AFTER they had seen everything there was to be seen they all went into
the cosy kitchen, Puss, Junior, with Tom Thumb on his shoulder and the
pretty girl who kept the lighthouse.
"And now we shall have supper," she said. "And after that, when the lamp
is lighted in the tower, we'll sit outside on the doorstep and Puss,
Junior, shall tell me one of his adventures."
"Well, what shall I tell and where shall I begin?" asked Puss, when they
all were seated outside the lighthouse.
"Tell me how you and Tom became fellow travelers," said the girl, taking
Tom up in her hand and placing him on her knee.
"Willingly," said Puss, stroking his whiskers and curling his great
mustache, "and should I make a mistake in the telling Tom may correct
me.
"When I left my father at the Castle of my Lord of Carabas I had gone
but a few miles when I came to Tom Thumb's house. And as soon as his
mother saw me she asked me to go to King Arthur's Court and find out
about her son, Tom Thumb. She had made him but a few days before a small
cambric parasol, and with this as a sort of airship he had floated off
on the wind to the castle. When I got there I found that poor Tom was
imprisoned in a mousetrap. He had fallen into the dough which the royal
baker was about to bake into cakes for King Arthur. And this had so
angered the baker that he had thrown Tom into a mousetrap."
"It was worse than that, I was to be beheaded," interposed Tom. "I owe
my life to Puss, Junior."
At this, Puss actually blushed, for he was a modest little cat, although
he had traveled much and had been royally treated.
"Say not so, my dear Tom," he cried, "for King Arthur was only too glad
to comply with my request when I asked him to release you. In fact, it
was not because he feared my sword, but because he liked my rhyme."
"How did it run?" asked the girl. And Puss, blushing still more deeply,
commenced to recite this little verse:
"My good King Arthur rules this land
With justice and a generous hand.
Far be it that a cat should plead
In vain that Tom Thumb shall be freed."
"Is that what you said?" cried little Tom Thumb. "Dear, dear Puss, I
shall never forget what you did for me!"
Dear, dear! Here we are at the end of the book and poor little Puss,
Junior, has not yet found his father. Maybe he will in the next book.