The ducklings did as they were bid,
And found the plan so good
That from that day the other fowls
Got hardly any food.

"My, but she's a wise old duck," said Puss to himself with a grin.

"WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY"

IT was a queer looking house that Puss, Junior, saw in the distance. It
seemed more like a box, with another little box tacked on, through the
top of which rose a long piece of stove pipe, which, I suppose, served
as a chimney, although chimneys are usually made of bricks in Old Mother
Goose Country.

On the front porch sat a little old man, smoking a pipe, from which the
smoke drifted away in little gray clouds, while the smoke from the
stovepipe chimney stretched out like a long black feather.

"Good-day," said Puss, taking off his hat.

"Come and rest beside me," said the old man, pushing forward an
armchair. So Puss sat down, and after wiping the perspiration from his
forehead remarked, "A warm day, my good sir."

"Yes, indeed," replied the little old man, "but all days seem very much
alike to me."

"Do they?" asked Puss. "Why?"

"Well, I'll tell you the story of my life," said the little old man,
and, taking his pipe from his lips, he began:

"When I was a little boy
I lived by myself,
And all the bread and cheese I got
I laid upon the shelf.
The rats and the mice
They made such a strife,
That I was forced to go to town,
And buy me a wife.
The streets were so broad,
And the lanes were so narrow,
I was forced to bring my wife home
In a wheelbarrow.
The wheelbarrow broke,
And my wife had a fall.
Farewell wheelbarrow, wife and all."

"And have you lived alone ever since?" asked Puss.

"Yes," replied the old man, "and the mice and the rats give me no peace.
They eat up all my cheese and flour."

"I'll help you," said Puss. "Let me stay here to-night, and I'll catch
every rat and mouse that bothers you inside the house."

"You can make up poetry as well as I can," said the old man, with a
laugh. "Why, that's the first laugh I've had in many a long year. I like
you, Sir Cat. You are an obliging sort of person. You shall have the
best that my small home affords. I only hope you will rid the place of
rats and mice."

"Leave that to me," replied Puss, with a grin.

GOO