this means. Hanging around back doors, kicked,
starved, frozen, barked at by dogs, chased by cruel boys! Oh tongue
cannot tell what I suffered from cruel boys! They yelled at me, they
threw stones, they tormented me in every way they could. Just the sight
of one would make me tremble. One day when I was on a clothes-pole I saw
two boys coming, far away. They yelled at me and picked up stones. I
scrambled down. I ran toward the house. I heard their shouts. I ran to
the back door. The door was shut. I sprang up, caught the latch, the
door opened, I ran in to a woman, looked in her face and said, ‘Oh do
take care of me!’

[Illustration:

  The Rat Family.
]

“The woman was so much pleased with my opening the door that she invited
me to live in that house, and I was glad enough to stay for there is a
meat-shop in the house. I have lived there a very long time. I make
myself useful by driving off cats and dogs that come to steal meat. Of
course I never steal. I do not need to. I am fed so well that I never
know what it is to be hungry, and have no wish for mouse-meat or
rat-meat. In fact the rats and I are such friends, I sit near them in
the garret and watch their goings on in their families, and they never
mind me at all.

“My good fortune came from knowing how to open doors. I will say no
more, for I know the company wish to hear Madame Pussy Hunter’s story.”


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  Madame Pussy Hunter’s Story.
]


“I am chiefly an out-doors cat. I like to catch moles and field-mice and
rabbits, and bugs, and butterflies. I like butterflies almost as well as
Pussy Gray did. Poor Pussy Gray who was stung in the eye by a bumble-bee
while watching for butterflies and went crazy! I am fond of birds too.

“In this I am different from the renowned Tabby Furpurr, who found out a
way of not liking birds, and on that account had her picture taken and
put in a frame!

[Illustration:

  Just Dropping Off to Sleep.
]

“I was always a butterfly hunter, but not always a mole hunter, a
field-mouse hunter and rabbit hunter. I will tell you how I happened to
become a mole hunter, a field-mouse hunter, and a rabbit hunter.

“One day I went out among some tall flower stalks to catch butterflies,
and got very tired of jumping, and lay down to take a nap under the
flower stalks. I was just dropping off to sleep when I heard a noise and
looked up and saw my sister coming. She asked me to go to her house and
get some cream. She knew where there was a good deal of cream in a good
place. She wanted me to open the pantry door. As my sister was anxious
for me to go, I went, and we both enjoyed a hearty meal. We crept out of
the pantry and then softly under chairs and tables to the passage-way.
In that passage-way was my sister’s kitten playing with a ball of yarn.
She pawed it, and clawed it, and pushed it, and tumbled heels over head
over it, as kittens will do—ah, we were all kittens once! and at last
she pushed it into a room. We peeped in at the door and saw the kitten
leave the ball suddenly, and pop behind the screen. Her tail was very
big, and her back was up, so we knew something had frightened her, and
crept in to see what had frightened her. In the middle of the room was a
great chair, and from that chair was something hanging down, something
furry. We went near to see what it could be. It looked like a dog’s head
upside down. It was a dog’s head upside down. Cats that have always seen
dogs’ heads upside up, have no idea how a dog’s head looks upside down.
This dog’s head was upside down and the whole dog was upside down;
upside down and asleep.

[Illustration:

  The Dog That Was Upside Down.
]

“Both our tails began to grow big. We left the room quickly, and softly
as possible, and ran through a long passage, then up-stairs, then
through another long passage, and _then_ we heard the dog coming,
barking! We ran faster. We knew he was on the stairs; knew he was after
us. We got to the end of a long passage. The bark of the dog sounded
nearer and nearer. There was no way out of the passage. Oh what a moment
that was! I saw a door. I sprang up twice, and opened it the second time
trying. I tremble, even now, to think what might have become of us had
not a window of that room been open, or had I not known how to open a
door. We darted through that window, and went down by a water-spout. The
dog looked out and turned and ran down-stairs, but by the time he was in
the yard we were safe on a shed. Oh how thankful we ought to be that
dogs cannot climb!

“I was saved, but in my haste I trod on a tack nail, and it stuck in my
paw and made my paw in great pain. I went limping, and the pain of the
paw made me sick. My dear mistress! How good she was to me! She took out
the nail and bound up the sore place, and fed me with warm sweetened
milk and water, or if I was thirsty, gave me cool, clear water to lap,
and held me, and made for me a soft bed, and talked to me, and _poored_
me. Oh how pleasant it is to be talked to and _poored_!

“I felt so grateful to my dear mistress that as soon as I was well I
went out to catch everything I could for her—rabbits, moles, field-mice.
That was why I became a hunter. Everything I could I brought in and laid
at her feet, because I wanted to please her. I would not eat one of them
until she told me I might. I never ate even a mouse until I had shown it
to her. Sometimes I bring birds. She is not pleased with me, then. She
scolds me when I bring birds. I don’t know why she scolds me for
bringing birds. I should like to know the renowned Tabby Furpurr way of
not liking birds.”

Scarcely had Madame Pussy Hunter finished when up sprang a Spry White
Kitten and hopped out on three paws, and said: ‘_I_ can tell a story of
a door opening.’ Some of the older ones tried to hiss her down. She was
asked if her story would tell how she lost her right fore paw. Upon
learning that her story would tell how she lost her right fore paw, they
asked to hear what the Spry White Kitten had to say.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Spry White Kitten’s Story.
]


[Illustration]

“It is a short story that I am going to tell, but I wish to tell it. I
wish to say that for my part I have never found any good come from
knowing how to open doors. Not that I know how, but my mother does. She
opened a door the other day to show me some cream. It was butter-cream
streaming down a butter-churn. She told me to jump up and lick, and I
did, and a man came and boxed my ears and I have not heard well since.

[Illustration]

“Another time to please me, she opened a door and let me into a large
dining-room that had long curtains just right to scratch and to climb up
by, and a funny old feather hung over a funny old clock. I could go up
on those good curtains, and jump to the clock and play with the feather.
And one day I meddled with the clock to find out where its noise came
from, and was caught and got the worst whipping I’ve ever had yet.

[Illustration:

  The Cat With Her Ears Tied Up.
]

“Then here is my brother Bobby hiding yonder behind Black Velvet. Why
does he hide? His ears are tied up with strings. Bobby likes
work-baskets. He teased our mother to let him into a room where there
was a work-basket. He played in it, and the girl tied his ears with
strings, and he ran round, and rolled, and could not get them off, and
ran into a coal-hole, and stayed till he was very hungry, and when he
went into the house he went to a boy that was sitting on the floor
eating milk. That boy did not give him any milk. No. He took a great
cloth and tried to wash Bobby’s paws in the milk! Bobby got away, and
now he has come to this famous party with his ears in strings. A pretty
state he is in to come to a famous party! We all know how dreadful it is
to have our ears meddled with.

[Illustration:

  It Got Hold of My Leg.
]

“But all this is nothing to what happened afterwards. My mother opened a
door to let me into a room where there was a mouse-hole. Now a boy had
put in that room a curious thing. I went close up to it to see what it
was. It was a crab, but I did not know that. I was young. I never had
seen a crab. I touched it to find what it was made of, and it got hold
of my leg just above my paw. I never screamed so in all my life. Oh how
I did scream! And no wonder. My leg was broke. My paw had to be taken
off, and now I have to be three-pawed. Now I have to go limp, limp,
hopperty limp! Only three paws to run away from cruel boys with, and
barking dogs! Only three paws to climb with! Only three paws to claw
with! No; as for me, _I_ have never seen much good come from knowing how
to open doors!”

“‘You had better sit down, Miss,’ exclaimed Black Velvet. ‘Young people
should be seen and not heard. We are speaking at this famous party of
the good of knowing how to open doors—not of the bad. Mrs. Beulah Black
is present, and has something to relate which all will like to hear.’”


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  Mrs. Beulah Black’s Story.
]


“In me, my dear Lady Yellow-paw, you see a child of the unfortunate
Pussy Gray who when watching for butterflies was stung in the eye by a
bumble-bee and went crazy, and ran away. There were three of us born on
the same day, namely: Lily, Dinah Dusky and myself, Beulah Black. Pussy
Gray was one of the best of mothers. She herself cared neither for rats,
mice, nor moles. She liked birds and bugs and was very fond of
butterflies. But she would sit long watching at a hole to catch mice or
moles for us, and then she would bring them to us, and show us how to
play with them, and stand looking at us in her motherly way. She grew
thin from staying in to take care of us. We were a quarrelsome set.

“I don’t know what became of Lily, but Dinah Dusky went when she was
very young to live in a corn store. I stayed at a house nearer my
mother’s house, and it was well that I did, for at the time she got
stung in the eye by a bumble-bee, she had another young family, and I
was able to go in and take care of them, and to punish them when they
needed punishment. I was then a mother myself with my first little brood
around me.

[Illustration]

“I remember the day well. My mother left the family and went into the
garden to catch butterflies. If she did not see any butterflies it was
her custom to stand still and listen for the sound of their wings. She
was doing so when that sad thing happened to her. My sister, Dinah
Dusky, had come that day to see my dear little beauties and we two went
out together to catch bugs for them. Our mother was in the garden not
far from us. She stood stock still. She had heard the sound of a
butterfly’s wings. An instant more and she would have turned her head.

[Illustration]

“Then it was that the bumble-bee stung her eye. She ran. We ran. We
could not catch her. We could not think what made her behave so. She ran
this way and that way, over fences, back again, through bushes, over
bushes, across fields, and at last away she went out of sight and was
never heard from afterwards. Every day my sister Dinah Dusky and I went
forth to look for our mother, hoping to bring her home to her young
family.

“It was when we had been in the fields looking for her that we saved
ourselves by my sister’s quickness in opening a door. I will explain how
this happened.

[Illustration:

  The Cat That Was Stealing Milk.
]

“My sister and I went into a swamp to look for our mother, and we caught
sight of a rabbit there. We lay down close to the ground, and crept,
crept, crept, softly along, not making a bit of noise. Sometimes we
stopped creeping; then we crept; then we stopped; then we crept, getting
all the time nearer and nearer. The rabbit was asleep part way under a
log. We had crept very near when all at once we heard the bark of a dog.
Dreadful sound! In an instant we were on our feet and running. We ran
towards a house. At first the dog did not see us. Then he saw us and ran
after us, barking. Oh how frightened we were! We ran faster but he ran
faster than we. He came near us, barking, barking, barking, oh it was
terrible! For he came so close to me that I felt his breath. He caught
me by the back of the neck, and just then a boy called him off, and he
dropped me and went to the boy. I ran on. My sister had gone far ahead.
We ran towards the back of the house. The dog came again. We heard him
coming afar off. He would not stay with the boy. I almost died with
fright. There wasn’t a tree nor a clothes-pole near. But there was a
door that my sister had opened before at times when it was necessary
that she should get something to eat without being seen. She opened this
door now, and frightened a cat that was there stealing milk out of a
pitcher, and made her tip over the pitcher.

“We went in and ran through a back shed to the barn. I sprang up on a
hay rack, and my sister—all at this famous party will be surprised to
hear what my sister did. My sister sprang up on the horse’s back!

