Anita. "That is what we keep them for, to hunt the gophersand rabbits and moles. They are clearing them out fast. Jim says byanother spring there won't be a gopher on the place."
THE CHINAMAN, AH FOO, FEEDING THE CATS--Page 70.]
Before she had finished speaking, Rea was downstairs and out on the eastveranda. At the kitchen door stood a Chinaman, throwing bits of meat tothe scrambling seventeen cats,--black, white, tortoise-shell, gray,maltese, yellow, every color, size, shape of cat that was ever seen.And they were plunging and leaping and racing about so, that it lookedlike twice as many cats as there really were, and as if every cat had adozen tails. "Sfz! Sfz! Sputter! Scratch, spp, spt! Growl, growl, miaow,miaow," they went, till, between the noise and the flying around, it wasa bedlam.
Jusy had laughed till the tears ran out of his eyes; and Ah Foo (thatwas the Chinaman's name) was laughing almost as hard, just to see Jusylaugh. The cats were an old story to Ah Foo; he had got over laughing atthem long ago.
Ah Foo was the cook's brother. While Jim had been away, Ah Foo hadwaited at table, and done all the housework except the cooking. Thecook's name was Wang Hi. He was old; but Ah Foo was young, not more thantwenty. He did not like to work in the house, and he was glad Jim hadgot home, so he could go to working out of doors again. He was veryglad, too, to see the children; and he had spoken so pleasantly to Jusy,that in one minute Jusy had lost all his fear of Chinamen.
When Rea saw Ah Foo, she hung back, and was afraid to go nearer.
"Oh, come on! come on!" shouted Jusy. "Don't be afraid! He is just likeJim, only a different color. They have men of all kinds of colors herein America. They are just like other people, all but the color. Comeon, Rea. Don't be silly. You can't half see from there!"
But Rea was afraid. She would not come farther than the last pillar ofthe veranda. "I can see very well here," she said; and there she stoodclinging to the pillar. She was half afraid of the cats, too, besidesbeing very much afraid of the Chinaman.
The cats' breakfast was nearly over. In fact, they had had their usualallowance before Rea came down; but Ah Foo had gone on throwing out meatfor Rea to see the scrambling. Presently he threw the last piece, andset the empty plate up on a shelf by the kitchen door. The cats knewvery well by this sign that breakfast was over; after the plate was seton that shelf, they never had a mouthful more of meat; and it was drollto see the change that came over all of them as soon as they saw thisdone. In less than a second, they changed from fierce, fighting,clawing, scratching, snatching, miaowing, spitting, growling cats, intoquiet, peaceful cats, some sitting down licking their paws, or washingtheir faces, and some lying out full-length on the ground and rolling;some walking off in a leisurely and dignified manner, as if they had hadall they wanted, and wouldn't thank anybody for another bit of meat, ifthey could have it as well as not. This was almost as funny as the firstpart of it.
After Ah Foo had set the plate in its place on the shelf, he turned togo into the kitchen to help about the breakfast; but just as he had puthis hand on the door-handle, there came a terrible shriek from Rea, afierce sputter from one of the cats, and a faint bark of a dog, all atonce; and Ah Foo, looking around, sprang just in time to rescue Fairyfrom the jaws of Skipper, one of the biggest and fiercest of the cats.
Poor little Fairy, missing her mistress, had trotted downstairs; andsmelling on the floor wherever Rea had set her feet, had followed hertracks, and had reached the veranda just in time to be spied by Skipper,who arched his back, set his tail up straight and stiff as a poker, and,making one bound from the ground to the middle of the veranda floor,clutched Fairy with teeth and claws, and would have made an end of herin less than one minute if Ah Foo had not been there. But Ah Foo couldmove almost as quickly as a cat; and it was not a quarter of a secondafter Fairy gave her piteous cry, when she was safe and sound in hermistress's arms, and Ah Foo had Skipper by the scruff of his neck, andwas holding him high up, boxing his ears, right and left, with blows sohard they rang.
"Cat heap wicked," he said. "You killee missy's dog, I killee you!" andhe flung Skipper with all his might and main through the air.
Rea screamed, "Oh, don't!" She did not want to see the cat killed, evenif he had flown at Fairy. "It will kill him," she cried.
Ah Foo laughed. "Heap hard killee cat," he said. "Cat get nine time lifegood;" and as he spoke, Skipper, after whirling through the air inseveral somersaults, came down on his feet all right, and slunk off intothe woodpile.
"I tellee you," said Ah Foo, chuckling.
"Thatee isee heapee goodee manee," cried Jusy. "I havee learnee talkeeoneee language already!"
A roar of laughter came from the dining-room window. There stood UncleGeorge, holding his sides.
"Bravo, Jusy!" he exclaimed. "You have begun on pigeon English, haveyou, for the first of your nine languages?"
"Isn't that Chinese?" said Jusy, much crestfallen.
"Oh, no!" said Uncle George, "not by any manner of means. It is only theChinese way of talking English. It is called pigeon English. But come into breakfast now, and I will tell you all about my cats,--my huntingcats, I call them. They are just as good as a pack of hunting dogs; andbetter, for they do not need anybody to go with them."
How pleasant the breakfast-table looked!--a large square table set withgay china, pretty flowers in the middle, nice broiled chicken and friedpotatoes, and baked apples and cream; and Jusy's and Rea's bright faces,one on Mr. Connor's left hand, the other on his right.
As Jim moved about the table and waited on them, he thought to himself,"Now, if this doesn't make Mr. George well, it will be because he can'tbe cured."
Jim had found the big house so lonely, with nobody in it except Mr.Connor and the two Chinese servants, he would have been glad to seealmost anything in the shape of a human being,--man, woman, orchild,--come there to live. How much more, then, these two beautiful andmerry children!
Jusy and Rea thought they had never in all their lives tasted anythingso good as the broiled chicken and the baked apples.
"Heapee goodee cookee, Uncle George!" said Jusy. He was so tickled withthe Chinaman's way of talking, he wanted to keep doing it.
"Tooee muchee putee onee letter e, Master Jusy," said Uncle George."After you have listened to their talk a little longer, you will seethat they do not add the 'ee' to every word. It is hard to imitate themexactly."
Jusy was crestfallen. He thought he had learned a new language in halfan hour, and he was proud of it. But no new language was ever learnedwithout more trouble and hard work than that; not even pigeon English!
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