When I was around 5 or 6 years old (1972 to 1973) I loved a book of short children’s stories. I think it contained around a dozen or so stories. I recall a bunch of characters on the front cover. I think one of the characters was a knight, and he may or may not have been sitting on a horse.

One of the stories (I think the first one) was about a lost cat or kitten. The cat is lonely, cold, and hungry. The cat wandered around and found a pond with a fish in it. The cat tries to grab the fish, but is pulled into the water. (I think there may have been a fishing pole there, and the cat got tangled in it.) When the owner of the house heard the ruckus outside, he went out to retrieve the fish and cat. The cat then lives happily thereafter with the new owner, and the owner cooks the fish for the cat. There is a drawing of the cat sitting in front of the fire.

Another story was about some people who went for a short boat ride in a rowboat. To make sure everyone person was accounted for, the organizer of the voyage had everyone wear hat. Her plan was to count the number of hats before the journey, and then count them afterwards. If the numbers matched, then everyone was accounted for. The voyage had some problems. The boat started to sink because someone forgot to install the drain plug. But it wasn’t dangerous because the lake was very shallow. At any rate, at the end of the voyage the organizer was worried & upset because the number of hats she counted afterwards was one less than the onset of the voyage. But someone pointed out that she forgot to count the hat on her head, and everyone laughed.