[Gutenberg 48420] • Three Little Kittens

This book tells about the adventures of three kittens named Jazbury, Fluffy and Yowler. Our story begins with Jazbury, his mother: Mother Bunch and Aunt Tabby in their comfortable human home. Jazbury is being scolded because he is dirty after playing in the coal bin and he is instructed to wash himself clean unless he wants their human mistress to do it for him with water. Being drenched with water is a fearful threat so Jazbury does as he is told.

Jazbury's best friend is a little white kitten who lives next door named Fluffy. Mother and Aunt Tabby encourage Jazbury playing with Fluffy because they think he is nice and well-behaved. He is a gentle little kitten who never teases or makes fun of anyone.

Yowler, a rough-looking yellow cat, belongs to the baker who lives further down the street. Mother and Aunt Tabby do not want Jazbury to play with Yowler because they think he is a very coarse, noisy cat.

One afternoon when Jazbury and Fluffy are playing in the yard, they dare each other to climb to the top of the fence and tight-rope walk across it. Fluffy falls and Jazbury is sprayed off of it by some mischievous boys with their garden hose. Jazbury runs home to be warmed and licked dry by his mother.

The female cats feel their duty is to catch mice in the home but since the cats are very well fed by their humans, Jazbury doesn't want to bother. Eventually, Jazbury is convinced to watch a hole for a mouse but finds himself face to face with a rather large rat who turns the tables on him. Aunt Tabby swoops in at the last minute and saves Jazbury from the rat.

On another day, Jazbury has been set to mind a mouse-hole in the kitchen. After a grasshopper upsets his plans by causing him to bang into the pots and scare the mouse away, Jazbury is scolded and punished by his Mother and Aunt. While he is sitting out on the kitchen steps sulking, he decides he must run away. Fluffy shows up to invite Jazbury to play. Moments later, Yowler approaches Jazbury with the same idea, he wants to run away from the baker and off to the woods. Yowler is sure that he knows how to get there since he was born in the country and brought to the village as a kitten. Jazbury persuades Fluffy to come along with them. After breakfast the next morning, they set off.

The kittens have some scary moments in the woods and after many days hunting for food and then the long, cold, wet nights, they desperately want to find their way home but they are afraid they are hopelessly lost.

Synopsis by Chantel Vaughn, 2015

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Originally published by New York Dodd, Mead, and Company 1931; Copyright 1920 by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc.

Published, September, 1920

Second Printing, July, 1925

Third Printing, August 1926

Fourth Printing, October 1926

Fifth Printing, October 1928

Sixth Printing, June 1931

The Vail-Ballou Press, Binghampton and New York