2
h better to go to sleep in front of it 27
Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would look for a cat 33
"I don't believe a word of it" 43
I was picked up in the street by a child 49
The dog saw me off 53
Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table 59
Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed 73
The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker hanging on to his fingers 89
It was a magnificent fight 106
He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream 111
Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep 117
I took the first prize 127
Pussy Tales
Too Clever by Half
"TELL us a story, mother," said the youngest kitten but three.
"You've heard all my stories," said the mother cat, sleepily turning over in the hay.
"Then make a new one," said the youngest kitten, so pertly that Mrs. Buff boxed her ears at once--but she laughed too. Did you ever hear a cat laugh? People say that cats often have occasion to do it.
"I do know one story," she said; "but I'm not sure that it's true, though it was told me by a most respectable brindled gentleman, a great friend of my dear mother's. He said he was a second cousin twenty-nine times removed of Mrs. Tabby White, the lady the story is about."
"Oh, do tell it," said all the kittens, sitting up very straight and looking at their mother with green anxious eyes.
"Very well," she said kindly; "only if you interrupt I shall leave off."
So there was silence in the barn, except for Mrs. Buff's voice and the soft sound of pleased purring which the kittens made as they listened to the enchanting tale.
* * * * *
"Mrs. Tabby White seems to have been as clever a cat as ever went rat-catching in a pair of soft-soled shoes. She always knew just where a mouse would peep out of the wainscot, and she