<h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER IV<br/> <span class='large'>I VISIT MY FAMILY</span></h2></div>
<p class='c010'>To-day I had quite an experience.</p>
<p class='c000'>I have been in the Denvilles' family just
three days, and the more I see of my young
mistress the more I like her.</p>
<p class='c000'>Actually, I have not done one bad thing
since I came. My little mistress keeps me
with her all the time. Her company is a
great satisfaction to me, and a great safeguard.
If some bad animals were allowed to
be more in the society of the human beings
they love, they also would improve.</p>
<p class='c000'>Well, I have been closely watched to see
that I did not run away. I have been even
taken in the carriage to drive. Little Mary
got an old muff of her mother—a huge, soft
thing, and when we go out, she puts me in
it. Oh! what fun I have sitting on the seat
beside Mary, and staring at all the queer
things in the streets. So many of them I
<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>have never seen before, and Mary explains
them to me as politely as if I were a human
being. Her nurse went with us one day, and
her mamma went the other days.</p>
<p class='c000'>On account of little Mary's delicate health
she is always kept out-of-doors in the morning,
while the sun is nice and warm, and she
does lessons in the afternoon.</p>
<p class='c000'>This morning when we started to drive
she said, “Black-Face, suppose we go and
call on your relatives?”</p>
<p class='c000'>Now, I thought this was a perfectly sweet
thing for her to say, so I mewed my approval,
and Mary spoke to her nurse, and the nurse
told the coachman to drive us to Mrs. Darley's.</p>
<p class='c000'>Oh! how my heart beat when I saw that
big green hall door. Just as soon as Gerty,
the house-maid, opened it, I sprang out of
the carriage and was into the house like a
flash. Up the steps, and into the sitting-room
I went. There they were, all on the
window-seat—all the dear cats basking in
the warm spring sunlight. I jumped in the
midst of them. Didn't I give them a fright!</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>My dear mother uttered a little cry, my
father drew himself up severely, and Serena
forgot her fine manners for once, and gave
me a smart cuff.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Isn't that like Black-Face?” mewed
Jimmy Dory; “but I'll make her say, 'I beg
pardon,'” and he took me round the neck
by his two paws till I squealed.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Well, my dear kitten,” said my father,
when we had all got ourselves straightened
out, “how are you, and how are you getting
on?”</p>
<p class='c000'>This was a very proud moment for me. Of
course I had been dreadfully homesick away
from them all, but still it was worth going
through everything to come back and be
treated with so much consideration. They
were all actually sitting around, waiting for
me to speak. Now that had never happened
to me before in my short life, and I licked
my lips, and tried to speak slowly so as to
make the pleasure last.</p>
<p class='c000'>“To begin with,” I drawled, “I have
nearly died of loneliness away from you all.”</p>
<div id='p39' class='figcenter id004'>
<ANTIMG src='images/p038.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
<div class='ic004'>
<p>“MY MOTHER BEGAN TO POLISH OFF MY HEAD.”</p>
</div>
</div>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>“Oh, quit that,” said Jimmy Dory. “Tell
us about your adventures. We saw the boy
grab you, now go on. Mrs. Darley didn't tell
half enough when she came from the cats'
home.”</p>
<p class='c000'>I began from the beginning. I told them
about the bad boys and the good old man,
and the good young one, and the cats' home,
and dear little Mary Denville. Then I said
anxiously, “Have you missed me?”</p>
<p class='c000'>No one said a word, but my mother began
to polish off my head, just as she had done
every day since I was a tiny kitten. Indeed,
the first thing I remember was my mother
licking the top of my head. Just now, she
polished off one ear, she polished off the
other, she made me lower my head so she
could get at the back of my neck, and as she
licked, I was comforted. My dear mother
had missed me, if the others hadn't.</p>
<p class='c000'>My father was clearing his throat. “Well,
you see,” he said with a proud, approving
glance at me, “cats are attached to their
offspring, but they are well pleased to see
them settled in life—comfortably settled, I
mean. Now I should say that, your first
<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>catastrophe over, you had fallen on your feet.
