www.freeclassicebooks.com

The cat raised a paw and stroked her nose thoughtfully, but made no reply.

So long as the fire burned and Claus sat in his easy chair by the hearth she

did not mind the weather.

So passed many days and many long evenings. The cupboard was always full,

but Claus became weary with having nothing to do more than to feed the fire

from the big wood-pile the Knooks had brought him.

One evening he picked up a stick of wood and began to cut it with his sharp

knife. He had no thought, at first, except to occupy his time, and he whistled

and sang to the cat as he carved away portions of the stick. Puss sat up on

her haunches and watched him, listening at the same time to her master's

merry whistle, which she loved to hear even more than her own purring songs.

Claus glanced at puss and then at the stick he was whittling, until presently

the wood began to have a shape, and the shape was like the head of a cat,

with two ears sticking upward.

Claus stopped whistling to laugh, and then both he and the cat looked at the

wooden image in some surprise. Then he carved out the eyes and the nose,

and rounded the lower part of the head so that it rested upon a neck.

Puss hardly knew what to make of it now, and sat up stiffly, as if watching

with some suspicion what would come next.

Claus knew. The head gave him an idea. He plied his knife carefully and with

skill, forming slowly the body of the cat, which he made to sit upon its

haunches as the real cat did, with her tail wound around her two front legs.

The work cost him much time, but the evening was long and he had nothing

better to do. Finally he gave a loud and delighted laugh at the result of his

labors and placed the wooden cat, now completed, upon the hearth opposite

the real one.

Puss thereupon glared at her image, raised her hair in anger, and uttered a

defiant mew. The wooden cat paid no attention, and Claus, much amused,

laughed again.

Then Blinkie advanced toward the wooden image to eye it closely and smell of

it intelligently: Eyes and nose told her the creature was wood, in spite of its

natural appearance; so puss resumed her seat and her purring, but as she

neatly washed her face with her padded paw she cast more than one admiring

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus