Abby Morton Diaz

“ As the frog and the young rat and the mother rat came near the place where the Janjibo was to be, they saw rats hurry skurrying as fast as they could with cakes, pies, dishes and other things. They met gentlemen rats in their best clothes, carrying knives, forks and spoons, and looking everywhere for eggs. ”

“ There are times in every cat’s life when she may get food by opening a door.
“Here a number of cats sprang to their feet and began to tell of particular times when they had saved themselves and got food by knowing how to open doors. Among them was the cat that hadn’t common sense. ‘One at a time, my dears,’ said Lady Yellow-paw. ‘Snowball, will you begin?’”
“But I humbly beg your Majesty’s pardon,” said the lovely Pussyanita to the King. “The particular times when all these saved themselves or got food by knowing how to open doors were not in Black Velvet’s story. ”

“ I can never close my eyes to slumber until I know how it happened that Black Velvet was blown off a tree in a whirlwind and afterwards went to sea in a baby’s crib.
“A baby’s crib is a strange thing to go to sea in; why not in a boat? or in a tub? or even on a board? Why go to sea at all, when there is plenty of ground, and when cats hate water? And as for that other cat, why had she not common sense? ”

“ She sat still a great while, but hearing the singing and looking much at the lobster-feelers made her want to be too frisky and she frisked with the lobster-feelers, and went into the basket and frisked with lobster claws, and gnawed them, and clawed them, and gnawed and clawed some little fishes, and ate all she could of the fishes and the lobsters, and made herself sick, and could not stay up at the party. She had to go to bed in the haymow, and when she was asleep she dreamed that her name was Mab Fizz-Fuzz, and that rats dragged her off by the tail through a place that was too small. ”

“ But I would rather have died than to have that cruel boy do so again. Only a cat can know what a cat can suffer from cruel boys. Dogs would not hurt us if people and cruel boys did not tell them to.
“One day I had some kittens of my own. We were in a good closet close by my own girl’s bed. Oh I was proud of my pretty little dears! I wanted people to come and see them. But when people came they said, ‘Why! why! why! The cat has kittens in the closet! Take the cat and kittens away from that closet!’
Carried Them to the Barn. ”

“ Why don’t they take my picture?’
“‘They’d much better take mine,’ snarled Tweedledum. ‘I’ve been crying to have my picture taken ever since I saw that one of Tabby Furpurr who found out a way of not liking birds, and on that account had her picture taken and set in a pussy willow frame. They won’t take my picture. But I’ll be even with them. I get hold of the clock strings, I tangle yarn, I won’t purr, I climb posts and tear down the flowers, I scratch the baby’s face, I pull away his playthings, I wait on the doorstep and bite his fingers, when he tries to reach me, and I kill birds. ”

“ One day I wanted very much to taste of a little duck and I tried to get one, and I hurt its leg, and she clawed me and made me drop it, and grandma shamed me and I went back to the boy’s house and hid under a bed, and when I was almost starved I crawled out and the boy whipped me hard and carried me back to the grandma house, and into her barn, and showed me that barn cat with the little ducks, and lifted up his finger, and looked at me hard, and whipped me again and said: ‘Tabby Furpurr, don’t you see that barn cat staying with ducks and not eating any? And you even fly at birds! ”

“ Just as the Pie-cutter had done cutting it, the young rat looked at a light-colored rat that was among the other ones, and said, ‘There’s my aunt.’
“It was his aunt. The one that was tangled in the swamp-vine string, and broke it in jumping when she heard the Wonderful News, and got away, and lost her way. She did not find the way she lost, but she found her way to the Janjibo, and was helping.
“‘So you are my nephew!’ she said. ‘How you have grown! Do you know that the cats and the rats and mice are friends?’
“‘Oh yes,’ said the young rat. ”

“ Speaking of hens, a chicken made something happen to me which does not often happen to a cat. Our hen hatched out a brood of chickens and while they were little she was carried off by a fox. All the chickens died except two, and one of these had a weak throat. When the fox carried off the hen he stepped on that little chicken’s neck and it had a weak throat ever after. One day when I was in a far corner of the garden I heard a curious noise like a choking, or a peeping, but more like a choking than a peeping. I watched, and presently that little chicken came out of the grass. ”

“ There was a rat there, and it was going to get one of her little ducks, and she began to fight the rat, and the mother rat came out and helped fight the duck, and the boy drove them away, but afterwards the duck died and left the little ducks.
“But grandma had a barn cat. She was not a Tabby. She was only a black-and-white cat, but she was a very good cat. She never would touch a bird or a chicken, and she never would suck an egg. She did not like me. She would not let me come in her barn. I did not let her come in my barn. She was a good cat for not liking birds. ”

“ She brought us many kinds of eatable bugs and taught us to snap at flies and to beware of wasps. At night she went forth to hunt for us the slippery mole which slips so swiftly through the grass. At day she purred us sweetly to sleep, or sometimes she let us go with her to the wheatfields and get a peep at the moles and watch the field mice running up and down the wheat stalks. ”

“ I used to carry the birds to my dear mistress, for I wanted to please her, and birds were the best things I could get. But she was not pleased; she scolded me. I could not understand why she praised me for catching a mouse and scolded me for catching a bird. A bird is better than a mouse. Pretty soon she began to do something besides to scold. I was punished in the way cats are punished. I need not tell. All at this famous party know. After I had been punished a great deal I kept away from trees. But one day I was in a window-seat, asleep. ”

