“The young rat said he must travel off somewhere and hear how it all happened, and he and the frog set out together and travelled. Sometimes the young rat let the frog ride on his back, because he could go faster by runs than the frog could by leaps. The rat could not go frog-back, because it was so hard to keep on. When they had travelled a long way they met a mother rat, with her baby in her mouth, running as fast as she could go.
“The young rat asked her to stop and speak to him, and she stopped. The young rat then asked the mother rat where she was going so fast, and the mother rat said her baby was too sick to be left alone, and that she could not stay away from the Janjibo, and she was carrying the baby to stay at its grandfather’s till she should come back from the Janjibo. The young rat asked her what there was to be a Janjibo for.
“She asked him if he had not heard the ‘Wonderful News.’ He said he had, and that he wished to know how it all happened. The mother rat then said that if they would come to her baby’s grandfather’s, they could then go with her to the Janjibo, and on the way there she would tell them how it all happened. They went with her to her baby’s grandfather’s and then to the Janjibo, and this is what the mother rat told.”
What the Mother Rat Told.
“After the King of the Cats died, and the King of the Cats’ son had been made king, the rats and mice sent to ask if the cats and the rats and mice could not be friends, so that there might be peace between them. The new king said he did not think it would be a good plan at all, but he would see what the dogs had to say about it, for dogs had the name of knowing more than cats. He picked out three of his wisest cats, and sent them to the dogs, and the dogs picked out two of their chief dogs, one named Know and the other named Quick, and the two dogs and the three cats met together. Quick asked Know what cats could live upon if they did not eat rats, and mice. Know said that if cats should give up catching, then people would feed them more. People kept from feeding them so as to make them catch.
The Wise Cats and Dogs.
“The wisest of the three wise cats said that dogs were not expected to catch; they were fed by people.