Atondido Stories
"You dear little mouse, to wish to help me. If only you will
nibble through that string which is killing me, I promise that I
will always love you, always be your friend, and however hun-
gry I may be, I will starve rather than hurt your tender little
body."
On hearing this, the mouse, without hesitating a moment,
climbed up on to the cat's back, and cuddled down in the soft fur
near her neck, feeling very safe and warm there. The owl would
certainly not attack him there, he thought, and the cat could not
possibly hurt him. It was one thing to pounce down on a de-
fenceless little creature running on the ground amongst the bar-
ley, quite another to try and snatch him from the very neck of a
cat.
The cat of course expected the mouse to begin to nibble
through the string at once, and became very uneasy when she
felt the little creature nestle down as if to go to sleep, instead of
helping her. Poor Pussy could not turn her head so as to see the
mouse without drawing the string tighter, and she did not dare
to speak angrily lest she should offend him. "My dear little
friend," she said, "do you not think it is high time to keep your
promise and set me free?"
Hearing this, the mouse pretended to bite the string, but took
care not to do so really; and the cat waited and waited, getting
more miserable every minute. All through the long night the
same thing went on: the mouse taking a little nap now and then,
the cat getting weaker and weaker. "Oh," she thought to herself,
"if only I could get free, the first thing I would do would be to
gobble up that horrid little mouse." The moon rose, the stars
came out, the wind murmured amongst the branches of the ban-
yan tree, making the unfortunate cat long to be safe in her cosy
home in the trunk. The cries of the wild animals which prowl
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