of his merry eyes.

"Now for the goose that Jack killed," he said; and then and there began
the funniest story you ever heard. Only I can't tell it in the funny
words and with the merry, twinkling glances he gave me.

[Illustration: THE DOG THAT CHASED THE CAT.]

It was when Uncle Hugh was a middy, and he had been sailing in a great
big ship ever so long, till at last they came to some foreign country, I
don't know where. Well, Uncle Hugh and his friend Jack Miller went
roaming about, very glad to get off the sea. They took possession of a
little empty hut on the beach, and spent some of the time there, and
some of the time roaming about on the hills. Now it chanced, one day,
that they saw a flock of wild geese flying over the shore. Jack had a
gun with him, and he instantly shot one of these geese. Uncle Hugh says
they had had so much salt meat at sea, that they smacked their lips to
think of a nice fat goose for dinner. So they carried it off to their
hut, and then they pulled off all the feathers one by one, and made it
quite ready to cook. What funny cooks they must have been! But it wasn't
quite time to roast it, so they tied it up by a string to the door and
went away, leaving the captain's dog, Neptune, to watch it.

[Illustration: THE THIEF THAT STOLE THE GOOSE.]

Now, Nep was a very funny dog--a nervous dog, Uncle Hugh called him--and
he was quite afraid something would happen. By and by, poor pussy came
to have a peep at the goosey-gander, and she climbed up the steps on
tip-toe just to look. Nep watched her, and didn't feel easy in his mind,
and when poor pussy just stretched forward her head (because she was a