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Dixie Kitten

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<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/dkchap02.jpg" width-obs="570" height-obs="226" alt="Dixie is carried by her mother" /></div> <h2 class="nobreak">Leaving Home</h2></div> This is the way it came about that Dixie kitten and her mother left the home nest. At night, when Master came home, he stepped down from the carriage much more slowly than usual, for he was holding a big basket carefully in his hand. He did not go into the house at once, but climbed up the stairs and stood at the top a moment looking around. He had set the basket on the floor, and now he called, “Kitty, Kitty!” Mothercat listened a moment, then peered out of the nest, her eyes as big as saucers. Dixie kitten crept out between her mother’s forepaws, for she, too, had heard a gentle “Mew!” coming from the basket, and even a kitten could guess what was within it. She was so eager [Pg 8] that she could hardly wait to see it opened; but Mothercat crouched low and lashed her tail angrily back and forth. Then Master took off the cover of the basket, and what should be in it but four little kittens! Dixie kitten was delighted. She climbed over Mothercat and started to run out to see them; but once more Mothercat boxed her ears with her big soft paw, and Dixie had to go to the back of the nest in the hay. “Kitty, Kitty!” called Master, “come and see the new kittens”; but Mothercat did not stir from her place, and she swished her tail more angrily than ever. Master gave the new kittens a dish of milk, and then he went away. The kittens drank the milk, then they began to run about the room. They climbed the heaps of hay and straw and they smelled of the bags of grain. They ran over the carriage and the sleigh and the wheelbarrow. They touched the teeth [Pg 9] of the rake curiously with their small pink noses. Once they went near the little nest where Mothercat crouched, watching everything that they did. “Gr-r-r-r!” growled Mothercat; and they ran away from her corner as fast as ever they could. It began to be twilight. They were lonely and somewhat frightened, and pretty soon they curled up together in a soft little heap and went to sleep. Dixie kitten went to sleep, too, but Mothercat sat a long time thinking. Master meant those new kittens to stay there, that was plain. It was her house, the place that she had picked out so carefully as a home for her kitten, and he had put those strangers into it! She had never thought of Master’s doing such a thing as that; but there they were, and what should she do? There was one thing sure, she would not live in the same house with them, and her kitten should have nothing [Pg 10] to do with them. She waited until it was dark and everything was quiet downstairs except the occasional moving of the horses and once or twice a sleepy bark from the dog, Prince, who was dreaming that he had caught a rabbit. She listened awhile, but there was nothing more to be heard. Then she picked up Dixie kitten by the back of the neck and stole quietly down the stairs. Master had cut a hole in the barn door, so that no cat need ever be shut out, and she slid softly through this, and went under the barn. It was open on one side, but the air was warm, and she knew where there was a heap of straw. She pushed it about a little with her paws, then she turned round and round to make a smooth nest, and at last she lay down, and Dixie kitten lay down beside her. Dixie thought all this was very strange, but of course whatever Mothercat did was right, so she snuggled down, and in three [Pg 11] minutes she was sound asleep. Before long, Mothercat was asleep, too. The coarse straw was not so comfortable as the hay, but, whether it was hard or soft, she would not stay in the same place with those strange kittens, indeed she would not. When morning came, Mothercat went into the barn to get the breakfast that was always brought out for her, and there were those kittens eating out of her dish! She stood still and looked at them. Dixie kitten had followed, and now one of the strangers went toward her in a friendly fashion. “Gr-r-r-!” growled Mothercat, and the kitten ran back to the dish. Mothercat did not touch the milk, and maybe she would have had no breakfast at all, if Mistress had not come out to see the new kittens. “Why, Mothercat,” she said, “aren’t you going to be good to those little stranger kittens?” Mothercat did not answer, but she did not go any nearer to [Pg 12] the dish. “She’ll soon get used to them,” said Master; but Mistress slipped into the house and brought out another dishful of milk. Master laughed, but Mistress said, “Never mind. I don’t know that I want to eat out of the same dish with everybody, either.” Then Mothercat ate her breakfast, but all the while she kept one eye on the new kittens to make sure they did not go near her child. So it went on day after day and week after week. Dixie kitten was soon old enough to drink from a dish. Mothercat allowed her to use the same dish as the others, but never once would she let her stay and have a good play with them; Dixie could not see why. The new kittens still lived in the barn, and Dixie and Mothercat still lived under it. [Pg 13] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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