THE next morning when Puss, Junior, went down to the river, he found his
boat was gone.
[Illustration]
"Now I must trust again to my red-topped boots," he sighed, and at once
set off to find his dear father. By and by he saw a little man in the
distance, who, on coming nearer, turned out to be Tom Thumb.
Puss picked him up and placing him on his shoulder, set off once more.
But, goodness me! It soon began to rain, and Tom Thumb crept into a
pocket to keep dry.
Towards the middle of the day they arrived on the outskirts of a small
village. In the distance they could hear the strokes of a hammer, and
then, now and again, the whirr of a saw cutting into hard wood.
"What's going on, I wonder?" said Tom Thumb; "sounds as if they were
building a house."
"Don't know," answered Puss, "but let's hurry, for I am soaked to the
skin."
On arriving in the village they saw what appeared to be an immense boat
in the early stages of construction. It was being erected in the city
square, the little park that stood in the midst of the stores and
houses.
Drawing nearer they heard a voice singing:
"Noah of old did build an Ark
Of spicy gopherwood and bark
To float upon the deluge dark.
Now on this Ark they had no sail,
For it was made (and true the tale)
Without a mast to break the gale."
When Puss and Tom halted at the side of the Ark a kind-looking man
stopped his hammering and said:
"It's going to rain for forty days and forty nights. There's going to be
an awful deluge. You'd better stay in Arkville and get aboard the Ark as
soon as it's finished. If you don't you'll get drowned."
"He speaks the truth, I'm thinking," answered Tom Thumb, peeping out of
Puss, Junior's, pocket. "It looks to me as if the rain were never going
to stop."
"My good sir," said Puss, turning to the man, "it seems to me your
advice is good. We'll stay in Arkville for a few days. But where shall
we stop? Is there a hotel near?"
"Over yonder is the Hotel Ark," said the man. "I'm the proprietor, and
my name is Noah. Go in and make yourselves at home. My sons and I will
follow you shortly. We have a few more nails to drive before we quit for
the day."