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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76985 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+SALLY IN HER FUR COAT
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SALLY IN HER FUR COAT WAS RACING THROUGH THE GARDEN
+(_page 1_)]
+
+
+
+
+  SALLY IN HER
+  FUR COAT
+
+  By
+  ELIZA ORNE WHITE
+  AUTHOR OF ‘BROTHERS IN FUR,’ ETC.
+
+  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SCISSOR-CUTS BY
+  LISL HUMMEL
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  The Riverside Press Cambridge
+  1929
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY ELIZA ORNE WHITE
+
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
+  THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM
+
+  The Riverside Press
+  CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
+  PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+  ELIZABETH F. DUNDASS
+  AND
+  MARGARET COLTER
+
+  True friends of all in coats of fur,
+  Beloved by every cat and kitten,
+  Welcomed with many a heart-felt purr,
+  Here, gratefully your names are written.
+
+
+
+
+  The world is wide and full of wondrous things
+  For all God’s creatures, whether great or small,
+  For those who soar aloft on spreading wings,
+  Or those who, earth-bound, never fear a fall.
+  But surely kittens have a joyous time,
+  With ears attuned to every tiny sound,
+  And with the power the loftiest tree to climb,
+  And eyes that see all creatures on the ground.
+  The patter of the rain upon the leaves,
+  The ants that swiftly build their tiny house,
+  The wind that’s but a gentle summer breeze,
+  The stealthy tread of an alluring mouse--
+  All this is joy; how could one wish to be
+  A man or woman with closed ears and eyes
+  To all the treasures of the land and sea,
+  And to the glory of the earth and skies?
+  And even a child, though nearer to the ground,
+  Is often heedless of this wondrous earth,
+  Where such enthralling histories are found.
+  Who would not be a kitten full of mirth?
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  I. THE ORPHANS                                                       1
+
+      Two orphan kittens without their mother,
+        In piteous plight were they,
+      A furry sister and her brother
+        In coats of tiger gray.
+
+  II. THE COLD NIGHT                                                  10
+
+      If in May the nights are cold,
+        When Nature should be thriving,
+      Young kittens but a few weeks old
+        Think winter is arriving.
+
+  III. THE CAPTURE                                                    19
+
+      Is it best to be captured, or still to be free?
+        To have food and a fire, or one’s liberty?
+      To be free has its charms, but when hungry and cold,
+        To be captured is not at all bad, we are told.
+
+  IV. THE KITTENS AND MISS WINIFRED                                   27
+
+      Politeness is a pleasant trait.
+        If we are rude to kittens small,
+      We lose their love and win their hate,
+        Their friendship is not ours at all.
+
+  V. THE FRIENDLY HOUSE                                               33
+
+      A house is such a pleasant place
+        When friends are kind
+      And understand our furry race,
+        Our heart and mind.
+
+  VI. SALLY AND THE CLOCK                                             41
+
+      All mantelpieces should be wide
+        So cats can walk there side by side.
+      There should be trees in every room
+        For exercise in storm and gloom.
+
+  VII. THE CATNIP MOUSE                                               46
+
+      If I were asked what I would like
+        To beautify my house,
+      I’d say without a moment’s thought,
+        Give me a catnip mouse.
+
+  VIII. THE FIRST SNOWSTORM                                           52
+
+      I love the frostwork on the panes,
+        The snowfall on the trees.
+      I like the time when winter reigns,
+        And lakes and rivers freeze.
+
+  IX. BUSY SALLY                                                      61
+
+      Long naps by day, I like that best,
+        When the great sun is hot and bright.
+      That seems the time to take a rest,
+        After a long and strenuous night.
+
+  X. MOODS                                                            69
+
+      Perhaps the lady in her silk,
+        And coat of costly fur,
+      Would sometimes like my bowl of milk,
+        If she could have my purr.
+
+  XI. PETER                                                           78
+
+      Old Peter I have put to flight
+        On more than one occasion.
+      He says for country he will fight,
+        I call it an invasion.
+
+  XII. SALLY AND THE LOUD SPEAKER                                     87
+
+      Speak gently, it is better far;
+        Soft answers are the best,
+      And low replies. Loud speakers are
+        A nuisance to the rest.
+
+  XIII. SALLY BRACES UP                                               95
+
+      The New Year is a glorious date
+        For resolutions splendid,
+      And dreams of valor far more great
+        Than in the year that’s ended.
+
+  XIV. SALLY AND SPOT                                                102
+
+      A tree is such a pleasant place
+        I’ll stay here through the night
+      If Spot continues at its base.
+        That villain I won’t fight.
+
+  XV. THE FAMILY TREE                                                112
+
+      I long to have a family tree
+        And show to all my true descent.
+      But Oxford says a family tree
+        Is not a tree for kittens meant.
+      To know his father is enough
+        For he was made of valiant stuff.
+
+  XVI. THE TRAVELING CAT                                             120
+
+      A traveler comes who’s seen the world,
+        The harbor and the sea.
+      He’s seen the spreading sails unfurled,
+        And all life’s mystery.
+
+  XVII. OXFORD GOES ON A JOURNEY                                     127
+
+      Proud scion of a noble race am I;
+        The blood of hunters courses through my veins.
+      Variety I crave before I die;
+        I fear not furious gales, nor autumn rains.
+
+  XVIII. SALLY HAS HER WISH                                          139
+
+      If I cannot have a mother, a mother I will be
+        With some darling, furry children of my own.
+      The furriest, purriest kittens, the most harum-scarum kittens,
+        The liveliest, gayest kittens ever known.
+
+  XIX. SALLY IS YOUNG WITH HER CHILDREN                              147
+
+      We love to run, we love to climb,
+        In fact we have a royal time.
+      Kings cannot quite so happy be,
+        For kings, we hear, are not so free.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+SALLY IN HER FUR COAT
+
+∵
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE ORPHANS
+
+
+Sally in her fur coat was racing through the garden and flying through
+the Wild Wood, as if an enemy were in hot pursuit. She was a very young
+kitten and small of her age. Her pursuer was not an enemy, but her
+twin brother, Oxford Gray, Junior. But although they were born on the
+same day, Oxford Gray, Junior, was much fatter than Sally, and he had
+shorter legs, so he could never catch up with his little sister. After
+a time, he grew tired of the chase, but, being Sally’s brother and
+protector, he did not like to own it, so he said:
+
+‘Sally, I am sure all this running about must be bad for you. Come and
+lie down under that giant hemlock and we’ll have a good rest.’
+
+‘I am not in the least tired,’ said Sally, and off she scampered again.
+
+By this time Oxford Gray, Junior, was fairly panting.
+
+‘I am sure this mad dash will use you up,’ he said, for he did not like
+to own that he was tired.
+
+It finally dawned on Sally that this might be the case, but, being
+wise beyond her weeks, she did not speak of this, but came over and
+joined her brother under the shade of the giant hemlock in the Wild
+Wood. There were many of these hemlocks as well as oak trees. They
+were all about as high as a man’s shoulders, but they seemed immense
+to the kittens. They were sometimes spoken of by people as underbrush,
+but people are often stupid about many matters, as every cat knows. Of
+course all this conversation was carried on in kitten language, not in
+actual words.
+
+The two kittens curled up under the shade of the giant hemlock in the
+Wild Wood, and put their paws about each other’s necks. They were
+tiger kittens and looked so much alike that when they were apart, it
+was hard to tell which was Sally and which was Oxford Gray, Junior.
+When they were together, one saw that Oxford Gray, Junior, was larger,
+and that he had more of a white shirt-front than his sister, and he
+had a pink nose which she envied, for hers was just a tiger nose. One
+also noticed a great difference in their expressions, for Sally had
+a sad little face, while Oxford Gray, Junior, looked prosperous and
+thoroughly contented with himself. At times it almost seemed as if he
+smiled.
+
+‘We are two very unfortunate kittens,’ said Sally; ‘it is sad to be
+orphans.’
+
+‘We’ve got to make the best of it,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘Other
+kittens have been orphans before us and others will be orphans after
+us. Sally, you must brace up.’
+
+‘When I think of my brave father and of my darling mother, so cozy and
+so kind, and of how they mysteriously disappeared, I can’t brace up,’
+said Sally. ‘I am sure we are going to starve.’
+
+‘Not while I have my good right paw,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I will
+get food for you.’
+
+‘You? How? What will you get?’
+
+‘I will catch a mouse,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior, magnificently. ‘Our
+father was a mighty hunter.’
+
+‘But you are hardly larger than a mouse yourself,’ said Sally. ‘Father
+said so.’
+
+‘That was a very long time ago,’ said her brother. ‘I have grown since
+then, and there must be many baby mice just as there are small kittens.
+I will be on the lookout for a very young mouse, Sally.’
+
+‘I am sure we shall starve before you can catch a mouse,’ said Sally,
+‘for there don’t seem to be any around. We can’t live on flies, and
+they are very hard to catch.’
+
+If Sally had been a little girl, she would have cried bitterly, but,
+being a kitten, she was more self-controlled.
+
+‘Where are we going to get our next meal?’ she persisted.
+
+‘It will somehow come,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior, who was an optimist.
+
+He sometimes provoked Sally very much, for she was sure she saw things
+as they really were.
+
+‘We got some milk other days at that little house,’ he said.
+
+‘Yes, but it is closed to-day,’ she reminded him.
+
+‘Other houses will be open,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. He glanced up as
+he spoke and looked first at one of the two houses that were near the
+Wild Wood and then at the other. One house was very attractive, lying
+low in the valley with a pretty garden and a giant rhododendron tree
+on either side of the front door. The buds were swelling and beginning
+to show a hint of crimson. ‘We’ll try to get food at that house,’ said
+Oxford Gray, Junior.
+
+‘Don’t you remember what father told us about that house?’ said Sally.
+‘He said it had the secret mark that is only known to cats, that says,
+“No cats need apply here for food. This is a no-good house.”’
+
+‘Yes, I remember now,’ said her brother, ‘but father said the other
+house was all right. That has a secret mark that says, “Welcome, Cats.”’
+
+‘We are not cats,’ said Sally. ‘We are such small kittens I am afraid
+no one will see us; father called us “kittenettes,”’ and at the memory
+of her father, Sally once more looked very sad.
+
+‘What’s the use of worrying?’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘Something
+always has turned up and something always will.’
+
+‘That is rather an ugly house, I think,’ said Sally, as she looked at
+the gray house on the hill that said, in its secret language, ‘Welcome,
+Cats.’ ‘It seems all pointed roofs and it hasn’t such a pretty garden
+as the other house.’
+
+‘I don’t care about its looks,’ said her brother. ‘Don’t you remember
+how mother once said, “Handsome is that handsome does,” when you wished
+you were an Angora with long yellow fur?’
+
+‘Yes, I remember,’ said Sally, ‘but I wish I were a yellow Angora just
+the same. I’d like to be a handsome kitten.’
+
+‘I don’t care at all how I look,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I’d rather
+be myself. If you were a yellow Angora with long fur, you would not
+have me for your twin. How would you like to lose me, Sally?’
+
+At this terrible suggestion, Sally put her paws all the more firmly
+around her brother’s neck.
+
+‘You are the whole world to me, Oxford Gray, Junior,’ she said;
+‘grandmother, and father and mother and brother, too. The others have
+all disappeared, and you are all I have left. It is sad to be orphans,’
+she wailed again, in her thought-transference language; ‘but if one has
+to be an orphan, it is better to be twins.’
+
+Now Sally and Oxford Gray, Junior, had been so busy about their own
+concerns that they had not noticed that a lady came to the bow window
+of the house that said ‘Welcome, Cats,’ in its secret language, and
+that her eyes rested on the brother and sister in their fur coats,
+and so it was a great surprise when they saw her come down the piazza
+steps. They were frightened and scampered off as fast as they could go.
+The lady put a large blue-and-white dinner plate down on the grass and,
+looking around her as if searching for the kittens, she went back into
+the house.
+
+‘Poor darlings,’ she said, and there were tears in her eyes; ‘poor
+kittens to have lost their mother when they were so young!’
+
+A faint odor of fish greeted the kittens.
+
+‘I do believe there is fish on that plate,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior.
+‘Let us go and see.’
+
+When they reached the plate, they saw it had on it a large piece of
+mackerel cut in mouthfuls that would just suit them and some potato and
+green vegetable about the color of grass. Perhaps it was cooked grass.
+They had never seen it before. It had a most satisfying smell. Then the
+hungry kittens leaned over the blue-and-white plate, one on one side
+and one on the other, and they hungrily ate the delicious fish. Sally
+ate daintily and slowly, but Oxford Gray, Junior, gobbled his portion
+down very fast and then ate what was left of Sally’s share.
+
+Sally hit him with her paw. There were things that even the gentle
+Sally could not stand.
+
+‘That isn’t fair,’ she said.
+
+‘I need more to keep me alive than you do,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior.
+‘If I am going to hunt for food for the pair of us, I have to be well
+fed.’
+
+‘Do you think you could catch fish?’ Sally asked. ‘I like fish even
+better than mouse.’
+
+‘Father was a mighty hunter, but I never heard that he was a
+fisherman,’ said her brother. ‘I am afraid I shall have to stick to
+hunting. But we are all right for to-day, Sally. Always trust to me.
+Did not I tell you something would turn up?’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE COLD NIGHT
+
+
+It rained that afternoon, a cold piercing rain and the thermometer went
+down. Nothing like the cold had been known for years in the month of
+May. But the kittens did not know this, as they had only weeks to judge
+by. They were afraid this sort of weather might last for many days.
+
+‘Where can we spend the night?’ Sally asked Oxford Gray, Junior.
+
+Oxford Gray, for once, was at a loss.
+
+‘If only Elvira would come to the door of the gray house and see us,
+she would be sure to let us in.’
+
+‘I don’t know about houses,’ said Sally. ‘Mother warned me about
+houses. She said she had lost faith in every one since her first owners
+were so unkind and left her to starve when they moved to another town.’
+
+‘Father did not feel that way,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘He said
+Elvira let him into the house one night when there was a great
+snowstorm, whatever that is. He said if trouble ever came and we could
+get where Elvira could see us, we’d be safe and happy.’
+
+‘Does the house belong to Elvira?’
+
+‘Father wasn’t sure. He had been told it belonged to Miss Winifred
+Mann. But he said if it did, it seemed strange she should take so
+little interest in it. He said she seemed to be out of it most of the
+time, while Elvira stayed in it and made it look pretty and cooked
+lots of meals for people and cats, especially cats. Father said Miss
+Winifred wasn’t a bad sort, and that she could talk very pleasantly to
+a cat, but that was very little good if a fellow wanted a square meal.
+Anyway, the house is the thing to go to on a stormy night like this.
+Maybe this is a snowstorm.’
+
+‘It can’t be,’ said Sally. ‘Father said snow was white, and that it
+made the earth look pretty. Oh, dear, I wish he hadn’t gone away.’
+
+‘Brace up, Sally,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior, who felt it would be
+easier to brace up himself if he had the satisfaction of scolding some
+one.
+
+‘Where are we to spend the night if we can’t get into the house?’ Sally
+asked. ‘That place under the piazza has been fixed so that nothing can
+get in any more.’
+
+‘There are other places where we might find shelter,’ said Oxford Gray,
+Junior. ‘I’ll go and explore.’
+
+‘I’ll come along with you,’ said Sally, who did not like to be left
+alone. ‘When I think of my brave father and my darling mother----’
+
+‘Oh, shut up, Sally,’ said her brother.
+
+As Sally was wise beyond her weeks, she knew that Oxford Gray, Junior,
+must be very cold and unhappy, or he would not be so cross, so with her
+usual wisdom she said:
+
+‘Oxford Gray, Junior, you will have to be like a father to me, you are
+so brave, and I will try to be a mother to you; at least, I can be
+loving.’
+
+At these words Oxford Gray, Junior, felt a pleasant glow about the
+region of his heart and the cold rain did not seem to matter so much.
+He did not say anything, for he was a shy kitten so far as expressing
+his feelings was concerned, but Sally knew by the expression of his
+face that he was pleased with her words.
+
+‘If we are orphans, it is good to be twins,’ she said again.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The kittens wandered about in the heavy rain. They were cold and
+forlorn, but Sally did not dare to speak of her brave father or her
+kind mother again. The two houses that stood inside the same fence
+seemed asleep. No one came to any of the windows.
+
+‘Let’s go down into the street,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘Perhaps
+in some of the houses on the street there will be some one who likes
+kittens.’
+
+It was quite a long way to the street, down a winding avenue, so the
+kittens took a short cut through the Wild Wood, and when the street
+was reached Oxford Gray, Junior, was timid about crossing it, for
+automobiles were going by very fast.
+
+‘It hardly seems safe for you to cross, Sally,’ he said. ‘I think I had
+better go and look around first.’
+
+‘I don’t want to be left behind,’ said Sally, and before Oxford Gray,
+Junior, knew what she was doing, Sally had gone across the street so
+fast that it seemed as if she were flying. Oxford Gray, Junior, watched
+his chance and went across to join her.
+
+They went along past the row of apartment houses, but no one came out
+to say a friendly word to the unfortunate kittens.
+
+‘Let’s go around to the back of the houses,’ said Sally. ‘I’m very
+hungry. Maybe some one will give us something to eat.’
+
+Oxford Gray, Junior, followed his enterprising sister, and there on the
+back porch of a house was a saucer of milk. They could hardly believe
+their eyes.
+
+‘Didn’t I tell you,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior, ‘that something nice
+would happen?’
+
+Oxford Gray, Junior, took his place on one side of the saucer of milk,
+and Sally took her place on the other side and they began to lap the
+milk in haste. When it was all but gone, they heard the opening of a
+door, and Sally saw an angry woman coming out of it.
+
+‘You little thieves, you little scoundrels!’ said the woman. ‘You come
+and steal our cat’s milk!’
+
+‘They were probably very hungry,’ said a man in a kind voice.
+
+‘It’s bad enough to feed one cat, because you are so daft on them,’
+said the woman, ‘but I can’t feed the whole neighborhood. Scat! Get
+away with you and never show your tiger faces here any more, you brats!’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The kittens fairly flew down the steps and out into the pouring rain.
+
+‘Well, we had a good meal, anyhow,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘How
+could we tell the milk wasn’t meant for any kitten that got there
+first?’
+
+They went back to the Wild Wood. It seemed more like home than any
+other place, and Oxford Gray, Junior, always had the hope that the door
+of the gray house on the hill might open and kind Elvira come out and
+welcome him.
+
+At last they found an opening under one of the piazzas. This one had
+not as yet been fixed so that no animal could crawl in and take shelter
+there. It was a small hole, but large enough for Sally to get in
+easily. Oxford Gray, Junior, had to squeeze in.
+
+‘Didn’t I tell you that we should find shelter?’ he said.
+
+Sally wanted to say, ‘Oh, shut up!’ but, being wise beyond her weeks,
+she said nothing.
+
+She did not like the shelter. It was not her idea of what a home should
+be. There were cracks in the boards that let in some of the rain, and
+there was a musty smell that she did not like, and it was cold, even
+there.
+
+Oxford Gray, Junior, fell asleep long before she did. She stayed awake
+a long time, trying to plan out some way of getting into some warm
+house where they could have a fire and some good food to eat. Her
+mother had told her of such a house where she had spent her early days
+before her owners moved away and left her behind, and her brave father
+had told her of three where he had been an honored guest.
+
+The rain kept on pattering on the boards overhead, and Sally grew more
+and more forlorn and thought of her brave father and her dear mother,
+and life seemed hard. She was provoked with her brother for taking
+things so calmly.
+
+What should she do without him, though?
+
+At last she went to sleep, repeating to herself her refrain, ‘If one
+has to be an orphan, it is better to be twins.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CAPTURE
+
+
+The next morning the sun shone brightly, and this in itself made the
+kittens feel in better spirits. Oxford Gray, Junior, who had had a
+fine night’s sleep, was positively gay, and Sally forbore to mention
+her brave father and her dear mother. Perhaps, after all, Oxford Gray,
+Junior, was right and something would turn up.
+
+And something did turn up. It was toward the end of the afternoon, and
+they were beginning to wonder where they were to get their next meal.
+Oxford Gray, Junior, had caught a fly or two and found some bugs, but
+he had not been able to get a mouse. He had felt it important to keep
+up his own strength, as he had to take care of Sally, and she ought
+to learn to brace up and look out for herself. She did get a couple of
+bugs, and they had had a little grass, but no plate of fish had been
+put out for them again, for no one had seen them.
+
+They were at play under the giant rhododendron bush that was on the
+south side of the pretty house that was not friendly to cats, when the
+exciting event happened. The front door opened, and out of it came a
+very pretty young lady. She had yellow hair and wore a pretty blue
+dress, and was exactly the sort of a lady that Sally would like to be
+herself, with a warm house to live in with plenty of food.
+
+‘Goodness,’ said the pretty girl, ‘something must be done about you,
+poor little dears,’ and she looked from Sally to Oxford Gray, Junior.
+‘If only my cook liked cats--as it is, I can’t keep you myself.’
+
+She stooped and picked Sally up and started in the direction of the
+gray house on the hill.
+
+When Sally found that Oxford Gray, Junior, was left behind, she was
+very unhappy. She kept saying in her own language: ‘Please, I can’t be
+separated from my dear, brave brother. I have lost my grandmother, and
+my darling mother, so cozy and so kind, and my brave father, the mighty
+hunter, and my brother is all I have.’
+
+The lady, however, did not seem to understand, for she went straight on
+toward the gray house. Then Sally began to struggle frantically to get
+out of the hand of the pretty lady. She scratched as hard as she could
+with her small claws. Without Oxford Gray, Junior, there would be no
+happiness in life. She would rather live in the Wild Wood with him and
+be hungry and cold than to be warm and well fed without him.
+
+‘It is wicked to separate twins,’ she said, but, in spite of all her
+scratchings, the lady walked on to the door of the gray house.
+
+As they approached the door, to Sally’s joy, she saw with her own
+bright eyes the sign her father had described to her, ‘Welcome, Cats.’
+There was a knocker on the door and the pretty lady gave a loud rap,
+and presently it was opened and Elvira stood before them. Sally was
+sure it was Elvira, for she had the beaming look when she saw Sally
+that her father had described.
+
+‘What shall I do about this kitten?’ the pretty lady asked. ‘I can’t
+keep it, and the mother does not seem to be around.’
+
+‘There are two of them,’ said Elvira; ‘I have seen two.’
+
+‘Yes, there is another one outside, but he was scampering off so fast I
+don’t know that I can catch him.’
+
+‘Oh, please do,’ Sally said in her own language, ‘or else let me go, I
+can’t be separated from him.’
+
+At last she had come across some one who understood kitten language,
+for Elvira said: ‘It would be a pity to separate them. Wherever they
+go, they should be kept together. Miss Mann has not planned to have any
+more cats, and yet, if she sees the kittens, maybe--at any rate, I’ll
+give them shelter for the night and a good square meal.’
+
+‘I’ll see if I can catch the other,’ said the lady.
+
+‘That will be very kind of you, Mrs. Conant,’ said Elvira.
+
+‘Mrs. Conant’--so she was a married lady. Sally had not dreamed of
+this, she looked so young.
+
+Now, Oxford Gray, Junior, when he was left alone was very
+disconsolate. He had not realized how fond he was of his little sister.
+To lose Sally--why, to lose her was like losing the sun out of the sky.
+Sally might be sad and woe-begone, just as the sun might hide behind
+clouds, but you knew the bright Sally would come back. And now she had
+gone, and it might be that she, too, like his grandmother, and his
+father, and mother, would never be seen again.
+
+‘I’d be better to her if I only had her back,’ said Oxford Gray,
+Junior. ‘I’d let her have more of the food, but of course she really
+ought to learn to brace up.’
+
+It seemed a long time to Oxford Gray, Junior, before the lady came down
+the steps of the house without Sally, for when one is not many weeks
+old, minutes seem very long.
+
+‘What have you done with my sister?’ Oxford Gray, Junior, asked
+sternly; but the lady, although she looked unusually intelligent,
+evidently could not understand his language.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Well, at any rate, he was not going to be caught until he knew more
+about the lady. So he made a mad dash for the garden. The lady ran
+after him and they had an exciting race. He jumped up on top of a
+barrel and she reached after him; he went under a garden seat, and
+the agile lady ducked down after him; he gave a flying leap, and it
+almost seemed as if she gave a flying leap, too. At last, panting
+and exhausted, he stopped for breath and the lady captured him. He,
+like his sister, scratched her pretty hand. She went straight to the
+door through which she had taken Sally. She gave a loud rap with the
+knocker and Elvira appeared at the door.
+
+‘I have caught the other one,’ she said.
+
+‘Bless his furry heart and his pink nose,’ said Elvira. ‘I am sure this
+one is a boy; he seems so brave and he led you such a chase.’
+
+Then Oxford Gray, Junior, swelled with pride.
+
+‘He’s the image of his father, Oxford Gray,’ said Elvira, ‘even to the
+pink nose. He’s much fatter than the other kitten, but she seems a dear
+little thing.’
+
+‘Well, I’ll leave the pair of them in your care,’ said Mrs. Conant, as
+she put Oxford Gray, Junior, down on the floor.
+
+Sally was perfectly delighted to see her brother, and he was very glad
+to see her.
+
+Meanwhile Elvira was getting something out of the pantry for them. She
+brought out two saucers of milk. It was very delicious, and when Oxford
+Gray, Junior, had finished his saucer, he came around to help Sally
+with hers. She gave him a slap with her paw, but it had no effect.
+
+‘It is my saucer of milk,’ said Sally.
+
+‘You should lap faster! It is mine now,’ he said.
+
+‘Aren’t they dears?’ said Elvira’s friend, Miss Harvey, ‘poor little
+things.’
+
+‘I like this one best, he shall be mine,’ Elvira said, as she captured
+Oxford Gray, Junior, and held him in her arms. ‘See how much he looks
+like his noble father, Oxford Gray?’
+
+‘Then this one shall be mine,’ and Miss Harvey took the small Sally in
+her arms. ‘The poor little thing looks thin and half-starved, but she
+is a dear little kitten with such a pretty face.’
+
+At these words Sally felt very happy, for no one had said anything so
+kind to her since her mother died.
+
+‘Poor little orphan,’ said Miss Harvey, ‘I will be a second mother to
+you.’
+
+Sally thought how cozy and sweet Miss Harvey looked, and Miss Harvey’s
+big heart went out to the forlorn little creature in her arms. Suddenly
+Sally put her two paws around Miss Harvey’s neck.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE KITTENS AND MISS WINIFRED
+
+
+The next morning when Miss Winifred came into the kitchen, the kittens
+were in the clothes-basket which was under a table, so she did not
+see them. She was deciding what she would have for dinner, and at the
+sound of the word haddock, which Elvira suggested, the kittens became
+interested. It seemed that if one owned a house, all one had to do was
+to say what food one wanted. The kittens would have supposed it would
+be just the other way.
+
+When the meals were all decided on, Elvira said, ‘I had a present
+yesterday from Mrs. Conant.’
+
+‘How nice!’ said Miss Winifred, who was very fond of her young
+neighbor. ‘I am sure it was something you wanted.’
+
+‘Yes,’ said Elvira, ‘she could not have given me anything I would have
+liked better.’
+
+‘Aren’t you going to show it to me?’
+
+‘You must have three guesses first.’
+
+‘I think it is an apron,’ said Miss Winifred.
+
+‘No, it is something with more warmth in it than an apron.’
+
+‘It must be a sweater.’
+
+‘No, it is warmer still.’
+
+‘It isn’t the right season for a fur neck-piece,’ said Miss Winifred.
+
+‘It is made of fur, though,’ said Elvira, and she picked up Oxford
+Gray, Junior, and held him before Miss Winifred’s astonished eyes.
+‘Isn’t he the living image of his father, Oxford Gray?’ she asked.
+
+Now, Miss Winifred’s heart softened the moment she saw Oxford Gray,
+Junior, but she had determined not to have another cat, so she tried to
+look stern.
+
+‘I never did like a tiger kitten with white feet so well as an all
+tiger cat. Sam used to look like a miniature tiger in the jungle,’
+and at the memory of Sam, Miss Winifred looked sad, for this pet of
+Elvira’s had found his way to her heart. ‘He will always have dirty
+feet, just as his father had.’ She put on her eye-glasses so as to see
+him better. ‘I don’t think you are so very much to look at,’ she said,
+hardening her heart.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Oxford Gray, Junior’s feelings were deeply hurt.
+
+‘I have said I never wanted another cat,’ Miss Winifred added.
+
+‘I never expected he would be yours,’ said Elvira; ‘of course it’s your
+house, but you wouldn’t want to be alone in it.’
+
+At this Miss Winifred laughed merrily and her glasses tumbled off.
+
+‘Of course, we’ll have to keep the kitten for two or three days until
+he has had a few meals and then we can take him to the Ellen Gifford
+Home; they find such good places for cats.’
+
+‘I don’t think they could find a better home than this,’ said Elvira.
+
+‘We might find a home for him where the mistress is just longing for a
+cat,’ said Miss Winifred.
+
+‘There is another one,’ said Elvira, and she took the frightened Sally
+out of the clothes-basket. ‘You would not have the heart to separate a
+brother and sister.’
+
+Sally jumped out of Elvira’s hands and took refuge under a table. If
+Miss Winifred could make such unkind remarks about the appearance of
+her handsome brother, what would she say when she saw her!
+
+But you never could foresee what Miss Winifred would do. As soon as
+she saw thin little Sally with her pitiful expression, her heart was
+touched.
+
+‘Poor little thing,’ she said. ‘We must certainly feed her up before
+we take her to the Home. We can get Mrs. Conant to run us up there in
+her car, just before Elvira and I start for New Hampshire, Miss Harvey,
+so that you will not have to be bothered with the care of two little
+kittens while we are gone.’
+
+The kittens liked their new home, and they hoped very much that they
+would not be sent away, for surely no one could be kinder than Elvira
+and Miss Harvey.
+
+They were always running around the kitchen whenever Miss Winifred went
+there, and, as she was very near-sighted, she once stepped on Sally’s
+tail.
+
+Sally and Oxford Gray, Junior, talked the matter over.
+
+‘Her feet seem always getting in our way,’ said Sally.
+
+‘I am glad she is going to New Hampshire,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior.
+‘We’ll have a little peace, but I wish Elvira wasn’t going with her.’
+
+They were glad, on the whole, that no one could understand their
+language, although it would be convenient at times to be understood.
+
+Elvira was somewhat troubled by them, but she loved them too well to
+think of parting with them, and soon, when they had grown used to their
+new home, it would be safe to let them out-of-doors again.
+
+By the time Miss Winifred and Elvira came back from New Hampshire, Miss
+Harvey and the kittens had become such firm friends that nothing more
+was said about sending them to the Ellen Gifford Home.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE FRIENDLY HOUSE
+
+
+Sally was sure she liked houses. She liked the house where her new
+friends lived from the very start. A corner under a piazza where the
+rain could come through the cracks in the boards overhead had never
+seemed her idea of what a home should be, nor did she care to spend
+most of her time out-of-doors looking for food which was hard to find.
+So she settled down quite contentedly, and it did not trouble her that,
+while Elvira and Miss Winifred were in New Hampshire, Miss Harvey kept
+her and Oxford Gray, Junior, in the house. She always spoke of the
+three ladies in the following order, Miss Harvey, Elvira, and Miss
+Winifred. Her brother told her that she should speak of Miss Winifred
+first because she was the oldest and the owner of the house, and of
+Miss Harvey next, and Elvira last, because she was the youngest of the
+three, but Sally persisted in her own way.
+
+‘I love Miss Harvey best, so I speak of her first, and I love Miss
+Winifred less than the others, so she comes last.’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was not until Elvira and Miss Winifred had been at home some days
+that Miss Harvey said to Sally one morning, ‘You are such a good little
+kitten, I am going to let you through into the other part of the house
+while I am dusting the rooms.’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Sally had always wondered what was on the other side of the door. She
+had heard from her father that the rooms were large and that there
+were many pictures of Miss Winifred’s ancestors hanging on the walls.
+He had told her there was a portrait of Miss Winifred’s mother over
+the mantelpiece in the hall. Sally had never seen a picture, and so
+she looked at them with great interest. So that little girl in a fur
+cape was Miss Winifred’s mother! How odd it seemed that a lady so
+old herself had had a mother who was once a little girl! There were
+other portraits in the parlor and dining-room, all pictures of Miss
+Winifred’s relations, she was sure.
+
+She looked in vain for any pictures of her own ancestors. Surely so
+many Furbush-Tailbys had lived in the house, she should think Miss
+Winifred would have framed portraits of them hanging on the walls. Her
+great-great-grandmother, Martha Furbush-Tailby, would have made a nice
+picture, and her great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby, the poet,
+would certainly have been an ornament to the walls. And these relations
+of Miss Mann’s looked so queer in their old-fashioned clothes, while
+her own ancestors would have looked as much up-to-date as Oxford Gray,
+Junior, himself, for she had been told they all had the gray tiger
+markings and broad white shirt-fronts like himself, and every one of
+them had white feet. And so far as tails were concerned, they were
+all noted for the fine tiger markings; she herself was proud of her
+tail. Yes, it would have made the sober green walls of the parlor
+far pleasanter to look at if there had been portraits there of her
+ancestors.
+
+At last she saw a picture with a house and church in the distance, and
+there, walking on the grass in the foreground, were two ladies, and a
+little boy, and a dog. Here at last was an animal. The ladies wore long
+skirts that trailed on the grass and bonnets that hid their faces, and
+the little boy wore odd clothes, too, but the dog looked exactly like
+one that Sally had met in the Wild Wood and scampered away from.
+
+‘Yes,’ said Sally, ‘it only shows how sensible and superior animals
+are, to be so made that they never have to change with the fashion.’
+
+There was another room that was filled with books. It had a desk in
+it and Miss Winifred’s typewriter, and a sofa that looked as if it
+would be a pleasant place for a kitten to take a nap. There were
+window-seats, too. The sun was pouring in on them. Sally jumped up on
+one and settled down. The sun felt warm and pleasant on her back.
+
+‘It is a friendly house,’ said Sally. ‘I like it, but some of the
+pictures would look so much nicer with kittens in them. The little
+girl with the fur over her shoulders would look much sweeter if she
+had a kitten in her arms. I am sure she would have loved a nice, furry
+kitten.’
+
+There was a mantelpiece in this room that Sally longed to explore, for
+there were candelabra on it, one at either end with two candles in each
+of them and dangling metal things hanging down from them that Sally
+longed to play with. She knew they could swing, for she saw Miss Harvey
+dusting them, so while Miss Harvey was dusting the table, she jumped up
+on the mantelpiece by way of the sofa and began to play with them.
+
+When she went back into the kitchen, she told Oxford Gray, Junior,
+about the charms of the friendly house. He was greatly interested when
+he heard of the mantelpiece with the candlesticks with the swinging
+pendants.
+
+‘I think maybe Miss Harvey wouldn’t like you to touch them,’ said Sally.
+
+‘Miss Harvey!’ He spoke a little contemptuously. ‘Why should I do any
+more harm than you?’
