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diff --git a/old/63458-0.txt b/old/63458-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5d697f7..0000000 --- a/old/63458-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3771 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Pussy-Cat Town, by Marion Ames Taggart, -Illustrated by Rebecca Chase - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Pussy-Cat Town - - -Author: Marion Ames Taggart - - - -Release Date: October 14, 2020 [eBook #63458] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY-CAT TOWN*** - - -E-text prepared by Mary Glenn Krause, Charlene Taylor, Barry Abrahamsen, -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from -page images generously made available by Internet Archive -(https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 63458-h.htm or 63458-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63458/63458-h/63458-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63458/63458-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/pussycattown00tagg - - -Transcriber’s note: - - Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - - - - - -[Illustration] - - -PUSSY-CAT TOWN - - -[Illustration] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration] - - Roses of - St. Elizabeth Series - - - ⚜ - - Each 1 vol., small quarto, illustrated and decorated in color. $1.00 - - ⚜ - - The Roses of Saint Elizabeth - BY JANE SCOTT WOODRUFF - - Gabriel and the Hour Book - BY EVALEEN STEIN - - The Enchanted Automobile - Translated from the French by - MARY J. SAFFORD - - Pussy-Cat Town - BY MARION AMES TAGGART - - ⚜ - - L. C. PAGE & COMPANY - New England Building - BOSTON, MASS. - -[Illustration] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - “They progressed comfortably, hearing without difficulty the story of - the founding of Purrington.” - (See page 190)] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration] - - The Roses of St. Elizabeth Series - ---------------------------------------------------------- - - -PUSSY-CAT TOWN - -by - -MARION AMES TAGGART - -Illustrated in Colours by Rebecca Chase - - -[Illustration] - - - - - - -L. C. Page & Company -Boston Membi - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -Copyright, 1906, by -L. C. Page & Company -(Incorporated) - -All rights reserved - -First Impression, September, 1906 - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -Colonial Press -Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. -Boston, U. S. A. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - -[Illustration] - - To my comforting cats, - Bandersnatch-Bandarlog and Kiku-san, - sitting close to me now and always when I - write; to the memory of my wise Tommy - Traddles; to Bidelia Purplay W.; to - Wutz-Butz and Madam Laura K., all “really - and truly” cats, this book is dedicated by - their humble admirer - - - Marion Ames Taggart - -[Illustration] - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. Ban-Ban, the Bold 1 - - II. Six Small Cats Do Great Things 24 - - III. The Purrers of Purrington 45 - - IV. A Five O’clock Catnip Tea 66 - - V. The Scampishness of Scamp 87 - - VI. Mrs. Brindle Brings Startling 107 - News - - VII. They Fought Like Cats and 126 - Dogs! - - VIII. Ban-Ban and Kiku-san form an 146 - Embassy - - IX. Visitors to Purrington 164 - - X. The Purrers Bestow the Freedom 184 - of Purrington - - XI. An Election and a Defection 204 - - XII. Wedding-bells and Brief 224 - Farewells - - - -[Illustration] - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - - “They progressed comfortably, Frontispiece - hearing without difficulty the - story of the founding of - Purrington” (see page 190) - - Nugget 8 - - Puttel 9 - - Dolly Varden 17 - - “‘I have had a Great Idea’” 18 - - Singing the Song 23 - - One of the Stranger Cats 27 - - “Little Dolly Varden fell asleep” 31 - - “S. Katz Fresh Mice Daily” 49 - - “The shout of welcome which all the 59 - Purrers of Purring to raised” - - “A long, creamy, blessed drink” 61 - - “One came to town with five 68 - kittens!” - - “A small, gray cat called Posty” 68 - - The Dance 82 - - “Scamp looked him over scornfully” 100 - - “Licking him frantically” 109 - - “Ready to pounce” 133 - - “Each with a cat on his back” 136 - - “The cats watched the retreat” 142 - - “They sat for a time resting” 144 - - “Kiku-san came and rubbed his cheek 160 - against Tommy’s” - - “Their speed increased” 165 - - “She gathered, the happy, purring 170 - white creature into her arms” - - “A black cat played the violin” 201 - - “Bidelia sobbed” 220 - - “Had often sat on a big volume of 226 - Shakespeare” - - “It was a most beautiful sight” 238 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration] - - - - - CHAPTER I - BAN-BAN, THE BOLD - - -He was really very beautiful. High-born, too,—a pure Maltese! He had a -short, saucy face; a square little nose, with which he was apt to pry -into other people’s business; and he saw everything with his bright -eyes, and understood most things with his quick wit. But he had almost -no patience at all, and he was as full of pranks as a monkey—indeed, -that’s what gave him his name. - -A boy? Mercy, no! Whoever heard of a pure Maltese boy? A cat, of course, -but such a beauty! He was as quick as he could be, and ran very fast, -and jumped like a flash—flashes do jump, so that’s all right. Did you -never see a flash of lightning jump from one cloud to another? Well, -this Maltese kitten was so quick that his little master called him -Bandersnatch—out of “Through the Looking-Glass”, you know, where the -White King says: “You might as well try to catch a Bandersnatch,” or, in -another place: “You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch.” So that -is where quick little Ban-Ban got his first name. And the second Ban was -short for Bandarlog, the name of the monkey people in the Jungle Book, -because he was so much more like a monkey than a quiet, purry, furry, -mild-mannered kitten. - -Ban-Ban had the very best home a cat could have; indeed, he was a good -deal spoiled. In this home he grew up to be three years old, but it was -only his body that grew bigger. Inside that Maltese body he wore a -kitten’s heart, getting younger every minute, loving play better, and -cutting up more didoes all the time, instead of settling down into a -staid cat, as any one would have expected him to do who saw the purple -shades in his dark gray suit! - -Now Ban-Ban loved his little master very much—not that he ever thought -of him as his “master;” no cat ever would admit having a master. Ban-Ban -considered the little boy as a friend whom he, a prince of the Maltese -Royal Family, allowed to play with him. He was more useful than kitten -friends because he could open doors, drag strings around, hide sticks -under the edges of rugs, get milk from the refrigerator, cut up meat, -play hide-and-go-seek better than cats, and shake up soft knitted things -into fine beds on cold days, besides scratching a person under the chin -and on the side of the cheek in a way that made a person stick out his -little red tongue and purr, no matter how much he felt like playing. But -that is not having a master; that is really keeping a very useful and -devoted servant. Ban-Ban hated of all things to show that he loved -little Rob; he liked to pretend that he was only polite to him, and -often, when he meant to get up in Rob’s lap for a little talk, if Rob -saw him coming, Ban-Ban would sit down and wash his face, trying to look -as if he had never once thought of being loving. You see he was -independent. - -Because he was independent, and so very impatient, it all came about. - -One day Ban-Ban had an idea dart into his brain. Ban-Ban’s ideas always -darted, they never came slowly; they were just like everything else -about him, “as fast as a Bandersnatch.” “If two-legged people can build -towns and live in them without asking the help of us cats, why can’t we -cats have a town of our own, and not ask the help of the two-legged -people? They are more clumsy and stupid than we are—except Rob; he isn’t -clumsy or stupid.” - -It was such a wonderful thought that it half-stunned even Ban-Ban. For -as much as five minutes he sat perfectly still, with only the tippest -tip of his tail moving. Then he started up with a leap, as if he were -jumping after those lost five minutes just as he jumped for butterflies, -and away he ran down the garden to find some of his friends. - -Bidelia was one of these friends. She was a little creature, very young, -a tortoise-shell cat, not pretty, but so clever that no one who didn’t -know her could believe how clever she was. Her cat acquaintances -suspected that she wrote stories on the sly, for her sides were always -spattered with big black spots on a yellow ground, and her friends -believed she got ink on her yellow clothes writing stories for the -magazines, because she was so very clever, and people who are very -clever and write books are apt to be untidy with their ink. - -Though she was younger than Ban-Ban by nearly two years she had three -children, and they were already two months old: Nugget, all yellow, -Puttel, black with a white thumb-mark under her chin, and Dolly Varden, -with a tortoise-shell dress like her mother’s. Bidelia had good reason -to be as proud of her children as she was! - -[Illustration: - - Nugget.] - -Another of Ban-Ban’s friends was Mr. Thomas Traddles, a tiger cat, who -was so wise and had such remarkable judgment that every one came to him -for advice. He was older than Ban-Ban, and he was one of that queer sort -of friends which we all have: people whom we do not really like, but -whom we respect heaps and heaps, and without whom we cannot get along. -Not that there was any reason why Ban-Ban should not like Tommy -Traddles; his disposition was perfect, and his manners of the best. -Perhaps it was because Tom was so sensible and grave, and Ban-Ban was -such a little firebrand, for we none of us really like people who make -us feel that we are in the wrong, not unless we are far more -humble-minded folk than was proud little Ban-Ban. - -[Illustration: - - Puttel.] - -There, too, was Wutz-Butz, whose name didn’t mean much, but that the -little girl who owned him liked to mix up letters and call him by queer -sounds. He was a gray and white cat who would let the little girl whom -he thought he owned, but who thought that she owned him, do anything -under the sun to him, and he would stand it with a perfect mush of -patience, but out among the cats he was a warrior. He fought every one -that he happened to dislike, and Ban-Ban was always thankful Wutz-Butz -liked him—and Ban-Ban was not a coward, either. Wutz-Butz had a big, -round head, and a short, thick-set body, and his complexion was apt to -get rumpled up—can complexions get rumpled? Well, at any rate this cat’s -complexion looked rumpled—because of the many strong arguments he had -with Ruth’s grandmother’s big white cat with the gray ears. Ruth was the -little girl who owned Wutz-Butz, or whom he owned, according to whether -you believe from her or his side of the question. - -Ban-Ban had another friend to whom he was bound by ties of the highest -respect and gratitude. This was Madam Laura, a sweet, kindly middle-aged -lady,—perhaps a trifle past middle age,—to whom all the cats went for -comfort and teaching. She was a widow lady, so she wore a great deal of -black over her white sides and back, laid on in big spots. She had had a -great many sons and daughters, but they had all gone to make their own -way in the world, and Madam Laura was said to be quite wealthy, with no -one dependent upon her for mice. She was a cat with a mother’s heart for -all the mewing world, and no cat could be so scratchy as not to love -this gentle lady. - -The last and dearest of Ban-Ban’s friends was Kiku, the snow-white cat, -whose name was a Japanese word that means chrysanthemum, and whose -nature was as flower-like as his name. He lived next door to Ban-Ban, -and played with him most of the time. His little mistress was Rob’s -dearest friend, his cousin, and her name was Lois. She was a year -younger than Rob, which made her only seven years old, but she was not -the least bit careless or rough with her pets, as some children are, and -Kiku was a very lucky “kitteny-wink, little white lambkin,” as Lois -called him. - -Kiku was always called “Kiku-san,” because “san” is a mark of honour -among the Japanese, and white Kiku was so gentle and lovely-mannered -that no one could deny him the respectful title that his Japanese name -suggested. Kiku-san wore white garments with pink trimmings, and he kept -them snowy white, for he only went out to play in the grass in fine -weather, and slept at night cuddled close in Lois’s arms. He puckered -his mouth when he was spoken to, and brought his lids down over his -amber eyes as if he knew he was most sweet and lovable, fully deserving -all the praise which he received—and so he did, for nothing would tempt -him to scratch; he never lost his temper, unless he had lost it for good -and all when he was born, and had never found it again, which seemed to -be the case, for no one had ever seen him cross. - -These were Ban-Ban’s friends, and it was to find them, or all of them -that he could find, that he ran so fast down the garden after his -wonderful idea struck him. - -He came upon Bidelia, who was sitting in the sunshine letting the -children play with her tail. - -“Oh, Bidelia!” cried Ban-Ban, “have you seen any of the others?” - -“How out of breath you are!” said Bidelia, reproachfully. She was so -little that she could jump about all day and never lose her breath. -“Tommy Traddles is sunning himself on the fence. Madam Laura is singing -a few Felines on the garden bench.” A Feline is a kind of cat hymn. - -“Do you think you could trust one of the kittens to hunt up Wutz-Butz, -and Kiku-san, and ask them to join us here? I have something -catelovelant to tell them,” said Ban-Ban. “Catelovelant” means “lovely -for cats.” - -“I think Nugget could go; he is getting very plump and reliable,” -returned Bidelia. “Puttel, go and ask Madam Laura if she would kindly -come over here when she has finished her Felines. And, Dolly Varden, go -waken Mr. Traddles and ask him to come. If he is very sound asleep you -may stand up on your hind legs and pull his tail—very gently,” she -added, as Dolly spun around three times rapidly, “and with the greatest -respect.” - -The three kittens scampered off, and Ban-Ban with much effort kept -himself from pouring out to Bidelia the Great Idea. Fortunately the -kittens so quickly got together the cats for whom they were sent that -Ban-Ban was saved from choosing between telling or having a fit. - -[Illustration: - - Dolly Varden.] - -“You had something to say to us, my dear?” hinted Madam Laura after they -were all seated. Her voice sounded like rolls of butter rolling, it was -so soft and smooth. - -“Yes,” said Ban-Ban, his fur beginning to stick up all over and his tail -to swell, as it always did when he was excited. “I have had a Great -Idea.” - -“You were clever from your kittenhood, Bannie,” said Madam Laura, who -had known his grandmother. - -[Illustration: - - “‘I have had a Great Idea.’”] - -“Human beings,” Ban-Ban continued, trying to keep back the little -puffing spits which he often gave when he was stirred, “Human beings -build towns and live in them. They never ask our help; they feel that -they own the towns. Very likely they do; but as their cats always own -the human beings, it doesn’t matter. What I have to suggest is that -there is no reason why cats should not build and own a city just as the -human beings do. I think that we should be the ones to do this. Let us, -all of us here, go away to some lovely spot and build a city. Let us ask -all the poor, homeless cats, who don’t own any human beings, and so have -very little food and no warm places to live, to join us. Let us have a -city of cats, and let us hand our names down in all future categories -and catalogues and histories as the Fathers—and Mothers”—he added, -bowing to Madam Laura and Bidelia—“of Our Country, Glory of Our Race.” - -“Hear, hear!” cried Wutz-Butz. He pronounced it: “He-ar, He-ar!” It -sounded like a mew. - -“Bandersnatch-Bandarlog, you are indeed A Great Mind,” said Tommy -Traddles, gravely. - -“It will be lovely!” cried Bidelia, joyously. “I want a more extended -field.” - -“And more field-mice,” added Laura, who was not clever, only good, which -is better than mere cleverness, as all properly taught cats know. - -“Then you agree?” asked Ban-Ban, not able, this time, to keep from -ending in a “P-pst!” of pure excitement. - -“Yes, yes,” cried all the cats together. - -“Yes,” added Kiku-san alone, “but I am afraid that Lois will need me.” - -“Our human beings will soon get other cats,” said Ban-Ban, wisely. “I -have always noticed they soon get another cat to wait upon, when they -lose the one they have had. Not that I shall leave Rob long without me,” -he added. “Rob and I are friends. But the founding of this city is a -duty; it will be a haven for oppressed cats. When shall we go?” - -“On the third day from this one,” said Tommy Traddles, promptly. “In the -meantime we will eat all that we can, and get together as many -provisions as we can carry.” - -“Before we part,” said Bidelia, “let us sing a song. Wait; I will make -one for this occasion.” - -It was the custom of these cats to sing each night before separating, so -the others all willingly sat down to wait while Bidelia wrote the words -which were to commemorate their newly taken and important resolution. - -[Illustration: - - Singing the song.] - -Soon that clever little cat announced the song ready, and they sang the -following words to the air of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic:” - - “We’ll put our fur in order and brave Pilgrim-cats we’ll be; - With whiskers out and tails erect we’ll march courageously. - We’ll found a town for other cats, less fortunate than we: - Each cat shall have his day! - - “We love the friends that love us, and our hearts to them are true; - We’ll ne’er forget the kindly folk beside whose hearths we grew, - But though our friends are good to us, mankind is cruel, too: - Each cat must have his day! - - “Then, onward, Pilgrim-cats, nor pause to cast a look behind, - For duty calls our velvet paws our kindred’s wounds to bind; - In Pussy-Town all homeless cats a home and peace may find: - Each cat shall have his day.