The next morning Aunt Tabby again offered to show Jazbury the mouse-hole in the cupboard.

Jazbury looked very sulky. He was ashamed to try to beg off again, particularly after what Aunt Tabby had done for him the day before, but it seemed hard to have to give up another morning of play.

He followed Aunt Tabby into the kitchen. The cook had gone to market and the door of the cupboard was ajar. Aunt Tabby pushed it open and led the way into the darkness where the pots and pans were stored.

"Here's the hole, Jazbury," she told him in a low voice. "I have a feeling the mouse is out, and if you only keep perfectly quiet I feel sure it will try to get back into the hole again. That will be your chance, and I shall be very much disappointed if you do not catch your first mouse this morning."

"I don't feel as if I could catch anything today," said Jazbury sulkily.

"Now, Jazbury, don't go about it that way. If you don't catch it, it will be your own fault, and I shall feel very much provoked with you."

Then Aunt Tabby went away and left him there. She did not go very far, however. She was so anxious to have him get the mouse that she lingered close by where she could hear everything that went on in the cupboard--though this the kitten did not know.

Jazbury crouched down in the shadow of the kettle as his aunt bade him, and kept perfectly quiet with his eyes fixed on the hole. Not even a whisker stirred. He did wish he could catch that mouse, if only to show Aunt Tabby what he could do if he chose. How pleased and surprised she and his mother would be if he were really to get one. Outside the kitchen was very still. The clock tick-tocked and the kettle simmered on the stove.

Suddenly Jazbury heard a little scratching, scraping sound back of one of the pots. It was so very little and faint that only a cat's ears could have heard it. Jazbury's eyes grew round, and his muscles stiffened ready for a leap.

Suddenly out from behind the pot whined a winged grasshopper. It flew so close to Jazbury it almost brushed his nose.

Forgetting all about the mouse, Jazbury made a leap for it. He knocked against a tin pan that clattered down with a tremendous din. At the same moment a little grey shape flitted out from behind him like a tiny shadow, slipped across the floor and disappeared down the mouse-hole. It was the mouse, and Jazbury had lost it.

Almost at the same moment Jazbury received a sharp box on the ear that almost upset him.

"You bad boy!" cried his aunt. "I'm just all out of patience with you. Even when a mouse runs right by under your nose you can't catch it."

Jazbury began to mew. "Well, you don't have to box my ears, anyway. I couldn't help it."

"Yes, you could. That's what provokes me so. Fluffy's not half as quick and active as you, and look at the way he catches mice. I'm ashamed of you."

---

Mother Bunch's round furry face appeared at the door looking in at them. "What's the matter? Has Jazbury been doing anything?"

"No, he hasn't been doing it, that's the matter," and Aunt Tabby poured out the whole story, while Jazbury stood by looking both sullen and ashamed.

"I don't care; I couldn't help it," he said.

"Don't say 'don't care' to me," said Mother Bunch. "It isn't respectful--not to me, nor to your aunt either. The mouse has gone, I suppose, so there's no use in your staying here. You may go out on the kitchen steps. But you mustn't play around or go over to see Fluffy. That is your punishment for being so careless, and disrespectful, too."