+
+So the kittens watched their chance, and one day they slipped through
+the door that was left partly open so that Miss Harvey could hear the
+telephone in the other part of the house.
+
+Oxford Gray, Junior, hardly paused to look at anything in the other
+rooms. He did not care for the portraits of Miss Winifred’s ancestors.
+
+‘They all have on such old-fashioned clothes,’ he said. ‘Our ancestors
+would look much more up-to-date.’
+
+‘That is what I thought myself,’ said Sally.
+
+Oxford and Sally went into the library where the candelabra stood on
+the mantelpiece.
+
+‘There’ll be a candlestick for each of us to play with,’ said Sally.
+
+Oxford thought it would be exciting to get to the mantelpiece ahead of
+Sally, and Sally wanted to get there first, so they had a mad race to
+the sofa and then they gave a jump that landed them on the mantelpiece.
+Alas! the mantelpiece was not wide enough for the pair of them, and the
+first thing they knew was that they had knocked one of the candlesticks
+off the mantelpiece and had tumbled off themselves and were lying on
+the floor with the ruins of the broken wax candles.
+
+The kittens were very much frightened. Sally rushed under the sofa and
+Oxford Gray, Junior, took refuge under a chair.
+
+Elvira, who was in the kitchen, heard the noise, and came in to see
+what had happened. They heard her step in the hall.
+
+‘If we are very quiet,’ said Sally, in her thought-transference
+language, ‘Elvira will never find us. She’ll think the candlestick just
+fell off of itself.’
+
+‘For mercy sakes!’ said Elvira, as she saw the broken candles on the
+floor. ‘You little rascal, what have you been doing?’ and she fixed her
+eyes on Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I suppose Sally is somewhere about. Oh,
+yes! there she is under the sofa.’
+
+‘It wasn’t our fault,’ said Oxford. ‘It is just the fault of that old
+mantelpiece--it’s too narrow. Miss Winifred ought to have made her
+house more convenient for kittens.’
+
+But, alas! Elvira couldn’t understand his language.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SALLY AND THE CLOCK
+
+
+What Sally missed more than anything in her restricted life in the
+house was trees. There was something that was called a hat-tree in the
+hall, but it was a poor thing with no branches and merely a series
+of pegs, on which some garments hung at times. And in the parlor
+there was a very tall tree that Miss Harvey called a palm, that was
+no good for climbing purposes, because it was so slimsy. Sally could
+not see why Miss Winifred did not have an oak tree instead, for there
+were plenty of them around the Wild Wood and one of them would never
+be missed. If there had never been cats living here before, Sally
+could have understood it, but there had been so many living here. Her
+great-great-grandmother, Martha Furbush-Tailby, had lived here, and
+her great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby, had been born in the
+house. She should have supposed Miss Winifred would have wanted to make
+things comfortable for them.
+
+Sally and Oxford Gray, Junior, took to climbing Elvira and Miss Harvey
+as a substitute for trees. They preferred Elvira when she was in a
+friendly mood because she was so much taller, but she occasionally made
+disrespectful remarks, and said such words as ‘You little rascals, you
+little villains, you’ve torn my apron.’ Miss Harvey, on the other hand,
+seemed to understand, and not to mind the sudden surprise of a kitten
+running up her dress and landing on her shoulder and then pulling a
+comb out of her hair.
+
+‘The poor little dears, they have no trees to climb,’ she would say.
+‘They’ll be all right as soon as they are so used to the house that
+they will not run away if we let them out.’
+
+There was another thing Sally could not understand. It did not seem
+at all reasonable to her that on cold days in June, when the house
+felt damp, there was no fire in the furnace. She had learned that the
+registers were places where heat came up in the winter. But why not
+have a furnace fire in summer when it was cold? Certainly cats could
+run a house much better than people if they had the chance.
+
+Although Miss Winifred had not been thoughtful enough to make
+mantelpieces wide enough for two kittens to walk there together, Sally
+did not by any means give up her desire to explore such delightful
+walks. In the kitchen the clock on a small shelf had a pointed roof and
+that in the dining-room had an ornament on top of it, but the parlor
+clock had a flat roof, so to speak, and Sally was sure it would be a
+grand place to sit and see the world from a high place, just as people
+saw it, for the top of the clock was only a little lower than Miss
+Harvey’s head. There were no candlesticks on this mantelpiece and the
+small ornaments were so placed as to leave plenty of room for a cat.
+There were two routes to the desired spot, one was by a low bookcase
+which could be reached by a chair, and the other, by the way of the
+piano. This Sally decided would be the best, for one of her favorite
+seats was the piano, which could be easily reached by a chair.
+
+Miss Harvey was reading aloud to Miss Winifred at the time. She had
+found that Sally was such a good kitten and stepped so daintily that
+she let her go wherever she liked. So she climbed from a chair to the
+piano and then gave a leap to the mantelpiece, and then she got up on
+top of the clock. She found it a comfortable seat, and it was fine to
+be so high up, for she could look down on the heads of dear Miss Harvey
+and Miss Winifred, who really wasn’t a bad sort, except for her feet
+that were always getting in one’s way. The room looked very different
+now she was so high up. This must be the way it looked to people, with
+the rug very far off and no one noticing the table legs. She was in no
+hurry to get down from her high perch, so she sat there a long time
+washing her face.
+
+‘Look at Sally!’ said Miss Harvey.
+
+Miss Winifred put on her glasses.
+
+Just then a singular thing happened that gave Sally a scare. Something
+inside the clock went off. She had heard clocks strike before, of
+course, but never when she was so near. It was the loudest thing she
+had ever heard. ‘One, two, three’--by this time the frightened Sally
+was off the clock and on the mantelpiece, preparing to give a flying
+leap to the piano, but her curiosity overcame her fear, and she looked
+behind the clock to see if she could find out where the noise came
+from. ‘Four, five, six’--by this time she was on the piano again. Would
+the thing never stop? Had she set something going by being on top of
+it? ‘Seven, eight.’ That was all. She hoped she had not ruined it. But
+of one thing she was sure. She would never try to view the world again
+from the top of the parlor clock.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CATNIP MOUSE
+
+
+There is a first time for everything, whether one is a little girl, or
+a boy, or a kitten. For a little girl, there is her first doll, and
+later her first pretty doll with real hair and blue eyes that will
+open and shut. For a boy there is his first ball, and his first set of
+marbles; but if you are a kitten, greater than all of these joys put
+together is the thrill that comes when you have your first catnip mouse.
+
+Oxford Gray, Junior, and Sally could measure their young lives by
+months instead of weeks before this exciting event occurred. They
+had heard there were such things, for there had been a tradition in
+the family of a glorious catnip mouse that had belonged to their
+ancestress, Martha Furbush-Tailby. But it is one thing to hear about a
+catnip mouse and quite another to have it for one’s very own plaything.
+
+Cool days and nights had come. It was the autumn, and all things furry
+were seeking snug quarters for the winter. The kittens were glad that
+they had their cozy kitchen to live in. Oxford Gray, Junior, however,
+sometimes went off on an excursion for hours, but Sally kept pretty
+closely to the house. And besides cats and kittens, there were others
+that sought winter quarters.
+
+‘There seem to be a lot of mice about,’ Miss Winifred had said to
+Elvira. ‘I hear them in the wall.’
+
+‘I can do a good deal for you, Miss Winifred,’ said Elvira, ‘but
+catching mice is not in my line.’
+
+Miss Winifred laughed. ‘I should think some of your followers might do
+it for you,’ she said, and she looked at Oxford Gray, Junior.
+
+Although Oxford Gray, Junior, did not care much for the owner of the
+house, this put him on his mettle, and the very next night he caught
+his first mouse. The praise given him was so great that he caught
+three others within a week.
+
+It was then that Miss Winifred said to Elvira, ‘I wonder if the kittens
+are not old enough to like a catnip mouse?’
+
+‘Old enough?’ said Elvira. ‘I have been thinking for weeks they ought
+to have one, but I have been out very little it has stormed so much.’
+
+‘A catnip mouse!’ The kittens were entranced at the idea. They could
+hardly wait for the time to come when they could have one for their
+very own.
+
+It was late one November afternoon when Elvira came into the house
+after a trip to Boston. She had hardly got inside the door before the
+kittens noticed a peculiar and very delicious smell. It seemed to them
+to be sweeter than the odor of roses and violets and mignonette and
+sweet peas. They looked at each other in glad surprise.
+
+‘I am sure she has brought us a catnip mouse,’ said Sally.
+
+She got up on the kitchen table and sniffed at Elvira’s bag.
+
+‘Yes, you witch,’ said Elvira. ‘It is a catnip mouse all right, but
+you must be patient and wait until I get my things off.’
+
+Learning that it really was a catnip mouse, Oxford Gray, Junior, jumped
+up on the table and joined his sister. She was sitting there patiently,
+but Oxford Gray, Junior, began to claw at the bag to try to get at the
+catnip mouse.
+
+‘You are a bad kitten,’ said Elvira, taking her bag away. ‘You don’t
+deserve the catnip mouse. Why can’t you behave well like your sister?’
+
+‘It was I that caught all those mice. Sally could never catch a mouse
+to save her life,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior.
+
+‘I could, too, and I will some day,’ said Sally.
+
+But even the intelligent Elvira did not seem to understand what was
+being said.
+
+Elvira undid her bag and flung something down on the floor. It was
+the catnip mouse. It was shaped like a real mouse, and was full of
+catnip. Oxford and Sally ran toward it. Sally had it in her mouth and
+Oxford knocked it with his paw. Sally dropped it and Oxford tried to
+capture it. And then to their surprise, another of the wonderful things
+fell to the floor. There were two of them! Two catnip mice--one for
+each of them! Who but Elvira would have thought of bringing home two
+catnip mice. Oxford took his mouse and ran under the table to enjoy it
+by himself, and Sally went under a chair with hers. The mice were so
+marvelous the kittens were afraid that some one would take them away
+after a short time.
+
+Such thoughts they had as they inhaled the delicious scent. Oxford came
+out into the room at last and threw his mouse up into the air. It fell
+lightly to the ground. Then Sally came out with her mouse and threw
+it up into the air. They were so excited and overstimulated that they
+began to break into verse.
+
+  Elvira, Elvira, how we admire her!
+  We give her warmest praise.
+  She must sometime have been a cat,
+  We both are very sure of that,
+  A cat who lived in prehistoric days.
+  Elvira, Elvira, how we admire her!
+
+It seemed almost as if Elvira had understood, for she said to Miss
+Harvey, ‘See how excited the kittens are. It reminds me of Martha
+Furbush-Tailby’s first catnip mouse and her verses.’
+
+  Sweet are the lessons of adversity,
+    At least so people say;
+  But sweeter is prosperity,
+    I’ve learned that much to-day.
+
+  For when the catnip mouse is new
+    And full of catnip strength,
+  The hours fly by on shining wings
+    Not measured by their length.
+
+  If I were asked what I would like
+    To beautify my house,
+  I’d say without a moment’s thought,
+    ‘Give me a catnip mouse.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE FIRST SNOWSTORM
+
+
+Sally sat at the window watching her first snowstorm. She was entranced
+by the way the flakes fell. They came down so softly, flying through
+the air like tiny white butterflies, and when they reached the earth,
+they all joined together in a wonderful white blanket.
+
+‘Oxford,’ she said, ‘isn’t this a beautiful world? Doesn’t it seem as
+if millions of tiny white butterflies were coming down to cover the
+earth with a white blanket?’
+
+‘It looks more like powder to me, or rice,’ said Oxford. ‘I don’t see
+anything pretty about it. It’s just frozen rain.’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was when her brother said things like this that Sally longed
+to have children who might perhaps be like her and understand how
+truly beautiful this wonderful world is. She did so wish that her
+great-grandfather was alive, for she was sure he would be a satisfying
+companion. He was a poet, and Elvira had sometimes read some of his
+verses aloud. They had been published in a book, and there were
+others that had never been printed. She longed to ask Elvira if her
+great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby, had ever written a poem
+about a snowstorm, but, although Elvira was unusually intelligent, for
+a person, Sally could not always make her thought-transference language
+understood. This time, however, it seemed to work, for Elvira took a
+book with writing in it out of a drawer in the cupboard and she said to
+Miss Harvey, ‘Did I ever read you Billy Furbush-Tailby’s poem on “The
+First Snowstorm of the Season”?’
+
+Sally pricked up her ears, but Oxford Gray, Junior, went off to sleep,
+for verses bored him.
+
+  They fall so softly from the sky,
+    All coming down together;
+  Why did they leave the regions high
+    To give us stormy weather?
+
+  Did they take pity on the earth
+    That looked so bare and brown,
+  As if it needed a new birth,
+    And so came fluttering down?
+
+  Did they remember children small,
+    Who longed to slide and coast,
+  And so came down with a great fall
+    In a glad, joyous host?
+
+  I watch the people as they pass
+    And snowflakes as they fall,
+  I watch the puddle that’s like glass,
+    I’m glad that I am small.
+
+  For it is cozy in the house,
+    Beside the kitchen stove,
+  Watching to get a gliding mouse
+    While my three brothers rove,
+
+  And scamper through the falling flakes,
+    No thought of verse have they,
+  While kind Elvira brews and bakes,
+    Upon this snowy day,
+
+  Dishes that cats and kittens love,
+    They are a pleasant sight;
+  I let my brothers freely rove,
+    I stay at home and write.
+
+Sally was much impressed by the verses of her ancestor. She wished he
+were here now, sitting by her on the window-sill, for Oxford Gray,
+Junior, was so tiresome at times. ‘Rice, indeed, or powder!’ What a way
+to speak of these marvelous fluttering things that came down to earth
+from another country as if bringing a message of peace and good will!
+
+There was a great deal to be seen from the windows of the house. Sally
+went at an early hour to the window in the hall and sat on the broad
+leather cushion looking out. Miss Harvey had let her come through
+when she went in to dust the parlor. Sally was greatly interested in
+watching Mr. Gardiner shovel out the board walk with his big wooden
+shovel. It seemed a foolish piece of work to her, for no sooner had he
+shoveled off the snow than more came. ‘Why not wait until the snowstorm
+was over?’ thought Sally. But people were so stupid compared with cats!
+
+Mr. Gardiner looked cold and tired, and as if he would like to take
+Sally’s advice. He kept on working though, and the snowflakes kept on
+falling. It was too bad that they would not let Oxford into this part
+of the house, but ever since the candlestick had been knocked off the
+study mantelpiece, they seemed to feel one cat inside was enough. They
+had given him one or two more trials when there was a mouse inside,
+but he had clawed a sofa cushion, and scratched a piano leg, when
+sharpening his claws. If he had only behaved well, he could have been
+sitting on this green cushion watching the snowstorm, for there were
+three windows and he could have had one to himself. Mr. Gardiner spied
+Sally in the window and he made a low bow.
+
+‘He has the best manners of any man I ever saw,’ Sally thought. ‘Men
+usually do not stop to be polite to cats.’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Miss Harvey was standing in the hall just behind Sally, but Sally was
+sure the bow had been meant for herself.
+
+When Sally went back into the kitchen, she found there was much more
+to be seen there, for Elvira had thrown out some food for the birds,
+and there were sparrows and grackles and pigeons picking up the crumbs.
+There was some suet hanging on the branch of a pine tree and a bird
+was feeding on it, swinging back and forth. Sally looked across at
+the opposite house, and she saw Mrs. Conant in a storm-coat and hat
+coming over to the plank walk. Perhaps this was why Mr. Gardiner had
+been shoveling the snow off the plank walk so as to make it easier for
+people to walk there.
+
+Oxford was sitting at one of the kitchen windows, and Sally was in the
+other. Mrs. Conant waved to them and to Elvira as she passed. Here was
+another polite person.
+
+The most exciting of all the windows was the bow window in the
+dining-room at three o’clock in the afternoon. Sally had gone there for
+a change and to have a little peace, for Oxford was in a trying mood.
+Elvira came into the room with a plateful of crumbled-up bread in her
+hand and opened the window. Sally looked out and saw a dozen pheasants
+coming forward to get the bread. They all had sober feathers except
+one bird, the pheasant cock, Elvira called him. He had a beautiful
+white ring around his neck and a glorious long tail.
+
+‘It is not so fine a tail as mine,’ said Sally, for her long tail with
+its tiger markings was her chief beauty, and was often remarked on.
+‘But he has the best tail I have ever seen on a bird.’
+
+Presently a cat came up stealthily, and the pheasants took instant
+flight. The cat looked cold and hungry, and Sally thought how fortunate
+she was to be in a warm house herself. The kittens had very little milk
+for supper, for the storm was such a bad one that the milkman had not
+come.
+
+‘We can get along without milk better than Sally and Oxford can, for
+they would not understand,’ Elvira said to Miss Harvey as she put the
+last milk in the pitcher into the kittens’ saucers.
+
+‘We understand perfectly well,’ Sally said. ‘We are not such fools as
+you take us for. We can understand all that you say, and you never can
+understand us.’
+
+It was snowing when Sally and Oxford gave a last look out of the
+window before they settled down for the night, but in the morning all
+was changed, and when the sun rose, the whole world was like fairyland,
+for the branches were all glistening in the sun, as if they were made
+of glass. The kittens went out for a stroll and met Mrs. Conant and her
+husband. They kept sinking down through the crust, but Sally and Oxford
+were so light they could walk on it with ease. Mrs. Conant was wearing
+a beautiful fur coat.
+
+‘It is almost as good-looking as mine,’ thought Sally, ‘but it must be
+hard to be so big that one can’t walk on the crust. In winter I’d much
+rather be a cat.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+BUSY SALLY
+
+
+Sally was a very busy cat, and she always gave her whole attention to
+whatever she was doing, whether it was sitting on her register, or
+washing her face, or helping Miss Harvey make the beds. Indeed, Miss
+Harvey often would say, ‘Sally, you are like the little busy bee,’
+and she would repeat a part of the poem. Sally had her own opinion of
+the little busy bee, and she did not especially like to be told she
+was like him, for she had been stung by a bee on one occasion. Who
+could have suspected that anything so small could hurt one so much?
+And then where was he in winter? Certainly not gathering honey from
+every opening flower. She suspected he was in snug quarters resting and
+leading an idle life, while she was busy all the year around. First
+there was the delicious breakfast that Miss Harvey gave Oxford and
+herself, of warm milk and oatmeal, and then she spent a great deal of
+time washing herself. And she had to help Oxford, for he could not wash
+behind his ears, and then he would wash behind Sally’s ears to help her
+out. And it took a good deal of time to manicure her nails.
+
+But where she felt she was of the greatest use was in helping Miss
+Harvey with the beds, for dear Miss Harvey might have been lonely
+without her. Did she not often say, ‘You are my little comfort’? To
+be sure she sometimes said, ‘Troublesome comfort,’ but it was a great
+deal to be any comfort. Sally never heard Miss Harvey call any one
+else in the house a comfort, not even Oxford, who deserved such words,
+for he was ridding the house of mice. So Miss Harvey and Sally would
+go upstairs to make the beds; as soon as Miss Harvey had turned back
+the mattress and put on a sheet, Sally would jump on the bed and knead
+the sheet with her paws. But she liked to get on the blankets much the
+best, they were so soft and woolly, and sometimes after patticaking
+them well and going around in a circle as if she were making a bed
+for herself in the Wild Wood, she would curl herself up in a ball and
+settle down for a nap. It was then that Miss Harvey would call her a
+troublesome comfort and gently take her off and put her on a chair. But
+Sally would be back again and on the spread.
+
+One of Sally’s most interesting occupations was looking out of the
+windows. There was so much to be seen even in winter, but when the
+spring came and there was a faint green fuzz on the trees, and the
+birds came back from the South and began to sing, and Sally could sun
+herself out-of-doors, she was busier than ever.
+
+At this time of year the nights were more interesting than the days,
+and she was only sorry that her dear Miss Harvey did not agree with her
+as to how a night should be spent. Miss Harvey seemed to think that all
+cats ought to be in bed at a certain hour, like people, whereas every
+cat knows that so much goes on at night one hates to miss that it is
+hard to be forced to stay in the house. Sally spent a great deal of
+time sleeping by day. That was the sensible way. To race about until
+one was tired and then take a long nap. And these naps could be taken
+at noon when it was too hot to be out-of-doors. But even though Sally
+was closed in at night, there was a great deal going on which she could
+enjoy. There were concerts given by her cat friends, and there was the
+wonderful moonlight that made it so bright out-of-doors, and there was
+the excitement of the sound of the scurrying of small feet through the
+walls and the thought that perhaps one could catch another mouse. She
+agreed with her ancestress, Martha Furbush-Tailby, about these things,
+and liked her verses on the subject.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  How can one ever sleep at night,
+  When mice are scampering through the walls,
+  And other cats long for a fight,
+  And give their piercing, shrill cat-calls?
+  How can one ever sleep at night,
+  When the great moon is round and bright?
+
+  Long naps by day, I like that best.
+  When the great sun is hot and bright,
+  That seems the time to take a rest,
+  After a long and strenuous night.
+  It would be strange to live by rule,
+  As children do who go to school.
+
+Sometimes Sally would go into the room where all the books were, and
+Miss Winifred had her writing-desk and her typewriter. Sally would
+sit patiently by her mouse-hole and Miss Winifred would sit by her
+typewriter with her hands in her lap, for it sometimes seemed to be
+as hard to catch ideas as to catch a mouse, and then suddenly Miss
+Winifred’s fingers would fly over the keys and the black writing would
+come out on the paper. Sally had many ideas herself, in fact she was
+never at a loss for them. She wished she could write on the typewriter,
+and once, when Miss Winifred had left it uncovered with a sheet of
+paper in it, she had walked over the keys, but she could not make it
+write. She wanted to write a letter to dear Miss Harvey to tell her how
+she loved her. Of course Miss Harvey must know in part how she felt,
+for she so often put her paws around her neck and pressed her face
+against hers, but a letter could tell more.
+
+So one day when Miss Winifred had left a sheet of typewriting paper on
+her desk, Sally skipped onto it. She looked down and saw that the marks
+of her paws were plainly to be seen. This was what the footprints said:
+
+  DEAR MISS HARVEY:
+
+  I love you best of all the people in the house. In some ways you
+  are dearer than Oxford, although I could not get along without my
+  splendid twin brother, but you make me think of my own dear mother,
+  for you are so cozy and so kind. Of course she did not look like you,
+  for she was just a small cat like myself. I mean you are like her in
+  disposition. It is Sally Gray writing this. It is the first letter
+  I ever wrote. I just had to thank you for all your kindness. Elvira
+  is nice, too, but not as gentle as you are, and Miss Winifred doesn’t
+  mean to step on my tail, only you never step on it, not even by
+  accident, so some people are more thoughtful than others.
+
+                                     Your own most loving
+
+                                                                   SALLY
+
+She heard Miss Winifred coming and jumped down on the floor. Miss
+Winifred took up the sheet of paper and was about to put it into the
+typewriter.
+
+‘Don’t,’ Sally pleaded in her thought-transference language. ‘That is
+my letter to Miss Harvey, the first I ever wrote.’
+
+But Miss Winifred could not understand. She looked at the paper a
+little more closely with her near-sighted eyes.
+
+‘Goodness, you little witch,’ she said, ‘you have walked all over my
+sheet.’
+
+Sally saw that she was about to put it into the waste-paper basket.
+
+‘It is my letter,’ Sally repeated in her own language. How she wished
+she had human speech! But this time it really seemed as if Miss
+Winifred understood, for she called to Miss Harvey, who was setting the
+table in the dining-room.
+
+‘Come here a minute and see what Sally has done,’ she said as she held
+up the sheet. ‘See Sally’s paw-marks all over the paper. I think she
+must have been writing a love-letter to you.’
+
+Sally never knew whether Miss Harvey could read what she had written,
+but, after all, it did not make much difference whether or not she
+could make out the actual words, for she seemed so pleased to have it.
+
+‘Dear little Sally,’ she said, and she stopped to stroke the pussy in
+passing her. ‘So you thought you would write a letter? I must show it
+to Elvira.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MOODS
+
+
+Sally was a cat with moods. When she was well and busy, she was a happy
+kitten, but if there was the least thing wrong with her, she felt very
+forlorn. It was at these times that she thought of her dear mother and
+lamented her loss, for even dear Miss Harvey, who understood so well
+the feelings of a cat, could not quite make up for a furry mother who
+would put her paw about her and wash her when she was too tired to do
+it for herself. Oxford was not of much use as a sympathizer, and yet
+Sally always had the hope that he would be.
+
+So one hot summer day, when Sally felt very unhappy and as if she were
+of no use to any one, she spoke to Oxford of her feelings.
+
+‘I feel as if I were a perfectly useless cat,’ she said. ‘You can do so
+much for the family.’
+
+The kittens were in the shade of the oak tree near the front door. It
+was a delightful spot, for they could have a view of the path, and see
+any one who went up or down it. Then, too, if any one came to the door,
+like the postman, they could take the chance to slip into the house,
+without bothering to go around to the back door.
+
+Oxford made no reply.
+
+Suddenly Sally remembered something she had heard in a sermon that
+Elvira was reading out of a newspaper. The preacher had said that the
+best way to forget one’s own troubles was to do something for some one
+else.
+
+‘Oxford, wouldn’t you like me to wash around your ears?’ she said.
+
+‘Oh, bother, no,’ said Oxford.
+
+‘I feel so blue to-day,’ she said. ‘I thought maybe if I did something
+useful like washing your ears I’d feel better.’
+
+‘There’s no use in doing something useful that nobody wants you to do,’
+said he.
+
+Sally hoped he would add, ‘My poor little sister, I am so sorry you are
+blue,’ but instead of that he said, ‘Sally, you have been eating too
+many grasshoppers.’
+
+Sally was pretty sure this was the case, but she had hoped Oxford would
+not have thought of it.
+
+‘Grasshoppers are so alluring,’ said Sally. She had picked up this word
+from one of Miss Winifred’s callers who was speaking of the moving
+pictures. It certainly applied to grasshoppers which were so constantly
+on the move.
+
+‘You see,’ Sally went on, ‘they are hard to catch, and if you do catch
+a grasshopper, there doesn’t seem any point in letting it go.’
+
+‘You could give them to me,’ said Oxford.
+
+‘But you get more than I do.’
+
+‘Yes, that is true. But they never upset me and make me blue. If they
+affected my spirits, I should cut down on grasshoppers.’
+
+Sally knew this would have been the case. She admired her brother’s
+strength of character.
+
+Just then Sally saw her friend, Mrs. Conant, going down the path with
+some letters to mail. She stopped to speak to the kittens.
+
+‘Well, you do know how to make yourselves comfortable,’ she said as she
+passed. She had on one of the pretty pink-and-white dresses that Sally
+liked so much, and in her present mood she thought how nice it would be
+to be a pretty young lady whom every one loved, with a thin cool dress
+on instead of fur.
+
+Although Oxford did not express his affection, he was very fond of
+his little sister, and he wanted to help her. But he could not resist
+saying, ‘Sally, you ought to learn to brace up.’ He quickly added,
+‘Suppose we play with our catnip mice for a change? Maybe the catnip
+will brace you up.’
+
+They saw Miss Winifred and a friend coming up the path. This meant a
+fine chance to get into the house, so the kittens went up the steps and
+stood before the front door.
+
+‘Dear me!’ said Miss Winifred, ‘I wonder how long you have been waiting
+here.’ She took out her latch-key and, as she opened the door, the
+kittens slipped in ahead of her. They ran along to the door that led
+to the kitchen. Miss Winifred followed them and, as it was dark in that
+corner, she stooped down to see if the kittens were there. Yes, she
+felt two furry backs, they were patiently waiting for her to open the
+door.
+
+Once in the kitchen, Oxford gave a leap from a chair to the small shelf
+on which the clock stood, for on it were the catnip mice. He knocked
+off first one and then the other.
+
+‘Bless your heart,’ said Elvira, as she looked at Sally. ‘You look a
+little peaked to-day. Too many grasshoppers, I fear.’
+
+Miss Harvey came into the kitchen just then and Sally got into her lap
+and put her two paws around her neck, for she wanted a little petting.
+There are times when this is even more comforting than catnip.
+
+‘My poor little Sally,’ said Miss Harvey, as she stroked the pussy. ‘My
+poor, dear, little Sally. Did she feel as if she wanted some one to pet
+her? I understand, dear, just how you feel.’
+
+Miss Harvey was tactful enough not to refer to the grasshoppers.
+
+Oxford was already playing with his catnip mouse, tossing it high in
+the air and running to sniff it where it fell. Suddenly Sally scrambled
+down from Miss Harvey’s lap and flew toward Oxford’s mouse, seizing it
+before his astonished eyes.
+
+‘Silly kittens,’ said Elvira. ‘There are two mice, you can each have
+one,’ and she picked up the other mouse and threw it on the floor. Then
+they both ran to get that mouse. Sally had it in her mouth and Oxford
+knocked it out.
+
+‘Oh, if that is your game, all right,’ said Elvira, who was an
+understanding person.
+
+Sally felt much refreshed after half an hour spent with the catnip
+mice, and as usually happened after a time with this stimulating
+plaything, she felt like talking in verse instead of prose. Even Oxford
+felt like answering back in rhyme. It was a fine game.
+
+  _Sally_:  I’d like to be a lady fair,
+              All dressed in silks and fur,
+            With rosy lips and golden hair,
+              And speech, instead of purr.
+
+            My father’d give me a fur coat,
+              And on a summer day,
+            When on the waters I could float,
+              I’d put my coat away.
+
+            Were I in silk instead of fur,
+              How pleasant that would be,
+            Pink silk I’d choose, and, Oxford Gray,
+              You’d be so proud of me!
+
+  _Oxford_: Pink silk, indeed, you foolish maid,
+              Why can’t you be content?
+            You’re costumed for both sun and shade,
+              Nor does it cost a cent.
+
+            Sally, I’d hate the sight of you,
+              I like you as you are,
+            A modest kitten, sweet and true,
+              With eyes that see afar.
+
+  _Sally_:  Well, Oxford, since I’m dear to you,
+              Thankful I ought to be,
+            For human brothers oft find fault
+              With sisters’ fineree.
+
+            Perhaps the lady in her silk
+              And coat of costly fur,
+            Would sometimes like my bowl of milk,
+              If she could have my purr.
+
+            For cares, they say, must come with wealth,
+              And, Oxford, we are free
+            To roam the house at night, by stealth,
+              With mice for company.
+
+            To sleep all night, when mice are near,
+              Would seem a waste of time,
+            Than ladies I am surely freer,
+              For I can race and climb.
+
+  _Oxford_: Now, Sally, there’s my own good cat,
+              A cat of parts and sense,
+            Your wits are sharp, I’m sure of that,
+              People are often dense.
+
+            Of all the creatures on this earth
+              The kitten’s life is best,
+            I’ve always known this from my birth,
+              I pity all the rest.
+
+            The men I pity very much,
+              They cannot watch the ants,
+            And grasshoppers, and worms, and such,
+              In their accustomed haunts.
+
+            I’d hate to be so very tall,
+              A man I would not be,
+            It’s easier if you are small,
+              To climb a chestnut tree.
+
+            My fur coat is a grand affair,
+              It did not cost a cent.
+            Were I a man and fur did wear,
+              What hundreds would be spent!
+
+            The lesson surely seems to read,
+              And it is very plain,
+            To make the most of what you are,
+              With heart, and paws, and brain.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+PETER
+
+
+Sally and Oxford felt just alike about Peter. They could neither of
+them bear him. He was a fine-looking brown tiger cat with large stripes
+and a large white shirt-front and four white paws. He had once been
+a valued house-cat, but was now without a home. They suspected that
+Elvira sometimes gave him meals on their piazza, for they now felt the
+back porch belonged to them. When kittens have lived for more than a
+year and a half in a place and have grown into young cats, the place
+seems to belong to them, so Oxford stalked around as if he were a
+police-cat on duty, keeping out intruders.
+
+‘Of course the back yard is mine,’ he said. ‘Indeed, I feel that I own
+the place more than Miss Winifred does.’
+
+‘But her father left it to her,’ Sally reminded him.
+
+‘I suppose she has a certain claim to it, but he never knew us,’ said
+Oxford. ‘I am sure he would have loved us if he had known us. Don’t
+you remember the story that has come down to us, of how he held our
+great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby, on his knee? Anyway, we get
+a great deal more good out of the place than Miss Winifred. I have
+never seen her climb a tree, and we can climb one any time and get away
+from a dog, and she never goes into the Wild Wood, and she does not
+know all our little hiding-places, and she could not get into them,
+anyway.’
+
+‘I do feel as if we were more important,’ said Sally. ‘Many a time I’ve
+heard Elvira say, “I’ll come to you in a few minutes, Miss Winifred,
+but Oxford has just come in. I must give him his supper, for he won’t
+understand being kept waiting.”’
+
+But whoever the true owner of the house might be, it certainly did not
+belong to Peter, and Oxford had told him so on more than one occasion.
+He had chased him off the place several times, but Peter, although he
+seemed gentle, was a persistent soul, and as he was fond of the bread
+and canned salmon that kind Elvira put out on the back piazza for him,
+he came back over and over again.
+
+‘If I ever really get my paw on him, I’ll give him such a thrashing
+that he’ll remember it all his life,’ Oxford said to Sally.
+
+Now it just darted through Sally’s mind, that it might be the other way
+around, for Peter, although he was mild in his demeanor, was larger
+than Oxford, and at least two years older, but being wise beyond her
+months, she merely said, ‘It will be grand, Oxford, if you can thrash
+him.’
+
+‘Of course I can,’ said her brother, swelling with pride. ‘Don’t you
+remember the tradition about the first Furbush, Martha’s ancestor, how
+he would get the better of every cat in a fight and earned the name of
+William the Conqueror?’
+
+‘Yes,’ said Sally, ‘I remember, but he was a full-grown cat.’
+
+‘I don’t expect to get hurt, and it is certainly best to get rid of
+that vagabond at once, before Elvira gets fond of him.’
+
+The fight came off one bright November day. Sally was looking out of
+the kitchen window, and Oxford was sunning himself in the back yard.
+There was a plate of canned salmon mixed with bread on the back piazza.
+That could not be for Oxford, for both he and she had grown so dainty
+that they liked stew meat and haddock better than canned salmon. Elvira
+must be leaving it out there for some cat. She saw Peter coming through
+a place in the fence that was made for small animals to get through.
+She hoped to attract Oxford’s attention and ran around to the kitchen
+door, but it was closed. Jumping up on the window-sill again, she saw
+Peter quickly run up the steps and begin to taste the food. Oxford
+flew up the steps and began to fight Peter. He flew at Oxford and put
+his claws in his fur. Oxford grappled with him, and the two cats went
+rolling down the steps.
+
+Sally, from her perch on the window-sill, saw that it was as she had
+feared. After a long fight, Peter went swiftly away in fine condition,
+while Oxford came haltingly up the steps with a lame paw--a sadder and
+a wiser cat. Although he respected Peter more, his dislike of him
+increased, and he was determined to drive him off the place.
+
+‘If I had advised him not to fight, he wouldn’t have liked it,’ thought
+Sally. ‘He would have just said, “Sally, you never do brace up.”’
