There are two little girls living nearly a hundred rods apart, Mamie
and Fannie. Each had a nice pet cat.
Mamie's cat had three little kittens. When they were about three weeks
old their poor mother was killed by a useless dog. For two days Mamie
fed her kittens with a spoon, and did all she could to comfort them;
but they would cry for their mother.
Fannie's cat had only one kitten, and it died at once. Then Mamie took
her three motherless kittens down to Fannie's cat to see if she would
adopt them. She took them at once, and made a great fuss over them.
Then she was allowed to raise them.
When Mamie thought her kittens were old enough she took all three of
them home again. But their stepmother would neither eat nor drink. She
cried and looked for the kittens. At last Fannie carried her cat up to
Mamie's house to see the kittens. Then mother and kittens were all
happy again, and played together as if they had never been separated.
When the girls saw how much the cat and kittens were attached to each
other they concluded to take Fannie's cat home again with only two of
the kittens; in a short time bring back one of them, and later the
last one. In this way they thought they could separate them without
any trouble.
Fannie's cat was not pleased with this plan. She began to look for and
call the third kitten. The next morning, when Mamie went to feed her
one kitten, she could not find it anywhere about the barn or woodshed.
She went down to Fannie's house, and there she found her kitten.
Sometime in the night Fannie's cat went to Mamie's house, found the
kitten, and carried it home. Since that time the girls have not tried
to part the cat and kittens, and they are a happy family.