CHAPTER VII.
KITTY'S FOSTER-FATHER.
Tweedles and I were excused from the Gym exercises that afternoon withthe request that we meet Miss Peyton in her office at three o'clock. Wewere there on time, you may be sure, and Dee had the kitty all done upin a shoe box ready for the trip. We had christened him Oliver Twist,because he kept on "hollering for more" all the weary night.
Miss Peyton laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks over thedescription of our trials during the night. When we found out that shedid not think it was so terribly wicked of Dee, we felt we could tellher everything, even the middy ties over the transom and the fleas inDee's bed.
"You poor girls must be nearly dead, aren't you?" she asked kindly.
"Page and I feel right scrooch-eyed, but after the first feeding, Dumslept through it all," laughed Dee. "I have more sympathy than ever forpoor Zebedee. That's what we call our Father, you know, Miss Peyton. Hehad to bring up Dum and me on bottles as our little Mother died when wewere tiny babies. If one kitten could keep two girls awake most of thenight heating milk for it, don't you fancy two twins, like Dum and me,could keep one man awake all the time?"
"Didn't you have a nurse?" I asked.
"Of course we did, all kinds and colors, but Dum and I wouldn't drinkunless Zebedee gave us the bottles. He says he was afraid the nursemight not be sanitary and trusted no one but himself to fix the milk."
"Poor old Zebedee!" sighed Dum, her eyes filling. "I don't see how wecould have been so mean to him."
We had started on our quest for a friend for kitty, Miss Peyton leadingthe way down toward the village. She seemed to be enjoying the littleouting as much as we were.
"Your Father must be very patient," she said, putting her arm in Dum'swhen she saw the hazel eyes filling at the thought of her Father.
"Well, the funny part of it is, he is not one bit patient except withDee and me. Do you know, once he got dreadfully mad with the telephonegirl who kept on cutting him off when he was in the midst of some mostimportant business that could not wait, and every time he would try toget connection again, the operator would say 'Line busy.' Now he knewthe line was not busy and the person on the other end was just asanxious to be got as he was to get him, and, as I was saying, he got somad he pulled the telephone out by the roots."
"Well, that was, to say the least, impulsive," and Miss Peyton laughedlike any schoolgirl.
"You mustn't think Zebedee is bad-tempered," put in Dee. "He's got thesweetest disposition in the world. He's just quick-tempered. He haslearned to control himself wonderfully but you know he is real youngyet."
"Yes, I know," said Miss Peyton solemnly.
"Tell us whom you are going to get to be kitty's foster father, MissPeyton," I said, purposely changing the subject. Not that I did nottake the keenest interest in everything pertaining to Mr. Tucker, but Icould see that the twins were both getting leaky, and it did seem a pityto have a cloud cast over our delightful walk with Miss Peyton.
"Indeed, I will," she said, giving me an approving nod. "It is dear oldCaptain Pat Leahy. I hope you girls will like him as much as I do. He issure to like you. Of course he may not be able to keep the little thingand then I don't know what we will do. Anyhow, let's not borrow trouble.I know the dear man will do it for me if he possibly can. When I firstcame to Gresham as a pupil----"
"Oh, were you a pupil here?" we exclaimed in one breath.
"Yes, indeed, I came here before I went to college. Gresham had not sucha grand building then and accommodated only about fifty girls. It wasmore like a home school. Captain Leahy was then conductor on the localtrain and took an especial interest in the Gresham girls. I shall neverforget how good he was to me on my first trip. I was lonesome andshy----"
"You, shy! Oh, Miss Peyton, were you, really?"
"I should say I was. Why, Annie Pore is brazen beside what I was as achild. Captain Leahy sat by me between stations and with his ready Irishtongue cheered me up immensely. He treated me to peanuts and made melaugh and gave me a new outlook on life. The poor fellow lost a leg in arailroad accident about ten years ago, and ever since then has kept thegate where the track crosses the main street of Gresham."
"Does he like cats?" I asked.
