“But the worst of it is that black cat is still loose. Still I don’t think he will run away and leave the two dogs behind.”
“Neither do I, but we won’t take any chances. Come and see if we can’t catch him. We’ll lock the two dogs in and then see if the three of us can’t catch the cat. Where did you leave him?”
“Up a tree beside the garden gate.”
“I’ll get a nice piece of meat and see if I can’t coax him down,” said the farmer. So while he went for the meat his wife and his son went to the tree where they had left Button. But alas! alack! when they got there he was gone and nowhere in sight though they searched everywhere for him and called, “Kitty! Kitty! Kitty! Pussy! Pussy! Pussy!”
The farmer was nearly crazy to think that with the cat gone he would lose half of the reward he had been counting on so much.
“We must find him, I tell you!” and he began to scold his wife and son as if it was their fault that the cat was gone. At last his wife grew angry and said:
“Shut up! I have heard enough of your complaining. If it had not been for me, they both would have been gone for good. Why, I told you to keep them under lock and key; that they were too valuable to let run loose. But you go accusing us of losing them, while you sleep and let them sneak off. Don’t you suppose I want a new dress and bonnet with that reward money as much as you want to spend it on fixing up the place?”
This was good logic, so the farmer stopped his scolding. In the first place he knew it was not her fault but like some men he tried to lay everything that went wrong on some one else. Whoever happened to be near at the time usually got the scolding.
“Gee, how I hate a man who lays everything that goes wrong on his wife!” said Duke.
Button had hid under some currant bushes and was having great fun watching them hunt for him. When supper time came they put his supper outside the kitchen door on a plate but left the door part way open, so they could open it quickly and grab him if he came to eat the food. But they waited in vain, for Button had seen the crack and knew what it meant.