Tabby did not know what to do. In all her travels she had never crossed a pond of water. She was frightened, and would have gone back to the house, but she looked toward the barn, and saw Mary and the pan of milk waiting for her beside the door.
Ponto did not care for the water, for he could swim. So when they came to the edge of the pond, he plunged in and was soon across. Then he looked back to see what had become of Tabby. He thought she would be at his heels.
But no! There she was on the bank where he had left her. Her back was curled up till it looked as if it were broken, and her tail was waving over it! What in the world was the matter? She never looked so except when she was angry.
Now, Ponto thought Tabby was a wonderful cat. He had seen her catch rats, and he knew that she could do some things that even he could not. “Surely she can cross that pond,” thought he. He did not know what to make of it.
He called to her, with a bark, to “Jump in and swim across.” But she only replied with a cross “Meouw,” which he did not hear. Then he said again, “It’s easy to swim across—come on!”
“As easy as for you to climb a tree,” said Tabby, in an angry way.
This was too much for Ponto! He could not climb a tree, and Tabby knew it. When he was too rough in his play, she would run up into the apple-tree, and there she was safe. So this reply made him angry. Tabby should not have said it—but then, she wanted the milk!
“It is so easy that I can swim across and carry you, too,” thought Ponto, and then he plunged into the water again. When he reached the shore, he seized Tabby by the back of the neck with his teeth, and rushed back into the water. Poor Tabby! She thought she certainly would be drowned.
But Ponto knew better. He held his head so high that the water hardly touched her pretty little paws. So she kept quiet and did not struggle. It was not so bad after all! And besides, there was the milk!