CHAPTER IX
THE VANISHING KITTENS
"What you'll do with those little tykes, I don't see," said Mrs.Adams, who was not much of a comforter, although kind-hearted. "You'dbetter take them back to Mr. Stetson, Aggie."
"No-o. I don't think he'd like that," said Agnes. "He told Myra to getrid of them and I promised to take them away and keep them."
"But that old cat's gone back," decided the lady.
"I s'pect you'll have to go after her again, Aggie," said Tess.
"But I won't carry her--loose--in my arms," declared the bigger girl,with emphasis. "See what she did to me," and she displayed the long,inflamed scratch again.
"Put her in a bag, child," advised Mrs. Adams. "You little ones comearound here to the back stoop and we'll try to make the kittens drinkwarm milk. They're kind of small, but maybe they're hungry enough toput their tongues into the dish."
She bustled away with Tess and Dot and the basket of kittens, whileAgnes started back along the street toward the grocery store. She hadrather lost interest in Sandy-face and her family.
At once Tess and Dot were strongly taken with the possibility ofteaching the kittens to drink. Mrs. Adams warmed the milk, poured itinto a saucer, and set it down on the top step. Each girl grabbed akitten and the good lady took the other two.
They thrust the noses of the kittens toward the milk, and immediatelythe little things backed away, and made great objections to theirintroduction to this new method of feeding.
The little black one, with the white nose and the spot of white overone eye, got some milk on its whiskers, and immediately sneezed.
"My goodness me!" exclaimed Dot, worriedly, "I believe this kitten'scatching cold. Suppose it has a real _hard_ cold before its mothercomes back? What shall we do about it?"
This set Mrs. Adams to laughing so hard that she could scarcely holdher kittens. But she dipped their noses right into the milk, and afterthey had coughed and sputtered a little, they began to lick theirchops and found the warm milk much to their taste.
Only, they did not seem to know how to get at it. They nosed aroundthe edge of the saucer in the most ridiculous way, getting just a weemite. They found it very good, no doubt, but were unable to discoverjust where the milk was.
"Did you ever see such particular things?" asked the impatient Mrs.Adams. She suddenly pushed the black and white kitten (the girls hadalready called it "Spotty") right up against the dish. Now, nocat--not even a very tiny cat like this one--cares to be pushed, andto save itself from such indignity, Spotty put out one pawand--splash!--it went right into the dish.
Oh! how he shook the wet paw and backed away. Cats do not like to gettheir feet wet. Spotty began licking the wet paw to dry it and rightthen and there he discovered something!
The milk on it tasted very good. He sat up in the funniest way andlicked it all off, and Dot danced around, delighted to see him.
A little of the milk had been spilled on the step, and one of thespeckled kittens found this, and began to lap it up with a tiny pinktongue. With a little urging the other two kittens managed to get somemilk, too, but Spotty was the brightest--at least, the girls thoughtso.
After he had licked his paw dry, he ventured over to the saucer again,smelled around the edge, and then deliberately dipped in his paw andproceeded to lap it dry once more.
"Isn't he the cunningest little thing that ever was?" demanded Tess,clapping her hands. Dot was so greatly moved that she had to sit downand just watch the black and white kitten. She could not speak forhappiness, at first, but when she _did_ speak, she said:
"Isn't it nice that there's such things as kittens in the world? Idon't s'pose they are useful at all till they're _cats_, but they areawfully pretty!"
"Isn't she the little, old-fashioned thing?" murmured Mrs. Adams.
Tess and Dot were very much at home and the kittens were curled up inthe basket again in apparent contentment, when Agnes returned.
She had Sandy-face in a sack, and it was just about all Agnes could doto carry the cat without getting scratched again. For Sandy's clawscame through the flimsy bag, and she knew not friend from foe in herpresent predicament.
"I declare! I had no idea cats had so little sense," Agnes sighed,sitting down, quite heated. "Wouldn't you think she'd be _glad_ to betaken to a good home--and with her kittens, too?"
"Maybe _we_ wouldn't have any more sense if we were being carried in asack," said Tess, thoughtfully.
"Well!" exclaimed Aggie. "She knew enough to go back to Mr. Stetson'sstore, that's sure. He had to catch her for me, for Myra was out. Hesays we'll have to watch her for a few days, but I don't believe she'dhave left her kittens if that bad Sam Pinkney hadn't come along withhis dog--do you, Mrs. Adams?"