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - SIX SMALL CATS DO GREAT THINGS - - -Three days later the moon looked down on a more wonderful sight than she -had seen since the cow had jumped over her,—more wonderful even than she -had seen then, for this sight was much more than one cat with a fiddle. - -Six cats and three kittens led a procession of at least a dozen more -cats out of the town and along the wooded country roads. Ban-Ban was -ahead. He had a big red bow on his collar, which poor Rob had tied on, -intending the Maltese cat to look his best when expected company should -come that evening. He little thought that he was adorning Ban-Ban for a -journey, and a parting that was going to cost himself keen grief! - -But Ban-Ban had no room in his mind for Rob’s anxiety; he trotted -proudly along, with his short, velvety ears pricked up, his nose alert -for dangers. Close behind him marched Wutz-Butz, in case he was needed -for a fight. Tommy Traddles came next, in case he was needed for advice. -Kiku-san—he wore a beautiful pink ribbon, because Lois loved to see him -well dressed—Kiku walked between Bidelia and Madam Laura, the only one -of the party with a regret. His thoughts dwelt on Lois, and how troubled -she would be when he did not come to bed that night, and she could not -find him in the morning. Behind Bidelia came the three kittens, driving -their young mother half crazy with their antics. They would not walk -soberly, but frisked and played, and ran out of sight into the shadow, -and sometimes half-way up a tree, until little Bidelia was sure that she -would be quite as gray as Ban-Ban, but with another sort of grayness, -from her worry, by the time she got to wherever they were going. - -The stranger cats walked behind their leaders. They were all thin and -sad-looking, for they had had no homes, and life had been most hard to -them. They were glad enough to think that they were on their way to make -their fortunes in a city of cats, where there would be no stones thrown, -no dogs to chase them, no cruel boys to frighten and hurt them. - -[Illustration: - - One of the stranger cats.] - -The six cat leaders all carried something. Ban-Ban had a big piece of -beef. He had not stolen it, because it had been bought for him, but he -had whisked it out of the refrigerator when the cook left the door open -for a moment. - -Wutz-Butz had dragged along a piece of red flannel. He was inclined to -be stiff in his legs from rheumatism and his frequent battles, and he -had no mind to sleep on the cold ground, though many a soldier before -him has had no better bed. - -Tommy Traddles had a pail of milk fastened over his shoulders,—Laura had -tied it on for him,—and in his paws he carried an umbrella, because he -knew that if it rained they would all hate to be out in the wet. - -Bidelia, like the gay young thing that she was, brought only -neck-ribbons for her children, and some worsted balls with which -they—and she, too, if she would own it—loved to play. But Madam Laura, -like an older and wiser mother, brought catnip roots, as well as some -dried catnip to start on, in case the kittens were ill. She also had a -little bottle of castor-oil, because she knew how good that was for -kittens when they overate themselves. - -Kiku-san carried his crocheted shawl. It was one that had been dyed red, -and which Lois kept in a rocking-chair for Kiku’s daytime naps. Kiku -wore it now around his shoulders, and wondered doubtfully if he could -get another crocheted shawl in Pussy-Cat Town when this one was worn -out. - -They walked and they walked for what seemed a long, long distance even -to the cats. As to the kittens, they had long ceased frisking, and -crawled along slowly, mewing pathetically, and taking hold of Bidelia’s -tail to help themselves as they went. - -[Illustration: - - “Little Dolly Varden fell asleep.”] - -Tommy Traddles looked around and saw how tired they were. “If some of -you gentlemen in the back there, who have no food or beds to carry, -would lay your forepaws on one another’s shoulders, and take turns in -letting the children sit on them, you would be able to get the poor -little kitlets over the ground, saving them suffering, and not hurting -yourselves,” he said. - -The stranger cats were glad to do this, though they would never have -been wise enough to have invented this way of carrying the babies. -Little Dolly Varden fell asleep the instant she was put up on the paws -of a big black cat and a black and white one, who offered to carry her. -“She was that done out,” said the black and white cat. He had a kind -heart, but his English was not very good, because he had learned it in -the streets. - -It was about twenty minutes past ten when the cat pilgrims reached a -lovely spot. It was a clearing in a wood, almost an acre wide. It stood -right on the bank of a tiny stream, which Bidelia called a river, but -which was really rather a small and quiet brook. All around this cleared -spot were beautiful woods, and only a grass-grown road ran through it, -such as is made by broad wagon wheels when men go to cut down trees in -the woods. - -“This is the very place for us,” declared Ban-Ban, looking around him -with great content. - -“It isn’t far from the town,” objected the black cat, who was helping -carry Dolly Varden. His name was ’Clipsy, short for Eclipse. He had not -always been poor; he was born in a very nice home, where he had been -given his name, but he had got lost when he was very young, and had had -a hard time ever since. He was a gentleman always, though; the cat -leaders all saw that he was the best of all the stranger cats who had -joined them. - -“I know it is not far from town,” said Tommy Traddles, planting his -umbrella in the ground, and setting down his pail of milk beside it, -with a wink at Wutz-Butz to keep his eye on it—no one could tell what -some thirsty stranger cat might be tempted to do. “It is not far from -town, ’Clipsy, but it is rather better for that. Did you never notice -that when human beings have lost something they always look everywhere -else for it before they look near home? I suppose you haven’t noticed -that, because you have not lived with human beings since you were so -little, but it is quite true that when anything is lost and can’t be -found, it always turns out that it is because no one looked just at -hand, where the lost thing always hides. So it is better for us to -settle nearer our old human town than to go away off—to another State, -for instance.” - -There was no disputing with a cat that could allude so carelessly to -“another State.” ’Clipsy at once gave up arguing; he didn’t know what -“another State” meant, and he wondered greatly how Tommy could be so -wise. - -“Oh, it’s all right as to that,” said Ban-Ban, speaking in his quick -way. He understood about states, because he had so often sat by Rob when -he was learning his lessons. “I don’t think any one would find us in -this place; but I wonder if there is a good market here.” - -“There ought to be fish in that river,” said Madam Laura, who liked fish -even better than most cats. “I know how to catch fish with my paw.” - -“There _are_ fish in that stream,” said Tommy Traddles, decidedly. “And -field-mice in the woods; the market here will be excellent. I am -convinced that the guardian fairies of good cats have led us here. It is -well to be near town, because our city must be easily reached by -homeless cats who may wish to join us. I advise you, my friends, to -decide upon this spot at once as the site of the city. Do you agree to -stay here?” - -“Yes, yes, yes!” cried all the cats together, their voices making a -chorus of soprano, alto, bass, baritone, and tenor. Even the kittens -joined with their thin little pipes, though they may have been crying -from sleepiness. - -“We’ll make a camp!” cried Ban-Ban, putting up his back and dancing -around on his toes the way he had always done when Rob offered to play -with him. “We will camp out for the night, and in the morning we will -ask the carpenter cats to begin to build our houses.” - -“It won’t take us long,” cried the carpenter cats, five of the strangers -who had joined the party. - -“I told a friend of mine I would write at once after we settled on a -site to let him know where he could join us. What are you going to call -the town?” asked one of these cats. - -“Purrington!” cried Bidelia, triumphantly, looking around for the praise -she felt sure that this happy name would win from all her companions. -She had been thinking up a name during the three days that she was -getting together her kittens’ neck-ribbons, mending their clothes, and -packing for the journey. - -All the cats raised such a yowl of delight that if there had been any -human being within hearing he would certainly have thought that some -awful thing had happened to all the cats in the world at once. But it -was merely keen pleasure that such a fashionable-sounding, yet happy, -homelike, catified name had been hit upon by Bidelia, whom they now felt -surer than ever must secretly be a successful author. - -“Purrington by all means,” said Tommy Traddles, with the grave approval -of a great scholar. “I should suggest that we also give this stream a -name, and call it the Meuse. Purrington-on-the-Meuse will be a -delightful heading for our note-paper.” - -“Mews! Yes, that is a nice name for our river,” said Madam Laura. “Yet I -don’t like, don’t _quite_ like, calling the river after mews only. We -are often so unhappy when we mew!” - -“My dear lady,” said Doctor Traddles,—Tommy Traddles had been honoured -with the title of Doctor of Claws by a feline college,—“we are not -calling it after our own mews; we do not spell it that way. This is -M-E-U-S-E, not M-E-W-S, and there is a river with that name in France. I -confess I had the double sound of the word in my mind when I suggested -the name, however.” - -“How did you become so learned, Tommy?” sighed Madam Laura, much -impressed. - -“I used to sit on a dictionary a great deal of the time while I was -growing,” said Thomas Traddles. “I then lived with a student of law, and -I absorbed learning, and especially a knowledge of words, by sitting, -and even napping, on his dictionary.” - -“We are going to live in Purrington-on-the-Meuse!” cried Ban-Ban, with a -flirt of his tail. “Wutz-Butz, bring your red flannel over here. Those -kittens must be put to bed. Kiku-san, will you let Dolly Varden and -Puttel sleep with you in your crocheted shawl, while Nugget curls up -with Wutz-Butz in this red flannel?” - -Before Kiku-san could reply, Bidelia started to say that she must keep -her children with her, and Wutz-Butz to say that he intended to watch -all that night with ’Clipsy and some others of the stranger cats; but -nobody could hear a word that either of them said, for all three kittens -set up a perfectly deafening trio of miaous: - -“We want mamma, we want mamma; we won’t sleep with Y-O-U-U-U!” they -shrieked. - -“Oh, dear,” sighed Bidelia, “they are so tired you must pardon them! My -darlings, you are going to sleep with mamma; please, please be quiet.” -And she gave three hasty but tender licks down the noses of each of -them, which quieted the kittens and comforted them. - -“I was about to say that Bidelia may use my blanket to-night,” said -Wutz-Butz. “I shall stay awake and watch. By to-morrow night she will -have her own house all furnished.” - -“You are most kind, Wutz-Butz,” said Bidelia, feeling rather ashamed -that she had looked down on Wutz-Butz, thinking him only a stupid -soldier. She curled herself down at once on his red flannel and drew the -three kittens to her, one under her forepaw, one close to her head, and -one tucked away under her chin—this was Dolly Varden, the smallest and -sweetest of the three. - -Kiku-san and Ban-Ban laid down close together in Kiku’s crocheted shawl. -Kiku was very silent, and even Ban-Ban had nothing to say, but drew the -white cat’s gentle face close to his saucy one. They remembered Rob and -Lois, and it is more difficult to be brave at night, than it is in the -broad daylight, when the sun is shining. - -“We will sing you to sleep,” said Madam Laura and Tommy Traddles, -kindly, guessing that these petted cats might be lonely. And they sang -to the tune of “Santa Lucia:” - - “Little cats, dearest cats, sleep on your pillows, - Under the stars and ’neath green pussy-willows. - Sweet should your rest be and peaceful your slumber, - Dreaming of cream-pans and mice without number; - Rich your reward for your courage and pity, - Giving the homeless a home and a city. - Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, all cats shall bless you, - Lois and Robin again will caress you; - Bravest cats, dearest cats, sleep on your pillows, - Kissed by the winds and the soft pussy-willows.” - -Sung to a low, sweet tune, this song proved soothing, and Kiku-san and -Ban-Ban fell asleep as soon as it ceased, borne away to dreamland by the -rise and fall of many purrs mingling with the murmur of their rippling -river Meuse. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - THE PURRERS OF PURRINGTON - - -No one can imagine how fast cat carpenters work, for very few indeed -have ever seen them work. And so it would be hard to make any one -believe how fast Purrington-on-the-Meuse grew. Why, in a week those five -cat carpenters had built all the houses which were needed to start with! -Of course the other cats helped in all ways that they could, such as -bringing boards, laying up bricks, and puttying in windows, but even -with this help it was wonderful the way the town grew. - -There did not have to be many houses to begin with. There was one big -house, rather like a city apartment-house for single gentlemen, in which -the stranger cats, all of them unmarried, were to live. Madam Laura -offered to keep house for them, because they never could take care of -themselves without a lady at the head of their domestic affairs, and -there never could be another more fitted in every way to keep house for -them than was kind Madam Laura. It was most good of her to do it, -however, for being a lady of means, she could have gone off and lived -selfishly by herself, without a care in the world. - -Ban-Ban and Kiku-san lived with Bidelia and the children; Thomas -Traddles and his new friend ’Clipsy had another house to themselves; and -there was a fourth house put up for a widow lady who came with her son -to Purrington from the human city. She was a white and yellow lady named -Alloy, because she was not all gold, and her son, who was about a month -older than Bidelia’s children, was named Scamp, and if ever a name just -suited its bearer it was this kitten’s, for he was such a scamp that all -the cats were worried for fear his example would lead Nugget into bad -ways. - -So they built a schoolhouse at once, and opened a school for the -children, with Doctor Traddles for teacher, and some others to come in -during the week to teach extra branches. Madam Laura, for instance, -taught Fishing and Deportment; Bidelia taught Dancing; Kiku-san taught -French, which he had learned from Lois’s French nurse; Wutz-Butz taught -Boxing; and ’Clipsy was to give a course in Business Methods, which he -had learned during his life in the streets. - -[Illustration: - - S. KATZ - FRESH - MICE - DAILY.] - -Then there were the shops. One where you could buy ribbons, collars, -bells, catnip, balls, cushions, and all such elegant trifles; and -another which was the market. Here you could buy asparagus tips, string -beans, peas, fish, and meat. This was kept by a gentleman named Schwartz -Katz, one of the stranger cats who had joined the party. He was very -round and stout, and was of German descent, having been born in a -delicatessen shop in the human city. He had the nicest, cleanest market -you ever saw, and over his door was his tempting sign: “S. Katz, -Butcher. Fresh Mice Daily.” He had many customers among the citizens of -Purrington who were too busy or too lazy to hunt their own game. He was -a black cat, as his name showed, but he wore a white front and had white -forelegs, so that he looked precisely like a human market-man—at least -in his clothes—who had put on a white apron and drawn white linen -sleeves over his coat sleeves. He often sat in his doorway, watching for -customers, looking big and fat and prosperous, just like a nice German -butcher. - -Dr. Thomas Traddles had said that all the citizens of Purrington should -be spoken of as Purrers, both because they were so very happy in their -beautiful new city, and because it was the best way he knew of -shortening the word Purrington. So Purrers they were called, and they -lived up to it beautifully. - -One day a most wonderful thing happened, and one that made the cats of -Purrington even more Purrers than they were before. Everything had been -made comfortable, and there was no lack of anything a cat could want in -Purrington, save one thing, but that was a sad lack. This was milk. -There was no milk to be had in Purrington, and no prospect of a way to -get any. The Purrers were feeling very grave about it when, one day, a -cow came walking along the grass-grown road that led through the woods -beside the city, and stopped to look at the houses, as well she might, -for there was not one higher than three feet, and even the -apartment-house was not more than ten feet square. - -Ban-Ban saw the cow considering, and he guessed in a moment that she -must be the cow of whom he had heard Rob read in Mother Goose, who -belonged to a piper who bade the cow consider. He knew this, because -that was the only cow of whom he had ever heard who considered. So he -ran straightway out to the edge of the woods to speak to her. - -“Dear Madam,” Ban-Ban began most politely, for he had always moved in -the best society and had heard no end of books read aloud, “you can’t -imagine how glad I am to meet you. Did you like ‘Corn Rigs Are Bonny’ -better than the first tune after you had bade the piper play it to you?” - -The cow stared. “Yes, I always liked that tune best of all,” she said. -“But how did you know?” - -“That you were that piper’s cow?” asked Ban-Ban, twirling his moustache -with, it must be confessed, considerable self-satisfaction. “Oh, I -recognized you at once, because I saw you considering. May I ask whither -you are going and whence you came?” - -You will see that Ban-Ban was trying to express himself elegantly, -because he wanted to impress the cow, and hoped to get her to see things -his way. - -“I came from the piper,” said the cow, “but I have no idea where I am -going. I have left him for good and all. He had nought to give me—” - -“Yes; I know,” interrupted Ban-Ban. - -“Well, of course I am fond of music and all that,” the cow went on, “but -a person cannot live on piping, and corn is better than the tune, ‘Corn -Rigs Are Bonny.’ So I had to leave the piper, and now I am looking for a -home. When I see a comfortable farm, and a farmer that looks -good-tempered, and as if he would be kind to animals, I shall turn in at -his gate and chew my cud until he takes me to keep.” - -Ban-Ban fairly quivered with eagerness. “We are not farmers,” he began, -and as the cow stared more than ever at the cat who made such an -unnecessary statement, he stopped and went back to the beginning of his -story. - -“We are cats,” he said, “who have built this city of Purrington on this -river Meuse for a place where all poor, abused cats can come and live -happily all their nine lives. We have everything we want, except milk. -Don’t you think you could be happy if you joined us? There would not be -any one to bother you all day long; you could wander where you might -choose—and wherever a cow chews—with no one to drive you, or turn you -into a poor pasture, or out of a good one. We would be honoured by your -presence, and would build you a house all to yourself, and all we would -ask would be that every morning and night you would let down your milk -to us.” - -“That would be like my friend Cusha-Cow Bonny. Her master asked her to -let down her milk to him, and he promised her in return a gown of silk -and a silver tee,” remarked the cow, thoughtfully. - -“I don’t know what a silver tee is,” said Ban-Ban, “but it doesn’t sound -like anything that a cow would care for, and I’m sure you would rather -have a nice house and your freedom all the long summer days than a gown -of silk. Any sensible person would, especially we who already have such -beautiful gowns of fine fur and glossy brown hair,—yours is a lovely -colour, if you will pardon a personal remark,” added artful Ban-Ban. - -The cow smiled. “Not as beautiful as yours,” she said, not to be outdone -in politeness. “Yours is silver on the high line of your back, and -almost purple in the shadow; I never saw a more beautiful coat.” - -“Thank you,” said Ban-Ban. He did not pay as much attention to -compliments as the cow did, because he had been praised ever since he -had had his eyes open, and he could not help knowing how beautiful he -was. “Don’t you think that you would rather stay with us, in Purrington, -than to go farther, only to be again the slave of some man?” - -The cow seemed to be struck by this way of putting the case; she no -longer hesitated. Shifting her cud to the left cheek, the cheek on which -a cow always chews when her mind is fully made up, Mrs. Brindle said, -decidedly: “I am quite sure that I should. And I will!” - -“Good!” cried Ban-Ban. “Follow me, then!” - -Making his tail very stiffly erect to do honour to such an important -occasion as was this one, when he was to lead into Purrington its supply -of much needed milk, Ban-Ban wheeled around and trotted rapidly down - -[Illustration: - - “The shout of welcome which all the Purrers of Purrington raised.”] - -the main street, followed by Mrs. Brindle, who looked more round-eyed -than ever, as if she could not quite understand being adopted by a cat. - -The shout of welcome which all the Purrers of Purrington raised as they -espied Ban-Ban and his companion nearly lifted little Dolly Varden off -her feet. But when she ran to the window and saw what was coming she -raised her piping voice and cried: “Mamma, Mamma Bidelia! Come quick! -Ban-Ban’s bringing home something awful, with horns! It’s bigger than -men and looks crosser!” - -Bidelia ran to the window. - -“Why, that’s milk, my Furry-Softness!” she cried, joyfully. - -“Milk!” cried Nugget, scornfully. He was not nearly as respectful in his -manner since he had played with Scamp. “Milk comes in cans, mamma; not -in big, hair-covered horny things, with legs!” - -“That is a cow, Nugget; you will see to-night whether you know more than -your mother. Cows give milk, just as pumps give water,” said Bidelia, -severely. - -“Then I’m glad Ban-Ban brought her,” said Puttel, licking her lips -thirstily. “I’m so tired not having milk I ’most want to go back to our -old place.” - -“Poor Puttel!” said Bidelia, feeling of the kitten’s nose. “You are -feverish. Never mind, my babies; to-night you shall have a long, creamy, -blessed drink, and I’m going to cook a fish for Ban-Ban’s supper for -bringing the cow here. What a genius Ban-Ban is! Nugget, run around to -Mr. Schwartz Katz’s and ask him to let you have his best fish. Tell him -Ban-Ban has brought the cow to Purrington, and that the fish is for -him.” - -[Illustration: - - “A long, creamy, blessed drink.”] - -“He knows it,” growled Nugget, flattening his ears sulkily, for he did -not like to go on errands since Scamp had told him his mother took too -much of his play-time for her service. It was far from true, for Bidelia -was a most indulgent little mother. - -“Nugget, go at once, and lift your ears. I will not allow you to flatten -your ears when I ask you to do something for me. Oh, dear,” sighed -Bidelia. “How dreadful it is to have kittens fall in with bad comrades! -Nugget has always been such a good boy! And now that Scamp is changing -him for the worse every day!” - -“Don’t worry, mamma,” purred dear little Dolly, putting her forelegs -around Bidelia’s neck. “Nugget isn’t bad, like Scamp; he only thinks -it’s smart to spit and flatten his ears. He thinks that makes him catly, -and a soldier like Wutz-Butz.” - -Bidelia licked Dolly tenderly. “I only wish he were not so weak as to -want to copy bad kittens. As though it were not much more grown-up to be -strong, and good, and obedient! If he wants to be catly why doesn’t he -imitate Doctor Traddles, or sweet Kiku-san, our gentle white friend, or -clever Ban-Ban, or even Wutz-Butz, if he does fight sometimes? It is so -silly to swagger!” And Bidelia sighed again, feeling that she was too -young to manage such a great yellow kitten as Nugget was growing to be. - -Just then there arose in the street a great chorus. To human ears it -would have sounded like a chorus of mews, but it was not. - -All the cats were shouting, just as they had heard human beings shout at -election time, and this was what they were saying: - -“What’s the matter with Ban-Ban?” “He’s all right!” “Who founded -Purrington?” “Ban-Ban!” “Who brought the cow to Purrington?” “Ban-Ban!” - -And then they sang, to the tune of Yankee Doodle: - - “Bannie-Ban, with coat of silk, - Got poor thirsty cats their milk! - Bannie-Ban, he knows how - Best to argue with a cow. - Purrers, we, of Purrington, - Without milk could not get on. - Who went out, the cow to catch? - Our noble Bandersnatch! - Who brought Brindle, jogging-jog? - Our noble Bandarlog! - Cheer, then, cheer, all cats who can, - Cheer your best for great Ban-Ban!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - A FIVE O’CLOCK CATNIP TEA - - -When Purrington was started there were a great many who thought that it -must fail. Cats who would not join the pilgrims to the new city sat on -back fences and mewed over the certain disappointment awaiting those who -went, sometimes spitting in their wrath that any cat should be so -foolish as to go on such a wild-goose chase after happiness, just as -human folk croak over other people’s experiments. It is too much to -expect that cats can always be better than human beings, at least that -all cats can. - -But Purrington was not a failure; on the contrary it was a great -success; and, when it had been built in two weeks, and everything was in -running order, and the Purrers were quite sure that their plan was -working well, Bidelia and Madam Laura resolved to give a tea to -celebrate the founding of the city. - -A great many ladies had come to the town by this time, so there was no -trouble about getting together plenty of guests for the tea. Doctor -Thomas Traddles’s school was by this time grown to thirty scholars, for -most of the ladies who had moved to Purrington, like Bidelia, brought -with them two or three children—and one came to town with five kittens! - -The cards to the tea were issued three days in advance, and were -delivered at each house—there were more houses built by this time to -shelter all the new arrivals—by a small, gray cat called Posty, whose -duty it was to deliver the mails and to keep the post-office. - -[Illustration: - - “One came to town with five kittens.”] - -[Illustration: - - “A small, gray cat called Posty.”] - -The cards ran thus: “Mrs. Bidelia Purplay requests the pleasure of your -company to tea on June 10th, from four to six. Music.” - -There was not a cat omitted in these invitations, because the founders -of Purrington had talked the matter over in private and had agreed that -it would never do to allow any division and jealousy in the town such as -is caused by social sets, and one person looking down upon another, and -snubbing him. It was not easy for Ban-Ban, Kiku-san, Bidelia, and Tommy -Traddles to bring themselves to treat everybody exactly alike, for there -is nothing on earth so lofty by nature as a cat, and these four had been -used only to fashionable society. However, they made up their minds that -they must do whatever was for the general good, and treat all the -Purrers of Purrington with the same neighbourly kindness. - -Bidelia hoped that by having her tea continue from four to six she would -escape crowding her parlour, in which there was not any too much room; -but, by five minutes to four, there was a stirring in the streets, heads -poking out of windows and doors to see if any one were starting, and -before the French clock on Bidelia’s parlour cabinet had struck -half-past four, all her guests had arrived. - -Of course nobody would have missed this first social event in Purrington -for their whiskers, but there had been a good deal said from one to -another about Bidelia’s giving a tea. Nobody seemed to think that tea -would be very enjoyable. - -“It’s all very well to be fashionable,” said the mother of the five -kittens—Daisy Bell was her name—“but tea! Whoever heard of a cat that -would so much as smell of tea? I should have thought that Mrs. Bidelia -Purplay could have found something better to have asked us to than tea! -I told my eldest daughter not to be surprised if I came home down sick. -Tea! Of all things!” - -This was said as Daisy Bell came to the tea—one of the very earliest to -arrive she was, too, in spite of her dislike for tea—and her neighbour, -Mrs. Blotch, to whom she was talking, fully agreed with her. - -Judge, then, the pleasure of these ladies when, on entering Bidelia’s -house, a strong odour of catnip met their twitching noses. Here is where -breeding tells; Daisy Bell’s manners were not proof against this -surprise and the tempting odour. - -“Dear me!” she cried, as she came in,—before she had so much as inquired -after her hostess’s children, mind you,—“Dear me! How strong that catnip -smells! Are you giving a catnip tea? I wouldn’t have dreaded coming if -I’d have known that!” - -“Did you dread coming?” inquired Bidelia, pleasantly. “I am very sorry. -Of course it is a catnip tea. I never thought of stating it on my cards, -because I thought everybody would understand. A Five O’Clock Catnip Tea. -Why, of course it is. What other kind of a tea would I care to give, or -you care to come to?” - -“No other kind,” said Daisy Bell, promptly. “What do we do?” - -“If you will go into my bedroom you will find Puttel there to take your -things, and help you in any little way that you may need help; she acts -as my maid to-day. Then, when your fur is arranged and you are quite -ready, if you will be so kind as to come back to me I will take you to -the dining-room. Madam Laura is good enough to pour for me to-day.” - -Daisy Bell did not know what Bidelia meant by pouring for her, but she -kept silent, for there was something in little Bidelia’s easy and -gracious manner that made Daisy Bell, and Mrs. Blotch, too, conscious -that they had not her advantages of education and social experience. - -They had not got their things off and their fur smoothed down, and their -ribbons retied, before other ladies came, and still others, until -Bidelia’s small bedroom was crowded, and Puttel had to give the first -comers a hint to go out to her mother, for everybody seemed to dread to -make the first move to go back to the parlour. - -In the meantime the gentlemen had been arriving, hardly less prompt than -the ladies, which is not strange, because it was curiosity that brought -them all so early, and cats are the most curious of creatures, the -gentlemen just as curious as the ladies among them—wherein they are very -different, you know, from human creatures. - -Bidelia was busy receiving her guests, and ushering them out to the -dining-room, where Madam Laura was pouring catnip tea at the table out -of a very big urn indeed. The table was beautifully set with charming -saucers and plates of glass and silver, and decorated with bunches of -catnip in the centre and at each corner, connected by long loops of -sky-blue ribbon. There were thin slices of cold meat, little cakes of -puppy biscuits, cut into fancy shapes, crackers, cheese, cream in a -large bowl, like a punch-bowl on a side-table, and ice-cream—melted -ice-cream, of course, as all sensible people with good, catlike tastes -prefer it. - -Bidelia had cups for the catnip tea which had come down to her from her -greatest of grandmothers, nobody knows how many generations ago, for the -cups were nearly a hundred years old, and in a hundred years cats lay by -a great length of grandmothers. These cups were small at the bottom and -flaring at the top, like little bowls, and they had no handles. They -were a grayish china, with dark blue border and little sprigs of dark -blue flowers in the bottoms, which the guests could not see until they -had lapped up their tea to the last drop. - -Dolly Varden handed around tea and the other refreshments. The crowd -grew so great that there was not room after awhile to set the cups on -the floor. Ever so many were waiting to be served, and one could see -from their rising fur that this was annoying them dreadfully. - -Tommy Traddles saw this, too, and he whispered to Bidelia. - -“Certainly,” she said aloud, and Tommy Traddles turned to the guests. - -“Our hostess has provided us with an entertainment, in which I have the -honour to be of some assistance, as the master of the Purrington -school,” he said. “When you have enjoyed sufficiently the hospitality of -this room will you please go out upon the lawn, where the music -announced on the cards of invitation will be given.” - -The instant Doctor Traddles had finished speaking more than half the -guests hastened out on the lawn, anxious to secure the best places to -see and hear, for cats do not always behave unselfishly; perhaps they -have followed the bad example of human beings, of whom a few are always -trying to get the best of everything for themselves. - -Here the fond and proud parents found all the kittens of Purrington, -little girls and little boys, drawn up in a row, their eyes as bright as -they could be, their noses quivering with nervous impatience, and their -little tails all straight up in the air above their backs like so many -fur-covered slate-pencils. The kittens all wore ribbons crossed under -the left foreleg and tied in a bow on the right shoulder. The boys wore -pink, the girls blue ribbons, and the scholars who had done well in -school had each a little silvered bell tied around the throat by a -narrow ribbon, matching in colour the wider one around the shoulder. - -The murmurs that arose from the guests on the lawn reached the ears of -those remaining in the dining-room, who hastily finished their catnip -tea and swallowed their last bites of cold meat and puppy biscuit cakes, -lapped the final drops of their ice-cream, and hurried after the ladies -and gentlemen on the lawn. - -“Dear friends,” said Bidelia in a faint little voice, for she was -frightened to speak to so many cats, all with their eyes fixed on her -and with their tails slightly waving. “Dear friends, with Doctor -Traddles’s help I have got together our blessed kittens to help me -entertain you, and to prove what great progress they are making in -school. First, my dancing class will show you a figure, a new figure, in -the cotillion. It is called: The Chase of the Tails.” - -’Clipsy, who, being black, had a natural talent for music, and -particularly for playing the violin, took his place with his fiddle over -his shoulder, precisely as you see the cat in “High, Diddle, Diddle.” -Nearly all the kittens stepped out into the middle of the lawn, stuck -their tails out straight, and waited. ’Clipsy played a few bars softly -and then dashed into a lively air, that made every eye in the place -spread its pupil ’way to the beginning of its white line, so exciting -was this music. - -[Illustration: - - The Dance.] - -Instantly every kitten made a rapid, low bow, and then danced a few -steps to the right, a few to the left, leaped into the air, turned its -soft body half-way around as it came down, and slapped at its own tail -with its right forepaw. The music changed into other time, and with it -the dancing steps of the kittens changed also. Swinging and swaying, the -kittens began to spin around after their tails, keeping perfect time to -the exciting music, whirling faster and faster, until all one could see -were so many soft, varied-coloured balls of graceful kits, spinning, -dashing, running, skipping, snatching after the tails that they never -quite caught, never losing the swing of the dance, never losing the fun -of the thing, until all the cats looking on were quite wild themselves -with the delight of it and pride in their children. Fancy, if one kitten -running after its tail is funny and charming, what it must have been to -have seen twenty-two kittens, in a circle, trying to catch their tails -in a mazy dance, perfectly performed! - -“We’ve had the time of our lives!” cried Posty, jumping up in the air -himself, and giving a wild mew, because he could not help doing it. - -“Let us give Mrs. Bidelia a vote of thanks,” proposed Ban-Ban, -remembering how he had been publicly thanked for bringing the cow into -Purrington. - -“Three cheers instead!” cried Wutz-Butz, who wanted to let off steam in -some way. - -The three cheers were instantly given, for all the cats felt precisely -as Wutz-Butz did, that they must give vent to their feelings, so wrought -up by the dance, or fly into small pieces on the spot. - -Bidelia dropped a beautiful curtsey. “Thank you, dear friends,” she -said. “I am glad that you consider our first social event in Purrington -a success. Before you go will you join in a song? The kittens will lead -us, because they know it best.” - -A large kitten, whose voice was already changing from soprano to tenor, -started the air of “Old Kentucky Home,” in which all the kittens, and -most of the cats, joined at once, singing the following words: - - “We are cosy ev’ry night, - And we’re happy ev’ry day, - In this Pussy-town we call Purrington; - We have just enough of work, - And we’ve just enough of play - To keep us ever purring on. - - _Chorus_: “Then hasten, all ye pussies, - Oh, come, our joy to see. - For we’re happy little kits, - And we’ve danced ourselves to bits, - In honour of Bidelia’s Catnip Tea. - - “In the world we’ve left behind - Where the houses grow in blocks, - We were often far from safe and warm, - And the hands that ought to stroke, - Sometimes gave us cruel knocks; - But in Purrington we’re out of reach of harm. - - _Chorus_: “Then sing aloud, dear pussies, - And purr your joy and glee! - For here we’ve made a home, - Whence we never more will roam, - And we’re grateful for Bidelia’s Catnip Tea.