“We were not a minute too quick. We just saved ourselves. The dog was
close behind. But he could not get at us and he had to go away.

“I have more to tell. That horse and my sister became friends. When he
stayed in the barn she used to stay on his back. He liked to have her
stay there. He could not bear to be without her. He was not easy unless
she came and stayed on his back.

“The man said it would not do. He said it would hurt the horse and they
carried him far away.

“Now comes the sorrowful part. My sister mourned so for the horse that
she would not eat. She would only lap a little water sometimes. She grew
weak and thin. She did not clean her fur. She would stay in the barn and
lie down on the spot where the horse used to stand. At last she was seen
no more and after a long time she was found, dead, high up on a haymow
in a far corner!

[Illustration:

  My Sister Sprang Up on the Horse’s Back!
]

“This is all I have to say, your ladyship, but my younger brother David
is here. Though now bigger than I, he was once smaller. He was one of
the young kittens our mother left when she went out to catch butterflies
and was stung in the eye by a bumble-bee. David will tell you of a time
when he opened a door and ran away, and why he ran away.”

All present said they would like to hear David’s Story, and he began as
follows:


[Illustration:

  David’s Story.
]


“I was one of the young kittens Pussy Gray left when she went out to
catch butterflies. My sister Beulah Black has told you what happened to
Pussy Gray, how she went crazy and went nobody knew where, and was never
heard from afterwards.

“My Sister Beulah Black had a young family of her own, and one day she
tried to carry us to her house, in order that she might not have to be
all the time running back and forth. It happened that I dropped into a
hole, and she could not get me out. She had to leave me. Now this was
lucky for me, for the others of my mother’s young family, and all but
one of my sister Beulah Black’s young family were sent away and lost. I
have often wondered why it is that so many little kittens are sent away
and lost.

[Illustration:

  She Took Turns Rocking Me and Her Dolly.
]

“Only for falling in that hole I might not be here. But I came near
dying there. When taken out I was almost starved to death. I could not
move; I could not make a sound. Girl-Nellie took me out and kept me for
her own. She made me a cotton-wool bed in a cricket, she covered me over
with silk, she fed me with a spoon, she held me just as if I had been a
baby. And when I grew larger she used to rock me in the baby’s cradle
and sing to me. She took turns rocking me and her dolly, and when dolly
was being rocked I sat and waited for my turn to be rocked and sung to.
Oh, how I did love my little mistress! I wanted to sit on her lap. I
wanted to be with her a great deal. I told her all this, though perhaps
she never understood what I said. I knew the time for her to come home
from school, and went always to meet her. She did not know how I knew
the time. People do not know how cats know things. My dear mistress
would not let boy-John torment me. Boy-John was not cruel, but he wished
me to sit up on my hind legs, and to hold a stick, and to jump through a
hoop. It was easy enough to do such things but I did not like to do
them. Boy-John used to say to the baby, ‘Come Baby, bring David!’ I was
so big then that baby could hardly lift me, but he would drag me, and
push me, and try to lift me.

[Illustration:

  Could Hardly Lift Me.
]

“Many at this famous party have spoken of what they have suffered from
cruel boys and from dogs, but nobody as yet has spoken of a baby. Tongue
cannot tell what I suffered from that baby. A baby will step on any part
of a cat. A baby will sit on a cat. A baby does not mind what part of a
cat it lifts up a cat by, whether by the tail or by a leg, or by the
head. A baby will pull your ears, will stick its finger in your eyes,
will even meddle with your smellers, and you must keep from touching it,
because it is a baby.

“I never did touch that baby to hurt it. I loved that baby. I kept my
claws way in out of sight, and if I ever squealed it was sometimes when
he sat down on me hard, and squelched the squeal out of me before I knew
it.

“I come now to something painful to speak of. You will be surprised to
learn that I ran away from that dear Nellie mistress. This will now be
explained.

“Unhappily for me, I had great skill in charming birds, and I was as
fond of birds as my mother Pussy Gray was of butterflies. I mean I was
fond of them as food, not as friends. There was no cat anywhere around
that could charm a bird as well as I could. I used to stay under a tree
and when a bird came and sat on a bough I would look straight up at him,
and then he could not fly away. He would cry, and flutter his wings, but
he could not fly away. He would have to drop.

[Illustration:

  I Dropped the Bird.
]

“I used to carry the birds to my dear mistress, for I wanted to please
her, and birds were the best things I could get. But she was not
pleased; she scolded me. I could not understand why she praised me for
catching a mouse and scolded me for catching a bird. A bird is better
than a mouse. Pretty soon she began to do something besides to scold. I
was punished in the way cats are punished. I need not tell. All at this
famous party know. After I had been punished a great deal I kept away
from trees. But one day I was in a window-seat, asleep. The window was
swung open, and I lay there to enjoy the sunshine and fell asleep. The
noise of a bird woke me. I stretched myself out flat and looked up. The
bird was on a high window above. When I had looked at it a little while
it began to cry, and then it flew down to the top of the window that was
swung open. It flew lower and lower, and I made a spring and caught it.
My mistress came in and I dropped the bird on the window-seat, and
jumped down and crept away. I felt so ashamed I did not know what to do.

“I was not whipped, but I was punished. I punished myself. I left that
pleasant home and my dear mistress. You will understand why when I
explain.

“That night my mistress’ mother said, ‘We cannot have David killing so
many birds. Something must be done with him. I will get a boy to do
something with him early in the morning.’ I knew what she said. I did
not know by the way people know. I knew by the cat-way of knowing, and
not by the people-way. All present at this famous party know how cats
know what people say. I understood what my mistress said, but I kept
still under a table, and when nobody was looking I crept under the
chairs out into the back room, and opened two doors and ran away, far
away, and for a long time I lived the dreadful life of a cat without a
home.

“One day a man invited me to go home with him. He keeps a store. There
are herring and eggs in the store. I have lived there quite a long time.
I want to go back to my dear mistress, but I am afraid they will get a
boy to do something with me. I like to suck eggs, though as my master
keeps a stick I do not take any except the broken ones he gives me. When
I tease for herring he gives me a piece. I watch people and if they
touch anything that belongs to my master I lay my paw on them and speak.

“Scarcely had David finished when out popped two gray little kittens,
twins, both named Kittywinks, saying:

“‘We are the Kittywinkses, and we’ve come to this famous party.’

“Lady Yellow-paw waved her paw and said: ‘One Kittywinks at a time, my
dears.’

[Illustration:

  The Good Child-Baby.
]

“One Kittywinks then said: ‘David talked about a child-baby. Call bad.
Child-baby not bad. We’ve got a child-baby. He does not step on us. He
does not sit down on us. He does not squelch us. He does not hurt. He
touches us softly. He would never tie strings on our ears. He poors us,
and strokes us, and lets us sit on chairs and sofas with him, and crawl
all over him, and play with his curls, and play with his beads, and play
with his playthings. He likes us, only he does not like to have us kiss
him with our noses, but with our mouths, but we don’t know how to kiss
with our mouths, and we have to kiss with our noses.’

“And the Kittywinkses capered back to their places.

“All present at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous party were pleased with the
Kittywinkses, and no wonder, for they were a merry pair of twins, and
not much like the sour faced ones, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, called in
the story, _Dum_ and _Dee_.”

                  *       *       *       *       *

“What story?” cried King Grimalkum in a stern voice.

“The story of the renowned Tabby Furpurr,” answered the lovely
Pussyanita. “Tabby Furpurr who found out a way of not liking birds, and
had her picture taken and set in a frame.”

“I wish to hear the story,” cried the King. “Tell it.”

“With pleasure, your majesty,” replied the lovely Pussyanita, “but to do
so will take a longer time than I have to live.”

“Time shall be granted you,” answered the king. “Tell all you ever heard
of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and of the renowned Tabby Furpurr.”

The lovely Pussyanita bowed and began to tell all she had ever heard of
Tweedledum and Tweedledee and of the renowned Tabby Furpurr.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
]


“In the days when Mouseroun al Ratchid was King of all the Cats, it was
his custom to disguise himself in mealbag powder and walk about the
country to see what he could see, and see it without being known.

[Illustration:

  The Good-Kind Boy.
]

“One cloudy morning soon before a storm—the time when our race are
liveliest—Mouseroun called Phi, his wisdom cat, and the two set forth
upon their travels. After proceeding quite a distance they came in sight
of a small boy with a porridge pot, sitting under a tree, eating
porridge. A white cat close to his feet begged for the porridge, and a
big dog stood by and licked the boy’s face and begged for porridge, and
put his nose in the boy’s bread-bag.

“‘Of what kind is the boy?’ asked Mouseroun of Phi.

“‘Of the good kind,’ replied Phi.

“‘How knowest thou that, oh Phi?’

“‘Because the dog and cat come close and show no fear. They ask for
food, sure of getting it.’

“‘Tell me, oh learned Phi, why a boy has long claws only on his fore
legs.’

“‘Because his hind legs are for walking and standing,’ replied Phi; ‘and
for walking and standing, short claws are better than long claws.’

“‘Tell me further,’ inquired Mouseroun, ‘why a cat mews and a dog
barks.’

“‘For the same reason that a cow moos and a horse neighs, and a pig
squeals, and a bird sings, and a frog croaks, and people speak,’
answered Phi. ‘Of course all these would mew if they could, but as they
cannot mew they must do what they can do.’

“‘And why, oh Phi, are some cats born white, and others black, and
others gray, and others of divers colors?’

“‘Because,’ answered Phi, ‘it takes all kinds of cats to make a world.’

“Just at this moment a young black-and-white cat came up and began
spitting at the dog, and clawing the cat, and biting the boy’s toes.
When the dog growled, the cross cat ran out of sight.

“‘Shall we go on and observe what that ill behaved creature will do
next?’ asked Phi.

“‘By all means,’ answered Mouseroun, ‘but look where at yonder window a
ribboned white cat sits stiff and straight, gazing at something afar.
Let us hasten thither.’

[Illustration:

  Cupep the Careful.
]

“They hastened, and when they reached the window Mouseroun asked of the
ribboned white cat: ‘Oh, ribboned white cat, sitting stiff and straight
gazing at something afar, at what art thou gazing, and what is thy
name?’

“‘I am gazing at flies,’ answered the ribboned white cat, ‘and I am
called Cupep the Careful.’

“Mouseroun made a sign to Phi to ask of the ribboned white cat why he
was called Cupep the Careful. Phi did so.

“‘Because I can be trusted,’ replied the ribboned white cat to Phi, ‘and
trusted in any place, among china, glass, pictures, bottles, papers, no
matter how high the shelf, how narrow, or how full. I step in and out so
carefully that no harm is ever done. Nobody minds even if I step on the
baby’s face. You see I am allowed here with papers and a bottle and
feather, easy to upset. All this is why I am called Cupep the Careful. I
shall presently sit on the paper, and to sit on paper is pleasant.’

“As Cupep the Careful finished telling why he was called Cupep the
Careful, Mouseroun drew Phi’s attention to two dark objects sitting in a
barn at some distance. Bidding Cupep the Careful good morning they went
towards the barn and found that the two dark objects were two
black-and-white young cats. Said Phi, ‘These must be the sour faced
twins, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, called _Dum_ and _Dee_. I have often
heard of them, but never any good.’

