Quite small, and yet
A solemn look was in his face.

One fiery eye this feline wore--
A waif he was of low degrees--
No gaudy dress
Did he possess,
Nor yet a handsome cat was he.

But lo, he smote that spurious king
And stripped him of his tinsel crown,
Then like the wind
Full close behind
He chased His Highness into town.

With cheers his subjects saw him come.
He did not pause--he did not stop,
But straight ahead
He wildly fled
Till he was safe within his shop.

He caught his breath and gazed about--
A sorry sight did he behold:
No catnip there
Or watchful care--
No mice and milk and joy of old.

[Illustration: QUOTH HE, "MY PRIDE IS SATISFIED; THIS KINGDOM BUSINESS
DOES NOT PAY"]

He heaved a sigh and dropped a tear--
He sent those idle clerks away--
Quoth he, "My pride
Is satisfied;
This kingdom business does not pay."

With care once more he runs his store,
His catnip all in canisters--
His milk and mice
All packed in ice,
And humbly serves his customers.

MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT STORY

MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT STORY

MR. 'POSSUM TELLS THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE 'POSSUM FAMILY, TO THE
SURPRISE OF HIS FRIENDS

"Now this," said the Story Teller, "is the story that Mr. Possum told
the Snowed-In Literary Club in the Hollow Tree. It must be a true story,
because Mr. 'Possum said so, and, besides, anybody that knows Mr.
'Possum would know that he could never in the world have made it up out
of his head."

The Little Lady doesn't quite like that.

"But Mr. 'Possum is smart," she says. "He knows ever so much."

"Oh yes, of course, and that's why he never _has_ to make up things. He
just tells what he knows, and this time he told

"HOW UNCLE SILAS AND AUNT MELISSY MOVED

"You may remember," he said, "my telling you once about Uncle Silas and
Aunt Melissy Lovejoy, who lived in a nice place just beyond the Wide
Paw-paw Hollows, and how Uncle Silas once visited Cousin Glenwood in
town and came home all dressed up, leading a game chicken, and with a
bag of shinny-sticks, and a young man to wait on him; and how Aunt
Melissy--instead of being pleased, as Uncle Silas thought she would
be--got mad when she saw him, and made him and the young man take off
all their nice clothes and go to work in the gard