They saw Jazbury dragging something in from the shed beyond
"Jazbury, what have you got there?" cried his mother.
Jazbury dropped the thing and ran over to her. "It's the rat," he said.
"The rat!" cried Aunt Tabby. "Not the rat that lived in the shed, and that I've been trying to catch for such a long time!"
"Yes, that's the one," mewed Jazbury.
The cats could hardly believe him. They ran over and examined the rat all over, sniffing at it.
"But how ever did you manage to do it?" cried Aunt Tabby. "Why, the creature's almost as big as you are."
"Well, you see, I had to learn to catch big things in the wood," mewed Jazbury. "The rat didn't know that; he thought he could frighten me the way he had done before. So when I went out to the shed early--before you were awake--he came out to catch me; but I caught him, instead."
Then how his mother and Aunt Tabby praised and petted him! Not another kitten in the neighbourhood, not even Fluffy himself, could have done such a thing as that.
But Jazbury was not spoiled by their praises. "Any cat could have done it," he said, "if they could only have caught it. It was only because he thought he could frighten me that I had a chance to get him."