ONCE upon a time there was a Person who did not like cats. She did not
like dogs, either, but she never said anything about that, because the
Big Master and the two Little Masters and the four Little Mistresses
were all very fond of dogs, and liked to have them lie round under
everybody’s feet and get white hairs all over everybody’s clothes, and
take up the whole hearth-rug and run away with the roast beef, and bark
to be let out and then howl to be let in, and shake themselves when
they were wet, and do all the things that dogs do,—they liked all these
things, so the Person who did not like cats never dared to say a word.
But nobody cared very much about cats—except when they were little
downy kittens, and they _will_ not stay kittens!—save Maggie, the cook;
so the Person felt free to speak her mind, and said she would not
have any cats in the house. And after she had said that, these things
happened:
One day a kitten belonging to the neighbour’s little boy came into the
kitchen, and refused to go out again. The little boy was sent for, and
he came and took the kitten home.
Next day it came again, and was taken home again. And so it went on for
a week, till every one in the house was tired out with carrying that
kitten home, and the kitten’s little boy cried and thought it was too
bad. It was.
But the kitten was very happy, and Maggie, the cook, said she “couldn’t
let the crathur starve,” so it stayed; and pretty soon it was not a
kitten any more, but a cat, and it had kittens of its own, one of which
was given to the little boy.
Now the Person who did not like cats said the other kittens must be
taken away in a bag; but all the Little Masters and Mistresses cried
out, and said,—
“Oh, Mamma!” “Please, Mamma, the dear, sweet little things!” “See their
little paws!” “See their dear little noses!” “Hear them squeal!” “We
must keep this one, Mamma!” “We can’t possibly part with that one,
Mamma!” “Oh, Mamma!” “Dear Mamma!” “Feel this one’s little back!” and
so on, and so on.
So the Person said that they might keep the one which they all thought
the prettiest, and that the others must go away in a bag; but while
they were deciding, the kittens grew up and became cats. So then the
bag was not big enough to hold them, and they stayed, partly for that
reason, and partly because they were all so ugly that no one could tell
which was the least ugly.
Now, one day, the man at the livery stable, where the Master kept his
horse, said that he wanted a cat, because the rats were giving him a
great deal of trouble in his hay-loft. So the Master took the ugliest
cat of all, which was really ugly enough to frighten the crows, and he
put her in a basket, and took her away to the stable, and everybody was
glad.
But three days after, as the Person was weeding the flowerbed, she
heard a loud squeal of joy, and felt something rubbing against her
back; she turned round, and there was the Ugliest Cat, purring and
squeaking, and seeming just as glad to get back as if she were
perfectly beautiful, and as if everybody loved her to distraction. She
was sent to the stable again, but this time she came back the very next
day, because she had found out the way. So she stayed.
But after that, things went worse than ever. The Person went out to
walk, and a cat followed her home, and would not go away, and would
come in! and Maggie, the cook, said she “couldn’t see the crathur
starve,” so she fed it and it stayed. And on Thanksgiving Day a
miserable hungry kitten came to the door and begged to be let in, and
nobody could refuse to give it a Thanksgiving dinner, so _it_ came in,
and _it_ stayed.
And now the Person who does not like eats has nothing but cats about
her all the time. They lie on the stairs and trip her up in the dark.
If she takes up a clothes-basket, out rolls a kitten. If she gets the
little sleigh to take the Littlest Mistress to ride, out jumps a cat.
Wherever she goes, whatever she does, she sees a dirty white cat, or
a rusty black cat, or a faded yellow cat, or a dingy tabby cat, or a
hideous tortoise-shell beast, which is the Ugliest Cat of all. And the
Person would like the children to tell her _what_ is to be done about
it!