The Denvilles' establishment is a very fine
one.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Are you happy there?” purred my
mother in my ear.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Now I am,” I mewed softly. “At first
I was dreadfully miserable——” Then I
raised my voice. “I am not complaining,”
I said, addressing my father. “That would
be ungrateful. Why, I am first in the affections
of my little mistress. I believe
she likes me better than she does her parents.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Hem! hem!” growled my father doubtfully,
while Serena and Jimmy Dory burst
out laughing.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Well, anyway,” I said in some confusion,
“she just surrounds me with comfort from
morning till night. She never leaves me. I
go everywhere with her, and there is not another
cat about the place.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Then there must be dogs,” cried Jimmy
Dory promptly, “and we all love dogs—oh!
yes!”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Yes, there are dogs,” I returned snappishly,
<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>“but they were kept away from me
at first so they wouldn't frighten me.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“How many of the detestable creatures
have you?” inquired Serena grandly, and
she threw up her head, and looked at me as
if she had glasses on. It is her usual trick.
She thinks it is smart to pretend that she has
a pair of spectacles over the bridge of her
nose. She knows it makes me feel small and
kittenish, and as if I don't know anything.</p>
<p class='c000'>“There are two,” I said, “and I have got
used to them already. They are the two best
dogs that were ever made.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“You speak in superlatives, my dear
child,” purred Serena elegantly. “What
breed are the creatures?”</p>
<p class='c000'>“One is a tiny spaniel,” I replied crossly,
“and one is a St. Bernard.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“The two breeds I most dislike,” murmured
Serena. “How tiresome, I shall not
be able to go to see you.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Don't mind her,” purred my mother in
my ear. “She and Jimmy have been contrary
and nervous since you left. They miss
<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>you very much, and so does your dear
father.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“By the way,” I said, “what became of
the cat Mrs. Darley brought home to take my
place? 'Jane' she called her.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Oh! that vulgar creature,” exclaimed
Serena elevating her nose. “We soon
chased her down-stairs. She undertook to
fight, but I settled her.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“She is happier in the kitchen,” murmured
my mother. “She is a peculiar
cat.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“What do you get to eat at your house?”
inquired Jimmy Dory suddenly, and smacking
his lips as he spoke.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Oh, delicious things,” I replied; “cream,
and nice little bits of fish, and cheese, and
meat just as tender as possible, and French
bread and—I forget the other things.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“If that is all you have not quite as much
of a variety as you had here,” remarked
Serena loftily.</p>
<p class='c000'>The tears came in my eyes. If I had not
been such a bad little kitten perhaps Serena
would have thought more of me.</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>“Go kiss her,” whispered my mother in
her sweet, rough voice.</p>
<p class='c000'>That voice always overcomes me. It is
hoarse, because she has always a sore throat,
caught from being out-of-doors so much in
the cold.</p>
<p class='c000'>I stepped firmly across Jimmy Dory to the
place where Serena lay lashing her tail in the
sunshine. Then I bent over her, and licked
one of her pretty paws.</p>
<p class='c000'>That pleased her. Serena would like to
be a queen of cats. She didn't say a word.
