“The sparrow perched on the top of the post.”—Page [223.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
That night when Hannah was ready to go to bed, the house-cat was nowhere to be found. She didn’t like to go to bed and lock her out, for she feared she might come home during the night and make a disturbance; and, moreover, she didn’t fancy the thought of getting up after she had gone to bed, to let her in.
Hannah went to the door and called, but there was no answer; and after going about the garden, calling “Puss, puss,” her patience gave out and she went back to the kitchen. “Stay out, then, if you want to; you won’t catch me getting up to let you in, if you yawl all night,” she said, as she shut and bolted the door.
The house-kittens might have given her some information on the subject, if she could have understood their language,—for their mother had told them, early in the evening, not to be alarmed if she were out all night, as she had very important business to attend to; but Hannah only thought they were mewing for their mother, when they tried to make her understand. So Hannah went up to bed, where Nancy was already sound asleep in her little cot-bed and happily unconscious of the deep plot laid for her by the evil-minded old rat.
“You look innocent enough,” said Hannah, as her eyes fell on the sleeping child, who was smiling in her sleep at some pleasant dream; “but I don’t trust you,—appearances are too suspicious.”
Soon Hannah too was fast asleep, and the house silent.
Then, when everything was quiet, old Graywhisker, with Hannah’s silver thimble in his mouth, came softly out of his hole and looked cautiously around to see if the barn-cat were in sight. Not a sound was to be heard, and he crept slyly along till he came to a hole in the corner of the barn farthest from the barn-cat’s nest; for he didn’t dare trust the private entrance any more, and had made this new exit with the help of some of the younger rats.
When he found himself out of doors he looked anxiously about. Yes, there was Mrs. Silverskin, just where she had agreed to be; and he went towards her.
“Here is the thimble, and mind you don’t lose it!” he said, as he dropped it noiselessly on the ground in front of the little mouse. “Be sure you put it among Nancy’s things, where Hannah will be likely to see it.”