"Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
"Have you looked in the barn?" asked Puss.
"No," cried the three little kittens.
"Well, that"s a good place to look if you"ve been playing there,"
suggested Puss. So they all ran out to the barn. But just as they entered the big door a little mouse scurried into a hole and a big gray rat ran into the corn bin.
"Look here, little mouse, if you"ll tell us whether you"ve seen any mittens we won"t hurt you," cried Puss. But the little mouse didn"t reply.
"My dear Mr. Rat," said Puss, Junior, speaking into a crack of the corn bin, "if you"ll tell us whether you have seen any mittens we"ll promise not to touch you." But the rat didn"t answer.
"They"re afraid of you," said the little black kitty.
"Then you ask them," whispered Puss, Junior.
"Did you see our mittens?" whispered the black kitty to the little mouse.
"Yes," replied a squeaky voice. "I saw some mittens in the tool closet."
Then the little black kitty ran over to the tool closet, and pretty soon he came dancing out on his two hind legs. "Here they are! Here they are!" he cried, with a happy purr.
MR. RAT
THE three little kittens found their mittens, And they began to cry, "Oh, mother dear, see here, see here!
See, we have found our mittens."
"Thank you," said the black kitty, as the little mouse peeped out of her house, "thank you very much for telling us where our mittens were."
"We promise never to hurt you," cried the three little kittens.
Puss, Junior, walked over to the corn bin. "Look here, Mr. Rat," he said, in a gruff voice, "as long as you were so mean not to tell us where the mittens were, I won"t promise not to catch you."
"You"d better wait till you get the chance," replied the rat, looking down from the top of the bin.
"Just wait till we grow up, Mr. Rat," said the three little kittens, looking very fierce with their whiskers standing out straight from their little fat cheeks and their tails twice their natural size. "You had better not be too sure of yourself.
"For many a rat who has spoken like that Has been caught when he least was aware.
So you"d better look out what you are about, For we are three kittens who dare."
"That"s the way to talk to him," said Puss, Junior, admiringly. "We"ll scare him to death, anyway."
"No, you won"t," said the rat. "You don"t know who I am. I"m the rat "that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.""
"Oh, you are, are you?" said Puss. "Well, what are you doing here?"
"Making a visit," replied the rat.
"Look out," advised Puss, "or you may not find it a pleasant one."
"Nonsense!" replied the rat with a loud laugh. "Who"s afraid of three little kittens? They can"t even find their mittens." Before he had time to say another word Puss, Junior, sprang on top of the corn bin. Away went the rat, over the barn floor, out through the open door, down the path to the road. Puss, Junior, kicked off his red-topped boots and went after him.
"Go it, Puss, dear!" screamed three little kittens. "Catch him!"
The ground was covered with a light fall of snow, but this made no difference to Puss, Junior. He was a big, strong, healthy cat, and he didn"t mind running barefoot in the snow. This was not the case with Mr. Rat, however. Very soon his feet became so cold that he could hardly run, and before he reached the gate Puss pounced upon him.
"Look here," said Puss, fiercely, holding him down on the frozen ground--"look here, Mr. Rat, we don"t want you around here any longer.
Do you understand?"
"I"ll promise to go back to Jack"s house if you"ll let me up."
"All right," said Puss. "Now go!" And away went the frightened rat.
A BIG TUMBLE
"PUT on your mittens, you silly kittens, And you shall have some pie.
Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r."
"Oh, let us have the pie, Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r."
Mrs. Cat stood in the doorway of her little house and again she called out, "Put on your mittens, you silly kittens."
"And I"ll pull on my boots," said Puss, Junior, running back to the barn. "My toes are almost frozen."
"Has the horrid old rat really gone?" asked the three little kittens.
"He has," replied Puss. "Didn"t you see me catch him just before he reached the gate?"
"There was so much snow flying about that we couldn"t see very well,"
said the gray kitten.
"Well, I caught him, all right," replied Puss, pulling on his boots, "but he begged me so hard to let him go that I did. He promised he"d never come back."
"If he really is the "rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built" I don"t believe Jack will be very glad to see him," said the little tabby cat, pulling on her mittens.
"My paws are almost frozen," cried the little gray kitten. "I"m so glad we have found our mittens."
"Good-by, mousie," cried the little black kitten, going up to the mouse hole and peeping in. "We all thank you very much for telling us where our mittens were. We"re going into the house now, for mother has some pie for us. We"ll bring you out a little piece of crust in a few minutes."
"Don"t forget!" she answered, peeping out of her hole. "Bring us three pieces, for I have two little children who are very fond of pie crust."
"You be sure to save a little piece of crust," said the black kitty to the tabby kit, "and you, too," he said, turning to the gray kitten; "then we"ll have three pieces!"