Master Thomas Katt

The old farmer and his wife treat their pet kitten as if he was their son.

So they ask the vicar to educate him.

At first, the Vicar is amused but then he sees that he can make money from the old fools. He makes them pay for their 'son's' bed and board, and then for his books and  new clothes, for pens and ink and paper...

The old couple work themselves to the bone to pay for their Thomas' education -- never realising that the cruel vicar strangled their kitten on the first evening they left him at 'school.'

When, at last, Thomas is old enough to leave school, the old couple are excited. They look forward to Thomas coming home -- but the Vicar tells them that their  naughty kitten ran away to sea because he was bored with lessons.

The old couple are very sad.

Then the Vicar gets a better job. He's made chaplain of the Queen's own chapel in London. He decides to play one last joke on the old pair.

He sends them a notice from the Miching Mouse Tavern. A Master Thomas Katt, merchant and seaman, is staying there, having just returned from a voyage.

The old couple sell everything they have and travel to London, in hope of finding their beloved lost kitten.

Of course, there is no Miching Mouse Tavern and there is no Master Thomas Katt.

The Vicar made them up.

But when the old couple reach London, things take a very strange turn. And there's a happy ending for the old people, if not for the Vicar...