Mouser Cat's Story Part 3

"I should hope you did; but I remembered those lines, and it seemed to me they came in just right. There is a story he tells about the Elephant and the Bee, which teaches the same kind of a lesson."

WHEN MR. ELEPHANT AND MR. BEE HAD A QUARREL.

"I certainly would like to hear it," your Aunt Amy said when Mrs. Mouser Cat ceased speaking, as if waiting for some such permission.

"Well, in the first place you must understand that there was once an Elephant and a Bee that were the very best of friends," Mrs. Mouser Cat said as she curled her tail around her fore paws to prevent them from being chilled by the draft. "One day the Elephant had walked a long distance, and thought he would sit down to rest for a little while. Now it seems the Bee had been flying around there, and he had got tired too, so he laid down on the gra.s.s and went to sleep.

"Now what do you think? When Mr. Elephant sat down he happened to hit Mr. Bee's hind foot, and then there was a time! Mr. Bee talked disgracefully, so it is said, to Mr. Elephant, and you would have thought they never had been friends; but Mr. Elephant didn't answer him back, because he was a peaceable kind of an animal, and knew that the least said is the soonest mended.

"When Mr. Bee got through scolding, they went on their journey again. I don't know where they were traveling, but that doesn't make any difference in the story. Off they started, and after a while it seemed as if Mr. Bee got to feeling better, and Mr. Elephant said:

"'I'm glad to see that you've got over being cross, for it was all an accident, my hitting your foot.'

"'Oh yes,' Mr. Bee answered, as if he intended to be friendly again.

'We'll try to forget all about it. Have you seen anything of my collars and cuffs since we started?'

"'Why, no,' replied Mr. Elephant. 'Have you lost them?'

"'I haven't seen them since we left home, and I believe they must be in your trunk.'

"'I think not,' Mr. Elephant said; 'but you can go in and look for them, if you choose.'

"Now Mr. Bee hadn't got over his cross fit a little bit, and he was only waiting for a chance to pay Mr. Elephant back. Well, he crawled into the trunk just as far as he could get, and then he gave poor Mr. Elephant the very hardest sting you ever dreamed about.

[Ill.u.s.tration: When Mr. Elephant Sneezed.]

"'Oh me, oh my!' Mr. Elephant howled. 'What a wicked little thing you are! I'll fix you for that!' and then he hunched himself together, and gave the biggest kind of a big sneeze. Now if you never saw anything of the kind, you can't have an idea what a commotion it made when Mr.

Elephant did that, and, bless your heart, that was the last of Mr. Bee.

I don't know what became of him, and neither does anybody else. He must have been dashed to pieces in the terrible wind that was raised, and it served him good and right, too, for he deserved it just as much as ever Mr. Bear did when he got so worn out by Mr. Man's boy Tommy."

WHEN TOMMY GOT THE BEST OF MR. BEAR.

"Is that another story?" your Aunt Amy asked, and Mrs. Mouser replied with a laugh:

"Yes, and it is a good one, too. Last year there was an old Mr. Bear living near this farm, who was the most quarrelsome animal you ever saw, and besides that, he was wicked. Do you know, he made up his mind that he would bite a big piece out of Mr. Man's boy's leg, just because Tommy drove him away when he was stealing honey. So one night he crept up to the well, and got into the bucket, letting himself way down to the bottom where he could float around until Tommy came out to get a pail of water.

"'I'll have him sure,' Mr. Bear said to himself, 'for when he pulls up the bucket in the morning, I'll jump out and grab him, so he can't get away.'

"Well, Tommy went to the well at just about the same time as usual, and when he started to raise the bucket with the windla.s.s, he found it was terribly heavy. He thought some one must have been putting rocks in it to play a joke on him, so he kept on turning the crank around until the bucket was nearly to the top, and then he saw what was the matter:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Bear Makes a Mistake.]

"'My goodness!' he cried. 'There's Mr. Bear, and it's water I'm after, not bear!'

"Then Tommy Man let go of the windla.s.s, and of course down went Mr. Bear to the bottom of the well with a b.u.mp that nearly shook him to pieces.

"Now almost anybody might have thought that Tommy would run away after that; but no, he made up his mind to serve Mr. Bear out good and hard, so he went to work winding up the windla.s.s again. Then, when he had hauled Mr. Bear nearly to the top, he let him go back with a worse b.u.mp than before, and so he kept on doing this same thing thirteen or fifteen times, until Mr. Bear was so sore and bruised that he couldn't do much of anything more than hold himself on to the edge of the bucket.

"By that time Tommy had got all the sport he wanted, and he let Mr. Bear crawl out of the bucket. I have heard it said that it was more than two weeks before the old fellow could get out of bed, and the lesson did him as much good as the one Mr. Donkey gave the Wild Hog, for he wasn't quarrelsome again, and behaved himself decently well forever after."

MR. DONKEY'S LESSON IN GOOD MANNERS.

"I think the story about the donkey must be one which I have never heard," your Aunt Amy said. "Although the animals on the farm have told me quite a lot about Mr. Donkey, I have never thought of him as a teacher.

"It isn't what you might rightly call a story; but only something that happened when Mr. Donkey showed his good sense. Now I don't understand why Mr. Man tells about any one being as stupid as a donkey. Why, our Neddy is as wise as anybody on this farm, and you will think so when I have told this story about him.

"It was one night after supper, and he thought he would take a stroll up the road, because he hadn't been working very hard that day, and the exercise might do him good. He was going along, minding his own business, when Mr. Wild Hog came out from the bushes, and into the road.

"Mr. Donkey stepped over one side so as to give him plenty of room, saying 'good evening' politely, and was walking on when Mr. Wild Hog bristled up to him, showing both his big tusks, and said:

"'Why don't you turn out when you meet anybody of consequence?'

"'Perhaps I do when I meet them,' Mr. Donkey replied, and that made Mr.

Hog terribly angry. "'Do you know I have a mind to give you a lesson in good manners?' growled Mr. Hog, and Mr. Donkey said with a grin:

"'Why not go off somewhere alone, and give yourself a lesson or two?'

"Of course that made Mr. Hog more angry than ever, and he said:

"'Do you know what I do when stupid animals like you try to be too smart?'

"'No; I don't care either,' Mr. Donkey replied; 'but I will show you what I do when animals make bigger hogs of themselves than is natural.'

"Just as he said this he turned around, swung up both heels, struck Mr.

Hog under the chin, and knocked him over and over as many as six times.

Then Mr. Donkey trotted off slowly, with a smile on his face that was for all the world like Mr. Crocodile's after he had been to the dentist's."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Wild Hog tries to give Mr. Donkey a lesson in good manners.]

WHEN MR. CROCODILE HAD HIS TEETH EXTRACTED.

"Why did he go to the dentist?" your Aunt Amy asked, thinking to hear another story.