CHAUFFEUR TAFFY
"HIGH-HO, how the winds blow!" exclaimed little Puss, Junior, as he rode along on his Good Gray Horse toward the castle of my Lord Carabas to see his dear father, Puss in Boots.
But New Mother Goose Land is a big country and Puss did not realize how long a journey it was. You see, he had been seeking adventures for so long and had traveled so far—sometimes on the back of his good friend, Goosey Goosey Gander, sometimes in the airship whose captain was a downy goose and the sailors four and twenty doves, and then, again, on broomsticks and umbrellas and baskets that flew in the air with their old women owners—that now, once more astride of his Good Gray Horse who had carried him many a mile in Old Mother Goose Land he felt he would soon be with his father.
Well, as Puss rode along he came to a bend in the road where an automobile stood. It had evidently broken down, for the chauffeur was tinkering with the machinery.
All of a sudden a blackbird perched herself on the fence along the road and began to sing:
"Taffy was a chauffeur, Taffy was a loafer,
Taffy broke a tire everywhere he went.
His master soon grew tired, Taffy he was fired;
Taffy he was fired without another cent.
"Taffy came to master's house; master wasn't in.
Taffy made an awful row, kicked up such a din.
He blew on his auto horn, blew with all his might;
Everyone but Taffy ran away in fright."
"Whoa there!" cried Puss, Junior, and the blackbird must have thought it was meant for her, for she stopped her song and looked at our small hero. And of course the Good Gray Horse stopped, and Taffy—well, he crawled out from under the automobile and scowled at the blackbird. And this made Puss, Junior, laugh, and the Good Gray Horse cough and the blackbird snicker, all of which made Taffy very red in the face.
"Tell-tale-tit, your tongue shall be slit," he cried, but the blackbird clapped her wings and flew away. And after that Puss, Junior, said gid-ap to his horse and rode off, leaving Taffy to finish mending his automobile. And after a little while the blackbird came back and settled herself on the head of the Good Gray Horse.