[Illustration:

  Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
]

“They went nearer. The sour faced twins sat side by side looking cross
and unhappy. Mouseroun motioned to Phi to address them.

“‘Are you not the twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee, called _Dum_ and
_Dee_?’ asked Phi, ‘and is it not one of you which shortly ago bit the
toes of a boy, and spit at his dog, and clawed his cat?’

“‘It was I,’ said Tweedledee, ‘who did that. I could not maul Cupep the
Careful and I meant to maul somebody. I will maul him if I can. The
stuck-up thing! Everybody praises him. He has a watch to wear. Nobody
praises me and I have not even a ribbon. He has had his picture taken
and hung up. Why don’t they take my picture?’

[Illustration]

“‘They’d much better take mine,’ snarled Tweedledum. ‘I’ve been crying
to have my picture taken ever since I saw that one of Tabby Furpurr who
found out a way of not liking birds, and on that account had her picture
taken and set in a pussy willow frame. They won’t take my picture. But
I’ll be even with them. I get hold of the clock strings, I tangle yarn,
I won’t purr, I climb posts and tear down the flowers, I scratch the
baby’s face, I pull away his playthings, I wait on the doorstep and bite
his fingers, when he tries to reach me, and I kill birds. _I’m_ not
going to find a way of not liking birds if they won’t have my picture
taken! I am better looking than Tabby Furpurr; I’m sweet and lovely.’

[Illustration:

  I Bite the Baby’s Fingers.
]

“‘I am sweet and lovely myself,’ said _Dee_.

“‘You’re not!’ said _Dum_.

“‘I am?’ said _Dee_.

“‘Say it again!’ said _Dum_.

“‘I do say it again!’ said _Dee_.

“‘Take that!’ said _Dum_.

“‘Take that!’ said Dee. And the two seemed as if they would tear each
other’s eyes out, so that Mouseroun was wroth, and Phi had much ado to
keep him from punishing them both on the spot.

“‘A future time is better,’ said Phi. ‘To act in anger is to make
ourselves like these. Come, let us go and seek out the much renowned
Tabby Furpurr who found out a way of not liking birds, and who on that
account had her picture taken and set in a pussy-willow frame.’

“Mouseroun and Phi pursued their journey, rambling hither and thither,
listening to the speech of bees, flies, bugs, worms, toads and frogs,
and to the butterflies’ happy hum, which is too faint to be heard by the
clumsy ears of people—people who think they hear everything and hear so
little!

“‘Dost thou know,’ asked Mouseroun at last, ‘where dwelleth this
renowned Tabby Furpurr?’

[Illustration:

  Tabby Furpurr.
]

“‘I have not that knowledge,’ replied Phi. ‘She must be now quite aged,
and therefore well known hereabouts. Yonder is a young Persian, all so
happy with her three kittens, as soft and white as herself. I will
inquire of her concerning Tabby Furpurr.’ As they approached the young
Persian, Phi inquired of her, ‘Dost thou know Mistress Tabby Furpurr,
young Persian, and canst thou direct us to her abode?’

“‘I know Mistress Furpurr well enough,’ said the young Persian, ‘but I
decline to direct you to her abode. It is too much trouble.’

“‘We are anxious to find her,’ said Phi, ‘and we are weary with travel.’

“‘No doubt,’ replied the Persian; ‘but I prefer to stay and enjoy the
company of my children.’

[Illustration:

  The Happy Young Persian.
]

“‘And wilt thou not direct us?’ asked Phi.

“Answered the young Persian, ‘I have said what I have said.’

“‘Good day, then,’ said Phi, and he drew Mouseroun away, fearing he
might do something rash.

“‘Canst thou explain,’ asked Mouseroun of Phi as they journeyed on, ‘why
the young Persian should refuse to please others when she is herself so
happy?’

“‘The most happy are often the most selfish,’ replied Phi. ‘Those who
have known unhappiness are likely to feel pity.’

“A little farther on they looked in at a great stone doorway and there
they spied a rat which had hidden in a dark corner to eat a head of
wheat. ‘Rats are wise,’ said Phi, ‘perhaps yonder fellow may direct us
to Mistress Tabby Furpurr.’

“But as they drew near to inquire of the rat, he dropped his wheat and
fled.

“‘Now, why was that?’ asked Mouseroun. ‘We meant him no harm.’

[Illustration:

  The Rat.
]

“‘A rat,’ said Phi, ‘must judge by what has been done, not by what is
meant. After all that has been done by cats to rats, it will take a long
time to make rats believe that cats mean rats no harm.

“‘I fear we shall not get any rat to direct us to the abode of Mistress
Furpurr.’

“Phi was mistaken. Soon after, in passing a barn they heard much stir
and scampering inside. ‘Wherever there is a stir and a scampering,’ said
Phi, ‘we may be sure there is something going on inside.’

“Mouseroun was eager to enter, but Phi held him back lest harm might
befall him and himself stepped forward.

“‘Rats,’ he whispered, as he stepped back.

[Illustration:

  Taken in a Trap.
]

“There were six rats inside the barn; a father, mother and four children
had come to visit one of the family that had been taken in a trap. The
mother looked in at the front of the cage, the father looked down from
over the top. As Mouseroun and Phi drew near, the father, mother and
four children fled to their holes.

“The rat in the cage when questioned by Phi, said he had been told by
his parents not to go in, but he thought he knew best, and he did not
believe the trap would shut down so quick.

“Did he know where Mistress Tabby Furpurr lived? and would he tell?

“Oh yes, he had reasons for knowing where Mistress Tabby Furpurr lived,
and he would tell, and he did tell and with a kind good day, Mouseroun
and Phi passed on their way.

“‘I observed,’ said Mouseroun to Phi, as they passed on their way, ‘that
the rat in the trap showed no fear of us. How was that?’

“‘It must have been,’ said Phi, ‘that he knew we could not get at him.’

“‘True,’ said Mouseroun. ‘Thou art truly a Cat of Wisdom.’”

[Illustration:

  We Went Back.
]

Not very long after this, Mouseroun and Phi reached the abode of the
renowned Tabby Furpurr and heard the story of her life.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  Story of Mistress Tabby Furpurr.
]


“I was one of two kittens born in a respectable corner of a garret. My
twin sister was sickly and died at an early age, and my mother, being
lonely, stole a black kitten from another cat. The black kitten’s mother
came to get her, but my mother was big and strong and with the help of
my two older sisters she drove away the black kitten’s mother and kept
the black kitten.

[Illustration:

  The Black Kitten.
]

“I did not like that black kitten. She was coarse-haired, she bit my
tail, and when I had spools, or marbles, or knitting-work to play with,
she got them away from me.

“One day when she bit my tail I flew at her throat and gave it a bad
bite and made it bleed. I never saw her afterwards. I did not know what
became of her but I never saw her afterwards, except in dreams. I had
dreadful dreams. Once I dreamed I saw her sitting over the fireplace,
holding her paw to her throat, and next time I dreamed she came close to
me with her mouth and eyes wide open and glared at me.

[Illustration:

  First Dream.
]

“My older sisters grew so large that the people thought they would send
me and my mother away. They got us into a basket, and shut down the
covers quick, and carried us very far. They thought my mother would
never find the way back. My mother did. We got home at night, but my
mother climbed up to the house top with me in her mouth and jumped
through a window that she knew in the roof and in the morning they found
us on the rug.

[Illustration:

  Second Dream.
]

“Not long after this my mother was shot for her beautiful skin. I was so
lonely that I mourned very much. The dog took care of me. I did not
think Nep would be so kind, for sometimes he had barked at me, but when
he knew I was sorry and lonesome he asked me to snuggle close to him and
if any people touched me he drove them away.

[Illustration:

  Scamper Up and Down His Big Sides and Tickle His Paws, and His Nose.
]

“When my older sisters saw me with Nep they wanted to come and he let
them come. We warmed our feet in his hair. My sisters were too lazy to
play, but one of them used to catch fleas in his hair. I did not like to
catch fleas. I liked to scamper up and down his big sides and tickle his
paws, and his nose. He used to give me some of his meat. He did not give
my sisters any. I will now explain why I left Nep and that house.

[Illustration]

A pretty-faced white kitten used to come and play with me sometimes. One
day when I was asleep on the door-mat, I was waked by a small noise and
there was the white kitten’s face looking in at the door. She wanted me
to go and see two rats. She said two rats went every day to a place to
sit in the sun and we could stay behind a rock and peep at them.

“I went with her to see the rats. They were too big for us to meddle
with, but we could peep at them.

“The white kitten liked to frolic and we raced over the fields and on
the fences as much as we wanted to.

“All at once we heard a noise. People came. The white kitten got away
but a man caught me, and carried me in some whistling cars to his home.
He wanted to keep me. I was afraid to stay in that strange place and I
squeezed out through a hole in the cellar.

[Illustration:

  The Two Rats in the Sun.
]

“Then something dreadful happened. I was chased by boys. They were
dreadful boys. They hurt me. They made me tremble. They did things too
cruel to mention.

“They set a dog on me. I could hardly move, I trembled so. I crept under
a rail and the dog stayed there, barking. I thought he would seize me,
but before he did it a boy came and took me and treated me kindly, and
carried me in his arms to his own home and took care of me.

“Oh how I did love that boy! I wanted to stay with him all the time.

“Every day when he went to school he let me go with him as far as the
bridge.

“Then I would look up in his face and mew, ‘Mayn’t I go further?’

[Illustration:

  The Boy That Treated Me Kindly.
]

[Illustration:

  He Nibbles the Pink.
]

“He would lift up his finger and say, ‘No, Tabby Furpurr. Go back!’ And
I always went back. But when it was time for him to come home I went to
the bridge and waited till he came and then went to the house with him.
The boy’s dog did not like to have the boy like me so much. He was not
so good as Nep. He would not let me warm my feet in his hair. He looked
at me when I stole cream or custard. If they caught me stealing cream or
custard, I hung my tail and went over to the grandma house to stay. When
grandma caught me stealing I hung my tail and went back to the boy’s
house to stay. A girl lived in the boy’s house, and she tamed a mouse.
It stayed in a box. One day the boy looked at me hard, and lifted up his
finger and said, ‘Tabby Furpurr, you have had enough to eat. This mouse
is not for you. I am going to let this mouse out. Don’t you touch this
mouse. Do you hear? _Don’t you touch it!_’

[Illustration]

“I knew what he said, and I never did touch that mouse. The girl played
with it and let it stay in her work-basket. It liked to nibble green
things that were brought into the house.

“One day it got at a flower that the girl put in water and hung up, and
it nibbled the flower. One day it was nibbling something green and it
knocked over the thing the green was in and spilt the water on me and
scared me, and made me jump, though I was quite an old cat then, and
could not jump as spry as a kitten.

[Illustration]

“It was at this time that I had my fight with a woods cat. She came to
our barn. I never saw her before. I went to the barn to get some catnip.
There was catnip among the hay, and when I felt that I needed catnip I
went and picked it out of the hay. That woods cat came to get some of
the catnip, but she had no right there. It was in a place under the
haymow and a great deal of the catnip hay was there. The woods cat was
sitting on it, pawing it with her paw.

