Tucker's Countryside by George Selden Read Free Book Online

Ellen. “Well, hello! ” she said, and began stroking Harry’s head. “You’re a nice kitty, aren’t you? Yes! You’re a beautiful kitty!”
    Tucker Mouse grimaced at Chester. “I wonder what she’d say if she knew that that ‘beautiful kitty’ lived in a drain pipe in the subway station!”
    â€œI don’t think it makes any difference where you live,” said Chester. “If you’re nice, you’re nice. And Harry is a nice kitty.”
    â€œCat! He’s a cat!” shouted Tucker Mouse, who was actually a little jealous of all the attention his friend was getting. “Don’t use that obnoxious baby talk!” Chester tried not to laugh, and Tucker went on ranting. “Just look at the way he’s buttering up to her, arching his head up under her hand like that! And miaowing like a movie star! I never thought I’d see the day!”
    Ellen had taken Harry into her lap and was stroking his back from his head all the way down to his tail. And, in fact, Harry Cat was enjoying the whole thing very much. With each new stroke he let out a loud purr of pleasure.
    â€œYou have no collar, do you, kitty?” said Ellen. Harry purred. “And I’ve never seen you in this neighborhood before. Are you lost?” Harry purred. “Would you like to come home with me? I’d fix you up a bed of blankets in my room. And I’d give you all delicious things to eat. Would you like to be my kitty?” Harry purred and rolled over to have his stomach rubbed.
    â€œCome on then!” said Ellen. She picked Harry up and began to walk up the hill.
    â€œHey! What’s she doing?” shouted Tucker Mouse. “Chester—look! Do something! Stop her! Quick!”
    â€œWhat can I do?” said Chester.
    â€œBut she’s kidnapping Harry Cat!” said Tucker.
    â€œHe doesn’t look too unhappy about it,” said the cricket.
    And that certainly was true. For Harry Cat was lying over one of Ellen’s arms, as limp and content as laundry on the line.

FIVE
    Harry the House Cat
    Tucker spent the rest of his first full day in Connecticut fuming about Harry Cat and blowing his nose on fern handkerchiefs. When Ellen came back to the meadow that afternoon with the little kids, she did not bring Harry with her. But she told them all about how she had made friends with the kitty that morning, and how nice he was, and how she had brought him home and her mother had said she could keep him a few days on trial, and then, if things worked out all right, she could keep him permanently.
    Tucker was hiding over in the bushes with Chester, listening. “I can’t understand it,” he said. “Why doesn’t Harry fight to get out? Why doesn’t he bite, scratch, claw—?”
    â€œAnd he just loves to have his tummy rubbed!” said Ellen to the children.
    â€œThat’s the answer,” said Chester.
    Tucker growled something unpleasant—as much as a mouse can growl, that is—and said he was sure Harry would escape before the day was done.
    But evening came on, and Harry did not return. And night followed, and still the cat did not come back. Chester and Tucker went back to the stump. Instead of the human food that he scrounged from the lunch stands in the subway station, which was what he really liked, Tucker had to content himself with some nuts and seeds that Chester had collected for him in the meadow. And later, when he tried to sleep, the noise of the brook, which had sounded like laughter in the daylight, kept him awake most of the night.
    â€œSubways I can sleep through,” he grumbled to himself. “Commuters I can sleep through. But that brook just goes on—and on—and on!”
    The countryside did not seem nearly so charming as it had in the morning.
    *   *   *
    Next day the sun rose bright and strong. And it woke Tucker up as soon as it climbed above