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - THE SCAMPISHNESS OF SCAMP - - -It is hard to imagine a cloud crossing the sky of Pussy-Cat Town; but -Purrington was growing larger, and, among a good many people, even cat -people, there must be some who are not quite happy, and some who are not -quite good. - -Kiku-san was the only one of all the citizens of Purrington who was -really unhappy, though Ban-Ban had many moments when his shining gray -fur covered homesickness and longing for Robin. But Ban-Ban had a -certain brightness about him, a snap-and-go which made it impossible for -him to give up to downright unhappiness. Kiku-san, however, had a -different nature. Gentle, clinging, and most affectionate, he could not -shake off trouble when it found him, and Kiku-san was so homesick, so -lonely for gentle little Lois, in whose arms he had slept all his life, -and against whose cheek it had been his daily custom to rub his own -cheek again and again, the while that he cooed softly to her, telling -her of his love for her, that not all the charms of Purrington, nor the -thought that it was making so many friendless cats rich and happy, could -cheer his little heart. - -Bidelia, too, had a growing anxiety that might prove to be a grief. -Nugget was getting more and more under the influence of Scamp, and that -influence was not for good. Nugget had always been as obedient as Puttel -and Dolly Varden, and very proud of his young little mother, perfectly -happy to trot beside her, and glad to have other kittens see how much he -loved her. But now Nugget thought it was catly to pretend not to love -Bidelia very much, and even to dare to spit—softly, under his breath, to -be sure,—but still to spit,—when she told him to do something for her, -or when she forbade him to go out. - -So far Nugget had not done anything wrong, or outright wrong; but -Bidelia was not a silly mother, and, even though she had not had -experience in bringing up kittens until these three were born, she knew -quite well that nobody goes wrong all at once, but that from small -beginnings comes great harm, and she worried over Nugget’s impertinent -manner. - -She felt certain that he was only foolish, like some human children whom -she had known, who thought it proved them quite grown up if only they -were saucy and unmannerly, and she knew that the change in Nugget came -from the bad example of Scamp, whose naughtiness was of a much more -serious sort than Nugget’s had yet become. - -She could not take Nugget out of school, away from Scamp altogether, as -she would have liked to do, because she was too busy to teach him -herself, and he was getting on beyond anything. Tommy Traddles said that -Nugget was one of his best scholars, that he could subtract three tails -from seven mice, and seven mice from eleven rats, all in his head as -quick as a cat could wink. And that he knew the tables of jumps and -pounces better than any one else in the school, and could tell in a -twinkling how many jumps made one good pounce. In grammar he led his -class, being able to tell in what case every mew noun was the moment he -heard it, and he could decline purring verbs in the passive voice, or -spitting verbs in the active voice in a way that delighted his teacher’s -heart, for Doctor Traddles was particularly fond of grammar. - -So Nugget went to school every day, and thus saw Scamp constantly. Scamp -sought Nugget’s society more than any other kitten there; he seemed to -take a fancy to the quick-witted little yellow fellow, and perhaps liked -to lead a good kitten into paths of naughtiness—there are many with that -sort of taste. - -One day Scamp spoke to Nugget as they met in the schoolroom doorway, -after recess. - -“Come with me to-night,” he said. “I’m going fishing in the Meuse, and -we’ll have fun. Bring some bait; I scratched up worms in our garden.” - -“I don’t have to have worms for bait,” said Nugget, proudly. “I learned -how to fish with just my paw. I guess I can’t go, though.” - -Now Scamp knew that Nugget had been taught to fish with his paw, and -that was why he particularly wanted him to go fishing that evening. But -this he would not own, so he said: “Why can’t you? There won’t be any -one but just us two. We’ll have fun, I tell you.” - -“My mother won’t let me——” began Nugget, but stopped himself, ashamed to -say that he could not go for that reason, though there could hardly have -been a better one. - -“Before I’d be tied to my mammy’s tail! Cry-kitten, ’fraid-cat!” sneered -Scamp. - -“My mother says the river is dangerous at night,” said Nugget. - -“How does she know? A little cat like her!” said Scamp. “Did she ever go -there, then? You’re no good, Nugget. I don’t care; I’ll get some one -else. I only wanted to give you first chance! ’Fore I’d stay home for my -mother! If you was any good you’d get up and go, and tell her afterward! -You could hide, and I’d bring you supper, and then we’d go. I don’t -care, though! There’s plenty ain’t ’fraid-cats, if _you_ are. Stay home, -and let your mother lick your eyes open, if you want to!” - -This was an unbearable taunt. No kitten can endure to have another say -this to him. It means, among kittens, that you are a baby, not yet nine -days old, and not bright enough to get your own eyes open. - -Foolish little Nugget had not enough strength of character to treat -these taunts with the contempt they deserved. He had not time to think, -because they were standing in the schoolroom doorway, and were likely to -be called to their places at any moment. So Nugget answered quickly, -under the spur of this stinging taunt: “Who’s afraid? I didn’t want to -go, but I will go, just to show you!” - -He didn’t see the smirk which curled Scamp’s whiskers, and which he put -up his paw to hide; but Nugget went to his seat a very sober kitten, and -it was with a heavy heart that, after school was dismissed, instead of -going home to Bidelia, as usual, he followed Scamp to the place where he -was to await his coming to go fishing. - -It was not at all exciting, either, to eat his supper, which Scamp -brought him, under the trees, and then to follow his unfriendly friend -along the line of the woods to the river, when it had grown too dark for -them to be seen. Nugget had hoped that at least it would be thrilling to -steal along this way, keeping out of sight, but the thrills were the -wrong sort, for it was chilly, and dreadfully dark. If he had told the -truth, Nugget would have said that he was afraid, and that the heart -under his golden fur ached for the mother whom he was treating so badly. - -Scamp had said that the fish would bite better at night than by -daylight. Nugget had listened to this statement with the awe that a -small kitten feels for the wisdom of a larger one. It did not prove to -be such very wise wisdom after all. The fishes did not bite Scamp’s -bait, not once, nor would they swim where Nugget could scoop them up in -his little yellow paw, a trick at which he had become very skilful, -thanks to Madam Laura’s teaching. It was too dark to see them plainly -when they did swim up to the surface and near to the shore; even a -kitten’s eyes were misled by the ripples of the water under the stars, -and Nugget often dipped for the fish too soon, or too late, or when -there was no fish there. - -Nugget was so miserable that he had hard work to keep from mewing. Scamp -was entirely changed in his manner to the poor little naughty thing that -he had led astray. Now that he had got Nugget to do what he wanted him -to, he seemed not to care for him in the least; he snubbed him, paid no -attention to the younger kitten’s remarks, and often walked off to fish -at some distance from Nugget, leaving the kitten to struggle with a fear -that every moment was growing more unbearable—it was the first time in -his short life that Nugget had ever been out after dark without a grown -cat to look after him. - -Scamp came back just in time to catch a whine which, in spite of -himself, escaped Nugget, a sort of mew with his lips shut; but, so far -from being sorry for Nugget, he fell into a great rage as he heard the -kitten’s moan, and he walked up to him sidewise, with his fur bristling -and his claws sticking out, ready for a scratch. - -“What’s the matter with you, you cry-kitten?” he demanded, growlingly. -“’fraid your mother’ll spank you when you get home?” - -He spoke so roughly, so angrily, that Nugget lost heart altogether, and -burst forth into open mewing. “I wouldn’t care if she did,” he wailed. -“I wouldn’t care what she did, if only I was home again where she could -do it.” - -[Illustration: - - “Scamp looked over him scornfully.”] - -Scamp looked him over scornfully, but Nugget’s spirit was gone; not a -hair on his body rose the higher for the look. - -“Next time I ask a cry-kitten to go fishin’ you’ll know it,” said Scamp, -spitting. - -“I wouldn’t go with you if you did,” said Nugget, not resenting being -called “cry-kitten,” or pretending not to know for whom the name was -intended. “I’ll never go anywhere with you again, Scamp Alloy, not -anywhere, day or night. You make me bad; mamma says so, and it’s true, -and now you make me frightened, and cold, and tired, and everything -besides.” - -Nugget put both paws before his face and mewed fast and furiously. He -did not see Scamp nor the way he walked up close to him, still sidewise, -with his ears back and his fur bristling. Nugget was sitting close to -the river’s edge, too busy with his trouble to think of anything else. -So, when Scamp got up to him, he was not ready for the hard blow that -bad kitten gave him on the side of his bowed yellow head, and it sent -him flying out almost into the middle of the stream. - -Scamp was so frightened by what he had done that, after an instant, in -which he stood staring at the circles in the water eddying around the -spot where Nugget had sunk, he took to his heels and ran away for his -life, leaving Nugget to get out or die as best he could. - -While these dreadful things were happening by the river, the cats at -home were having hours of misery over Nugget’s disappearance. When he -did not come home to supper, and Dolly and Puttel reported that they had -not seen him since school was dismissed, Bidelia’s heart misgave her. -Ban-Ban and Kiku-san looked at Nugget’s delay from the brighter side, -and comforted her by telling her it was caused by the kitten’s stopping -to play, or getting into some comparatively harmless mischief, as -kittens will. But after the supper, which Bidelia pushed away untasted, -was over, even Ban-Ban and Kiku-san began to look serious, as Nugget did -not turn up, and they each went out to inquire among their friends if -any one had seen little Nugget. - -When they came back without tidings of the lost kitten Bidelia sat down -half-fainting, mewing piteously. Then she sprang up, took her little -girls each by a paw, hurried them over to Madam Laura’s, and then rushed -from house to house, calling upon all the Purrers of Purrington to turn -out and search for her child. - -It did not take long to learn from Alloy, his mother, that Scamp was -missing, too. Alloy laughed at Bidelia for her fears, being quite -accustomed to Scamp’s doing precisely what he pleased, coming home -exactly when he was ready to come. But Bidelia was made only the more -anxious at the thought that her little kitten should be missing in such -bad company as Scamp’s. - -Twenty cats joined in the search for Nugget. Ban-Ban darted hither and -thither; Tommy Traddles beat every bush and scanned every hole in his -thorough way; and Kiku-san walked beside Bidelia, one paw around the -afflicted little cat, talking to her in his gentle, cooing way, and -keeping up her courage as none of the others could do. As they walked, -searching sorrowfully, the cats sang these words to the air of “Long, -Long Ago:” - - “When our loved kittens wander away, - Sad are our hearts, bitter our pain; - Sobbing, we mew through the long empty day, - Hoping they’ll answer again. - Oh, little Nugget, had’st thou been wise, - Thy mother’s counsel thou would’st not despise! - But through our errors life’s lessons we learn; - All is forgiven; oh, return!” - -The last two lines of the music they repeated, singing, over and over -again: “Nugget, oh, come! Nugget, oh, come!” hoping that the kitten -would hear and call to them. After some time they were rewarded by -hearing afar a faint, a very faint and feeble mew. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - MRS. BRINDLE BRINGS STARTLING NEWS - - -The twenty cats broke into a run at the sound of that weak mew. Although -it was not repeated, with their keen eyes, made to see in the dark, and -their keen noses, made to smell out all kinds of the micest secrets, -they had no trouble in finding poor little Nugget. There he lay on the -bank, hardly beyond the reach of the water, wet, cold, too exhausted to -mew again, although he could hear with his failing senses the voices of -the Purrers come to secure him. - -Kiku-san saw him first, and gently pointed him out to Bidelia, afraid as -he did so that they had come too late, that Nugget was already dead. The -delicate legs hung limp, the head had fallen forward, the eyes, still -half-blue in colour, were glazed, and the mouth that had called them was -open. - -Bidelia stiffened with dread as she saw her kitten, but instantly darted -forward, calling: “M-m-m-mmmmm!” That coaxing mother-note in which all -cats call their kittens so lovingly. As she cooed to Nugget, she bent -over him, nosing him, licking him frantically, yet with the wisest, -strongest strokes, for, young as she was, and without having taken a -course of First Aids to the Injured, her mother-love taught her how best -to bring Nugget back. - -[Illustration: - - “Licking him frantically.”] - -Her friends stood by watching the little mother, herself scarcely more -than a kitten, anxiously hoping that she would warm Nugget into life. -And she did. Though a few minutes longer delay and the rescuers would -have come too late, Nugget was still on the right side of the line -between life and death when he was found, and he rewarded his mother’s -rapid work on his limp little body by moving a paw and uttering another -plaintive little mew. - -“Let us help you,” cried Daisy Bell and Mrs. Blotch, while the other -cats heaved a sigh of relief, well knowing that if Nugget turned to come -back to them the battle was as good as won. Daisy Bell and Mrs. Blotch, -experienced in the care of kittens, fell to licking with Bidelia, and -did it with so much good-will that the soft, wet little form rocked back -and forth on the grass, and the kitten soon opened both eyes as the -grateful warmth of the busy tongues dried his yellow fur and set his -chilled blood in motion. - -Bidelia licked around the kitten’s face, and Nugget put both paws around -her neck. - -“I’m dreadful sorry, mamma,” he whispered, so sincerely that he forgot -to speak like Tommy Traddles’s best grammar scholar. - -“Yes, dear, but I’m only glad just now that you are safe,” Bidelia -whispered back. - -“Scamp coaxed me to go fishing with him; I didn’t want to, but he said I -was ’fraid-cat, so I went,” Nugget continued. “He was ugly after he got -me here, and I mewed, so he pushed me into the water, and ran away. I -kept up, and kept swimming—I don’t see how I swam; nobody taught me.” - -“Oh, everybody knows how to swim without teaching, everybody except -human beings,” said Bidelia. “Go on, dearest.” - -“I swam, but I could not get to shore,” sobbed Nugget. “Not for the -longest, longest time! And I felt so weak, and I was so frightened, and -it was so dark, and there were you and Dolly and Puttel all safe at -home, and I thought I was never going to see you—” Nugget broke off, -sobbing with all his might. - -“There, there, dear, darling little Nugget, don’t talk about it, don’t -tell me any more now!” said Bidelia, soothing him by the softest kisses -and pats. “I know all about it. At last you did get to the bank, and -crawled up, and lay there dying, when you heard the good Purrers singing -to you, and gathered strength for just one tiny mew; just enough, dear, -to save you. And now you’re going to get well fast, and we are going to -take you home where Mrs. Brindle has warm milk for you, and never, never -again are you going to be a naughty kitten, and disobey your little -mother. Isn’t that it, my poor little Nugget?” - -Nugget cuddled down close into Bidelia’s soft neck. “That’s right, -mamma,” he said. - -Bidelia gave a few quick purrs of happiness. It really was worth -Nugget’s suffering and her own misery to have her kitten freed for ever -from the bad influence of Scamp. She turned to her friends with a bright -smile. “How shall we get this poor, naughty kitten home, dear Purrers? -He is far too weak to walk.” - -“We’ll make a cat’s-cradle,” said Ban-Ban, promptly. - -Now a cat’s-cradle is not what most of us understand it to be. The real -cat’s-cradle, from which the one we make with strings got its name, is -made in this manner: an equal number of cats form themselves into two -lines, walking abreast, one line behind the other. The rear line gently -takes into its mouths the tips of the tails in the front line, which -thus form, as one can easily see, a sort of hammock upon which a kitten, -or any not too great weight, may be carried. - -In this case ten cats made a line abreast, and ten more, in another line -abreast, took the tips of the ten preceding tails into their mouths, and -Nugget was laid on the cradle thus made, whereon he swung as easily as a -Baltimore oriole in its nest, and slept peacefully while his kind -protectors bore him home. - -Madam Laura, with Dolly Varden and Puttel, were at the door of the -apartment-house, eagerly watching for the return of the search-party. It -was the shriek of glad mews which they raised that woke Nugget from his -sleep of exhaustion, and told him that he was once more with his -sisters, whose qualities as “mere girl kittens” he no longer despised, -since they had been good, while he had been both foolish and naughty. - -Bidelia, Laura, Ban-Ban, and Wutz-Butz took Nugget at once to Mrs. -Brindle’s house to get her to give the poor kitten some warm milk. - -As soon as she saw them the cow uttered a long moo of welcome. “I -thought you would never get here to-night,” she said when they were -within hearing. “I have news for you that I could hardly wait to tell -you.” - -“Nugget has been lost and nearly drowned,” said Ban-Ban. “We were out -hunting for him. Will you please let down some milk for him while you -are telling us your news?” - -“I was out walking to-day over at the other side of the woods,” Brindle -began at once, as she obligingly let down her foaming milk into the pan -Ban-Ban offered her. Cows never waste time beating around the bush when -they have anything to say. “I came upon something there that shocked me. -Purrington is in danger.” - -“In danger from what?” demanded Ban-Ban, who was always the one with -whom Brindle preferred to talk, as he was her first friend among the -Purrers. - -“There is a settlement of dogs over there,” said Brindle, gravely. “The -place is called Dog Corners. I heard the dogs talking. They were saying -that they had just learned of the existence of Purrington, and that they -meant to attack the city, destroy it, and capture or kill all the cats -in it. - -“They never dreamed that I, a cow, was one of the people of Purrington,” -she added, nodding her head up and down as a low growl of indignant -horror arose from her hearers; even Nugget stopped drinking to join in -it. “The dogs talked freely, although they saw me standing there. I -half-shut my eyes, and pretended to be interested in nothing but my cud. -But you may be sure I listened to every word, and I have been nervous -ever since because no one came near me to be warned of the danger.” - -Wutz-Butz stood with his feet braced, and every separate hair bristling -with fury. “It may come to-night,” he growled very low, and Ban-Ban, -Laura, and Bidelia understood that he meant the dogs’ attack on -Purrington, and thrilled at his words. - -“There isn’t a moment to lose. We must consult the others, and arrange -for meeting this attack,” cried Ban-Ban. “Bidelia and Madam Laura, -Wutz-Butz and I must leave you to bring Nugget home when you are ready. -Mrs. Brindle, you are a cow in a thousand. You are full of the milk of -human kindness and fidelity to your friends. We will do something to -prove how we appreciate you when this danger is past. Wutz-Butz, come -on!” And Ban-Ban flew like a streak of quick-silver—he was about the -same colour—down the street, and Wutz-Butz flew after him as fast as his -greater weight allowed. - -The big bell in the town hall had never been rung. When it was hung -Doctor Traddles had given a lecture in the hall on an incident in -Scottish history, when one of the lords had asked in council who would -bell the cat. Doctor Traddles pointed out that they, being cats, would -reverse the order of the question, and ask: Who will bell the -council-room? It was considered a most happy allusion, and Tommy -Traddles’s