INKY-PINKY-POOH-2

He was smacked, and he was scolded, and then he was tied up to the leg of the table by a piece of string, so that he could not get into the larder again when Cook was not looking! It was all most humiliating!

And when a cheeky little mouse came by and grinned at him and said, "Good dog! Good dog! What a pretty lead you've got!" poor Inky-Pinky-Pooh felt that insult could go no further. He was very, very indignant indeed!

But the little mouse (whose name, by the way, was Twinkletoes) was really a kind-hearted little mouse, and when he saw how upset the little kitten was, and how INKY-PINKY-POOH - cat tied up by cookthin and hungry-looking he seemed to be, he was sorry and asked what the trouble was. When Inky-Pink told him, Twinkletoes nodded his head and said, "I know! I know This new Cook never leaves even a crumb about... and as for cheese, oh!, my whiskers and twinkletoes, I've almost forgotten what it smells like! I can understand how hungry you must be!"

Then he said, "I know a house, not very far from here, where they love animals, and always have plenty of food for them - crumbs each day for the birds, and milk for the hedgehogs each night. I'm sure they would spare a little food for us. And I know the little girl has been wanting a kitten for a long, long time... I've never heard her ask for a mouse, but I have heard her asking for a kitten..."

So Inky-Piny-Pooh said, "I wonder if she would like me? I'm sure Cook doesn't want me, and I would so much like to have someone to love me and cuddle me and care for me!"

Then Twinkletoes had an idea. "If you will meet me tonight," he said, "when the moon is up, and you have been let off that - er - piece of string, I will show you the house and then you can think about it for a day or two and see if you feel you'd like to live there... it's a much smaller house than this big, grand house of yours" he added, apologetically.

This seemed an excellent notion, so they agreed to meet at twelve o'clock midnight that very night. And, as Cook had never bothered INKY-PINKY-POOH - cat and mouse on rooftopsto untie Inky-Pinky-Pooh, even by midnight, Twinkletoes came back for him and gnawed through the piece of string and set him free!

Just as the clock was striking twelve, Inky-Pinky-Pooh and Twinkletoes set off for their walk.