Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/89

Rh finding that the mistress was very poor, and had nothing to give her pupils for supper, he gave her the sack of flour to make some porridge with for herself and children. But pussy soon repented of his generosity, and after a while returned to the mistress, saying: "Give me my sack of flour, or I'll run away with one of your girls."

The mistress could not possibly return what she and the girls had already eaten up; and therefore the cat, as he could not get back his sack of flour, carried off one of the girls.

He took the little maiden to a laundress, and said: "As you are working all alone, take this girl as a helper, and you will get your linen done all the sooner."

Our inconsistent pussy very soon regretted what he had done, and going back to the laundress, said: "I am sorry now that I allowed you to have the girl; let me have her again."

The laundress very indignantly refused to give up the girl, so pussy stole one of the shirts out of the tub.

He went further on his rambles, and met a shirtless musician, whom he addressed thus: "My good but unfortunate friend, I see you are rather short of clothes, so pray accept this shirt, and go at once and put it on."

But whilst the man went aside to dress himself, the cat stole his violin, and, running up a tree, sat