“Come here, Nell,” Tom called, walking towards her.
But Nell ran under the gate and on down the lane.
“Nell! Come back!” Tom called. He quickly climbed over the gate and ran after her.
Just then, Nell spotted the runaway piglet snuffling about in a muddy ditch. She stood there, waiting for Tom to catch up.
At first, Tom couldn’t believe his eyes. Nell wasn’t being naughty at all. She’d run off to show him one of the farm animals was in trouble!
When Tom’s mum spotted him walking back up the lane she called out to him, looking worried. “There’s a piglet missing, Tom.”
“No there isn’t,” Tom called back, smiling. He held the piglet up for his mum to see.
Nell walked beside Tom, feeling pleased. Perhaps she was a real farm cat now.
But Mrs Morgan didn’t see it that way. She briskly picked Nell up and tucked her under her arm. “I might have known you’d be right in the middle of trouble,” she said to Nell crossly.
“Mum . . .” protested Tom.
“Oh, that’s not fair,” Auntie Julie told her sister. “All this was my fault, not Nell’s.”
“Your fault?” asked Mrs Morgan, puzzled.
Auntie Julie went a little pink. “I must have left the pigpen gate open. Sorry.”
“And Mum,” said Tom, “if Nell hadn’t come and scratched on the window at us, all the piglets might have got out on the road!”
“Oh don’t, Tom,” said Mrs Morgan, looking pale.
“So Nell wasn’t being naughty at all this time,” Jo said brightly.
Tom smiled at his sister. “That’s right. Nell knew what was happening, Mum,” he said. “She came and got us – and then she led me straight to the piglet that had run off down the lane!”
“Now Nell’s a proper farm cat,” said Harriet, happily.
“So I think we should keep her, Mum,” Tom said quietly.
Harriet and Jo nodded hard.
Mrs Morgan looked at Auntie Julie to see what she thought.
“Tom’s right,” said Auntie Julie. “I think Nell will be a good farm cat, after all.”
“Yes, I will,” miaowed Nell, wriggling in Mrs Morgan’s arms. “Now can you stop squashing me, please?”
Mrs Morgan untucked the wriggling kitten from under her arm and gave her to Tom, smiling. “Then I suppose she can stay.”
“Really?” asked Tom.
“Really,” laughed Mrs Morgan.
Hattie and Jo cheered and Tom hugged Nell tight, a huge smile on his face.
As Nell purred happily in Tom’s arms, two ducks waddled past. Nell’s tail twitched. She was tempted, but she wasn’t going to chase them. No – she was going to enjoy being a good farm cat – for today, at least . . .
‘Felix the Fluffy Kitten’, ‘Star the Snowy Kitten’ and ‘Nell the Naughty Kitten’ first published 1999, and ‘Snuggles the Sleepy Kitten’ first published 2001, in four separate volumes by Macmillan Children’s Books
This bind-up edition published 2018 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2018 by Macmillan Children’s Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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Created by Working Partners Limited
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ISBN 978-1-5098-7127-8
Copyright © Working Partners Limited 1999, 2001
Illustrations copyright © Susan Hellard 1999, 2001
Cover illustration by Simon Mendez
Jenny Dale’s Kitten Tales is a registered trademark owned by Working Partners Limited
The right of Susan Hellard to be identified as the illustrator of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Typeset by Nigel Hazle
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