What The Cat And Hen Did
:
Happy Days
:
Boys And Girls Bookshelf
Four little children were playing in their garden one day. There were
Mollie and Jamie and Betty and Teddy.
'MRS. TOMKINS.'"]
They were so busy making mud-pies that they did not see "Mrs. Tomkins,"
the old cat, when she came and mewed, and mewed, and put up her paw, and
touched Mollie and Jamie and Betty and Teddy--first one and then the
other, as much as to say, "Do come, some of y
u, and help me! Do come,
please!"
By and by the children's mama came out of the house and saw how queerly
the cat was acting, and said: "Children, Mrs. Tomkins is trying to get
you to go with her and see if her babies are all right."
So the children left their play, and said: "Come, Mrs. Tomkins, we will
go with you now."
The old cat gave a thankful "m-i-e-o-u," and started down the walk
leading to the barn. Every now and then she looked back to see if the
children were really coming. When she got to the stable, she ran and
jumped up on the manger, and looked down into it, and gave a quick,
sharp "m-i-e-o-u," as if to say, "What do you think of that?" And the
children looked in and saw a hen sitting upon the old cat's kittens and
trying to keep them all covered up! When the cat tried to go near them,
the hen would peck at her and drive her away. How the children laughed!
Mollie said: "Did you ever see anything so funny! I am going to ask Mama
to write a funny story about it,--how our old hen 'dopted the kittens."
The hen had been sitting upon some eggs in a nest near where the cat had
set up housekeeping, and when the cat went out, the hen came over and
took the cat's little family under her wings, just as if they had been
so many chick-a-biddies. And when the cat went home again, the hen
wouldn't let her come near the kittens. Mollie took the hen off, and
Mrs. Tomkins was happy.
The next day she came again, looking as though she said, "I am very
sorry to trouble you, but I must." Then she said, "M-i-e-o-u!
m-i-e-o-u!" So the children left their play and went to the stable with
her, and found the hen playing mother to Mrs. Tomkins's kittens again
and trying to make them keep still and stay under her wings. If one of
them poked its head out, she would give it a sharp peck to make it go
back.
The children laughed again, and Mollie said: "Poor Mrs. Tomkins, I would
look for a new house if I were you--you do have such meddlesome
neighbors! Then she took the hen off, and Mrs. Tomkins picked up one of
the kittens.
'WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?'"]
The children's mama was sitting in the library reading when the old cat
came in, with a kitten in her mouth. She put it softly down, went out,
and soon returned with another. She kept on doing this until she had
moved all her family of five kittens. Then she settled herself in a cozy
corner, and looked at the lady, and purred in this way: "If you only
knew how much trouble I have had with that bad old hen, you would let me
and my children stay here."
The lady laughed and said: "I will see what I can do for you."
Just then the children came in and begged to have the kittens stay. So a
new home was made for them in a box in the woodhouse.