About lunchtime, when the sheep joined me in the shade and we all got sleepy, I realized that I have never been happier in all my shepherding days, and I wondered if my happiness was due to our recent great adventure, which came to such a good end, so that my new house near the water and this rich pasture were rewards for being brave and having hope.

How we came, all of us, to this good new place is an amazing story, which I want to tell you. I think you will like to hear about our adventure, as it was quite interesting.

The Terrible Flood!

The lovely Princess Catrina, ruler of the very small kingdom of Nice Town, woke late after a night of great rain and thunder. She did not like storms, and she had closed all her bedroom windows so she wouldn't hear the thunder, and then she had shut her eyes so that she wouldn't see any flashes of lightning.

But the storm didn't stop until morning, and Catrina was still feeling sleepy when she finally got up and went to her mirror to brush her whiskers and put on her golden crown.

She felt a little better when she remembered that the Edict to be issued at nine o'clock from her castle's balcony would be an invitation to all the village for a picnic breakfast with fried doughnuts and cream.

She cleared her throat and began to softly sing her favorite song, "From the Catskill Mountains," which she hoped would cheer her up; she wanted to be able to smile from her balcony when she looked down at her subjects below.

Suddenly she heard  banging on her door, and a loud cry from the hallway.

Catrina had just come to her song's best line: "The Catskill Mountains are loved by all cats." The words "all cats" were on very high notes, which she always sang with her pure and lovely voice, but  the banging at the door made her stop suddenly on the words "The Catskill Mountains," which were low and unattractive notes.

"Who IS it?" called out the irritated Princess. "You are interrupting my singing!"

"I'm sorry, Mistress," said a muffled and humble voice through the door, "but the castle is flooded! Water is lapping on the fourth staircase!"

The muffled voice began to sound weepy and frantic. "And Cook says to please tell you she cannot fry doughnuts this morning, because the stove has floated out the window!"

Princess Catrina was a bit spoiled and perhaps a little lazy, too, but she had a good brain under her golden crown, and she used it now.

"First things first," she said aloud, and walked briskly to her balcony and looked out.

Imagine her surprise and fear when she saw that all of Nice Town was suddenly sitting in a lake!

Some of the houses had floated away, and the home of her First Cook was lying on its side!

Next: Whiskers to the Rescue