CHAPTER VII
BUTTON'S DAY WITH BELLA
Nellie took Button up in her arms and started over to see her bestfriend, Kittie Mead. Kittie owned a beautiful white Angora cat namedBella, who always wore a tiny gold bell tied around her neck with ablue ribbon.
When Nellie was within calling distance of Kittie's house, she beganto call, "Oh, Kittie, bring your doll carriage here quick! Hurry,hurry, for this cat is getting heavy!"
Nellie had carried Button in her arms most of the way, as she wasafraid that he would run away if she trusted him to follow her. NowButton was no lightweight, you must remember, and the farther shecarried him, the heavier he became and the more he slipped through herarms. So when she called to Kittie most of Button's long body wasdangling around her legs, while she still held on to his neck in sucha manner that the poor cat was nearly strangled.
"Oh, Kittie, don't you hear me? Come, come, come! I can't carry thiscat another minute!"
Luckily for Button, Kittie happened to be playing in the front yardwith her doll and had just put Annabella, her favorite doll, to sleepin the doll carriage. So when she heard Nellie calling her, she jerkedthe sleeping Annabella out of the carriage so quickly it nearlydisjointed her and tossed her on the grass while she started on a deadrun down the garden path to meet the calling Nellie.
When Kittie came up, Nellie let go of Button and he dropped to theground and lay like dead for a few minutes. Indeed, the poor cat wasalmost choked to death. Before he could recover and jump up and shakehimself together enough to run away, Nellie had picked him up againand plumped him down in the doll carriage and the two girls began totalk as they wheeled the carriage toward the house. Nellie wasrelating to Kittie all that had happened since she saw her last,including the coming to her house of the goat, dog and cat, whileKittie talked so fast Nellie could not answer one question before shehad asked two or three more. But neither of them noticed as all theywished was to talk, not to listen, anyway.
Button found the soft pillow in the doll carriage very comfortable andthe motion made him sleepy, so he curled himself up a little tighterand went sound asleep. Had he known what they were planning to do, henever would have risked that, but would have jumped out and ran away.For these two little girls were planning to dress him up in dollclothes and play baby with him! Now that was one thing the dignified,independent Button could not stand. He had been used to play babywhen a young cat, and he hated it. He had also made a vow that thevery next person who tried to dress him up in doll clothes or anyother clothes would be scratched for their pains.
All the way up the garden path the two girls discussed how they woulddress him as well as what they would put on Bella. Button had been sosound asleep he had not heard a word. When the children left himasleep in the carriage to go after the clothes, he awoke and lookingaround spied a beautiful big cat with gray eyes looking down at himfrom the limb of a tree directly over his head.
"How do you do, Miss Beauty?" meowed Button when he had both eyes openand his thoughts collected enough to speak.
"I am pretty well. How are you, Mr. Impertinence?" Bella meowed back,for as you have guessed, this beautiful cat was none other thanKittie's pet, the belle of all the cats in that neighborhood, MissBella Angora Mead, to give you her full name.
"Come down and rest on this soft cushion beside me where we can talkwithout my having to crane my neck to look at you," Button invited.
"No, I can't. You better come up here unless you want to be torturedby being buttoned into a pink gingham doll dress and having a bonnettied on your head. I heard the girls talking over what they were goingto do to you and me, so I ran up here where they could not get at me.They will never think to look up here but will hunt all over the barnand wood piles for us, and perhaps even go down cellar, but look up atree they never will."
"If that is what is about to happen, I surely will join you, as Iobject to being dressed up and having my fur turned the wrong way andhaving my ribs crushed by being buttoned into a tight dress."
"Well, if you are coming, hurry along for I hear them in the hall nowand in another minute it will be too late for you to get up in thetree without them seeing you."
Button had barely climbed up in the tree and nicely settled besideBella when the girls came running out of the house with their armsfull of doll clothes. They went straight to the doll carriage,expecting of course to find Button asleep there.
"Oh!" exclaimed Nellie when she reached the carriage and found noButton. "He has run away!"