+
+After this, Oxford and Sally saw no more of Peter for some weeks.
+Sometimes they saw a plate of canned salmon and bread on the back
+piazza and lay in wait for him, but Oxford never caught him. Twice they
+saw at dusk a shadowy form vanishing into the Wild Wood.
+
+One evening there was a great snowstorm and Oxford had not come home.
+Miss Winifred seemed the most worried, and this was strange, as she had
+not wanted him in the beginning.
+
+‘Poor little pussy, hasn’t he come back yet?’ she asked Elvira after
+supper.
+
+‘No, Miss Winifred, and I’ve called until I’m hoarse.’
+
+‘It is a wild storm,’ said Miss Winifred.
+
+‘I am sure Oxford is safe and warm somewhere,’ said Elvira; ‘he’s a cat
+who knows how to look out for himself.’
+
+‘Yes,’ said Miss Harvey, ‘if it was my little Sally, I should be
+terribly worried.’
+
+Sally was sitting on Miss Harvey’s knee at the time, and at these words
+she put her furry paws around her neck and rubbed her face against
+hers. ‘I am sure he is all right,’ she said in her cat language that
+people could not understand. ‘He always comes back.’
+
+‘Of course he always has come back,’ said Miss Winifred, as if she had
+understood, ‘but there comes a time--some of your pets have gone away
+and never come back, Elvira.’
+
+Then Sally thought of her grandmother and of her brave father, the
+mighty hunter, and of her mother, so cozy and so kind. How terrible it
+would be if Oxford should disappear as they had done!
+
+‘I will go and call him,’ said Miss Winifred. ‘Maybe he will come in
+for me.’
+
+‘For you?’ said Elvira. ‘You and he have never been great friends.’
+
+Miss Winifred went to the front door and stepped into the piazza that
+was glassed in for winter. The storm was raging outside. She opened the
+glass door of the piazza and the wind blew the snow into her face. It
+was deep on the steps.
+
+‘Oxford Gray, Oxford Gray, Oxford Gray, Junior!’ she called. ‘Darling
+pussy, do come!’
+
+She had never called him ‘darling pussy’ before, but our friends grow
+very dear to us if we fear losing them.
+
+‘Oxford, Oxford Gray, Junior!’ she called again.
+
+Something furry brushed against her feet. She stooped and patted the
+fur coat all crusted over with snow.
+
+‘How friendly you are! You were never so friendly before. Walk in,
+darling pussy,’ she said, as she opened the hall door.
+
+The hungry and cold cat rubbed against her feet once more as if in
+gratitude. She walked along the front hall to the door at the back that
+led into the kitchen.
+
+‘Here he is! Here is Oxford Gray, Junior, himself,’ she said. ‘He came
+for me. He knew my voice.’
+
+Elvira was greatly surprised. ‘He just happened to come along at that
+time,’ she said; then, as she started to brush the casing of snow from
+the cat, she said, ‘This isn’t Oxford Gray, Junior. This is Peter.’
+
+‘Peter!’ gasped Miss Winifred. ‘Who on earth is Peter?’
+
+‘Somebody’s house-cat; somebody’s pet that has been left to make his
+own way in the world.’
+
+‘How did he happen to come here? Is he one of your friends who takes
+his meals at your cafeteria on the piazza?’
+
+‘He’s had a few meals,’ Elvira admitted. ‘And he will have as many more
+as he likes. I’d rather spend my money feeding cats than going to the
+movies. It’s more amusing to me.’
+
+‘Of course we must keep him for the night,’ said Miss Winifred, ‘and he
+must have a good meal, but I really can’t keep him permanently, Elvira;
+two cats are quite enough.’
+
+‘Oxford agrees with you,’ said Elvira. ‘You’ll have no trouble once he
+gets home.’
+
+The next morning the sun shone, and Oxford came back as unconcernedly
+as if he had caused no anxiety. No one knew his adventures except
+Sally, but he looked so prosperous and seemed so little to desire food
+that the family were sure he had been housed somewhere.
+
+As he went out for a stroll later in the morning, he met Peter coming
+out of the cellar door.
+
+‘What have you been doing in my house?’ he demanded sternly.
+
+For once the silent Peter found his tongue. ‘It is my house now,’ he
+said proudly. ‘Miss Winifred asked me in herself.’
+
+‘She didn’t!’ Oxford exclaimed.
+
+‘She did! She said, “Walk in, darling pussy,” so I walked in.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+SALLY AND THE LOUD SPEAKER
+
+
+Sally spent a great deal of time in the parlor. In the morning she
+often had it to herself, for Miss Winifred was usually out of the
+house, or writing on her typewriter. ‘The parlor is mine in the
+morning,’ she told Oxford.
+
+‘You can go into your old parlor all you like,’ said he. ‘I like my
+kitchen best.’
+
+Sally suspected that his scorn of the parlor came because he was not
+allowed to go into it, as he was not as quiet and well-behaved as Sally.
+
+In the evening Miss Harvey often sat there reading the newspaper to
+Miss Winifred. Sally was often bored by the newspaper, and she would
+get up in Miss Harvey’s lap and sit on it so that she could not read.
+Miss Harvey would say in her gentle voice, ‘Come, Sally, please get off
+my paper.’
+
+Sally would pretend that she did not understand, and she would put her
+furry paws around Miss Harvey’s neck and press her furry face against
+her cheek.
+
+‘Sally, you are a nuisance,’ were the unkindest words Miss Harvey
+ever said, and Sally would once more pretend she did not understand.
+Sometimes Miss Harvey would stop reading if it was almost bedtime;
+Sally always hoped this would happen, and sometimes she would gently
+put Sally on the center table, where she would settle for a nap in the
+friendly warmth of the electric lamp.
+
+Once in a great while there would be an interesting piece of news in
+the paper. Once she heard something about the President’s pets, and
+there was a wonderful occasion when there was something worth while
+in the paper and Sally learned that the President’s wife was fond of
+pets, and that once, before she was in the White House, she had found
+a mouse-hole in the room she was in, in some hotel, and had trained
+the mice and given them food. Sally’s eyes fairly glistened. What a
+pity that she had not been near that mouse-hole herself! It would have
+been so easy to catch a tame mouse, and if she caught one, Oxford could
+never be so scornful again.
+
+Sometimes Miss Harvey would put down the paper and she and Miss
+Winifred would have a friendly chat, and it was at one of these times
+that Sally learned the piece of news she told Oxford the next day as
+she and Oxford were sunning themselves on the back porch after an
+exhausting morning of exercise.
+
+‘I hear that Miss Winifred is going to have a loud speaker,’ she said.
+
+‘I am sorry to hear it,’ said he; ‘there are enough loud speakers
+around the house as it is. I have sensitive ears.’
+
+‘Miss Harvey has a sweet voice,’ said Sally, ‘only every one has to
+talk louder to Miss Winifred, and I suppose she wants some one to talk
+to her when the others are busy.’
+
+‘You would do very well for that job,’ said Oxford; ‘for a small cat I
+never heard such a rasping, powerful voice.’
+
+‘Yes, Miss Winifred always hears me,’ said Sally.
+
+‘I have a very gentlemanly mew,’ said Oxford; ‘any one would know I had
+Furbush-Tailby blood just to hear my mew. But, to hear you and not see
+you, Sally, no one would suspect for a moment that you were a lady.’
+
+‘They’d know it if they saw me,’ said Sally. ‘Miss Harvey often says I
+am a perfect little lady.’
+
+‘I wonder if the loud speaker will be a man or a woman,’ Oxford said.
+
+Sally wondered, too, and whenever she was in the parlor and any one
+called, she listened to the voice of the caller with great interest.
+
+One afternoon a gentleman called with a strong, loud voice. He called
+Miss Mann ‘Cousin Winifred.’ Sally was sure he was the loud speaker and
+that he had come to stay.
+
+After some conversation that did not interest Sally, he fixed his eyes
+on her as she sat in the corner on her register and he said, ‘You have
+a cat, I see.’
+
+‘She isn’t exactly mine,’ said Miss Winifred, ‘but she does me the
+honor to live in my house; she has a brother who lives here also, and
+there is another cat, Peter, who thinks he lives with us because he
+takes all his meals here and sleeps here on cold, stormy nights, but
+Oxford Gray, Junior, is certain he does not and drives him away.’
+
+At last the conversation was becoming interesting. Sally wondered what
+the loud speaker would say. She had an idea by the way he had looked at
+herself that he did not realize the importance of cats.
+
+‘I went to call on two ladies the other day,’ he said, ‘who were
+longing to go back to the State of Washington where they used to live,
+but they said they could not go because the journey would be too much
+for their cat, who was old and settled in his ways.’
+
+Sally wished she knew the ladies. They understood something of life and
+saw things in their right proportion.
+
+‘I suggested to them that they could give their cat away, or send him
+to the Animal Rescue League,’ the loud speaker went on.
+
+Sally became alarmed. If this were, indeed, the loud speaker, and he
+came here to live, what chance was there for Oxford and herself? Would
+he not make a clean sweep of all who wore fur coats? She was relieved
+to find by Miss Winifred’s next question that he had a wife and several
+children. He surely could not be leaving them to come and live here
+just to talk to Miss Winifred. Presently he took his hat and went to
+the door, shaking hands with Miss Winifred, and saying it had been good
+to see her, and never giving one glance in Sally’s direction.
+
+‘It was rude of him,’ Sally said to herself, ‘when I am a perfect lady.
+It never does any harm to be polite.’
+
+A few days later, something that had a strange appearance was on the
+piano. Sally found it there one afternoon. It looked like a very small
+bureau with knobs in odd places, and two things that looked like
+clocks. Sally wondered what it could be. There was a small round table
+close by the piano, and on this was standing a long black thing, shaped
+something like a huge calla lily.
+
+The next afternoon, when Sally was upstairs, she heard a concert going
+on in the parlor. There were several shrill voices and it sounded very
+much like the concerts Sally’s cat friends sometimes gave. But these
+took place at night. Sally was of a curious nature, and she hurried
+down to see what was going on. To her surprise when she reached the
+parlor not a soul was to be seen except Miss Winifred. Sally had never
+heard her sing, and the sound seemed to be coming out of the black
+calla lily, for the piano was shut. Presently Miss Winifred touched
+one of the knobs and the music came to an end. Sally was more and more
+mystified. Then Miss Winifred touched a knob and Sally heard a man say,
+‘This is the friendly voice of Boston.’ Sally agreed that Boston had a
+nice voice, but he was nowhere to be seen. She looked around the room,
+but could see no one. She went under the piano, thinking Boston might
+be there. Some one was giving a talk about grapefruit juice. Sally did
+not care about the talk, for she liked milk for her drink. Finally she
+got up on the table on which the big black calla lily stood and looked
+down into it. The voice sounded so loud, Sally was frightened. She
+skipped down and ran out into the kitchen to tell Oxford about it.
+
+‘There’s a man that’s only got a voice and no body, and he lives in the
+black thing on the table, and his name is Boston,’ she told him. ‘And
+sometimes he sings.’
+
+‘That’s the radio,’ said Oxford. ‘I heard Miss Harvey talking to Elvira
+about it. They have them in all the houses now. Even Peter knows about
+them.’
+
+‘You didn’t know anything about it the other day,’ Sally ventured.
+
+‘It is a long time since the other day,’ said Oxford, ‘and since then
+I have given my entire spare time to research. I have tried hard to
+learn all I could about the loud speakers and radios. Mr. Gardiner has
+one and I heard him talking to Miss Harvey. If one has masculine brains
+and sharp ears, there is no end to what one can learn. Sally, you are
+behind the times.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SALLY BRACES UP
+
+
+Now that Sally was used to the radio, she took a good deal of pleasure
+in it, in fact on very cold days she enjoyed it more than Miss Winifred
+did, for the parlor was a large room and the piano, where the radio
+stood, was between two long glass doors that let in a good deal of air
+through the cracks in winter weather. Sally, with her sharp ears, could
+hear every word the loud speaker said when she sat on her register
+in the opposite corner of the room. Sally knew that it was her own
+register, for there was another in the room. This one in the corner
+was often closed, so that Sally could lie there at her ease and feel
+just a pleasant warmth. Miss Winifred, who did not have a fur coat like
+Sally, had to walk up near the loud speaker and she was cold in that
+corner even with a sweater on. Yes, there were many advantages in being
+a cat, Sally thought. It was fine to have perfect sight and not to have
+to wear eye-glasses and to be so small you could lie on a register,
+and hear every word the loud speaker said. But people had no choice;
+perhaps many of them like herself would prefer to be cats.
+
+This New Year’s Eve she was especially interested in the sermon Miss
+Winifred was hearing. It seemed made on purpose for cats, for it
+spoke of the grace and gayety of a young kitten chasing its tail.
+Sally pricked up her ears at this. She liked the minister, whoever he
+might be. He understood something about life. He went on to say how
+sympathy should be given to all young things. There was a part Sally
+did not quite understand, and then she was struck by these words: ‘The
+beginning of the New Year is a good time to make resolutions, but every
+day is the beginning of a new year, we do not have to wait.’ Sally was
+glad of this, for a year was so very long to a cat. However, as there
+was to be a year beginning, it seemed a good time to make resolutions.
+She talked the matter over with Oxford afterward.
+
+‘One of your resolutions, I should say, ought to be to brace up,’ said
+he.
+
+‘Yes,’ said Sally meekly, ‘that is one.’
+
+‘I should think,’ he added, somewhat scornfully, ‘that it was about
+time you caught a mouse.’
+
+‘Yes, that is another of my resolutions,’ said she.
+
+‘I have a few in mind,’ said Oxford. ‘I mean to give Peter the biggest
+thrashing he has ever had.’
+
+‘And I surely will catch a mouse sometime, I promise you I will,’ said
+Sally.
+
+‘I don’t think it at all probable,’ he said dryly. ‘You’ll have to
+learn to brace up first.’
+
+It was springtime before the great event occurred. Every day in the new
+year Sally had remembered the words of the preacher. She said them over
+and over to herself every morning, ‘Each day is the beginning of a new
+year,’ and every morning she had said to herself, ‘I will try to catch
+a mouse before the day is over.’
+
+Sally thought there were other things in life that were as important
+as bracing up. Was not patience equally commendable? And how about
+unselfishness? Would Oxford ever have the patience to sit for hours at
+a mouse-hole? Would he ever let her take a part of his food? But Oxford
+was a wonderful cat, a dream to look at compared with her, with his
+pink nose and his expansive white shirt-front. She had a tiger face and
+small white shirt-front, and even if patience and perseverance were
+rewarded at last and she caught her mouse, she could never be a mighty
+hunter. But he, with his rough ways, was never allowed in the parlor
+and she was. After all, life had its compensations.
+
+All the same, Sally longed to catch a mouse.
+
+The exciting event took place when Miss Winifred and Elvira had gone
+on their usual spring visit to New Hampshire. And it did not happen
+at all as Sally thought it would. It was early in the morning. Miss
+Harvey, Sally, and Oxford were alone in the house. Miss Harvey had made
+the kitchen fire, and put the tea-kettle on the stove. Oxford was just
+waking up and stretching himself. Sally, who was wide awake, saw a
+mouse glide past her on the freshly scrubbed kitchen floor. She darted
+forward and seized the mouse. She had it firmly in her mouth. It was
+still alive, but she knew it could not escape. Oxford roused himself.
+Sally looked at him with triumph in her eyes. ‘See what I have caught.
+Didn’t I tell you I would catch a mouse?’ she seemed to say.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Oxford dashed forward angrily and knocked the mouse out of Sally’s
+mouth. Sally had never been so angry in her life. Miss Harvey, hearing
+the commotion, turned just before Oxford had reached Sally. She saw
+what happened. The mouse was flying along the kitchen floor toward the
+outside door. Miss Harvey thought it most provoking of Oxford.
+
+‘Poor dear,’ she said to Sally, ‘it was your mouse.’
+
+Sally was glad some one understood.
+
+Miss Harvey opened the kitchen door that led into the passageway and
+then the outside door. Her sympathies were divided between Sally and
+the mouse. Poor tiny creature! It looked so frightened, and, after all,
+it probably enjoyed its life as much as Sally liked hers. But if that
+wretched Oxford got the mouse, Miss Harvey felt there was no justice
+to be looked for in this world. When she opened the door, she saw the
+mouse scurrying down the steps, and Sally and Oxford following after
+each other, tumbling down the steps in hot pursuit. It was as exciting
+as any race she had ever seen. Sally for once lost her temper as the
+mouse disappeared from view. She did not say all she thought. She said
+only a part of it, but Oxford was so astonished by what she did say
+that she seemed a different Sally in his eyes.
+
+After she had spoken her vehement words, she returned to the house.
+Oxford felt taken down for the moment, but he soon rose to the occasion.
+
+‘It was a sort of an accident your catching that mouse,’ he said.
+‘Anybody can catch a mouse if it goes just where they are.’
+
+Sally was already beginning to cool down.
+
+‘Not everybody,’ she said. ‘Miss Harvey has told me more than once that
+she never caught a mouse in her life.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SALLY AND SPOT
+
+
+‘The Conants have got a dog,’ Sally said to Oxford one day. ‘Isn’t that
+awful?’
+
+‘Are you sure they’ve got one?’
+
+‘Yes, I heard Miss Harvey say so, and I’ve seen him.’
+
+‘You’ve seen him?’
+
+‘Yes, he was skipping about in our clothes-yard this morning. Miss
+Harvey wouldn’t let me out. She said it was too dangerous. I was afraid
+you’d meet him.’
+
+‘What does he look like?’
+
+‘Miss Harvey told Elvira he was a wire-haired terrier. He’s white with
+a black spot. He’s not so terribly big, but it seems he hates cats and
+loves to chase them. Miss Harvey thinks he would kill us if he got the
+chance.’
+
+‘I’m quite sure he wouldn’t kill me,’ said Oxford.
+
+‘I don’t suppose he would, but he might kill me.’
+
+‘Not if I am around, Sally. You had better never go out without me.’
+
+Oxford and Sally were sitting in the kitchen windows as they were
+talking, and they could look across at the windows in the Conant house.
+Suddenly Sally gave a hiss.
+
+‘What is the matter?’ asked Elvira.
+
+‘He’s there; it’s himself,’ said Sally, but Elvira could not understand.
+
+Oxford understood, and he looked across at the Conant house. There, in
+one of the windows, was the monster who would like to kill cats.
+
+He was not so terrible to look at. The cats gazed at him fascinated. He
+looked back at them with a fixed gaze.
+
+Elvira heard some more hisses and going to the window she saw Spot.
+
+‘Bless your hearts, he can’t get you,’ said Elvira. ‘There are two sets
+of window-panes between you and Spot.’
+
+It gave a new thrill to life having Spot living next door, but it was
+most inconvenient, for Oxford and Sally were always kept in when Spot
+was taking his exercise.
+
+‘He doesn’t seem to realize this place is ours,’ said Oxford. ‘He walks
+into this clothes-yard, just as bold as if it belonged to him.’
+
+‘But there is no fence between the two places,’ said Sally. ‘We go into
+Mrs. Conant’s garden whenever we like.’
+
+‘We are old settlers,’ said Oxford. ‘We have a right to go where we
+please, but I call it bold for an impudent young puppy to come over
+into our yard. Before we know it, he will be in the Wild Wood.’
+
+He had an endless fascination for them, however. They liked to watch
+him starting out at an early hour in the morning for an airing with
+Mrs. Conant’s husband. They trembled and felt safer when he went back
+to the house and the door closed.
+
+Elvira would say, ‘I think it is safe for Oxford and Sally to go out
+now. It will be some time before Spot goes out again.’
+
+They never felt much security when they were out, for at any moment the
+door of the Conant house might open and the monster might come out.
+
+‘Anyway, he can’t climb trees,’ said Oxford, ‘and there are a lot of
+them about.’
+
+As the days passed and nothing happened, they grew less and less afraid
+of their enemy and more and more confident, and there was always the
+excitement of sitting at the kitchen windows and looking across at Spot
+as he sat at his window. Sometimes they saw Mrs. Conant pass the window
+with Spot frisking along by her side. She would wave her hand as she
+passed. It was the season of the year when her pretty pink dress seemed
+to Sally more suitable to the weather than her own coat of fur.
+
+Sally felt sure that some day there would be a meeting between herself
+and Spot. She did not know why she felt so sure of this. When she spoke
+of her fears to Oxford, he said: ‘How silly you are, Sally. All you
+have to do is to stay close by me, and I will defend you with my good
+right paw.’
+
+‘I am sure you would,’ said Sally, ‘but sometimes you go off on
+journeys. I can’t stay shut up in the house all day when you go on a
+journey.’
+
+‘Of course, I can’t give up all my pleasure trips to stay at home and
+protect you. The only safe thing is never to go out unless you see that
+impudent scoundrel’s face in the window. When he’s in, he can’t be out.’
+
+‘But he might suddenly be let out,’ said Sally.
+
+And this was exactly what did happen one bright day in early June when
+Oxford was away for a day or two.
+
+Sally saw Spot in the window and she mewed to be let out. She mewed and
+mewed until even Miss Winifred heard. The others were at the top of the
+house. They could hear her, but it was a long way to come down just for
+Sally.
+
+‘Poor pussy,’ said Miss Winifred, as she opened the kitchen door. ‘What
+do you want?’
+
+Sally mewed again in her strong voice and went to the outside door.
+
+‘Do you want to go out?’ said Miss Winifred, as she opened the screen
+door.
+
+Sally made it evident that she did. She ran down the steps to the
+clothes-yard. It was good to get out into the bright sunshine, and
+she ran down toward the street. Suddenly she heard an awful bark and
+looking up she saw that the monster was almost upon her. Trembling all
+over, Sally fairly flew over the ground and scampered up the nearest
+tree. There she sat looking down on Spot. He was standing still at the
+foot of the tree looking up at her. Some time passed, and finally Sally
+gathered courage to ask,
+
+‘How long are you going to stay there?’
+
+‘Until you come down,’ said Spot.
+
+‘I mean to stay here a long time,’ said Sally. ‘Days, perhaps. It is
+very comfortable in this tree.’
+
+‘Is it? It doesn’t look so.’
+
+Time passed. It seemed hours to Sally. The round sun was getting low in
+the heavens, and still that awful dog stood there at the foot of the
+tree. Sally did not dare to come down.
+
+‘I’ve often seen you in the window,’ said Sally pleasantly. ‘I should
+think you would want to go back to that nice window; it seems a little
+cold here.’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+‘I’ve often noticed you at your window,’ said Spot. ‘I was thinking it
+was about time for you to go home.’
+
+‘I mean to stay out all night,’ said Sally. ‘I never was out all night.
+My friends give fine concerts then. There is to be a moon to-night.’
+
+Time passed, and Sally was growing hungry and tired. Would no one come
+for her? Miss Harvey and Elvira would not know she had been let out,
+and she had heard them say that Miss Winifred was going off for the
+night. Poor Sally was getting more and more miserable.
+
+‘Don’t you think Mrs. Conant will worry if you stay out so long?’ she
+asked.
+
+‘She never worries. She lets me lead a free life. How about Elvira and
+Miss Harvey? What will they think if you don’t come in?’
+
+‘They don’t know I’m out.’
+
+The sky was clouding over and the bright sun was going to set long
+before its time in a bank of gray.
+
+‘It is going to rain,’ said Sally. ‘I don’t mind the rain at all
+because of my warm fur coat.’ All the same, she didn’t like to get wet.
+‘Do you mind the rain, Spot?’
+
+‘No, but it isn’t going to rain,’ he said.
+
+Sally was now longing to get into the house. She gave another of her
+piercing mews which she had been giving at intervals, but she was some
+distance from the house and Elvira did not know that she was out.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+‘Some cat is in trouble. It sounds a little like Sally’s mew,’ Elvira
+said to Miss Harvey. ‘Did you let her out?’
+
+‘No, I am sure she is somewhere around the house.’
+
+Presently, to Sally’s joy, she saw Mrs. Conant coming along the avenue.
+
+‘Why, Spotty, what are you doing here?’ she asked.
+
+She looked up to see what the dog was watching, and she saw poor Sally
+in the tree.
+
+‘Come, Spotty, come home at once and let that poor cat alone,’ she said.
+
+As she passed the kitchen window she said: ‘One of your cats has been
+treed by Spotty. I am very sorry. He ought to have better manners.’
+
+‘She is the nicest person,’ Sally said to herself as she scrambled
+down the tree after she heard the front door close on Mrs. Conant and
+her dog. ‘She understands the feelings of a cat, but it is strange
+she could not tell the difference between Oxford and me. Perhaps I’m
+growing better-looking now I am fatter.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE FAMILY TREE
+
+
+It seemed strange to Sally that as nice a person as Mrs. Conant should
+care as much as she did for a creature like Spot. It was all she could
+do to listen in silence to a conversation that she had with Miss
+Winifred one afternoon in the parlor. The two were sitting on the sofa
+while Sally was looking out of the window.
+
+She was watching some birds that were taking a bath in the bird bath.
+First a blue jay went in and splashed about, and after he came out, a
+robin fluttered down from his perch in a tree.
+
+‘Spot has a good pedigree,’ said Mrs. Conant. ‘His Family Tree is quite
+as good in its way as Mr. Conant’s.’
+
+Sally listened while the two ladies talked of these matters, and she
+thought of her glorious ancestors. She wished she had a Family Tree
+herself, but later, when she talked the matter over with Oxford, he
+said it was nonsense.
+
+‘Let us play with our catnip mice,’ he said.
+
+As usual they had a fine time and Sally was so stimulated that she felt
+like talking in verse.
+
+  I long to have a family tree
+    And show to all my true descent,
+  But Oxford says a family tree
+    Is not a tree for kittens meant.
+  To know his father is enough,
+    For he was made of valiant stuff.
+
+  But I would like to trace them all,
+    Back to proud William of great fame,
+  Who lived, they say, in princely hall,
+    And bore almost a royal name,
+  Down to myself, then, all would say,
+    ‘She’s royal, though she’s small and gray.’
+
+  There were great singers in my race,
+    Who sat upon the garden wall,
+  Tenors, sopranos, and a bass,
+    Who nightly concerts gave to all,
+  And mighty hunters were the rule
+    But Oxford thinks me such a fool.
+
+  He says his mind he will not vex
+    About such matters, that it’s base,
+  But I am of the other sex
+    And I delight in pride of race,
+  But Oxford only says, says he,
+    Strong paws are more than ancestry.
+
+  To catch a mouse is better far
+    Than grandfathers of high degree,
+  He loved his friendly grandmamma,
+    And nothing but a waif was she.
+  The day is bright, some tree we’ll climb,
+    To stay indoors would be a crime.
+
+  I know if I have children fair,
+    Some little kittens good to see,
+  Furry and bright, a lusty pair,
+    I’d like to have a family tree.
+  But Oxford said, ‘Let’s have some fun,
+    The door is open, let us run.’
+
+  So to the woods we gayly went
+    And there we had a lively race,
+  And such a joyous hour we spent
+    Chasing each other round the place.
+  ‘If you must have a family tree,
+    I’ll find one in the woods,’ said he.
+
+Sally was sent up a tree by Spot more than once, and even Oxford had
+to fly from him several times, for to stay indoors in the lovely
+summer weather was altogether impossible. There came to be a certain
+excitement in escaping from their enemy which gave a dash of spice to
+their life. And there was one day they would never forget when Spot met
+the two of them in the Wild Wood. Oxford had promised to defend Sally,
+but all the same, she thought it wiser to scamper up the nearest tree,
+for it might happen that her brave brother would get the worst of the
+fight. Oxford looked about him to see where Sally was and, finding she
+was safe, he thought it better to join her and not to fight Spot, for
+Sally would be happier if he were in the tree, too. So the pair sat
+there looking down with scorn on their enemy.
+
+‘Who are you, anyway?’ Oxford asked. ‘You low creature not able to
+climb like us!’
+
+‘I come of a very fine stock. My mistress looked up my pedigree before
+she bought me. It is written on paper.’
+
+‘I thought you seemed like a thing that had been bought with money,’
+said Oxford. ‘My sister and I are free, not slaves. No money could buy
+us. We could leave our home to-morrow if we liked.’
+
+‘Perhaps you could to-morrow,’ Spot called back. ‘But you don’t seem to
+be able to leave now. Not while I am at the foot of this tree.’
+
+Now, only a few days before, Oxford had been scorning musty records,
+but to Sally’s surprise he said: ‘If my sister and I chose to take
+the trouble, we could have a family tree with an ancestry that would
+absolutely astonish you, Spot. We go back to a cat who was named
+William the Conqueror, because he always knocked his enemy flat. He
+was the first Furbush--I mean we can trace back no farther; of course,
+there were others back of him.’
+
+‘Well,’ said Spot, ‘I am sure my ancestors were all so great that every
+one was a conqueror, and as for my master, he was one of the first
+settlers--his ancestors were, I mean.’
+
+‘That is nothing,’ said Oxford. ‘Miss Winifred is descended from one of
+the kings of France.’
+
+‘Indeed!’ said Spot. ‘One wouldn’t think it to look at her.’
+
+‘Not that I care a great deal about such things myself,’ said Oxford.
+
+‘I shouldn’t suppose you would,’ said Spot, ‘for I have heard that your
+mother’s mother was just a little waif without home or family.’
+
+This was too much for Oxford. He started to scramble down the tree, and
+Sally was afraid that Spot would fly at him and perhaps kill him.
+
+‘Oxford,’ she said, ‘is that a bird’s nest on that upper bough?’
+
+Oxford paused in his descent to look up.
+
+‘I don’t see anything. Where is it?’
+
+‘I saw something very like a bird’s nest,’ she said.
+
+Oxford forgot all about his grandmother in his interest in the nest,
+which might be full of young birds.
+
+‘Dogs are very superior to cats,’ Spot was saying. ‘Every one says so.
+It is a well-known fact.’
+
+‘Who says so?’ Oxford asked.
+
+‘My master and my mistress, and all the dogs I know.’
+
+‘The people who make their home with us greatly prefer cats, and every
+cat I have ever met says cats are much brighter than dogs,’ said Oxford.
+
+‘Prove it,’ Spot said with a loud bark.
+
+‘Can you climb a tree?’ Sally asked.
+
+‘I am so superior that I do not have to climb trees,’ said Spot.
+
+‘Can you catch a mouse?’ Oxford inquired.
+
+‘I don’t care about mice. I can be a true companion for man. Men don’t
+climb trees, at least not as a rule, and they can’t catch mice. And
+dogs are unselfish. I have heard of many a dog losing his life to save
+his master, or dying of grief because his master has died.’
+
+Oxford and Sally were considerably impressed. For once Oxford was at a
+loss as to what to reply, but Sally was thinking things out.
+
+‘I would do a great deal for Miss Harvey,’ she said. ‘Maybe some day
+I’ll have a chance to save her life, but what good does it ever do to
+die of grief if one loses a friend? It seems to me wiser just to be a
+good friend to all the friends one has left than to die of grief.’
+
+Sally was astonished at her own words, but she had learned this from
+Oxford. And just then who should come along the avenue that led to the
+two houses but Mrs. Conant with her husband in their automobile.
+
+‘Spotty, what are you doing here? I didn’t mean you to get out until we
+came back,’ said Mrs. Conant. ‘John, you had better get out and take
+Spot back with you, and I’ll go on to the house. Spot has treed two
+cats.’
+
+As Spot walked off unwillingly with his master, he flung back these
+words, ‘I’ll ask Mrs. Conant my exact pedigree and I’ll tell it to you
+the next time we meet.’
+
+‘We don’t have to take that trouble,’ Oxford retorted; ‘our family tree
+is complete in our heads, beginning with William the Conqueror and
+coming down to Martha Furbush-Tailby, our great-great-grandmother, and
+then to William Furbush-Tailby, the poet, and then to his daughter, who
+married our grandfather Oxford Forepaw Gray; his son was my father,
+Oxford Gray, and I am Oxford Gray, Junior.’
+
+‘I know who you are, you are a no-account bragging cat,’ said Spot, as
+he vanished into the house.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE TRAVELING CAT
+
+
+One day Sally looked out of the screen door and she saw a new cat
+looking in at the window. He had a glossy coat of long black fur, and
+a white shirt-front and four white paws. At least they once had been
+white, but they were dirt-color from much traveling. Sally looked at
+the cat and the cat looked at Sally.
+
+He asked Sally if he could get a meal at the house. Sally was about
+to say she would speak to Elvira, for she could always attract her
+attention by mewing or clawing her gown, when Oxford came to the screen
+door.
+
+‘You can’t. This is my house. Clear out, and don’t show your black coat
+around here again!’
+
+The black cat was very much offended. ‘I am an important person,’ he
+hissed back. ‘I’m a great traveler. I’ve come all the way from Malden,
+and I’ve been at the wharves in Boston and taken one or two sea
+voyages.’
+
+‘You’d better take a few more,’ said Oxford. ‘You are not wanted here.’
+
+And yet he was considerably impressed. Sally liked the appearance of
+the stranger, and yet she was a little afraid of him.
+
+‘My name is Captain Ebony Black,’ said the traveling cat. ‘I’m called
+Eben by my friends. I’d like to fight you some day when we meet
+out-of-doors,’ he added as he looked at Oxford.
+
+‘Just what I should like,’ said Oxford. ‘I always fight all the cats
+who come into my grounds.’
+
+‘Do you own the whole place?’ the traveling cat asked. ‘I thought this
+was where Peter lived.’
+
+‘He thinks he lives here,’ Oxford snarled, ‘but the place belongs to
+me.’
+
+‘And to me, too,’ put in Sally.
+
+‘I let her live here,’ Oxford said, ‘because she is my sister.’
+
+Elvira, who was washing dishes, turned to see what was happening, for
+although she could not understand their language, she could tell that
+some sort of a row was going on. The cats were looking at each other
+fiercely, one on one side of the screen and one on the other.
+
+‘Come, Oxford, be a good cat,’ she said; ‘here is some supper for you.’
+
+Supper, indeed! When one was longing to fight an enemy! He made a few
+more angry remarks to the visitor, and ended by calling him ‘Blackie,’
+which was hard for Captain Ebony Black to bear, for he came of an old
+family.
+
+‘Who are you, anyway?’ he growled.
+
+‘My great-grandfather was a Furbush,’ said Oxford, ‘and he was
+descended from a Furbush, who was called “William the Conqueror.”’
+
+‘I am descended from the first Ebony Black who came to this country.
+There’s been an Ebony Black in each generation.’
+
+Sally was greatly impressed, for ancestors meant so much to her.
+
+‘Come and eat your supper like a good cat,’ said Elvira, and then,
+thinking that the stranger might be hungry, she took a plate of canned
+salmon and bread out to the back porch.
+
+‘Elvira is feeding our enemy,’ said Oxford.
+
+He seemed a fine-looking pussy to Sally, but she said nothing.
+
+‘The way in which all the cats in the neighborhood come into my place
+is outrageous!’ said Oxford, as he began to eat his fish.
+
+‘After all,’ Sally reminded him, ‘the place is Miss Winifred’s and
+Elvira’s, and if they don’t mind----’
+
+‘I’ve explained to you a great many times, Sally, that the true owner
+of a place is the one who uses it the most, and so I say the back yard
+and the Wild Wood are mine.’