"No, deary. I think she'll stay with the kittens all right," said theold lady, comfortingly.
"Well, let's go on home, girls," said Agnes, rising from the step."We've bothered Mrs. Adams long enough."
"We've had an awfully nice time here," said Tess, smiling at the oldlady, and not forgetful of her manners.
"I'm glad you came, dearies. Come again. I'm going to have a littleparty here for you Corner House girls, some day, if you'll come toit."
"Oh, I just _love_ parties," declared Dot, her eyes shining. "If Ruthwill let us we'll come--won't we, Tess?"
"Certainly," agreed Tess.
"Of course we'll come, Mrs. Adams," cried Agnes, as she led the waywith the me-owing cat in the sack, while the two smaller girls carriedthe sleeping kittens with care.
They reached home without any further adventure. Ruth came runningfrom Aunt Sarah's room to see the kittens. When they let Sandy-faceout of the bag in the dining-room, she scurried under the sofa andrefused to be coaxed forth.
The children insisted upon taking the kittens up to show Aunt Sarah,and it was determined to keep the old cat in the dining-room tillevening, at any rate; so the basket was set down by the sofa. Eachgirl finally bore a kitten up to Aunt Sarah's room.
Agnes had chosen Spotty for her very own--and the others said sheought to have her choice, seeing that she had been through so muchtrouble to get the old mother cat and her family--and received ascratch on her arm, too!
They remained long enough in Auntie's room to choose names for all theother three kittens. Ruth's was named Popocatepetl--of course, "Petl,"for short (pronounced like "petal") is pretty for a kitten--"remindsone of a flower, I guess," said Tess.
Tess herself chose for her particular pet the good old fashioned nameof "Almira." "You see," she said, "it's sort of in memory of MissAlmira Briggs who was my teacher back in Bloomingsburg, and MyraStetson, who gave us the cats."
Dot wavered a long time between "Fairy" and "Elf" as a name for thefourth kitten, and finally she decided on "Bungle"! That was becausethe little, staggery thing, when put down on the floor, tried to chaseAunt Sarah's ball of yarn and bungled the matter in a most ridiculousfashion.
So, Spotty, Petl, Almira and Bungle, the kittens became. Aunt Sarahhad a soft spot in her heart for cats--what maiden lady has not? Sheapproved of them, and the children told her their whole adventure withSandy-face and her family.
"Butter her feet," was the old lady's single audible comment upontheir story, but the girls did not know what for, nor just what AuntSarah meant. They seldom ventured to ask her to explain her crypticsayings, so they carried the kittens downstairs with puzzled minds.
"What do you s'pose she meant, Ruth?" demanded Agnes. "'Butter herfeet,' indeed. Why, the old cat would get grease all over everything."
So they merely put the kittens back into the basket, and left thedining-room to Sandy-face and her family, until it was time for UncleRufus to set the table for evening dinner.
"Das old cat sho' done feel ter home now," said the black man,chuckling. "She done got inter dat basket wid dem kittens an' dey ishavin' a reg'lar love feast wid each odder, dey is so glad ter beunited once mo'. Mebbe dat ol' speckled cat kin clean out de mice."
Of course, Uncle
Rufus was not really a "black" man, save that he wasof pure African blood. He was a brown man--a rich, chocolate color.But his daughter, Petunia Blossom, when she came to get thewash-clothes, certainly proved to be as black--and almost as shiny--asthe kitchen range!
"How come she is so dreful _brack_, I sho' dunno," groaned UncleRufus. "Her mudder was a well-favored brown lady--not a mite darkerdan me--an' as I 'member my pappy an' mammy, 'way back dere befo' dewah, wasn't none o' dese common _brack_ negras--no, Ma'am!
"But Pechunia, she done harked back to some ol' antsister" (he meant"ancestor") "wot must ha' been marked mighty permiscuous wid detarbrush. Does jes' look lak' yo' could rub de soot off Pechunia widyo' finger!"
Petunia was enormously fat, too, but she was a pretty colored woman,without Uncle Rufus' broad, flat features. And she had a great numberof bright and cunning pickaninnies.