She didn't speak of forgiving me for going
away, or coming to see me, but she lay and
looked at the spot I had licked. That meant
that she did really forgive me. Serena knew
I loved her, but she always said I made her
nervous.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Come, have a wrestle,” exclaimed
Jimmy Dory, and he bit my tail to make me
spring after him. We were having a glorious
rough and tumble game, when Mrs. Darley
and Mary came into the room. My first impulse
was to run to Mary, and I did.</p>
<p class='c000'>She was in an ecstasy. “Why, she likes
<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>me, the dear little creature!” she said catching
me up. “She wants to go home with
me. I was afraid that she would want to
stay with her parents.”</p>
<p class='c000'>I looked back at them. I wanted to stay,
and yet I didn't. I had got out into the
world, and it was interesting.</p>
<p class='c000'>My mother and father and Jimmy Dory
gazed curiously at little Mary, but they did
not get up to speak to her. They cared
nothing for her. Mrs. Darley was their mistress,
and their eyes rested lovingly on her—but
Serena went up and smelt the rich fur
on her coat.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Cats are very comfortable creatures,”
said my little mistress, fondling me. “They
don't worry us, and they creep up to us when
we are in trouble.”</p>
<p class='c000'>My dear little mistress—how could I run
away from her—and to-day, as she was
about to leave Mrs. Darley's, I nestled very
closely in her arms.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Good-bye, pussies,” she said politely to
the window-seat—“Good-bye, Mrs. Darley—and
now, Black-Face, we must get out
<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>in the sunshine, or nurse will be impatient.”</p>
<p class='c000'>I mewed apologetically to my family. My
mother's eyes rested on me, followed me
down-stairs, were fixed on me through the
window as I was taken into the carriage.
They are very speaking eyes. She didn't
want me to leave her. She was telling me to
take care of myself, to be cautious with the
dogs, to come soon again to see her. Oh, I
read a great deal in those eyes!</p>
<p class='c000'>Mother cats must suffer a good deal.</p>
<p class='c000'>After we left Mrs. Darley's this morning,
Mary and I had a lovely drive. Then we
came home for lunch, and had lessons in the
afternoon.</p>
<p class='c000'>Mary was considerably worried about the
cat on the Common. This afternoon there
was a sharp wind, and when Mary saw her
come out toward dusk, and go skulking from
tree to tree as her habit is, she got one of the
maids to go out with some food in a basket.</p>
<p class='c000'>The poor cat ran like the wind, and Mary's
face fell. No one can catch her. There
would be no use in sending the good agent
<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>after her who caught me, for we would not
know where to tell him to go.</p>
<p class='c000'>I made up my mind what I would do when
I saw how my little mistress was grieved. I
would get that cat for her. So this evening
after dinner, when Mary went into the library
to have a little chat with her papa, I
slipped out in the hall. If I could get out
through that big hall door I would be able to
run out on the Common. I hid behind a curtain
and waited. Soon a ring came at the
door bell.</p>
<p class='c000'>The young man-servant, Anthony, came
sauntering through the hall. He opened the
door, took a note from a boy, and while he
was looking at the address, and the boy was
looking at him, I crept by them both.</p>
<p class='c000'>Neither saw me, and I sprang down the
steps, across the pavement, into the street,
over the other sidewalk, and down more steps
to the Common. Oh, how dark and cold it
was in spite of the bright lights sparkling
everywhere! How different from the Denvilles'
warm house. Was I frightened? No,
I was not. Something rose in me—something
<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>that was all joy. I loved the darkness,
because it was like a big, safe covering over
me. Boys could not see me now, nor dogs,
and I could see them. I was not a bit afraid,
but I was cold, and I would like to finish my
work, and get into the house again.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Meow! meow!” I said tentatively, and
I walked toward the pond. The strange
pussy was not there. “Meow!” I said
again, and I went toward a big elm that was
a favorite hiding-place of hers.</p>
<p class='c000'>She did not answer me, and I had to conceal
myself for a minute, until two young
men passed.</p>
<p class='c000'>For a long time I went from tree to tree,
but there was not a sound. Then I gave up
calling and, crouching on all fours behind a
seat, I began to talk cat talk to myself. “I
wish I could find that poor creature. I would
like to do something for her. If she knew
what a good home I could lead her to, she
would come to me. Oh! meow! meow! I am
so sorry for her.”</p>
<p class='c000'>I paused for an instant to listen to a distant
fire-alarm, then I got up and began to
<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>stretch myself. I might as well go home.