"He can't have gone far," replied Kittie. "Let's look for him. Perhapshe saw Bella and is getting acquainted with her. I'll call her andsee."
So the two little girls began to call, "Bella, Bella! Sweetheart,where are you? Come here! Bella, Bella! Kittie, kittie, kittie!" asthey walked around the yard and then behind the house looking underevery bush and shrub. And all this time the two cats sat and grinnedat them and enjoyed their discomfort very much.
After looking for the cats everywhere, the girls came back to theefront of the house and sat down by the empty doll carriage, scoldingand telling each other what they would do when they laid hands onthose two cats again. Presently one of the little girls threw herselfback on the grass, her head on her hands, too angry to talk more. Loand behold! What did she see but those two cats she had been talkingabout sitting quietly side by side on a limb over her head lookingdown on her. Yes, and from the expression on their faces she knew theywere laughing at her!
"Nellie, Nellie, look up in the tree over your head and see what youwill see!"
"Oh, you naughty, miserable cats! Come right straight down out ofthat tree this minute!"
"Oh, yes, we will be right down when we get good and ready," meowedButton.
"We are very comfortable up here, so you two better play with yourdolls as we intend to spend the rest of the day up here," meowedBella.
"You miserable cats, you! If I had hold of you, I'd pull your tails,so I would!" called Nellie.
"Better wait until you _do_ get hold of us before you tell what youwill do to us," meowed back Button.
"Let us throw green apples up at them and make them come down,"suggested Kittie.
"All right. Let's do!"
"They make me laugh," said Button. "Neither one of them could hit theside of a barn even if they aimed at it. To try to hit us up here isperfectly ridiculous."
"I bet they hit themselves," meowed Bella. "Here they come with theiraprons full of apples."
The girls began to throw the apples up in the tree but they could noteven throw high enough to hit the limb on which the cats sat. Andpresently an apple came down and hit Kittie on the head.
"There! Didn't I tell you they would hit themselves?" said Bella.
Just then Nellie let out a cry and the cats laughed so they nearlyfell off the limb for Kittie in her endeavor to throw high enough hadwhirled half way around and as she turned the apple flew out of herhand before she was ready and it hit Nellie squarely in the back.
"Let's not try to hit them any more," proposed Nellie wisely.
"I know what we can do. We'll go to the orchard and get the longladder they are using to pick the cherries, and we'll put it upagainst the tree and then climb up after them."
"All right. Let's do!" again agreed Nellie.
Away ran the girls to the orchard and in about ten minutes the catssaw them tugging away at a long ladder. At last they reached the treeand after many mishaps succeeded in standing it up against the trunk.But what was their disappointment to find that it only reached halfway up the tall tree and came nowhere near the limb on which the catssat.
"I have it!" cried Nellie. "Let's get the hose and turn it on them.That will bring them down in a jiffy!"
Off ran the girls once again, the hose was brought and adjusted andthe water turned on. But another disappointment awaited them. Theforce was not sufficient to throw the water far enough to reach thecats.
"Drat those cats!" exclaimed Kittie. "I am getting so mad I just mustlay
hands on them or explode!"
"I guess you will have to blow up then, or fly up to reach them," saidNellie. "The saucy things! Just see how they sit there and purr withcontentment! Yes, I know they are laughing at us all the time!"
"I have it!" called out Kittie. "Give me the hose. I'll carry it upthe ladder as far as it will reach and then I know it will be longenough for the stream to hit them. Then, my dear cats, we will see wholaughs last! Nellie, turn the water off until I climb up and when Igive the word turn it on again."
Up the ladder climbed Kittie, and sure enough when Nellie turned thewater on it sent a shower that hit Button and nearly knocked him offthe limb, while it also drenched Bella to the skin. She ran along thelimb and tried to climb higher, but when Kittie saw what she was goingto do, she turned the stream full on her and made her climb down thetree instead of going up. Then she soused Button from the tip of hisnose to the end of his tail, and chased him down the same way. Butwhen he got halfway down, he jumped and ran for home while Bella rantoward the barn and hid under it. Thus ended Button's adventure, as herelated it to Stubby and Billy.