+
+‘Then the parlor is certainly mine,’ said Sally, ‘for I am there much
+more than Miss Winifred.’
+
+‘You can call the parlor yours, or can own the house if you like, but
+the land is mine.’
+
+The traveling cat thoroughly enjoyed his meal. He was shy with
+strangers and had no idea of coming into the house, but he had taken a
+liking to Sally’s modest appearance. She looked as if she might be an
+old-fashioned cat, with whom one could have a pleasant talk if Oxford
+was not around. So he hung about the place, occasionally coming for a
+meal on the back porch. And one day he met Sally in the Wild Wood and
+they had a friendly chat, for Oxford was not there.
+
+‘I don’t mean any harm,’ said the traveling cat, ‘and I don’t think
+your brother need be so rude.’
+
+‘He’s the kindest brother,’ Sally said, ‘but he had such a hard time
+winning his way in the world when he was young that, when he did at
+last find a home for himself and me, he wants to hold on to it.’
+
+‘I don’t care about a home for long at a time,’ said the traveling cat.
+‘I like to take a voyage every now and then in a ship. It doesn’t cost
+anything, for I just walk on board, and I don’t have to bother about a
+passport, and I can always make myself useful by hunting rats and mice.’
+
+‘It must be exciting to travel,’ Sally said. ‘But I am so home-loving I
+like to stay just where I’ve lived for so long.’
+
+She told Oxford some of the tales of his travels that Ebony Black had
+told her. Oxford said the fellow was too fond of bragging, but the
+dazzling visions of distant spots began to have their effect.
+
+‘Why don’t you drive him off the place, Sally?’ he asked. ‘I will if I
+ever find him here.’
+
+‘I suppose he has as much a right to be here as Peter,’ said Sally.
+‘There’s room for everybody, Elvira said so.’
+
+‘Oh, Elvira! She would have all the stray cats and dogs in town here if
+she had her way. That fellow thinks Ebony Black is a name to be proud
+of,’ Oxford went on. ‘I never heard of the family in my life.’
+
+Sally was sorry she had spoken of Ebony Black, but she had been so
+impressed by his tales that she wanted to share them with Oxford.
+
+‘The way Elvira treats that fellow to canned salmon is too much!’ said
+Oxford.
+
+‘But she isn’t taking anything from us, for we don’t like canned
+salmon,’ said Sally.
+
+‘She’ll spend all her money if she doesn’t look out,’ said Oxford, ‘and
+then she can’t get haddock for us.’
+
+‘I am sure Elvira has lots of money,’ said Sally.
+
+‘Well, anyway, I don’t propose to have her feeding every cat in town,’
+said Oxford.
+
+‘Captain Ebony Black belongs in Malden,’ said Sally. ‘That is, when he
+isn’t traveling. He’ll be leaving soon.’
+
+‘He’ll be leaving this very day if I run across him,’ said Oxford.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+OXFORD GOES ON A JOURNEY
+
+
+Now that the autumn had come, Oxford was seized with a desire to
+travel. He had been considerably impressed by the tales the traveling
+cat had told Sally, although he had not let her see this. And then
+there was Peter. He was but a poor creature, to be sure, but the tales
+he told of the free life in the open appealed to Oxford.
+
+‘I am going on a journey,’ he said to Sally one morning.
+
+‘Oh, Oxford, aren’t you happy here with me? What more do you want?’
+
+‘I am tired of this back yard and of the Wild Wood. It all seems too
+cramped to me. I want some good hunting, such as that tiresome,
+no-account Peter has had.’
+
+[Illustration]
+
+‘What could be better than the hunting is here?’ Sally asked. ‘Haven’t
+you caught your ninth mouse this season? And you got a robin the other
+day.’
+
+‘Yes, and there was an awful row about it. I never saw Elvira in such a
+state.’
+
+‘I don’t quite see why,’ said Sally. ‘Elvira eats turkeys and chickens.
+Why can’t we eat robins?’
+
+‘That is a different matter. They have their own laws.’
+
+‘Do explain it to me,’ said Sally.
+
+‘You could never understand it,’ said her brother.
+
+Sally suspected that he could not understand it either, but being wise
+beyond her years, for it was years now, she did not say so.
+
+Sally did not ask Oxford to take her with him. She liked home life
+best, and she was beginning to have a few friends. It was pleasant
+to be a favorite in a modest way, if not a belle, and she liked the
+serenades they gave her on moonlight nights. And above all, she loved
+Miss Harvey, and she knew Miss Harvey would not care to take a journey
+with Oxford and herself.
+
+So Sally bade Oxford good-bye, and said she hoped he would have a
+pleasant journey and come back the next day.
+
+‘I may be gone two nights,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry unless I am gone
+three.’
+
+‘I am sorry to have you go,’ said Sally.
+
+‘I am sorry to leave you, Sally, but it is too much to be tied to a
+woman’s apron string, and there are three of them in this house, all
+wearing aprons.’
+
+‘I suppose you know best,’ said Sally, ‘but when I think of our early
+days and of how we had to scratch around for food and a place to sleep
+in, I am contented with my lot.’
+
+‘I am glad you are, Sally, but I want to visit foreign parts. Perhaps I
+can get as far as Malden.’
+
+‘Oh, do be careful! Don’t get on a boat, whatever you do!’
+
+Oxford promised to be cautious, for in the main he was a home-loving
+cat. He merely wanted to see the world in a quiet and safe way without
+running any great risks.
+
+‘Remember there is fine hunting here,’ Sally said again.
+
+‘Yes, but, as I said before, these women make such a fuss. They force
+a fellow into going into the big world for hunting. You’d think, after
+catching nine mice, no one would grudge me a robin or two and she with
+her chicken dinners!’
+
+Sally looked very down-hearted when the actual parting came.
+
+‘You must buck up, Sally,’ he said, for he had learned this phrase from
+the traveling cat. It seemed to mean more than ‘brace up.’ Sally was a
+grown cat now, and a grown cat certainly ought to buck up.
+
+Sally missed Oxford, but there was a certain peace about the place. She
+could eat the whole of her dinner without his taking part of it, and
+she could see her friends freely without having them driven off the
+place by Oxford. She missed him, of course; still, there was a certain
+peace.
+
+No one discovered his absence until bedtime, for he had often been late
+before.
+
+‘Where is Oxford?’ Miss Harvey asked Elvira.
+
+‘Oxford! I don’t know,’ said Elvira, as she took off her hat and coat.
+‘Why should I know where Oxford is? I didn’t take him to Boston with
+me.’
+
+‘I thought you might have some idea where he was,’ said Miss Harvey.
+‘He never comes in for me.’
+
+They went through the garden and the Wild Wood calling, ‘Oxford,
+Oxford, Oxford Gray, Junior.’
+
+‘Sometimes he’ll come in for the Junior,’ said Elvira, but there was no
+scampering of small feet and no furry face to be seen.
+
+‘Cats certainly are the limit,’ said Elvira. ‘You get fond of one, and
+the first thing you know he’s off like a shot.’
+
+‘Sally looks very wise,’ said Miss Harvey, as they went back into the
+house. ‘I dare say she knows just where Oxford is.’
+
+‘I wish I did,’ Sally said, but no one heard her. ‘I fear he is in some
+miserable place, and hungry and cold.’ For it had begun to rain. Sally
+could hear the raindrops pattering down the window-pane.
+
+‘This is a good little cat,’ and Elvira stroked Sally. ‘She never gives
+us any trouble.’
+
+‘She is a perfect lady, the sweetest little thing,’ said Miss Harvey,
+as Sally climbed into her lap.
+
+Sally put her two paws around Miss Harvey’s neck.
+
+It was not until after the third night that Sally began to worry, for
+Oxford had told her not to worry until after that. After the third
+night, she began to miss him very much, indeed. There had been a
+certain peace in his absence at first, but it seemed too peaceful now.
+Moreover, she had had much pleasant conversation with Captain Ebony
+Black, who had seen the world. He was a good-looking cat with his
+long-haired, glossy, black coat and white shirt-front. A black cat was
+an interesting variety in her life, and, although she knew that the
+tigers were of a nobler race, it made a pleasant change to see some one
+so different. Moreover, the black cat had said kind things to Sally, as
+kind things as Miss Harvey had said. But he had gone now, and so she
+had more time to worry about her brother.
+
+‘I do hope he will realize there is no place like home before it is too
+late and something awful happens to him,’ said Sally, and she softly
+repeated the familiar words to herself: ‘“Mid pleasures and palaces,
+though I may roam; be it ever so humble, there’s no place like Home.”’
+
+She hoped he would think of his basket and his little sister, and of
+kind Elvira who always warmed his milk, and of the haddock that she
+served for him. Nothing seemed the same without Oxford.
+
+When five days had gone by and still he did not come, gloom descended
+upon the household.
+
+‘I knew something would happen to him,’ said Miss Winifred. ‘That is
+why I did not want another cat. Something always happens once I get
+attached to one.’
+
+‘He may turn up yet,’ said Miss Harvey.
+
+‘He may turn up yet’--that sounded very hopeless. Had it come to that?
+
+‘I wish I’d never let him go on the journey,’ said Sally, ‘and yet how
+could I have helped it? His mind was made up. I know he won’t come
+back. He told me not to worry until after three days, and that meant
+that, if he did not come back then, something would have happened.’
+
+The three women to whose apron strings Oxford had been tied, had been
+around to the neighbors asking if any one had seen a tiger cat with
+white paws and a white breast. As there were several cats of this sort
+in the neighborhood, many people thought they had seen him, but the cat
+never proved to be Oxford himself.
+
+‘Black Sam, Sam Furbush-Tailby, I mean, was once gone ten days,’ said
+Elvira. ‘Oxford will probably come back.’
+
+‘Several of your pets have never come back,’ said Miss Winifred.
+
+‘I am going over to Handerson Court,’ said Elvira. ‘Maybe some one
+there will have seen him.’
+
+As Elvira went along the strip of land that led to Handerson Court,
+she heard a faint mew. It seemed a cry of distress, and it sounded to
+her like Oxford’s voice. She hurried over the grass and went through
+the gap in the fence. Presently she saw a thin tiger cat coming toward
+her with his head firmly encased in a fish can that some one must have
+carelessly thrown away without flattening it.
+
+‘Oh, poor pussy, whoever you are, you are in an awful fix,’ said Elvira.
+
+As the cat came nearer, she could hardly believe it was Oxford, he
+looked so thin, but she thought she recognized the markings on his
+tail. Another minute and there was no doubt at all, for he began to mew
+piteously again, and it was Oxford’s voice. The proud Oxford, who felt
+affection, but seldom showed it, was delighted to recognize the voice
+of a friend.
+
+Elvira picked him up and carried the frightened, struggling cat to the
+house.
+
+‘Poor dear, where have you been?’ she asked him. ‘You must have been
+shut in somewhere, and when they found you and let you out, you must
+have been so hungry that you smelled the fish and thought you could get
+some of it.’
+
+She put Oxford down in the kitchen. Sally was frightened at first at
+the sight of the can with no head to be seen, but when she found it was
+really Oxford, she ran up to him. Poor Oxford! Suppose they could not
+get his head out of the can. But Elvira and Miss Harvey worked away at
+him, and presently Oxford’s head emerged, but his beautiful fur was all
+over rust. Elvira stamped on the can to flatten it out.
+
+‘No cat will ever be caught in that can again,’ she said.
+
+Sally flew to wash Oxford, and Miss Harvey and Elvira began to scrub
+him, while Miss Winifred stood in the doorway and said, ‘Poor cat, do
+you suppose he will ever get over it?’
+
+‘I’m all right,’ Oxford said, but only Sally understood.
+
+‘Where were you?’ Sally asked. ‘Why didn’t you come home before? Did
+you have good hunting?’
+
+‘I have been in prison, Sally,’ said Oxford. ‘I was accidentally shut
+up in a building without food, so when I came out, I was very hungry.’
+
+‘Did you think of home and your sister?’ Sally ventured to ask.
+
+‘Yes, Sally.’ Oxford was never one to show much affection. ‘Yes,’
+he said, ‘I thought of home, and of the hunting in the Wild Wood. I
+thought, too, of Blackie; I am glad to see he is not about.’
+
+‘Captain Ebony Black has had to go on another journey,’ said Sally.
+
+‘I am glad of that; and Peter, where is he?’
+
+‘Peter was around last night, I think. It is getting cold. I think he
+slept in the cellar last night.’
+
+Oxford was hungrily eating some haddock at the time. How good it tasted!
+
+‘When I have got back to my full weight,’ said he, ‘I hope to show
+Peter once for all that this is not his home.’
+
+‘I am glad it is your home, Oxford,’ said Sally. ‘Aren’t you glad to
+get back?’
+
+Oxford was in truth very glad, indeed, but he did not like to show his
+feelings.
+
+‘A fellow might do worse,’ he said.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+SALLY HAS HER WISH
+
+
+One morning some weeks later, Elvira had the surprise of her life. She
+came down into the kitchen and looked around for the two cats. Oxford
+was stretched out on his woolen blanket under the table, but Sally
+was nowhere to be seen. Elvira remembered that she had left the lower
+drawer of the kitchen dresser open thinking that Sally might like to
+sleep there for a change, so she went over and looked in. For a moment
+she was startled and thought she must have seen wrong and that Sally
+had caught two mice. But although the furry objects were the smallest
+kittens she had ever seen and hardly larger than mice, there was no
+mistaking their fur coats. One was black with four very tiny white
+paws and a white breast, and the other was white with a tiger tail and
+a tiger blanket on its back.
+
+‘Miss Harvey,’ Elvira called, ‘did you ever see anything so sweet?’
+
+Sally’s whole expression had changed. Instead of having a sad little
+face, she looked proud and happy. It seemed as if she were saying: ‘See
+what I have got for wishing for it? I have had to wish for a very long
+time, but at last I have got just what I wanted, twins, a brother and
+a sister, just like Oxford and myself, and the darlings shall have a
+happier kittenhood than we had. And she said to herself,
+
+    If I cannot have a mother, a mother I will be
+  With some darling, furry children of my own,
+    The furriest, purriest kittens, the most harum-scarum kittens,
+  The liveliest, gayest kittens ever known.
+
+It seemed this time as if Miss Harvey understood everything she said,
+for she remarked, ‘Dear Sally has got her wish at last; see how
+blissfully happy she looks, Elvira!’
+
+They decided it would be wiser not to mention the kittens to Miss
+Winifred for a few days, as she had a friend staying with her who was
+taking all of her thoughts at present. So the kittens were almost a
+week old before Miss Winifred knew about them.
+
+One morning Elvira said, ‘Sally has two little kittens.’
+
+‘Kittens!’ Miss Winifred said in astonishment. ‘I am very sorry to hear
+it.’
+
+‘Sorry to hear it,’ said Elvira, ‘and you think you are fond of cats.’
+
+‘Four seem too many to have in one house, and they will grow into cats,
+but we can keep them for a time and then send them to the Ellen Gifford
+Home, or else find good homes for them.’
+
+‘Would you like to see them?’ Elvira asked.
+
+Miss Winifred went into the kitchen, and Elvira put one of the tiny
+creatures into her hand and then the other. No one with a heart for
+kittens could help being touched by the sight of these furry creatures
+and the anxious expression of their mother’s face as she watched Miss
+Winifred, for she was not sure of her.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+‘Please don’t drop them,’ she pleaded in her own language. ‘Please
+don’t even think about homes for them later on. This is a good home,
+and I will be a good mother. I do so want their kittenhood to be happy
+and not sad like mine.’
+
+Miss Winifred put the kittens down very gently.
+
+‘At any rate, they can’t leave their mother for some weeks,’ she said.
+
+It was not long before these tiny objects were scampering about the
+kitchen floor, getting in front of Elvira’s feet just as their mother
+and their uncle had done, for they found a way of getting out of the
+drawer of the dresser. They made a stepladder of their mother, and,
+climbing on her back, gave a flying leap to the floor and then chased
+each other about. Patty, the little tiger kitten, was more lively than
+her brother Eben, and she would turn a somersault as she reached him
+and then they would skip about in high glee, and wrestle together.
+There had never been such gay kittens in Miss Winifred’s house.
+
+‘It is as good as a tonic having them around,’ said Miss Winifred, one
+morning as she visited the kitchen.
+
+‘Certainly they are like a tonic to their mother,’ said Miss Harvey. ‘I
+never saw any one more changed.’
+
+Oxford was not at all interested in his niece and nephew, so he spent
+more of his time than usual away from home. It was the gentle Peter who
+was all ready to be friendly, and when the two kittens went dancing up
+to him, he was pleased. But Sally, who feared he would do them harm,
+raised her powerful voice to call them to her, and then gave Peter the
+thrashing that Oxford had meant to give him. She seemed possessed by
+fury as she flew at him and put her claws in his fur.
+
+‘Look at your perfect lady now,’ said Elvira to Miss Harvey.
+
+‘She is a good mother. She is only afraid he will hurt her children,’
+said Miss Harvey.
+
+Sometimes in the days that followed, Sally wished that her desires
+had not been granted so completely. She loved having her kittens and
+she was glad they were having a happier kittenhood than her own, that
+was so sombre and sad. But why had she ever asked for ‘harum-scarum’
+kittens, or the ‘liveliest, gayest kittens ever known’? Surely it would
+have been enough to wish for ‘Kittens’! Sally was not sure that it was
+ever wise to wish too hard for anything, and yet she liked to watch her
+children playing so fearlessly, for kind Elvira and dear Miss Harvey
+let them frisk about the kitchen as they pleased. One day Eben got into
+one of Elvira’s rubbers that were in the entry. He peered out from this
+pleasant spot as if to say, ‘See the nice little house I have found,
+it just fits me.’ Baskets and boxes they appropriated for their own,
+and on cold nights, after the kitchen fire was out, Sally joined them
+and they slept warm and comfortable in a pasteboard box just the right
+size for three.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When they ran up Elvira’s back and pulled out her hairpins, or landed
+on the clock shelf in the kitchen in search of their catnip mice and
+knocked down a few trifles, Sally said, ‘Children, children, why can’t
+you be quiet and well-behaved, as your uncle and I were!’
+
+‘But, mother, you once told us you knocked a candlestick off the study
+mantelpiece,’ Patty reminded her.
+
+‘That is true,’ said their mother, who was a very fair cat.
+
+‘You said you climbed up Elvira,’ said Eben; ‘that is what put the idea
+into our heads.’
+
+‘I never did it but once or twice, not every day. I was a much quieter
+kitten.’
+
+‘Because you were half-starved,’ said Patty. ‘Mother, just be a kitten
+with us. Be young with your children.’
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SALLY IS YOUNG WITH HER CHILDREN
+
+
+Before Sally had any kittens she used to wonder at the shiftless way in
+which the wild tortoise-shell cat who sometimes came about the place
+dealt with her kittens. Sally knew she would not have the slightest
+trouble in making her children mind, if she were so fortunate as to
+have any. But it is one thing to make imaginary children mind and quite
+another to deal with real ones.
+
+She would say in her powerful voice, ‘Come, Patty, come, Eben, be
+quiet. Come to me. Let Elvira’s sweater alone,’ and the pair would
+gayly prance about the room with the sweater between them, Eben firmly
+grasping a sleeve, and Patty the hem.
+
+‘Children, did you hear what I said?’ she would add.
+
+‘Yes, mother,’ said the gay pair, and they went on dancing about the
+room. Then Sally would raise her voice again, and finally Elvira would
+stamp her foot and say, ‘Sally, be quiet!’ which was very unfair of
+Elvira, Sally thought, when she was doing her best to make the kittens
+mind.
+
+‘I can’t understand why you are not better behaved,’ she said to them.
+
+‘Mother, dear, didn’t you want us to have a lively, happy kittenhood,
+different from yours?’ Patty asked, as she dropped the sweater and put
+a paw around her mother’s neck.
+
+Then Patty leaped upon the table and gave a flying jump into the sink,
+where Elvira had put some water in a pan. Eben quickly followed her.
+
+‘We are waiting for Miss Winifred to come out,’ said Patty. ‘We like
+her lap for naps, it is so woolly and she’s so kind.’
+
+‘Kind!’ said Sally. ‘She thought of sending you to the Ellen Gifford
+Home. Perhaps she will yet.’
+
+‘I am sure she hasn’t any idea of it, mother,’ said Patty. ‘Once Miss
+Winifred gets fond of you, she’s all right. She’s a dear. Her lap is a
+lot woollier than Elvira’s.’
+
+Presently Miss Winifred came into the kitchen, moving slowly in her
+near-sighted way, so as not to step on a kitten. Patty darted past her
+as if to dare her to step on her tail. Miss Winifred seated herself in
+the big rocking-chair, ready to discuss the meals. Presently Patty ran
+up her skirt and settled down in her lap. Eben then appeared, getting
+up very slowly with more than one fall, but arriving at last. He always
+liked everything Patty had, so he moved her to the other side of Miss
+Winifred’s lap and slipped into her place.
+
+Sally came over and sat on the arm of Miss Winifred’s chair, for she
+still felt a little uneasy about the Ellen Gifford Home.
+
+‘These kittens are perfectly fascinating,’ said Miss Winifred.
+
+‘Did you hear that, mother?’ said Eben.
+
+‘She knows how to make pretty speeches,’ said Sally.
+
+‘I like pretty speeches,’ said Eben. ‘I wish you’d make a few, mother.’
+
+‘If you’ll come into the basket to take your nap, I’ll sing the song
+that your great-great-grandmother composed. The Martha Furbush for whom
+you are named, Patty.’
+
+Out of curiosity to hear the song, the kittens scrambled down from Miss
+Winifred’s lap and joined their mother in the basket. She gently purred:
+
+        Purr, darlings, purr,
+  While mother is washing your fur.
+  In all the great nation
+  There’s no occupation
+  That’s half so sweet to her.
+        Purr, darlings, purr.
+
+Patty grew restless while the song was going on, and she skipped out of
+the clothes-basket.
+
+‘My darling, don’t you think it a sweet song?’
+
+‘I think it is a lot more interesting hearing Elvira reading the paper
+aloud to Miss Winifred, than to listen to you singing,’ said Patty.
+
+‘When you have children of your own, Patty, you will appreciate how
+every mother feels.’
+
+‘I just love to hear about the cat that came all forlorn and full of
+burrs to the lady who took him in and made a home for him,’ Patty went
+on. ‘I’d love to get out and be stuck full of burrs, mother.’
+
+‘There was a verse in the Cradle Song about hissing,’ Sally said.
+
+‘Oh, try to remember it, mother,’ they begged.
+
+‘I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten it.’
+
+As the kittens grew older, Sally found it harder and harder to make
+them mind. One day she found her dear little Patty in a drawer in the
+kitchen, one that she had never got into before. Sally was terribly
+worried for fear some thoughtless person would shut the drawer with her
+child in it. She called and called to Patty to come out. She called
+until Elvira stamped her foot and said, ‘Be quiet, Sally.’
+
+Then Sally stopped to think things out.
+
+‘I see that the door into the passageway is open, Patty,’ she said.
+‘Wouldn’t you like to come with me into the other part of the house?’
+
+It had worked. Patty sprang out of the drawer and gayly followed her
+mother, for she had longed to go into the parlor again ever since the
+day that she and Eben had been taken there to show to some admiring
+ladies who were having afternoon tea with Miss Winifred.
+
+Patty and her mother went up a flight of stairs to the sewing-room
+door, which was open. There was no door open into the other part of the
+house.
+
+‘Oh, is that all you’ve got to show me! I’ve seen this old room
+before,’ said Patty.
+
+‘You’ve seen it before? When?’
+
+‘Uncle Peter showed it to us one day when you were in the parlor with
+Miss Harvey.’
+
+‘Uncle Peter! That tramp cat is no relation of yours. It is Oxford who
+is your uncle.’
+
+‘Uncle Peter said he wasn’t any relation,’ said Patty, ‘but we asked
+if we might call him that, for we like him a lot better. Uncle Oxford
+tries to make us mind, and it isn’t his business. He isn’t our mother.’
+
+‘I don’t want you playing around with Peter.’
+
+‘But, mother, he tells us such lots of exciting stories. He’s going to
+take Eben hunting as soon as we are big enough to be let out.’
+
+Patty was halfway down the stairs as she spoke. Her mother followed her
+anxiously. What should she do to keep her child out of that drawer. To
+her intense relief, she saw that Elvira had closed it.
+
+It was a very cold day, and Eben was standing absorbed in the
+passageway to the outside door, watching Peter, who was fighting
+another cat.
+
+‘Eben,’ she called in her shrill voice, ‘come in at once, you will take
+cold.’
+
+‘For pity sake, keep quiet, Sally,’ said Elvira, stamping her foot.
+Eben did not move.
+
+Then Patty went and touched her brother with her paw and tried to get
+him in out of the cold. Cat fights had no interest for her. He shook
+her off and remained rooted to the spot.
+
+‘Oh, children, children,’ said Sally in despair. She went over to Miss
+Harvey, who had come in and was sitting by the table. She had been too
+busy with her kittens to pay any attention to Miss Harvey of late. Now
+she put her paws around her neck and her face up to be kissed.
+
+‘Poor, dear Sally,’ said Miss Harvey, ‘it is quite a job to be a
+mother.’
+
+‘What’s the use of trying to make us mind, mother? It’s much more fun
+to do the things yourself.’ As he spoke, Eben began to chase after his
+sister’s tail, Patty chased after his, and finally Sally joined them,
+and the three had a mad race around the kitchen floor.
+
+‘Isn’t it more amusing, mother, than to sing, “Purr, darlings, purr?”’
+said Eben, as the three paused for breath.
+
+‘We made a better song than that the other night,’ said Patty.
+
+‘You made a song?’ Sally was delighted. She was proud of her kittens.
+
+‘Eben made most of it, but I helped him,’ said Patty, and the two
+kittens said together:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  ‘Skip, mother, skip with us,
+  Don’t hold us back and make a fuss,
+  You look so young you’re surely able
+  To jump with us upon the table,
+  Then give a leap into the sink,
+  Where you will find a cooling drink.
+  Skip, mother, skip with us,
+  Don’t hold us back and make a fuss.’
+
+‘And you call that poetry,’ said their mother. ‘I can do better than
+that.’
+
+‘Some day I’ll make better poetry than that,’ said Eben. And a few
+weeks later, when he was three months old, and Sally heard an evening
+song that he had made, she felt that the wish of her heart was to be
+granted at last, and that her little son was to be the companion she
+had longed for.
+
+  ‘I’m thankful for my happy days,
+  So full of work and pleasant plays,
+  When Patty’s tail and mine we chase,
+  And mother joins us in the race.
+  I’m thankful for my long black fur,
+  And mother says it pleases her.
+  And for my eyes that see so far,
+  And watch the moon and evening star.
+  I love both sunshine and the rain
+  That patters on the window-pane.
+  I love the people living here.
+  I think Elvira is a dear.
+  Miss Harvey is just to my mind,
+  And even Miss Winifred is kind.
+  I love the world, I think it’s great,
+  What kitten could want a better fate?
+  I’m glad my months are only three
+  With all of life ahead of me.’
+
+‘It might be better,’ said Sally, who did not believe in too much
+praise, ‘but it is a great improvement on “Skip, mother, skip with us.”’
+
+Sally wondered if her son would be a famous poet, like his
+great-great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby, when he was a
+full-grown cat. She often wondered as to what the future of her
+children would be. Patty was so extremely bright and enterprising that
+she felt sure she would be able to look out for herself. And then,
+too, Sally thought her a beauty, for she looked exactly as she would
+have liked to look, with her round white face and beautiful eyes set
+far apart, and her tiger blanket and the tiger cap that covered the
+back of her head and came down over her forehead and looked as if
+it were parted like hair. But Eben, although slower, was a kitten of
+real distinction. She felt he might make his mark in the world. He
+was so absorbed in cat fights, even at his tender age, that he might
+be a great warrior, or he might become like his grandfather, a mighty
+hunter, for he sat for five minutes at a time before a mouse-hole.
+
+Sally liked to keep them young as long as possible and she was glad
+that it was to be a late spring, for now, at the beginning of March,
+there was snow on the ground, and Elvira said to Miss Harvey, ‘It will
+be some time before we can let the kittens out-of-doors.’ So at present
+they were safe from the peril of meeting intruding cats or being chased
+by that villain Spot.
+
+Meanwhile Sally raced around the kitchen with her children and
+scampered up and down the stairs that led to the sewing-room as if she
+were their age and not a sober cat.
+
+‘I am having my youth now,’ she said to Oxford, who was watching the
+three with his slightly superior air, as he looked up from his last
+mouthful of haddock. He was a little too lazy to join in the race, and
+he preferred to take his exercise out-of-doors.
+
+‘Sally, you have learned to brace up,’ he said.
+
+  This tale is ended, yet, not so,
+  The kittens’ tails, they grow and grow.
+  A tiger tail that’s tipped with white,
+  A black one, Sally’s chief delight.
+  When the Spring comes, with joyous purr,
+  In coats of black, and tiger fur,
+  They’ll hasten through the open door,
+  The earth’s great wonders to explore.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
+
+
+  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
+
+  Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
+
+  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76985 ***
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+      Sally in her fur coat | Project Gutenberg
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+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76985 ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter hide"><img src="images/coversmall.jpg" width="450" alt=""></div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover2.jpg" alt=""></div>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/endpaper.jpg" alt="endpaper"></div>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h1>SALLY IN HER FUR COAT</h1>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<figure class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+  <img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="450" height="469" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p class="caption">SALLY IN HER FUR COAT WAS RACING THROUGH
+    THE GARDEN (<i>page <a href="#Page_1">1</a></i>)</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/titlepage.jpg" alt="title page"></div>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+<p><span class="xxlarge">SALLY IN HER<br>
+  FUR COAT</span></p>
+
+<p>By<br>
+<span class="xlarge">ELIZA ORNE WHITE</span><br>
+  <small>AUTHOR OF ‘BROTHERS IN FUR,’ ETC.</small></p>
+
+<p><small>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SCISSOR-CUTS BY</small><br>
+<span class="large">LISL HUMMEL</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/titlepageillo.jpg" alt=""></div>
+
+<p>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br>
+<span class="large">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</span><br>
+<span class="antiqua">The Riverside Press Cambridge</span><br>
+  1929</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY ELIZA ORNE WHITE<br>
+  <br>
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE<br>
+  THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM<br>
+  <br>
+  <br>
+  <span class="antiqua">The Riverside Press</span><br>
+  CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS<br>
+  PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">TO<br>
+    <span class="large">ELIZABETH F. DUNDASS</span><br>
+    AND<br>
+    <span class="large">MARGARET COLTER</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">True friends of all in coats of fur,</div>
+<div class="verse">Beloved by every cat and kitten,</div>
+<div class="verse">Welcomed with many a heart-felt purr,</div>
+<div class="verse">Here, gratefully your names are written.</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">The world is wide and full of wondrous things</div>
+<div class="verse">For all God’s creatures, whether great or small,</div>
+<div class="verse">For those who soar aloft on spreading wings,</div>
+<div class="verse">Or those who, earth-bound, never fear a fall.</div>
+<div class="verse">But surely kittens have a joyous time,</div>
+<div class="verse">With ears attuned to every tiny sound,</div>
+<div class="verse">And with the power the loftiest tree to climb,</div>
+<div class="verse">And eyes that see all creatures on the ground.</div>
+<div class="verse">The patter of the rain upon the leaves,</div>
+<div class="verse">The ants that swiftly build their tiny house,</div>
+<div class="verse">The wind that’s but a gentle summer breeze,</div>
+<div class="verse">The stealthy tread of an alluring mouse—</div>
+<div class="verse">All this is joy; how could one wish to be</div>
+<div class="verse">A man or woman with closed ears and eyes</div>
+<div class="verse">To all the treasures of the land and sea,</div>
+<div class="verse">And to the glory of the earth and skies?</div>
+<div class="verse">And even a child, though nearer to the ground,</div>
+<div class="verse">Is often heedless of this wondrous earth,</div>
+<div class="verse">Where such enthralling histories are found.</div>
+<div class="verse">Who would not be a kitten full of mirth?</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span>
+<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table>
+<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Orphans</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">      1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Two orphan kittens without their mother,</div>
+<div class="indent">In piteous plight were they,</div>
+<div class="verse">A furry sister and her brother</div>
+<div class="indent">In coats of tiger gray.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Cold Night</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">      10</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">If in May the nights are cold,</div>
+<div class="indent">When Nature should be thriving,</div>
+<div class="verse">Young kittens but a few weeks old</div>
+<div class="indent">Think winter is arriving.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Capture</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">      19</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Is it best to be captured, or still to be free?</div>
+<div class="indent">To have food and a fire, or one’s liberty?</div>
+<div class="verse">To be free has its charms, but when hungry and cold,</div>
+<div class="indent">To be captured is not at all bad, we are told.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Kittens and Miss Winifred</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">      27</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Politeness is a pleasant trait.</div>
+<div class="indent">If we are rude to kittens small,</div>
+<div class="verse">We lose their love and win their hate,</div>
+<div class="indent">Their friendship is not ours at all.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Friendly House</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">      33</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">A house is such a pleasant place</div>
+<div class="indent">When friends are kind</div>
+<div class="verse">And understand our furry race,</div>
+<div class="indent">Our heart and mind.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally and the Clock</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">      41</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">All mantelpieces should be wide</div>
+<div class="indent">So cats can walk there side by side.</div>
+<div class="verse">There should be trees in every room</div>
+<div class="indent">For exercise in storm and gloom.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">VII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Catnip Mouse</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">      46</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">If I were asked what I would like</div>
+<div class="indent">To beautify my house,</div>
+<div class="verse">I’d say without a moment’s thought,</div>
+<div class="indent">Give me a catnip mouse.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">VIII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The First Snowstorm</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">      52</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">I love the frostwork on the panes,</div>
+<div class="indent">The snowfall on the trees.</div>
+<div class="verse">I like the time when winter reigns,</div>
+<div class="indent">And lakes and rivers freeze.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">IX.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Busy Sally</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61">      61</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Long naps by day, I like that best,</div>
+<div class="indent">When the great sun is hot and bright.</div>
+<div class="verse">That seems the time to take a rest,</div>
+<div class="indent">After a long and strenuous night.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">X.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Moods</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69">      69</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Perhaps the lady in her silk,</div>
+<div class="indent">And coat of costly fur,</div>
+<div class="verse">Would sometimes like my bowl of milk,</div>
+<div class="indent">If she could have my purr.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Peter</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">      78</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Old Peter I have put to flight</div>
+<div class="indent">On more than one occasion.</div>
+<div class="verse">He says for country he will fight,</div>
+<div class="indent">I call it an invasion.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally and the Loud Speaker</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_87">      87</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Speak gently, it is better far;</div>
+<div class="indent">Soft answers are the best,</div>
+<div class="verse">And low replies. Loud speakers are</div>
+<div class="indent">A nuisance to the rest.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XIII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally Braces Up</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_95">      95</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">The New Year is a glorious date</div>
+<div class="indent">For resolutions splendid,</div>
+<div class="verse">And dreams of valor far more great</div>
+<div class="indent">Than in the year that’s ended.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XIV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally and Spot</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_102">      102</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">A tree is such a pleasant place</div>
+<div class="indent">I’ll stay here through the night</div>
+<div class="verse">If Spot continues at its base.</div>
+<div class="indent">That villain I won’t fight.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Family Tree</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">      112</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">I long to have a family tree</div>
+<div class="indent">And show to all my true descent.</div>
+<div class="verse">But Oxford says a family tree</div>
+<div class="indent">Is not a tree for kittens meant.</div>
+<div class="verse">To know his father is enough</div>
+<div class="indent">For he was made of valiant stuff.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Traveling Cat</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_120">      120</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">A traveler comes who’s seen the world,</div>
+<div class="indent">The harbor and the sea.</div>
+<div class="verse">He’s seen the spreading sails unfurled,</div>
+<div class="indent">And all life’s mystery.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Oxford goes on a Journey</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_127">      127</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">Proud scion of a noble race am I;</div>
+<div class="indent">The blood of hunters courses through my veins.</div>
+<div class="verse">Variety I crave before I die;</div>
+<div class="indent">I fear not furious gales, nor autumn rains.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally has Her Wish</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_139">      139</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">If I cannot have a mother, a mother I will be</div>
+<div class="indent">With some darling, furry children of my own.</div>
+<div class="verse">The furriest, purriest kittens, the most harum-scarum kittens,</div>
+<div class="indent">The liveliest, gayest kittens ever known.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally is Young with Her Children</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_147">      147</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td><td>
+<div class="poetry-container2">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">We love to run, we love to climb,</div>
+<div class="indent">In fact we have a royal time.</div>
+<div class="verse">Kings cannot quite so happy be,</div>
+<div class="indent">For kings, we hear, are not so free.</div>
+</div></div></td><td>&#160;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_001.jpg" width="250" alt=""></div>
+
+<p class="ph2">SALLY IN HER FUR COAT</p>
+
+<p class="ph2"><span class="xlarge">∵</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I<br>
+<small>THE ORPHANS</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> in her fur coat was racing through the garden
+and flying through the Wild Wood, as if an enemy
+were in hot pursuit. She was a very young kitten
+and small of her age. Her pursuer was not an
+enemy, but her twin brother, Oxford Gray, Junior.
