ppening, 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 ten pounds.

O' course, we could understand the parson--'is pride wouldn't let 'im;
but a low, poaching, thieving rascal like Bob Pretty turning up 'is nose
at ten pounds was more than we could make out. Even on the second day,
when George Barstow made it ten pounds down and a shilling a week for a
year besides, he didn't offer to stir; all he did was to try and make fun
o' them as was looking for it.

"Have you looked everywhere you can think of for it, Bill?" he ses to
Bill Chambers. "Yes, I 'ave," ses Bill.

"Well, then, you want to look everywhere else," ses Bob Pretty. "I know
where I should look if I wanted to find it."

"Why don't you find it, then?" ses Bill.

"'Cos I don't want to make mischief," ses Bob Pretty. "I don't want to
be unneighbourly to Joe Clark by interfering at all."

"Not for all that money?" ses Bill.

"Not for fifty pounds," ses Bob Pretty; "you ought to know me better than
that, Bill Chambers."

"It's my belief that you know more about where that cat is than you ought
to," ses Joe Gubbins.

"You go on looking for it, Joe," ses Bob Pretty, grinning; "it's good
exercise for you, and you've only lost two days' work."