"
"_Top-off! Half-out!_" answered the mouse; "those are such curious
names, they make me a bit suspicious."
"Ah!" replied the cat, "there you sit in your gray coat and long tail,
thinking nonsense. That comes of never going out."
The mouse busied herself during the cat's absence in putting the house
in order, but meanwhile greedy puss licked the grease-pot clean out.
"When it is all done one will rest in peace," thought he to himself,
and as soon as night came he went home fat and tired. The mouse,
however, again asked what name the third child had received. "It
will not please you any better," answered the cat, "for he is called
_All-out_."
"_All-out!_" exclaimed the mouse; "well, that is certainly the most
curious name by far. I have never yet seen it in print. _All-out!_
What can that mean?" and, shaking her head, she rolled herself up and
went to sleep.
After that nobody else asked the cat to stand godfather; but the
winter had arrived, and nothing more was to be picked up out of doors;
so the mouse bethought herself of their store of provision, and said,
"Come, friend cat, we will go to our grease-pot which we laid by; it
will taste well now."
"Yes, indeed," replied the cat; "it will taste as well as if you
stroked your tongue against the window.
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