Just then, I thought I heard a faint sound.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Meow!” I said encouragingly.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Meow!” said a very small voice, a very
small, thin voice.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Meow!” I said more loudly. “Don't
be afraid. I am only a kitten. Meow!
meow!”</p>
<p class='c000'>She would not come to me, and I began to
investigate. There she was under the
shadow of the bank, a crouching, gray creature,
too terrified to move, and yet all ready
to spring away.</p>
<p class='c000'>“I'm only a kitten,” I said again—“a
this spring's kitten. Don't be so frightened.
Have boys chased you?”</p>
<p class='c000'>“The hull world chases me,” she said in
a faint voice.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Well, I won't chase you. Can't you
come nearer?”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Nop.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Are you hungry?” I asked, keeping my
distance.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Not very. I had a sparrow yesterday.
It was dumpish, and fell out of a tree.”</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>“My little mistress has been watching you
from her window,” I said. “She sent
some food out to you to-day, but you ran
away.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“I was scared,” said the cat shiveringly.
“I thought the woman wanted to put me in
that basket.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Suppose she had. She would have carried
you to a good home.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“A man put me in a basket onct, and took
me home. Then he tried to murder me, but
I hopped out the window,” she said in a
dreadful voice.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Well, no one in our house would try to
kill you. I would like to do something for
you. Will you follow me home?”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Oh, no! no!” she said gaspingly. “I
ain't got no acquaintance with you.”</p>
<p class='c000'>I was silent for a few seconds, planning
what to do for her. I could not see her very
plainly, for she kept herself well in the background,
but I could see enough to make me
half sick with pity. She was skin and bone,
and her eyes were the most terrified things
I had ever seen.</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>“Will you wait here a few minutes?” I
said at last. “I know where I can get you a
nice chicken bone. I'll run and find it, and
come to you as quickly as I can.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“I never had no chicken bones,” she said
faintly.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Don't move then, and I'll get you one,”
I returned, and I sped away.</p>
<p class='c000'>Thinking it over, I wonder now I had
patience—I, who am supposed to be so impatient—to
go back to the house, to wait till
the door was opened, and then to sneak in,
find the bone that I had secreted in a corner
of Mary's room, seize it in my mouth, skulk
down-stairs, wait for another ring at the bell,
and dash out again.</p>
<p class='c000'>Well, I did it, and I laid the bone down
near the cat. Then I went off a little way,
and one of the most beautiful sounds I have
heard so far in my short life was her hungry
teeth crunching that bone. There was a good
deal of meat on it, and of course she ate that
first, but the bone went too. She put her
head first on one side then on the other, till
she cracked it all to pieces.</p>
<div id='p50' class='figcenter id005'>
<ANTIMG src='images/p050.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
<div class='ic004'>
<p>“SHE PUT HER HEAD FIRST ON ONE SIDE THEN ON THE OTHER, TILL SHE CRACKED IT ALL TO PIECES.”</p>
</div>
</div>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>“Did that taste nice?” I asked, when she
had finished.</p>
<p class='c000'>She gratefully licked her lips. “It's the
first square meal I ever had.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Do you call that square?” I asked in dismay.
“Why, it's only a first course. But
I can't bring you any more to-night. Will
you wait here to-morrow night for me?”</p>
<p class='c000'>“I don' know,” she said timidly.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Please come,” I said. “I'll bring you a
nice piece of meat, maybe beefsteak.”</p>
<p class='c000'>Her mouth watered, and I saw I had conquered
her.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Will you come alone?” she asked.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Yes, stark alone. Now, good night. My
young mistress will be anxious, if she misses
me.”</p>
<p class='c000'>She didn't say good night. She hadn't any
manners, but what could one expect from
such a poor creature—and she didn't talk
nicely. She is a common, low-down thing, but
is that any reason why she should be left to
starve? She is just as good as I am in one
way, and thinking over the matter, as I sit
dozing here in my big chair, I am glad that
<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>I went to see her. I will be sure to go again
to-morrow.</p>
<p class='c000'>Little Mary is coming up-stairs. I just
got home in time. Poor Common cat. I
wonder how you will sleep?</p>
<div class='chapter'>
<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />