there was a cat and a bat and a hat. the hat and the cat were good friends, but the bat was just a bat. nobody liked the bat. there was also a witch. ofcourse it was a wicked one - the witch hoarded pencils and scented erasers and shiny ball-point pens. it was mean to small children too.but then again, i know for a fact that some small children deserve meanness and their knuckles rapped. but, this is not a story about small children.nor one about witches.
the cat and the hat were catty and hatty and orange and green. i mean the cat was orange and the hat was green, having a green cat would be very silly indeed. and to make things easy, when they were awake the cat would put the hat on. just like the paperboy puts on a plastic bag on his head some mornings. but when they tried sleeping, the trouble began.
the cat and the hat would find a nice shady corner in the garden and lie down for a nap. now, everyone knows that a nap makes you a nicer person and much more clever too.they'd snuggle together and shut their eyes and count till twenty-three. this was a small problem to begin with. they didn't know their numbers beyond twentythree. if they didn't fall asleep by then, then they'd have to count till twentythree again and this would make them very tired and cross. the cat would try sitting up and counting , but the hat hated it. see, the hat couldn't take a nap when somebody was sitting up straight with tail in the air, loudly counting seventeen, eighteen... and so on. and the cat was rather loud, it believed that talking really loudly helps things happen faster. the poor hat would keep quiet most days, but sometimes it would ask the cat to stop counting, but the cat would get confused, mix up his eleven with thirteen and scold the hat. then the hat would get cross.
and on days they managed to fall asleep by twenty-one, the bat would come and wake them up. the bat loved picking on the poor cat. it would come and sit on the cat's tail, or brush its wings across the cat's face and on some days it would even tug at the cat's moustache.the cat couldn't do anything. see, the bat was so much smaller that the cat couldn't hit it. and the cat was also scared of waking the hat up if he tried to tell the bat off. one day the bat even put a feather up the cat's nose. the cat tried to sneeze quietly. but then its sneezes made the cat feel like its brain would explode. so the cat started sneezing loudly and the hat woke up. the cat was very sorry, but the hat told him not to be silly. then the hat went to the bat and told him to leave the cat alone. the bat was a very naughty bat. it just stuck its tongue out at the hat. the hat got very angry.
the hat then went to the spider that lived in the alamanda tree. they wouldn't let the cat hear what they were talking about. the cat got a little sad, but just a little. then the hat came back and told the cat to go back to napping. the hat also promised to count this time, though honestly speaking the hat was quite horrible at counting and went straight to eleven from eight. the cat fell asleep and slept and slept and slept till it was time for the gardener to come and turn the sprinklers on. when the cat woke up it saw the bat was hanging from the alamanda tree, tied up with spider web. the hat was waiting for the cat. together they went up to the tree. the hat told the bat that they would ask the spider to let it go if it promised not to bother the cat again. the bat didn't want to say that, but it was getting dark and there was lemon tart for tea at home. so it promised not to bother the cat. the hat wanted the bat to say it was sorry too. but the cat was slightly scared ( it didn't like fighting with anyone except the hat, but that was alright). the cat was also a bit sorry for the bat. so the spider and the hat had to let the bat go.
but from then on, the bat never woke them up. and later on, when the summer evenings became longer, the spider also taught the cat and the hat to count. it had eight legs and made sixty-four corners with his web. so he was very good at counting. and they became quite good friends after that.