"There! He's gone away mad," mewed Fluffy. "Now what shall we do?"
"Do! Why just what we have been doing," said Jazbury. "He wasn't any
good to us, anyway."
"Yes, but I want to go home. Oh, I _do_ want to go home; and we don't
know the way."
"Why don't we? Guess I could find it just as well as Yowler."
"Oh, could you? Could you, Jazbury?"
"Listen, Fluffy!" said Jazbury. "There was something mother told me,
and I'd forgotten all about it. I just remembered a little while ago.
She said cats--and kittens, too, if they weren't too little--could
always get home from any place if they just didn't worry about it and
try to remember the way to go. All they have to do is to love their
home, and run along without thinking, and then they'll get there."
"I don't know what you mean," said Fluffy, "but let's go anyway. Even
if we don't get home we can't be any more lost than we are now."
"But we _will_ get there," declared Jazbury. "Come on! We might as well
go right now."
"All right; I'm ready."
The two little kittens set out at once, and without any more talk about
it. They trotted away through the green depths of the wood, and after a
while the trees grew thinner, and then they came out of the wood upon a
hot, sunny stretch of dusty road.
"We go this way," said Jazbury, and he set off down the road just as if
he knew exactly where he was going.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" asked Fluffy.
"Now, Fluffy, you mustn't ask me that," said Jazbury. "I mustn't think
about it, but just run along, and we'll get there. Don't you be afraid."
Fluffy said no more, but padded along after Jazbury. Jazbury never
stopped or looked around. He just went running straight on down the
dusty road.
After they had gone for quite a distance Fluffy heard a noise behind
them, a thudding sound, and with it a sound of rumbling and rolling. He
looked around, and there behind them came a great, enormous horse and a
buggy, with two ladies driving in it.
"Jazbury," he mewed softly, "there's something coming."
Jazbury stopped and looked round. Then he ran over to the side of the
road, and crouched down. "Come over here till they get past, Fluffy,"
he said.
Fluffy trotted over and crouched down beside him.
Nearer and nearer came the horse and buggy, the horse thudding along
and the buggy rumbling after it.
Just as the buggy came to where the kittens were one of the ladies
cried out, "Oh, Sarah! Look there! Look at those kittens."
The buggy stopped, and the two ladies leaned forward, staring at
Jazbury and Fluffy.
"How do you suppose they ever got here?" asked the lady.
"I don't know," answered her companion. "I suppose some one wanted to
get rid of them and dropped them here."
"Isn't that wicked! What shall we do about it?"
[Illustration: _They were almost hidden by the dusty weeds_]
The talking went on. The kittens could hear the voices, one soft and
gentle, the other quick and decided.
"Let's get down among the weeds, Fluffy," whispered Jazbury. "Then we
can creep away."
The kittens ran, crouching, down into a dry gutter beside the road.
There they were almost hidden by the dusty weeds.
"Oh, Sarah! They're running away!" cried the soft-voiced lady.
"I'll catch them!" said the other. She hastily clambered down from the
buggy, and ran over to the side of the road and parted the weeds. When
the kittens looked up they could see her big face above them looking
down at them. Then her hands came down through the weeds, and caught
them by the napes of their necks. One hand caught Jazbury and the other
hand caught Fluffy. The hands lifted them out of the weeds and up into
the air.
The kittens were very much frightened. Fluffy hung quietly, with his
legs and tail curled up, and his head on one side, but Jazbury fought
and struggled, and tried to scratch the hand that held him.
"Did you ever see such a little wildcat?" the lady called to her
friend, as she carried the kittens back to the buggy.
"Here! Let's put them in a bag!" cried the other lady.
She dived down under the seat of the buggy and got out a big brown bag,
and held it out with the mouth open ready for the kittens to be dropped
into it.
A moment later and Fluffy and Jazbury found themselves in the bag, with
the mouth of it tied tight, so that they could not possibly get out.
The bag, with them in it, was laid in the back part of the buggy, and
then the rumbling and thudding began again as the buggy drove on. The
kittens were jolted and shaken about.
"Oh, Jazbury!" mewed Fluffy. "What do you s'pose they're going to do
with us?"
"I don't know. We'll have to try to get out."
Jazbury began to tear and bite at the loose threads of the bag, but he
could not make even the least little hole in the bagging. After awhile
he gave it up and began to mew loudly.
"Mew! Me-ew-ew-ew!" he cried.
"Mew-ew! Me-ew-ew-ew! Mew-ew-ew!" cried Fluffy.
The buggy rumbled and jolted. The kittens mewed and mewed. Now and then
they stopped and listened. Then they could hear the voices talking up
above them. Then they would mew again louder than ever.
After a while the buggy stopped, and the bag with the kittens in it was
lifted out and carried into the house. The bag was opened again, and
the two big faces looked in on them.
"Did you ever see anything as dirty as the black one?" said the lady
who caught them. "I hated to touch him. I know one thing; if I'm going
to keep him, the first thing I'm going to do is to give him a good
scrubbing with tar soap."