"Oh, yes, he adores them. That is the great bond of sympathy between us.He loves cats and he loves flowers. He also has a great fondness foryoung people. Here we are," and Miss Peyton pointed out the gate-housewhere her old friend lived.
It was just an ordinary little square box of a house painted the pumpkinyellow that railroads are so partial to, but all around it were windowboxes, some of them filled with geraniums, some with Norway spruces andEnglish ivy. A moon flower had completely covered one side of the littlehouse, but the frost had touched the big leaves and they were droppingoff one by one.
A grizzled old man with a long red beard and a peg leg was diggingaround the geraniums as we approached. "Captain, I have brought some ofmy girls to meet you," said Miss Peyton, holding out her hand to the oldman and introducing us.
"And I am that proud to meet all of yez; and so will me cats be. Thepoor critters long for some petticoats to cuddle oop to. A peg leg isbut cold comfort to a pussy when she is hankering for some women folk,"and with a hearty laugh the old fellow stumped to the door of his littlegate-house and called to the cats. Out they came, seven in all and amotley crew. The Captain was very democratic and not particular aboutthe pedigree of his friends.
"All cats are aristocratic if you just give 'em a chance," he woulddeclare when some cat snob would suggest that he go in for pure breeds.
Six of the cats came to him and rubbed their backs against his good leg;but the seventh, a large gray one with a mournful look in her eyes,began to sharpen her claws on a long strip of sand paper he had tackedto his wooden leg. We burst out laughing. It was the most comical thingI had ever seen.
"A little invintion of me own. There are no trees handy for the poorcritters to sharpen their claws on and I find this device saves mefurniture many a scratch." He stooped and laid his hand lovingly on themournful one, but she arched her back and moved over to the protectionof Dee's skirts.
"What, schtill angry wid me, poor Bett? I had to have her kittensdrowned, all but one, and she can't forgive me, not that I blame her.But what am I to do, Miss Peyton? Me house is schmall and Bett is thatprolific she could furnish kittens for all the ould maids in Christendomin little or no toime."
"Well, it is a problem, Captain Leahy, but I am sorry for Bett. Aren'tthere enough old maids in Gresham to help you out some?" Miss Peytonstooped down and picked up the poor bereaved mother who nestledcomfortably in her arms and began to purr loudly.
"The demand doesn't come oop to Bett's supply, niver in the world,"laughed the old man. "But what am I thinking of keeping yez waiting outhere so long? Come in, come in!" I have never heard such a rich,delicious voice as Captain Leahy's; and his brogue was as soft as thepurr of his cats.
"Before we go in, I might as well tell you what has brought us to youespecially, Captain," said Miss Peyton.
"What? You must schnatch me from me Fool's Paradise? I was afterthinking all the time you had come to see the ould man himself," and hiseyes twinkled mischievously.
"So we did, dear Captain. We have come to see you because you are you,and we need your help," answered Miss Peyton with her engaging smilethat somehow made one feel that her way was the best way.
"Well, sitting is as cheap as standing and I want this peg leg to lastas long as I do. It is astonishing how fast they wear out. Come in, comein, and tell me what it is you want me to help yez about," and he ledthe way into his little house.
It did not seem so small when you got in because it was so orderly. Thelower berth from a wrecked Pullman served him as seat by day and bed bynight. The very smallest cooking stove imaginable, almost a doll babysize, polished like the boots of a dandy, was at one side. Over it was ashelf with some blue and white china on it, and under the shelf a fewcooking utensils and a dish pa
n and biscuit board.
"Sit down, sit down, and while the kittle is biling for tay, I canlisten to your trroobles." We seated ourselves on the Pullman seat whilethe dear old man busied himself with the tea kettle. Bett, the bereavedmother, still nestled in Miss Peyton's arms, but after a moment shewriggled out and got into the box behind the stove. "You'd better lookafter your baby, you ould rip. I'm thinking these ladies are that fondof cats that they might be making off wid it."