“She flew at me, and we had a fight. She would have killed me if the
girl had not come with a broom.

[Illustration]

“I was a bad looking cat. I went lame and had salve on me. The girl took
care of me, and as soon as I could walk she let me go in the garden with
her when she picked flowers. I liked to go into the garden. She used to
sit under a tree and read a book, and I used to sit on the seat close to
her, and if she stroked me I purred loud.

“But she found out I liked birds. She saw me under a currant-bush eating
a bird, and whipped me with a stick and said, ‘Shame, Tabby Furpurr!
Shame on you to eat a little bird!’ And I went to the grandma house to
stay.

“A bird came to live in our house. It lived in a cage high on the wall.
The boy showed me the bird and looked at me hard, and lifted up his
finger and said, ‘Tabby Furpurr, don’t you touch that bird. That bird is
not for you. _Don’t you touch that bird!_‘

“I did not mean to do anything to that bird. But it kept moving and
hopping, and shaking its wings, and shaking its tail, and it made me
look at it; and one day when it shook itself very much I looked at it a
long time and at last I jumped at it. Before I knew what I was going to
do I jumped at it, and the cage fell down. I could not get the bird. He
kept himself in a corner.

“The boy’s dog barked and ran to tell the people something was the
matter, and they all came and spoke loud and held up their fingers and
cried ‘Shame! Shame!’

“I went over to the grandma house and hid under a bed and stayed till I
was almost starved. Then I crawled out and put my paw on grandma’s foot,
and looked up in her face and she gave me some milk, and let me warm me
at her fire.

[Illustration:

  The Rat That Fought the Duck.
]

“Something happened to her duck. It let its little ducks go with it
under the bridge to the pond, and it got itself killed. There was a rat
there, and it was going to get one of her little ducks, and she began to
fight the rat, and the mother rat came out and helped fight the duck,
and the boy drove them away, but afterwards the duck died and left the
little ducks.

“But grandma had a barn cat. She was not a Tabby. She was only a
black-and-white cat, but she was a very good cat. She never would touch
a bird or a chicken, and she never would suck an egg. She did not like
me. She would not let me come in her barn. I did not let her come in my
barn. She was a good cat for not liking birds.

“The boy carried the little ducks to the barn and tried to make a hen
that was there take care of them. She would not do that. She went and
left them. She would not scratch up worms for them. The other ducks
would not. They had to take care of their own children, and these little
ducks stayed all alone by themselves, and cried for their mother.

“Now that barn cat, though she was only a black and white cat and not a
Tabby, sat down there with the little ducks and took care of them. Every
day she went there and stayed with the ducks, and when they went into a
puddle she mewed for them to come back.

“When she sat taking care of the little ducks, people used to come and
look at her. The first time she took care of them grandma’s dog barked
at her. When grandma told him it was all right, and let him see her
stroke the barn cat, he went away, but sometimes he came to look at that
cat and the ducks to see if all was right. Sometimes the cat would spit
at him. She would spit at anybody that touched one of her little ducks.
When the little ducks went in wet places she took them by their necks
and brought them out, and she carried them by their necks so much that
they had crooked necks. One day a strange cat, a great white Tommy, came
and looked in at the barn door when she was staying with the little
ducks and she flew at him quick, and almost clawed his eyes out and he
was glad to run.

[Illustration]

“One day I wanted very much to taste of a little duck and I tried to get
one, and I hurt its leg, and she clawed me and made me drop it, and
grandma shamed me and I went back to the boy’s house and hid under a
bed, and when I was almost starved I crawled out and the boy whipped me
hard and carried me back to the grandma house, and into her barn, and
showed me that barn cat with the little ducks, and lifted up his finger,
and looked at me hard, and whipped me again and said: ‘Tabby Furpurr,
don’t you see that barn cat staying with ducks and not eating any? And
_you_ even fly at birds! Don’t you ever touch any kind of bird again. Do
you hear? Find out a way of not liking birds. _Find out a way of not
liking birds! Remember!_‘

[Illustration:

  The Duck’s Defender.
]

“I knew what he said, though not in the way people know. I knew by the
cat-way. I remembered by the cat-way of remembering. I kept very still,
I did not steal, and when they thought I was asleep I was finding out a
way of not liking birds, and after I found it out I never touched a bird
again, nor a duck, nor a chicken. I stayed with the girl under the tree
and never touched a bird. I watched the bird in the cage when he hopped
and shook his tail and did not jump at him, and I would not let any
other cat touch a bird nor a duck nor a chicken.

[Illustration:

  They Thought I Was Asleep.
]

“One day when some killed chickens were hanging up, a great Maltese cat
came and looked at them and was going to jump for them but I spit at her
and drove her away. The people were pleased with me all the time and the
girl let me stay in the room when the bird’s cage-door was open and when
he flew out; and more birds came there to live and the birds had little
birds, and they grew big birds, and I was a friend to them, and the girl
got a very big cage for all the birds and sometimes she let me stay in
there with them and I did not touch one. They would stand on my head and
walk on my fur, and I let them. The boy was pleased with me and the girl
was pleased with me.

[Illustration:

  Going to Jump for Them.
]

“I am an old cat now; a very old cat. I do not care for balls, or
spools, or marbles, or knitting-work, or tassels, or strings. I do not
wish to jump high. I like to sit by the fire and feel the _warm_ all
around me. You have heard my story!”

“Mouseroun made a sign to Phi by which Phi understood that Mouseroun
wished him to ask Mistress Tabby Furpurr the way she found out of not
liking birds.

“‘Excuse me to-day,’ replied Mistress Tabby Furpurr to Phi’s question.
‘I am weary and must take my repose. Some other time I will tell.’

“Soon after this Mouseroun and Phi went to a great Battle of the Cats
and were long absent. Upon their return they set forth as before to
travel about the country, and again sought out the abode of Mistress
Tabby Furpurr.

“As they journeyed on they were met by two lively young black-and-white
cats, the same two they met before, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, called
_Dum_ and _Dee_.

“They were full of frolic and good-nature, tumbling over each other, and
snatching at each other’s tails.

[Illustration]

“‘Whither so fast?’ asked Phi of them as they met.

“‘To catch some bugs for a cat with a large family of kittens,’ they
said.

“You are not as sour as you were,” said Phi.

“‘Oh, no,’ said _Dum_ and _Dee_. ‘It is folly to be sour when sweet is
better. We found that out.’

“‘You might have your pictures taken now,’ said Phi.

“‘We’re so happy we don’t care to,’ said _Dum_ and _Dee_. ‘Good day to
you.’

[Illustration]

“‘Beware of guns,’ said a faint voice near by.

“It was the faint voice of a feeble cat who had crept under a bush to
die.

“‘We’re not afraid,’ said _Dum_ and _Dee_. ‘We have our nine lives, you
know.’

“‘Go not quickly through them as I have done,’ said the feeble cat.
‘Beware of dogs, beware of stones, beware of guns, beware of shutting
up, beware of boys, beware of drowning, beware of hot water, beware of
stepping on, beware of wet blacking-brushes.’

“‘I have lived eight lives, and am now dying of a spot of blacking.’

“‘Tell us about the eight lives,’ said _Dum_ and _Dee_; and at a sign
from Mouseroun, Phi made the same request.

“‘I will try,’ replied the feeble cat, ‘if you will bear with my
weakness.’”


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Story of the Feeble Cat and Her Nine Lives.
]


“My name is Pixie. I have lived my eight lives, speaking after the
manner of cats, and am now in my ninth, which will soon end.

[Illustration:

  To Catch Butterflies.
]

“When I was small and very young I was dropped in water. The water
washed me back to the sand. I could not stir. I was kicked. People said
‘dead kitten.’ A great cat took me to a good place and licked me, and I
opened my eyes. The great cat came many times. I should not have lived
if she had not caught butterflies and grasshoppers for me. She got very
good butterflies. Sometimes her spotted kitten came to see me, and
sometimes she went to the fields with her mother to get butterflies and
grasshoppers for me, and one day she brought me a very big grasshopper.

[Illustration:

  She Brought Me a Very Big Grasshopper.
]

“When I could stand on all my feet the great cat carried me in her mouth
to a house and a girl let me come in, and I was that girl’s kitten. She
held me a great deal. Once when I was crawling on the floor, the boy
walked across and he stepped on me so hard that I was all out flat, and
they took me up on a shovel and carried me out to another room to stay
till I could be buried. Next morning the girl came out there crying
because her kitten was dead. The boy came with a shovel to bury me; but
I was crawling on the hearth. The boy said, ‘Hurrah for Pixie!’ and the
girl hugged me and kissed me.

[Illustration:

  I Was Scared.
]

“One day the boy took something off the stove, and tied the dog to it
and told the girl to carry me to ride; and she put me in and tried to
carry me to ride, but it was too warm, and I was scared of riding in it,
and jumped out and ran with all my might through the house and
up-stairs, and hid in a closet. The closet-door got shut and I stayed
there. I had nothing to eat. I mewed all the time, but the people were
far away. When I could not mew any longer I dropped down. There was
nothing left of me but my skin and my bones. When the people found me
they took me out-doors to bury me. They put me in the sunshine and in a
little while I opened my eyes. I was close to the hens’ clams, and I ate
some and crawled away from that place, and the boy carried me into the
house, and I got well.

“Mornings I scratched on the girl’s door and when I was let in I jumped
upon her bed and played with her nose and with her toes, and sat on her
and purred loud.

“A white cat lived in that house. She was not my girl’s cat. She was the
small girl’s cat. She could not purr. She had no voice to purr. The
small girl put the white cat’s ear close to my mouth and said, ‘Purr
like Pixie!’ and the boy rubbed her paws together, to make her purr, and
squeezed her tail softly and stroked her, but she did not purr. She had
no voice to purr.

[Illustration]

“The white cat and I played together with the balls and the spools and
the hammock strings and the knitting-work, and sometimes Pomp, the dog,
played with us. The dog liked to play. When the small girl stayed in the
hammock to sew her work and see picture books, the white cat used to
stay in the hammock or close by, and take a nap; but the boy used to
come and make her jump, and sometimes Pomp came there and jumped in the
hammock.

“When the white cat grew older she had some kittens. I had not had any
kittens. She was taken much notice of. The white cat lost all her
kittens but one and as soon as that one could run she and her mother
were sent away. Then the small girl held me and I was glad, for she
spoke to me softly and touched me softly. She liked me because I could
purr.

[Illustration]

“One morning the white cat came back with her kitten. I saw her standing
at the door to be let in, and I knew she ought not to come back, and I
tried to drive her away, and we had a fight, and a cruel woman threw hot
water at us from the kitchen, and it scalded my head and I went under
some bushes to die. I could not see; I went by my smellers. When people
found me they called me but I would not come out. They brought me some
milk and a piece of meat, and I ate a little, and when I could see with
both eyes I came out, but my neck has always been stiff on one side.

