“Now, boys,” said Mrs. No-Tail, the frog lady, to and Bawly one day, as she put on her best and shawl and started out, “I hope you will be good while I am away.”  
“Where are you going, mamma?” asked Bully.
 
“I am going over to call on Mrs. Longtail, the mouse,” replied Mrs. No-Tail. “She is the mother of the mice children, Jollie and Jillie Longtail, you know, and she has been ill with mouse-trap fever. So I am taking her some custard pie, and a bit of toasted cheese.”
 
“Oh, of course we’ll be good,” promised Bawly. “But if you don’t come home in time for supper, mamma, what shall we eat?”
 
“I have made up a cold supper for you and your papa and Grandpa Croaker,” said Mrs. No-tail. “You will find it in the oven of the stove. You may eat at 5 o’clock, but I think I’ll be back before then.”
 
Poor Mrs. No-Tail didn’t know what was going to happen to her, nor how near she was to never coming home at all again. But there, wait, if you please, I’ll tell you all about it.
 
Away Mrs. No-Tail through the woods, carrying the custard pie and the toasted cheese for Mrs. Longtail in a little basket. And when she got there, I mean to the mouse house, she found the mouse lady home all alone, for Jollie and Jillie and Squeaky-Eaky, the little cousin mouse, had gone to a surprise party, given by Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrow girl.
 
“Oh, I’m so glad to see you,” said Mrs. Longtail. “Come right in, if you please, Mrs. No-Tail. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”
 
“Oh, are you able to be about?” asked Bully’s mamma.
 
“Yes,” replied Jollie’s mamma. “I am much better, thank you. I am so glad you brought me a custard pie. But now sit right down by the window, where you can smell the flowers in the garden, and I’ll make tea.”
 
Well in a little while, about forty-’leven seconds, Mrs. Longtail had the tea made, and she and Mrs. No-Tail sat in the dining-room eating it—I mean it—for it was quite hot. And they were talking about spring housecleaning, and about getting in the closets, and eating up the blankets and the piano, and about whether there would be many mosquitoes this year, after Bawly had killed such numbers of them with his bean shooter. They talked of many other things, and finally Mrs. Longtail said:
 
“Let me get you another cup of tea, Mrs. No-Tail.”
 
So the lady mouse went out in the kitchen to get the tea off the stove, and when she got there, what do you think she saw? Why, a great, big, ugly, cat had, somehow or other, gotten into the room and there he sat in front of the fire, washing his face, which was very dirty.
 
“Oh, ho!” exclaimed the cat, blinking his yellow eyes, “I was wondering whether anybody was at home here.”
 
“Yes, I am at home!” exclaimed the mouse lady, “and I want you to get right out of my house, Mr. Cat.”
 
“Well,” replied the cat, licking his whiskers with his red tongue, “I’m not going! That’s all there is to it. I am glad I found you at home, but you are not going to be at home long.”
 
“Why not?” asked Mrs. Longtail, suspicious like.
 
“Because,” answered that bad cat, “I am going to eat you up, and I think I’ll start right in............