delicacies that he liked more than raw potatoes, he was hungry enough to
enjoy them--and not even ask for salt. And his wife, too, ate almost as
heartily as he did. The pale moonlight, streaming through the cellar
window, lighted their banquet hall with its ghostly gleams. They enjoyed
the cool dampness of the place. They liked its musty smell. And Moses
Mouse remarked--between mouthfuls--that they hadn't had such an elegant
feast for weeks. "It's quite like old times," he said.
Mrs. Mouse agreed with him. Indeed, they relished their meal so
thoroughly that they forgot everything else. And if Moses Mouse hadn't
happened to glance up and see two eyes gleaming at him from over the
edge of the box he would have had no reason for leaving his meal
unfinished. At the moment, his mouth was crammed so full of raw potato
that he could scarcely say a word.
"Miss Snooper!" he gasped, all but choking over the words. And he
vanished in a twinkling, hoping, of course, that Mrs. Mouse would take
the hint and disappear too, but not waiting to see whether she managed
to get away safely.
A second later Miss Kitty Cat sprang into the box. She reached out a paw
and grabbed at what looked like Mrs. Mouse. But to her great disgust she
found her claws clutching nothing more interesting than a small potato,
with a little knob at one end that looked not unlike a head.
Miss Kitty Cat let go of her prize with a mew of disappointment. She
knew that by that time Mr. and Mrs. Mouse had made their escape. And
Miss Kitty soon learned how they slipped away. In one corner of the box
she found a tiny hole. "Here's where they went!" she exclaimed. "I don't
see how I missed seeing it when I first came sniffing around this box."
Though she had lost a midnight supper, Miss Kitty did not feel too sad.
She was too angry for that.
"At last," she cried, "I've found out what old dog Spot wouldn't tell
me. The mice are calling me 'Miss Snooper' behind my back!"
In the morning, when Miss Kitty met old dog Spot in the woodshed, she
was still feeling peevish. "What are you doing in here?" she snapped.
"Oh, I'm just snooping around to see what I can find for my breakfast,"
he told her with a grin.
Miss Kitty Cat bared her teeth in a snarl.
"_Snooping!_" she cried. "You'd better be careful what you say to me! I
heard some mice talking last night."
"Ah!" said old Spot. "Now you know that listeners seldom hear anything
good about themselves."
Then he decided, suddenly, that he would look elsewhere for his
breakfast.
For Miss Kitty Cat was in a terrible temper.
XVIII
KIDNAPPED
THERE was great rejoicing among all the Mouse family. Pudgy Mr. Moses
Mouse had picked up a bit of news that delighted him and his wife and
all their many relations. Somebody had stolen Miss Snooper--as the Mouse
family always called Miss Kitty Cat! Somebody had taken her away!
Master Meadow Mouse had seen it all; and he had told Moses exactly how
it happened. Master Meadow Mouse knew that a wagon had borne Miss
Snooper up the road and over the hill. He had watched it disappear, with
his own eyes. All those things Moses Mouse repeated as fast as his
short breath would permit. He had hurried back home to tell the news as
soon as he had heard it. He found, however, that no one cared _how_ Miss
Kitty Cat (or Miss Snooper), went, nor where; no one cared who took her;
no one cared when. It was enough to know that she was gone. And
everybody exclaimed that it was the best news ever--and good riddance to
bad rubbish--meaning Miss Kitty Cat.
If it were only true! The Mouse family scarcely dared believe that it
was. But when two days passed, and Moses Mouse himself had even ventured
into the pantry, and the kitchen, and the woodshed, without meeting Miss
Kitty, the Mouse family dared decide that she had indeed gone for good.
* * * * *
Meanwhile Miss Kitty Cat was having a most unhappy time. It was true
that she had been stolen. A man driving a peddler's wagon up the hill
one evening had noticed her as she lay on top of the stone wall, around
the turn of the road beyond the farmhouse. "Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!" he
called, as he stopped his horse. And reaching behind the seat, he
brought out a bit of food, which he held out for her.
