HE TICKLED A CAT

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 15 June 1935, Page 10

HE TICKLED A CAT

THE MISCHIEVOUS MOUSE. There was once a mischievous mouse named Horace. Whenever he was missing from home, and that was often, ins mother and father were always worried. Father Mouse would stroke his long whiskers and say: “I know something will happen to Horace one day, and Mother Mouse would say: “Shall I ever see my son again?” And then their mischievous son would come scampering in to tell the most wonderful tales of life “above the boards.” He brought rare tit-hits with him, too, such as sugar, jam tart, butter and sometimes cheese! There were other families of mice living under the skirting board, but the only time that they went into the house was when they wanted food, and then they went in the night. But Horace went all over the house in the dayl

It made things more difficult for the other mice when a cat came to live in the house. Not for Horace, though, he went about the house as usual, and once he actually brought home some of the cat’s hairs. Oh! Terrible! It made all the mice shiver with fright. “However did you get them?” asked Mother Mouse, who would not even touch the horrible things. “They were left behind on the sofa in the sitting room,” said Horace. ‘Pussy must be shedding her coat.” “Pussy will have you for dinner one of these days,” said Father Mouse. One day Horace was seen making a hole in the skirting board of the kitchen. He only made a very tiny hole, and, what do you think? He used to sit and peep through at the cat!

The other mice were content at first with hearing about it, but, after a while they asked if they might peep, too. So it came about that Horace made several holes in the skirting board. The hole that Horace used was very, very close to the cat’s favourite place by the fire. It was when all the mice were peeping through these little holes that Horace did the most astonishing thing. He poked a little piece of straw through his little hole and tickled the cat’s chin with it! All the mice stared in surprise, but as soon as they found that the cat could not get through the holes at them they enjoyed the fun. It might have gone on for a long time, but a little brown mouse thought it so funny that she burst out laughing. A mouse’s laugh would startle anybody, let alone a eat, and puss sprang up. Away scampered all the mice, Horace as well. Mother Mouse never got over the fright, and they moved to a house w'ltliout a. cat.

Everybody in Mousetown heard about Horace, and flocked to see him. When he grew older he had a big notice put over his door, and it said: “Here lives the mouse that tickled a cat.”

ANAGRAM PUZZLERS. How is your vocabulary? Rearrange the letters in the word given, plus the additional letter given, so as to form another word. Example: SEAL plus E equals ? ? ? Answer: LEASE. Can you solve the following anagrams?. (1) Braid plus 1 equals ? ? ? (2) Glancer plus i equals ? ? ? (3) Trail plus n equals ? ? ? (4) Girths plus p equals ? ? ? (5) Rewarp plus p equals ? ? ? Solutions to to-day’s anagrams will be printed next week. Here are the solutions to last week’s anagrams: (1) Glared; (2) barked; (3) baseman; (4) hovers; (5) jingler.