+But although they were born on the same day,
+Oxford Gray, Junior, was much fatter than Sally,
+and he had shorter legs, so he could never catch up
+with his little sister. After a time, he grew tired of
+the chase, but, being Sally’s brother and protector,
+he did not like to own it, so he said:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>‘Sally, I am sure all this running about must be
+bad for you. Come and lie down under that giant
+hemlock and we’ll have a good rest.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am not in the least tired,’ said Sally, and off
+she scampered again.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Oxford Gray, Junior, was fairly
+panting.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sure this mad dash will use you up,’ he said,
+for he did not like to own that he was tired.</p>
+
+<p>It finally dawned on Sally that this might be the
+case, but, being wise beyond her weeks, she did not
+speak of this, but came over and joined her brother
+under the shade of the giant hemlock in the Wild
+Wood. There were many of these hemlocks as well
+as oak trees. They were all about as high as a man’s
+shoulders, but they seemed immense to the kittens.
+They were sometimes spoken of by people as underbrush,
+but people are often stupid about many
+matters, as every cat knows. Of course all this
+conversation was carried on in kitten language, not
+in actual words.</p>
+
+<p>The two kittens curled up under the shade of the
+giant hemlock in the Wild Wood, and put their
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>paws about each other’s necks. They were tiger
+kittens and looked so much alike that when they
+were apart, it was hard to tell which was Sally and
+which was Oxford Gray, Junior. When they were
+together, one saw that Oxford Gray, Junior, was
+larger, and that he had more of a white shirt-front
+than his sister, and he had a pink nose which she
+envied, for hers was just a tiger nose. One also
+noticed a great difference in their expressions, for
+Sally had a sad little face, while Oxford Gray,
+Junior, looked prosperous and thoroughly contented
+with himself. At times it almost seemed as
+if he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>‘We are two very unfortunate kittens,’ said
+Sally; ‘it is sad to be orphans.’</p>
+
+<p>‘We’ve got to make the best of it,’ said Oxford
+Gray, Junior. ‘Other kittens have been orphans before
+us and others will be orphans after us. Sally,
+you must brace up.’</p>
+
+<p>‘When I think of my brave father and of my
+darling mother, so cozy and so kind, and of how
+they mysteriously disappeared, I can’t brace up,’
+said Sally. ‘I am sure we are going to starve.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>‘Not while I have my good right paw,’ said
+Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I will get food for you.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You? How? What will you get?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I will catch a mouse,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior,
+magnificently. ‘Our father was a mighty
+hunter.’</p>
+
+<p>‘But you are hardly larger than a mouse yourself,’
+said Sally. ‘Father said so.’</p>
+
+<p>‘That was a very long time ago,’ said her brother.
+‘I have grown since then, and there must be many
+baby mice just as there are small kittens. I will be
+on the lookout for a very young mouse, Sally.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sure we shall starve before you can catch
+a mouse,’ said Sally, ‘for there don’t seem to be any
+around. We can’t live on flies, and they are very
+hard to catch.’</p>
+
+<p>If Sally had been a little girl, she would have
+cried bitterly, but, being a kitten, she was more
+self-controlled.</p>
+
+<p>‘Where are we going to get our next meal?’ she
+persisted.</p>
+
+<p>‘It will somehow come,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior,
+who was an optimist.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>He sometimes provoked Sally very much, for she
+was sure she saw things as they really were.</p>
+
+<p>‘We got some milk other days at that little
+house,’ he said.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, but it is closed to-day,’ she reminded
+him.</p>
+
+<p>‘Other houses will be open,’ said Oxford Gray,
+Junior. He glanced up as he spoke and looked first
+at one of the two houses that were near the Wild
+Wood and then at the other. One house was very
+attractive, lying low in the valley with a pretty
+garden and a giant rhododendron tree on either side
+of the front door. The buds were swelling and
+beginning to show a hint of crimson. ‘We’ll try to
+get food at that house,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior.</p>
+
+<p>‘Don’t you remember what father told us about
+that house?’ said Sally. ‘He said it had the secret
+mark that is only known to cats, that says, “No
+cats need apply here for food. This is a no-good
+house.”’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, I remember now,’ said her brother, ‘but
+father said the other house was all right. That has
+a secret mark that says, “Welcome, Cats.”’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>‘We are not cats,’ said Sally. ‘We are such small
+kittens I am afraid no one will see us; father called
+us “kittenettes,”’ and at the memory of her father,
+Sally once more looked very sad.</p>
+
+<p>‘What’s the use of worrying?’ said Oxford Gray,
+Junior. ‘Something always has turned up and
+something always will.’</p>
+
+<p>‘That is rather an ugly house, I think,’ said
+Sally, as she looked at the gray house on the hill
+that said, in its secret language, ‘Welcome, Cats.’
+‘It seems all pointed roofs and it hasn’t such a
+pretty garden as the other house.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t care about its looks,’ said her brother.
+‘Don’t you remember how mother once said,
+“Handsome is that handsome does,” when you
+wished you were an Angora with long yellow
+fur?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, I remember,’ said Sally, ‘but I wish I were
+a yellow Angora just the same. I’d like to be a
+handsome kitten.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t care at all how I look,’ said Oxford
+Gray, Junior. ‘I’d rather be myself. If you were
+a yellow Angora with long fur, you would not have
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>me for your twin. How would you like to lose me,
+Sally?’</p>
+
+<p>At this terrible suggestion, Sally put her paws
+all the more firmly around her brother’s neck.</p>
+
+<p>‘You are the whole world to me, Oxford Gray,
+Junior,’ she said; ‘grandmother, and father and
+mother and brother, too. The others have all disappeared,
+and you are all I have left. It is sad to be
+orphans,’ she wailed again, in her thought-transference
+language; ‘but if one has to be an orphan,
+it is better to be twins.’</p>
+
+<p>Now Sally and Oxford Gray, Junior, had been so
+busy about their own concerns that they had not
+noticed that a lady came to the bow window of the
+house that said ‘Welcome, Cats,’ in its secret
+language, and that her eyes rested on the brother
+and sister in their fur coats, and so it was a great
+surprise when they saw her come down the piazza
+steps. They were frightened and scampered off as
+fast as they could go. The lady put a large blue-and-white
+dinner plate down on the grass and,
+looking around her as if searching for the kittens,
+she went back into the house.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>‘Poor darlings,’ she said, and there were tears in
+her eyes; ‘poor kittens to have lost their mother
+when they were so young!’</p>
+
+<p>A faint odor of fish greeted the kittens.</p>
+
+<p>‘I do believe there is fish on that plate,’ said
+Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘Let us go and see.’</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the plate, they saw it had on
+it a large piece of mackerel cut in mouthfuls that
+would just suit them and some potato and green
+vegetable about the color of grass. Perhaps it was
+cooked grass. They had never seen it before. It
+had a most satisfying smell. Then the hungry
+kittens leaned over the blue-and-white plate, one on
+one side and one on the other, and they hungrily ate
+the delicious fish. Sally ate daintily and slowly, but
+Oxford Gray, Junior, gobbled his portion down very
+fast and then ate what was left of Sally’s share.</p>
+
+<p>Sally hit him with her paw. There were things
+that even the gentle Sally could not stand.</p>
+
+<p>‘That isn’t fair,’ she said.</p>
+
+<p>‘I need more to keep me alive than you do,’ said
+Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘If I am going to hunt for
+food for the pair of us, I have to be well fed.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>‘Do you think you could catch fish?’ Sally asked.
+‘I like fish even better than mouse.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Father was a mighty hunter, but I never heard
+that he was a fisherman,’ said her brother. ‘I am
+afraid I shall have to stick to hunting. But we are
+all right for to-day, Sally. Always trust to me. Did
+not I tell you something would turn up?’</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_009.jpg" alt=""></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_010.jpg" width="250" alt=""></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER II<br>
+<small>THE COLD NIGHT</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> rained that afternoon, a cold piercing rain and
+the thermometer went down. Nothing like the cold
+had been known for years in the month of May.
+But the kittens did not know this, as they had only
+weeks to judge by. They were afraid this sort of
+weather might last for many days.</p>
+
+<p>‘Where can we spend the night?’ Sally asked
+Oxford Gray, Junior.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, for once, was at a loss.</p>
+
+<p>‘If only Elvira would come to the door of the gray
+house and see us, she would be sure to let us in.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t know about houses,’ said Sally. ‘Mother
+warned me about houses. She said she had lost
+faith in every one since her first owners were so unkind
+and left her to starve when they moved to
+another town.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>‘Father did not feel that way,’ said Oxford Gray,
+Junior. ‘He said Elvira let him into the house one
+night when there was a great snowstorm, whatever
+that is. He said if trouble ever came and we could
+get where Elvira could see us, we’d be safe and
+happy.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Does the house belong to Elvira?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Father wasn’t sure. He had been told it belonged
+to Miss Winifred Mann. But he said if it
+did, it seemed strange she should take so little
+interest in it. He said she seemed to be out of it
+most of the time, while Elvira stayed in it and made
+it look pretty and cooked lots of meals for people
+and cats, especially cats. Father said Miss Winifred
+wasn’t a bad sort, and that she could talk very
+pleasantly to a cat, but that was very little good if
+a fellow wanted a square meal. Anyway, the house
+is the thing to go to on a stormy night like this.
+Maybe this is a snowstorm.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It can’t be,’ said Sally. ‘Father said snow was
+white, and that it made the earth look pretty. Oh,
+dear, I wish he hadn’t gone away.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Brace up, Sally,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior, who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>felt it would be easier to brace up himself if he had
+the satisfaction of scolding some one.</p>
+
+<p>‘Where are we to spend the night if we can’t get
+into the house?’ Sally asked. ‘That place under the
+piazza has been fixed so that nothing can get in any
+more.’</p>
+
+<p>‘There are other places where we might find
+shelter,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I’ll go and
+explore.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I’ll come along with you,’ said Sally, who did
+not like to be left alone. ‘When I think of my brave
+father and my darling mother——’</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, shut up, Sally,’ said her brother.</p>
+
+<p>As Sally was wise beyond her weeks, she knew
+that Oxford Gray, Junior, must be very cold and
+unhappy, or he would not be so cross, so with her
+usual wisdom she said:</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford Gray, Junior, you will have to be like a
+father to me, you are so brave, and I will try to be a
+mother to you; at least, I can be loving.’</p>
+
+<p>At these words Oxford Gray, Junior, felt a pleasant
+glow about the region of his heart and the
+cold rain did not seem to matter so much. He did
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>not say anything, for he was a shy kitten so far as
+expressing his feelings was concerned, but Sally
+knew by the expression of his face that he was
+pleased with her words.</p>
+
+<p>‘If we are orphans, it is good to be twins,’ she said
+again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_013.jpg" alt="The kittens wandered about in the heavy rain"></div>
+
+<p>The kittens wandered about in the heavy rain.
+They were cold and forlorn, but Sally did not dare
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>to speak of her brave father or her kind mother
+again. The two houses that stood inside the same
+fence seemed asleep. No one came to any of the
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>‘Let’s go down into the street,’ said Oxford Gray,
+Junior. ‘Perhaps in some of the houses on the street
+there will be some one who likes kittens.’</p>
+
+<p>It was quite a long way to the street, down a
+winding avenue, so the kittens took a short cut
+through the Wild Wood, and when the street was
+reached Oxford Gray, Junior, was timid about
+crossing it, for automobiles were going by very fast.</p>
+
+<p>‘It hardly seems safe for you to cross, Sally,’ he
+said. ‘I think I had better go and look around first.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t want to be left behind,’ said Sally, and
+before Oxford Gray, Junior, knew what she was
+doing, Sally had gone across the street so fast that
+it seemed as if she were flying. Oxford Gray, Junior,
+watched his chance and went across to join her.</p>
+
+<p>They went along past the row of apartment
+houses, but no one came out to say a friendly word
+to the unfortunate kittens.</p>
+
+<p>‘Let’s go around to the back of the houses,’ said
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>Sally. ‘I’m very hungry. Maybe some one will give
+us something to eat.’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, Junior, followed his enterprising
+sister, and there on the back porch of a house was a
+saucer of milk. They could hardly believe their
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>‘Didn’t I tell you,’ said Oxford Gray, Junior,
+‘that something nice would happen?’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, Junior, took his place on one side of
+the saucer of milk, and Sally took her place on the
+other side and they began to lap the milk in haste.
+When it was all but gone, they heard the opening of
+a door, and Sally saw an angry woman coming out
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>‘You little thieves, you little scoundrels!’ said
+the woman. ‘You come and steal our cat’s milk!’</p>
+
+<p>‘They were probably very hungry,’ said a man in
+a kind voice.</p>
+
+<p>‘It’s bad enough to feed one cat, because you are
+so daft on them,’ said the woman, ‘but I can’t feed
+the whole neighborhood. Scat! Get away with you
+and never show your tiger faces here any more, you
+brats!’</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_016.jpg" alt="Get away with you!"></div>
+
+<p>The kittens fairly flew down the steps and out
+into the pouring rain.</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, we had a good meal, anyhow,’ said Oxford
+Gray, Junior. ‘How could we tell the milk wasn’t
+meant for any kitten that got there first?’</p>
+
+<p>They went back to the Wild Wood. It seemed
+more like home than any other place, and Oxford
+Gray, Junior, always had the hope that the door of
+the gray house on the hill might open and kind Elvira
+come out and welcome him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>At last they found an opening under one of the
+piazzas. This one had not as yet been fixed so that
+no animal could crawl in and take shelter there. It
+was a small hole, but large enough for Sally to get in
+easily. Oxford Gray, Junior, had to squeeze in.</p>
+
+<p>‘Didn’t I tell you that we should find shelter?’ he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Sally wanted to say, ‘Oh, shut up!’ but, being
+wise beyond her weeks, she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>She did not like the shelter. It was not her idea
+of what a home should be. There were cracks in the
+boards that let in some of the rain, and there was a
+musty smell that she did not like, and it was cold,
+even there.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, Junior, fell asleep long before she
+did. She stayed awake a long time, trying to plan
+out some way of getting into some warm house
+where they could have a fire and some good food to
+eat. Her mother had told her of such a house where
+she had spent her early days before her owners
+moved away and left her behind, and her brave
+father had told her of three where he had been an
+honored guest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>The rain kept on pattering on the boards overhead,
+and Sally grew more and more forlorn and
+thought of her brave father and her dear mother,
+and life seemed hard. She was provoked with her
+brother for taking things so calmly.</p>
+
+<p>What should she do without him, though?</p>
+
+<p>At last she went to sleep, repeating to herself her
+refrain, ‘If one has to be an orphan, it is better to be
+twins.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_019.jpg" width="250" alt="Girl holding a cat"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER III<br>
+<small>THE CAPTURE</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> next morning the sun shone brightly, and this
+in itself made the kittens feel in better spirits. Oxford
+Gray, Junior, who had had a fine night’s sleep,
+was positively gay, and Sally forbore to mention
+her brave father and her dear mother. Perhaps,
+after all, Oxford Gray, Junior, was right and something
+would turn up.</p>
+
+<p>And something did turn up. It was toward the
+end of the afternoon, and they were beginning to
+wonder where they were to get their next meal.
+Oxford Gray, Junior, had caught a fly or two and
+found some bugs, but he had not been able to get a
+mouse. He had felt it important to keep up his own
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>strength, as he had to take care of Sally, and she
+ought to learn to brace up and look out for herself.
+She did get a couple of bugs, and they had had a
+little grass, but no plate of fish had been put out for
+them again, for no one had seen them.</p>
+
+<p>They were at play under the giant rhododendron
+bush that was on the south side of the pretty house
+that was not friendly to cats, when the exciting
+event happened. The front door opened, and out of
+it came a very pretty young lady. She had yellow
+hair and wore a pretty blue dress, and was exactly
+the sort of a lady that Sally would like to be herself,
+with a warm house to live in with plenty of food.</p>
+
+<p>‘Goodness,’ said the pretty girl, ‘something must
+be done about you, poor little dears,’ and she looked
+from Sally to Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘If only my
+cook liked cats—as it is, I can’t keep you myself.’</p>
+
+<p>She stooped and picked Sally up and started in
+the direction of the gray house on the hill.</p>
+
+<p>When Sally found that Oxford Gray, Junior, was
+left behind, she was very unhappy. She kept saying
+in her own language: ‘Please, I can’t be separated
+from my dear, brave brother. I have lost my grandmother,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>and my darling mother, so cozy and so
+kind, and my brave father, the mighty hunter, and
+my brother is all I have.’</p>
+
+<p>The lady, however, did not seem to understand,
+for she went straight on toward the gray house.
+Then Sally began to struggle frantically to get out
+of the hand of the pretty lady. She scratched as
+hard as she could with her small claws. Without
+Oxford Gray, Junior, there would be no happiness in
+life. She would rather live in the Wild Wood with
+him and be hungry and cold than to be warm and
+well fed without him.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is wicked to separate twins,’ she said, but, in
+spite of all her scratchings, the lady walked on to
+the door of the gray house.</p>
+
+<p>As they approached the door, to Sally’s joy, she
+saw with her own bright eyes the sign her father had
+described to her, ‘Welcome, Cats.’ There was a
+knocker on the door and the pretty lady gave a loud
+rap, and presently it was opened and Elvira stood
+before them. Sally was sure it was Elvira, for she
+had the beaming look when she saw Sally that her
+father had described.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>‘What shall I do about this kitten?’ the pretty
+lady asked. ‘I can’t keep it, and the mother
+does not seem to be around.’</p>
+
+<p>‘There are two of them,’ said Elvira; ‘I have seen
+two.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, there is another one outside, but he was
+scampering off so fast I don’t know that I can catch
+him.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, please do,’ Sally said in her own language,
+‘or else let me go, I can’t be separated from him.’</p>
+
+<p>At last she had come across some one who understood
+kitten language, for Elvira said: ‘It would be
+a pity to separate them. Wherever they go, they
+should be kept together. Miss Mann has not
+planned to have any more cats, and yet, if she sees
+the kittens, maybe—at any rate, I’ll give them
+shelter for the night and a good square meal.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I’ll see if I can catch the other,’ said the lady.</p>
+
+<p>‘That will be very kind of you, Mrs. Conant,’
+said Elvira.</p>
+
+<p>‘Mrs. Conant’—so she was a married lady.
+Sally had not dreamed of this, she looked so young.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Oxford Gray, Junior, when he was left alone
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>was very disconsolate. He had not realized how
+fond he was of his little sister. To lose Sally—why,
+to lose her was like losing the sun out of the sky.
+Sally might be sad and woe-begone, just as the sun
+might hide behind clouds, but you knew the bright
+Sally would come back. And now she had gone, and
+it might be that she, too, like his grandmother, and
+his father, and mother, would never be seen again.</p>
+
+<p>‘I’d be better to her if I only had her back,’ said
+Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I’d let her have more of the
+food, but of course she really ought to learn to brace
+up.’</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a long time to Oxford Gray, Junior,
+before the lady came down the steps of the house
+without Sally, for when one is not many weeks old,
+minutes seem very long.</p>
+
+<p>‘What have you done with my sister?’ Oxford
+Gray, Junior, asked sternly; but the lady, although
+she looked unusually intelligent, evidently could
+not understand his language.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_024.jpg" alt="He made a
+mad dash for the garden, and the lady ran after him"></div>
+
+<p>Well, at any rate, he was not going to be caught
+until he knew more about the lady. So he made a
+mad dash for the garden. The lady ran after him
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>and they had an exciting race. He jumped up on
+top of a barrel and she reached after him; he went
+under a garden seat, and the agile lady ducked
+down after him; he gave a flying leap, and it almost
+seemed as if she gave a flying leap, too. At last,
+panting and exhausted, he stopped for breath and
+the lady captured him. He, like his sister, scratched
+her pretty hand. She went straight to the door
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>through which she had taken Sally. She gave a loud
+rap with the knocker and Elvira appeared at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have caught the other one,’ she said.</p>
+
+<p>‘Bless his furry heart and his pink nose,’ said
+Elvira. ‘I am sure this one is a boy; he seems so
+brave and he led you such a chase.’</p>
+
+<p>Then Oxford Gray, Junior, swelled with pride.</p>
+
+<p>‘He’s the image of his father, Oxford Gray,’ said
+Elvira, ‘even to the pink nose. He’s much fatter
+than the other kitten, but she seems a dear little
+thing.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, I’ll leave the pair of them in your care,’
+said Mrs. Conant, as she put Oxford Gray, Junior,
+down on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Sally was perfectly delighted to see her brother,
+and he was very glad to see her.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Elvira was getting something out of
+the pantry for them. She brought out two saucers
+of milk. It was very delicious, and when Oxford
+Gray, Junior, had finished his saucer, he came
+around to help Sally with hers. She gave him a slap
+with her paw, but it had no effect.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>‘It is my saucer of milk,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘You should lap faster! It is mine now,’ he said.</p>
+
+<p>‘Aren’t they dears?’ said Elvira’s friend, Miss
+Harvey, ‘poor little things.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I like this one best, he shall be mine,’ Elvira
+said, as she captured Oxford Gray, Junior, and held
+him in her arms. ‘See how much he looks like his
+noble father, Oxford Gray?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Then this one shall be mine,’ and Miss Harvey
+took the small Sally in her arms. ‘The poor little
+thing looks thin and half-starved, but she is a dear
+little kitten with such a pretty face.’</p>
+
+<p>At these words Sally felt very happy, for no one
+had said anything so kind to her since her mother
+died.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor little orphan,’ said Miss Harvey, ‘I will be
+a second mother to you.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally thought how cozy and sweet Miss Harvey
+looked, and Miss Harvey’s big heart went out to
+the forlorn little creature in her arms. Suddenly
+Sally put her two paws around Miss Harvey’s neck.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_027.jpg" width="200" alt="Birds on a tree branch"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV<br>
+<small>THE KITTENS AND MISS WINIFRED</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> next morning when Miss Winifred came into
+the kitchen, the kittens were in the clothes-basket
+which was under a table, so she did not see them.
+She was deciding what she would have for dinner,
+and at the sound of the word haddock, which Elvira
+suggested, the kittens became interested. It
+seemed that if one owned a house, all one had to do
+was to say what food one wanted. The kittens
+would have supposed it would be just the other way.</p>
+
+<p>When the meals were all decided on, Elvira said,
+‘I had a present yesterday from Mrs. Conant.’</p>
+
+<p>‘How nice!’ said Miss Winifred, who was very
+fond of her young neighbor. ‘I am sure it was something
+you wanted.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes,’ said Elvira, ‘she could not have given me
+anything I would have liked better.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>‘Aren’t you going to show it to me?’</p>
+
+<p>‘You must have three guesses first.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I think it is an apron,’ said Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>‘No, it is something with more warmth in it
+than an apron.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It must be a sweater.’</p>
+
+<p>‘No, it is warmer still.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It isn’t the right season for a fur neck-piece,’ said
+Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is made of fur, though,’ said Elvira, and she
+picked up Oxford Gray, Junior, and held him before
+Miss Winifred’s astonished eyes. ‘Isn’t he
+the living image of his father, Oxford Gray?’ she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Miss Winifred’s heart softened the moment
+she saw Oxford Gray, Junior, but she had
+determined not to have another cat, so she tried to
+look stern.</p>
+
+<p>‘I never did like a tiger kitten with white feet so
+well as an all tiger cat. Sam used to look like a
+miniature tiger in the jungle,’ and at the memory
+of Sam, Miss Winifred looked sad, for this pet of
+Elvira’s had found his way to her heart. ‘He will
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>always have dirty feet, just as his father had.’ She
+put on her eye-glasses so as to see him better. ‘I
+don’t think you are so very much to look at,’ she
+said, hardening her heart.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_029.jpg" alt=" She held him before Miss Winifred's astonished eyes"></div>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, Junior’s feelings were deeply hurt.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have said I never wanted another cat,’ Miss
+Winifred added.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>‘I never expected he would be yours,’ said Elvira;
+‘of course it’s your house, but you wouldn’t
+want to be alone in it.’</p>
+
+<p>At this Miss Winifred laughed merrily and her
+glasses tumbled off.</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course, we’ll have to keep the kitten for two
+or three days until he has had a few meals and then
+we can take him to the Ellen Gifford Home; they
+find such good places for cats.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t think they could find a better home than
+this,’ said Elvira.</p>
+
+<p>‘We might find a home for him where the mistress
+is just longing for a cat,’ said Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>‘There is another one,’ said Elvira, and she took
+the frightened Sally out of the clothes-basket.
+‘You would not have the heart to separate a
+brother and sister.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally jumped out of Elvira’s hands and took
+refuge under a table. If Miss Winifred could make
+such unkind remarks about the appearance of her
+handsome brother, what would she say when she
+saw her!</p>
+
+<p>But you never could foresee what Miss Winifred
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>would do. As soon as she saw thin little Sally with
+her pitiful expression, her heart was touched.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor little thing,’ she said. ‘We must certainly
+feed her up before we take her to the Home. We
+can get Mrs. Conant to run us up there in her car,
+just before Elvira and I start for New Hampshire,
+Miss Harvey, so that you will not have to be
+bothered with the care of two little kittens while
+we are gone.’</p>
+
+<p>The kittens liked their new home, and they hoped
+very much that they would not be sent away, for
+surely no one could be kinder than Elvira and Miss
+Harvey.</p>
+
+<p>They were always running around the kitchen
+whenever Miss Winifred went there, and, as she was
+very near-sighted, she once stepped on Sally’s tail.</p>
+
+<p>Sally and Oxford Gray, Junior, talked the matter
+over.</p>
+
+<p>‘Her feet seem always getting in our way,’ said
+Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am glad she is going to New Hampshire,’ said
+Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘We’ll have a little peace, but
+I wish Elvira wasn’t going with her.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>They were glad, on the whole, that no one could
+understand their language, although it would be
+convenient at times to be understood.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira was somewhat troubled by them, but she
+loved them too well to think of parting with them,
+and soon, when they had grown used to their new
+home, it would be safe to let them out-of-doors
+again.</p>
+
+<p>By the time Miss Winifred and Elvira came back
+from New Hampshire, Miss Harvey and the kittens
+had become such firm friends that nothing more
+was said about sending them to the Ellen Gifford
+Home.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_033.jpg" alt="The mantelpiece in the hall"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER V<br>
+<small>THE FRIENDLY HOUSE</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> was sure she liked houses. She liked the
+house where her new friends lived from the very
+start. A corner under a piazza where the rain could
+come through the cracks in the boards overhead
+had never seemed her idea of what a home should
+be, nor did she care to spend most of her time out-of-doors
+looking for food which was hard to find.
+So she settled down quite contentedly, and it did
+not trouble her that, while Elvira and Miss Winifred
+were in New Hampshire, Miss Harvey kept
+her and Oxford Gray, Junior, in the house. She
+always spoke of the three ladies in the following order,
+Miss Harvey, Elvira, and Miss Winifred. Her
+brother told her that she should speak of Miss Winifred
+first because she was the oldest and the owner
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>of the house, and of Miss Harvey next, and Elvira
+last, because she was the youngest of the three, but
+Sally persisted in her own way.</p>
+
+<p>‘I love Miss Harvey best, so I speak of her first,
+and I love Miss Winifred less than the others, so
+she comes last.’</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_034.jpg" alt="Two women at the table"></div>
+
+<p>It was not until Elvira and Miss Winifred had
+been at home some days that Miss Harvey said to
+Sally one morning, ‘You are such a good little
+kitten, I am going to let you through into the other
+part of the house while I am dusting the rooms.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_035.jpg" alt="She
+looked at the pictures with great interest"></div>
+
+<p>Sally had always wondered what was on the other
+side of the door. She had heard from her father
+that the rooms were large and that there were many
+pictures of Miss Winifred’s ancestors hanging on
+the walls. He had told her there was a portrait of
+Miss Winifred’s mother over the mantelpiece in the
+hall. Sally had never seen a picture, and so she
+looked at them with great interest. So that little
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>girl in a fur cape was Miss Winifred’s mother! How
+odd it seemed that a lady so old herself had had a
+mother who was once a little girl! There were
+other portraits in the parlor and dining-room, all
+pictures of Miss Winifred’s relations, she was sure.</p>
+
+<p>She looked in vain for any pictures of her own
+ancestors. Surely so many Furbush-Tailbys had
+lived in the house, she should think Miss Winifred
+would have framed portraits of them hanging on
+the walls. Her great-great-grandmother, Martha
+Furbush-Tailby, would have made a nice picture,
+and her great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby,
+the poet, would certainly have been an ornament
+to the walls. And these relations of Miss Mann’s
+looked so queer in their old-fashioned clothes, while
+her own ancestors would have looked as much up-to-date
+as Oxford Gray, Junior, himself, for she had
+been told they all had the gray tiger markings and
+broad white shirt-fronts like himself, and every one
+of them had white feet. And so far as tails were
+concerned, they were all noted for the fine tiger
+markings; she herself was proud of her tail. Yes, it
+would have made the sober green walls of the parlor
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>far pleasanter to look at if there had been portraits
+there of her ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>At last she saw a picture with a house and church
+in the distance, and there, walking on the grass in
+the foreground, were two ladies, and a little boy,
+and a dog. Here at last was an animal. The ladies
+wore long skirts that trailed on the grass and bonnets
+that hid their faces, and the little boy wore odd
+clothes, too, but the dog looked exactly like one that
+Sally had met in the Wild Wood and scampered
+away from.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes,’ said Sally, ‘it only shows how sensible and
+superior animals are, to be so made that they never
+have to change with the fashion.’</p>
+
+<p>There was another room that was filled with
+books. It had a desk in it and Miss Winifred’s
+typewriter, and a sofa that looked as if it would be
+a pleasant place for a kitten to take a nap. There
+were window-seats, too. The sun was pouring in on
+them. Sally jumped up on one and settled down.
+The sun felt warm and pleasant on her back.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is a friendly house,’ said Sally. ‘I like it, but
+some of the pictures would look so much nicer with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>kittens in them. The little girl with the fur over
+her shoulders would look much sweeter if she had a
+kitten in her arms. I am sure she would have loved
+a nice, furry kitten.’</p>
+
+<p>There was a mantelpiece in this room that Sally
+longed to explore, for there were candelabra on it,
+one at either end with two candles in each of them
+and dangling metal things hanging down from
+them that Sally longed to play with. She knew
+they could swing, for she saw Miss Harvey dusting
+them, so while Miss Harvey was dusting the table,
+she jumped up on the mantelpiece by way of the
+sofa and began to play with them.</p>
+
+<p>When she went back into the kitchen, she told
+Oxford Gray, Junior, about the charms of the
+friendly house. He was greatly interested when he
+heard of the mantelpiece with the candlesticks with
+the swinging pendants.</p>
+
+<p>‘I think maybe Miss Harvey wouldn’t like you
+to touch them,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘Miss Harvey!’ He spoke a little contemptuously.
+‘Why should I do any more harm than
+you?’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>So the kittens watched their chance, and one day
+they slipped through the door that was left partly
+open so that Miss Harvey could hear the telephone
+in the other part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, Junior, hardly paused to look at
+anything in the other rooms. He did not care for
+the portraits of Miss Winifred’s ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>‘They all have on such old-fashioned clothes,’ he
+said. ‘Our ancestors would look much more up-to-date.’</p>
+
+<p>‘That is what I thought myself,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford and Sally went into the library where the
+candelabra stood on the mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p>‘There’ll be a candlestick for each of us to play
+with,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford thought it would be exciting to get to the
+mantelpiece ahead of Sally, and Sally wanted to get
+there first, so they had a mad race to the sofa and
+then they gave a jump that landed them on the
+mantelpiece. Alas! the mantelpiece was not wide
+enough for the pair of them, and the first thing they
+knew was that they had knocked one of the candlesticks
+off the mantelpiece and had tumbled off
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>themselves and were lying on the floor with the
+ruins of the broken wax candles.</p>
+
+<p>The kittens were very much frightened. Sally
+rushed under the sofa and Oxford Gray, Junior,
+took refuge under a chair.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira, who was in the kitchen, heard the noise,
+and came in to see what had happened. They heard
+her step in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>‘If we are very quiet,’ said Sally, in her thought-transference
+language, ‘Elvira will never find us.
+She’ll think the candlestick just fell off of itself.’</p>
+
+<p>‘For mercy sakes!’ said Elvira, as she saw the
+broken candles on the floor. ‘You little rascal, what
+have you been doing?’ and she fixed her eyes on
+Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I suppose Sally is somewhere
+about. Oh, yes! there she is under the sofa.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It wasn’t our fault,’ said Oxford. ‘It is just the
+fault of that old mantelpiece—it’s too narrow.
+Miss Winifred ought to have made her house more
+convenient for kittens.’</p>
+
+<p>But, alas! Elvira couldn’t understand his language.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_041.jpg" alt="Woman with two cats"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VI<br>
+<small>SALLY AND THE CLOCK</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">What</span> Sally missed more than anything in her restricted
+life in the house was trees. There was
+something that was called a hat-tree in the hall, but
+it was a poor thing with no branches and merely a
+series of pegs, on which some garments hung at
+times. And in the parlor there was a very tall tree
+that Miss Harvey called a palm, that was no good
+for climbing purposes, because it was so slimsy.