wit was still quoted. But the bell had never, till this day, -been rung. Now it pealed forth, calling together all the Purrers of -Purrington for a council of war. - -Wutz-Butz, as the most experienced soldier, was in the chair, presiding -over the meeting. The cats looked very serious. An attack on their city -by dogs was not a thing to be regarded lightly. - -“Gentlemen,” said Wutz-Butz, after a hasty whispered consultation with -Tommy Traddles as to the proper way to proceed with the meeting, “I -should be glad to hear from you what you consider the best way to meet -the attack which Mrs. Brindle has warned us that the dogs of Dog Corners -intend to make upon us.” - -There were a great many good fighters in Purrington now, thanks to the -number of cats who had joined the first settlers, and who had spent -their days fighting for their lives in the human city’s streets; but -they were better fighters than talkers, and no one responded to -Wutz-Butz’s request for advice as to the best method of meeting the -danger threatening them. - -Finally Ban-Ban arose, looking around at the council. “I am not a -fighting cat,” he said, “but since those who are seem shy about -addressing us, let me state my opinion and offer my advice on the matter -before us. We all know that those who attack are better placed than -those who are attacked. They have but themselves to take care of, while -the attacked have to consider their wives and children, and suffer the -loss of their homes if the attack is at all successful. Hence I propose -that, instead of waiting in Purrington for the dogs to attack us, we -march on Dog Corners and wipe it off the map. We will send Brindle to -find out when the dogs will be away, because, if they are free dogs, -they must go off on long runs—even pet dogs do that. When we find out -that most of the fighting dogs are absent, we will fall on their -settlement and put to flight every puppy in it. It is right for us to do -this, because as long as there is a dog village so near Purrington we -shall never be safe.” - -This speech, plain and to the point, was received with great applause. -It was moved, seconded, and carried that the Purrers of Purrington -should make war upon Dog Corners on the first day possible. Wutz-Butz -was appointed Commander of the Cats, with ’Clipsy second in command, and -Tommy Traddles and Ban-Ban staff-officers, for consultation. - -A city guard was appointed for that night to patrol the streets and -alarm the Purrers should the attack be made at once. Then the meeting -broke up, but not until the cats had sung, to the air of “Hail -Columbia:” - - “Let the wild dogs now beware, - We are bristling up our hair; - We have now unsheathed our claws, - We have made our martial laws, - And, when dogs shall dare attack, - With growls and spits we’ll drive them back! - For Purrington we’ll make a fight, - Strong, because our cause is right. - Liberty! our countersign; - You for yours, but I for mine! - - _Chorus:_ “Like one cat we’ll meet the foe; - Like one paw we’ll lay him low. - Courage, then, Cat Heroes! Draw - Claws, and strike with heart in paw!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - THEY FOUGHT LIKE CATS AND DOGS! - - -“There is only one way to catch anything, and that is: Pounce on it!” - -Wutz-Butz was the speaker; he was addressing his soldiers, drawn up -before him, ready for the fray. Brindle had early made her way to Dog -Corners, and returned with the report that on this day the majority of -the dogs were to be away from their village on a hunting trip. If the -Purrers wished to attack there could not be a better time than the -present to do so. - -There had been a discussion as to the best way of attacking the enemy, -and Wutz-Butz, as General of the Cats, was giving his opinion. - -“There is only one way,” he said, “to catch anything, and that is: -Pounce on it! How do you catch a mouse? Crouch low, keep the tip of your -tail wagging, whiskers forward, eyes fixed front, muscles taut—then: -Jump! Isn’t that the way? Well, then; there is no other way to capture -anything. A village is precisely like a mouse, only bigger—” - -A murmur of dissent arose at this statement, and Wutz-Butz hastily -explained. - -“I mean,” he said, quickly, “in principle. In principle there is no -difference between a mouse and a village, except in size. That -difference is evened up by there being so many of us. One cat catches -the little mouse; many cats catch the large village. And there you are! -The only way for us to do is to march softly to Dog Corners, and when we -get there to form a circle all around it. Then we must crouch down, fix -our eyes on the village—it will be awful! A lot of big, staring eyes all -around the walls! Then we must prick our ears forward, moving them a -little at the tips, to catch every sound, and keep our whiskers stiff, -and the tips of our tails moving, moving ever so little. We must hold -our muscles taut, ready! And then I will give a tiny, tiny spit, and -then—Like one cat we must pounce together, up in the air and down on the -village, claws out and backs stiff! And then Dog Corners will be taken!” - -All the soldiers purred together, like the roll of a drum. The programme -as laid out by their general sounded so attractive! - -“Are you ready?” cried ’Clipsy, facing the troops. - -“Yes!” shouted the army, as one cat. - -“Will you follow us to danger and—if need be—to death?” demanded -’Clipsy. - -“Yes, yes, miauw, miauw!” shrieked the soldiers, deeply stirred. - -“Then forward! March!” cried Wutz-Butz, wheeling about and taking a few -steps in the direction of Dog Corners. - -Instantly the column was in motion, and soon the women and children cats -left behind in Purrington could see only tips of tails proudly waving in -the air, which, an instant later, were lost to sight in a cloud of dust. - -The army marched at double-quick through the woods, the padded feet of -the soldiers making no sound on the dry leaves and pine-needle carpet -over which they marched. - -Dog Corners lay, as they thought, at some distance from Purrington. Mrs. -Brindle had said that it took her three hours to reach it. The Purrers -did not realize the difference that there was between the awkward gait -of the big cow and the swift trot of their own lithe bodies until they -came within hailing distance of Dog Corners most unexpectedly, and at -the expiration of a little less than two hours’ time. - -Wutz-Butz softly ordered a halt, and then detailed his sub-officers to -lead four divisions of the army, which were to separate, march around -the village, and then take up their positions, with an officer at the -four points of the compass. The army would join its divisions, forming a -cordon around the enemy, according to the announcement of his plans made -by General Wutz-Butz before starting out. - -With a speed and silence most creditable to soldiers whose only -experience in fighting heretofore had been in single combats, these -orders were carried out. - -Swiftly and noiselessly the four detachments marched to surround the -village, and took up their positions, with the ends of the detachments -united to form a single line, encircling Dog Corners. - -Regarding the village as a gigantic mouse which they were to seize as a -single cat, as their skilful leader had bidden them, the cats crouched, -eyes forward, whiskers set, ears pointed, tails moving, muscles tense, -ready to pounce at the word of command. Wutz-Butz led at the main gate. -His followers listened for the spit that was to be the signal of -onslaught. - -Hark! Was that it? No; it was but the heavy breathing of an old soldier, -his asthma increased by excitement. But at last— - -[Illustration: - - “Ready to pounce.”] - -Ban-Ban caught the sound first, and repeated it. The four officers spit -together. Instantly the entire army arose in the air in a great, curving -heap, legs out, claws extended, and pounced on the village, like one -great cat on one large mouse! - -Panic seized the dogs left at home, little dreaming of what was to -befall them that beautiful morning. There were dogs of various sizes and -colours, and, though the greatest fighters had gone hunting, there were -quite enough in the village to have made its capture go hard with the -cats, had it not been that their attack was so sudden and entirely -unexpected. - -Just as they had sprung on the village walls, the cats sprang on the -backs of its citizens, of course not touching the puppies, for it was -not their part to make war on babies. The howls with which the -appearance of the army of cats on the walls had been hailed turned into -a chorus of yelps as each dog felt the sharp claws of a cat in his back. -The dogs were bigger than the cats, and more used to fighting, but the -nervous strength of the attacking party more than made up for their -smaller size and less heavy muscles. The dogs tried to shake off their -riders, but the claws did their work well, and the Purrers stuck like -burrs, each soldier to his foe, scratching away and calling upon the dog -to give up, until the citizens of Dog Corners were half-frantic. - -One big yellow dog took the lead. “We can’t run around here!” he cried. -“Follow me!” So saying, he dashed for the main gate, his comrades after -him, and made for the woods, each with a cat on his back, running for -dear life to escape from the torment which was fastened on every back. - -Two miles from Dog Corners the wild ride slackened. Wutz-Butz discovered -that the big yellow dog carrying him was the King of the Dogs, for Dog -Corners was not a republic, like Purrington, but lived under a king, it -being necessary for dogs to have some one to obey, while cats always -rule themselves. - -[Illustration: - - “Each with a cat on his back.”] - -When Wutz-Butz discovered that he was riding the king, he stopped -clawing him, and asked him to halt for a moment. Rex—of course that was -the king-dog’s name—was only too glad to do so; he was fearfully out of -breath, and his tongue ached from lolling so far. - -“Look here, King,” said Wutz-Butz—if it had been Tommy Traddles he would -have begun differently, for his reading would have taught him to salute -a king, in opening his remarks, with the words: “O king, live for ever!” -For that is the only correct way to open regal conversation. However, -Wutz-Butz, being a soldier and not a scholar, said: “Look here, King, I -don’t care about dog-back riding all the morning, and I guess you’ve got -about enough of carrying me. I’m the general of this army. We came down -upon you because we had certain proof that you were coming to take our -town, and capture or kill all of us. We didn’t seem to care about -waiting at home for that kind of visitors, so we hit first—it’s the best -way, if there’s got to be a fight. We’re not scrappy over at Purrington, -and we don’t want fusses with our neighbours, for one thing, and we -don’t want neighbours who are liable to drop down on us, for another. -Now we’ve got you beat, and we’ll never get off your backs till you give -in to our terms.” - -“What are your terms?” panted Rex, sadly. - -“Easy enough. You’re to move out of this region altogether, and give up -Dog Corners to us. We will go back there and tear it all down, and -there’ll be no more dogs and no more corners—we’ll round them off!” And -Wutz-Butz chuckled at his mild joke. - -“You keep on running—without us, you see, so it will be easier—and meet -your friends, while we go back and tear down your village. You tell your -friends that you’re going to move—you’re king, and what you say -goes—_you_ seem to go pretty well, too, and I mean you to go farther. I -don’t believe you’ll fare worse! Now, will you do it, or won’t you?” - -“As a conquered king I have no choice but to accept your terms,” said -Rex, in a tone so sad that it ended in a whine. - -“Right you are,” said Wutz-Butz, cheerfully, not at all impressed by the -king’s superior speech. “Call up your people, then, and I’ll tell mine -to stop clawing while you issue your orders.” - -Rex called the dogs together. “We are conquered, my people,” he said. -“The terms upon which I have agreed to yield to this gentleman upon my -back, who is the general of the cats, is that we remove far from Dog -Corners, and go at once.” - -The dogs growled at this announcement, but a claw-prick here and there -reminded them that they were anxious to get rid, on almost any terms, of -the soldiers clinging to them, and they changed their growl into yelps -and howls of acclaim, submitting to the inevitable and the wisdom of -their king. - -“Now, then, Purrers,” shouted Ban-Ban, “don’t you jump off these dogs to -the ground. You jump from their backs into the trees, and stay there -until they are out of sight. How shall we know that they are really -gone, and won’t come back?” - -Rex turned on Ban-Ban a scornful face. “You look like a gentleman,” he -said, “and if you are one you should know that no gentleman breaks his -pledge. I give you my word that we will fulfil the terms of our -surrender, and a dog is a person of honour.” - -Ban-Ban felt rebuked, but ’Clipsy murmured: “You’re all right, old chap, -but I wouldn’t trust all your people, if you weren’t here to keep them -straight.” - -[Illustration: - - “The cats watched the retreat.”] - -At a given signal all the dogs ran close to a tree, and his rider leaped -from the back of each of them, ran up to a high bough, and from that -point the cats watched the retreat of their conquered foes. - -It was made without a pause, and in half an hour the cats descended and -marched back to Dog Corners, which was now indeed a deserted village. - -It did not take long for the strong claws of the army to tear down every -building in the place. In a short time Dog Corners was no more, and only -a pile of ruins showed where once it had stood. - -Upon this pile of ruins the triumphant army sat to eat the lunch which -the forsaken larders of the dogs amply supplied. - -Then they sat for a time resting, washing their faces and cleaning their -whiskers, softly rubbing their ears with the velvet paws which, but a -short time before, the dogs had found so little like velvet. - -[Illustration: - - “They sat for a time resting.”] - -At last Wutz-Butz gave the order to march home. The army formed once -more in order, and returned to Purrington. They entered the town just at -sunset, and as they drew near to it, those left within its walls knew -that they were coming victorious, for they were marching to the tune of -“Marching Through Georgia,” to which they sung the following words: - - “Here we come victorious, - Our battle fought and won; - We made a Pounce most glorious— - You should have seen them run! - We’ve spent a day laborious, - But yet we tasted fun, - Driving the dogs from their Corners! - - _Chorus:_ “Hurrah, hurrah, then give us three times three! - Hurrah, hurrah, we bring you liberty! - The Purrers of dear Purrington are safe as safe can be; - We’ve wiped out the dogs and their Corners!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - BAN-BAN AND KIKU-SAN FORM AN EMBASSY - - -Ban-ban and Kiku-san were walking arm and arm, talking earnestly. It had -rained, and the streets were muddy, so they had linked the right paw of -one through the left arm of the other, and each carried his tail looped -over his remaining elbow, to keep it perfectly dry. - -“There’s no use in my trying to fight it off any longer, Bannie,” Kiku -was saying, earnestly. “I want to go home. I’m not needed here; the city -is able to hold its own now; but, if it weren’t, I could be spared from -it—I’m not the go-ahead kind which is useful in public affairs. I’ve got -to see Lois. I’m sure she hasn’t any other cat to take my place, and -worries about me still. I feel as if I couldn’t stay in my fur, I long -so to cuddle down in her arms and be petted.” Kiku-san’s voice broke -into the saddest mew as he ended, and Ban-Ban looked serious. - -“I don’t mind telling you, Kiku, though I wouldn’t have any one else in -Purrington know it for the world, but I feel pretty much the same way,” -he said. “Of course I’m the sort who can cut up capers, no matter what -happens, but I want to see Rob, and I want to see him badly. I’m as sure -that he cries nights over me as if I saw him. He thinks I’ve been -killed, or got lost where I’ll suffer for food, and be abused—I know -Rob! There are times when I wonder if I did right to leave him, but when -I see how happy all these poor cats are in Purrington, and how well -everything is going, and remember that they had no home, and no kindness -until we led them here, then I feel certain again that it was more than -right to leave our home. But—to be honest—now the work is done, I want -to go back again, just for a visit, anyway.” - -“It won’t be a visit for me,” said Kiku-san, with the decision with -which very gentle people usually surprise their friends when they are -once aroused. “I’m going home to Lois, and I’m going to stay there. I -won’t be contented, though, Ban, if I have to leave you behind: come -with me!” - -“Now wait a bit, Kiku-san, and we’ll try to manage it,” said Ban-Ban. “I -don’t want to have the other Purrers feel as though I had deserted them. -I’m not much good at patient waiting myself,—that’s more in your -line,—but I see that there may something turn up that will let us go -back—for a visit; I don’t dare promise to stay—without our seeming to -run away. You see, I feel responsible for the Purrers and Purrington, -because this city was my idea in the first place.” - -“I’ll wait a little longer, then,” sighed Kiku-san. “But it can’t be -very long; I can’t stand it.” - -He did not have to wait long. When anything is to be, there is always a -way made for it. - -It began to be whispered through Purrington that, after all, cats were -not quite fitted to live entirely without human help. The houses that -the cat carpenters had put up were not warm enough for winter; there -were several matters on which the Purrers felt the need of help and -advice. “If there were any human beings whom we could get to come here, -straighten out these trifles, and act as our friends and advisers, who -could be trusted to go between Purrington and the human city, looking -after us and never betraying us, we should be better off,” they said. - -The question was where to find such friends, how to bring them to -Purrington, and whom to select for such an important trust. - -“There are plenty of people who would do it faithfully,” said Tommy -Traddles. “When I was a kitten I was taken in from the street by the -kindest hands, and cared for ever after. My law student, my first -friend, would have stood by us and helped us to the last hour of his -life.” - -“When I was only four weeks old I was found by a lady in the worst, -poorest part of the city,” said Bidelia. “She put me under her coat and -carried me all the afternoon on several business calls which she had to -make, although I cried dreadfully. When she got me home she cared for me -like a baby; were it not for her I should not be here to-day. I would -trust that friend of cats with our secrets.” - -“You see,” added Tommy Traddles, with his customary wisdom, “cats have -lived so long among people that they have become dependent upon them. I -think it would be most wise to secure for ourselves such a friend as -Bidelia and I have known. But these two are beyond our reach. The -question is: Whom should we select, and where should we find these -friends?” - -Then up rose Kiku-san, his whiskers quivering with eagerness. “I can -tell