The Sly Old Cat

The last book I will describe to you all, dear readers, is The Sly Old Cat. I wrote this story in 1906 for my publisher's daughter, however around this time people were starting to object to the miniature size and delicacy of my books. So time passed and eventually The Sly Old Cat could be published, but by this time I had moved onto other books and did not want to spend the time creating new drawings for its publication. So the manuscript stayed in my workroom until one day, in 1971, someone got a hold of it and published the story with my original sketches. So this book is the bare bones, the first edition. You get a nice glimpse into a rough draft. Do you ever write rough drafts of your stories? I think that is necessary for all stories.

But now once again I have got caught up in the back story of my tale and I would like to tell you all about the Sly Old Cat. This short story is about a very sneaky cat, and is most appropriate for younger children. Maybe you could read this story to a younger sibling of yours, dear reader.

This story begins as many of mine do, with two animals planning to have a party. The cat invited a rat over for tea. The rat came to the cat's house dressed in his nicest clothes and enters the kitchen where the tea party was being held. Although the cat was polite to the rat at first, by pulling out his chair for him, her politeness stops there. The cat insists that she will eat first, leaving only crumbs for the rat; the cat announces that she will drink tea first, and the rat will only have the drops of what's left. Before the cat drinks her tea she also mentions that she will eat her dessert first, and THEN the rat can eat dessert.

So naturally, the rat was very put off by Cat's uncouth nature and was also convinced that Cat had plans to eat him for dessert. As the greeedy cat pulled the milk jug up to her lips with her, the quick thinking rat jumped onto the jug and forced it over the cat's head. As Cat fell off her stool and ran around the room trying to get the jug off, Rat drank tea and observed the hilarious scene from atop the table. Before he left, leaving the cat in despair he also took a muffin to eat for dinner. Rat scurried away and never dared go near the cat again. And do you know what happened to the cat? Well, the only way she got the jug off her head was to smash it into pieces against a table leg. You can imagine that the cook was not happy about that. And that was the end of that terrible cat.