And slip! slop! gobble! down went the king; down went the queen; down went the soldiers,—­and down went all the elephants!

Then the cat went on, more slowly; he had really had enough to eat, now.  But a little farther on he met two land-crabs, scuttling along in the dust.  “Get out of our way, pussy,” they squeaked.

“Ho, ho ho!” cried the cat in a terrible voice.  “I’ve eaten five hundred cakes, I’ve eaten my friend the parrot, I’ve eaten an old woman, a man with a donkey, a king, a queen, his men-at-arms, and all his elephants; and now I’ll eat you too.”

And slip! slop! gobble! down went the two land-crabs.

When the land-crabs got down inside, they began to look around.  It was very dark, but they could see the poor king sitting in a corner with his bride on his arm; she had fainted.  Near them were the men-at-arms, treading on one another’s toes, and the elephants, still trying to form in twos,—­but they couldn’t, because there was not room.  In the opposite corner sat the old woman, and near her stood the man and his donkey.  But in the other corner was a great pile of cakes, and by them perched the parrot, his feathers all drooping.

“Let’s get to work!” said the land-crabs.  And, snip, snap, they began to make a little hole in the side, with their sharp claws.  Snip, snap, snip, snap,—­till it was big enough to get through.  Then out they scuttled.

Then out walked the king, carrying his bride; out marched the men-at-arms; out tramped the elephants, two by two; out came the old man, beating his donkey; out walked the old woman, scolding the cat; and last of all, out hopped the parrot, holding a cake in each claw. (You remember, two cakes were all he wanted?)

But the poor cat had to spend the whole day sewing up the hole in his coat!

THE RAT PRINCESS[1]

[Footnote 1:  Adapted from Frank Rinder’s Old World Japan.  In telling this story the voice should be changed for the Sun, Cloud, Wind, and Wall, as is always done in the old story of The Three Bears.]

Once upon a time, there was a Rat Princess, who lived with her father, the Rat King, and her mother, the Rat Queen, in a ricefield in far away Japan.  The Rat Princess was so pretty that her father and mother were quite foolishly proud of her, and thought no one good enough to play with her.  When she grew up, they would not let any of the rat princes come to visit her, and they decided at last that no one should marry her till they had found the most powerful person in the whole world; no one else was good enough.  And the Father Rat started out to find the most powerful person in the whole world.  The wisest and oldest rat in the ricefield said that the Sun must be the most powerful person, because he made the rice grow and ripen; so the Rat King went to find the Sun.  He climbed up the highest mountain, ran up the path of a rainbow, and travelled and travelled across the sky till he came to the Sun’s house.