A very neat little Mouse once lived in the same house with an ill-natured old Cat. When this little Mouse left his bed in the morning, he always washed and brushed himself with great care, taking particular pains with his long tail, which he kept very sleek and pretty.
One morning the untidy Cat had not been able to find her brush and comb, not having put them in their proper place the day before; and when the Mouse ran past her, she snapped his pretty tail quite off because she felt so cross. The little Mouse turned and said, " Please, Mrs, Cat, give me back my long tail!"
Mrs. Cat answered, " I will give you your long tail if you will bring me a saucer of milk; I always like milk better than tails." The little Mouse had no milk in his pantry, but he took his tin pail and went to the Cow, saying -
"Please, Mrs. Cow, give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give back my long tail."
The Cow said, " I will give you some milk, but I must first have some hay." The little Mouse then took his wheelbarrow, and going to the farmer, said -
"Please, Mr. Farmer, give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay; Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give back my long tail."
The farmer said, "I would be glad to give you some hay, but my barn door is locked; if you will go to the locksmith, and get me a key, I will unlock my barn, and give you all the hay you can carry on your little wheelbarrow."
Then the little Mouse took his pocket-book, and went to the locksmith, saying, "Please, Mr. Locksmith, give me a key, and I will give the farmer a key, and the farmer will give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay, and Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will then give me back my long tail."
The locksmith said, "I must have a file with which to make a key; if you will get me a file, I will make the key with great pleasure,"
So the little Mouse took his satchel, and went to the blacksmith, and asked him, saying - "Please, Mr. Blacksmith, give me a file, and I will give Mr. Locksmith a file, and Mr. Locksmith will give me a key, and I will give the farmer a key, and the farmer will give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay, and Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give me back my long tail." The blacksmith answered, "I need some coal to build a fire before I can make a file. If you will go to the miner, and get me some coal, I will be glad to make a file for you." So the Mouse took his little cart, and went down, down into the dark earth, until he saw a man, with a lantern on his hat, and when he spoke to the man, the man said, "Well done, little Mousie, how did you get so far without a light?"
Mousie answered that he was quite used to playing in the dark, and now he must work night and day to get his tail again; and then he said-
"Please, Mr. Miner, give me some coal, and I will give the blacksmith some coal, the blacksmith will give me a file, I will give the locksmith a file, the locksmith will give me a key, I will give the farmer a key, and the farmer will give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay, and Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give me back my long tail."
Then the miner filled the little cart with coal; and the Mouse trudged up to the blacksmith, who gave him the file, which he put in his little satchel, and then ran as fast as his feet would carry him to the locksmith, who gave him a key, which he put in his pocket-book, and carried to the farmer, who unlocked the barn door, and gave him all the hay he could pile upon his wheelbarrow. Mousie took the hay to Mrs. Cow, who filled his little tin pail with milk, which the Mouse carried to the cat, saying, "Now, Mrs. Cat, please give me back my long tail."
Mrs. Cat said, " So I will, my dear; but where have I put it?"
Then this untidy Cat called all the people in the house, saying, "Where could I have put that tail!" "Oh! now I think I know - I believe it is in the upper bureau drawer." But the tail was not in the upper bureau drawer, and the poor Mousie who had worked so hard was nearly ready to cry, and the milk was getting cold. Then Mrs. Cat said, "I must have put it in this closet," and she ran to the closet, pulling down dresses and boxes; but there was no tail there, and the little Mouse had to wink very
hard not to let the tears fall, and the milk was getting blue, when Mrs. Cat shouted, " Of course I put it in the second drawer" ;but she tumbled all the things out of the drawer and found no tail; then the little Mouse had to sing "Yankee Doodle" to keep from crying, and the milk was in danger of getting sour.
Mrs. Cat now clapped her paws, and said, " Why, I know where it is - I ought to have thought before - I put it here in this lower drawer, in this very box, wrapped up so neatly in pink tissue paper. Yes; hurrah! here it is!" And the Mousie took his pretty, long tail, and ran home as fast as he could to get some glue to stick it on again; and Mrs. Cat ate her milk, thinking she would try hereafter to put things in their places.
