Pieter Vanderloon was a very fortunate man.

He had a fine fat wife, six roly-poly children, and a mill overflowing with corn.

One morning there were four less kernels of corn in the mill, for two tiny mice had made a breakfast of them.

Off went Pieter at once to buy a cat to guard his corn. But, instead, he came back with an elephant! “From the tip of his trunk to the end of his tail, there is far more to an elephant than there is to a cat!” Pieter told his astonished wife. Besides, the elephant cost nothing but a promise never to return it.

Why Pieter soon finds out!