+Sally could not see why Miss Winifred did not have
+an oak tree instead, for there were plenty of them
+around the Wild Wood and one of them would
+never be missed. If there had never been cats living
+here before, Sally could have understood it, but
+there had been so many living here. Her great-great-grandmother,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>Martha Furbush-Tailby, had
+lived here, and her great-grandfather, William
+Furbush-Tailby, had been born in the house. She
+should have supposed Miss Winifred would have
+wanted to make things comfortable for them.</p>
+
+<p>Sally and Oxford Gray, Junior, took to climbing
+Elvira and Miss Harvey as a substitute for trees.
+They preferred Elvira when she was in a friendly
+mood because she was so much taller, but she occasionally
+made disrespectful remarks, and said
+such words as ‘You little rascals, you little villains,
+you’ve torn my apron.’ Miss Harvey, on the other
+hand, seemed to understand, and not to mind the
+sudden surprise of a kitten running up her dress and
+landing on her shoulder and then pulling a comb out
+of her hair.</p>
+
+<p>‘The poor little dears, they have no trees to
+climb,’ she would say. ‘They’ll be all right as soon
+as they are so used to the house that they will not
+run away if we let them out.’</p>
+
+<p>There was another thing Sally could not understand.
+It did not seem at all reasonable to her that
+on cold days in June, when the house felt damp,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>there was no fire in the furnace. She had learned
+that the registers were places where heat came up
+in the winter. But why not have a furnace fire in
+summer when it was cold? Certainly cats could run
+a house much better than people if they had the
+chance.</p>
+
+<p>Although Miss Winifred had not been thoughtful
+enough to make mantelpieces wide enough for two
+kittens to walk there together, Sally did not by any
+means give up her desire to explore such delightful
+walks. In the kitchen the clock on a small shelf had
+a pointed roof and that in the dining-room had an
+ornament on top of it, but the parlor clock had a
+flat roof, so to speak, and Sally was sure it would be
+a grand place to sit and see the world from a high
+place, just as people saw it, for the top of the clock
+was only a little lower than Miss Harvey’s head.
+There were no candlesticks on this mantelpiece and
+the small ornaments were so placed as to leave
+plenty of room for a cat. There were two routes to
+the desired spot, one was by a low bookcase which
+could be reached by a chair, and the other, by the
+way of the piano. This Sally decided would be the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>best, for one of her favorite seats was the piano,
+which could be easily reached by a chair.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Harvey was reading aloud to Miss Winifred
+at the time. She had found that Sally was such a
+good kitten and stepped so daintily that she let her
+go wherever she liked. So she climbed from a chair
+to the piano and then gave a leap to the mantelpiece,
+and then she got up on top of the clock. She
+found it a comfortable seat, and it was fine to be so
+high up, for she could look down on the heads of
+dear Miss Harvey and Miss Winifred, who really
+wasn’t a bad sort, except for her feet that were always
+getting in one’s way. The room looked very
+different now she was so high up. This must be the
+way it looked to people, with the rug very far off
+and no one noticing the table legs. She was in no
+hurry to get down from her high perch, so she sat
+there a long time washing her face.</p>
+
+<p>‘Look at Sally!’ said Miss Harvey.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winifred put on her glasses.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a singular thing happened that gave
+Sally a scare. Something inside the clock went off.
+She had heard clocks strike before, of course, but
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>never when she was so near. It was the loudest
+thing she had ever heard. ‘One, two, three’—by
+this time the frightened Sally was off the clock and
+on the mantelpiece, preparing to give a flying leap
+to the piano, but her curiosity overcame her fear,
+and she looked behind the clock to see if she could
+find out where the noise came from. ‘Four, five,
+six’—by this time she was on the piano again.
+Would the thing never stop? Had she set something
+going by being on top of it? ‘Seven, eight.’
+That was all. She hoped she had not ruined it.
+But of one thing she was sure. She would never try
+to view the world again from the top of the parlor
+clock.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_046.jpg" width="250" alt="The cats with the catnip mouse"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VII<br>
+<small>THE CATNIP MOUSE</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> is a first time for everything, whether one is
+a little girl, or a boy, or a kitten. For a little girl,
+there is her first doll, and later her first pretty doll
+with real hair and blue eyes that will open and shut.
+For a boy there is his first ball, and his first set of
+marbles; but if you are a kitten, greater than all
+of these joys put together is the thrill that comes
+when you have your first catnip mouse.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford Gray, Junior, and Sally could measure
+their young lives by months instead of weeks before
+this exciting event occurred. They had heard there
+were such things, for there had been a tradition in
+the family of a glorious catnip mouse that had
+belonged to their ancestress, Martha Furbush-Tailby.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>But it is one thing to hear about a catnip
+mouse and quite another to have it for one’s very
+own plaything.</p>
+
+<p>Cool days and nights had come. It was the autumn,
+and all things furry were seeking snug quarters
+for the winter. The kittens were glad that they
+had their cozy kitchen to live in. Oxford Gray,
+Junior, however, sometimes went off on an excursion
+for hours, but Sally kept pretty closely to the
+house. And besides cats and kittens, there were
+others that sought winter quarters.</p>
+
+<p>‘There seem to be a lot of mice about,’ Miss
+Winifred had said to Elvira. ‘I hear them in the
+wall.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I can do a good deal for you, Miss Winifred,’
+said Elvira, ‘but catching mice is not in my
+line.’</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winifred laughed. ‘I should think some of
+your followers might do it for you,’ she said, and she
+looked at Oxford Gray, Junior.</p>
+
+<p>Although Oxford Gray, Junior, did not care much
+for the owner of the house, this put him on his
+mettle, and the very next night he caught his first
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>mouse. The praise given him was so great that he
+caught three others within a week.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that Miss Winifred said to Elvira,
+‘I wonder if the kittens are not old enough to like
+a catnip mouse?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Old enough?’ said Elvira. ‘I have been thinking
+for weeks they ought to have one, but I have been
+out very little it has stormed so much.’</p>
+
+<p>‘A catnip mouse!’ The kittens were entranced
+at the idea. They could hardly wait for the time to
+come when they could have one for their very own.</p>
+
+<p>It was late one November afternoon when Elvira
+came into the house after a trip to Boston. She had
+hardly got inside the door before the kittens noticed
+a peculiar and very delicious smell. It seemed to
+them to be sweeter than the odor of roses and
+violets and mignonette and sweet peas. They
+looked at each other in glad surprise.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sure she has brought us a catnip mouse,’
+said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>She got up on the kitchen table and sniffed at
+Elvira’s bag.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, you witch,’ said Elvira. ‘It is a catnip
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>mouse all right, but you must be patient and wait
+until I get my things off.’</p>
+
+<p>Learning that it really was a catnip mouse, Oxford
+Gray, Junior, jumped up on the table and joined
+his sister. She was sitting there patiently, but Oxford
+Gray, Junior, began to claw at the bag to try to
+get at the catnip mouse.</p>
+
+<p>‘You are a bad kitten,’ said Elvira, taking her
+bag away. ‘You don’t deserve the catnip mouse.
+Why can’t you behave well like your sister?’</p>
+
+<p>‘It was I that caught all those mice. Sally could
+never catch a mouse to save her life,’ said Oxford
+Gray, Junior.</p>
+
+<p>‘I could, too, and I will some day,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>But even the intelligent Elvira did not seem to
+understand what was being said.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira undid her bag and flung something down
+on the floor. It was the catnip mouse. It was
+shaped like a real mouse, and was full of catnip.
+Oxford and Sally ran toward it. Sally had it in her
+mouth and Oxford knocked it with his paw. Sally
+dropped it and Oxford tried to capture it. And then
+to their surprise, another of the wonderful things
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>fell to the floor. There were two of them! Two
+catnip mice—one for each of them! Who but
+Elvira would have thought of bringing home two
+catnip mice. Oxford took his mouse and ran under
+the table to enjoy it by himself, and Sally went under
+a chair with hers. The mice were so marvelous the
+kittens were afraid that some one would take them
+away after a short time.</p>
+
+<p>Such thoughts they had as they inhaled the delicious
+scent. Oxford came out into the room at last
+and threw his mouse up into the air. It fell lightly to
+the ground. Then Sally came out with her mouse
+and threw it up into the air. They were so excited
+and overstimulated that they began to break into
+verse.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">  Elvira, Elvira, how we admire her!</div>
+<div class="verse">We give her warmest praise.</div>
+<div class="verse">She must sometime have been a cat,</div>
+<div class="verse">We both are very sure of that,</div>
+<div class="verse">A cat who lived in prehistoric days.</div>
+<div class="verse">Elvira, Elvira, how we admire her!</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It seemed almost as if Elvira had understood, for
+she said to Miss Harvey, ‘See how excited the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>kittens are. It reminds me of Martha Furbush-Tailby’s
+first catnip mouse and her verses.’</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">Sweet are the lessons of adversity,</div>
+<div class="indent">At least so people say;</div>
+<div class="verse">But sweeter is prosperity,</div>
+<div class="indent">I’ve learned that much to-day.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">For when the catnip mouse is new</div>
+<div class="indent">And full of catnip strength,</div>
+<div class="verse">The hours fly by on shining wings</div>
+<div class="indent">Not measured by their length.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">If I were asked what I would like</div>
+<div class="indent">To beautify my house,</div>
+<div class="verse">I’d say without a moment’s thought,</div>
+<div class="indent">‘Give me a catnip mouse.’</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_052.jpg" width="250" alt="Cats watching the snowstorm through the window"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER VIII<br>
+<small>THE FIRST SNOWSTORM</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> sat at the window watching her first snowstorm.
+She was entranced by the way the flakes
+fell. They came down so softly, flying through
+the air like tiny white butterflies, and when they
+reached the earth, they all joined together in a
+wonderful white blanket.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford,’ she said, ‘isn’t this a beautiful world?
+Doesn’t it seem as if millions of tiny white butterflies
+were coming down to cover the earth with a
+white blanket?’</p>
+
+<p>‘It looks more like powder to me, or rice,’ said
+Oxford. ‘I don’t see anything pretty about it. It’s
+just frozen rain.’</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_053.jpg" alt="I stay at home and write"></div>
+
+<p>It was when her brother said things like this
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>that Sally longed to have children who might perhaps
+be like her and understand how truly beautiful
+this wonderful world is. She did so wish that her
+great-grandfather was alive, for she was sure he
+would be a satisfying companion. He was a poet,
+and Elvira had sometimes read some of his verses
+aloud. They had been published in a book, and
+there were others that had never been printed. She
+longed to ask Elvira if her great-grandfather,
+William Furbush-Tailby, had ever written a poem
+about a snowstorm, but, although Elvira was unusually
+intelligent, for a person, Sally could not
+always make her thought-transference language
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>understood. This time, however, it seemed to work,
+for Elvira took a book with writing in it out of a
+drawer in the cupboard and she said to Miss
+Harvey, ‘Did I ever read you Billy Furbush-Tailby’s
+poem on “The First Snowstorm of the
+Season”?’</p>
+
+<p>Sally pricked up her ears, but Oxford Gray,
+Junior, went off to sleep, for verses bored him.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">They fall so softly from the sky,</div>
+<div class="indent">All coming down together;</div>
+<div class="verse">Why did they leave the regions high</div>
+<div class="indent">To give us stormy weather?</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">Did they take pity on the earth</div>
+<div class="indent">That looked so bare and brown,</div>
+<div class="verse">As if it needed a new birth,</div>
+<div class="indent">And so came fluttering down?</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">Did they remember children small,</div>
+<div class="indent">Who longed to slide and coast,</div>
+<div class="verse">And so came down with a great fall</div>
+<div class="indent">In a glad, joyous host?</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">I watch the people as they pass</div>
+<div class="indent">And snowflakes as they fall,</div>
+<div class="verse">I watch the puddle that’s like glass,</div>
+<div class="indent">I’m glad that I am small.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>
+<div class="verse">For it is cozy in the house,</div>
+<div class="indent">Beside the kitchen stove,</div>
+<div class="verse">Watching to get a gliding mouse</div>
+<div class="indent">While my three brothers rove,</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">And scamper through the falling flakes,</div>
+<div class="indent">No thought of verse have they,</div>
+<div class="verse">While kind Elvira brews and bakes,</div>
+<div class="indent">Upon this snowy day,</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">Dishes that cats and kittens love,</div>
+<div class="indent">They are a pleasant sight;</div>
+<div class="verse">I let my brothers freely rove,</div>
+<div class="indent">I stay at home and write.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Sally was much impressed by the verses of her
+ancestor. She wished he were here now, sitting by
+her on the window-sill, for Oxford Gray, Junior, was
+so tiresome at times. ‘Rice, indeed, or powder!’
+What a way to speak of these marvelous fluttering
+things that came down to earth from another
+country as if bringing a message of peace and good
+will!</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal to be seen from the windows
+of the house. Sally went at an early hour to
+the window in the hall and sat on the broad leather
+cushion looking out. Miss Harvey had let her come
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>through when she went in to dust the parlor. Sally
+was greatly interested in watching Mr. Gardiner
+shovel out the board walk with his big wooden
+shovel. It seemed a foolish piece of work to her, for
+no sooner had he shoveled off the snow than more
+came. ‘Why not wait until the snowstorm was
+over?’ thought Sally. But people were so stupid
+compared with cats!</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gardiner looked cold and tired, and as if he
+would like to take Sally’s advice. He kept on
+working though, and the snowflakes kept on falling.
+It was too bad that they would not let Oxford into
+this part of the house, but ever since the candlestick
+had been knocked off the study mantelpiece,
+they seemed to feel one cat inside was enough.
+They had given him one or two more trials when
+there was a mouse inside, but he had clawed a sofa
+cushion, and scratched a piano leg, when sharpening
+his claws. If he had only behaved well, he
+could have been sitting on this green cushion watching
+the snowstorm, for there were three windows and
+he could have had one to himself. Mr. Gardiner
+spied Sally in the window and he made a low bow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>‘He has the best manners of any man I ever saw,’
+Sally thought. ‘Men usually do not stop to be
+polite to cats.’</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_057.jpg" alt="Mr. Gardiner
+shoveling out the board walk"></div>
+
+<p>Miss Harvey was standing in the hall just behind
+Sally, but Sally was sure the bow had been
+meant for herself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>When Sally went back into the kitchen, she found
+there was much more to be seen there, for Elvira
+had thrown out some food for the birds, and there
+were sparrows and grackles and pigeons picking up
+the crumbs. There was some suet hanging on the
+branch of a pine tree and a bird was feeding on it,
+swinging back and forth. Sally looked across at the
+opposite house, and she saw Mrs. Conant in a
+storm-coat and hat coming over to the plank walk.
+Perhaps this was why Mr. Gardiner had been
+shoveling the snow off the plank walk so as to make
+it easier for people to walk there.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford was sitting at one of the kitchen windows,
+and Sally was in the other. Mrs. Conant waved to
+them and to Elvira as she passed. Here was another
+polite person.</p>
+
+<p>The most exciting of all the windows was the bow
+window in the dining-room at three o’clock in the
+afternoon. Sally had gone there for a change and
+to have a little peace, for Oxford was in a trying
+mood. Elvira came into the room with a plateful of
+crumbled-up bread in her hand and opened the
+window. Sally looked out and saw a dozen pheasants
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>coming forward to get the bread. They all had
+sober feathers except one bird, the pheasant cock,
+Elvira called him. He had a beautiful white ring
+around his neck and a glorious long tail.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is not so fine a tail as mine,’ said Sally, for her
+long tail with its tiger markings was her chief
+beauty, and was often remarked on. ‘But he has
+the best tail I have ever seen on a bird.’</p>
+
+<p>Presently a cat came up stealthily, and the
+pheasants took instant flight. The cat looked cold
+and hungry, and Sally thought how fortunate she
+was to be in a warm house herself. The kittens had
+very little milk for supper, for the storm was such a
+bad one that the milkman had not come.</p>
+
+<p>‘We can get along without milk better than Sally
+and Oxford can, for they would not understand,’
+Elvira said to Miss Harvey as she put the last milk
+in the pitcher into the kittens’ saucers.</p>
+
+<p>‘We understand perfectly well,’ Sally said. ‘We
+are not such fools as you take us for. We can understand
+all that you say, and you never can understand
+us.’</p>
+
+<p>It was snowing when Sally and Oxford gave a last
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>look out of the window before they settled down for
+the night, but in the morning all was changed, and
+when the sun rose, the whole world was like fairyland,
+for the branches were all glistening in the sun,
+as if they were made of glass. The kittens went out
+for a stroll and met Mrs. Conant and her husband.
+They kept sinking down through the crust, but
+Sally and Oxford were so light they could walk on it
+with ease. Mrs. Conant was wearing a beautiful
+fur coat.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is almost as good-looking as mine,’ thought
+Sally, ‘but it must be hard to be so big that one
+can’t walk on the crust. In winter I’d much rather
+be a cat.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_061.jpg" width="250" alt="Cat sitting next to a pitcher"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IX<br>
+<small>BUSY SALLY</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> was a very busy cat, and she always gave her
+whole attention to whatever she was doing, whether
+it was sitting on her register, or washing her face, or
+helping Miss Harvey make the beds. Indeed, Miss
+Harvey often would say, ‘Sally, you are like the
+little busy bee,’ and she would repeat a part of the
+poem. Sally had her own opinion of the little busy
+bee, and she did not especially like to be told she
+was like him, for she had been stung by a bee on
+one occasion. Who could have suspected that anything
+so small could hurt one so much? And then
+where was he in winter? Certainly not gathering
+honey from every opening flower. She suspected
+he was in snug quarters resting and leading an idle
+life, while she was busy all the year around. First
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>there was the delicious breakfast that Miss Harvey
+gave Oxford and herself, of warm milk and oatmeal,
+and then she spent a great deal of time washing
+herself. And she had to help Oxford, for he
+could not wash behind his ears, and then he would
+wash behind Sally’s ears to help her out. And it
+took a good deal of time to manicure her nails.</p>
+
+<p>But where she felt she was of the greatest use
+was in helping Miss Harvey with the beds, for dear
+Miss Harvey might have been lonely without her.
+Did she not often say, ‘You are my little comfort’?
+To be sure she sometimes said, ‘Troublesome
+comfort,’ but it was a great deal to be any comfort.
+Sally never heard Miss Harvey call any one else in
+the house a comfort, not even Oxford, who deserved
+such words, for he was ridding the house of mice.
+So Miss Harvey and Sally would go upstairs to
+make the beds; as soon as Miss Harvey had turned
+back the mattress and put on a sheet, Sally would
+jump on the bed and knead the sheet with her
+paws. But she liked to get on the blankets much
+the best, they were so soft and woolly, and sometimes
+after patticaking them well and going around
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>in a circle as if she were making a bed for herself in
+the Wild Wood, she would curl herself up in a ball
+and settle down for a nap. It was then that Miss
+Harvey would call her a troublesome comfort and
+gently take her off and put her on a chair. But
+Sally would be back again and on the spread.</p>
+
+<p>One of Sally’s most interesting occupations was
+looking out of the windows. There was so much to
+be seen even in winter, but when the spring came
+and there was a faint green fuzz on the trees, and
+the birds came back from the South and began to
+sing, and Sally could sun herself out-of-doors, she
+was busier than ever.</p>
+
+<p>At this time of year the nights were more interesting
+than the days, and she was only sorry that her
+dear Miss Harvey did not agree with her as to how
+a night should be spent. Miss Harvey seemed to
+think that all cats ought to be in bed at a certain
+hour, like people, whereas every cat knows that so
+much goes on at night one hates to miss that it is
+hard to be forced to stay in the house. Sally spent
+a great deal of time sleeping by day. That was the
+sensible way. To race about until one was tired and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>then take a long nap. And these naps could be taken
+at noon when it was too hot to be out-of-doors.
+But even though Sally was closed in at night, there
+was a great deal going on which she could enjoy.
+There were concerts given by her cat friends, and
+there was the wonderful moonlight that made it so
+bright out-of-doors, and there was the excitement of
+the sound of the scurrying of small feet through the
+walls and the thought that perhaps one could catch
+another mouse. She agreed with her ancestress,
+Martha Furbush-Tailby, about these things, and
+liked her verses on the subject.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_064.jpg" alt="The wonderful moonlight that made it so
+bright out-of-doors"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">How can one ever sleep at night,</div>
+<div class="verse">When mice are scampering through the walls,</div>
+<div class="verse">And other cats long for a fight,</div>
+<div class="verse">And give their piercing, shrill cat-calls?</div>
+<div class="verse">How can one ever sleep at night,</div>
+<div class="verse">When the great moon is round and bright?</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">Long naps by day, I like that best.</div>
+<div class="verse">When the great sun is hot and bright,</div>
+<div class="verse">That seems the time to take a rest,</div>
+<div class="verse">After a long and strenuous night.</div>
+<div class="verse">It would be strange to live by rule,</div>
+<div class="verse">As children do who go to school.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Sometimes Sally would go into the room where all
+the books were, and Miss Winifred had her writing-desk
+and her typewriter. Sally would sit patiently
+by her mouse-hole and Miss Winifred would
+sit by her typewriter with her hands in her lap, for
+it sometimes seemed to be as hard to catch ideas as
+to catch a mouse, and then suddenly Miss Winifred’s
+fingers would fly over the keys and the black
+writing would come out on the paper. Sally had
+many ideas herself, in fact she was never at a loss
+for them. She wished she could write on the typewriter,
+and once, when Miss Winifred had left it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>uncovered with a sheet of paper in it, she had
+walked over the keys, but she could not make it
+write. She wanted to write a letter to dear Miss
+Harvey to tell her how she loved her. Of course
+Miss Harvey must know in part how she felt, for
+she so often put her paws around her neck and
+pressed her face against hers, but a letter could tell
+more.</p>
+
+<p>So one day when Miss Winifred had left a sheet of
+typewriting paper on her desk, Sally skipped onto
+it. She looked down and saw that the marks of her
+paws were plainly to be seen. This was what the
+footprints said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Harvey</span>:</p>
+
+<p>I love you best of all the people in the house. In
+some ways you are dearer than Oxford, although
+I could not get along without my splendid twin
+brother, but you make me think of my own dear
+mother, for you are so cozy and so kind. Of course
+she did not look like you, for she was just a small
+cat like myself. I mean you are like her in disposition.
+It is Sally Gray writing this. It is the first
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>letter I ever wrote. I just had to thank you for all
+your kindness. Elvira is nice, too, but not as gentle
+as you are, and Miss Winifred doesn’t mean to step
+on my tail, only you never step on it, not even by
+accident, so some people are more thoughtful than
+others.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Your own most loving</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Sally</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>She heard Miss Winifred coming and jumped
+down on the floor. Miss Winifred took up the sheet
+of paper and was about to put it into the typewriter.</p>
+
+<p>‘Don’t,’ Sally pleaded in her thought-transference
+language. ‘That is my letter to Miss Harvey,
+the first I ever wrote.’</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Winifred could not understand. She
+looked at the paper a little more closely with her
+near-sighted eyes.</p>
+
+<p>‘Goodness, you little witch,’ she said, ‘you have
+walked all over my sheet.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally saw that she was about to put it into the
+waste-paper basket.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>‘It is my letter,’ Sally repeated in her own language.
+How she wished she had human speech!
+But this time it really seemed as if Miss Winifred
+understood, for she called to Miss Harvey, who was
+setting the table in the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>‘Come here a minute and see what Sally has
+done,’ she said as she held up the sheet. ‘See Sally’s
+paw-marks all over the paper. I think she must
+have been writing a love-letter to you.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally never knew whether Miss Harvey could
+read what she had written, but, after all, it did not
+make much difference whether or not she could
+make out the actual words, for she seemed so
+pleased to have it.</p>
+
+<p>‘Dear little Sally,’ she said, and she stopped to
+stroke the pussy in passing her. ‘So you thought
+you would write a letter? I must show it to Elvira.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_069.jpg" alt="Two cats lounging in the grass"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER X<br>
+<small>MOODS</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> was a cat with moods. When she was well and
+busy, she was a happy kitten, but if there was the
+least thing wrong with her, she felt very forlorn. It
+was at these times that she thought of her dear
+mother and lamented her loss, for even dear Miss
+Harvey, who understood so well the feelings of a
+cat, could not quite make up for a furry mother
+who would put her paw about her and wash her
+when she was too tired to do it for herself. Oxford
+was not of much use as a sympathizer, and
+yet Sally always had the hope that he would
+be.</p>
+
+<p>So one hot summer day, when Sally felt very unhappy
+and as if she were of no use to any one, she
+spoke to Oxford of her feelings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>‘I feel as if I were a perfectly useless cat,’ she
+said. ‘You can do so much for the family.’</p>
+
+<p>The kittens were in the shade of the oak tree near
+the front door. It was a delightful spot, for they
+could have a view of the path, and see any one who
+went up or down it. Then, too, if any one came to
+the door, like the postman, they could take the
+chance to slip into the house, without bothering to
+go around to the back door.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Sally remembered something she had
+heard in a sermon that Elvira was reading out of a
+newspaper. The preacher had said that the best
+way to forget one’s own troubles was to do something
+for some one else.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford, wouldn’t you like me to wash around
+your ears?’ she said.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, bother, no,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘I feel so blue to-day,’ she said. ‘I thought maybe
+if I did something useful like washing your ears
+I’d feel better.’</p>
+
+<p>‘There’s no use in doing something useful that
+nobody wants you to do,’ said he.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>Sally hoped he would add, ‘My poor little sister,
+I am so sorry you are blue,’ but instead of that he
+said, ‘Sally, you have been eating too many grasshoppers.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally was pretty sure this was the case, but
+she had hoped Oxford would not have thought
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>‘Grasshoppers are so alluring,’ said Sally. She
+had picked up this word from one of Miss Winifred’s
+callers who was speaking of the moving pictures.
+It certainly applied to grasshoppers which
+were so constantly on the move.</p>
+
+<p>‘You see,’ Sally went on, ‘they are hard to catch,
+and if you do catch a grasshopper, there doesn’t
+seem any point in letting it go.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You could give them to me,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘But you get more than I do.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, that is true. But they never upset me and
+make me blue. If they affected my spirits, I should
+cut down on grasshoppers.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally knew this would have been the case. She
+admired her brother’s strength of character.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Sally saw her friend, Mrs. Conant, going
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>down the path with some letters to mail. She
+stopped to speak to the kittens.</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, you do know how to make yourselves
+comfortable,’ she said as she passed. She had on
+one of the pretty pink-and-white dresses that Sally
+liked so much, and in her present mood she thought
+how nice it would be to be a pretty young lady
+whom every one loved, with a thin cool dress on
+instead of fur.</p>
+
+<p>Although Oxford did not express his affection, he
+was very fond of his little sister, and he wanted to
+help her. But he could not resist saying, ‘Sally, you
+ought to learn to brace up.’ He quickly added,
+‘Suppose we play with our catnip mice for a change?
+Maybe the catnip will brace you up.’</p>
+
+<p>They saw Miss Winifred and a friend coming up
+the path. This meant a fine chance to get into the
+house, so the kittens went up the steps and stood
+before the front door.</p>
+
+<p>‘Dear me!’ said Miss Winifred, ‘I wonder how
+long you have been waiting here.’ She took out her
+latch-key and, as she opened the door, the kittens
+slipped in ahead of her. They ran along to the door
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>that led to the kitchen. Miss Winifred followed
+them and, as it was dark in that corner, she stooped
+down to see if the kittens were there. Yes, she felt
+two furry backs, they were patiently waiting for her
+to open the door.</p>
+
+<p>Once in the kitchen, Oxford gave a leap from a
+chair to the small shelf on which the clock stood, for
+on it were the catnip mice. He knocked off first one
+and then the other.</p>
+
+<p>‘Bless your heart,’ said Elvira, as she looked at
+Sally. ‘You look a little peaked to-day. Too many
+grasshoppers, I fear.’</p>
+
+<p>Miss Harvey came into the kitchen just then and
+Sally got into her lap and put her two paws around
+her neck, for she wanted a little petting. There are
+times when this is even more comforting than
+catnip.</p>
+
+<p>‘My poor little Sally,’ said Miss Harvey, as she
+stroked the pussy. ‘My poor, dear, little Sally.
+Did she feel as if she wanted some one to pet her? I
+understand, dear, just how you feel.’</p>
+
+<p>Miss Harvey was tactful enough not to refer to
+the grasshoppers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>Oxford was already playing with his catnip
+mouse, tossing it high in the air and running to sniff
+it where it fell. Suddenly Sally scrambled down
+from Miss Harvey’s lap and flew toward Oxford’s
+mouse, seizing it before his astonished eyes.</p>
+
+<p>‘Silly kittens,’ said Elvira. ‘There are two mice,
+you can each have one,’ and she picked up the other
+mouse and threw it on the floor. Then they both
+ran to get that mouse. Sally had it in her mouth and
+Oxford knocked it out.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, if that is your game, all right,’ said Elvira,
+who was an understanding person.</p>
+
+<p>Sally felt much refreshed after half an hour spent
+with the catnip mice, and as usually happened after
+a time with this stimulating plaything, she felt like
+talking in verse instead of prose. Even Oxford felt
+like answering back in rhyme. It was a fine game.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse"><i>Sally</i>: &#160; &#160; I’d like to be a lady fair,</div>
+<div class="indent6">All dressed in silks and fur,</div>
+<div class="indent5">With rosy lips and golden hair,</div>
+<div class="indent6">And speech, instead of purr.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">My father’d give me a fur coat,</div>
+<div class="indent6">And on a summer day,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>
+<div class="indent5">When on the waters I could float,</div>
+<div class="indent6">I’d put my coat away.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">Were I in silk instead of fur,</div>
+<div class="indent6">How pleasant that would be,</div>
+<div class="indent5">Pink silk I’d choose, and, Oxford Gray,</div>
+<div class="indent6">You’d be so proud of me!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse"><i>Oxford</i>: Pink silk, indeed, you foolish maid,</div>
+<div class="indent6">Why can’t you be content?</div>
+<div class="indent5">You’re costumed for both sun and shade,</div>
+<div class="indent6">Nor does it cost a cent.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">Sally, I’d hate the sight of you,</div>
+<div class="indent6">I like you as you are,</div>
+<div class="indent5">A modest kitten, sweet and true,</div>
+<div class="indent6">With eyes that see afar.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse"><i>Sally</i>: &#160; &#160; Well, Oxford, since I’m dear to you,</div>
+<div class="indent6">Thankful I ought to be,</div>
+<div class="indent5">For human brothers oft find fault</div>
+<div class="indent6">With sisters’ fineree.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">Perhaps the lady in her silk</div>
+<div class="indent6">And coat of costly fur,</div>
+<div class="indent5">Would sometimes like my bowl of milk,</div>
+<div class="indent6">If she could have my purr.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">For cares, they say, must come with wealth,</div>
+<div class="indent6">And, Oxford, we are free</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>
+<div class="indent5">To roam the house at night, by stealth,</div>
+<div class="indent6">With mice for company.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">To sleep all night, when mice are near,</div>
+<div class="indent6">Would seem a waste of time,</div>
+<div class="indent5">Than ladies I am surely freer,</div>
+<div class="indent6">For I can race and climb.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse"><i>Oxford</i>: Now, Sally, there’s my own good cat,</div>
+<div class="indent6">A cat of parts and sense,</div>
+<div class="indent5">Your wits are sharp, I’m sure of that,</div>
+<div class="indent6">People are often dense.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">Of all the creatures on this earth</div>
+<div class="indent6">The kitten’s life is best,</div>
+<div class="indent5">I’ve always known this from my birth,</div>
+<div class="indent6">I pity all the rest.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">The men I pity very much,</div>
+<div class="indent6">They cannot watch the ants,</div>
+<div class="indent5">And grasshoppers, and worms, and such,</div>
+<div class="indent6">In their accustomed haunts.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">I’d hate to be so very tall,</div>
+<div class="indent6">A man I would not be,</div>
+<div class="indent5">It’s easier if you are small,</div>
+<div class="indent6">To climb a chestnut tree.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">My fur coat is a grand affair,</div>
+<div class="indent6">It did not cost a cent.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>
+<div class="indent5">Were I a man and fur did wear,</div>
+<div class="indent6">What hundreds would be spent!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="indent5">The lesson surely seems to read,</div>
+<div class="indent6">And it is very plain,</div>
+<div class="indent5">To make the most of what you are,</div>
+<div class="indent6">With heart, and paws, and brain.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_078.jpg" alt="Two cats playing"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XI<br>
+<small>PETER</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> and Oxford felt just alike about Peter. They
+could neither of them bear him. He was a fine-looking
+brown tiger cat with large stripes and a
+large white shirt-front and four white paws. He
+had once been a valued house-cat, but was now
+without a home. They suspected that Elvira sometimes
+gave him meals on their piazza, for they now
+felt the back porch belonged to them. When kittens
+have lived for more than a year and a half in a
+place and have grown into young cats, the place
+seems to belong to them, so Oxford stalked around
+as if he were a police-cat on duty, keeping out intruders.</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course the back yard is mine,’ he said. ‘Indeed,
+I feel that I own the place more than Miss
+Winifred does.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>‘But her father left it to her,’ Sally reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>‘I suppose she has a certain claim to it, but he
+never knew us,’ said Oxford. ‘I am sure he would
+have loved us if he had known us. Don’t you remember
+the story that has come down to us, of how
+he held our great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby,
+on his knee? Anyway, we get a great deal
+more good out of the place than Miss Winifred. I
+have never seen her climb a tree, and we can climb
+one any time and get away from a dog, and she
+never goes into the Wild Wood, and she does not
+know all our little hiding-places, and she could not
+get into them, anyway.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I do feel as if we were more important,’ said
+Sally. ‘Many a time I’ve heard Elvira say, “I’ll
+come to you in a few minutes, Miss Winifred, but
+Oxford has just come in. I must give him his
+supper, for he won’t understand being kept waiting.”’</p>
+
+<p>But whoever the true owner of the house might
+be, it certainly did not belong to Peter, and Oxford
+had told him so on more than one occasion. He had
+chased him off the place several times, but Peter,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>although he seemed gentle, was a persistent soul,
+and as he was fond of the bread and canned salmon
+that kind Elvira put out on the back piazza for
+him, he came back over and over again.</p>
+
+<p>‘If I ever really get my paw on him, I’ll give him
+such a thrashing that he’ll remember it all his life,’
+Oxford said to Sally.</p>
+
+<p>Now it just darted through Sally’s mind, that it
+might be the other way around, for Peter, although
+he was mild in his demeanor, was larger than Oxford,
+and at least two years older, but being wise
+beyond her months, she merely said, ‘It will be
+grand, Oxford, if you can thrash him.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course I can,’ said her brother, swelling with
+pride. ‘Don’t you remember the tradition about
+the first Furbush, Martha’s ancestor, how he would
+get the better of every cat in a fight and earned the
+name of William the Conqueror?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes,’ said Sally, ‘I remember, but he was a full-grown
+cat.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t expect to get hurt, and it is certainly best
+to get rid of that vagabond at once, before Elvira
+gets fond of him.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>The fight came off one bright November day.
