By and by the cat, which found it lonely in the big, empty kitchen,
now that Bobby's mother was gone, came walking into the garden also,
and lay down upon a path in the sunshine and lazily watched the boy at
his work. The dog and the cat were good friends, having lived together
so long that they did not care to fight each other. To be sure Towser,
as the little dog was called, sometimes tried to tease pussy, being
himself very mischievous; but when the cat put out her sharp claws and
showed her teeth, Towser, like a wise little dog, quickly ran away, and
so they managed to get along in a friendly manner.
By the time the carrot-bed was all weeded, the sun was sinking behind
the edge of the forest and the new moon rising in the east, and now
Bobby began to feel hungry and went into the house for his dish of
bread and milk.
"I think I'll take my supper down to the brook," he said to himself,
"and sit upon the grassy bank while I eat it. And I'll take my fiddle,
too, and play upon it to pass the time until father and mother come
home."
It was a good idea, for down by the brook it was cool and pleasant;
so Bobby took his fiddle under his arm and carried his dish of bread
and milk down to the bank that sloped to the edge of the brook. It
was rather a steep bank, but Bobby sat upon the edge, and placing his
fiddle beside him, leaned against a tree and began to eat his supper.
The little dog had followed at his heels, and the cat also came slowly
walking after him, and as Bobby ate, they sat one on either side of him
and looked earnestly into his face as if they too were hungry. So he
threw some of the bread to Towser, who grabbed it eagerly and swallowed
it in the twinkling of an eye. And Bobby left some of the milk in
the dish for the cat, also, and she came lazily up and drank it in a
dainty, sober fashion, and licked both the dish and spoon until no drop
of the milk was left.
Then Bobby picked up his fiddle and tuned it and began to play some of
the pretty tunes he knew. And while he played he watched the moon rise
higher and higher until it was reflected in the smooth, still water
of the brook. Indeed, Bobby could not tell which was the plainest to
see, the moon in the sky or the moon in the water. The little dog lay
quietly on one side of him, and the cat softly purred upon the other,
and even the moolie-cow was attracted by the music and wandered near
until she was browsing the grass at the edge of the brook.
After a time, when Bobby had played all the tunes he knew, he laid the
fiddle down beside him, near to where the cat slept, and then he lay
down upon the bank and began to think.
It is very hard to think long upon a dreamy summer night without
falling asleep, and very soon Bobby's eyes closed and he forgot all
about the dog and the cat and the cow and the fiddle, and dreamed he
was Jack the Giant Killer and was just about to slay the biggest giant
in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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