e herself in his kennel, where she would
remain concealed behind the door and when Keeper wanted to come in, she
would spring at him, and scratch his nose, but Keeper did not like such
fun as this, and so he fell quite vexed, and bit a piece of her tail
end, which so frightened poor Puss that she durst not come near him for
a long time to come.

[Illustration]

The mother of poor Puss now thought it was high time that she should
begin to fend for herself, and so she took her into the barn on a
mousing expedition. For a long time they watched the hole of a mouse,
which appeared to be the residence of a whole family, and at length the
old mouse came out followed by six little ones. The old cat seized the
old mouse, and killed three or four of the little ones. The young cat
seized hold of one, and wanted to play with it, but it slipped into the
hole and she could see no more of it. The other little mouse was running
away as fast as it could, but Puss sprang at it and gave it a nip which
made it quiet enough.

Puss soon became a good hand at killing mice, but her pride received a
severe check, for one day a large rat was running across the barn, and
Puss thinking it was a large mouse ran to seize it, but the rat turned
round and seized Puss by the nose and bit her severely so that she went
away to her mother, mewing very piteously with her face all swelled and
covered with blood.

Puss durst not meddle with rats for a long time after this, but at
length she got stronger and would kill them and many other such vermin.
She had plenty of work, for there were many rats at the farm house.
While pursuing a large rat one day, she set her foot into a trap which
had been set to catch them, and though she was taken out very carefully
by the farmer's daughters who were swinging in an old tree at the bottom
of the orchard, it hurt her very much and she was lame for many weeks
after.

[Illustration]

Puss was now become a fine, healthy, good looking cat, and a smart
looking Tom Cat in the neighbourhood paid his court to Miss Puss, and
asked her by kind looks and gentle actions if she would become his wife.
Puss scolded and scratched for some time, but at length they made a
match of it, and in due time, Puss became a mother. She however,
notwithstanding all her skill in concealing them, was doomed to see her
small family torn from her, and share the same fate as her brothers and
sisters had experienced on former occasions.

As