had little
quarrels; but they soon forgot their anger and were friends again.

Every evening, when Ponto came into the yard, the two friends would run
down one little hill from the house and up another little hill to the barn
where Mary was milking. Ponto would keep the pigs out of the yard, and
Tabby would watch every hole in the barn floor for a rat or a mouse. Then,
when Mary was done milking, she would pour some fresh milk into a pan for
Tabby to drink.

But, after a while, there came a long rain-storm. Ponto had to stay in the
yard for two or three days. Tabby did nothing but doze! It seemed as if it
never would stop raining! But it did at last; and when Ponto and Tabby ran
down the hill again, they saw at the bottom--a pond deep enough to drown
them both!

Tabby did not know what to do. In all her travels she had never crossed a
pond of water. She was frightened, and would have gone back to the house,
but she looked toward the barn, and saw Mary and the pan of milk waiting
for her beside the door.

Ponto did not care for the water, for he could swim. So when they came to
the edge of the pond, he plunged in and was soon across. Then he looked
back to see what had become of Tabby. He thought she would be at his
heels.

But no! There she was on the bank where he had left her. Her back was
curled up till it looked as if it were broken, and her tail was waving
over it! What in the world was the matter? She never looked so except when
she was angry.

[Illustration]

Now, Ponto thought Tabby was a wonderful cat. He had seen her catch rats,
and he knew that she could do some things that even he could not. "Surely
she can cross that pond," thought he. He did not know what to make of it.

He called to her, with a bark, to "Jump in and swim across." But she only
replied with a cross "Meouw," which he did not hear. Then he said again,
"It's easy to swim across--come on!"

"As easy as for you to climb a tree," said Tabby, in an angry way.

This was too much for Ponto! He could not climb a tree, and Tabby knew it.
When he was too rough in his play, she would run up into the apple-tree,
and there she was safe. So this reply made him angry. Tabby should not
have said it--but then, she wanted the milk!

"It is so easy that I can swim across and carry you, too," thought Ponto,
and then he plunged into the water again. When he reached the shore, he
seized Tabby by the back of the neck with his teeth, and rushed back int