you,” he cried. “The little girl whom I owned, and whose love I -miss more than I can say, is the very one for this position. She goes -out of her way, and bears all sorts of inconvenience to help cats. She -has such a tender heart that the sight of abuse of one of us makes her -half-ill with grief and pity. Get Lois to help you, Purrers; she would -die rather than betray you.” - -“And Rob!” added Ban-Ban, springing up as Kiku-san sat down. “He is a -little fellow, only eight, but he is as brave as a lion when it comes to -fighting for any abused animal. He has a good mother, who has taught him -that we are all one big family, the human beings, and all the dumb -creatures—as they call us, because they don’t understand our language! -He touches any of us as gently as a paw without claws can touch, and he -plays with us as well as a kitten could—better, because he can think of -more things to do. He is a brave boy, the real sort of brave boy. They -are always kind, you know, and don’t pretend to be brave by doing -cowardly things, such as hurting a helpless creature. I’ve heard Rob -tell other boys that it was manly to be gentle, and cowardly to be -cruel, because a true man was a _gentle_-man! There’s his mother for you -again; that’s what she teaches him! Rob’s the little boy I owned. You -get Rob and Lois both on your side, Purrers, and you’ll bless the day -Kiku-san and I told you about them.” - -’Clipsy arose as Ban-Ban sat down, shaking his head gravely. “This -little Lois may be all right,” he said. “Girls are usually more or less -good to us, but a boy! I’m doubtful of the wisdom of trusting a boy.” - -“There are boys and boys,” said Tommy Traddles, mildly. “The right sort -of boy is a brave fellow, and so must be a kind one, as Ban-Ban has -said, and that sort is trustworthy, one on whom you can depend. Of -course, friends and Purrers, you can rely on Ban-Ban’s judgment of the -boy he owned and lived with from his kittenhood. But if you need further -witnesses, let me add that Madam Laura, Bidelia, and I have known both -Lois and Rob for a long time, and they are both the very ones to help us -carry on our city, and be our friends through the winter that lies -before us. They are both all, and more than all, that Kiku-san and -Ban-Ban have said they were.” - -Madam Laura and Bidelia purred their entire assent to this statement. - -“Very well, then,” said ’Clipsy, “what are we to do about it, if they -are such good children and good friends to cats? How shall we let them -know about us, and get them to stand by us?” - -Tommy Traddles and Ban-Ban had never cared much for each other, but -Tommy Traddles proved at this moment how superior his nature was to -personal considerations of mere fancy. That wise cat, whose thoughtful -gaze saw through most cats with whom he was in close contact, had seen -that Ban-Ban and Kiku-san were longing for their beloved children, and -he arose now to answer ’Clipsy’s question. - -“I move that Ban-Ban and Kiku-san be appointed an embassy”—the Purrers -gasped at this hard word—“to wait on Lois and Rob in their own homes. -They will be able, I am sure, to get the children to follow them here, -and when they come we shall be able to talk to them, for you know that -when they pass the gate of Purrington they will at once understand our -speech. Will the Purrers who are in favour of asking Ban-Ban and -Kiku-san to return to their old homes, and to bring Lois and Rob to -visit us here, please signify it by holding up their right paws and -saying: ‘Mew!’” - -A chorus of mews filled the air, and right paws waved like a grove of -pussy-willows. - -“Contrary-minded, spit!” said Doctor Traddles, and waited. Not a spit -was heard. - -“It is a vote!” announced the Doctor. “Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, you are -appointed to go to the city, the human city, as an embassy from -Pussy-Cat Town, and bring here Lois and Rob to act as our advisers and -friends henceforth. You will set out at your earliest convenience.” - -Ban-Ban ran up to Tommy Traddles and shook his paw. “I never -sufficiently appreciated you, Tommy,” he said, “but I see that you have -tried to give Kiku and me happiness, and you have succeeded. Count me -your devoted friend from this day forth.” - -And Kiku-san came and rubbed his cheek against Tommy’s with his soft -coo, which at once embarrassed the Doctor dreadfully, and pleased him -beyond words. - -There was a great flurry of preparation in Purrington; it was exciting -to all the Purrers to feel that two among them, and one of these their -founder, were returning to the world they had forsaken. Many were the -messages with which Ban-Ban and Kiku-san were charged; many the errands -they were asked to do, should time and chance allow them. - -[Illustration: - - “Kiku-san came and rubbed his cheek against Tommy’s.”] - -Before starting, Kiku-san had to wash his beautiful thick white suit, -for in Purrington it was the rule that each one should do his own -washing. - -Bidelia and Madam Laura put up a lunch for the travellers, although the -distance was not great, and Wutz-Butz tried to teach them a certain -stroke with the right paw, followed instantly by one of another sort -with the left, which he knew, and which he said would be sufficient -defence against any attack which might be made upon them on the way. - -But Kiku-san refused to entertain the idea of fighting, even in -self-defence, and Ban-Ban said he’d risk his four slender, fast legs to -take him out of reach of danger, and so Wutz-Butz had to give up his -purpose of teaching them the noble art of self-defence, to his own great -disappointment. - -Purrington gave its ambassadors a farewell dinner. Mr. S. Katz furnished -it with his most delicious meats, and all the ladies in town cooked for -it. It was such a tremendous dinner that the idea of carrying a luncheon -on their journey seemed really funny to Ban-Ban and Kiku-san; they ate -so much at the dinner that they could not fancy themselves ever again -being hungry. - -When the banquet ended all the cats rose from their chairs, and raising -their glasses of distilled catnip high in the air, and keeping time with -their left paws on the table to the gliding air of “Flow Gently, Sweet -Afton,” sang this farewell song: - - “Go forth to your old friends, dear cats, from the new, - For Purrington sends you, an embassy true; - We hope that for your sakes the children may be - The guide and the stay of our Pussy city. - Then hasten, O Ban-Ban, your steps, for you know - How blank our days and our nights when you go, - For white Kiku-san and our Founder Maltese - Are Purrington’s glory, so hasten back—please! - - “Delay not, though tempted with cushions of silk; - The world’s cream is rich, but we give you love’s milk, - And better plain fare, when it’s seasoned with love, - Than banquets of kings, whom a cat’s look may prove. - Then speed ye in going, but speed ye more fast - When your whiskers are pointed due homeward at last; - Defeated, triumphant, we’ll hail your return; - With love for you, dear cats, our feline hearts burn.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - VISITORS TO PURRINGTON - - -Ban-Ban and Kiku-san started out from Purrington at a good pace, -swinging along through the wood-path and out into the open road. At -least Kiku swung; he had a very swinging gait, but Ban-Ban trotted along -with his usual businesslike air. As they put behind them more and more -length of road, and the way ahead shortened, their speed increased, -driven onward by their impatience to get home. For these two petted cats -found themselves thinking of their old home as “home,” and not -Purrington. Nor was this strange, since they had been so short a time in -Purrington, and had spent all the rest of their lives being made much of -by the children to whom they were hastening. - -[Illustration: - - “Their speed increased.”] - -They met with no particular adventures. Once a dog chased them up a -tree, and again they had to run away from an old lady in a victoria, -who, seeing this pair of beautiful cats hurrying along the road, side by -side, ordered her driver to stop and let her try to catch them. She was -a cat-lover, but to Ban-Ban and Kiku-san’s minds as much to be dreaded -as the dog. However, they had no difficulty in getting away from her, -since she was past the age of rapid running, and her dignity forbade her -chasing cats a long distance down the public way. - -Timid Kiku-san began to be exhausted from the nervousness of his -journey, but Ban-Ban kept up his heart and urged him on, knowing quite -well himself that there was considerable risk in travelling alone and -unprotected. - -But this only made that spirited cat hasten the faster, and, as they -drew near the city, impatience seemed to wing each of the eight dusty -paws, and they broke into a run, and reached the rear of their former -homes—they stood side by side, you know—half an hour at least before -they had calculated on being there. - -They sat down under the fence to get their breath and brush up their -dusty clothes. It was hard work to do this, for they could hear plainly -the voices of Rob and Lois shouting to each other in play, and burned to -rush into their arms. - -It was a very hasty toilet that the travellers made. Ban-Ban sprang to -his feet, shook out the places in his fur which his rapid licking had -flattened, and cried: “Come on, Kiku; I won’t wait another minute!” - -Kiku-san arose, shook himself also, and said: “You don’t suppose I want -to wait, do you? Lois is just on the other side of that fence!” Cold -print cannot convey the happiness in white Kiku-san’s voice. - -They sprang together to the top of the fence. Here they paused a moment -to look with purring hearts down on the old garden. There was the -pink-bordered flower-bed; among its fragrant pinks Kiku-san had always -loved to take his nap after lunch, when the shadow rested there. And -there was the fountain, on the edge of which Ban-Ban had loved to sit -and see his saucy short face reflected in the water, and from which he -had been rescued once, just in time, in his early kittenhood. And there, -running like colts around the corner of the house, came Lois and Rob! - -That sight brought the cats down from the fence in a twinkling, and side -by side they ran forward, backs and tails up, joy sparkling on their -very whisker-tips. Rob and Lois stopped abruptly and gazed at the cats. - -Then the garden rang with their shout: “It’s Kiku! Kiku-san and -Bannie-Ban!” screamed Lois. “Kiku, my darling, Kiku, you lamb-cat, where -have you been all this time?” - -She gathered the happy, purring white creature into her arms and -showered kisses on him, murmuring the while, too delighted to utter -words. And Kiku-san rubbed his face against Lois’s, and purred and -purred, and gave little mews and coos of rapture, till Lois knew the -truth—that he was as glad to see her again as she was to get him back. - -Rob’s face turned dark red with emotion when he saw Ban-Ban, whom he had -given up as dead or lost for ever. “Why, Ban-Ban!” he managed to say, -but he could hardly speak. - -Ban-Ban spread his fore feet - -[Illustration: - - “She gathered the happy, purring white creature into her arms.”] - -wide apart and put down the top of his head between them till it rested -on the ground as he saw Rob coming toward him; this was Ban’s old way of -showing pleasure, and it upset Rob completely. - -Boys cannot cry when they feel strongly, but Rob was dangerously near -tears of joy. He gathered silky Ban-Ban into his arms, Ban-Ban -flattening his body against Rob’s in his old way till he fitted Rob like -a Russian squirrel coat. Rob hid his excited face in Ban-Ban’s close, -fine fur. “Ah, Ban!” was all he said, but Ban understood; it was quite -enough, and he purred so loud he could have been heard all over the -garden, for Ban-Ban was a wonderful songster. - -After awhile the children were able to talk—indeed, they were not able -to stop talking. They both chattered at once, exclaiming over the sleek -and prosperous look the two beloveds wore, and their entire indifference -to the food brought them. Where could they have been? Ban-Ban and -Kiku-san ran into their respective houses ahead of the children. Like a -flash Ban-Ban rushed from room to room, seeing that nothing was changed, -and seeing, too, that there was no other cat nor smallest kitten in the -house taking his place. Rob was constant to him. It was a great -temptation to settle down in comfort and love, and never to return to -Purrington! And yet not a great temptation, either, when he remembered -the Purrers all waiting his return, and leaning on him as their Founder. - -Kiku-san looked up into Lois’s face as he strolled from room to room in -his house, finding, as Ban-Ban was finding, his place still empty. He -was so glad to get home that it seemed to him that he never, never could -go back to Purrington. He thought with dread of the perils of the -journey which he was to take twice again, if he returned—for he had made -up his mind that, with or without Ban-Ban, he was coming back to Lois -when his duty toward the Purrers was done. - -He looked up into Lois’s face. It was just the same sweet, old-fashioned -little face as ever. Her brown hair, fine and straight, was tied with -just the same big, soft ribbon; her eyes, as blue as the ribbon, looked -at him with just the same look of devoted love. White Kiku mewed aloud, -thinking, with pity for himself, how long it had been since he had seen -this dear little gentle face. - -Rob and Ban-Ban had a game of hide-and-seek that night before they went -to bed. It made the Maltese cat quite crazy with joy to hear the whistle -again which he had heard from his kittenhood, and to dash up and -down-stairs, looking behind portières and doors for Rob, in the old way. -And he puffed like a little gray porpoise from sheer excitement when he -found Rob, and the boy darted out at him and chased him down-stairs, -where Ban-Ban would scuttle into a place of hiding in his own turn and -lie, with close-wrapped tail, while Rob looked for him, softly calling: -“Where is Ban? Why, where is Ban?” But Ban-Ban knew better than to come -out; he would lie as still as stillness till he was found, and then dash -at Rob with all his fur on end. Oh, it was glorious! Ban-Ban thought -anew that there were no comrades like human ones when a cat was lucky -enough to find the right sort. - -Ban-Ban went to sleep at last on Rob’s feet. But in the next house -Kiku-san crept into Lois’s arms, just as he had always done, both paws -around her neck, his white cheek pillowed on the little girl’s rosy one, -and softly purred himself to sleep in his quiet voice, the kind of -purring you can feel more plainly than you can hear. And Lois was -purring, too, in her loving little heart, for she had mourned bitterly -for her lost darling, and words could not have told how glad she was to -have him back. - -In the morning, however, Lois ran over to see Rob, Kiku-san held tight -in her arms. “I don’t know what ails Kiku,” she cried, as soon as Rob -and Ban-Ban were within hearing. “He acts as if he wanted to tell me -something and make me go somewhere. I do wish I could understand.” - -“That’s queer,” said Rob. “Ban-Ban is acting the same way. I told him a -little while ago to go ahead, I’d follow him. I’m sure he wants me to go -somewhere.” - -Ban-Ban and Kiku-san looked at each other, and the children thought they -were mewing. What they were saying, or, what Kiku-san was saying, was -this: “If we’ve got to go back, Ban-Ban, we ought to go soon, for those -Purrers are waiting for us anxiously. But I tell you now I am coming -back here as soon as we settle things in Purrington.” - -“To tell the truth I’ve about made up my mind to coming back, too,” said -Ban-Ban. “But the only thing to do now is to hurry to Purrington. If -only we can make these blessed children follow us! You see it will be -safe enough going back by daylight if they are with us.” - -“Now do hear them mew!” cried Lois, in a worried tone. “Kiku, darling, -what do you want?” - -“Go on, Ban-Ban; I’ll come,” said Rob at a venture. “Mamma knows I’m -going out, and she’ll tell your mother, Lois.” You see he little thought -what was to be the end of this walk. - -He went to the outside door and set it open. Instantly Ban-Ban darted -out, followed more slowly by Kiku-san, and the children went out on the -steps and watched them. Both cats came back, rubbed their heads against -Lois’s skirt and Rob’s knickerbockers; mewed a little; ran ahead, came -back, and did everything that they could think of to coax their boy and -girl to come after them. - -Rob took Lois’s hand. “They want us,” he said. “It’s queer, but we must -go.” - -Ban-Ban immediately stood on his head, between his forepaws, in his most -delighted fashion, and Kiku-san said: “M-m-m-m-mmmm!” as he always did -when he was happy. And so the children knew that they were doing what -their beloved cats wanted them to do, and followed steadily. - -When they found that Rob and Lois fully understood what was wanted of -them, Ban-Ban and Kiku-san stopped looking back at them, and swung into -a steady, rapid trot. - -“They know just what they want and where it is,” said Rob, wondering. -Lois was too amazed to speak. Still more surprised the children grew as -the cats took them briskly along the road, toward the outskirts of the -city, and finally into the suburbs, and, still farther, along a country -road. - -“What can it mean?” said Lois, but Rob held her hand tight, so she was -not much afraid, only for the cats when a dog came in sight. But there -was no mishap, and little delay on the way. Toward the last of the -journey, just as they had done in going back to their old home, Ban-Ban -and Kiku-san broke into a run, and the two cats and two children came in -sight of Purrington on the trot. - -“Oh, look, Rob!” cried Lois, whose blue eyes were long of vision. “There -is a city, a tiny city, with little, wee houses! What can it mean?” - -On the walls the children saw a great crowd of cats, all waving paws and -tails, and mewing wildly. - -“My goodness! I believe it’s a city of cats!” gasped Rob, dropping -Lois’s hand in his amazement. “For pity’s sake—” - -But he could get no further, for Ban-Ban and Kiku-san dashed through the -gates of Purrington, the children after them, too dazed to realize fully -the wonderful adventure that had befallen them. - -And the instant they passed the gates it was just as Tommy Traddles had -said it would be: Rob and Lois understood every word that the cats on -the walls, and swarming around their feet, were saying. And they -discovered that what they had taken for a chorus of mews was in reality -a song of welcome, sung to the air of “Bonnie Dundee,” with these words: - - “Welcome, oh, welcome, you are truly well come, - Dear Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, back to your home! - To Purrington first our good Brindle Ban brought, - And sympathy now from our child friends he’s sought. - - _Chorus:_ “Then climb on the walls, and wave happy tails; - When Ban-Ban attempts he sure never fails; - Fling Pussy-Town’s gates wide and mightily mew, - Let both cats and children triumphantly through! - - “We waited your coming unable to purr, - While anxious thoughts rumpled our minds and our fur; - Afar off we saw you, and mounted the walls, - Our voices quite hoarse from our eager catcalls! - - _Chorus:_ “All hail to you, Ban-Ban, and hail, Kiku-san! - All hail, little woman, and hail, little man! - Our joy shall be full since with us you have part, - Kind childhood, kind cathood united in heart!