“The next time I almost got killed it was by a heavy stone. The stone
fell on me. I liked to go in the garden and climb upon a high wall and
see what was on the other side. A Molly girl lived on the other side,
and a horse, and a dog, and two great cats, and hens, and there was a
great deal there that was good to eat. The Molly girl wanted me to play
in the sand with her and sometimes she took me down from the wall. She
made holes in the sand and covered me up and when I was covered up I
jumped out and ran and then came back. Sometimes she let me ride with
her Jemima in her Jemima’s doll carriage.

[Illustration:

  Climb Up on a High Wall.
]

“A woman came out every day to give corn to the hens, and things to the
two great cats, and talk to the horses. I did not want the hen’s corn. I
liked the things that were put into the two great cats’ plate, but the
dog always wanted what was left. The two great cats had a plate of their
own.

“Once when the two great cats were not there and that dog was not, the
woman put something in the plate, and went away and I thought I would
jump quick and get it, and I raced along the wall and got tangled in a
vine, and jumped, and fell and pulled a great stone down on myself; on
the back part of myself; and I could not stir, and when the boy found me
and took the stone off, I was a good deal jammed, and I could not walk
with the legs which belong to that part. People said I must be killed,
but they waited, and I did not have to be killed. I walked with all my
legs.

[Illustration]

“When I grew bigger I used to go into the Molly girl’s house and the
woman used to drive me away. She did not like me, for she saw me get
into the hen-house at a place where it was broken, and saw egg-shells I
left when I sucked the eggs. I could not eat egg-shells.

“One day I did something bad, though I did not know it was bad. I was in
the Molly girl’s house. Her Jemima’s doll’s carriage was on a high
place, but the strings hung over. The wind blew hard that day and I was
very frisky and I jumped and pulled the doll carriage down by the
strings and broke it, and dragged it about and played with it very long.
When the Molly girl came there she cried. The people came and drove me
out, and said very loud, ‘_Scat! scat!_’ A cruel boy that heard them
_scatting_ me set his dog on me, and that dog chased me, but he would
not have touched me if the cruel boy had not said, ‘Shake her!’ When he
heard that he took me by the throat. Oh _Dum_ and _Dee_, may you never
have anything so dreadful happen to you!

[Illustration:

  I Did Something Bad.
]

“The dog dropped me behind a tree and people found me and said I was
dead. The girl I belonged to said I was alive, and they waited, and when
they saw the end of my tail stir they put something on the sores the dog
made, and the grandma woman took care of me, and I got well. But I would
rather have died than to have that cruel boy do so again. Only a cat can
know what a cat can suffer from cruel boys. Dogs would not hurt us if
people and cruel boys did not tell them to.

“One day I had some kittens of my own. We were in a good closet close by
my own girl’s bed. Oh I was proud of my pretty little dears! I wanted
people to come and see them. But when people came they said, ‘Why! why!
why! The cat has kittens in the closet! Take the cat and kittens away
from that closet!’

[Illustration:

  Carried Them to the Barn.
]

“They carried us up to the garret and put us in a box. I would not stay
there. I took my kittens one at a time and carried them in my mouth back
to the closet. We were put up in the box again and the garret door was
kept shut. I got out of the window and carried my kittens down by tree
branches, and got in by another window, and soon they found us in the
closet. Then the boy put some of my kittens in his hat and another boy
took some and they carried them to the barn, and I went there too; but I
would not stay there. I knew what the best place was, the best place was
the closet.

“When it was dark I carried my kittens back to the closet. Then they
carried us down cellar, and kept the door shut. I found a hole and made
it bigger, and squeezed through that hole with my kittens and went back
to the closet. They put us down cellar again and stopped up the hole,
and kept the door shut.

“One day soon as the door was opened I slipped quick between somebody’s
feet, and went up-stairs to the grandma woman’s room, and sat by the
fire. The grandma woman looked at me hard and said, ‘Poor Pixie! It is
too cold for your kittens down cellar; go bring them here.’

“I knew what she said and answered her in my mew language, and went and
got my kittens and she made a bed for us in a basket that had room in
it.

[Illustration:

  Where It Was Not Right for Kittens to Go.
]

“When my kittens were big enough to crawl I went away and left them
sometimes, and if they cried for my going I punished them. When they
were good I let them play with my tail; but I always kept one paw ready
to punish them if they bit me, or bit each other. I took great comfort
with my dear kittens. They understood everything I said to them. One was
taken from me, but I tried to be contented with what were left.

“They soon grew big enough to follow me all over the house, and I took
them to many places. One room was always shut. I did not like that. No
cat likes to have a door kept shut.

“One day a woman went in that room and worked and moved the things; and
she went away and left the door not shut tight, and I pushed in with my
kittens, and they had a happy time. They raced and scampered as if they
were crazy kittens, for there was a high wind blowing that day. I tried
to keep them out of the bed-curtains, but they would go there. They all
got on the bed and raced over the pillows where it was not right for
kittens or even cats to go, and they bit the fringes, and jumped up and
clawed the tassels and some of the tassels were so good that I clawed
them myself. Almost any cat will claw a good tassel hanging down in a
windy day. The kittens rolled over each other too near the edge of the
bed and rolled off, and hopped up and went scampering round the room
pulling all the things they wanted to. They went up on high places and
tipped things over, and pulled things down, and got into the drawers,
and Pomp heard them, and he came in there and jumped about and pulled
things out of the drawers, and gnawed things, and played with my
kittens. They would not mind me, and all I could do was to sit in a
chair and watch them.

“I thought I heard a mouse in a closet, and went in there to see; and
while I was in there somebody drove out my kittens and Pomp. I stayed to
see about the mouse, and I ate something bad in that closet. It had been
put there for the mice.

“What I ate in that closet made me sick and I was very sick. They gave
me medicine. They held my mouth open and put the medicine down my throat
with a spoon. I did not like it. I would not take any more. I went away
in dark places. Sometimes I crawled into the house, and then they tried
to make me eat. They could not make me eat. I grew weaker and weaker,
and one day they said I was dead. The boy said, ‘That cat is not dead.
That is one of the cats that will live all her nine lives.’

[Illustration:

  Only Two.
]

“I was not dead, or if I was dead I came to life again.

“When I came to life again two of my kittens were playing by my side.
Only two. The others were gone. Very soon even these two were taken from
me. Not one of them ever came back. Kittens that have been taken away do
not come back.

“Now that I had no kittens to need me at home, I was free to go out and
meet my friends on fences and the shed-roofs. I went often, and enjoyed
my fights with them very much.

[Illustration:

  There I Saw a Rat Hanging by His Tail.
]

“One day when it was cold weather I went to a swamp to watch a rat’s
nest. Another cat had been watching for that rat, but I meant to get it
myself. I ran all the way, and when I got there I saw the rat on the
tree holding on by his tail and eating what he could find, and I went
up, but the rat slipped down the other side and went to his nest.

“I had better have kept away from that tree. By going up that tree I got
shot. Two boys saw me, and one shot me. I dropped to the ground. The
boys came and kicked me. I was almost dead. The shots stayed in me and
they are in me now. I could crawl a little, but I was very weak.

[Illustration:

  He Dropped Me on a Doorstep.
]

“While I stayed there, crawling a little when I could, a cat came out
from the swamp and ran at me. She was one of my own kittens grown up
into a cat. She had been dropped in the woods, and she was a wild cat.
She flew at me and she would have damaged me very much if a dog had not
barked and scared her away. The dog did not touch me. He took me out of
a muddy ditch. I was crawling, and did not know I was close to the muddy
ditch, and fell into it and went deep in the mud and water. The dog
jumped in and pulled me out. He carried me to a house and dropped me on
the doorstep. The boy came from my house to see me. The people said I
was dead. The boy said, ‘No, she will come to life. She is a cat that
will live all her nine lives.’ And I did come to life. The boy carried
me home, and the grandma woman washed me and fed me with milk, and put
me in a good bed, and I was soon well enough to take a little squash
with my milk.

“The grandma woman used to hold me, and speak softly to me, and if I
jumped on her shoulder she never pushed me off and said ‘scat!’ If I
jumped up there when she was eating breakfast she let me stay, and let
me taste of her breakfast.

“I wanted to thank the grandma woman, and so one day I brought her a
little fish I caught in the pond. I stood on a stone in the pond and
looked down close to the water, and when a fish saw my eyes shine
sometimes it would jump up, and if I put my paw out quick I could catch
the fish. The grandma woman was pleased when I brought the fish, and she
wanted to sing to me. I did not like to hear anybody sing. When anybody
began to sing I got up and walked all around the room, and scratched at
the doors, and I could not keep still. Sometimes the grandma woman sang
when I was asleep; but I opened my eyes and began to walk. Sometimes I
jumped up and put my paw on her mouth.

“One day the white cat and myself got carried off in a bag. It was going
to rain, and we were washing our faces a great deal. A bad boy called us
out, and we stopped washing our faces and went out, and he put us in a
bag. There were very many cats in the bag. The boy carried us to a place
far away and put more cats in the bag, then he carried us to another
place and put more cats in, and then he carried us all very far to a
strange place and let us all out of the bag in a room and shut the doors
and windows tight.

“One of the windows was broken a little and a great cat pushed the glass
out, and we all went through, and set off for our own homes in the rain,
but I went in a barn and hid till the rain stopped. It took me very long
to go home.

“As I passed by a house on my way home, a man in that house was making a
noise on a fiddle, and I ran and jumped up on his shoulder, because he
was making the noise, and he pushed me off, and I ran, and he threw a
wet blacking brush at me, and made a spot on my fur.

[Illustration:

  She Never Pushed Me Off and Said, Scat!
]

“I came home and tried to lick off the spot, but I could not reach it.
It is far off and my neck is stiff. Not any cat would lick it off for
me. I smelt it all the time and felt it, and it worried me. I could not
eat. I grew weak and sick. Sometimes I crawled to the basin and lapped
one or two laps of milk, but no more. I did not catch. Mice came near,
and I did not even stir the end of my tail. I kept in dark places. I
have but little strength left, and with that I am now crawling to the
woods to die. Farewell. Beware of guns, beware of dogs, beware of
stones, beware of stepping on, beware of shutting up, beware of hot
water, beware of drowning, beware of cruel boys, beware of wet blacking
brushes. Farewell. You will never see me more.

[Illustration:

  And Lapped One or Two Laps of Milk.
]

“Pixie then crawled to the woods where she was afterwards found dead; so
dead that she never came back to life.

“_Dum_ and _Dee_, and Mouseroun and Phi, his Wisdom Cat, watched Pixie
until she had crawled out of sight. _Dum_ and _Dee_ then frisked away to
catch bugs for the puss with the large family of kittens, and Mouseroun
and Phi journeyed on to seek the renowned Mistress Tabby Furpurr, who
found out a way of not liking birds, and on that account had her picture
taken and set in a pussy-willow frame, and who had promised to tell the
way to Mouseroun and Phi.

“They did not find her. The renowned Mistress Tabby Furpurr had long
lain buried beneath the lilac bush, having died of old age, and alas!
without revealing the way she found out of not liking birds!”

                  *       *       *       *       *

“Which was a pity,” said the lovely Pussyanita to King Grimalkum as she
finished the story, “since now our race must be blamed for liking birds
when they cannot help liking them. Blamed, dropped, shot, drowned,
stoned—not many of us would be living had we not our nine lives, though
not many cats have done to them what was spoken of in the story the cat
that hadn’t common sense told at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous party.”

