This was no time for fun.
This was no time for games.
There was work to be done.
All the deep, deep, deep snow
All that snow had to go.
When our mother went down to the town for the day,
She said, "Somebody has to clean all this away. Somebody, Somebody has to, you see."
Then she picked out two somebodies: Sally and me.
We were working like that
And then who should come up
But the CAT IN THE HAT!
“Oh-oh!” Sally said. “Don’t you talk to that cat.
That cat is a bad one,
That Cat in the Hat.
He plays lots of bad tricks.
Don’t you let him come near.
You know what he did the last time he was here.”
“Play tricks?” laughed the cat. “Oh, my my! No, no, no!
I just want to go in
To get out of the snow.
Keep your mind on your work.
You just stay there, you two.
I will go in the house and find something to do.”
Then the cat went right in!
He was up to no good!
So I ran in after as fast as I could!
Do you know where I found him?
He was eating a cake in the tub!
Yes he was! The hot water was on and the cold water, too.
And I said to the cat, “What a bad thing to do!”
“But I like to eat cake in a tub,” laughed the cat.
“You should try it sometime,” laughed the cat as he sat.
And then I got mad.
This was no time for fun.
I said, “Cat! You get out! There is work to be done.
I have no time for tricks. I must go back and dig.
I can’t have you in here eating cake like a pig!
You get out of this house! We don’t want you about!”
Then I shut off the water and let it run out.
The water ran out and then I saw THE RING!
A ring in the tub! And, oh boy! What a thing!
A big long pink cat ring! It looked like pink ink!
And I said, “Will this ever come off? I don’t think!”
Why, I can take cat rings off tubs just like that!”
Do you know how he did it? WITH MOTHER’S WHITE DRESS!
Now the tub was all clean, but her dress was a mess!
Then Sally looked in. Sally saw the dress, too!
And Sally and I did not know what to do.
We should work in the snow but that dress!
What a spot! “It may never come off!” Sally said. “It may not!”
“Ho Ho, I can make the spot go.
The way I take spots off a dress is just so!
See here!” laughed the cat. “It is not hard at all.
The thing that takes spots off a dress is a wall.”
Then we saw the cat wipe the spot off the dress.
Now the dress was all clean but the wall! What a mess!
“Oh, wall spots!” he laughed. “Let me tell you some news.
To take spots off a wall, all I need is two shoes!”
Whose shoes did he use? I looked and saw whose!
And I said to the cat, “This is very bad news.
Now the spot is all over dad’s 10 dollar shoes!”
“He will never find out,” laughed the cat in the hat.
“His $10 shoes will have no spots at all.
I will rub them right off on this rug in the hall.”
“But now we have rug spots!” I yelled.
“What a day! Rug spots! What next? Can you take them away?”
“Don’t ask me,” he laughed. “Why, you know that I can!”
Then he picked up the rug and away the cat ran.
“I can clean up these rug spots before you count three!
No spots are too hard for a Hat Cat like me!”
He ran into Dad’s bedroom and then the cat said,
“It is good that your dad has the right kind of bed.”
Then he shook the rug! CRACK! Now the bed had the spot!
And all I could say was,“Now what, Cat? Now what?”
But the cat stood still. He just looked at the bed.
“This is not the right kind of bed,” the cat said.
“To take spots off THIS bed will be hard,” said the cat.
I can’t do it alone,” said the cat in the hat.
“It is good I have someone to help me” he said.
“Right here in my hat on the top of my head!
It is good that I have him here with me today.
He helps me a lot, this is Little Cat A. “
And then Little Cat A took the hat off his head.
“It is good I have someone to help me,” he said.
“This is Little Cat B and I keep him about,
and when I need help then I let him out.”
Then B said, “I think we need Little Cat C.
That spot is too much for the A cat and me.
But now, have no fear! We will clean it away!
The three of us! Little Cats B, C, and A!”
“Come on! Take it away!” yelled little cat A.
I will hit that old spot with this broom! Do you see?
It comes off the old bed! It goes on the T.V.”
And then Little Cat B cleaned up the T.V.
He cleaned it with milk, put the spot in a pan!
And then C blew it out of the house with a fan!
“But look where it went!” I said. “Look where it blew!
You blew the mess out of the house. That is true.
But now you made Snow Spots! You can’t let THEM stay!”
“Let us think about that now,” said C, B, and A.
“With some help, we can do it!” said little cat C.
Then POP! On his head we saw Little Cat D!
Then, POP! POP! POP! Little Cats E, F, and G!
“We will clean up that snow if it takes us all day!
If it takes us all night, we will clean it away!” said little cats G, F,E,D,C,B,A.
They ran out of the house then and we ran out, too.
And the big cat laughed, “Ha ha, now you will see something new.
My cats are all clever. My cats are good shots
My cats have good guns, they will kill all those spots.”
But this did not look very clever to me.
Kill snow spots with pop guns? That just couldn’t be.
“All this does is make more spots,” we yelled at the cat.
“Your cats are no good. Put them back in your hat.
Take your Little Cats G, F, E, D, C, B, A.
Put them back in your hat and take them away!“
“Oh, no!” said the cat. “All they need is more help.
Help is all that they need.
So keep still and don’t yelp.
Then Little G took the hat off his head.
“I have Little Cat H here to help us” he said.
“Little Cats H, I, J, K, L, M. But our work is so hard
We must have more than them. We need Little Cat N.
We need O. We need P. We need Little Cats Q, R, S, T, U and V.
“Come on! Get rid of those spots!” said the cats. “Get rid of the mess!”
And they jumped at the snow with long rakes and red bats.
They put it in pails and they made high pink hills!
Pink snow men! Pink snow balls! And little pink pills!
Oh, the things that they did and they did them so hard.
It was all one big spot now all over the yard!
But the Big Cat stood there and he said, “This is good.
This is what they should do and I knew that they would.
With a little more help all the work will be done.
They need one more cat and I know just the one.
Look close in my hand. I have Little Cat V.
On his head are Cats W, X, Y and Z.
Z is too small to see so don’t try. You cannot.
But Z is the cat who will clean up that spot!
Now here is the Z you can’t see,” said the cat.
And I bet you can’t guess what he has in his hat.
He has something called VOOM.
VOOM is so hard to get
You never saw anything like it, I bet.
Why VOOM cleans up anything, clean as can be.
The he yelled, “Take your hat off now, little cat Z.
Take the VOOM off our head.
Make it clean up the snow,
Hurry you little cat one, two, three go.”
Then the Voom… it went VOOM!
And, oh boy! What a VOOM!
But, boy! Let me tell you it DOES clean up snow!
“Ha ha, So you see!” laughed the cat. “Now your snow is all white!
Now your work is all done! Now your house is all right!
And you know where my little cats are?” said the cat.
“That Voom blew my little cats back in my hat.
And so, if you ever have spots, now and then,
I will be very happy to come here again… With Little Cats A, B, C, D, E,
F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, and O, P, Q, R, S, T,
and cat U and cat V and little Cats W, X, Y and Z.”