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - THE PURRERS BESTOW THE FREEDOM OF PURRINGTON - - -The instant that the last note of this song had died away the Purrers, -of all sizes and colours, surrounded the wonder-stricken children. Much -as she loved cats, Lois shrank against Rob, frightened by the -unbelievable state of things. - -A city of cats! Cats singing “Bonnie Dundee,” with real English words! - -But as soon as Lois and Rob had had a moment in which to adjust -themselves to the queer adventure befalling them, they found that they -were beginning to have the best time of all their lives. - -Madam Laura came up, saying: “My dears, you don’t know how glad we -are—Doctor Traddles, Bidelia, and myself—to see you again.” - -It was so funny to hear her speaking to them like a grown-up lady that -Rob and Lois barely kept themselves from laughing. Then Lois said: “Why, -you are the three cats we missed from our neighbourhood when Ban-Ban and -Kiku-san disappeared! Look, Rob! Here is that beautiful tiger-cat—this -lady calls him Doctor Traddles—and the little tortoise-shell who used to -play so prettily—Bidelia, this lady says she is called. We are glad to -see you, too; we were dreadfully worried about you.” - -“If you will follow us to the city hall we have arranged to present you -with the freedom of the city,” said Tommy Traddles, bowing his thanks -for Lois’s anxiety about him. - -“I wonder what that means,” Lois whispered. - -“I’ve read about it; they used to do it in the Middle Ages,” Rob -whispered back. “I don’t know what it means, but it’s a great honour.” - -“Tommy Traddles is a scholar; he will tell you what it means, Rob,” said -Ban-Ban, and Rob nearly tumbled down, he was so surprised to hear his -own cat speak to him, for so far neither Ban-Ban nor Kiku-san had spoken -directly to the children. - -“It means,” said Tommy Traddles, promptly, not unwilling to reveal his -learning, though he never tried to display it, “it means this: While you -stay with us, and always on all the other visits which we hope you will -make often, everything in Purrington is yours: our houses, our shops, -our services are entirely yours. We desire to beg you to accompany us to -the city hall to receive this freedom with proper ceremonies.” - -“Thank you very much,” said Rob, a trifle dismayed at the prospect of -taking part in public ceremonies in the cats’ city hall. “But I don’t -understand what this city is, nor why Ban-Ban and Kiku-san brought us -here. Would you mind telling us? Because we feel queer.” - -“Haven’t you explained Purrington to them and why you sought them?” -demanded Tommy Traddles, turning reproachfully to Ban-Ban. - -“Why, how could I?” retorted Ban-Ban, “when I couldn’t speak to them so -that they would understand till they had passed our gates? It was all we -could do to get them to follow us here, wasn’t it, Rob?” - -“It certainly was,” said Rob, feeling that he must be talking in a -dream. - -“Take Rob and Lois to your house—yours and Bidelia’s—and there tell them -the story of how we came to be a city. They will like to see your house -anyway, and we can delay the presentation of the freedom of the city for -half an hour,” said Tommy Traddles, graciously. - -“Come, Lois,” said Kiku-san, and Lois, recognizing the familiar cooing -note in his voice, realized that he must have often said: “Come, Lois,” -in the old days, before she had understood his speech. - -She gladly accompanied the dear white cat, while Rob walked beside -Ban-Ban. - -“It tires me to walk long on my hind legs, Lois,” said Kiku-san, “or I -would gladly take your hand.” - -“I should like to carry you, if you wouldn’t mind,” said Lois, -doubtfully. “We could talk more easily than if I had to bend down so -very much—and I always carried you.” - -“Certainly, you shall carry me, dear,” said Kiku, at once holding up his -paws. Lois drew him to her breast, as she had done in her own home; Rob -shouldered Ban-Ban, and thus they progressed comfortably, hearing -without difficulty the story of the founding of Purrington, which was -poured into their ears by their beloved cats. - -“And that is why you went away!” cried Rob, admiringly, when Ban-Ban had -finished the story. He regarded the Maltese with eyes of new respect as -the founder of a refuge for the unfortunate ones of his kind. - -“You darling, darling Kiku-san-chrysanthemum blossom!” Lois was saying, -as she hugged Kiku closer. “You don’t know how I love you—and -Bannie-boy! It is such a comfort to know that there is a place like this -where cats can live happily ever after! I’m glad you did it, though I’ve -cried myself ’most sick over your going off, and worried and worried! -Our mothers tried to get Rob and me to have another kitten, but we just -couldn’t look at another one! But it’s worth it all to have a city for -poor, friendless cats!” - -“Well, I should think we would be the protector, or -whatever-you-call-it, of Purrington,” Lois heard Rob saying to Ban-Ban: -“We’ll come out here once a week, and we’ll bring all kinds of things to -you—Oh, say, Bannie, not to you, though! Won’t you come home again, and -let Purrington be run by the Purrers without you? You’ve got it started, -and Lois and I can’t stand it without you and Kiku-san.” - -Ban-Ban put his mouth close to Rob’s ear and whispered. - -“You’re the stuff!” Rob cried, joyously, and Lois knew it was going to -be all right, even before Kiku whispered to her: “I couldn’t stay away -from you to save my life, Lois. We’re going back when you do.” - -The children could not get inside of Bidelia’s house, but they surveyed -the rooms through the windows, and were delighted with the tiny, cosy -arrangements, and its neatness. The three kittens were led forth by -Bidelia, very beautiful to behold in fresh ribbons, but Puttel and Dolly -each had a paw in her mouth for shyness. The instant they saw the -children they forgot to be shy, but ran at once to them to be petted. -Lois gathered Puttel and Dolly up into her neck, and here they remained -through the ceremonies at the city hall, while Nugget, who was, now that -he had been freed from Scamp’s influence, the same good, obedient little -Nugget as of old, sat on Rob’s other shoulder, where Ban-Ban -good-naturedly tolerated him. - -The city hall had been hung with flowers—the late flowers of -September—and all the Purrers were seated in the body of the hall when -Rob and Lois arrived. Tommy Traddles, ’Clipsy, Wutz-Butz, and two of the -old cats met them at the door and escorted them to the seats of honour -on the platform, where Mrs. Brindle was already seated, as another -distinguished and useful guest of Purrington, to Lois’s great dismay, -for she was in mortal terror of a cow. But, when Ban-Ban and Kiku-san -introduced Rob and Lois to Brindle, Lois saw at once that her fears were -foolish. A sweeter-eyed, more gentle-appearing person than Mrs. Brindle -it had never been her fortune to meet, and the Extract of New Mown Hay, -and Sweet Clover with which she seemed to be perfumed made her sweet in -another sense. So Lois took the chair placed for her between Rob and -Brindle without a qualm, and looked at the meeting with the greatest -interest. Such a lot of cats, and such nice, happy, sleek ones she had -never seen before. Mr. S. Katz, the butcher, sat directly in front of -the platform, and his prosperity stood out about his stout person like a -rich garment. - -“Please pinch me, Rob—not too hard,” whispered Lois, leaning over to -hold out her little pink palm to Rob, as she realized that this was a -cats’ City Hall, that this was a meeting held by cats to honour them, -and that she was seated on the platform beside the cats’ cow, with her -own Kiku-san, as well as Ban-Ban, Tommy Traddles, Wutz-Butz, ’Clipsy, -and two other cats whose names she did not know on the platform with her -as a committee. - -“You pinch back,” whispered Rob, obediently giving Lois a little nip and -then holding out to her his own square, brown hand. - -It would be impossible to give the speeches made on this occasion. -Doctor Traddles surpassed all his previous flights of scholarship in a -review of the ancient custom of bestowing the freedom of a city upon -those whom that city wished to honour. Rob and Lois found themselves -bowing deeply to the assembled Purrers, and Rob made a speech of thanks, -not nearly as long and clever as Tommy Traddles, but which was received -with the kindest attention and applause by the Purrers. - -Then Rob and Lois gave their solemn promise always to stand by -Purrington, to visit it often, and in every way to give it the best of -their advice and help, which would be more valuable every year as they -grew from little children into big boy and girl, and then into manhood -and woman-hood. - -With this pledge, which the Purrers hailed with a perfect storm of -shouts and applause, the ceremonies ended, and pure fun was the order of -the day. - -Rob and Lois went through all the streets, saw Tommy Traddles’s -school,—through its windows, of course,—S. Katz’s shop, with its fresh -food temptingly displayed for sale; the other shops, and all the houses, -for not a Purrer of Purrington was there who would not have felt -slighted if Rob and Lois had not visited his home. - -The children rested in the park, which was right in the middle of the -city, that afternoon, and Lois had never had such a beautiful, kitteny -time in all her life. Every kitten in Purrington came out and got up -into her lap, and over her shoulders, and sat on her back, their downy -fur brushing her cheeks and hands and arms until Lois felt that she -could hardly bear the delight of it, and Kiku-san did not half like it, -for he always was a bit inclined to jealousy. - -That evening there was a ball given in the hall, to which everybody -went, even the smallest kitten, for this was a great day in the annals -of Purrington! - -First the kittens danced their funny, pretty cotillion figure which they -had given at Bidelia’s tea, and Rob and Lois went nearly out of their -minds with delight over it. Then all the cats came out on the floor to -dance, and the children discovered that they should have to dance with -each cat, Rob with the ladies, and Lois with the gentlemen, or else -offend some one mortally. It was not clear to them at first how they -should manage it, because there really was a great difference—more than -three feet—between their height and their partners’! But when they -discovered that they were expected to whirl about with their partners in -their arms, it became very simple, though not any less queer to be -waltzing one’s very best with a cat talking pleasantly in one’s -arms;—light, society conversation, suited to one’s partner at a -ball,—while a black cat played the violin for the dancing in a manner -that would have made a cigar-store Indian “tread the mazy.” - -[Illustration: - - “A black cat played the violin.”] - -It was a beautiful and painfully funny sight to watch the Purrers -dancing together. They were so graceful, so full of the real waltzing -spirit, that the children gave up all hope of ever again admiring human -dancing. It was pleasant also to dance the square dances that night, -with seven smiling cats making up the set! Rob and Lois did not once -dance in the same set, to divide their attentions as much as possible. -It was like a dream of a puss-in-the-corner game to cross over, balance -corners, swing partners and opposites, when there came forward to meet -you a large, beautiful, joyous cat, gaily bedecked with an immense bow. -Lois reflected that her hair-ribbons were the only thing about her -costume suitable to such a beautiful ball, and Rob’s stout gray cheviot -knickerbockers and pleated jacket looked suddenly very clumsy, among the -sleek and shining fur around him. - -Suddenly the Purrers began to sing as they danced, and the children -found themselves singing with them, though they did not understand where -they had learned the words. For this is what they were singing, to the -air of “Pop Goes the Weasel:” - - “Paws around and forward and back, - Balance to corners lightly; - When pussy-cats the lanciers attack, - It is a sight most sightly. - Swing your partner, tails enlinked, - Lady in the centre; - Each beau must keep his whiskers prinked - If he would content her. - - “Paw to partner, right and left, - Halt half-way for bowing; - While you glide through, swift and deft, - Keep the tune miauwing! - Chassé all, a two-step dance, - Each with partner mated, - Then to supper gaily prance— - You’ll find tables freighted.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - AN ELECTION AND A DEFECTION - - -It was just a little dismaying to the children at the close of the ball -to be suddenly brought face to face with the fact that they were going -to spend the night in Purrington. Because there really was not any -arrangement for the sort of night which up to this moment Lois and Rob -had considered the only kind of night which one could spend. Bedsteads, -for instance, had heretofore been as much a part of their idea of night -as was the setting of the sun and coming on of darkness; but, though -there was plenty of soft bedding and good mattresses, or, rather, beds, -of straw and leaves, there was not a bedstead in Purrington. Then, too, -there was much to be desired—from the children’s view-point—in the -arrangements for bathing. They could not imagine how they were to wash -their faces and hands in the same way that the Purrers did—and yet was -there any other way? Lois delicately tried her tongue on the knuckle of -her left forefinger, and instantly felt sure that she could not manage -to bathe in cat fashion. - -But the cats who had lived among nice human beings, Bidelia, Madam -Laura, and Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, themselves solved the doubts that were -filling their guests’ minds by telling them that in the morning they -would lead them down to the river Meuse, “where they could wet their -faces and hands all they pleased,” said Kiku-san, with a shudder. - -The children were to sleep in the city hall, that being the only -building in the place large enough to hold them, and Bidelia with her -kittens, Madam Laura, Tommy Traddles, ’Clipsy, Wutz-Butz, and, of -course, their own dear cats, were to stay with them through the night. -After they had lain down in the beds provided for them, Lois and Rob -found that they were very comfortable indeed. - -Ban-Ban, Tommy Traddles, ’Clipsy, and little Nugget slept around Rob, -fitting themselves beautifully and cosily around and into the curves of -his body. Of course Kiku-san crept into Lois’s arms, but Madam Laura, -Bidelia, and Dolly Varden and Puttel added themselves to her couch, and -the little girl fell asleep, supremely happy, for the more cats the -merrier Lois was—she never could get enough of their purr and their fur. - -Wutz-Butz stayed awake, on guard all night. - -The entire party was awakened early by the kittens, who were ready to -play before the sun was fairly up. But it did not matter; every one was -perfectly rested, and it was to be such a busy day that it was necessary -to make it a long one in order to get into it all that must be done. - -Bathing in the Meuse proved to be a pleasant experience, and breakfast -was delicious eaten under the trees. As soon as it was cleared away, all -the cats seated themselves in a circle and waited, washing their paws -and faces once in awhile, but very lightly, much as human beings use -finger-bowls after meals, and only to occupy the time. - -Tommy Traddles came forward at last and addressed Rob and Lois. - -“We should like your advice on matters which are most important,” he -said. “First of all, we shall be cold here in the winter. How shall we -warm our houses?” - -Rob considered a few moments, while Lois looked at him anxiously; for -the life of her she could not see how it was to be done. - -“I think,” said Rob, looking up, suddenly, with a bright smile of -relief, “I think you had better move all your houses together and take -down one wall of each, so that they will be turned into one big house. -Then, I think, you ought to have a chimney right in the middle of that -one big house and keep a fire in it, and let everybody in the city live -in that house.” - -“Wouldn’t it be hard to move all these houses?” asked Lois. - -“Not a bit,” said the black and white cat who had helped to carry Dolly -Varden on the day the pilgrims had come to the site of the present city; -he was the head of the carpenter cats. “Not a bit, ma’am. We’d just as -soon move them houses as not—there ain’t no work doin’ now, and we -carpenters hate bein’ idle. Them houses was built so quick you wouldn’t -think it, and they can be moved as easy as catchin’ a small mouse. The -boy’s got a good notion; I reccymend we take it up.” - -“The question arises,” began Tommy Traddles, his English sounding more -elegant than ever after the slips of the carpenter cat, who had been -only a street waif, “whether we could manage the fire. We could easily -feed it, but could we build it?” - -“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said Rob, enthusiastically. “I’ll get a -friend of my father’s who has lived among all sorts of people in Africa -and India, and—and—oh, all sorts of queer people—Eskimos, I guess, and -Alaska Indians, I’ll get him to tell me how to build a clay chimney and -strike a fire from flint. Then I’ll come and build your chimney myself, -and I’ll let the fire go out and build it up new every week when I come, -so all you’ll have to do is to feed it. But I’ll teach you how to rub -stones together to get fire,—when I’ve learned myself,—and if it ever -happened that it went out, you could light another. You mightn’t have -matches, but you can always get stones. I guess you’ll be all right that -way.” - -“More than all right,” said Tommy Traddles, with a look of relief on his -part, for he had been worried over the approach of cold weather and the -prospect of the Purrers having no heat. All the Purrers applauded Rob’s -wisdom and noble promise to help them, and Ban-Ban’s fur stood up with -pride, while he looked an “I-told-you-so” to the assembled cats. - -“We can bring out lots of woollen things and some wadding,” said Lois, -longing to be useful too. - -Madam Laura smiled at her, understanding her feeling. “My dear little -girl,” she said, “you will do a great deal more than bring us warm -things; we shall depend upon you for more than you dream of now.” And -Lois was comforted even while she remembered how queer it was to be -comforted in this grandmotherly way by a particularly small cat. - -“City government?” suggested ’Clipsy to Tommy Traddles, reminding him. - -“I am coming to that,” said the doctor. “So far we have not adopted any -form of government; nothing has happened that required laws. But, as -time goes on and Purrington grows into a big city, we think we ought to -adopt a government. What sort do you advise?” - -Rob tried to look wise, but only succeeded in looking embarrassed, his -face flushing darkly to his hair. You see he was but nine years old, and -it flattered him tremendously to be consulted—by a Doctor of Claws, -too!