s wondrous wise.
He jumped into a bramble bush
And scratched out both his eyes.
And when he found his eyes were out
He cried with grief and pain,
And jumped into another bush
And scratched them in again.

"That's the man I'm looking for," cried little Puss, Junior. "I wonder
where he lives. Maybe he can tell me where to find my father."

"You hold your horse while I ask the baker's wife," said the farmer's
pretty daughter.

Pretty soon she came back and said: "He lives in a little house just
outside the town. It's not far from our place."

So she and Puss rode away, and she was mighty careful, let me tell you,
not to drop the package containing the silk gown which Puss had given
her.

Well, by and by they came to the wise man's little house, surrounded by
a hedge of bramble bushes; but the wise man himself was nowhere to be
seen.

"Let's go around to the barn," said the farmer's pretty daughter. "It's
milking time, you know." And, sure enough, there they found him.

"Are you the man who jumped into the bramble bush?" asked Puss.

"Yes, I am. But let me tell you something. They call me a wise man, but
I think a man who jumps into a bramble bush is a silly goose."

And then, all of a sudden, the Bramble-bush Man exclaimed: "Goodness me!
I once knew a cat who wore red-top boots. A good many years ago there
lived near here a miller who had three sons. When he died he left all
his property to the two eldest, but to the youngest only a cat. Well,
this cat turned out to be a most wonderful cat. Indeed, I heard that he
secured a magnificent castle for his young master, as well as the hand
of a lovely princess."

"Where does he live?" cried Puss, in great excitement.

"That I cannot tell," replied the Bramble-bush Man, "for I never heard
where he went after leaving here."

"Oh, dear me!" sighed little Puss, Junior. "Nobody knows where my father
lives." Then he and the farmer's pretty daughter rode away, and in the
next story you shall hear what happened at the old farmhouse.

DAFFY-DOWN-DILLY

"DAFFY-DOWN-DILLY has come to town
In a yellow petticoat and a green gown,"

sang the farmer's pretty daughter beneath Puss, Junior's, window. There
she stood, bending over her flower bed, the pink strings of her bonnet
floating on the morning breeze.

Puss hurriedly pulled on his boots and ran outside. "Good morning! I