e walked like a man in a dream, but arf-way he
stopped and cut a stick from the hedge to take 'ome to little Jimmy. He
said the boy 'ad been asking him for a stick for some time, but up till
then 'e'd always forgotten it.

At the end o' the fust year that cat was still alive, to everybody's
surprise; but George Barstow took such care of it 'e never let it out of
'is sight. Every time 'e went out he took it with 'im in a hamper, and,
to prevent its being pisoned, he paid Isaac Sawyer, who 'ad the biggest
family in Claybury, sixpence a week to let one of 'is boys taste its milk
before it had it.

The second year it was ill twice, but the horse-doctor that George
Barstow got for it said that it was as 'ard as nails, and with care it
might live to be twenty. He said that it wanted more fresh air and
exercise; but when he 'eard 'ow George Barstow come by it he said that
p'r'aps it would live longer indoors arter all.

At last one day, when George Barstow 'ad been living on the fat o' the
land for nearly three years, that cat got out agin. George 'ad raised
the front-room winder two or three inches to throw something outside,
and, afore he knew wot was 'appening, the cat was out-side and going up
the road about twenty miles an hour.

George Barstow went arter it, but he might as well ha' tried to catch the
wind. The cat was arf wild with joy at getting out agin, and he couldn't
get within arf a mile of it.

He stayed out all day without food or drink, follering it about until it
came on dark, and then, o' course, he lost sight of it, and, hoping
against 'ope that it would come home for its food, he went 'ome and
waited for it. He sat up all night dozing in a chair in the front room
with the door left open, but it was all no use; and arter thinking for a
long time wot was best to do, he went out and told some o' the folks it
was lost and offered a reward of five pounds for it.

You never saw such a hunt then in all your life. Nearly every man,
woman, and child in Claybury left their work or school and went to try
and earn that five pounds. By the arternoon George Barstow made it ten
pounds provided the cat was brought 'ome safe and sound, and people as
was too old to walk stood at their cottage doors to snap it up as it came
by.

Joe Clark was hunting for it 'igh and low, and so was 'is wife and the
boys. In fact, I b'lieve that everybody in Claybury excepting the parson
and Bob Pretty was trying to get that t