“What story was that?” asked King Grimalkum quickly.

“Nothing your majesty will care to hear,” answered Pussyanita. “It is
not a common sense story.”

“I say I do want to hear it,” cried King Grimalkum. “I don’t want any
more common sense stories. I’m tired of common sense. I insist upon
knowing what was spoken of in the story the cat that hadn’t common sense
told at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous party.”

“Your majesty must understand,” said Pussyanita, “that probably it never
really—”

“I don’t care a mouse-ear for your _never reallys_,” interrupted King
Grimalkum. “I want the story.”

“Your majesty’s wish shall be obeyed,” replied Pussyanita, “but your
majesty will perceive at the beginning that it is not a common sense
story.”

“Make no more words about it!” furiously cried the king, “if you do
I’ll—”

The lovely Pussyanita made no more words about it, but hastened to begin
The Story of the Two Charcoals and the Four Spekkums.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Story of the Two Charcoals and the Four Spekkums.
]

[Illustration]


“There was once a cat who had six kittens of exactly the same size, two
very dark ones and four very light ones, and as she could not think of
names for so many and as it was an important matter, she spoke to their
uncle Thomas about it. Their uncle Thomas said it was an important
matter, and sent her to ask the wise and aged Goody Gumbo. Goody Gumbo
had seen much and heard much, for she had been alive ever since the days
when willow trees bore real pussys and some said she was picked off a
willow tree herself.

“Goody Gumbo named the two dark kittens Charcoal, and the four light
ones Spekkum, and they were afterwards spoken of as the Charcoals and
Spekkums.

“When the Charcoals and the Spekkums had grown old enough to run
out-doors, it was seen that one of the Spekkums was much too frisky, and
that they all were likely to be.

[Illustration]

“Their mother spoke to their uncle Thomas about it and he said, ‘send
three of them to school to learn to behave and they can teach the other
three.

“‘Send three of the Spekkums and let Frisky Spekkum be one of the three.
I will see the schoolma’am.’

“The schoolma’am said that she would teach three of the Spekkums to
behave if they would go to the school well dusted in meal bag powder, as
she herself always did. Their mother said she would attend to that and
three of the Spekkums were sent to school and Frisky Spekkum was one of
the three.

[Illustration]

“The schoolma’am took them by themselves and talked to them seriously.
She then placed them in a row and said: ‘Rule first! Sit straight; tails
down; noses up; ears flat; paws hanging!’

“They did so, but Frisky Spekkum did not sit as straight as the others.

“‘Rule second! All stand. Ears up; tails up!’

“They did so, but Frisky Spekkum sat down before she was told to. ‘If
you can’t mind,’ said the schoolma’am, ‘I’ll have no more to do with
you,’ and turned away with a scowl.

“‘O, do have something to do with me!’ cried Frisky Spekkum, and stood
quickly on her feet.

“‘I will if you will be good,’ said the schoolma’am, and turned back
with a smile, and went on with the rules. ‘Rule third! Sit straight;
ears up; noses down; paws up!’

“They did so, though Frisky Spekkum would not hold her paws as high as
the others; and she frisked and caused the others to frisk.

“‘When you have learned to make your bows and say good afternoon
properly you may go home,’ the schoolma’am said. They all made their
bows and said good afternoon properly, for all were anxious to go home,
and Frisky Spekkum did better than the others, for she was more anxious
to go home.

“‘Now go,’ said the schoolma’am, ‘you are a troublesome set and I am
glad to be done with you. Scamper home.’ And they scampered home.

[Illustration]

“On their way home they saw a young rat walking out with his parents,
and went behind a wall and peeped through. They wanted the young rat but
did not like to touch him when his parents were with him. The young rat
was telling his parents of a beautiful shiny box with beautiful cheese
in it. His father said ‘My child, go not near that beautiful shiny box
nor touch that beautiful cheese.’

“The young rat did go to that beautiful shiny box and touch that
beautiful cheese and came near losing his life, as my story will soon
tell.

“The three Spekkums went home to dinner, a very good dinner of milk and
herring. Their uncle Thomas was there and while they were at dinner a
kind girl presented every one of them with a neck ribbon. The Charcoals
and the Spekkums went out to play and Frisky Spekkum was naughty and
gnawed the others’ neck-ribbons and made them gnaw hers. Their mother
spoke to their uncle Thomas about it and he told Frisky that if she did
not behave he should have to send word to the rats to carry her away, as
they carried away Mab Fizz-Fuzz. She said she was not afraid.

“The two Charcoals went to their uncle Thomas’ house to supper and the
four Spekkums stayed with their mother. When it was supper time their
mother said to them softly, ‘Follow me and I will give you something
good.’

“They followed her and she led them to the beautiful shiny box.

“‘You see what is inside,’ said she, ‘jump quick, when I lift up the
door.’

[Illustration:

  Not Quick Enough.
]

“The young rat was inside. He had eaten the beautiful cheese and wished
to stay no longer in the beautiful shiny box. He sprang out when the
door was lifted. The four Spekkums sprang after him. They were not quick
enough. He slipped through a rat-hole, though Frisky Spekkum was near
enough to claw his tail as it went through. He was so frightened he knew
not what he was doing and went straight into a bottle, and there was
something bad left in the bottle, and he would have died of that if a
friendly young frog had not found him. The young frog’s family and the
young rat’s family had been friends ever since one of the young frog’s
family saved the life of one of the young rat’s family, and that was a
long, long time before. It was before the Janjibo.

[Illustration]

“But all this belongs to another story and cannot be told now, for there
is yet more to tell of the Charcoals and the Spekkums.

“One day their uncle Thomas put on his best clothes and his tall hat and
got a sleigh box and two pair of rabbits and invited the Charcoals’ and
Spekkums’ mother to go sleighing with him. Their mother smiled and
quickly put on her best clothes and her bonnet with flowers and got her
best muff.

“The Charcoals and Spekkums all wanted to go, but their uncle Thomas
said so many would be too many for the rabbits and that he would take
three and take the other three next time.

“They took three of the Spekkums and told Frisky Spekkum to stay and
wait with the two Charcoals and go next time. Their uncle Thomas then
helped their mother in, and took his seat, and the three Spekkums hopped
in behind and sat looking over the side as happy as they could be. Their
mother told them to hold on tight for their uncle Thomas would soon whip
up, and they might fall out. Their uncle Thomas whipped up and the
rabbits set off upon a gallop.

“Just as they were setting off, Frisky Spekkum ran away from the two
Charcoals and climbed up behind the sleigh-box, and held on and tried to
get in, but the rabbits went so fast that she fell off and rolled over
and over.

“She went back to play with the Charcoals, but she did not behave well.
She was too frisky with them. She bit ears, and she almost bit off the
two Charcoals’ neck-ribbons and made them bite off her neck ribbon and
was so frisky that one of the Charcoals would not play, and went away.
Frisky then took the other Charcoal with her into pantries and a hen
house and other places where cats ought never to go, and made her eat
with her thick cream, and custard pie, and other things which cats ought
never to eat. They also clawed a best carpet.

“Their uncle Thomas came home and found them in a cheese and butter
closet, and they ran, and he ran and caught them by their tails and
punished them severely.

[Illustration:

  Frisky Spekkum Tries to Steal a Ride.
]

“This did not cure Frisky Spekkum. She was still too Frisky. She frisked
with tassels, she frisked with whip-lashes, she frisked with reins, she
frisked with flies she frisked with rabbits, she frisked with dogs’
tails, she frisked with pigs’ tails. Her mother told her of Mab
Fizz-Fuzz who was carried off by her tail by the rats, and told her that
if she did not stop being too frisky then rats would have to be sent
for. But Frisky would not believe there ever was any Mab Fizz-Fuzz, and
would not stop being too frisky. Her mother spoke to her uncle Thomas
about it, and her uncle Thomas said her mother had better send her to
Goody Gumbo to be talked to. He said that as Goody Gumbo had been alive
ever since real pussys grew on pussy-willow trees, she would know how to
talk to her.

[Illustration:

  In a Cheese and Butter Closet.
]

“Frisky Spekkum was sent to Goody Gumbo to be talked to, but when the
talking began she made believe be deaf and not hear a word. Goody Gumbo
kept ear-trumpets for deaf ones and she gave Frisky a heavy ear-trumpet
and made her hold it till the talking was done.

[Illustration:

  Goody Gumbo Talking to Frisky.
]

“After she was talked to by Goody Gumbo, Frisky Spekkum was not too
frisky for a very long time. She played with the two Charcoals and the
other Spekkums, and behaved as well as any of them. They were all quiet
and happy, and Frisky was as quiet and happy as the others. When they
were playing together Frisky made no mischief with the tails of the
others. She behaved as well as the others.

“This pleased their mother very much and she spoke to their uncle Thomas
about it. Their uncle Thomas said he did not believe that Frisky Spekkum
behaved as well as the two Charcoals and the other Spekkums. Their
mother told him to come and see.

[Illustration:

  The Charcoals and the Speckkums on Their Good Behavior.
]

“Their mother made them sit close together, in a row, with their ears
all turned the same way and their eyes all turned the same way, and
their tails all turned the same way around their fore paws, and Frisky
Spekkum sat so still that when their uncle Thomas came to see he could
not tell which one was Frisky.

[Illustration]

“Not long after this the same kind girl gave them all new neck-ribbons
and their mother said that as they had new neck-ribbons and Frisky had
stopped being too frisky, she would have a party. Then she thought it
would be a good plan to have them go to singing-school and learn
something to sing at the party. She spoke to their uncle Thomas about it
and their uncle Thomas said he would try their voices and find out which
had voices to sing. He tried their voices and found out that only one of
the Charcoals and two of the Spekkums had voices to sing. Frisky Spekkum
was not one of the two Spekkums that had voices to sing, and she did not
go to the singing-school.

“The three that had voices to sing went to singing-school, and were put
in a row by themselves where they sat very still with their tails around
their fore paws as their mother and their uncle Thomas told them to, and
had their voices tried and were taught to sing the song of The Two
Tailed Mouse, every word of which was as true as cream.

“The party was to be in a barn-room on account of a large basket of fish
and lobsters which had been placed there, and it was to be an evening
party.

“Before it was time for the party to begin, the three who were to sing
the song of The Two Tailed Mouse, were told by their mother to go to the
barn-room and sit in a proper manner and sing the song until they could
sing it well enough to sing it at the party and please all who might
hear it. They obeyed her, and as Frisky Spekkum had not been too frisky
for a very long time, she was allowed to go and hear them sing, if she
would sit still. She sat still a great while, but hearing the singing
and looking much at the lobster-feelers made her want to be too frisky
and she frisked with the lobster-feelers, and went into the basket and
frisked with lobster claws, and gnawed them, and clawed them, and gnawed
and clawed some little fishes, and ate all she could of the fishes and
the lobsters, and made herself sick, and could not stay up at the party.
She had to go to bed in the haymow, and when she was asleep she dreamed
that her name was Mab Fizz-Fuzz, and that rats dragged her off by the
tail through a place that was too small.

