Page:The red book of animal stories.djvu/154

 herself snugly up, looking like an ermine muff seen from one end.

Jacko, on the other hand, kept on jumping and scolding away for another quarter of an hour, then finding all his efforts to be useless he retired to a corner opposite Michette's. Being well warmed by all the exercise he had taken, he stayed quiet for a time, but he soon began to feel the cold and to shiver all over. It was then that his eyes fell once more on his friend, so comfortably rolled up in all her warm fur, and his selfish instinct at once prompted the use he could make of her. Quietly he drew near Michette, lay down near her, slipped one arm under her, and passed the other through the opening made by the natural muff which she formed. He then twisted his tail round his neighbour's, and she obligingly drew them both up between her legs, when he seemed quite reassured as to his future.

Tony, satisfied with what he had seen through the hole, sent for his housekeeper and desired her to prepare food for Michette every day, besides the carrots, nuts, and potatoes always served up to Jacko.

The housekeeper duly obeyed orders, and all would have gone well with Michette and Jacko had it not been for the monkey's greediness. From the very first day he noticed that a new dish was served with his two regular meals, one at nine in the morning and the other at five in the afternoon. As for Michette, she at once recognised her accustomed milk pudding in the morning, and meat patty in the evening, and she proceeded to eat each in turn with that dainty deliberation common to all well-bred cats. At first Jacko left her alone; but one morning, when Michette had left a little of her pudding on the plate, he came up behind her, tasted it, and found it so nice that he quickly cleared the dish. At dinner-time he discovered that the mess of meat was even more palatable, and when he rolled himself comfortably round Michette for the night, he spent some time wondering why he, the son