“I am not very hungry, and I can wait for my supper until you go to sleep. You will have to go to bed,” he thought.
At last the farmer could stand waiting no longer. He wanted to find that cat and lock him up so he could go to bed and be ready for an early start to headquarters in the morning. With no cat, there would be no use in going.
“I have it!” he at last exclaimed to his wife. “I’ll go unchain Towser and get him to smell out the cat for me. That dog is a crackajack for finding cats. He hates them so—or most of them. This cat is the only one I ever saw him make friends with.”
So Towser was unchained and set to looking for Button. He ran around and around, smelling everywhere and he barked up the tree that Button had climbed. But still he had not found the missing cat. At last he got the scent, but just before he got to him Button shot out from under the bushes and ran up a tree.
“He has found him, found him!” called the farmer to his wife. The farmer had been close on Towser’s heels all the time, a bag in his hand. He had intended to put the cat in it when Towser caught him by the nape of his neck as he did most cats. But Button was too quick for them. He was up a tree before they could wink. The next thing was to get him down. The farmer, his wife and son coaxed and coaxed Button to come down but he just sat on a limb and blinked at them.
“Climb the tree and see if you can’t catch him,” said the farmer to his son.
One thing Billy butted was a basket full of clothes.
(Page [67])