[Illustration]

[Illustration:

  Frisky Spekkum’s Dream.
]

“She woke up sorrowful. She was sorrowful long. She would not eat, she
would not run, she would not catch, she would not play with the two
Charcoals and the other Spekkums. Their mother spoke to their uncle
Thomas about it, and their uncle Thomas said he thought that dream would
do Frisky Spekkum good.”

                  *       *       *       *       *

“And that is the end of the story, your majesty,” said the lovely
Pussyanita.

“End?” exclaimed the King. “It has no end. It leaves off short. Why does
it leave off short? Why does it not come to a proper end, namely, by the
way a cat’s tail does?”

“Because, your majesty, it is not a common sense story,” replied the
lovely Pussyanita. “I told your majesty at the beginning your majesty
would not like a story that’s not a common sense story.”

“I say I do like stories that are not common sense stories!” cried King
Grimalkum. “Common sense makes my head ache. Tell me another. Tell the
one you skipped; that about the Janjan’s.”

“Your majesty means The Janjibo,” said Pussyanita. “That is the silliest
story that ever was.”

“I have always wanted to hear the silliest story that ever was,” said
the King. “Tell it. And let it have an end, or you’ll be sorry.”

The lovely Pussyanita bowed and began the Story of the Janjibo, and of
the Frog and the Rat.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Story of the Janjibo, and of the Frog and the Rat.
]

[Illustration:

  Watching the Rat.
]


“Once upon a time, a long time ago, a family of rats made a home for
themselves in a haymow, and a good home it was. Corn, and potatoes, and
hayseed and other things were handy. With all these good things handy,
one of the young rats must needs walk into a trap. Two cats had long
been watching the family, and when they saw this young rat go towards
the trap, they sprang, and one of them caught him by the end of his tail
just as he was going in, and pulled him out, but he got away and ran
down-stairs, and the two cats after him, and at the bottom of the stairs
he ran into something with a big hole at the big end and a small hole at
the small end. He went in at the big hole, and the cats went in at the
big hole after him. He went out at the small hole. It was just big
enough for him to go through, and was not big enough for the cats to go
through, and they turned round quick, and got tangled up in each other,
and went out and went round outside and chased him, but the young rat
had jumped out of a window. He was so frightened that he ran, and ran,
and ran, across fields and hills, and got lost in a boggy swamp, and a
great snapping turtle would have snapped him up, if a young frog had not
begged the snapping turtle to let him live. The snapping turtle said he
would let him live if the young frog would take care of him. The young
frog said he would if his mother would be willing. The young frog’s
mother said he might take care of him if the young rat would promise not
to eat any tadpoles.

[Illustration:

  In After Him.
]

“The young rat promised not to eat any tadpoles, and the young frog took
care of him and they lived together, and played tag together, and
hide-and-seek together, and tiltered together, and did other things
together. When the frog hid he croaked for the rat to come and find him,
and when the rat hid he squealed for the frog to come and find him. When
the frog hid among the cat-o’-nine-tails, the young rat wouldn’t play;
and when they played tag, if the frog went among the cat-o’-nine-tails
the rat wouldn’t chase. When they played tilter, they had to tilt high
so that the frog’s legs need not touch the ground.

“The young rat was happy, and had no wish to return to his family. He
went to all the frog concerts, and tried to get the frog tunes, but as
he could only squeak them, or squeal them, and could not croak them, he
could not get the frog tunes.

[Illustration:

  They Had to Tilt High.
]

“At last his family heard where he was, and begged his aunt to go fetch
him home, as she had no children, and could leave home as well as not.
His aunt said she would go as soon as news should come from the King of
the Cats. The King of the Cats was expected to die. He had caught a bad
cold wading for eels on a damp day, and had taken to his bed, and called
in Doctor Bowwow, and Doctor Bowwow had looked at his tongue and told
him he could not live. The young rat’s family begged his aunt to go
right off. She said she wished to wait and hear of the death of the King
of the Cats, for that would be good to hear.

[Illustration]

“As soon as word came that the King of the Cats was dead, the young
rat’s aunt set off to the far-off swamp, and found it, but by that time
the young rat had gone with the young frog to live on the edge of the
pond. She looked all through the swamp, and got her feet wet, and lost
her way, and tangled herself in the swamp-vines, and caught herself in a
swamp-vine string and could not get away, and there she stayed until the
day of the Wonderful News.

“The Wonderful News was brought by a travelling kangaroo. As the young
rat and the frog were sitting one evening by the edge of the pond, a
kangaroo came leaping past, and stopped between two of his leaps and
said, ‘Wonderful News! Peace between the cats and the rats and mice! All
friends!’ and the kangaroo leaped on.

[Illustration]

“‘Wonderful news indeed!’ said the young rat. ‘I must let the water rats
know.’

“The frog said he would attend to that, and he got upon a log and
croaked, ‘Wonderful news! Peace between the cats and the rats and mice!’

“Other frogs heard him, and sat upon logs, stones, rocks and stumps, and
croaked, ‘Wonderful news! Peace between the cats and the rats and mice!’
and other frogs heard these other frogs, and croaked the same, and the
great bull-frogs got hold of it and bellowed it, and frogs and
bull-frogs in other ponds and swamps and bogs heard it, and croaked it
and bellowed it, and before morning the Wonderful News was known to
every water rat far and near; and the water rats told the land rats as
quickly as they could.

“The young rat’s aunt heard it in the swamp, and jumped hard and broke
the swamp-vine string, and set off on a gallop, this way and that way,
and the wrong way, and lost her way, and away she went.

“The young rat said he must travel off somewhere and hear how it all
happened, and he and the frog set out together and travelled. Sometimes
the young rat let the frog ride on his back, because he could go faster
by runs than the frog could by leaps. The rat could not go frog-back,
because it was so hard to keep on. When they had travelled a long way
they met a mother rat, with her baby in her mouth, running as fast as
she could go.

[Illustration]

“The young rat asked her to stop and speak to him, and she stopped. The
young rat then asked the mother rat where she was going so fast, and the
mother rat said her baby was too sick to be left alone, and that she
could not stay away from the Janjibo, and she was carrying the baby to
stay at its grandfather’s till she should come back from the Janjibo.
The young rat asked her what there was to be a Janjibo for.

“She asked him if he had not heard the ‘Wonderful News.’ He said he had,
and that he wished to know how it all happened. The mother rat then said
that if they would come to her baby’s grandfather’s, they could then go
with her to the Janjibo, and on the way there she would tell them how it
all happened. They went with her to her baby’s grandfather’s and then to
the Janjibo, and this is what the mother rat told.”


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  What the Mother Rat Told.
]


“After the King of the Cats died, and the King of the Cats’ son had been
made king, the rats and mice sent to ask if the cats and the rats and
mice could not be friends, so that there might be peace between them.
The new king said he did not think it would be a good plan at all, but
he would see what the dogs had to say about it, for dogs had the name of
knowing more than cats. He picked out three of his wisest cats, and sent
them to the dogs, and the dogs picked out two of their chief dogs, one
named Know and the other named Quick, and the two dogs and the three
cats met together. Quick asked Know what cats could live upon if they
did not eat rats, and mice. Know said that if cats should give up
catching, then people would feed them more. People kept from feeding
them so as to make them catch.

[Illustration:

  The Wise Cats and Dogs.
]

“The wisest of the three wise cats said that dogs were not expected to
catch; they were fed by people.

“Know asked if it was great trouble to catch rats and mice. The next
wisest of the three cats said that if he should try it he would find
that it was much easier to eat off a plate, or even off the floor, than
to sit half the night in a cold barn, or cellar, or garret, tired and
hungry, watching rat-holes and mouse-holes. Quick asked if rat-holes and
mouse-holes could not be in rooms people lived in where it would be
pleasant for a cat to sit and watch. Know said that could not be, for
rats and mice did not like people as well as cats did.

[Illustration:

  The Pledges of Good Faith.
]

“The end of it all was that the dogs thought it would be a good thing
for the cats to be friends with the rats and mice, and a little bird
that heard all the talk told the Kangaroos.

“In order to be sure that the cats and the rats and mice should do right
by each other, the dogs said that the rats must give up a baby rat to be
kept by the cats, and the cats must give up a baby cat to be kept by the
rats. This was done. The baby rat was youngest of a family of four
children, and the baby cat was the youngest of a family of four. The
dogs said this would make it even.

“The three cats walked in procession with the baby in front, and their
oldest sister walked after them all, and the three rats walked in
procession with their baby in front and their oldest sister walked after
them all. But when they came in sight of each other, the rats were
afraid of the cats and went behind their oldest sister. The oldest
sister of the rats then took the baby cat in her mouth, and the cat
procession started, and when the oldest sister of the cats came to the
baby rat she took that in her mouth and then the rat procession started,
and both processions walked away, and the baby rat is now staying with
the cats, and the baby cat stays with the rats, and all is well. We do
not have to hide in holes and under floors and behind walls, and our
children will all live to grow up, unless they get sick from eating
poison, as my baby did.

[Illustration]

“And now that we are all friends, the cats and the rats and mice are
going to meet together and have a Janjibo, and there is to be fine music
and the tables are to be spread with everything nice. The dogs said that
as the rats and mice were the ones to ask to be friends they must be the
ones to bring things to eat, and they are working with all their might
to get ready the pies, and cakes, and jellies, and ice-creams, and nuts,
and sweet corn, and cheeses, and eggs, and dishes, and knives, and
forks, and spoons. We shall soon see them, for we are near the place
where the Janjibo is to be.

“As the frog and the young rat and the mother rat came near the place
where the Janjibo was to be, they saw rats hurry skurrying as fast as
they could with cakes, pies, dishes and other things. They met gentlemen
rats in their best clothes, carrying knives, forks and spoons, and
looking everywhere for eggs.

[Illustration:

  The Way the Egg Went Safely.
]

“Three of these gentlemen rats in their best clothes, found an egg and
began to roll it. ‘We shall break it doing this way,’ said one to the
others. ‘I am afraid we shall,’ said the others, and they stopped to
think. The mother rat went to them and said: ‘The shells of eggs are too
thin. Shells of eggs should be thicker.

“‘But I can tell you a way. Let one of you gentlemen lie flat on his
back and hold the egg with all four of his legs and let the other two
gentlemen draw that one by his tail; then the egg will go safe and the
gentleman will get a ride.’

[Illustration]

“They did so. The gentleman rat that had the knife gave the knife to the
gentleman rat that had the fork and lay down flat on his back, and held
the egg in all four of his legs and the other two drew him by his tail
and the egg went safe and he got a ride.

“Next came a lively young cat with a pudding-bag string. She said she
was frolicking with the rats and was running away with their pudding-bag
string. She said she did not care about the Janjibo. She did not care
about the peace. She wanted to have a good time. She did not know if she
should like to be friends with the rats and mice. Sometimes it was good
fun to catch them.

[Illustration:

  The Cat Ran Away With the Pudding-Bag String.
]

“The mother rat told her that she was very naughty, and the rats could
not do without their pudding-bag string and that she must carry it back
to them. She did not. She went dancing away with it.

“Next came a great many rats with a pie so big they could hardly lift
it. They were afraid they should drop it, and they held it up with all
their might by their heads and their backs, and their shoulders. The
Pie-cutter with his knife came close behind. The young rat went to help.