Now, it happened that at that very moment Miss Kitty Cat had her mind on
food. She had been hoping that a meal would appear at any moment out of
a chink in the wall. And when it was dangled right before her eyes like
that she couldn't resist it. She climbed up into the wagon. And the next
thing she knew the peddler had clapped her into a basket and fastened
the cover. Miss Kitty Cat was a prisoner.
"There, my beauty!" the peddler exclaimed. "I'll take you home with me.
We need a mouser. And I dare say you're a good one. Unless I'm mistaken,
you were hunting chipmunks on the wall."
Miss Kitty Cat made no answer. Naturally, it pleased her to be called a
beauty. But there were other matters that she didn't like in the least.
Her captor had forgotten to toss the scrap of meat into the basket--the
bait with which he had caught her. And it was somewhat breathless inside
her prison. And Miss Kitty Cat had no idea where the peddler was taking
her.
He had clucked to his horse and started him plodding up the hill. Every
time a wheel struck a stone Miss Kitty gritted her teeth. She never did
enjoy riding in a wagon, anyhow. And this one was not at all
comfortable.
"They'll wonder, back home, what's become of me," she thought. "And one
thing is certain: everybody will miss me!"
XIX
STRANGE QUARTERS
THE PEDDLER that took Miss Kitty Cat away in his cart drove long into
the night. Inside the basket into which her captor had popped her, Miss
Kitty kept her wits at work. She knew that there were many twists and
turns as they creaked up the hills and rattled down the other side of
them. Then there were level stretches where the peddler held his horse
to a swinging gait that fast put long miles between them and Farmer
Green's place in Pleasant Valley.
"Dear me!" Miss Kitty thought. "What a tramp I'll have getting back
home again!" For already she was planning to return to the farm. She
didn't care if they did need a good mouser at the stranger's house. They
needed one just as much at Farmer Green's.
"If Mrs. Green has to depend on traps to take care of the mice she'll
soon be eaten out of house and home," Miss Kitty mused. "The minute that
fat Moses Mouse knows I'm gone he'll be as bold as brass."
At last the wagon left the hard road and pulled up in a dooryard. A dog
barked. And Miss Kitty heard voices.
"I've brought you something in here that you'll like," said the peddler
as he handed Miss Kitty's basket to somebody. "But don't look at it out
of doors or it'll get away."
Later, inside the house, a woman let Miss Kitty out of her prison.
"What a big cat!" she exclaimed. "Where did you get her?"
"Oh, I picked her up on the road," said the peddler. "She looked as if
she wanted a ride," he chuckled. "I think she was hunting along an old
stone wall."
"She'll find hunting enough here," said his wife. "This house is overrun
with mice. I'll just put her down cellar and let her work for her
supper." Then she gave Miss Kitty a toss down the cellar stairs and
slammed the door behind her.
It was no wonder that Miss Kitty Cat was angry.
"A fine way to treat a guest!" she spluttered down there in the dark.
"That woman might have set out a little milk for me. It would have
tasted good, after my long ride in that stuffy basket." Miss Kitty
couldn't help thinking what a fine home she had had at Farmer Green's
and how good Mrs. Green had always been to her.
Even Johnnie Green--though he _was_ a boy--had petted her oftener than
he had pulled her tail.
But Miss Kitty was too hungry to sit long at the foot of the cellar
stairs in thought.
She soon heard faint rustlings squeaks, and scratchings around her. And
though she didn't care to oblige the woman upstairs in any way, Miss
Kitty lost no time in providing a hearty meal for herself.
Then she lay down on an old sack and slept for a while.
And just before the roosters began to crow she had found a broken pane
in a cellar window.
"What luck!" said Miss Kitty under her breath. And very silently she
slipped through the opening and stole away.
