ROCK-A-BY
IT was lucky that the balloon fell into the big willow tree, as I mentioned in the last story, for otherwise Puss, Junior, and his fellow passengers might have been badly hurt. As it happened, they were none the worse except for a few scratches. Puss pulled himself together and after arranging his clothes, which were torn and mussed by the branches of the tree, looked about him. Suddenly, he heard the cry of a baby, and turning around, he saw a little cradle swinging back and forth. It was fastened securely to a limb, and rocked to and fro as the breeze blew through the trembling leaves.
"Rock-a-by, baby, upon the tree top!
When the wind blows the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall;
Down tumbles baby, cradle and all."
"S-s-sh!" cried the balloon man, "We will wake the baby if we are not careful."
"Won't it be sad if the bough breaks," said Puss, Junior, "it will be almost as bad for the baby as it was for us when the balloon fell into this tree."
"It might be worse," said one of the passengers, who stood near them on a limb, looking anxiously to the ground.
"Suppose we take down the cradle," said the balloon man.
"Somebody must have hung it up here," said Puss, "we have no right to take it down; it's not our baby."
"You are perfectly right," said another passenger. "It isn't our cradle and it isn't our baby, so the best thing for us to do is to leave the cradle and climb down."
As soon as the passengers were once more upon the ground they demanded their fare back, saying that they had paid for a trip to the moon, and not for a fall into a willow tree.
"This doesn't seem quite fair to me," remarked the balloon man, looking ruefully at his wrecked balloon. "I don't think I should give you back more than half, for the first part of the journey was successful."
"You didn't keep to your bargain," cried Puss, stoutly; "and besides, you endangered our lives. I don't want to pay to go up in the air a little way and then be hurled down into a willow tree; it takes all the niceness out of the way up and makes the way down too dangerous."
So the balloon man paid back the money and turned away. "Why don't you take the basket car with you?" asked Puss, Junior.
"It's too big to carry," replied the balloon man. "I'll come around for it to-morrow with a horse and wagon."
Pretty soon all the passengers had gone, leaving Puss alone under the willow tree. All of a sudden the baby began to cry, so Puss sang softly:
"Hush-a-by, baby, upon the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock."
And then the baby stopped crying, so Puss turned away and entered the old mill that stood in the shade of the old willow tree.