[Illustration:

  The Rats, the Pie and the Pie-Cutter.
]

[Illustration:

  The Mother Rat Told the Pie-Cutter How to Cut It.
]

“The frog said he should be willing to help, but he should have to go
with leaps, and going with leaps was not a good way to go with a pie.
The mother rat said to them, ‘You’d better set it down and cut it, and
then it will be all ready to be passed round. Set it down and cut it,
and you can rest while you are cutting it. Cut it first in large pieces,
and then cut the large pieces into small pieces. The pie must all be cut
in small pieces or there may not be enough to go round.’ They set it
down, and the mother rat told the Pie-cutter the right way to cut it,
and he cut it the right way. Just as the Pie-cutter had done cutting it,
the young rat looked at a light-colored rat that was among the other
ones, and said, ‘There’s my aunt.’

“It was his aunt. The one that was tangled in the swamp-vine string, and
broke it in jumping when she heard the Wonderful News, and got away, and
lost her way. She did not find the way she lost, but she found her way
to the Janjibo, and was helping.

“‘So you are my nephew!’ she said. ‘How you have grown! Do you know that
the cats and the rats and mice are friends?’

“‘Oh yes,’ said the young rat. ‘A travelling kangaroo told me.’

“‘Friends indeed!’ said his aunt. ‘Look yonder. Do you see what is doing
yonder? That is your little brother. Perhaps you never knew that your
little brother could take pictures.’

“‘Never,’ said the young rat. ‘Can he?’

“‘Yes; he can,’ said his aunt. ‘Yonder he is now, taking the picture of
a Tabby. He has plenty to do. There is another close by, waiting for her
turn.’

“‘Why!’ cried the young rat. ‘They are the very same ones that chased me
when I was a little rat and made me run away!’

“‘Yes’ his aunt said. ‘They are friendly now. What are you going to do?
Do you want to help us get ready?’

[Illustration]

“‘I do,’ said the young rat.

“‘Step in here then,’ said his aunt. ‘Step in to this Ice-cream Place,
and stir up the ice-cream. Stir it up with your fore paws.’ They two
stepped into the Ice-cream Place, and the young rat’s aunt showed him
how to stir up the ice-cream with his fore paws. While he was doing this
a cat peeped through the door at him. His aunt thought by the looks of
the cat’s eye that it was a cat that had not heard of the peace.

“She was so afraid the cat did not know of the peace and would eat the
young rat that she caught hold of his tail quick and pulled him with all
her might and they ran out of the Ice-cream Place by two rat-holes. The
mother rat and the frog were waiting for the young rat and he travelled
on with them.

[Illustration:

  Afraid He Had Not Heard of the Peace.
]

“That cat would not have hurt the young rat. She did know of the peace
and she was gathering up rats for the Janjibo. The young rat and the
frog and the mother rat saw her afterwards showing a great many rats
that had come from afar, the way into the Janjibo and even taking up the
tired ones in her mouth and carrying them in.

[Illustration:

  Taking Up the Tired Ones in Her Mouth.
]

“Three young kittens sat watching her while they waited for their
mother. They were dressed in their best clothes and white gloves, all
ready to dance a jig at the Janjibo.

“They were waiting for their mother to go in with them. Their mother
taught them the jig and she was coming to fiddle for them to dance. They
were in a hurry for her to come because they were afraid of a fierce
black rat who stood near by with his gun. The fierce black rat had been
ordered to stand there with his gun to keep off the rabbits. The rabbits
had been heard to say they did not like the peace between the cats and
the rats and mice, and that they meant to break it up, and meant to
break up the Janjibo.

[Illustration:

  The Sentinel.
]

“As soon as the mother rat and the frog and the young rat went into the
Janjibo, the mother rat met with her oldest daughter, just from home,
and she kept with her mother and the young rat was polite to her.

“A very great number came to the Janjibo. The supper was good, and after
supper the ones who could tell stories told stories, and the ones who
could sing songs, sang songs, and the ones who could talk, talked. A
mouse with a lame hind leg said she hoped all cats would know of the
peace and told a Spinning Story.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  A Spinning Story.
]


“She said that one day when she and her sisters sat spinning in the
barn, a cat looked in at the window. They did not run, for why should
they run when cats and mice were friends? The cat that was looking in
the window had not heard of the peace and she jumped at them. Then they
ran but she and one of her sisters did not run quick enough, and her
sister was bitten in the head and she herself was bitten in the hind
leg, and made lame for life.

“Three blind and feeble mice without any tails then told the Blind Mice
Story.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Blind Mice Story.
]

[Illustration]


“They were born blind, and were obliged to find their way by their
noses. A farmer’s wife had been giving corn to the hens and some of the
corn was left in her pocket, and they smelled the corn and ran after the
farmer’s wife, and she cut off their tails with a carving knife. Now
they could not run very fast, for no rat can run fast unless he feels
his tail behind him.

“A cat of the name of Henry, said this story made him think of the
Air-Ball Story.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration:

  The Air-Ball Story.
]

[Illustration]


“Three kittens, Faw, Sol, and Law, were once playing in a yard when a
short boy named Chickerchecker came and tied air-balls to their tails so
that he might have the fun of seeing the air-balls take Faw, Sol, and
Law up in the air.

“When Faw, Sol, and Law began to feel the back ends of themselves going
up they did not know what to do to keep them down and they mewed and
mewed and stuck the claws of their fore paws into the ground.
Chickerchecker was much pleased.

[Illustration]

“Their mother was the other side of the wall and near enough to hear
them mew. She knew that if they mewed so, something was the matter. She
sprang to the top of the wall and looked over and when she saw what had
been done she was very angry, and jumped down, and took the air-balls
off of Faw, Sol, and Law’s tails and tied them to Chickerchecker, and
Chickerchecker went over the wall and blew into a tree.

“Faw, Sol, and Law were so much pleased that they danced up and down.
Their mother also was much pleased.

“At the end of this story the singing Tommies sang the funny song of the
Bold Young Fishbone and the Gay Young Wishbone.

“It began with

                    There was a bold young Fishbone,
                        Finnery, finnery fi!
                    There was a gay young Wishbone,
                        Winnery, winnery, wi!

and ended in the same manner.

[Illustration]

“The singing Tommies had new jackets and trousers and new gloves, as of
course any singers would have who were to sing at a Janjibo.

“After this song and others were sung the kittens who came to dance a
jig, danced it. Their mother played the fiddle well, and they danced
their steps well and gave much pleasure to all present. All present were
happy in the peace and no doubt the peace would have lasted to this day
if the rabbits and the hens had not broken it up.

“The rabbits and the hens did not like the peace. The rabbits said that
cats must eat and if they did not eat rats and mice they must eat
rabbits. The hens said that if no rats were eaten they would every one
live to grow up and would eat all the corn and the hens and other fowl
would wear themselves out scratching for worms. They said they should
like to get hold of the frogs, for if the frogs had kept still, so many
rats would not have heard the Wonderful News.

[Illustration:

  They Danced Their Steps Well.
]

“The rabbits said they did not believe the Lion knew of the peace and
they meant to send him word and ask him to stop it. The cats would have
to do whatever he should say, for the Lion was the head of their family
besides being king of all the animals.

[Illustration]

“The cat that ran away with the Pudding-Bag String was known to think
not very well of the peace and she was asked to go and speak to the
Lion. She said she would go, but must first borrow her grandmother’s
boots of swiftness. Her grandmother was just taking her tea and felt
very well. She said she was not using her boots and was willing to lend
them if they could be taken good care of. The cat that ran away with the
Pudding Bag String put them on and went to speak to the Lion.

[Illustration]

“The Lion said the peace was the funniest thing he ever heard of, and
made him almost die a laughing. He told the cat that ran away with the
Pudding Bag String to tell the cats there never could be peace between
the cats and the rats and mice, and never should be so long as Lions
were Lions, and to tell the rabbits and the hens and other fowl to break
up the Janjibo.

[Illustration:

  The Frog Going Ratback.
]

“As soon as the rabbits and hens and other fowl heard this they got
together from all parts and went leaping and running and flying into the
Janjibo, crying ‘No peace! No peace! The Lion says no peace.’ The hens
cackled it, the roosters crowed it, the geese squawked it, the turkeys
gobbled it, the guinea fowl squalled it, the peacocks screamed it, and
the Janjibo was broken up and the rats and mice ran away quick, for if
there was no peace they were in dreadful danger.

“The young rat was in a hurry to get away from the cats, and the frog
was in a hurry to get away from the hens and other fowl. The young rat
said that as he could go faster by runs than the frog could by leaps, he
would take the frog ratback. The frog threw on a hat and cloak to hide
himself, as he had to sit high, in plain sight, and got on the young
rat’s back, and they went so swift that the frog lost his hat off
behind.

“The mother rat and her daughter kept as near them as they could. When
the young rat grew tired he begged the frog to whip him and make him go
fast, for he would rather be whipped than be caught by the cats.

“He was not caught. They both reached their home at the edge of the
pond, and left that home no more. The young rat married the mother rat’s
daughter, and they had many children, and the frog married the frog he
loved best, and had a large family of little tadpoles, and the little
tadpoles played with the little rats and the little rats played with the
little tadpoles, and the little rats told rat stories, and the little
tadpoles told tadpole stories, and they all lived happily all their
lives.”

                  *       *       *       *       *

“And that is the end of the story, your majesty,” said the lovely
Pussyanita. “And a good end,” said King Grimalkum. “I knew I should like
the story. Is it truly the silliest story that ever was?” “Yes, your
majesty,” replied Pussyanita. “The silliest, I mean, of our kind of
stories. Of course it is not as silly as the stories the little tadpoles
told the little rats.”

“Were the stories the little tadpoles told the little rats, sillier than
the ones the little rats told the little tadpoles?” asked the king.

“Much sillier,” replied Pussyanita.

“Tell them,” said the king.

“But your majesty,” replied Pussyanita, “there were swarms of little
tadpoles and I have not long to live.”

“You shall live as long as you can, you lovely creature!” cried the
king. “Do you think I would put an end to the life of a sweet young
story-teller who can tell both common sense stories and not common sense
stories? No! Live! Live and be happy!”

“Alas!” replied the lovely Pussyanita. “I cannot be happy when so many
of my kind are in danger. Oh, take back your cruel command! Let our
whole race live!”

“I do take it back,” answered the king. “For your sake the whole race
shall live.”

                  *       *       *       *       *

The cruel command was taken back. The whole race of cats were allowed to
live. Those which were “white, or yellow, or which had more white or
yellow hairs than dark ones,” all these as well as the “black, Maltese
and gray,” were for Pussyanita’s sake allowed to live.

                  *       *       *       *       *

“Here, uncle Fred, is your Cats’ Arabian Nights Story Book,” said cousin
Lucia, “all ready for the children when they shall come next summer with
their fathers and mothers; and I hope they will have as much fun in
hearing it as I had in writing it.”


------------------------------------------------------------------------




 ● Transcriber’s Notes:
    ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
    ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
    ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
      when a predominant form was found in this book.
    ○ Text that:
      was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).