XX
A LONG JOURNEY
BY SUNRISE Miss Kitty Cat had trotted at least a mile along the road
that passed the peddler's house. She wanted to get a safe distance away
before the family got up and turned loose the dog that had barked the
night before, when she arrived.
Miss Kitty remembered clearly that the wagon had been climbing a long
hill before it turned into the peddler's dooryard. So without hesitating
she started _down_ the road. She knew that in that direction lay
Pleasant Valley--and her home at Farmer Green's.
Having put the first mile of her journey behind her, Miss Kitty stopped
beside a little brook and drank her fill of cool, sweet water. She was
very thirsty, because she hadn't had a drink since the evening before.
A pretty wood stretched beyond the brook, tempting Miss Kitty Cat to
explore it. At that hour of the morning there were many birds twittering
among the trees. And spry chipmunks were frisking about in search of
their breakfast. Miss Kitty Cat just naturally began to think of her own
breakfast.
"If I were at home, Mrs. Green would be setting a saucer of milk on the
woodshed steps about this time," she murmured. "But now I must shift for
myself."
Luckily Miss Kitty was quite able to find something to eat, as a
surprised meadow mouse soon discovered.
After breakfasting, Miss Kitty lingered a while to tease the birds, who
scolded her shrilly, calling her a tramp and telling her to get out of
their woods.
Of course Miss Kitty had to stay there for a time after that, to let the
birds know that they couldn't frighten her away. She scared them almost
out of their wits by threatening to climb up where their nests were. But
she didn't do more than sharpen her claws against a tree-trunk. That
alone was enough to throw them into a panic.
At last, after she had bothered the birds quite enough, Miss Kitty Cat
set off for Pleasant Valley once more. Sometimes she travelled through
fields; sometimes she jogged along the roads; sometimes she jumped to
the top of a stone wall and used that for a highway. And always when she
heard the creak and rattle of a wagon, as the sun rose higher and
higher, she crept into the bushes and hid until she had the road to
herself again.
If Miss Kitty hadn't been homesick she would have thought her adventure
a great lark. But somehow she couldn't get Mrs. Green's house out of her
mind. Especially the thought of the kitchen, with its delicious odors of
seven-layer cakes baking in the oven, and doughnuts frying on top of the
range, made Miss Kitty's nose twitch. And her own particular warm spot
under the range, where she basked away long hours! When she recalled
that it was no wonder that her pace quickened.
Perhaps Miss Kitty Cat herself couldn't have told exactly how she knew
the way back to Farmer Green's place. No doubt she wouldn't have told,
had she known; for she was one of the kind that keep such things to
themselves. She never even explained to old dog Spot, afterward, where
she spent the three nights that she was away from the farm.
Anyhow, Miss Kitty Cat kept plodding along. And one afternoon when she
came out of a patch of woods on a hill-top, she saw something looming
right ahead of her that looked familiar.
It was Blue Mountain. And she knew that on the other side of it lay
Pleasant Valley--and her home at Farmer Green's.
XXI
IN THE PANTRY
OF COURSE everybody knows that while the cat's away the mice will play.
So what happened during Miss Kitty Cat's absence from the farmhouse was
really no more than any one might have expected. There were gay banquets
in Mrs. Green's pantry at midnight. And among those present there was no
one that had a better time than fat Mr. Moses Mouse. He was always the
life of the party. He made jokes about Miss Snooper--as he called Miss
Kitty Cat. And nobody laughed at them harder than he.
With every night that passed, Moses Mouse grew still merrier. Some of
his companions even claimed that they could scarcely eat, he made them
giggle so violently.
On the fourth night of Miss Kitty's absence, and at the fourth banquet,
Mr. Mouse balanced a bit of cheese on the end of his nose, exclaiming at
the same time, "What a pity it is that Miss Snooper isn't here! How I'd
like to offer her this delicious tidbit!"
To his great surprise, none of his friends laughed.
"Look out, Moses!" Mrs. Mouse cried the next moment.
