VI
ABOUT THE APPLE BUTTER CAT
Green-Eyes, the cat, was very angry when he found that the man thought that he could not catch mice. He was afraid that he would be put out in the kennel with the dog. He and the dog had never been very good friends and he did not like the idea of being in the same house with an animal with such sharp teeth and such a harsh voice.
Green-Eyes used to sit up all night with his paw on his head, saying, “Let me think.” The neighbors’ cats came out on the back fence and made fun of Green-Eyes all night long.
“It’s too bad,” they meowed, “that you cannot see in the dark. Why, you cannot even see a big white rabbit.”
Gray Mouse and his friend, White Rabbit, went every night to the cellar of the man’s house, where they helped themselves to cake and apple pie and cheese and carrots. Green-Eyes heard the man say that it was time to drown that good-for-nothing cat. He saw it was time for him to do something to save his life, and so he kept on thinking and thinking.
Patrick O’Possum pushes over the apple butter jar.