"How many I got in to-tal, Missie?" she repeated Ruth's question."Lor' bress yo'! Sometimes I scurce remember dem all. Dere's twomerried an' moved out o' town. Den dere's two mo' wokin'; das four,ain't it? Den de good Lor' sen' me twins twicet--das mak' eight, ef my'rithmetickle am cor-rect. An' dere's Alfredia, an' Jackson, andBurne-Jones Whis'ler Blossom (he done been named by Mis' Holcomb, deartis' lady, wot I wok fo') an' de baby, an' Louisa Annette, an'an'---- Bress de Lor', Missie, I 'spect das 'bout all."
Ruth had lost count and could only laugh over the names foistered uponthe helpless brown babies. Uncle Rufus "snorted" over the catalog ofhis daughter's progeny.
"Huh! dem names don't mean nuthin', an' so I tell her," he grunted."But yo' cyan't put sense in de head ob a flighty negra-woman--no,Ma'am! She called dem by sech _circusy_ names 'cause dey _sounds_pretty. Sound an' no sense! Huh!"
Just now, however, the Corner House girls were more deeply interestedin the names of the four kittens, and in keeping them straight (forthree were marked almost exactly alike), than they were in the nameswhich had been forced upon the helpless family of Petunia Blossom.
Having already had one lesson in lapping milk from a saucer, thekittens were made to go through the training again after dinner, underthe ministrations of Tess and Dot.
Sandy-face, who seemed to have become fairly contented by this time,sat by and watched her offspring coughing and sputtering over the warmmilk and finally, deciding that they had had enough, came and drank itall up herself.
Dot was rather inclined to think that this was "piggish" on Sandy'spart.
"I don't think you're a bit polite, Sandy," she said, gravely, to themother cat while the latter calmly washed her face. "You had yourdinner, you know, before Mrs. McCall brought in the milk."
They all trooped out to see Uncle Rufus establish Sandy and her familyfor the night in the woodshed. The cat seemed to fancy the nest in theold basket, so they did not change it, and when they left the family,shutting the woodshed door tightly, they supposed Sandy and herchildren would be safe for the night.
In the morning, however, a surprise awaited Tess and Dot, when theyran out to the shed to see how the kittens were. Sandy-face wassleeping soundly in the basket and Spotty and Petl were crawling allover her. Almira and Bungle had disappeared!
The two smallest girls searched all about the shed, and then a wailarose from Dot, when she was assured that her own, and Tess' kitten,were really not to be found. Dot's voice brought the whole family,including Uncle Rufus, to the shed door.
"Al-mi-ra and Bungle's lost-ed!" sobbed Dot. "Somebody came and tookthem, while poor Sandy was asleep. See!"
It was true. Not a trace of the missing kittens could be found. Theshed door had not been opened by any of the family before Tess and Dotarrived. There was only a small window, high up in the end wall of theshed, open a very little way for ventilation.
How could the kittens have gotten away without human help? It did lookas though Almira and Bungle had been stolen. At least, they hadvanished, and even Dot did not believe that there were kitten fairieswho could bewitch Sandy's children and spirit them away!
Sandy-face herself seemed the least disturbed of anybody over the lostkittens. Uncle Rufus declared that "das cat sho' nuff cyan't count.She done t'ink she's sho' got all de kittens she ever had."
"I do believe it was that Sam Pinkney boy," whispered Tess, to Agnes."He's just as bad as Tommy Rooney was--every bit!"
"But how would he know where we had housed the kittens for the night?"demanded Agnes. "I don't see why anybody should want to take twolittle, teeny kittens from their mother."
Tess and Dot watched closely the remainder of Sandy's family. Theybelieved that the mother cat _did_ discover at last that she was"short" two kittens, for she did not seem satisfied with her home inthe woodshed. Twice they caught her with a kitten in her mouth,outside the woodshed door, which had been left open.
"Now, Sandy," said Dot, seriously, "you mustn't try to move Spotty andPetl. First thing you know you'll lose them _all_; then you won't haveany kittens. And I don't believe they like being carried by the backsof their necks--I don't. For they just _squall_!"
Sandy seemed offended by the girls' interference, and she went off byherself and remained out of sight for half a day. Tess and Dot beganto be worried about the mother cat before Sandy turned up again andsnuggled the two remaining kittens in the basket, once more.
That second evening they shut the cat and her two kittens into theshed just as carefully as before. In the morning only Spotty was left!The speckled little Popocatepetl had vanished, too!