THE next morning when Puss, Junior, went down to the river, he found his boat was gone.
"Now I must trust again to my red-topped boots," he sighed, and at once set off to find his dear father. By and by he saw a little man in the distance, who, on coming nearer, turned out to be Tom Thumb.
Puss picked him up and placing him on his shoulder, set off once more. But, goodness me! It soon began to rain, and Tom Thumb crept into a pocket to keep dry.
Towards the middle of the day they arrived on the outskirts of a small village. In the distance they could hear the strokes of a hammer, and then, now and again, the whirr of a saw cutting into hard wood.
"What's going on, I wonder?" said Tom Thumb; "sounds as if they were building a house."
"Don't know," answered Puss, "but let's hurry, for I am soaked to the skin."
On arriving in the village they saw what appeared to be an immense boat in the early stages of construction. It was being erected in the city square, the little park that stood in the midst of the stores and houses.
Drawing nearer they heard a voice singing:
"Noah of old did build an Ark
Of spicy gopherwood and bark
To float upon the deluge dark.
Now on this Ark they had no sail,
For it was made (and true the tale)
Without a mast to break the gale."