Longtail said:
"Let me get you another cup of tea, Mrs. No-Tail."
So the lady mouse went out in the kitchen to get the tea off the stove, and when she got there, what do you think she saw? Why, a great, big, ugly, savage cat had, somehow or other, gotten into the room and there he sat in front of the fire, washing his face, which was very dirty.
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the cat, blinking his yellow eyes, "I was wondering whether anybody was at home here."
"Yes, I am at home!" exclaimed the mouse lady, "and I want you to get right out of my house, Mr. Cat."
"Well," replied the cat, licking his whiskers with his red tongue, "I"m not going! That"s all there is to it. I am glad I found you at home, but you are not going to be at home long."
"Why not?" asked Mrs. Longtail, suspicious like.
"Because," answered that bad cat, "I am going to eat you up, and I think I"ll start right in!"
"Oh, don"t!" begged Mrs. Longtail, as she tried to run back into the dining-room, where Mrs. No-Tail was sitting. But the savage cat was too quick for her, and in an instant he had her in his paws, and was glaring at her with his yellowish-green eyes.
"I don"t know whether to eat you head first or tail first," said the cat, as he looked at the poor mouse lady. "I must make up my mind before I begin."
Now while he was making up his mind Mrs. No-Tail sat in the other room, wondering what kept Mrs. Longtail such a long time away, getting the second cup of tea.
"Perhaps I had better go and see what"s keeping her," Mrs. No-Tail thought. "She may have burned herself on the hot stove, or teapot." So she went toward the kitchen, and there she saw a dreadful sight, for there was that bad cat, holding poor Mrs. Longtail in his claws and opening his mouth to eat her.
"Oh, let me go! Please let me go!" the mouse lady begged.
"No, I"ll not," answered the cat, and once more he licked his whiskers with his red tongue.
"Oh, I must do something to that cat!" thought Mrs. No-Tail. "I must make him let Mrs. Longtail go."
So she thought and thought, and finally the frog lady saw a sprinkling can hanging on a nail in the dining-room, where Mrs. Longtail kept it to water the flowers with.
"I think that will do," said Mrs. No-Tail. So she very quietly and carefully took it off the nail, and then she went softly out of the front door, and around to the side of the house to the rain-water barrel, where she filled the watering can. Then she came back with it into the house.
"Now," she thought, "if I can only get up behind the cat and pour the water on him, he"ll think it"s raining, and as cats don"t like rain he may run away, and let Mrs. Longtail go."
So Mrs. No-Tail tip-toed out into the kitchen as quietly as she could, for she didn"t want the cat to see her. But the savage animal, who had made his tail as big as a skyrocket, was getting ready to eat Mrs.
Longtail, and he was going to begin head first. So he didn"t notice Mrs.
No-Tail.
Up she went behind him, on her tippiest tiptoes, and she held the watering can above his head. Then she tilted it up, and suddenly out came the water-drip! drip! drip! splash! splash!
Upon the cat"s furry back it fell, and my, you should have seen how surprised that cat was!
"Why, it"s raining in the house," he cried. "The roof must leak. The water is coming in! Get a plumber! Get a plumber!"
Then he gave a big jump, and b.u.mped his head on the mantelpiece, and this so startled him that he dropped Mrs. Longtail, and she scampered off down in a deep, dark hole and hid safely away. Then the cat saw Mrs.
No-Tail pouring water from the can, and he knew he had been fooled.
"Oh, I"ll get you!" he cried, and he jumped at her, but the frog lady threw the sprinkling can at the cat, and it went right over his head like a bonnet, and frightened him so that he jumped out of the window and ran away. And he didn"t come back for a week or more. So that"s how Mrs. No-Tail saved Mrs. Longtail.
Now in case the baker man doesn"t take the front door bell away to put it on the rag doll"s carriage, I"ll tell you next about Bawly and Arabella Chick.
STORY XIX
BAWLY AND ARABELLA CHICK.
Bawly No-Tail, the frog boy, had been kept in after school one day for whispering. It was something he very seldom did in cla.s.s, and I"m quite surprised that he did it this time.
You see, he was very anxious to play in a ball game, and when teacher went to the blackboard to draw a picture of a cat, so the pupils could spell the word better, Bawly leaned over and asked Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, in a whisper:
"Say, Sammie, will you have a game of ball after school?"
Sammie shook his head "yes," but he didn"t talk. And the lady mouse teacher heard Bawly whispering, and she made him stay in. But he was sorry for it, and promised not to do it again, and so he wasn"t kept in very late.
Well, after a while the nice mouse teacher said Bawly could go, and soon he was on his way home, and he was wondering if he would meet Sammie or any of his friends, but he didn"t, as they had hurried down to the vacant lots, where the circus tents were being put up for a show.
"Oh, my, how lonesome it is!" exclaimed Bawly. "I wish I had some one to play with. I wonder where all the boys are?"
"I don"t know where they are," suddenly answered a voice, "but if you like, Bawly, I will play house with you. I have my doll, and we can have lots of fun."
Bawly looked around, to make sure it wasn"t a wolf or a bad owl trying to fool him, and there he saw Arabella Chick, the little chicken girl, standing by a big pie-plant. It wasn"t a plant that pies grow on, you understand, but the kind of plant that mamma makes pies from.
"Don"t you want to play house?" asked Arabella, kindly, of Bawly.
"No-no thank you, I-I guess not," answered Bawly, bashfully standing first on one leg, and then on the other. "I-er-that is-well, you know, only girls play house," the frog boy said, for, though he liked Arabella very much, he was afraid that if he played house with her some of his friends might come along and laugh at him.
"Some boys play house," answered the little chicken girl. "But no matter. Perhaps you would like to come to the store with me."
"What are you going to get?" asked Bawly, curious like.
"Some kernels of corn for supper," answered Arabella, "and I also have a penny to spend for myself. I am going to get some watercress candy, and-"
"Oh, I"ll gladly come to the store with you," cried Bawly, real excited like. "I"ll go right along. I don"t care very much about playing ball with the boys. I"d rather go with you."
"I"ll give you some of my candy if you come," went on Arabella, who didn"t like to go alone.
"I thought-that is, I hoped you would," spoke Bawly, shyly-like. Well, the frog boy and the chicken girl went on to the store, and Arabella got the corn, and also a penny"s worth of nice candy flavored with watercress, which is almost as good as spearmint gum.
The two friends were walking along toward home, each one taking a bite of candy now and then, and Bawly was carrying the basket of corn. He was taking a nice bite off the stick of candy that Arabella held out to him, and he was thinking how kind she was, when, all of a sudden the frog boy stumbled and fell, and before he knew it the basket of corn slipped from his paw, and into a pond of water it fell-ker-splash!
"Oh dear!" cried Arabella.
"Oh dear!" also cried Bawly. "Now I have gone and done it; haven"t I?"
"But-but I guess you didn"t mean to," spoke Arabella, kindly.