—on such a serious matter. He did not know what to say, but he made -a wise speech to begin with, and was encouraged to go on by the -approving looks it won him. - -“Well, you see,” he began, “no cat ever minds anybody. If he does what -you tell him to it’s only because you happened to tell him to do -something he meant to do before. So I don’t see the use of making laws -for the Purrers. You’d better trust ’em to do what’s right, because they -see it’s best for everybody. Cats are freemen, every one of ’em. So I’d -have just a mayor and some Purrers to advise him, and let it go at that. -I’m sorry I don’t know much about politics,” Rob added, apologetically. - -“You couldn’t have said anything more clever!” cried Tommy Traddles, in -high delight, while all the cats miauwed frantically, and Ban-Ban -couldn’t resist standing on his head between his front paws, though he -had never let the Purrers see him do this, fearing it was undignified in -their founder. - -“Those are my sentiments!” cried ’Clipsy, while Wutz-Butz remarked in a -deep, admiring bass: “He might have been a cat himself, he knows us so -well!” - -“Then how shall we elect a mayor?” asked Tommy Traddles. “Who would be -your first choice, Purrers?” - -“Ban-Ban, Ban-Ban!” arose on all sides. “He is the founder of -Purrington, and he must be our first mayor,” cried Posty, to which they -all shouted: “Must be! Must be!” like a great mew. - -“It is impossible for me to serve,” said Ban-Ban, with deep emotion. “I -thank you more than I can say. I appreciate the honour done me, and -shall never forget it. But I cannot serve. I positively decline. May I -suggest that the Purrers allow Rob to appoint their first mayor? Then no -one can feel that his neighbours have preferred another to him. You -elected me as your founder, and I thank you, but unless the founder has -a claim there is no one whom you would like to pick out to honour above -his fellows. So let Rob choose your mayor.” - -“Ban-Ban is always clear-sighted,” remarked Kiku-san to Lois. - -“I would appoint Doctor Thomas Traddles—” began Rob, but got no further. -There was a storm of applause, and the meeting saw the remarkable -spectacle of a second election by acclaim, as it is called. Tommy -Traddles was thus appointed Purrington’s first mayor. - -“Why wouldn’t you serve, Ban-Ban?” asked Bidelia, suspiciously. - -Ban-Ban faced the meeting. His whiskers quivered, his fur arose, and his -breath came quick and short as it always did when he was stirred. - -“My friends,” he said, and the Purrers turned to look at him; every cat -there caught instantly the emotion in his voice. “My friends,” Ban-Ban -said, “I must tell you why I refused the honour which you would have -done me. To-night, when Rob and Lois go home Kiku-san and I are going -with them.” - -Dead silence fell upon the meeting at these words, and from its outer -edge a long moo broke from Brindle like a sob. Then a growl ran around -the circle, deepening into a louder growl, like thunder, and every cat -sprang to his feet in wrath and dismay. - -“Going back on us like that?” demanded Wutz-Butz, tragically. - -“Oh, Bannie!” said Madam Laura, but the words contained volumes, and -Bidelia sobbed into her party-coloured paws, while every kitten present -broke into a chorus of pathetic mews. It was most moving, and Ban-Ban -trembled from head to foot. - -[Illustration: - - “Bidelia sobbed.”] - -“Dear friends, listen,” he said. “I am not deserting you, as Wutz-Butz -seems to think. Every week I shall come here with Rob and Lois—they -promise faithfully to bring us, Kiku and me. I planned this city; all -summer I have here, leaving the boy I owned—” Rob stared at this way of -putting it—“to miss me and mourn for me, and Kiku has done likewise with -his girl. I have brought them here to be the aid and reliance of us all. -They love us; we have had the happiest home with them all our lives, and -we miss them. They are most unhappy without us—do you not think, dear -Purrers, considering that every week Rob and Lois are coming here, that -all their lives they are going to protect and befriend this city of -cats, that you can repay them to a tiny degree by consenting to give up -to them two of your number?” - -“Ah, but these two!” murmured Bidelia. - -The cats all wiped their eyes with their forepaws. “We consent,” said -the Purrers, sobbing, and Dolly Varden put her paws around Lois’s neck. - -“I don’t blame them,” said that sweet kitten. “Take me, too!” - -“Away from your mother?” asked Kiku-san, not at all minded to have even -dear little Dolly share with him Lois’s love. - -“Then, since it must be, let us pass the rest of the day as merrily as -we can,” said Tommy Traddles. “Let us sing my favourite air—you know it -as ‘’Way Down Upon the Swanee River,’ Rob and Lois.” - -And then the cats sang the following song: - - “When all the little willow catkins - Had run away, - And birch leaves clapped their tiny patkins, - Like summer rain at play, - Then Ban-Ban led us where the flowers - Smiled through the dews, - And bade us spend long, happy hours - Beside our river Meuse. - Ah, we cats will love him ever, - Absent though he be; - Cats’ mem’ries are forgetful never - Of good, nor cruelty. - - “Go, then, dear Ban, since we must lend you— - Lend, but not give! - We’ll purr our prayers that good attend you, - All the long days you live. - And when each week that rolls shall bring you - To our pussy clan, - May all good fairies guide and wing you, - Ban and sweet Kiku-san. - So this day sees not our parting, - We’ll banish pain; - Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, departing, - Go but to come again.” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - WEDDING-BELLS AND BRIEF FAREWELLS - - -There’s nothing harder than deciding on how to have a good time when one -deliberately sets out to have one. A good time seems to be a fine sort -of thief, which must come upon one unawares and steal away heaviness of -heart. - -Having made up their minds to giving back Ban-Ban and Kiku-san to Rob -and Lois, except for the weekly visit to Purrington which all four had -pledged themselves to make, and having resolved on having the very best -kind of time until the close of that day when their guests and the -beloved cats started for their first home, the Purrers did not know how -to begin having it. They were in danger of standing around discussing -what to do instead of pitching into the good time without delay, just as -children sometimes do, when something happened. - -Down the road that led to Purrington two dots were seen moving nearer. -When they had come decidedly nearer the two dots turned into two cats -hurrying along. One was snowy white, as the sunshine revealed, and the -other was a Maltese. - -“Here come your doubles, Ban and Kiku!” cried Bidelia. - -[Illustration: - - “Had often sat on a big volume of Shakespeare.”] - -The Purrers were quite used by this time to the arrival of strangers -coming out from the human city to seek the peace and safety of -Purrington, but this pair looked very different from most of the -arrivals. The refugees who joined the Purrers were more than likely to -come with “lean and hungry look,” like Cassius. Indeed Tommy Traddles, -who had often sat on a big volume of Shakespeare during his youth, and -who thus had learned to know the poet well, named one of these strangers -Cassius for that reason. But this pair of cats arriving now were glossy, -sleek, plump, and most elegant to behold, and the Purrers wondered at -them as they waved their paws, making them welcome and signalling them -to enter the gates of the city. - -The Maltese cat came up to the Purrers with a jaunty air. He was -strikingly like Ban-Ban, with the same short, Maltese-kind of nose and -the same up-and-coming air which the Founder wore, but the Purrers and -Lois and Rob thought he was not quite as beautiful in figure. - -The white cat accompanying him hung back shyly. She had a less delicate -face, more chubby than Kiku-san’s, but she had his gentle air. - -“Gentlemen, your servant,” said the Maltese cat, bowing to the Purrers -with an impressive air, and expressing himself in a manner which at once -betrayed the fact that he had lived with a family where English classics -were read aloud. “My name is Ods Bobs, gentlemen; it is a name as old as -the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This lady is called Lady Blanche. We lived -in the same house in town; one of us had been brought up by one old -maiden sister, the other by the other. Lady Blanche and I were looking -forward to being married and living happily ever after, looking forward -to spending our lives together to their end, just as we had spent them -together thus far from kittenhood, when—imagine our horror!—I learned -that the person who had brought me up intended sending me away to her -brother’s little girl, while Lady Blanche stayed on with her protector! -It was not possible to submit to such a fate! We made up our minds to -run away; of course to run away together. And where were we so likely to -run as to Purrington, of which we had heard such glowing accounts from -other cats? So we came; here we are! Will you receive us among you?” - -“Gladly,” cried all the Purrers. - -“Isn’t that the very strangest thing, that another Maltese cat and this -little white lady should come here just when we are taking away Ban-Ban -and Kiku-san?” whispered Lois to Rob. “It looks as if they had come to -take their places,” she added, as Rob nodded his assent to her question. - -“Then we will gladly stay,” Ods Bobs went on. “But one thing more. We -were to have had a pretty wedding on the day after to-morrow—no end of -guests were invited. We can get on without the guests and the -prettiness, but we should like a wedding, and to set up housekeeping for -ourselves at once. Can we be married here?” - -The Purrers looked at one another, puzzled. There had been no demand for -such a thing before, and they were at a loss how to answer. Then they -looked at Rob for a suggestion. - -“I think the mayor can marry them,” Rob began, slowly, but was -interrupted by Bidelia’s little excited mew as she ran over to throw her -paws around Lady Blanche’s neck, who was blushing till the tip of her -pink nose was rosy red. - -“The mayor!” cried Bidelia. “Tommy Traddles—the very thing! We’ll give -you the loveliest wedding, my dear! Come, Laura! Come, all lady Purrers, -and the kittens! We must gather quantities of catnip and make garlands -for the hall. And order all the ribbon there is at the shop. Won’t you -come with us, Lady Blanche; we shall want to ask you something every -five minutes. Why, you’re not much older than my girls!” - -“I’m nine months old,” said Lady Blanche, through her blushes. - -“Puttel and Dolly Varden are six months old—I’m only eighteen months old -myself. We’ll have a lovely wedding! I wish my husband was here, but he -won’t come for a month. He went to the country with the family he owns -very early this year, and hasn’t got back. Come along, my dears,” said -Bidelia, hurrying away. - -The Purrers had never seen Bidelia so excited, and the gentlemen of the -place looked at one another, feeling very useless indeed, as the ladies -ran off, attended by all the kittens. - -“I think we ought to offer to help them,” said Lois. “Rob, Ban-Ban, -Kiku-san dearie, let us go after them and ask Bidelia if we can’t help -trim the hall.” - -It seemed queer to ask such a small cat as Bidelia if she couldn’t make -use of them in some way, but the children were getting used to queer -things, and to taking the lower place with cats, as mere mortals should. - -Bidelia said if they would wait until the kittens came back with the -catnip, which they had gone to gather in the Public Gardens, she would -be willing to let them help twist the garlands and hang them around the -hall. Bidelia took the lead in these arrangements, as she was most -fitted to do, by reason of her youth and taste, as well as her -experience. - -“How often we shall talk over these wonderful happenings in Purrington -after we get home, you and I, and our two Blessings,” observed Lois, as -they waited for the catnip. - -“We shall not talk to you—or rather you won’t understand us—between our -visits to Purrington,” Ban-Ban reminded her. “You understand us a little -when you’re at home—you often can tell what we want—but we can’t talk -together like this outside of Pussy-Cat Town.” - -“I’ve been trying to think of everything I want to say to you before we -leave here to-night,” Kiku-san added. - -“Oh, how horrid!” cried Lois, who had forgotten this rule, and had been -looking forward to long talks with Kiku after they were tucked away for -the night. - -“It will only make us enjoy our visits to Purrington the more,” said -Rob, wisely. And then the kittens came bringing the catnip, and they all -fell to work weaving the slender leaves and blossoms into wreaths and -garlands. - -In a short time the hall was beautifully hung with green, and the odour -that filled it would have made one of those calico cats, stuffed with -batting, turn a somersault. When the hall was trimmed Bidelia, never -stopping to admire her own handiwork, ran off with her kittens at her -heels to make her own toilet and her children’s, and to summon the -wedding guests. - -Not a Purrer was lacking to the “large and fashionable gathering which -filled the hall,” as _The Weekly Mews_, Purrington’s paper, stated when -it appeared on the following Saturday. - -’Clipsy played beautifully on his fiddle as the bridal procession -approached. Rob remembered having once seen a picture of a Puritan -wedding, in which the bride was represented as riding on a splendid -snow-white bull. So the Purrers, acting on this hint, had got Brindle to -allow Lady Blanche to ride to her wedding on Brindle’s back, and the -effect of the very small snow-white bride clinging to big Brindle’s -ridge-poled back was most impressive. The groom walked at the cow’s -side, strutting along as proud as a cat, a duke, and a peacock, all -rolled into one—and well he might be, for the Lady Blanche was lovely. - -Tommy Traddles stood on the platform waiting the bridal procession. It -entered the hall, preceded by Puttel and Dolly Varden, in immense white -bows, as bridesmaids, and following them came Nugget, also in a white -bow bigger, far, than his head, scattering catnip blossoms before the -happy couple’s softly falling, padded feet. - -It was a most beautiful sight, and a deep purr rolled around the hall as -the Purrers gazed admiringly at this first wedding in Purrington. - -Rob had drawn up the marriage service, which was brief and simple. - -[Illustration: - - “It was a most beautiful sight.”] - -“Do you promise, Ods Bobs,” Doctor Traddles asked, “to keep this cat -provided with mice all her life? To protect her from dampness, -crossness, and all other things she wouldn’t like, just as far as you -can? And to love her until she is white, not with this beautiful young -whiteness she has now, but with the whiteness of old age?” - -“I promise,” said Ods Bobs, in a deep voice. - -“And do you, Lady Blanche, promise to nurse and lick this cat if he gets -ill, to keep his house, and cook his mice and his catnip as he likes -them, and to love him always, and not to spit at him, or scratch him -ever, but be a good wife until you die?” - -“I promise,” mewed Lady Blanche so faintly that Tommy Traddles had to -bend down to hear whether she said: “I promise,” or “I prefer mice.” - -But as her response was the right one, Tommy Traddles straightened -himself and said, turning to the audience: “I now marry these cats! Lady -Blanche, give Ods Bobs your paw to hold; Ods Bobs, take Lady Blanche’s -hand. You are now cat and cat, cat and wife. Keep your promises and be -happy for life.” - -The Purrers purred together the gay tune into which ’Clipsy’s fiddle at -once broke, and the procession left the hall as it had entered it, only -in retiring Nugget did not walk backward, nor behind his sisters, but -strutted out ahead of the bride and groom, and of the bridesmaids, as -proud as Ods Bobs himself. - -“I’m afraid we ought to start for home,” said Rob, regretfully, as the -Purrers prepared to escort the bridal party to the newest house in town, -which, fortunately, had not been rented, and so was ready for their use. - -“And take Ban-Ban and Kiku-san?” cried a Purrer. All the cats suddenly -remembered their sorrow, which the events of the past few hours had made -them almost forget. - -“Isn’t it strange—and nice—that Ods Bobs and Lady Blanche have come on -the very day we go, and that they are white and Maltese, like Bannie and -Kiku?” hinted Lois, comfortingly. - -“There are no friends like old friends; there can be but one Ban-Ban and -Kiku-san,” mewed the cats in chorus. - -“So there can’t,” agreed Rob, heartily. “But we’re going to bring this -one Ban and Kiku every week to see you. Don’t you think we ought to have -just one cat, when we love all cats so much? And don’t you think it -ought to be this one, one for each of us, that we took care of and loved -from the time they were kittens?” - -“Oh, it’s all right, Rob, it’s all right,” cried the cats, eagerly, -afraid Rob was offended. “We owe you even our best Purrer and our -Founder—but we are sorry enough to let them go.” - -“Say good-bye, friends,” cried Ban-Ban, brightly. “Ods Bobs, you’ll have -to try to look still more like me, so they won’t miss me! Good-bye, -Wutz-Butz; keep the town safe! Good-bye, ’Clipsy, you fine fellow! -Good-bye, Tommy Traddles, and good luck to your mayoring! Good-bye, kind -Madam Laura, and good-bye, clever, charming Bidelia! Good-bye, three -kittens, Puttel, Dolly, Nugget—keep your mittens; remember you are -_three_ little kittens! And we shall never be gone long. Good-bye.” - -Kiku-san silently took each paw in turn as it was proffered by the -Purrers. He was much moved, but did not for a moment lose sight of the -fact that where Lois was he must be. The children kissed every cat in -the city between the ears, and renewed their promises to protect -Purrington. - -Then the party of four passed out of the city gates. - -“I hope you will never be sorry, Ban,” said Rob. Ban-Ban looked up in -his face. - -“Mew,” he said, and Rob remembered that, until their return, this was -all that Ban-Ban and Kiku-san would say to Lois and him. - -Looking back, the children and their cats saw gathered on the walls of -the city all the Purrers, just as they had seen them when they arrived. -Again they were singing, and though as Rob and Lois walked down the road -they could no longer understand the words of the song, Ban-Ban and -Kiku-san understood them, and they were these, sung to the air of “My -Lady Lou:” - - “We watch two shadows wav’ring down the roadway— - Our Bannie-Ban and Kiku-san; - How heavy on our homeless hearts their load lay - When they showed us where the home road ran! - We could not look upon our dear ones going, - Our eyes would burn, our hearts would yearn, - But that we’re comforted in knowing - We shall watch when they return. - - _Chorus_; - - “Good-bye, Ban, we’re lending you; - Good-bye, dear Kiku-san, we’re sending you - But for a little space, then turn your gentle face - Toward Pussy-Town, where love awaits. - Here we’ll live in joy and peace, - But you will bring us joy’s increase, - And when these children come, they’ll hear our loud purrs hum - Through Purrington’s wide open gates.” - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -Transcriber’s note: - - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY-CAT TOWN*** - - -******* This file should be named 63458-0.txt or 63458-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/3/4/5/63458 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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