+Sally was looking out of the kitchen window, and
+Oxford was sunning himself in the back yard.
+There was a plate of canned salmon mixed with
+bread on the back piazza. That could not be for
+Oxford, for both he and she had grown so dainty
+that they liked stew meat and haddock better than
+canned salmon. Elvira must be leaving it out there
+for some cat. She saw Peter coming through a place
+in the fence that was made for small animals to get
+through. She hoped to attract Oxford’s attention
+and ran around to the kitchen door, but it was
+closed. Jumping up on the window-sill again, she
+saw Peter quickly run up the steps and begin to
+taste the food. Oxford flew up the steps and began
+to fight Peter. He flew at Oxford and put his claws
+in his fur. Oxford grappled with him, and the two
+cats went rolling down the steps.</p>
+
+<p>Sally, from her perch on the window-sill, saw that
+it was as she had feared. After a long fight, Peter
+went swiftly away in fine condition, while Oxford
+came haltingly up the steps with a lame paw—a
+sadder and a wiser cat. Although he respected
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>Peter more, his dislike of him increased, and he was
+determined to drive him off the place.</p>
+
+<p>‘If I had advised him not to fight, he wouldn’t
+have liked it,’ thought Sally. ‘He would have just
+said, “Sally, you never do brace up.”’</p>
+
+<p>After this, Oxford and Sally saw no more of
+Peter for some weeks. Sometimes they saw a plate
+of canned salmon and bread on the back piazza and
+lay in wait for him, but Oxford never caught him.
+Twice they saw at dusk a shadowy form vanishing
+into the Wild Wood.</p>
+
+<p>One evening there was a great snowstorm and
+Oxford had not come home. Miss Winifred seemed
+the most worried, and this was strange, as she had
+not wanted him in the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor little pussy, hasn’t he come back yet?’ she
+asked Elvira after supper.</p>
+
+<p>‘No, Miss Winifred, and I’ve called until I’m
+hoarse.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It is a wild storm,’ said Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sure Oxford is safe and warm somewhere,’
+said Elvira; ‘he’s a cat who knows how to look out
+for himself.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>‘Yes,’ said Miss Harvey, ‘if it was my little Sally,
+I should be terribly worried.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally was sitting on Miss Harvey’s knee at the
+time, and at these words she put her furry paws
+around her neck and rubbed her face against hers.
+‘I am sure he is all right,’ she said in her cat language
+that people could not understand. ‘He always
+comes back.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course he always has come back,’ said Miss
+Winifred, as if she had understood, ‘but there comes
+a time—some of your pets have gone away and
+never come back, Elvira.’</p>
+
+<p>Then Sally thought of her grandmother and of
+her brave father, the mighty hunter, and of her
+mother, so cozy and so kind. How terrible it would
+be if Oxford should disappear as they had done!</p>
+
+<p>‘I will go and call him,’ said Miss Winifred.
+‘Maybe he will come in for me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘For you?’ said Elvira. ‘You and he have never
+been great friends.’</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winifred went to the front door and stepped
+into the piazza that was glassed in for winter. The
+storm was raging outside. She opened the glass
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>door of the piazza and the wind blew the snow into
+her face. It was deep on the steps.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford Gray, Oxford Gray, Oxford Gray, Junior!’
+she called. ‘Darling pussy, do come!’</p>
+
+<p>She had never called him ‘darling pussy’ before,
+but our friends grow very dear to us if we fear losing
+them.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford, Oxford Gray, Junior!’ she called again.</p>
+
+<p>Something furry brushed against her feet. She
+stooped and patted the fur coat all crusted over
+with snow.</p>
+
+<p>‘How friendly you are! You were never so
+friendly before. Walk in, darling pussy,’ she said,
+as she opened the hall door.</p>
+
+<p>The hungry and cold cat rubbed against her feet
+once more as if in gratitude. She walked along the
+front hall to the door at the back that led into the
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>‘Here he is! Here is Oxford Gray, Junior, himself,’
+she said. ‘He came for me. He knew my voice.’</p>
+
+<p>Elvira was greatly surprised. ‘He just happened
+to come along at that time,’ she said; then, as she
+started to brush the casing of snow from the cat,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>she said, ‘This isn’t Oxford Gray, Junior. This is
+Peter.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Peter!’ gasped Miss Winifred. ‘Who on earth is
+Peter?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Somebody’s house-cat; somebody’s pet that has
+been left to make his own way in the world.’</p>
+
+<p>‘How did he happen to come here? Is he one of
+your friends who takes his meals at your cafeteria
+on the piazza?’</p>
+
+<p>‘He’s had a few meals,’ Elvira admitted. ‘And
+he will have as many more as he likes. I’d rather
+spend my money feeding cats than going to the
+movies. It’s more amusing to me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course we must keep him for the night,’ said
+Miss Winifred, ‘and he must have a good meal, but
+I really can’t keep him permanently, Elvira; two
+cats are quite enough.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford agrees with you,’ said Elvira. ‘You’ll
+have no trouble once he gets home.’</p>
+
+<p>The next morning the sun shone, and Oxford
+came back as unconcernedly as if he had caused no
+anxiety. No one knew his adventures except Sally,
+but he looked so prosperous and seemed so little to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>desire food that the family were sure he had been
+housed somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>As he went out for a stroll later in the morning,
+he met Peter coming out of the cellar door.</p>
+
+<p>‘What have you been doing in my house?’ he
+demanded sternly.</p>
+
+<p>For once the silent Peter found his tongue. ‘It is
+my house now,’ he said proudly. ‘Miss Winifred
+asked me in herself.’</p>
+
+<p>‘She didn’t!’ Oxford exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>‘She did! She said, “Walk in, darling pussy,” so
+I walked in.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_087.jpg" width="300" alt="Sally in the parlor"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XII<br>
+<small>SALLY AND THE LOUD SPEAKER</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sally</span> spent a great deal of time in the parlor. In
+the morning she often had it to herself, for Miss
+Winifred was usually out of the house, or writing on
+her typewriter. ‘The parlor is mine in the morning,’
+she told Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘You can go into your old parlor all you like,’
+said he. ‘I like my kitchen best.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally suspected that his scorn of the parlor came
+because he was not allowed to go into it, as he was
+not as quiet and well-behaved as Sally.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening Miss Harvey often sat there reading
+the newspaper to Miss Winifred. Sally was often
+bored by the newspaper, and she would get up in
+Miss Harvey’s lap and sit on it so that she could
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>not read. Miss Harvey would say in her gentle
+voice, ‘Come, Sally, please get off my paper.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally would pretend that she did not understand,
+and she would put her furry paws around Miss Harvey’s
+neck and press her furry face against her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>‘Sally, you are a nuisance,’ were the unkindest
+words Miss Harvey ever said, and Sally would once
+more pretend she did not understand. Sometimes
+Miss Harvey would stop reading if it was almost
+bedtime; Sally always hoped this would happen,
+and sometimes she would gently put Sally on the
+center table, where she would settle for a nap in the
+friendly warmth of the electric lamp.</p>
+
+<p>Once in a great while there would be an interesting
+piece of news in the paper. Once she heard
+something about the President’s pets, and there
+was a wonderful occasion when there was something
+worth while in the paper and Sally learned
+that the President’s wife was fond of pets, and that
+once, before she was in the White House, she had
+found a mouse-hole in the room she was in, in some
+hotel, and had trained the mice and given them
+food. Sally’s eyes fairly glistened. What a pity that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>she had not been near that mouse-hole herself! It
+would have been so easy to catch a tame mouse, and
+if she caught one, Oxford could never be so scornful
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes Miss Harvey would put down the
+paper and she and Miss Winifred would have a
+friendly chat, and it was at one of these times that
+Sally learned the piece of news she told Oxford the
+next day as she and Oxford were sunning themselves
+on the back porch after an exhausting morning of
+exercise.</p>
+
+<p>‘I hear that Miss Winifred is going to have a
+loud speaker,’ she said.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sorry to hear it,’ said he; ‘there are enough
+loud speakers around the house as it is. I have sensitive
+ears.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Miss Harvey has a sweet voice,’ said Sally, ‘only
+every one has to talk louder to Miss Winifred, and
+I suppose she wants some one to talk to her when
+the others are busy.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You would do very well for that job,’ said Oxford;
+‘for a small cat I never heard such a rasping,
+powerful voice.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>‘Yes, Miss Winifred always hears me,’ said
+Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have a very gentlemanly mew,’ said Oxford;
+‘any one would know I had Furbush-Tailby blood
+just to hear my mew. But, to hear you and not see
+you, Sally, no one would suspect for a moment that
+you were a lady.’</p>
+
+<p>‘They’d know it if they saw me,’ said Sally. ‘Miss
+Harvey often says I am a perfect little lady.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I wonder if the loud speaker will be a man or a
+woman,’ Oxford said.</p>
+
+<p>Sally wondered, too, and whenever she was in the
+parlor and any one called, she listened to the voice
+of the caller with great interest.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon a gentleman called with a strong,
+loud voice. He called Miss Mann ‘Cousin Winifred.’
+Sally was sure he was the loud speaker and
+that he had come to stay.</p>
+
+<p>After some conversation that did not interest
+Sally, he fixed his eyes on her as she sat in the
+corner on her register and he said, ‘You have a cat,
+I see.’</p>
+
+<p>‘She isn’t exactly mine,’ said Miss Winifred, ‘but
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>she does me the honor to live in my house; she has a
+brother who lives here also, and there is another
+cat, Peter, who thinks he lives with us because he
+takes all his meals here and sleeps here on cold,
+stormy nights, but Oxford Gray, Junior, is certain
+he does not and drives him away.’</p>
+
+<p>At last the conversation was becoming interesting.
+Sally wondered what the loud speaker would
+say. She had an idea by the way he had looked at
+herself that he did not realize the importance of
+cats.</p>
+
+<p>‘I went to call on two ladies the other day,’ he
+said, ‘who were longing to go back to the State of
+Washington where they used to live, but they said
+they could not go because the journey would be too
+much for their cat, who was old and settled in his
+ways.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally wished she knew the ladies. They understood
+something of life and saw things in their right
+proportion.</p>
+
+<p>‘I suggested to them that they could give their
+cat away, or send him to the Animal Rescue
+League,’ the loud speaker went on.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>Sally became alarmed. If this were, indeed, the
+loud speaker, and he came here to live, what chance
+was there for Oxford and herself? Would he not
+make a clean sweep of all who wore fur coats? She
+was relieved to find by Miss Winifred’s next question
+that he had a wife and several children. He
+surely could not be leaving them to come and live
+here just to talk to Miss Winifred. Presently he
+took his hat and went to the door, shaking hands
+with Miss Winifred, and saying it had been good to
+see her, and never giving one glance in Sally’s direction.</p>
+
+<p>‘It was rude of him,’ Sally said to herself, ‘when
+I am a perfect lady. It never does any harm to be
+polite.’</p>
+
+<p>A few days later, something that had a strange
+appearance was on the piano. Sally found it there
+one afternoon. It looked like a very small bureau
+with knobs in odd places, and two things that
+looked like clocks. Sally wondered what it could be.
+There was a small round table close by the piano,
+and on this was standing a long black thing, shaped
+something like a huge calla lily.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>The next afternoon, when Sally was upstairs, she
+heard a concert going on in the parlor. There were
+several shrill voices and it sounded very much like
+the concerts Sally’s cat friends sometimes gave.
+But these took place at night. Sally was of a curious
+nature, and she hurried down to see what was
+going on. To her surprise when she reached the
+parlor not a soul was to be seen except Miss Winifred.
+Sally had never heard her sing, and the sound
+seemed to be coming out of the black calla lily,
+for the piano was shut. Presently Miss Winifred
+touched one of the knobs and the music came to an
+end. Sally was more and more mystified. Then
+Miss Winifred touched a knob and Sally heard a
+man say, ‘This is the friendly voice of Boston.’
+Sally agreed that Boston had a nice voice, but he
+was nowhere to be seen. She looked around the
+room, but could see no one. She went under the
+piano, thinking Boston might be there. Some one
+was giving a talk about grapefruit juice. Sally did
+not care about the talk, for she liked milk for her
+drink. Finally she got up on the table on which the
+big black calla lily stood and looked down into it.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>The voice sounded so loud, Sally was frightened.
+She skipped down and ran out into the kitchen to
+tell Oxford about it.</p>
+
+<p>‘There’s a man that’s only got a voice and no
+body, and he lives in the black thing on the table,
+and his name is Boston,’ she told him. ‘And sometimes
+he sings.’</p>
+
+<p>‘That’s the radio,’ said Oxford. ‘I heard Miss
+Harvey talking to Elvira about it. They have them
+in all the houses now. Even Peter knows about
+them.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You didn’t know anything about it the other
+day,’ Sally ventured.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is a long time since the other day,’ said Oxford,
+‘and since then I have given my entire spare
+time to research. I have tried hard to learn all I
+could about the loud speakers and radios. Mr.
+Gardiner has one and I heard him talking to Miss
+Harvey. If one has masculine brains and sharp
+ears, there is no end to what one can learn. Sally,
+you are behind the times.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_095.jpg" width="300" alt="The mouse scurrying down the steps, and Sally and Oxford following it"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIII<br>
+<small>SALLY BRACES UP</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> that Sally was used to the radio, she took a
+good deal of pleasure in it, in fact on very cold days
+she enjoyed it more than Miss Winifred did, for the
+parlor was a large room and the piano, where the
+radio stood, was between two long glass doors that
+let in a good deal of air through the cracks in winter
+weather. Sally, with her sharp ears, could hear
+every word the loud speaker said when she sat on
+her register in the opposite corner of the room.
+Sally knew that it was her own register, for there
+was another in the room. This one in the corner
+was often closed, so that Sally could lie there at her
+ease and feel just a pleasant warmth. Miss Winifred,
+who did not have a fur coat like Sally, had to
+walk up near the loud speaker and she was cold in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>that corner even with a sweater on. Yes, there
+were many advantages in being a cat, Sally thought.
+It was fine to have perfect sight and not to have
+to wear eye-glasses and to be so small you could
+lie on a register, and hear every word the loud
+speaker said. But people had no choice; perhaps
+many of them like herself would prefer to be
+cats.</p>
+
+<p>This New Year’s Eve she was especially interested
+in the sermon Miss Winifred was hearing. It
+seemed made on purpose for cats, for it spoke of the
+grace and gayety of a young kitten chasing its tail.
+Sally pricked up her ears at this. She liked the
+minister, whoever he might be. He understood
+something about life. He went on to say how
+sympathy should be given to all young things.
+There was a part Sally did not quite understand,
+and then she was struck by these words: ‘The beginning
+of the New Year is a good time to make
+resolutions, but every day is the beginning of a new
+year, we do not have to wait.’ Sally was glad of
+this, for a year was so very long to a cat. However,
+as there was to be a year beginning, it seemed a good
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>time to make resolutions. She talked the matter
+over with Oxford afterward.</p>
+
+<p>‘One of your resolutions, I should say, ought to
+be to brace up,’ said he.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes,’ said Sally meekly, ‘that is one.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I should think,’ he added, somewhat scornfully,
+‘that it was about time you caught a mouse.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, that is another of my resolutions,’ said she.</p>
+
+<p>‘I have a few in mind,’ said Oxford. ‘I mean to
+give Peter the biggest thrashing he has ever had.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And I surely will catch a mouse sometime, I
+promise you I will,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t think it at all probable,’ he said dryly.
+‘You’ll have to learn to brace up first.’</p>
+
+<p>It was springtime before the great event occurred.
+Every day in the new year Sally had remembered
+the words of the preacher. She said
+them over and over to herself every morning, ‘Each
+day is the beginning of a new year,’ and every
+morning she had said to herself, ‘I will try to catch
+a mouse before the day is over.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally thought there were other things in life that
+were as important as bracing up. Was not patience
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>equally commendable? And how about unselfishness?
+Would Oxford ever have the patience to sit
+for hours at a mouse-hole? Would he ever let her
+take a part of his food? But Oxford was a wonderful
+cat, a dream to look at compared with her, with
+his pink nose and his expansive white shirt-front.
+She had a tiger face and small white shirt-front, and
+even if patience and perseverance were rewarded
+at last and she caught her mouse, she could never
+be a mighty hunter. But he, with his rough ways,
+was never allowed in the parlor and she was. After
+all, life had its compensations.</p>
+
+<p>All the same, Sally longed to catch a mouse.</p>
+
+<p>The exciting event took place when Miss Winifred
+and Elvira had gone on their usual spring visit
+to New Hampshire. And it did not happen at all as
+Sally thought it would. It was early in the morning.
+Miss Harvey, Sally, and Oxford were alone in the
+house. Miss Harvey had made the kitchen fire, and
+put the tea-kettle on the stove. Oxford was just
+waking up and stretching himself. Sally, who was
+wide awake, saw a mouse glide past her on the
+freshly scrubbed kitchen floor. She darted forward
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>and seized the mouse. She had it firmly in her
+mouth. It was still alive, but she knew it could not
+escape. Oxford roused himself. Sally looked at him
+with triumph in her eyes. ‘See what I have caught.
+Didn’t I tell you I would catch a mouse?’ she
+seemed to say.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_099.jpg" alt="Sally catches the mouse"></div>
+
+<p>Oxford dashed forward angrily and knocked the
+mouse out of Sally’s mouth. Sally had never been
+so angry in her life. Miss Harvey, hearing the commotion,
+turned just before Oxford had reached
+Sally. She saw what happened. The mouse was
+flying along the kitchen floor toward the outside
+door. Miss Harvey thought it most provoking of
+Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor dear,’ she said to Sally, ‘it was your
+mouse.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally was glad some one understood.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>Miss Harvey opened the kitchen door that led
+into the passageway and then the outside door.
+Her sympathies were divided between Sally and the
+mouse. Poor tiny creature! It looked so frightened,
+and, after all, it probably enjoyed its life as much as
+Sally liked hers. But if that wretched Oxford got
+the mouse, Miss Harvey felt there was no justice to
+be looked for in this world. When she opened the
+door, she saw the mouse scurrying down the steps,
+and Sally and Oxford following after each other,
+tumbling down the steps in hot pursuit. It was as
+exciting as any race she had ever seen. Sally for
+once lost her temper as the mouse disappeared from
+view. She did not say all she thought. She said
+only a part of it, but Oxford was so astonished by
+what she did say that she seemed a different Sally
+in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>After she had spoken her vehement words, she
+returned to the house. Oxford felt taken down for
+the moment, but he soon rose to the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>‘It was a sort of an accident your catching that
+mouse,’ he said. ‘Anybody can catch a mouse if it
+goes just where they are.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>Sally was already beginning to cool down.</p>
+
+<p>‘Not everybody,’ she said. ‘Miss Harvey has
+told me more than once that she never caught a
+mouse in her life.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_102.jpg" width="300" alt="Spot in the window"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIV<br>
+<small>SALLY AND SPOT</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>‘<span class="smcap">The</span> Conants have got a dog,’ Sally said to Oxford
+one day. ‘Isn’t that awful?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Are you sure they’ve got one?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, I heard Miss Harvey say so, and I’ve seen
+him.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You’ve seen him?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, he was skipping about in our clothes-yard
+this morning. Miss Harvey wouldn’t let me out.
+She said it was too dangerous. I was afraid you’d
+meet him.’</p>
+
+<p>‘What does he look like?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Miss Harvey told Elvira he was a wire-haired
+terrier. He’s white with a black spot. He’s not so
+terribly big, but it seems he hates cats and loves to
+chase them. Miss Harvey thinks he would kill us if
+he got the chance.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>‘I’m quite sure he wouldn’t kill me,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t suppose he would, but he might kill me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Not if I am around, Sally. You had better never
+go out without me.’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford and Sally were sitting in the kitchen
+windows as they were talking, and they could look
+across at the windows in the Conant house. Suddenly
+Sally gave a hiss.</p>
+
+<p>‘What is the matter?’ asked Elvira.</p>
+
+<p>‘He’s there; it’s himself,’ said Sally, but Elvira
+could not understand.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford understood, and he looked across at the
+Conant house. There, in one of the windows, was
+the monster who would like to kill cats.</p>
+
+<p>He was not so terrible to look at. The cats gazed
+at him fascinated. He looked back at them with a
+fixed gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira heard some more hisses and going to the
+window she saw Spot.</p>
+
+<p>‘Bless your hearts, he can’t get you,’ said Elvira.
+‘There are two sets of window-panes between you
+and Spot.’</p>
+
+<p>It gave a new thrill to life having Spot living next
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>door, but it was most inconvenient, for Oxford and
+Sally were always kept in when Spot was taking his
+exercise.</p>
+
+<p>‘He doesn’t seem to realize this place is ours,’
+said Oxford. ‘He walks into this clothes-yard, just
+as bold as if it belonged to him.’</p>
+
+<p>‘But there is no fence between the two places,’
+said Sally. ‘We go into Mrs. Conant’s garden
+whenever we like.’</p>
+
+<p>‘We are old settlers,’ said Oxford. ‘We have a
+right to go where we please, but I call it bold for an
+impudent young puppy to come over into our yard.
+Before we know it, he will be in the Wild Wood.’</p>
+
+<p>He had an endless fascination for them, however.
+They liked to watch him starting out at an early
+hour in the morning for an airing with Mrs. Conant’s
+husband. They trembled and felt safer when
+he went back to the house and the door closed.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira would say, ‘I think it is safe for Oxford
+and Sally to go out now. It will be some time before
+Spot goes out again.’</p>
+
+<p>They never felt much security when they were
+out, for at any moment the door of the Conant
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>house might open and the monster might come
+out.</p>
+
+<p>‘Anyway, he can’t climb trees,’ said Oxford, ‘and
+there are a lot of them about.’</p>
+
+<p>As the days passed and nothing happened, they
+grew less and less afraid of their enemy and more
+and more confident, and there was always the excitement
+of sitting at the kitchen windows and
+looking across at Spot as he sat at his window.
+Sometimes they saw Mrs. Conant pass the window
+with Spot frisking along by her side. She would
+wave her hand as she passed. It was the season of
+the year when her pretty pink dress seemed to
+Sally more suitable to the weather than her own
+coat of fur.</p>
+
+<p>Sally felt sure that some day there would be a
+meeting between herself and Spot. She did not
+know why she felt so sure of this. When she spoke
+of her fears to Oxford, he said: ‘How silly you
+are, Sally. All you have to do is to stay close by
+me, and I will defend you with my good right
+paw.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sure you would,’ said Sally, ‘but sometimes
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>you go off on journeys. I can’t stay shut up
+in the house all day when you go on a journey.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Of course, I can’t give up all my pleasure trips to
+stay at home and protect you. The only safe thing
+is never to go out unless you see that impudent
+scoundrel’s face in the window. When he’s in, he
+can’t be out.’</p>
+
+<p>‘But he might suddenly be let out,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>And this was exactly what did happen one bright
+day in early June when Oxford was away for a day
+or two.</p>
+
+<p>Sally saw Spot in the window and she mewed to
+be let out. She mewed and mewed until even Miss
+Winifred heard. The others were at the top of the
+house. They could hear her, but it was a long way
+to come down just for Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor pussy,’ said Miss Winifred, as she opened
+the kitchen door. ‘What do you want?’</p>
+
+<p>Sally mewed again in her strong voice and went
+to the outside door.</p>
+
+<p>‘Do you want to go out?’ said Miss Winifred, as
+she opened the screen door.</p>
+
+<p>Sally made it evident that she did. She ran down
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>the steps to the clothes-yard. It was good to get
+out into the bright sunshine, and she ran down
+toward the street. Suddenly she heard an awful
+bark and looking up she saw that the monster was
+almost upon her. Trembling all over, Sally fairly
+flew over the ground and scampered up the nearest
+tree. There she sat looking down on Spot. He was
+standing still at the foot of the tree looking up at
+her. Some time passed, and finally Sally gathered
+courage to ask,</p>
+
+<p>‘How long are you going to stay there?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Until you come down,’ said Spot.</p>
+
+<p>‘I mean to stay here a long time,’ said Sally.
+‘Days, perhaps. It is very comfortable in this tree.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Is it? It doesn’t look so.’</p>
+
+<p>Time passed. It seemed hours to Sally. The
+round sun was getting low in the heavens, and still
+that awful dog stood there at the foot of the tree.
+Sally did not dare to come down.</p>
+
+<p>‘I’ve often seen you in the window,’ said Sally
+pleasantly. ‘I should think you would want to go
+back to that nice window; it seems a little cold
+here.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_108.jpg" width="300" alt="Spot was standing still at the foot of the tree looking up at Sally"></div>
+
+<p>‘I’ve often noticed you at your window,’ said
+Spot. ‘I was thinking it was about time for you to
+go home.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I mean to stay out all night,’ said Sally. ‘I
+never was out all night. My friends give fine concerts
+then. There is to be a moon to-night.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>Time passed, and Sally was growing hungry and
+tired. Would no one come for her? Miss Harvey
+and Elvira would not know she had been let out,
+and she had heard them say that Miss Winifred
+was going off for the night. Poor Sally was getting
+more and more miserable.</p>
+
+<p>‘Don’t you think Mrs. Conant will worry if you
+stay out so long?’ she asked.</p>
+
+<p>‘She never worries. She lets me lead a free life.
+How about Elvira and Miss Harvey? What will
+they think if you don’t come in?’</p>
+
+<p>‘They don’t know I’m out.’</p>
+
+<p>The sky was clouding over and the bright sun
+was going to set long before its time in a bank of
+gray.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is going to rain,’ said Sally. ‘I don’t mind the
+rain at all because of my warm fur coat.’ All the
+same, she didn’t like to get wet. ‘Do you mind the
+rain, Spot?’</p>
+
+<p>‘No, but it isn’t going to rain,’ he said.</p>
+
+<p>Sally was now longing to get into the house. She
+gave another of her piercing mews which she had
+been giving at intervals, but she was some distance
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>from the house and Elvira did not know that she
+was out.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_110.jpg" width="300" alt="One of your cats has been treed by Spotty"></div>
+
+<p>‘Some cat is in trouble. It sounds a little like
+Sally’s mew,’ Elvira said to Miss Harvey. ‘Did you
+let her out?’</p>
+
+<p>‘No, I am sure she is somewhere around the
+house.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>Presently, to Sally’s joy, she saw Mrs. Conant
+coming along the avenue.</p>
+
+<p>‘Why, Spotty, what are you doing here?’ she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up to see what the dog was watching,
+and she saw poor Sally in the tree.</p>
+
+<p>‘Come, Spotty, come home at once and let that
+poor cat alone,’ she said.</p>
+
+<p>As she passed the kitchen window she said: ‘One
+of your cats has been treed by Spotty. I am very
+sorry. He ought to have better manners.’</p>
+
+<p>‘She is the nicest person,’ Sally said to herself as
+she scrambled down the tree after she heard the
+front door close on Mrs. Conant and her dog. ‘She
+understands the feelings of a cat, but it is strange
+she could not tell the difference between Oxford
+and me. Perhaps I’m growing better-looking now I
+am fatter.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_112.jpg" width="250" alt="The family tree"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XV<br>
+<small>THE FAMILY TREE</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> seemed strange to Sally that as nice a person as
+Mrs. Conant should care as much as she did for a
+creature like Spot. It was all she could do to listen
+in silence to a conversation that she had with Miss
+Winifred one afternoon in the parlor. The two
+were sitting on the sofa while Sally was looking out
+of the window.</p>
+
+<p>She was watching some birds that were taking a
+bath in the bird bath. First a blue jay went in
+and splashed about, and after he came out, a robin
+fluttered down from his perch in a tree.</p>
+
+<p>‘Spot has a good pedigree,’ said Mrs. Conant.
+‘His Family Tree is quite as good in its way as Mr.
+Conant’s.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>Sally listened while the two ladies talked of these
+matters, and she thought of her glorious ancestors.
+She wished she had a Family Tree herself, but later,
+when she talked the matter over with Oxford, he
+said it was nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>‘Let us play with our catnip mice,’ he said.</p>
+
+<p>As usual they had a fine time and Sally was so
+stimulated that she felt like talking in verse.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">  I long to have a family tree</div>
+<div class="indent">And show to all my true descent,</div>
+<div class="verse">But Oxford says a family tree</div>
+<div class="indent">Is not a tree for kittens meant.</div>
+<div class="verse">To know his father is enough,</div>
+<div class="indent">For he was made of valiant stuff.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">But I would like to trace them all,</div>
+<div class="indent">Back to proud William of great fame,</div>
+<div class="verse">Who lived, they say, in princely hall,</div>
+<div class="indent">And bore almost a royal name,</div>
+<div class="verse">Down to myself, then, all would say,</div>
+<div class="indent">‘She’s royal, though she’s small and gray.’</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">There were great singers in my race,</div>
+<div class="indent">Who sat upon the garden wall,</div>
+<div class="verse">Tenors, sopranos, and a bass,</div>
+<div class="indent">Who nightly concerts gave to all,</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>
+<div class="verse">And mighty hunters were the rule</div>
+<div class="indent">But Oxford thinks me such a fool.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">He says his mind he will not vex</div>
+<div class="indent">About such matters, that it’s base,</div>
+<div class="verse">But I am of the other sex</div>
+<div class="indent">And I delight in pride of race,</div>
+<div class="verse">But Oxford only says, says he,</div>
+<div class="indent">Strong paws are more than ancestry.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">To catch a mouse is better far</div>
+<div class="indent">Than grandfathers of high degree,</div>
+<div class="verse">He loved his friendly grandmamma,</div>
+<div class="indent">And nothing but a waif was she.</div>
+<div class="verse">The day is bright, some tree we’ll climb,</div>
+<div class="indent">To stay indoors would be a crime.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">I know if I have children fair,</div>
+<div class="indent">Some little kittens good to see,</div>
+<div class="verse">Furry and bright, a lusty pair,</div>
+<div class="indent">I’d like to have a family tree.</div>
+<div class="verse">But Oxford said, ‘Let’s have some fun,</div>
+<div class="indent">The door is open, let us run.’</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">So to the woods we gayly went</div>
+<div class="indent">And there we had a lively race,</div>
+<div class="verse">And such a joyous hour we spent</div>
+<div class="indent">Chasing each other round the place.</div>
+<div class="verse">‘If you must have a family tree,</div>
+<div class="indent">I’ll find one in the woods,’ said he.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>Sally was sent up a tree by Spot more than once,
+and even Oxford had to fly from him several times,
+for to stay indoors in the lovely summer weather
+was altogether impossible. There came to be a
+certain excitement in escaping from their enemy
+which gave a dash of spice to their life. And there
+was one day they would never forget when Spot
+met the two of them in the Wild Wood. Oxford
+had promised to defend Sally, but all the same, she
+thought it wiser to scamper up the nearest tree, for
+it might happen that her brave brother would get
+the worst of the fight. Oxford looked about him to
+see where Sally was and, finding she was safe, he
+thought it better to join her and not to fight Spot,
+for Sally would be happier if he were in the tree, too.
+So the pair sat there looking down with scorn on
+their enemy.</p>
+
+<p>‘Who are you, anyway?’ Oxford asked. ‘You
+low creature not able to climb like us!’</p>
+
+<p>‘I come of a very fine stock. My mistress looked
+up my pedigree before she bought me. It is written
+on paper.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I thought you seemed like a thing that had been
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span>bought with money,’ said Oxford. ‘My sister and I
+are free, not slaves. No money could buy us. We
+could leave our home to-morrow if we liked.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Perhaps you could to-morrow,’ Spot called
+back. ‘But you don’t seem to be able to leave now.
+Not while I am at the foot of this tree.’</p>
+
+<p>Now, only a few days before, Oxford had been
+scorning musty records, but to Sally’s surprise he
+said: ‘If my sister and I chose to take the trouble,
+we could have a family tree with an ancestry that
+would absolutely astonish you, Spot. We go back
+to a cat who was named William the Conqueror,
+because he always knocked his enemy flat. He was
+the first Furbush—I mean we can trace back no
+farther; of course, there were others back of him.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Well,’ said Spot, ‘I am sure my ancestors were
+all so great that every one was a conqueror, and as
+for my master, he was one of the first settlers—his
+ancestors were, I mean.’</p>
+
+<p>‘That is nothing,’ said Oxford. ‘Miss Winifred is
+descended from one of the kings of France.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Indeed!’ said Spot. ‘One wouldn’t think it to
+look at her.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>‘Not that I care a great deal about such things
+myself,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘I shouldn’t suppose you would,’ said Spot, ‘for I
+have heard that your mother’s mother was just a
+little waif without home or family.’</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for Oxford. He started to
+scramble down the tree, and Sally was afraid that
+Spot would fly at him and perhaps kill him.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford,’ she said, ‘is that a bird’s nest on that
+upper bough?’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford paused in his descent to look up.</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t see anything. Where is it?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I saw something very like a bird’s nest,’ she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford forgot all about his grandmother in his
+interest in the nest, which might be full of young
+birds.</p>
+
+<p>‘Dogs are very superior to cats,’ Spot was saying.
+‘Every one says so. It is a well-known fact.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Who says so?’ Oxford asked.</p>
+
+<p>‘My master and my mistress, and all the dogs I
+know.’</p>
+
+<p>‘The people who make their home with us greatly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>prefer cats, and every cat I have ever met says cats
+are much brighter than dogs,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘Prove it,’ Spot said with a loud bark.</p>
+
+<p>‘Can you climb a tree?’ Sally asked.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am so superior that I do not have to climb
+trees,’ said Spot.</p>
+
+<p>‘Can you catch a mouse?’ Oxford inquired.</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t care about mice. I can be a true companion
+for man. Men don’t climb trees, at least
+not as a rule, and they can’t catch mice. And dogs
+are unselfish. I have heard of many a dog losing his
+life to save his master, or dying of grief because his
+master has died.’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford and Sally were considerably impressed.
+For once Oxford was at a loss as to what to reply,
+but Sally was thinking things out.</p>
+
+<p>‘I would do a great deal for Miss Harvey,’ she
+said. ‘Maybe some day I’ll have a chance to save
+her life, but what good does it ever do to die of
+grief if one loses a friend? It seems to me wiser just
+to be a good friend to all the friends one has left
+than to die of grief.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally was astonished at her own words, but she
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>had learned this from Oxford. And just then who
+should come along the avenue that led to the two
+houses but Mrs. Conant with her husband in their
+automobile.</p>
+
+<p>‘Spotty, what are you doing here? I didn’t mean
+you to get out until we came back,’ said Mrs.
+Conant. ‘John, you had better get out and take
+Spot back with you, and I’ll go on to the house.