"That's just it, Captain Leahy, these ladies are fond of cats, one ofthem especially," indicating Dee. "So fond of them that yesterday whenthe whole school was out on the Valley Road taking the dignified walkthat is required, what should Miss Caroline Tucker do but rescue a poorlittle lost kitten, mewing by the roadside, carry it home in her muffwithout teacher or fellow pupil seeing her, and actually take it to bedwith her. But, girls, you tell Captain Leahy about it yourselves," whichwe did at Miss Peyton's command.
He enjoyed the prank as much as Miss Peyton and laughed until the blueand white china danced on the little shelf.
"And now I know very well what ye have come for. Ye want me to take aboarder."
"Oh, will you, please?" implored Dee.
Bett, having nourished her lone offspring, now carried it in her mouthfor Miss Peyton's inspection, and Dee, seeing her, jumped up in greatexcitement, dropping the box she had been holding so carefully andwaking up Oliver Twist in the fall. "Look, look! Bett's kitten looksjust like Oliver! I thought it was him at first." Dee was excited and weall excused her English. Oliver began to cry aloud and Bett tore aroundlike one demented.
"Well, Bett, old girl, your baby has been restored to yez. If this don'tbeat all! On the Valley Road, yesterday, you say? I told that boy to becareful of the hole in the bag, that the runt might fall through it, andso he did. You call him Oliver, you say? Well, that is a handsome namefor such a poor mite, but maybe it will give him some ambition to growoop to it. There's an ould saying: 'If you escape drowning, you'll liveto be hanged.' I hope not, Oliver, I hope not."
Now Bett, having one of her babies back, forgave her master and rubbedherself against his good leg; and then such another washing as she didgive Oliver before she considered him fit to get into the box that shecalled home!
The kettle was boiling and the tea soon steeping in the pretty teapot.The Captain put up a little table exactly like the ones on the trainand we had the merriest kind of a party.
"Your cats are so fat, Captain, what do you feed them on?" asked Dee, inher element with two cats in her lap.
"An ould frind of mine, who is schteward on a diner saves me all theschraps and the cats live high, higher than their master, by a longshot. But do you know the windfall I have had lately, Miss Peyton?"
"No; do tell me. I am so glad of any good fortune that comes to you,Captain."
"Bless your schwate heart for thim words! Well, I have always had a hardtoime about my shoes since I lost me limb. Such an accumulation ofrights as you never saw wid no one wanting of thim and no place to putthim and feeling it was to say the least a sin to be throwing thim away,when no doubt there was somewhere in the worrld a man who had lost hislift leg who would give anything for thim. Well, I came on thisadvertisement in a Washington paper: 'A man who has lost his left legwould like to get into communication with one who has lost his right.11 1/2 E.' I knew soon as I clapped eyes on it that some poor fellow was inexactly me own dilimma. I did get into communication wid him and now Iam no longer trying to find a place for the right shoes I have no usefor and on the other hand I have enough of the lifts to last me alifetime. 11 1/2 E's too, exactly my size."
"Well, that was a windfall surely," said Miss Peyton. ("More like afootfall," muttered Dum.) "But, Captain, I thought you were going to buya fine jointed leg with a foot and then you would need your own rightshoes."
"Oh, I have given oop the notion. You see my cats would miss the pegsomething awful, wid no place to sharpen their little claws; and thin Ihave found a poor widdy woman living down the track a piece and theright leg of me pants do come in so handy for the poor thing to makeschuits for her little byes. It would seem a sin to use that warm clothto cover cork, whin some poor little lamb is shivering in the cold."
"Ah, Captain, always thinking how you can be good to children andcats," said Miss Peyton.
Then with many thanks to the old Irishman for his hospitality and hiskindness and the good time he had given us, we took our departure. Inoticed that Dum, who had been very quiet and whose eyes had been mistyseveral times, especially when the Captain told of the fate of histrouser legs, stepped back into the little house and I heard her whisperto the old man: "Please, Captain, take this half dollar and buy sometoys for the little lambs who wear the pant legs." I happened to know itwas the whole of her week's allowance, too.