Adventures of Puss in Boots, Jr.

<h2><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span> <SPAN name="stars" id="stars"></SPAN>TRIPPING WITH THE STARS</h2> <div class="block20"> <div class="figleft2"> <ANTIMG src="images/quote.png" width-obs="8" height-obs="7" alt="open quote" title="" /></div> </div> <div class="block20"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <p class="cap nmb">Twinkle, twinkle, little star,</p> <span class="i2 nmt">How I wonder what you are!<br/></span> <span class="i0">Up above the world so high,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Like a diamond in the sky."<br/></span></div> </div></div> <p>Puss repeated this little rhyme to himself as he looked at a lovely star that shone in the heavens with a soft and silvery light.</p> <p>"I always liked that little song," said Mother Goose. "I've heard it time and again. Mothers always sing that to their babies just before they go to sleep."</p> <p>"Do they?" asked Puss. "Mine never did. She used to sing about little mice and birds."</p> <p>Mother Goose laughed heartily. "It all depends on whose little baby you are," she said, "but I guess it all comes out all right in the end."</p> <p>The gander said never a word. He was doubtless too busy propelling his great wings and steering with his tail to pay much attention to what his two passengers were saying.</p> <p>I don't know whether there was a sign up like the ones they have in the cars, "Don't talk to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span> the motorman," or not. At any rate, the gander observed the law, for he made no answer. On and on they went, through the night. Past cloud and star, over river and valley, hill and dale, swiftly and silently, for after these few remarks both Mother Goose and Puss grew very sleepy.</p> <p>It must have been well on toward morning before they awoke. Nestled on a soft, feathery gander's back, with the wind singing lullabies as you travel swiftly underneath the stars, is quite sufficient to keep any one asleep. It was indeed a mighty fine cradle, and if the morning sun had not poked his golden fingers into Puss, Jr.'s, eyes he might still have been sound asleep.</p> <p>"Mother Goose," he cried, touching the dear old lady gently on the shoulder, "we are getting very near the earth. It's time for you to wake up."</p> <p>"To be sure it is," she replied, rubbing her eyes and arranging her curls beneath her old peaked hat; "to be sure, and, dearie me! I believe I have actually overslept!"</p> <p>They were now close to the earth. The cocks were crowing lustily in the barn-yards, and every now and then the bark of a dog, faint but clear, would come to their ears.</p> <p>"It's funny to look at a house from the outside in the early morning," said Puss. "I've always looked out from the inside."</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span>"Of course you have, my dear little traveler," answered Mother Goose, "but now that you are on your journey to find your famous father, Puss in Boots, you will see many things very differently."</p> <p>"Well," said the gander, for the first time speaking, "I'm a bit tired, so I think I will alight near this old barn."</p> <p>Puss was delighted, for he wanted once more to feel himself on earth.</p> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />