_" 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 had her soft-sharp paw on
him before he had time to know that he was not alone in the room. She
knew how to catch nice breakfasts for herself and her children, a trick
I will teach you, my dears, when the spring comes; she used to lie quite
quietly among the ivy on the wall, and then take the baby birds out of
the nest when the grown-up birds had gone to the grub-shop. Mrs. Tabby
White was very clever, as I said--so clever