They Had to Tilt High.
“At last his family heard where he was, and begged his aunt to go fetch him home, as she had no children, and could leave home as well as not. His aunt said she would go as soon as news should come from the King of the Cats. The King of the Cats was expected to die. He had caught a bad cold wading for eels on a damp day, and had taken to his bed, and called in Doctor Bowwow, and Doctor Bowwow had looked at his tongue and told him he could not live. The young rat’s family begged his aunt to go right off. She said she wished to wait and hear of the death of the King of the Cats, for that would be good to hear.
“As soon as word came that the King of the Cats was dead, the young rat’s aunt set off to the far-off swamp, and found it, but by that time the young rat had gone with the young frog to live on the edge of the pond. She looked all through the swamp, and got her feet wet, and lost her way, and tangled herself in the swamp-vines, and caught herself in a swamp-vine string and could not get away, and there she stayed until the day of the Wonderful News.
“The Wonderful News was brought by a travelling kangaroo. As the young rat and the frog were sitting one evening by the edge of the pond, a kangaroo came leaping past, and stopped between two of his leaps and said, ‘Wonderful News! Peace between the cats and the rats and mice! All friends!’ and the kangaroo leaped on.
“‘Wonderful news indeed!’ said the young rat. ‘I must let the water rats know.’
“The frog said he would attend to that, and he got upon a log and croaked, ‘Wonderful news! Peace between the cats and the rats and mice!’
“Other frogs heard him, and sat upon logs, stones, rocks and stumps, and croaked, ‘Wonderful news! Peace between the cats and the rats and mice!’ and other frogs heard these other frogs, and croaked the same, and the great bull-frogs got hold of it and bellowed it, and frogs and bull-frogs in other ponds and swamps and bogs heard it, and croaked it and bellowed it, and before morning the Wonderful News was known to every water rat far and near; and the water rats told the land rats as quickly as they could.
“The young rat’s aunt heard it in the swamp, and jumped hard and broke the swamp-vine string, and set off on a gallop, this way and that way, and the wrong way, and lost her way, and away she went.