YOU remember, I hope, where I left off in the last story--just as the
rooster came up the steps of the little house at the end of the narrow
street where Puss, Junior, was making a call on the little Yellow Hen.
Well, he was very much surprised to see our small traveler, but
nevertheless he was most polite. He stretched forth his right wing to
shake hands when, all of a sudden,
Dickory, dickory, dare,
The pig flew up the stair,
A very funny thing to do,
And made the rooster doodle-doo.
"Gracious me! Oh me, Oh my!" screamed the little Yellow Hen. "That awful
pig will just spoil my stair carpet." This made the rooster all the more
angry at the Dickory Dare Pig, as he called him, and he strutted across
the piazza. "I'll spur him when he comes down," he said, and he waited
at the front door. But Mr. Pig took no chances. He staid upstairs until
the little Yellow Hen began to cry. "I want to go to bed." Puss, by this
time, was also very sleepy, and the gaily feathered rooster--well, I
think he was half asleep, as he stood by the front door, with his head
tucked under his wing.
"He'll forget to crow in the early morn;
And little Boy Blue with his silver horn
Is always asleep, so what shall I do
If my Rooster sleeps the whole night through?"
[Illustration]
"It's time for me to do something," exclaimed Puss, Junior, whipping out
his sword and running upstairs two at a time. But, would you believe it
if I told you, he couldn't find the Dickory Dare Pig anywhere? Puss
looked in every room and in every closet. He even lifted the cover of
the big clothes hamper that stood in the bathroom, but Mr. Pig was not
to be found.
Well, after a while, Puss looked out of the window. There on the roof of
the porch was the Dickory Dare Pig. "What are you doing?" asked Puss,
and he waved his sword threateningly. But the Pig only grunted.
"You people downstairs are making an awful fuss," and he closed his eyes
again, he was so sleepy. And, anyway, he had a very nice soft place, for
he had spread a big woolen comforter on the roof for a bed.
"Well, you get out of here," said Puss. "You have no right to take the
Yellow Hen's nice comforter, nor have you any right to sleep on the
roof, and if you don't go I'll stick my sword in you." Well, after that,
the Pig ran downstairs and out of the front door, and maybe he's running
yet, if a butcher hasn't caught him and made him into little sausages.