know that listeners seldom hear anything
good about themselves."

Then he decided, suddenly, that he would look elsewhere for his
breakfast.

For Miss Kitty Cat was in a terrible temper.

XVIII

KIDNAPPED

THERE was great rejoicing among all the Mouse family. Pudgy Mr. Moses
Mouse had picked up a bit of news that delighted him and his wife and
all their many relations. Somebody had stolen Miss Snooper--as the Mouse
family always called Miss Kitty Cat! Somebody had taken her away!

Master Meadow Mouse had seen it all; and he had told Moses exactly how
it happened. Master Meadow Mouse knew that a wagon had borne Miss
Snooper up the road and over the hill. He had watched it disappear, with
his own eyes. All those things Moses Mouse repeated as fast as his
short breath would permit. He had hurried back home to tell the news as
soon as he had heard it. He found, however, that no one cared _how_ Miss
Kitty Cat (or Miss Snooper), went, nor where; no one cared who took her;
no one cared when. It was enough to know that she was gone. And
everybody exclaimed that it was the best news ever--and good riddance to
bad rubbish--meaning Miss Kitty Cat.

If it were only true! The Mouse family scarcely dared believe that it
was. But when two days passed, and Moses Mouse himself had even ventured
into the pantry, and the kitchen, and the woodshed, without meeting Miss
Kitty, the Mouse family dared decide that she had indeed gone for good.

* * * * *

Meanwhile Miss Kitty Cat was having a most unhappy time. It was true
that she had been stolen. A man driving a peddler's wagon up the hill
one evening had noticed her as she lay on top of the stone wall, around
the turn of the road beyond the farmhouse. "Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!" he
called, as he stopped his horse. And reaching behind the seat, he
brought out a bit of food, which he held out for her.

Now, it happened that at that very moment Miss Kitty Cat had her mind on
food. She had been hoping that a meal would appear at any moment out of
a chink in the wall. And when it was dangled right before her eyes like
that she couldn't resist it. She climbed up into the wagon. And the next
thing she knew the peddler had clapped her into a basket and fastened
the cover. Miss Kitty Cat was a prisoner.

"There, my beauty!" the peddler exclaimed. "I'll take you home with me.
We need a mouser. And I dare say you're a good one. Unless I'm mistaken,
you w