Green-Eyes, the cat, was very angry when he found that the man thought that he could not catch mice. He was afraid that he would be put out in the kennel¹ with the dog. He and the dog had never been very good friends and he did not like the idea of being in the same house with an animal with such sharp teeth and such a harsh voice.

 

Green-Eyes used to sit up all night with his paw on his head, saying, “Let me think.” The neighbors’ cats came out on the back fence and made fun of Green-Eyes all night long.

 

“It’s too bad,” they meowed, “that you cannot see in the dark. Why, you cannot even see a big white rabbit.”

 

Gray Mouse and his friend, White Rabbit, went every night to the cellar of the man’s house, where they helped themselves to cake and apple pie and cheese and carrots. Green-Eyes heard the man say that it was time to drown that good-for-nothing cat. He saw it was time for him to do something to save his life, and so he kept on thinking and thinking.

 

[64]

 

 

Patrick O’Possum pushes over the apple butter jar.

 

[65]

 

He crawled under a pile of carrots on the cellar floor one night and the carrots fell all over and hid him all except the tip of his tail. Then he waited for White Rabbit and Gray Mouse.

 

Now, that night Patrick O’Possum went to visit Gray Mouse and White Rabbit. He was a friend of Gray Mouse’s cousin, Field Mouse, and whenever he went under the barn floor, where Gray Mouse and White Rabbit lived, he was very welcome.

 

“Gray Mouse,” asked Patrick O’Possum, “do you know where I can get any good, sweet potatoes?”

 

Gray Mouse winked² at White Rabbit and said that he knew where there were sweet potatoes nearly a foot long and so sweet that sugar tasted like vinegar compared to them. Patrick O’Possum sighed and looked happy.

 

“I’ll take you to the next moonlight party I have,” he said, “if you will show me where I can find those very fine sweet potatoes.”

 

So Patrick O’Possum, Gray Mouse and White Rabbit went running and hopping³ and laughing to the cellar of the man’s house. Patrick O’Possum turned to Gray Mouse and White Rabbit after he had taken a good look around the cellar, and then he smiled, and smiled.

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