“ One day—oh unhappy day! the next house cat’s mistress came to see my mistress, and they talked of cats. I lay outside under the open window and heard every word, and understood. Mistresses, as you very well know, dear Lady Yellow-paw—as all of you at this famous party very well know—mistresses have no idea how much their cats can understand.
“Said my mistress, ‘Pinky-white is the neatest cat that ever was seen. She will have no dirt on her fur. She licks off every speck. She keeps herself snow white. ”

“ A baby will step on any part of a cat. A baby will sit on a cat. A baby does not mind what part of a cat it lifts up a cat by, whether by the tail or by a leg, or by the head. A baby will pull your ears, will stick its finger in your eyes, will even meddle with your smellers, and you must keep from touching it, because it is a baby. ”

“ Know asked if it was great trouble to catch rats and mice. The next wisest of the three cats said that if he should try it he would find that it was much easier to eat off a plate, or even off the floor, than to sit half the night in a cold barn, or cellar, or garret, tired and hungry, watching rat-holes and mouse-holes. Quick asked if rat-holes and mouse-holes could not be in rooms people lived in where it would be pleasant for a cat to sit and watch. Know said that could not be, for rats and mice did not like people as well as cats did. ”

“ Black Velvet shall stay with me.’
“It was hard to see Black Floss, Black Satin, White Velvet, White Floss and White Satin skipping in the yard, over fences, up and down clothes-poles, and be myself shut up indoors. But how little we know what is best for us! One day those others did of themselves go to a corn-house, and there they tasted bad meat which had been put there to kill rats, and they all died! Every one, Black Floss, Black Satin, White Velvet, White Floss, White Satin, every one died. Oh how my mistress did cry! ”

“ When Faw, Sol, and Law began to feel the back ends of themselves going up they did not know what to do to keep them down and they mewed and mewed and stuck the claws of their fore paws into the ground. ”

“ I am fed so well that I never know what it is to be hungry, and have no wish for mouse-meat or rat-meat. In fact the rats and I are such friends, I sit near them in the garret and watch their goings on in their families, and they never mind me at all. ”

“ I am chiefly an out-doors cat. I like to catch moles and field-mice and rabbits, and bugs, and butterflies. I like butterflies almost as well as Pussy Gray did. Poor Pussy Gray who was stung in the eye by a bumble-bee while watching for butterflies and went crazy! I am fond of birds too. ”

“ So she may be to any one who fancies white paws and white noses. I do not like to see my mistress hold that cat and stroke her. I am obliged to see it. I am obliged to see the boy like that cat; hug that cat; I am even obliged to see her allowed to jump up and eat milk from the same bowl with him, something I have never been allowed to do!
Something Black Velvet Was Never, Never Allowed to Do.
“All this is hard to bear. I do not like to think about it, and to keep myself from thinking about it I employ myself in teaching the way of opening doors. Every cat should know how to open doors. ”

“ Mouseroun made a sign to Phi to ask of the ribboned white cat why he was called Cupep the Careful. Phi did so.
“‘Because I can be trusted,’ replied the ribboned white cat to Phi, ‘and trusted in any place, among china, glass, pictures, bottles, papers, no matter how high the shelf, how narrow, or how full. I step in and out so carefully that no harm is ever done. Nobody minds even if I step on the baby’s face. ”

“ In order to be sure that the cats and the rats and mice should do right by each other, the dogs said that the rats must give up a baby rat to be kept by the cats, and the cats must give up a baby cat to be kept by the rats. ”

“ After all that has been done by cats to rats, it will take a long time to make rats believe that cats mean rats no harm.
“‘I fear we shall not get any rat to direct us to the abode of Mistress Furpurr.’
“Phi was mistaken. Soon after, in passing a barn they heard much stir and scampering inside. ‘Wherever there is a stir and a scampering,’ said Phi, ‘we may be sure there is something going on inside.’
“Mouseroun was eager to enter, but Phi held him back lest harm might befall him and himself stepped forward. ”

“ The maiden said she never before saw a cat which could not endure a speck of dirt. She said she believed I taught her other cats to be neat. This might not have been true, but it was certainly true that while I was with them the other cats were very careful to clean themselves after eating. One day she called the family to see us. ‘Look!’ she cried. ‘Look at my cat that cannot endure a speck of dirt! I do believe that rooster has brought his hen to make her take a lesson in neatness.’
“This might not have been true, either. ”

“ The showman travels about the country showing his show. A few days ago the wagon we were in upset and our door came open. The birds flew away, the mice hid under a rock and the guinea pigs ran into the woods. I am on my way back home, and I shall stay in this place only long enough to attend your ladyship’s famous party.
“Said Lady Yellow-paw to my great, great, great, great, great, twenty-seven times great grandmother Pinky-white, when she had ended her story, said Lady Yellow-paw: ‘Pinky-white, you do not speak of having a dog in your Happy Family.’
I Used to Play With a Dog’s Tail! ”

“ When I came to life again two of my kittens were playing by my side. Only two. The others were gone. Very soon even these two were taken from me. Not one of them ever came back. Kittens that have been taken away do not come back.
“Now that I had no kittens to need me at home, I was free to go out and meet my friends on fences and the shed-roofs. I went often, and enjoyed my fights with them very much.
There I Saw a Rat Hanging by His Tail.
“One day when it was cold weather I went to a swamp to watch a rat’s nest. Another cat had been watching for that rat, but I meant to get it myself. ”

“ The young rat married the mother rat’s daughter, and they had many children, and the frog married the frog he loved best, and had a large family of little tadpoles, and the little tadpoles played with the little rats and the little rats played with the little tadpoles, and the little rats told rat stories, and the little tadpoles told tadpole stories, and they all lived happily all their lives. ”