Puss soon became a good hand at killing mice, but her pride received a severe check, for one day a large rat was running across the barn, and Puss thinking it was a large mouse ran to seize it, but the rat turned round and seized Puss by the nose and bit her severely so that she went away to her mother, mewing very piteously with her face all swelled and covered with blood. Puss durst not meddle with rats for a long time after this, but at length she got stronger and would kill them and many other such vermin. She had plenty of work, for there were many rats at the farm house. While pursuing a large rat one day, she set her foot into a trap which had been set to catch them, and though she was taken out very carefully by the farmer's daughters who were swinging in an old tree at the bottom of the orchard, it hurt her very much and she was lame for many weeks after. [Illustration] Puss was now become a fine, healthy, good looking cat, and a smart looking Tom Cat in the neighbourhood paid his court to Miss Puss, and asked her by kind looks and gentle actions if she would become his wife. Puss scolded and scratched for some time, but at length they made a match of it, and in due time, Puss became a mother. She however, notwithstanding all her skill in concealing them, was doomed to see her small family torn from her, and share the same fate as her brothers and sisters had experienced on former occasions. As Puss was rambling in the fields some time after her confinement, in pursuit of some birds, a number of gentlemen were coursing for hares, and when the dogs saw Puss, they immediately started after her. Puss ran as fast as she could, but the dogs ran much faster than she, and were just at her heels, when she reached a tree, and saved her life by climbing up it. [Illustration] Puss was now safe from the dogs, and she remained in the tree for some time before she durst come down again. On her return to the farm house, three boys who had been to school, were playing in the fields. Each boy had a large stick on his shoulder, and as soon as they saw Puss, they ran after her. She again took refuge in a tree, but the boys threw stones at her and hit her so hard, that she at length fell senseless to the ground. One of the boys seized poor Puss; and they were going to have some rare sport as they said, by fastening the cat on a board, and then launching it on the pond, after which they would set the dogs at her, and Puss could only keep them off by scratching their noses. Everything was in readiness: Puss was bound upon the board, and they were just going to sail it into the middle of the pond, when the schoolmaster came past, and the boys were obliged, after receiving a good flogging, to set poor Puss at liberty. [Illustration]