CUSTARD AND MUSTARD
FOR several days the good ship, with the four and twenty sailor mice and the duck captain, sailed over the big blue sea. Puss, Junior, learned to climb the mast and to run out to the very tip of the great boom to tie a rope for Captain Duck when it was blowing a gale. The Rock-a-By-Baby's Mother made a most delicious cake with the flour which the 'rusty, dusty' miller had sent on board, and altogether it was a most enjoyable trip, and when the good ship put into port on the fifth day everybody was sorry.
Even the little girl who was waiting for Bobby Shafto to come home told Puss she had forgotten all about him.
Well, as soon as the ship was fast to the dock, Puss said good-by to Captain Duck and the sailor mice.
"I hope Bobby Shafto will return soon," he whispered to the little girl as he kissed her good-by.
"I shall miss you very much," he said to the Rock-a-By-Baby's mother.
"Will you, my dear Puss?" she answered, giving him a hug. "You're a dear little cat! I hope you soon find your father. When you do, tell him he has a fine little son—tell him that from me, won't you?"
And after that Puss went upon his way, and by and by, after a while he found himself on a broad highway. "I wonder what will happen next?" he said to himself, and just then he came to a small house near the road. So he stopped at the front gate to listen to a sweet voice singing:
"When Jacky's a very good boy
He shall have cakes and a custard;
But when he does nothing but cry
He shall have nothing but mustard."
Puss opened the gate and peeped through the window. In the centre of the room stood a small boy, wiping his eyes with a little pink handkerchief.
"Nothing but mustard," repeated his mother, "if you don't stop crying."
"Meow!" cried Puss at the window. "Won't you give me some custard?" And then, my goodness! didn't that little boy stop crying!
"Look at the cat with boots on!" he cried, running up to the window.
"You both shall have some custard," said Jack's mother, "and then you may go out to the swing and have a good time."
Well, it didn't take long to eat the custard, and then Jacky and Puss went out under the big tree.
"Swing high, swing low.
Away we go,
Up to the skies,
Down to the ground;
This is the finest
Sport I've found,"
sang Puss, Junior.
"After supper, Jacky, I'll tell you how I was a sailor boy for almost a week on the ocean blue!"