e fire and was sad. By and by she was _so_ sad with no
baby cat to love that she said very low and deep: "Mew! Mew!" Tiny Hare
was so wet and so weak he just _had_ to lie down on the step. Then CAT
saw him.

How fast she did jump out of the box, and run to the door! Tiny Hare saw
her long tail, and her big wild eyes. He shut his eyes; and how he _did_
wish he was at home! But CAT did not eat him. She took him in her soft
lips, and laid him in the box by the fire.

"_Now_ she will eat me," said Tiny Hare; and how he _did_ wish he was at
home!

Then MAN and DOG came in. MAN was wet, and had much mud on him. He took
the box away from the fire to put fresh hay in it, and then he saw Tiny
Hare. Then MAN went near the fire to get warm and dry, and DOG ran to
CAT to look at her baby cat. When he saw Tiny Hare he gave a loud bark,
"Bow-wow-wow-wow!" and his tail did not wag any more. But just as he was
to JUMP on Tiny Hare, CAT put a claw on his nose.

"Wow!" said DOG, and MAN made DOG lie down, and he came once more to
look at CAT in her box. "Well, well," said he, "a hare for a baby cat!
Do you mean to eat it, Puss?"

"Purr, purr, purr," said CAT, and Tiny Hare did not like to hear her
purr, and he said: "She _will_ eat me now"; and how he _did_ wish he was
at home!

CAT did not want to eat Tiny Hare, but she did want to wash him, and
play that he was her own baby cat. And she did wash him, oh, _so_ hard,
and _so_ much, from head to feet, and from feet to head, over and over
and over. She gave him a wee bite now and then when she felt a knot in
his wet fur.

"Wee! Wee! Wee!" said Tiny Hare, very loud and high, when she hurt him
too much, but CAT did not care, and did not stop.

By and by when Tiny Hare was warm and dry, and his fur was like silk,
MAN and DOG went out to tea; and CAT saw that the eyes of Tiny Hare were
shut, so _she_ went out to tea. When CAT was gone, oh, how fast did Tiny
Hare _jump_ out of the box, and _run_ out of the door, and _skip_ up the
long road, and _leap_ past the wet wood, home to his Mama. The rain was
over, and the sun was warm, so he was now dry, and his fur was like
silk.

"I _will_ be good now, Mama." "Oh, dear," said his Mama. "This is a
CAT."

"Oh, no, no, no, no, NO!" said Tiny Hare. "I _am_ your Tiny Hare."

"Is it our Tiny Hare?" said Mama Hare to wise Papa Hare.

"Yes," said Papa Hare, "it is, but he is too much like CAT."

Tiny Hare was not glad, and he did not want to