Puss in Boots, Jr., and the Good Gray Horse

<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>OLD DAME TROT</h2> <div class='cap'>AS soon as Tom, the piper's son, stopped playing everybody sat down to rest, even the little pig who had been waltzing about on his hind legs. He didn't try to run away. I guess he was too tired for that. Pretty soon he took out a yellow handkerchief and wiped the perspiration from his pink nose, and after that the little girl in blue asked Puss, Junior, where he had learned to dance.</div> <p>"At Mademoiselle Feline's dancing school," replied Puss. "She taught twenty-one little kittens twice a week."</p> <p>Just then, all of a sudden, Tom, the piper's son, jumped to his feet and started off, and before very long</p> <div class='poem'> He met Old Dame Trot with a basket of eggs;<br/> He used his pipe and she used her legs;<br/> She danced about till the eggs were all broke;<br/> She began to fret, but he laughed at the joke.<br/></div> <p>"I think it very mean of you to break an old lady's eggs," cried Puss.</p> <p>"I'm sorry your eggs are broken," cried Tom to Old Dame Trot. "If you'll come with me<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</SPAN></span> I'll show you where there's a nest full of eggs; it's in the dry grass under the raspberry bushes in yonder meadow."</p> <p>But the old lady had gone only a few steps when</p> <div class='poem'> Tom saw a cross fellow beating an ass<br/> Heavy laden with pots, pans, dishes, and glass;<br/> He took out his pipe and played them a tune,<br/> And the jackass's load was lightened full soon.<br/></div> <p>"It serves that fellow right," cried Puss. "His donkey had too heavy a load."</p> <p>And while the tin pans were flying about and clattering on the stones the old lady climbed over the fence.</p> <p>"There goes the hen to her nest now!" shouted the children.</p> <p>"I'll play her a tune and while she's dancing you pick up the eggs and give them to Old Dame Trot," cried Tom.</p> <p>Of course as soon as the music commenced the little hen began to dance. And when all the eggs were in the old lady's basket he stopped playing, but the little hen was so provoked that she went straight home to the barnyard.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />