"ALL aboard!" shouted the Captain.
"The four and twenty sailors
That stood between the decks,
Were four and twenty white mice,
With chains about their necks."
"There's a locket fastened to every chain," cried Puss. "What pretty
lockets."
"Each little sailor mouse has a picture of his mother in his locket,"
said the Captain, who stood near by giving the orders. Now,
"The captain was a duck,
With a packet on his back;
And when the ship began to move
The Captain cried, 'Quack! Quack!'"
"Hello!" said Puss, Junior, stretching out his right paw. "Hello,
Captain! Aren't you the duck that took me across the pond on your back a
long, long time ago. You told me about your cousin, the Golden Goose,
don't you remember?"
"So I did," said the Captain, looking Puss over. "Shiver my timbers if
you're not Puss, Junior!"
"The very same," replied Puss.
"And haven't you found your daddy yet?" asked the Captain as his good
ship swung away from the dock, her silk sails filling with the breeze
until they looked like great big balloons cut in half.
"No, Captain," replied Puss, sadly, "I haven't."
"Well, we'll ask for him at every port," replied the kind master of the
good ship, which was now rolling and dipping in the most graceful way
possible. "I'll ask every old land lubber on the docks when we touch
port. We'll hear some news, never fear." And then the Captain went over
to tell the man at the tiller where to go. The "man" at the wheel was a
little white mouse, but he knew how to steer the ship as well as any
pilot, let me tell you.
"I don't have to rock the cradle," said the baby's mother, with a smile,
looking up at Puss, as he tip-toed over to where she sat.
"No, he's fast asleep," replied Puss, "and the big blue ocean is rocking
him better than the willow tree."
"Rock-a-by baby, safe on the ship,
Where the foam-crested billows ripple and dip;
And the breeze from the land of the big yellow moon
Is turning the sail to a great white balloon."
"Where did you hear that pretty song?" asked Puss.
"Why, I just made it up," replied the baby's mother.
"Mothers always do that when they rock their little ones to sleep, you
know."