that coon.
“I kept on barking and jumping about and the master took another look,
but he did not see that coon and pretty soon he got tired.
“‘You are a fake, Rover,’ he said to me. ‘I am going home. We will try
it another night and see if you can see straight.’ And off he went.
“But I didn’t leave that tree. I knew that coon couldn’t have jumped
out of the tree and I also knew he went up the tree, so I was sure he
was in the tree right then.
“I barked louder than ever, and though the master whistled and called,
I still barked and jumped about.
“Suddenly I thought if I kept very still a minute that coon might show
his head, so I stepped close to the tree and stood in the shadow and
kept quiet. It wasn’t more than a minute before, just as I thought, out
poked the head of that coon to see if I had gone.
“Well, I just barked some then and I danced, and pretty soon master
came running back and I jumped and barked right under the place where I
had seen the head of Mr. Coon.
“‘Ah, you are right, boy,’ I heard the master say, softly, and then
bang went his gun and Mr. Coon dropped to the ground.
“‘Good old boy, you can’t be fooled, can you, Rover?’ said master,
patting me on the head; ‘you can’t be beat for coon-hunting. Come along
home and show what we got.’
“The next night they had a great time at the master’s house. He told
them all how I treed that coon and how I stuck to it in spite of his
going away and calling to me to go along.
“I was patted on the head and made a great deal of, and every time I
see the master with that coon cap he wears I feel very happy.”
Mr. Dog stopped and looked sad again, and Mr. Tom Cat said: “Oh, cheer
up, Mr. Dog, the master will soon be wearing that cap again, and he
will remember how you caught the coon. That is a good story to tell.
Now we will listen to what Mr. Rooster has to tell us.”
Mr. Rooster said he would tell them about the new rooster that came to
the barn-yard one day.
MR. ROOSTER’S STORY
Mr. Rooster straightened himself and said he was proud to say he was
raised on the master’s farm. He was proud, too, to say he had succeeded
the old rooster that had gone to a dinner one day and did not return.
“I have always taken good care of my family, and, if I do say it, there
is not a better-looking family than mine around these parts,” said Mr.
Rooster.
“There have been many young roosters in the barn-yard, but they have
gone away to other farms to live, for the master has an eye for beauty,
and he has always decided that I was too--er--valuable to lose.”
Mr. Dog and Mr. Tom Cat smiled a little on the side at this last
remark, for they well knew how vain Mr. Rooster was, and then he really
did have fine feathers and a beautiful comb.
“I have never had any trouble with my family until one morning Madam
Blackie came running to me,” continued Mr. Rooster, “to tell me a new
rooster had come in the barn-yard to live.”
“‘It is shameful the way all those silly hens are running around him,’
she said. ‘He isn’t noticing them a little bit and they strut back and
forth, eying him as if they had never seen a handsome rooster before.
“‘For my part, I think the old friends are the best, though of course
you are not old, my dear Mr. Rooster, only old in acquaintance I mean.’
“I had always thought Madam Blackie an old busybody, but now, if this
was all true, I had found her my only friend.
“‘You are most kind, Madam Blackie,’ I said, ‘and I thank you, but
I feel sure that the master will not have a new rooster here. This
new-comer will probably leave in a few days.’
“I expected he would, too, for I had as fine a set of spurs as I had
ever seen, and I intended to show them to this new rooster.
“As soon as I could get away from Madam Blackie I took a stroll around
by the barn-yard, and sure enough there were all my family, even the
chickens, walking around and clucking and cackling as hens will at a
handsome red-and-black rooster that stood by the barn door.
“I felt pretty queer for a minute, for that new rooster had a very
shiny-looking set of feathers, and I knew he would be very popular for
a while at least, and with the whole family against me, even my spurs
might not make me king.
“I held my head very high, and with my light step I walked past them
some distance from the barn, but still I knew they all saw me.
“There was a little flutter at first, and they ran toward me, but they
gave a look at the new rooster. I could see them out of the corner
of my eyes, and back the whole silly lot went and began their silly
cackling and clucking.
“I went behind a wall and watched them through a hole. First they would
scratch the ground near the new rooster and talk away to one another,
and then they would walk by him, but not once did he turn his head.
“‘He isn’t going to let them think he sees them,’ I thought; but the
longer I watched the stranger it seemed to me that with all those
fine-looking hens and chickens cackling about him he should not look
once their way; and then a thought came to me which made me jump up, so
I crawled under the gate and walked into the barn-yard.
“I walked right up to that family of mine and looked at them, and then
I looked at the new rooster. I was right close to him then.
“Every hen opened her eyes and mouth, for they thought right then and
there was to be a settlement of rights, but one glance at the new
rooster told me what I had thought was true, and I just turned my
back on him and said: ‘When you silly hens and chickens get tired of
admiring the new weather-cock you better come over in the lot back of
the barn. There is some corn and grain on the ground. I am surprised
that my family cannot tell a tin weather-cock from a real rooster,’ and
away I walked with my head held higher than ever.
“After that I never had the least trouble with them, but of course I
found out that Madam Blackie had been the first one to see the tin
rooster and had gone right up to him and found it out, and then waited
to see if the others would be fooled. When she found they were she ran
away to tell me.
“Oh, it takes all kinds of hens to make a barn-yard family!” sighed the
rooster.