+Spot has treed two cats.’</p>
+
+<p>As Spot walked off unwillingly with his master,
+he flung back these words, ‘I’ll ask Mrs. Conant
+my exact pedigree and I’ll tell it to you the next
+time we meet.’</p>
+
+<p>‘We don’t have to take that trouble,’ Oxford retorted;
+‘our family tree is complete in our heads,
+beginning with William the Conqueror and coming
+down to Martha Furbush-Tailby, our great-great-grandmother,
+and then to William Furbush-Tailby,
+the poet, and then to his daughter, who married our
+grandfather Oxford Forepaw Gray; his son was my
+father, Oxford Gray, and I am Oxford Gray, Junior.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I know who you are, you are a no-account bragging
+cat,’ said Spot, as he vanished into the house.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_120.jpg" alt="Sally, Oxford, and the travelling cat"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVI<br>
+<small>THE TRAVELING CAT</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> day Sally looked out of the screen door and she
+saw a new cat looking in at the window. He had a
+glossy coat of long black fur, and a white shirt-front
+and four white paws. At least they once had
+been white, but they were dirt-color from much
+traveling. Sally looked at the cat and the cat
+looked at Sally.</p>
+
+<p>He asked Sally if he could get a meal at the
+house. Sally was about to say she would speak to
+Elvira, for she could always attract her attention by
+mewing or clawing her gown, when Oxford came to
+the screen door.</p>
+
+<p>‘You can’t. This is my house. Clear out, and
+don’t show your black coat around here again!’</p>
+
+<p>The black cat was very much offended. ‘I am an
+important person,’ he hissed back. ‘I’m a great
+traveler. I’ve come all the way from Malden, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>I’ve been at the wharves in Boston and taken one
+or two sea voyages.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You’d better take a few more,’ said Oxford.
+‘You are not wanted here.’</p>
+
+<p>And yet he was considerably impressed. Sally
+liked the appearance of the stranger, and yet she
+was a little afraid of him.</p>
+
+<p>‘My name is Captain Ebony Black,’ said the
+traveling cat. ‘I’m called Eben by my friends. I’d
+like to fight you some day when we meet out-of-doors,’
+he added as he looked at Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘Just what I should like,’ said Oxford. ‘I always
+fight all the cats who come into my grounds.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Do you own the whole place?’ the traveling cat
+asked. ‘I thought this was where Peter lived.’</p>
+
+<p>‘He thinks he lives here,’ Oxford snarled, ‘but
+the place belongs to me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘And to me, too,’ put in Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘I let her live here,’ Oxford said, ‘because she is
+my sister.’</p>
+
+<p>Elvira, who was washing dishes, turned to see
+what was happening, for although she could not
+understand their language, she could tell that some
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>sort of a row was going on. The cats were looking
+at each other fiercely, one on one side of the screen
+and one on the other.</p>
+
+<p>‘Come, Oxford, be a good cat,’ she said; ‘here is
+some supper for you.’</p>
+
+<p>Supper, indeed! When one was longing to fight
+an enemy! He made a few more angry remarks to
+the visitor, and ended by calling him ‘Blackie,’
+which was hard for Captain Ebony Black to bear,
+for he came of an old family.</p>
+
+<p>‘Who are you, anyway?’ he growled.</p>
+
+<p>‘My great-grandfather was a Furbush,’ said
+Oxford, ‘and he was descended from a Furbush,
+who was called “William the Conqueror.”’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am descended from the first Ebony Black who
+came to this country. There’s been an Ebony
+Black in each generation.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally was greatly impressed, for ancestors meant
+so much to her.</p>
+
+<p>‘Come and eat your supper like a good cat,’ said
+Elvira, and then, thinking that the stranger might
+be hungry, she took a plate of canned salmon and
+bread out to the back porch.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>‘Elvira is feeding our enemy,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed a fine-looking pussy to Sally, but she
+said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>‘The way in which all the cats in the neighborhood
+come into my place is outrageous!’ said Oxford,
+as he began to eat his fish.</p>
+
+<p>‘After all,’ Sally reminded him, ‘the place is
+Miss Winifred’s and Elvira’s, and if they don’t
+mind——’</p>
+
+<p>‘I’ve explained to you a great many times, Sally,
+that the true owner of a place is the one who uses it
+the most, and so I say the back yard and the Wild
+Wood are mine.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Then the parlor is certainly mine,’ said Sally,
+‘for I am there much more than Miss Winifred.’</p>
+
+<p>‘You can call the parlor yours, or can own the
+house if you like, but the land is mine.’</p>
+
+<p>The traveling cat thoroughly enjoyed his meal.
+He was shy with strangers and had no idea of coming
+into the house, but he had taken a liking to
+Sally’s modest appearance. She looked as if she
+might be an old-fashioned cat, with whom one
+could have a pleasant talk if Oxford was not
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>around. So he hung about the place, occasionally
+coming for a meal on the back porch. And one day
+he met Sally in the Wild Wood and they had a
+friendly chat, for Oxford was not there.</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t mean any harm,’ said the traveling cat,
+‘and I don’t think your brother need be so rude.’</p>
+
+<p>‘He’s the kindest brother,’ Sally said, ‘but he had
+such a hard time winning his way in the world when
+he was young that, when he did at last find a home
+for himself and me, he wants to hold on to it.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t care about a home for long at a time,’
+said the traveling cat. ‘I like to take a voyage
+every now and then in a ship. It doesn’t cost anything,
+for I just walk on board, and I don’t have to
+bother about a passport, and I can always make
+myself useful by hunting rats and mice.’</p>
+
+<p>‘It must be exciting to travel,’ Sally said. ‘But I
+am so home-loving I like to stay just where I’ve
+lived for so long.’</p>
+
+<p>She told Oxford some of the tales of his travels
+that Ebony Black had told her. Oxford said the
+fellow was too fond of bragging, but the dazzling
+visions of distant spots began to have their effect.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>‘Why don’t you drive him off the place, Sally?’
+he asked. ‘I will if I ever find him here.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I suppose he has as much a right to be here as
+Peter,’ said Sally. ‘There’s room for everybody,
+Elvira said so.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, Elvira! She would have all the stray cats
+and dogs in town here if she had her way. That
+fellow thinks Ebony Black is a name to be proud
+of,’ Oxford went on. ‘I never heard of the family in
+my life.’</p>
+
+<p>Sally was sorry she had spoken of Ebony Black,
+but she had been so impressed by his tales that she
+wanted to share them with Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘The way Elvira treats that fellow to canned
+salmon is too much!’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘But she isn’t taking anything from us, for we
+don’t like canned salmon,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘She’ll spend all her money if she doesn’t look
+out,’ said Oxford, ‘and then she can’t get haddock
+for us.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sure Elvira has lots of money,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘Well, anyway, I don’t propose to have her feeding
+every cat in town,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>‘Captain Ebony Black belongs in Malden,’ said
+Sally. ‘That is, when he isn’t traveling. He’ll be
+leaving soon.’</p>
+
+<p>‘He’ll be leaving this very day if I run across
+him,’ said Oxford.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_126.jpg" alt="Two cats on a rug"></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_127.jpg" width="250" alt="Two cats in a wreath"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVII<br>
+<small>OXFORD GOES ON A JOURNEY</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> that the autumn had come, Oxford was seized
+with a desire to travel. He had been considerably
+impressed by the tales the traveling cat had told
+Sally, although he had not let her see this. And
+then there was Peter. He was but a poor creature,
+to be sure, but the tales he told of the free life in the
+open appealed to Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am going on a journey,’ he said to Sally one
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, Oxford, aren’t you happy here with me?
+What more do you want?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am tired of this back yard and of the Wild
+Wood. It all seems too cramped to me. I want
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>some good hunting, such as that tiresome, no-account
+Peter has had.’</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_128.jpg" width="450" alt="Two cats in the woods"></div>
+
+<p>‘What could be better than the hunting is here?’
+Sally asked. ‘Haven’t you caught your ninth mouse
+this season? And you got a robin the other day.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, and there was an awful row about it. I
+never saw Elvira in such a state.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t quite see why,’ said Sally. ‘Elvira eats
+turkeys and chickens. Why can’t we eat robins?’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>‘That is a different matter. They have their own
+laws.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Do explain it to me,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘You could never understand it,’ said her brother.</p>
+
+<p>Sally suspected that he could not understand it
+either, but being wise beyond her years, for it was
+years now, she did not say so.</p>
+
+<p>Sally did not ask Oxford to take her with him.
+She liked home life best, and she was beginning to
+have a few friends. It was pleasant to be a favorite
+in a modest way, if not a belle, and she liked the
+serenades they gave her on moonlight nights. And
+above all, she loved Miss Harvey, and she knew
+Miss Harvey would not care to take a journey with
+Oxford and herself.</p>
+
+<p>So Sally bade Oxford good-bye, and said she
+hoped he would have a pleasant journey and come
+back the next day.</p>
+
+<p>‘I may be gone two nights,’ he said. ‘Don’t
+worry unless I am gone three.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sorry to have you go,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am sorry to leave you, Sally, but it is too
+much to be tied to a woman’s apron string, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>there are three of them in this house, all wearing
+aprons.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I suppose you know best,’ said Sally, ‘but when
+I think of our early days and of how we had to
+scratch around for food and a place to sleep in, I am
+contented with my lot.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am glad you are, Sally, but I want to visit
+foreign parts. Perhaps I can get as far as Malden.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, do be careful! Don’t get on a boat, whatever
+you do!’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford promised to be cautious, for in the main
+he was a home-loving cat. He merely wanted to see
+the world in a quiet and safe way without running
+any great risks.</p>
+
+<p>‘Remember there is fine hunting here,’ Sally said
+again.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, but, as I said before, these women make
+such a fuss. They force a fellow into going into the
+big world for hunting. You’d think, after catching
+nine mice, no one would grudge me a robin or two
+and she with her chicken dinners!’</p>
+
+<p>Sally looked very down-hearted when the actual
+parting came.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>‘You must buck up, Sally,’ he said, for he had
+learned this phrase from the traveling cat. It
+seemed to mean more than ‘brace up.’ Sally was a
+grown cat now, and a grown cat certainly ought to
+buck up.</p>
+
+<p>Sally missed Oxford, but there was a certain
+peace about the place. She could eat the whole of
+her dinner without his taking part of it, and she
+could see her friends freely without having them
+driven off the place by Oxford. She missed him, of
+course; still, there was a certain peace.</p>
+
+<p>No one discovered his absence until bedtime, for
+he had often been late before.</p>
+
+<p>‘Where is Oxford?’ Miss Harvey asked Elvira.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oxford! I don’t know,’ said Elvira, as she took
+off her hat and coat. ‘Why should I know where
+Oxford is? I didn’t take him to Boston with me.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I thought you might have some idea where he
+was,’ said Miss Harvey. ‘He never comes in for
+me.’</p>
+
+<p>They went through the garden and the Wild
+Wood calling, ‘Oxford, Oxford, Oxford Gray,
+Junior.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>‘Sometimes he’ll come in for the Junior,’ said
+Elvira, but there was no scampering of small feet
+and no furry face to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>‘Cats certainly are the limit,’ said Elvira. ‘You
+get fond of one, and the first thing you know he’s
+off like a shot.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Sally looks very wise,’ said Miss Harvey, as they
+went back into the house. ‘I dare say she knows
+just where Oxford is.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I wish I did,’ Sally said, but no one heard her. ‘I
+fear he is in some miserable place, and hungry and
+cold.’ For it had begun to rain. Sally could hear
+the raindrops pattering down the window-pane.</p>
+
+<p>‘This is a good little cat,’ and Elvira stroked
+Sally. ‘She never gives us any trouble.’</p>
+
+<p>‘She is a perfect lady, the sweetest little thing,’
+said Miss Harvey, as Sally climbed into her lap.</p>
+
+<p>Sally put her two paws around Miss Harvey’s
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until after the third night that Sally
+began to worry, for Oxford had told her not to
+worry until after that. After the third night, she
+began to miss him very much, indeed. There had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>been a certain peace in his absence at first, but it
+seemed too peaceful now. Moreover, she had had
+much pleasant conversation with Captain Ebony
+Black, who had seen the world. He was a good-looking
+cat with his long-haired, glossy, black coat
+and white shirt-front. A black cat was an interesting
+variety in her life, and, although she knew that
+the tigers were of a nobler race, it made a pleasant
+change to see some one so different. Moreover, the
+black cat had said kind things to Sally, as kind
+things as Miss Harvey had said. But he had gone
+now, and so she had more time to worry about her
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>‘I do hope he will realize there is no place like
+home before it is too late and something awful
+happens to him,’ said Sally, and she softly repeated
+the familiar words to herself: ‘“Mid pleasures and
+palaces, though I may roam; be it ever so humble,
+there’s no place like Home.”’</p>
+
+<p>She hoped he would think of his basket and his
+little sister, and of kind Elvira who always warmed
+his milk, and of the haddock that she served for
+him. Nothing seemed the same without Oxford.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span>When five days had gone by and still he did not
+come, gloom descended upon the household.</p>
+
+<p>‘I knew something would happen to him,’ said
+Miss Winifred. ‘That is why I did not want another
+cat. Something always happens once I get
+attached to one.’</p>
+
+<p>‘He may turn up yet,’ said Miss Harvey.</p>
+
+<p>‘He may turn up yet’—that sounded very hopeless.
+Had it come to that?</p>
+
+<p>‘I wish I’d never let him go on the journey,’ said
+Sally, ‘and yet how could I have helped it? His
+mind was made up. I know he won’t come back.
+He told me not to worry until after three days, and
+that meant that, if he did not come back then,
+something would have happened.’</p>
+
+<p>The three women to whose apron strings Oxford
+had been tied, had been around to the neighbors
+asking if any one had seen a tiger cat with white
+paws and a white breast. As there were several
+cats of this sort in the neighborhood, many people
+thought they had seen him, but the cat never proved
+to be Oxford himself.</p>
+
+<p>‘Black Sam, Sam Furbush-Tailby, I mean, was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>once gone ten days,’ said Elvira. ‘Oxford will probably
+come back.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Several of your pets have never come back,’ said
+Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am going over to Handerson Court,’ said
+Elvira. ‘Maybe some one there will have seen
+him.’</p>
+
+<p>As Elvira went along the strip of land that led
+to Handerson Court, she heard a faint mew. It
+seemed a cry of distress, and it sounded to her like
+Oxford’s voice. She hurried over the grass and
+went through the gap in the fence. Presently she
+saw a thin tiger cat coming toward her with his
+head firmly encased in a fish can that some one
+must have carelessly thrown away without flattening
+it.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, poor pussy, whoever you are, you are in an
+awful fix,’ said Elvira.</p>
+
+<p>As the cat came nearer, she could hardly believe
+it was Oxford, he looked so thin, but she thought
+she recognized the markings on his tail. Another
+minute and there was no doubt at all, for he began
+to mew piteously again, and it was Oxford’s voice.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>The proud Oxford, who felt affection, but seldom
+showed it, was delighted to recognize the voice of
+a friend.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira picked him up and carried the frightened,
+struggling cat to the house.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor dear, where have you been?’ she asked him.
+‘You must have been shut in somewhere, and when
+they found you and let you out, you must have
+been so hungry that you smelled the fish and
+thought you could get some of it.’</p>
+
+<p>She put Oxford down in the kitchen. Sally was
+frightened at first at the sight of the can with no
+head to be seen, but when she found it was really
+Oxford, she ran up to him. Poor Oxford! Suppose
+they could not get his head out of the can. But
+Elvira and Miss Harvey worked away at him, and
+presently Oxford’s head emerged, but his beautiful
+fur was all over rust. Elvira stamped on the can to
+flatten it out.</p>
+
+<p>‘No cat will ever be caught in that can again,’
+she said.</p>
+
+<p>Sally flew to wash Oxford, and Miss Harvey and
+Elvira began to scrub him, while Miss Winifred
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>stood in the doorway and said, ‘Poor cat, do you
+suppose he will ever get over it?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I’m all right,’ Oxford said, but only Sally understood.</p>
+
+<p>‘Where were you?’ Sally asked. ‘Why didn’t
+you come home before? Did you have good hunting?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I have been in prison, Sally,’ said Oxford. ‘I was
+accidentally shut up in a building without food, so
+when I came out, I was very hungry.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Did you think of home and your sister?’ Sally
+ventured to ask.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, Sally.’ Oxford was never one to show much
+affection. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I thought of home, and of
+the hunting in the Wild Wood. I thought, too, of
+Blackie; I am glad to see he is not about.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Captain Ebony Black has had to go on another
+journey,’ said Sally.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am glad of that; and Peter, where is he?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Peter was around last night, I think. It is getting
+cold. I think he slept in the cellar last night.’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford was hungrily eating some haddock at the
+time. How good it tasted!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>‘When I have got back to my full weight,’ said
+he, ‘I hope to show Peter once for all that this is
+not his home.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I am glad it is your home, Oxford,’ said Sally.
+‘Aren’t you glad to get back?’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford was in truth very glad, indeed, but he did
+not like to show his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>‘A fellow might do worse,’ he said.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_138.jpg" width="450" alt="Oxford with his head stuck in a fish can"></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_139.jpg" width="350" alt="Sally and her kittens"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XVIII<br>
+<small>SALLY HAS HER WISH</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> morning some weeks later, Elvira had the
+surprise of her life. She came down into the
+kitchen and looked around for the two cats. Oxford
+was stretched out on his woolen blanket under
+the table, but Sally was nowhere to be seen. Elvira
+remembered that she had left the lower drawer
+of the kitchen dresser open thinking that Sally
+might like to sleep there for a change, so she went
+over and looked in. For a moment she was startled
+and thought she must have seen wrong and that
+Sally had caught two mice. But although the furry
+objects were the smallest kittens she had ever seen
+and hardly larger than mice, there was no mistaking
+their fur coats. One was black with four very
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>tiny white paws and a white breast, and the other
+was white with a tiger tail and a tiger blanket on
+its back.</p>
+
+<p>‘Miss Harvey,’ Elvira called, ‘did you ever see
+anything so sweet?’</p>
+
+<p>Sally’s whole expression had changed. Instead
+of having a sad little face, she looked proud and
+happy. It seemed as if she were saying: ‘See what
+I have got for wishing for it? I have had to wish
+for a very long time, but at last I have got just
+what I wanted, twins, a brother and a sister, just
+like Oxford and myself, and the darlings shall have
+a happier kittenhood than we had. And she said
+to herself,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="indent">If I cannot have a mother, a mother I will be</div>
+<div class="verse">With some darling, furry children of my own,</div>
+<div class="indent">The furriest, purriest kittens, the most harum-scarum kittens,</div>
+<div class="verse">The liveliest, gayest kittens ever known.</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It seemed this time as if Miss Harvey understood
+everything she said, for she remarked, ‘Dear Sally
+has got her wish at last; see how blissfully happy
+she looks, Elvira!’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>They decided it would be wiser not to mention
+the kittens to Miss Winifred for a few days, as she
+had a friend staying with her who was taking all of
+her thoughts at present. So the kittens were almost
+a week old before Miss Winifred knew about them.</p>
+
+<p>One morning Elvira said, ‘Sally has two little
+kittens.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Kittens!’ Miss Winifred said in astonishment.
+‘I am very sorry to hear it.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Sorry to hear it,’ said Elvira, ‘and you think
+you are fond of cats.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Four seem too many to have in one house, and
+they will grow into cats, but we can keep them for
+a time and then send them to the Ellen Gifford
+Home, or else find good homes for them.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Would you like to see them?’ Elvira asked.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winifred went into the kitchen, and Elvira
+put one of the tiny creatures into her hand and
+then the other. No one with a heart for kittens
+could help being touched by the sight of these
+furry creatures and the anxious expression of their
+mother’s face as she watched Miss Winifred, for
+she was not sure of her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_142.jpg" alt="Miss Winifred holding the kittens"></div>
+
+<p>‘Please don’t drop them,’ she pleaded in her own
+language. ‘Please don’t even think about homes
+for them later on. This is a good home, and I will
+be a good mother. I do so want their kittenhood
+to be happy and not sad like mine.’</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winifred put the kittens down very gently.</p>
+
+<p>‘At any rate, they can’t leave their mother for
+some weeks,’ she said.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before these tiny objects were
+scampering about the kitchen floor, getting in front
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>of Elvira’s feet just as their mother and their uncle
+had done, for they found a way of getting out of the
+drawer of the dresser. They made a stepladder of
+their mother, and, climbing on her back, gave a flying
+leap to the floor and then chased each other about.
+Patty, the little tiger kitten, was more lively than
+her brother Eben, and she would turn a somersault
+as she reached him and then they would skip
+about in high glee, and wrestle together. There
+had never been such gay kittens in Miss Winifred’s
+house.</p>
+
+<p>‘It is as good as a tonic having them around,’
+said Miss Winifred, one morning as she visited the
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>‘Certainly they are like a tonic to their mother,’
+said Miss Harvey. ‘I never saw any one more
+changed.’</p>
+
+<p>Oxford was not at all interested in his niece and
+nephew, so he spent more of his time than usual
+away from home. It was the gentle Peter who was
+all ready to be friendly, and when the two kittens
+went dancing up to him, he was pleased. But Sally,
+who feared he would do them harm, raised her
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>powerful voice to call them to her, and then gave
+Peter the thrashing that Oxford had meant to give
+him. She seemed possessed by fury as she flew at
+him and put her claws in his fur.</p>
+
+<p>‘Look at your perfect lady now,’ said Elvira to
+Miss Harvey.</p>
+
+<p>‘She is a good mother. She is only afraid he will
+hurt her children,’ said Miss Harvey.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes in the days that followed, Sally
+wished that her desires had not been granted so
+completely. She loved having her kittens and she
+was glad they were having a happier kittenhood
+than her own, that was so sombre and sad. But
+why had she ever asked for ‘harum-scarum’
+kittens, or the ‘liveliest, gayest kittens ever
+known’? Surely it would have been enough to
+wish for ‘Kittens’! Sally was not sure that it was
+ever wise to wish too hard for anything, and yet
+she liked to watch her children playing so fearlessly,
+for kind Elvira and dear Miss Harvey let them
+frisk about the kitchen as they pleased. One day
+Eben got into one of Elvira’s rubbers that were in
+the entry. He peered out from this pleasant spot as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>if to say, ‘See the nice little house I have found, it
+just fits me.’ Baskets and boxes they appropriated
+for their own, and on cold nights, after the kitchen
+fire was out, Sally joined them and they slept warm
+and comfortable in a pasteboard box just the right
+size for three.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_145.jpg" alt="Sally and her kittens"></div>
+
+<p>When they ran up Elvira’s back and pulled out
+her hairpins, or landed on the clock shelf in the
+kitchen in search of their catnip mice and knocked
+down a few trifles, Sally said, ‘Children, children,
+why can’t you be quiet and well-behaved, as your
+uncle and I were!’</p>
+
+<p>‘But, mother, you once told us you knocked a
+candlestick off the study mantelpiece,’ Patty reminded
+her.</p>
+
+<p>‘That is true,’ said their mother, who was a very
+fair cat.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>‘You said you climbed up Elvira,’ said Eben;
+‘that is what put the idea into our heads.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I never did it but once or twice, not every day.
+I was a much quieter kitten.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Because you were half-starved,’ said Patty.
+‘Mother, just be a kitten with us. Be young with
+your children.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_147.jpg" alt="Come Patty, come Eben"></div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER XIX<br>
+<small>SALLY IS YOUNG WITH HER CHILDREN</small></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Before</span> Sally had any kittens she used to wonder
+at the shiftless way in which the wild tortoise-shell
+cat who sometimes came about the place dealt with
+her kittens. Sally knew she would not have the
+slightest trouble in making her children mind, if
+she were so fortunate as to have any. But it is one
+thing to make imaginary children mind and quite
+another to deal with real ones.</p>
+
+<p>She would say in her powerful voice, ‘Come,
+Patty, come, Eben, be quiet. Come to me. Let
+Elvira’s sweater alone,’ and the pair would gayly
+prance about the room with the sweater between
+them, Eben firmly grasping a sleeve, and Patty the
+hem.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>‘Children, did you hear what I said?’ she would
+add.</p>
+
+<p>‘Yes, mother,’ said the gay pair, and they went
+on dancing about the room. Then Sally would raise
+her voice again, and finally Elvira would stamp her
+foot and say, ‘Sally, be quiet!’ which was very unfair
+of Elvira, Sally thought, when she was doing
+her best to make the kittens mind.</p>
+
+<p>‘I can’t understand why you are not better behaved,’
+she said to them.</p>
+
+<p>‘Mother, dear, didn’t you want us to have a
+lively, happy kittenhood, different from yours?’
+Patty asked, as she dropped the sweater and put a
+paw around her mother’s neck.</p>
+
+<p>Then Patty leaped upon the table and gave a
+flying jump into the sink, where Elvira had put
+some water in a pan. Eben quickly followed
+her.</p>
+
+<p>‘We are waiting for Miss Winifred to come out,’
+said Patty. ‘We like her lap for naps, it is so woolly
+and she’s so kind.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Kind!’ said Sally. ‘She thought of sending you
+to the Ellen Gifford Home. Perhaps she will yet.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>‘I am sure she hasn’t any idea of it, mother,’ said
+Patty. ‘Once Miss Winifred gets fond of you, she’s
+all right. She’s a dear. Her lap is a lot woollier
+than Elvira’s.’</p>
+
+<p>Presently Miss Winifred came into the kitchen,
+moving slowly in her near-sighted way, so as not to
+step on a kitten. Patty darted past her as if to dare
+her to step on her tail. Miss Winifred seated herself
+in the big rocking-chair, ready to discuss the meals.
+Presently Patty ran up her skirt and settled down
+in her lap. Eben then appeared, getting up very
+slowly with more than one fall, but arriving at last.
+He always liked everything Patty had, so he moved
+her to the other side of Miss Winifred’s lap and
+slipped into her place.</p>
+
+<p>Sally came over and sat on the arm of Miss
+Winifred’s chair, for she still felt a little uneasy
+about the Ellen Gifford Home.</p>
+
+<p>‘These kittens are perfectly fascinating,’ said
+Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>‘Did you hear that, mother?’ said Eben.</p>
+
+<p>‘She knows how to make pretty speeches,’ said
+Sally.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>‘I like pretty speeches,’ said Eben. ‘I wish
+you’d make a few, mother.’</p>
+
+<p>‘If you’ll come into the basket to take your nap,
+I’ll sing the song that your great-great-grandmother
+composed. The Martha Furbush for whom
+you are named, Patty.’</p>
+
+<p>Out of curiosity to hear the song, the kittens
+scrambled down from Miss Winifred’s lap and
+joined their mother in the basket. She gently
+purred:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="indent3">Purr, darlings, purr,</div>
+<div class="verse">While mother is washing your fur.</div>
+<div class="verse">In all the great nation</div>
+<div class="verse">There’s no occupation</div>
+<div class="verse">That’s half so sweet to her.</div>
+<div class="indent3">Purr, darlings, purr.</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Patty grew restless while the song was going on,
+and she skipped out of the clothes-basket.</p>
+
+<p>‘My darling, don’t you think it a sweet song?’</p>
+
+<p>‘I think it is a lot more interesting hearing Elvira
+reading the paper aloud to Miss Winifred, than to
+listen to you singing,’ said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>‘When you have children of your own, Patty, you
+will appreciate how every mother feels.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>‘I just love to hear about the cat that came all
+forlorn and full of burrs to the lady who took him
+in and made a home for him,’ Patty went on. ‘I’d
+love to get out and be stuck full of burrs, mother.’</p>
+
+<p>‘There was a verse in the Cradle Song about
+hissing,’ Sally said.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, try to remember it, mother,’ they begged.</p>
+
+<p>‘I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten it.’</p>
+
+<p>As the kittens grew older, Sally found it harder
+and harder to make them mind. One day she found
+her dear little Patty in a drawer in the kitchen, one
+that she had never got into before. Sally was
+terribly worried for fear some thoughtless person
+would shut the drawer with her child in it. She
+called and called to Patty to come out. She called
+until Elvira stamped her foot and said, ‘Be quiet,
+Sally.’</p>
+
+<p>Then Sally stopped to think things out.</p>
+
+<p>‘I see that the door into the passageway is open,
+Patty,’ she said. ‘Wouldn’t you like to come with
+me into the other part of the house?’</p>
+
+<p>It had worked. Patty sprang out of the drawer
+and gayly followed her mother, for she had longed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>to go into the parlor again ever since the day that
+she and Eben had been taken there to show to
+some admiring ladies who were having afternoon
+tea with Miss Winifred.</p>
+
+<p>Patty and her mother went up a flight of stairs
+to the sewing-room door, which was open. There
+was no door open into the other part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, is that all you’ve got to show me! I’ve seen
+this old room before,’ said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>‘You’ve seen it before? When?’</p>
+
+<p>‘Uncle Peter showed it to us one day when you
+were in the parlor with Miss Harvey.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Uncle Peter! That tramp cat is no relation of
+yours. It is Oxford who is your uncle.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Uncle Peter said he wasn’t any relation,’ said
+Patty, ‘but we asked if we might call him that, for
+we like him a lot better. Uncle Oxford tries to
+make us mind, and it isn’t his business. He isn’t
+our mother.’</p>
+
+<p>‘I don’t want you playing around with Peter.’</p>
+
+<p>‘But, mother, he tells us such lots of exciting
+stories. He’s going to take Eben hunting as soon
+as we are big enough to be let out.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>Patty was halfway down the stairs as she spoke.
+Her mother followed her anxiously. What should
+she do to keep her child out of that drawer. To her
+intense relief, she saw that Elvira had closed it.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very cold day, and Eben was standing
+absorbed in the passageway to the outside door,
+watching Peter, who was fighting another cat.</p>
+
+<p>‘Eben,’ she called in her shrill voice, ‘come in at
+once, you will take cold.’</p>
+
+<p>‘For pity sake, keep quiet, Sally,’ said Elvira,
+stamping her foot. Eben did not move.</p>
+
+<p>Then Patty went and touched her brother with
+her paw and tried to get him in out of the cold. Cat
+fights had no interest for her. He shook her off and
+remained rooted to the spot.</p>
+
+<p>‘Oh, children, children,’ said Sally in despair.
+She went over to Miss Harvey, who had come in
+and was sitting by the table. She had been too
+busy with her kittens to pay any attention to Miss
+Harvey of late. Now she put her paws around her
+neck and her face up to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p>‘Poor, dear Sally,’ said Miss Harvey, ‘it is quite
+a job to be a mother.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>‘What’s the use of trying to make us mind,
+mother? It’s much more fun to do the things yourself.’
+As he spoke, Eben began to chase after his
+sister’s tail, Patty chased after his, and finally
+Sally joined them, and the three had a mad race
+around the kitchen floor.</p>
+
+<p>‘Isn’t it more amusing, mother, than to sing,
+“Purr, darlings, purr?”’ said Eben, as the three
+paused for breath.</p>
+
+<p>‘We made a better song than that the other
+night,’ said Patty.</p>
+
+<p>‘You made a song?’ Sally was delighted. She
+was proud of her kittens.</p>
+
+<p>‘Eben made most of it, but I helped him,’ said
+Patty, and the two kittens said together:</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_154.jpg" alt="Patty, Eben, and Sally chasing each other"></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">‘Skip, mother, skip with us,</div>
+<div class="verse">Don’t hold us back and make a fuss,</div>
+<div class="verse">You look so young you’re surely able</div>
+<div class="verse">To jump with us upon the table,</div>
+<div class="verse">Then give a leap into the sink,</div>
+<div class="verse">Where you will find a cooling drink.</div>
+<div class="verse">Skip, mother, skip with us,</div>
+<div class="verse">Don’t hold us back and make a fuss.’</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>‘And you call that poetry,’ said their mother.
+‘I can do better than that.’</p>
+
+<p>‘Some day I’ll make better poetry than that,’
+said Eben. And a few weeks later, when he was
+three months old, and Sally heard an evening song
+that he had made, she felt that the wish of her
+heart was to be granted at last, and that her little
+son was to be the companion she had longed
+for.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">‘I’m thankful for my happy days,</div>
+<div class="verse">So full of work and pleasant plays,</div>
+<div class="verse">When Patty’s tail and mine we chase,</div>
+<div class="verse">And mother joins us in the race.</div>
+<div class="verse">I’m thankful for my long black fur,</div>
+<div class="verse">And mother says it pleases her.</div>
+<div class="verse">And for my eyes that see so far,</div>
+<div class="verse">And watch the moon and evening star.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>
+<div class="verse">I love both sunshine and the rain</div>
+<div class="verse">That patters on the window-pane.</div>
+<div class="verse">I love the people living here.</div>
+<div class="verse">I think Elvira is a dear.</div>
+<div class="verse">Miss Harvey is just to my mind,</div>
+<div class="verse">And even Miss Winifred is kind.</div>
+<div class="verse">I love the world, I think it’s great,</div>
+<div class="verse">What kitten could want a better fate?</div>
+<div class="verse">I’m glad my months are only three</div>
+<div class="verse">With all of life ahead of me.’</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>‘It might be better,’ said Sally, who did not
+believe in too much praise, ‘but it is a great improvement
+on “Skip, mother, skip with us.”’</p>
+
+<p>Sally wondered if her son would be a famous
+poet, like his great-great-grandfather, William Furbush-Tailby,
+when he was a full-grown cat. She
+often wondered as to what the future of her children
+would be. Patty was so extremely bright and enterprising
+that she felt sure she would be able to look
+out for herself. And then, too, Sally thought her a
+beauty, for she looked exactly as she would have
+liked to look, with her round white face and beautiful
+eyes set far apart, and her tiger blanket and the
+tiger cap that covered the back of her head and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>came down over her forehead and looked as if it
+were parted like hair. But Eben, although slower,
+was a kitten of real distinction. She felt he might
+make his mark in the world. He was so absorbed in
+cat fights, even at his tender age, that he might be a
+great warrior, or he might become like his grandfather,
+a mighty hunter, for he sat for five minutes
+at a time before a mouse-hole.</p>
+
+<p>Sally liked to keep them young as long as possible
+and she was glad that it was to be a late spring, for
+now, at the beginning of March, there was snow
+on the ground, and Elvira said to Miss Harvey,
+‘It will be some time before we can let the kittens
+out-of-doors.’ So at present they were safe from
+the peril of meeting intruding cats or being chased
+by that villain Spot.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Sally raced around the kitchen with
+her children and scampered up and down the
+stairs that led to the sewing-room as if she were
+their age and not a sober cat.</p>
+
+<p>‘I am having my youth now,’ she said to Oxford,
+who was watching the three with his slightly
+superior air, as he looked up from his last mouthful
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>of haddock. He was a little too lazy to join in
+the race, and he preferred to take his exercise out-of-doors.</p>
+
+<p>‘Sally, you have learned to brace up,’ he said.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="verse">  This tale is ended, yet, not so,</div>
+<div class="verse">The kittens’ tails, they grow and grow.</div>
+<div class="verse">A tiger tail that’s tipped with white,</div>
+<div class="verse">A black one, Sally’s chief delight.</div>
+<div class="verse">When the Spring comes, with joyous purr,</div>
+<div class="verse">In coats of black, and tiger fur,</div>
+<div class="verse">They’ll hasten through the open door,</div>
+<div class="verse">The earth’s great wonders to explore.</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="center">THE END</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="transnote">
+<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</p>
+
+<p>Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.</p>
+
+<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p>
+
+<p>Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.</p>
+</div></div>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76985 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+this book outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for book #76985
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76985)