SET A THIEF TO CATCH A

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 25, 14 November 1929, Page 4

SET A THIEF TO CATCH A

THIEF.

"I cannot understand it at all" said Mummy. "My thimble has disappeared now, and I am quite certain that I left it on the win-dow-ledge when I finished my sewing this morning. This is the third thing that we have lost this week—first it was Daddy's silver penknife and then your halfcrown, Frances, and now it is my thimble. I wonder if there is a tramp near the house who \ is" stealing things."

Frances could not understand it any more than Mummy could. Nor could Sandy, the old black cat, who had lived, with them all his life, and who lay now in front of the fire, purring contentedly. He had not stolen the penknife, or the half-crown, or the thimble —though he often stole milk, /when no one was looking.

He rose slowly to his feet> arched his tfeck, and scratched a few times at the carpet. Then he slipped through the door and made his way to the dairy, which

•od at the side of the house. The door was shut, but he had long ago found out how to climb up the ivy and get in through the little window, and this he did now.

On the table there stood a big open pan full of milk. Sandy licked his lips, and jumped down from the window-sill. This was how he liked his milk—with the cream standing thickly on the top of it. . ' •>.

Hewas just settling- down for a long drink, when lie heard a scratching sound outside the winow above him. He crouched down, and kept, very still: was he going to be,found out at last? He looked up at the window—and there .stood his old enemy, the jackdaw who lived in the big- elm tree at the bottom of the garden. Many times had., Sandy tried to catch the jaedaw for his supper, but the bird had always been too clever for him. .. .

Sandy kept very still —the jackdaw did not soc him. His eyes very brightly* in his wise old head, the bird hopped a little ; •further on to the window-sill, and , picked up a shining littlo cream- J jug in his beak, and hopped out again! \, " , ' SandyTmadc a great spring after him r < • i Crash! Sandy had not,tak\m care, so excited had he been at the thought of catching the jackdaw at last, and his hind legs had knocked over the pan of cream as he jumped. '. ■• ,-,.r.r , ■,'■•..; :.' •■ ■ ■..;, Inside the house, Mummy and Daddy'" ari^ Frances heard the noise and came running out to see what was the matteiv. They were jtist -in time to see' the jackdaw flying across, the garden" with '--the--cream-jug in his beak,-and Sandy /leaping out of thei; window afterhim. • ■ ... Tlien, of course/the mystery of the disappearing thiiigs was solved. Baddy climbed up. the elm tree to the hollow where the jackr daw made his home, and there he found: tne penknife, the halfcrown, the thimble, and the cream jug! ~- " / "So the jackjdaw -was the fithielll'^said^^jiap^r,;-.;. . : .;■ -.. ". '■'l Sandy as" a: thi^f: too !'' said Daddy, ;''He will'YJiare to be punished for stealing the milk.'/ ''Please doii't punish him very much, Daddy^' Frances begged. ■*'* After all^ if it Kad not been for his knocking over the pan of milk we .should '.neyers have known where all om- things hajd.gone to.'' ' "There is an old'proverb: ltSet a thief to. catch a thief!' '/said, Dadjiy- "That is what Sanely has done for us. Very wellj I won't punish him this time, as he has been so helpful;lmt in future we shall have; to Ifeep' the dairy window closed." "-■.-