“I guess they will miss you,” said Mr. Dog, “and the master will, too,
for all the hens are likely to run away, with no one to keep them at
home.”
“Tommie Cat, we will hear what you have to tell. I bet it will be about
a mouse.”
“You win the bet,” said Mr. Tom Cat.
MR. TOM CAT’S STORY
“My story,” said Mr. Tom Cat, “is about a mouse, the only mouse that
ever got away from me--that is, the only one that I ever saw. Of
course, I did not see the ones that cook thought I should have caught.
“I came to live at the master’s house when I was a very little kitten,
and right away I began to catch the mice.
“I have heard it said that my mother and father were the best mousers
anywhere around, and I expect I take after them. Anyway, I could catch
mice, so I became a great pet in the house.
“And while I always had plenty of milk--and sometimes cream--to eat, I
never failed to catch a mouse each night, and sometimes more, for a cat
had not lived in the house for years, and those mice thought they owned
it until I came.
“They ran about everywhere, on the pantry shelves and all over the
rooms at night, and they would even run over me sometimes when I was
taking forty winks; but I soon stopped that. I played I was asleep when
I wasn’t and caught those silly mice until the others began to learn
that I was a thing to be feared and not to be taken as a joke.
“But there was one mouse I could not catch. He was larger than the
others and had a little piece taken out of one ear, so I always knew
him, and it gave me no end of worry to think he always escaped me.
“The others called him Tip, because it was the tip of his ear that was
gone; and Tip was some runner, I can tell you. He could get through the
smallest hole in the wall and he could get away from you when you had
your paw right over him. I made up my mind to get Tip if I had to let
the other mice have the house, and so for a week I laid for Tip.
“One night he came out of his hole and jumped right over my head and I
chased him around the kitchen, when all at once right before my eyes he
disappeared.
“I sniffed and hunted. I knew he was there, but I could not see him or
find him. All at once I saw a shoe of the master’s, that stood near the
stove, move, and as quick as a wink I flew at it and put in my paw.
“Did I get Tip? No, sir; that slick little fellow crawled out of a hole
in the side of that shoe and ran for his hole in the wall, laughing and
giggling to think he had fooled me again.
“I did not sleep for two days after that, sitting by that hole in the
wall, and I was thinking how hungry Tip must be, having to stay in
there without any food and feeling sure he would have to come out soon
or starve, when I felt something touch my tail.
“I turned around and there was Tip. How he got out I never knew, but I
expect he gnawed a hole in another part of the wall. Anyway, there he
was sitting on his hind legs and making funny motions with his front
paws.
“I jumped, but he was ready for that, and away he scampered into the
pantry and I after him.
“Over the shelves he went, and I went, too. Back of the boxes, and I
went, too, tins and dishes falling with clatter and smash, but I did
not care. I was after that Tip mouse and I knew it was now or never.
“He knew it was a fight to the death, I think, by the mad dash he made
behind dishes and tins, but after a while he grew tired and made for
his hole in the wall. I knew that was my chance to get him in the open,
and I flew after him and reached him with the tip of my paw, but it was
only his tail I had. Tip was in the hole. I grabbed at the tail with my
teeth and off it came. I have that tail yet, for I never got Tip, and I
like to look at it sometimes just to get up my fighting spirit.”
“Didn’t you ever see Tip again?” asked Mr. Rooster and Mr. Dog.
“Oh yes, I saw him once after that,” said Mr. Tom Cat, with a yawn.
“Why didn’t you catch him?” they asked, together.
“Oh, Tip was in a trap when I saw him,” said Mr. Tom Cat.
“Was it one of those traps that catch them by the head?” asked Mr. Dog.
“No, it was a little wire affair,” said Mr. Tom Cat, “and I looked in
and saw him running about.”
“Why didn’t you catch him then when the master opened the trap? Didn’t
they give you a chance at him?”
“No, Mr. Dog,” said Mr. Tom Cat, looking very lofty. “I am a sportsman
and no true sportsman ever touches a caged mouse. Tip was let out of
the trap, and the master thought I would catch him, but I didn’t even
run after him, and for all I know Tip may be living yet. I will do my
own hunting and catching; none of those traps can ever help me to get a
mouse.”
“Some of his grandchildren might go back there to live, even if Tip did
not return to the hole in the wall,” said Mr. Dog.
“It might be that those very mice that were running about last night
were some of his relations.”
“I never thought of that,” said Mr. Tom Cat. “I will watch for them
to-night, and whether they are or not I will remember Tip and catch
them all.”
“I guess I will go along with you,” said Mr. Dog. “I am pretty hungry,
and it must be dinner-time.”
“If you all are going home, I guess I better get back in time for
dinner, too,” said Mr. Rooster; “my family will think I am lost.”
So all three started off for their home, forgetting all about their
grievances in listening to the story each had told, and if nothing has
happened to them I expect they are living there yet.
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes:
Minor errors and omissions in punctuation have been fixed
Page 55: Changed “but that it still” to “but that is still”
Page 124: Changed “Martha did not treat her” to “Martha treated her”
Page 155: Changed “‘Oh, don’t you know?’ said Jacko” to “‘Oh, don’t
you know?’ said Jocko”
Page 179: Changed “the master he wished” to “the master said he
wished”