Page:Folk Tales from Tibet (1906).djvu/67

Rh herself entered the inn, and asked for a night's lodging. During the evening the Host got talking, and in the course of the conversation he made her the same wager as he had done to her Husband some time before.

"Well," said she, "that sounds a very strange story. I can scarcely believe it possible you can have a cat so well trained as to be able to carry in a lantern. But I will think over what you say to-night, and we will see about making the bet to-morrow morning."

Next morning at breakfast she said to her Host:

"I have thought over what you said to me yesterday, and I am now prepared to make a bet with you that the cat will not carry a lantern into this room at dusk this evening."

So the bet was concluded upon the same terms as before, and the Lady privately told her Husband what he was to do. So in accordance with the instructions she had given him, he caught three mice, and concealed them in a little box, which he placed in the bosom of his robe. When evening approached, the Landlord and the Lady seated themselves in the supper room, waiting to see whether or no the cat would appear as expected, whilst the Husband hid himself in a corner of the courtyard, just outside the door near where the cat was accustomed to pass.

Just at dusk the cat, carrying the lantern in its mouth, began to cross the courtyard towards the door of the room where it was expected to bring the light, and when about half way across the yard the Husband released one of the mice from the box which he had