"Don't worry, my dear!" said he. "I shan't lose this nice piece of
cheese. If I drop it I can find it again. But I'm not going to drop it.
I've practiced this trick a good many times.... It's too bad Miss
Snooper isn't here to see it."
[Illustration: Miss Kitty Cat Sees Moses Mouse Balance a Bit of Cheese
on His Nose.]
Still nobody even snickered--though Moses himself would have had he not
been afraid of joggling the cheese off the end of his nose. He thought
the silence very strange. And removing his eyes from the cheese, which
he had been watching closely (though it made him look cross-eyed), he
took a quick glance about him. Everybody had vanished.
"Ha!" said Moses Mouse to himself. "They're playing a trick on me. They're
hiding." And he promptly lost his temper. Much as he loved to cut
capers and play tricks on others, Moses never liked to have any one get
a laugh on him. And now he gave a sort of snort, because he was angry.
Thereupon the bit of cheese fell off Moses's nose and rolled behind him
on the pantry floor. He turned to get it, only to find himself face to
face with Miss Snooper herself; for Miss Kitty Cat was home again.
Before Moses Mouse could jump she clapped a paw down on him. And there
he was--a prisoner!
"Well, well!" cried Miss Kitty Cat. "Aren't you glad to see me? You were
just wishing I was here."
Moses Mouse didn't act glad--not the least bit! He struggled his hardest
to get away. But Miss Kitty hadn't the slightest trouble holding him,
with only one paw, too.
"Now that I'm here," she said to him, "don't you want to balance that
scrap of cheese on your nose once more, and offer it to me?"
Since Miss Kitty caught him, Moses Mouse hadn't said anything that she
could understand. He had made only a few squeaks of fright. Now,
however, he managed to gasp, "Yes! Just let me go a moment! I can't
pick up the cheese while you're crushing me against the pantry floor."
XXII
THE FLOUR BARREL
MISS KITTY CAT took her paw off Moses Mouse, after giving him a sharp
nip to warn him not to try to run away.
"Ouch!" Moses squeaked. And then, when he felt himself free, he picked
up the hit of cheese that he had dropped upon the pantry floor. But he
was shaking with fear.
He shook so hard that he couldn't balance the cheese on the end of his
nose. It tumbled off at once and he turned quickly to get it. Miss Kitty
Cat turned with him. And while she was turning, Moses Mouse turned back
again and jumped behind a flour barrel.
She sprang after him. But the barrel stood so near the wall that there
was only a small space behind it. It was wide enough for Moses Mouse to
slip through; but it was entirely too narrow for Miss Kitty Cat. And
Moses Mouse waited just beyond reach of her paw.
She ran around the barrel, only to find that Moses had crawled back
through the opening and was watching her with his beady little eyes.
Miss Kitty Cat was almost frantic. She hurried around the barrel again,
and saw that Moses Mouse had repeated his trick. He needed only to move
the length of his tail, while she had to whisk all the way around the
fat flour barrel.
"This will never do," Miss Kitty thought, as she peered through the
crack at Moses Mouse, while she paused to get her breath. And as she
stared at him, an idea popped into her head. It seemed such a good idea
that Miss Kitty Cat decided to act upon it at once.
So she wheeled and started off again, as if to run around the barrel
once more. But when she had whisked half way around it she turned and
hurried back again.
She had expected to surprise Mr. Moses Mouse on the wrong side of the
crack. And to her astonishment, he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere in
sight.
"Goodness me!" Miss Kitty Cat wailed. "There must have been something
wrong with my idea."
There wasn't. It had merely happened that Moses Mouse had had an idea of
his own.
"I don't want to stay dodging here the rest of the night," he had said
to himself. "The next time Miss Snooper makes a trip around the barrel
I'm going to run up the side of it and trust to luck."
That was exactly what he did. Once on top of the barrel, Moses Mouse
leaped to a shelf. He crept along the shelf until he came to the pantry
window. Now, Mrs. Green had left the window slightly open. And Moses
Mouse darted out of doors and half jumped, half tumbled, to the ground.
He knew how he could get to his nest quickly enough, through a certain
chink in the cellar wall.
Miss Kitty Cat soon decided that she had lost Moses Mouse again.
"Dear me!" she sighed. "What wretched luck I'm having to-night! I
declare, it's a sad home-coming for me."
Meanwhile Mr. Moses Mouse was having a most merry time. Mrs. Mouse made
a great fuss over him. And that was exactly what he liked.
XXIII
A SECRET
MISS KITTY CAT was behaving in the strangest manner. She came into the
kitchen and hovered about the feet of Farmer Green's wife, mewing and
looking up at Mrs. Green as if she had something special to tell her.
"What is it, Kitty?" Mrs. Green asked her. "Are you hungry?"
But Miss Kitty Cat soon showed that she wasn't hungry, for she wouldn't
touch anything that Mrs. Green offered her.
"Well, you'll have to run away, anyhow," Mrs. Green told her. "I can't
take a step with you right under my feet."
Though Miss Kitty Cat trotted towards the door, she soon made it plain
that she didn't intend to leave the kitchen unless her mistress went
with her. She came back and twitched Mrs. Green's apron gently with her
claws. Then she ran to the doorway again and called to Mrs. Green.
It seemed to Miss Kitty Cat that she couldn't have said more clearly
that she wanted to lead Mrs. Green somewhere. But still Mrs. Green
didn't quite understand.
"Scat!" she cried, just a bit impatiently. "I've too much to do to be
bothered this morning. I suppose you've caught a mouse and want to show
it to me. You'll have to bring it here, for I haven't any time to waste
to-day."
Miss Kitty Cat felt somewhat hurt. She went out and sat on the doorstep
and looked in at Farmer Green's wife. Now and then she gave a plaintive
mew. But Mrs. Green wouldn't pay any attention to her.
"Dear me!" said Miss Kitty. "Mrs. Green is busier than ever this
morning."
Old dog Spot had been watching Miss Kitty's actions. And now, as she
started towards the barn, he sidled up to her, wagging his tail to show
her that he wanted to have a few friendly words with her.
"If Mrs. Green won't come with you, I'll be glad to," he offered. "Just
lead the way and I'll follow."
"You?" Miss Kitty Cat exclaimed with scorn. "You needn't think I'd take
you where I want Mrs. Green to come. You needn't think I'd show you what
I want her to see."
"Ho!" cried old Spot. "I don't know how you're going to stop me from
following you."
"I do," said Miss Kitty firmly. "If you try to tag along after me where
I'm going I'll soon make you wish you had minded your own affairs."
There was a look in her eyes that old Spot did not like. It reminded him
of the time when he cornered Miss Kitty in the barn, soon after she
arrived at the farm. He remembered that his nose still bore the marks of
her sharp claws.
"Well, well!" he said. "I was only joking. I'm too busy to bother with
you, anyhow. I have a little matter to attend to in the pasture. There's
a Woodchuck up there that's getting too bold."
Then he trotted off, trying to look as important as possible, so that no
one would think he was afraid of Miss Kitty Cat.
"Good!" Miss Kitty cried, as she watched him while he started up the
lane.
"I'm glad he's out of the way. It would be awkward if I had to fight him
while I'm doing what I'm going to do."
XXIV
FIVE IN A BASKET
"WELL, if you're not bothering me again!" Farmer Green's wife exclaimed.
Miss Kitty Cat had come up behind her and brushed against her, asking at
the same time with her most polite mew if Mrs. Green wouldn't please
turn around.
Mrs. Green looked over her shoulder.
"I declare!" she cried. "So that's what you've been fussing about, is
it?"
Miss Kitty Cat gently laid something on the floor at her mistress' feet.
And she acted much pleased when Mrs. Green bent over and picked up a
tiny, soft, pudgy--kitten.
"What do you think of that?" Miss Kitty Cat asked Mrs. Green. At least,
that was what Mrs. Green understood her to say.
Anyhow, Miss Kitty appeared delighted with what Mrs. Green told her. And
feeling that her youngster was in safe hands, Miss Kitty Cat ran out of
the kitchen and disappeared.
In a little while she returned, carrying another kitten in her mouth.
Mrs. Green admired this one as much as the first. And again Miss Kitty
vanished.
She returned with a third kitten; she returned with a fourth one.
"Well, well!" Farmer Green's wife said to her. "We have enough
now--don't you think so?"
Mrs. Green soon learned that Miss Kitty Cat was not quite of the same
mind. She made one more trip across the yard to the barn. And at last,
with an air of great pride she set down a fifth kitten upon the kitchen
floor.
"That's all, Mrs. Green," Miss Kitty said. "They're so beautiful it's a
shame there aren't twice as many."
But Mrs. Green was out in the woodshed and didn't hear her. She came in
soon with a basket.
"This is what old Spot used to sleep in when he was a puppy," Mrs. Green
told Miss Kitty Cat. "I suppose you're willing to use it for your
family."
Miss Kitty made no objection when Mrs. Green carefully laid the five
kittens side by side on an old shawl which she spread in the bottom of
the basket. Then Mrs. Green picked up the precious burden and with Miss
Kitty following closely, set it down in a corner of the woodshed.
"There!" said Mrs. Green. "Now they're snug and warm. And I'll set
your milk right beside the basket, so you won't have to leave your
family when you drink it."
[Illustration: Miss Kitty Cat Guards Her Kittens.]
It was not long before old dog Spot poked his long nose though the
woodshed doorway and spied Miss Kitty Cat close beside the basket,
lapping her milk. He gave a short bark when he saw her. And to his
astonishment both Miss Kitty Cat and Farmer Green's wife came running at
him.
Mrs. Green had a broom in her hand and Miss Kitty Cat had her claws in
her paws. They both ordered him to keep away from the woodshed. And Spot
sneaked off to the barn and hid in the stall beside the old horse
Ebenezer.
"What's troubling you?" Ebenezer inquired in his slow way.
"It's that ill-natured Miss Kitty Cat," Spot exclaimed. "She has a big
family of kittens. And she's terribly touchy about anybody's coming near
them. Although she's keeping them in my basket, she hasn't even invited
me to have a look at them.... I only hope," he added, "they won't grow
up to be like their mother."
Old Ebenezer looked down at him with mild surprise.
"What's the matter with Miss Kitty?" he asked.
"She can't take a joke," said Spot. "If you chase her, she always claws
you if she can."
Now, that was one of the first things Miss Kitty taught her children.
She claimed that claws were made to be used--especially on old dog
Spot.
But when a kitten tried its claws on one of its mates Miss Kitty always
cuffed it smartly. She claimed, then, that claws were _not_ made to be
used--especially on one's own family.
And in time the kittens learned their lessons perfectly.
THE END
SLUMBER-TOWN TALES
(Trademark Registered.)
By ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
AUTHOR OF THE
SLEEPY-TIME TALES and TUCK-ME-IN TALES
Colored Wrapper and Text Illustrations Drawn by HARRY L. SMITH
These are fascinating stories of farmyard folk for boys and girls from
about four to eight years of age.
THE TALE OF MISS KITTY CAT
When Mrs. Rat saw Miss Kitty Cat washing her face, she knew it meant
rain. And she wouldn't let her husband leave home without his umbrella.
THE TALE OF HENRIETTA HEN
Henrietta Hen was an empty-headed creature with strange notions. She
never laid an egg without making a great fuss about it.
THE TALE OF THE MULEY COW
The Muley Cow belonged to Johnnie Green. He often milked her; and she
seldom put her foot in the milk pail.