"Oh, Sarah!" cried the other. "You oughtn't to wash cats. You'll make
him sick. Get the white one out for me, won't you? I'm afraid to put my
hand in. I'm afraid the black one will scratch me."
Miss Sarah put her hand down in the bag, and lifted Fluffy out and gave
him to her companion.
"Isn't he too sweet?" cried that lady. "He doesn't look a bit dirty,
either. I'm going to take him right over home and give him something to
eat. I expect he's hungry."
After she had gone, Miss Sarah closed the bag and carried it a while
and dumped it down again. Jazbury heard her call, "Bring me a basin of
water out in the shed, Hannah, and that tar soap from up in the
bathroom closet."
[Illustration: _He spit and mewed and fought, but she held him there_]
Jazbury did not know what the words meant, but they frightened him.
A little later the bag was untied again and turned upside down, and
Jazbury was shaken out of it. Trembling and frightened, he looked about
him. He was in a shed. Miss Sarah was there, and another woman with a
checked apron on.
"Poor little thing! He looks scared to death," said the woman with the
checked apron.
"I know," said Miss Sarah. "I just hate to wash him, but I can't take
him into the house till he's clean."
Then a terrible thing happened to Jazbury. Miss Sarah stooped and
picked him up, and before he could catch his breath she had put him in
a basin of water. He spit and mewed and fought, but she held him there.
She splashed water over him, and she rubbed him with soap. She rubbed
the soapsuds in around his ears, and over his forehead, and even down
his little black nose. She soaped his legs and his body and his tail.
Then she washed the soapsuds off. Last of all, she wrapped him in a
towel and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed him.
By that time Jazbury was too miserable to fight. He only shivered and
shook and mewed pitifully now and then.
"There!" said Miss Sarah at last. "That's about as dry as I can get
you. You poor little thing! You shall have a good meal to comfort you."
She carried Jazbury into the house, and his fur was so clean that it
fairly shone and glistened like black satin. "You're a real beauty,"
said Miss Sarah, "and I never would have guessed it when I picked you
up in the road."
That's the way Jazbury began life in his new home. It was a very
pleasant home except for one thing; Miss Sarah would wash him every now
and then.
He had plenty to eat and drink. There were soft chairs and sunny spots
to sleep in, and as soon as he was used to the place, and Miss Sarah
thought he would not run away, he was allowed to go out of doors
whenever he wanted to.
The first day he was allowed to go out he found there was a flower
garden in front of the house. It was a fine place to play. Paths wound
about among the flower beds. Bees buzzed busily from bloom to bloom,
and bright butterflies floated about overhead.
Jazbury examined it all over. There was a paling fence between it and
the garden next door. When Jazbury came near this fence he saw a little
furry white face peering through at him between the palings. It was
Fluffy.
"Oh, Jazbury!" he called joyfully. "I was watching for you. I hoped
you'd come out soon."
"Why! did you know I lived here?"
"Yes. The lady that carried me away that day just took me in next door.
I knew our yards were next to each other."
"Come on over," said Jazbury.
Fluffy squeezed through between the palings, and the two little kittens
greeted each other joyfully. They rubbed noses and purred and purred.
After that they began to play. They ran races along the paths, and
tried to catch the butterflies, and had a fine time together.
At lunch time Fluffy had to go home, but he and Jazbury agreed to meet
out in the garden every single day, unless it rained, and play together
just as they used to do. It made Jazbury very happy to know he was to
have his little friend living so near him.
X
It was a warm, sunny day in June.
The two little kittens had met as they often did, under a large blush
rosebush in the garden. Jazbury did not seem as lively and playful as
usual.
"What's the matter with you, Jazbury?" asked Fluffy. "You seem so
quiet. Don't you want to play?"
"No."
"Why?"
Jazbury was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I've just had a bath
again."
"Oh, Jazbury! Not again?"
"Yes, again. With water. And soap. And rubbed afterward. You know. I
told you all about it."
"But, Jazbury!" cried Fluffy. "What does she do it for? Of course you
_were_ dirty at first. You know you were. You really needed to be
washed then. I don't believe you could have cleaned yourself, you were
so _very_ dirty. But you don't need to be bathed now."
"Course I don't. I wash and wash myself. I wash every day. I wash
myself just as much as you do. And I'm not going to stand being
_scrubbed_ with water. No, I'm not."
"But what are you going to do about it?"
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to run away. _I'm going
home!_"
Fluffy started.
"Oh, Jazbury! You're not--not _really_ going home? Where our mommas
live?"
"Yes, I am. I'm going away tonight before she has a chance to wash me
again."
"Oh, goody! goody!" cried Fluffy. "And I'll go, too. May I, Jazbury? I
want to."
"All right. You meet me out here tonight when it's too dark for any one
to see us. I'll be waiting for you."
The two little kittens were so excited over this plan that Jazbury grew
quite cheerful again. How wonderful it would be to see their mothers
again, and to play in their own back yards. They felt as though they
could hardly wait to set out on their homeward journey.