[Illustration]

So it happened that by the time John Joiner had got the plank up--there
was nobody under the floor except the rolling-pin and Tom Kitten in a
very dirty dumpling!

[Illustration]

But there was a strong smell of rats; and John Joiner spent the rest of
the morning sniffing and whining, and wagging his tail, and going round
and round with his head in the hole like a gimlet.

[Illustration]

Then he nailed the plank down again and put his tools in his bag, and
came downstairs.

The cat family had quite recovered. They invited him to stay to dinner.

The dumpling had been peeled off Tom Kitten, and made separately into a
bag pudding, with currants in it to hide the smuts.

They had been obliged to put Tom Kitten into a hot bath to get the
butter off.

John Joiner smelt the pudding; but he regretted that he had not time to
stay to dinner, because he had just finished making a wheel-barrow for
Miss Potter, and she had ordered two hen-coops.

And when I was going to the post late in the afternoon--I looked up the