WHITEFEET’S TRICK
When Patter barked the kitten made a big mistake. Instead of jumping
off the window sill to the ground outside, for the window was open, the
little black cat with white feet leaped down inside the room where the
fair was being held.
This was just what Patter wanted for now he could chase the little cat
as much as he liked, and he raced after her as fast as he could run. In
and out among the chairs and tables ran Patter, barking and whining, so
eager he was to catch Whitefeet, which was the cat’s name.
But Whitefeet did not want to be caught. She, also, ran in and out
among the tables and chairs, her back slightly arched up and her tail
fluffed out and as big as a small sausage.
Men and women, boys and girls rushed here and there after the dog and
the kitten, calling to them, screaming and shouting.
“Patter! Patter! Come here! Stop it!” cried Bunny. He had picked up
the basket his trick dog had been holding in his mouth to collect
the tickets those coming to the fair had dropped into it. As for the
tickets, they were scattered all over the room. “Patter, stop it! Come
here!” cried Bunny again and again.
But though the dog generally minded very well, this time he did not
mind. He paid no attention to Bunny Brown or to Sue. For Sue also
called to her pet.
“Something must be done!” cried Mrs. Jones, one of the ladies managing
the affair. “Won’t some one catch that dog?”
“Somebody ought to catch the cat, and then the dog would stop running,”
said Mrs. Star. “Don’t try to catch your dog, Bunny,” she went on. “See
if you can’t get the cat!”
“I’ll try, yes’m,” said Bunny.
“Chase the cat out of the window,” called some one else.
“Whose cat is it, anyhow?” asked Bunker Blue. He had been sent to the
church fair by Mr. Brown, and Bunker was to help dish out the ice cream
and do things like that.
“It’s a new cat,” said Bunny, as he ran around the room after his dog.
“I never saw her before.”
There was a regular race to catch Patter and Whitefeet, though by this
time it was mostly the boys who were running around--Bunny and his
chums Charlie, George, and Harry, with a few others. Most of the women
were laughing so hard they could not do much chasing, and the men were
also chuckling at the sides of the room. The girls, too, except Sue,
had given up trying to catch either the dog or the cat, but Sue ran
around with Bunny, for she wanted to help him.
Suddenly the little black cat with the white feet made a quick turn and
darted beneath a table on which were some artificial paper flowers that
a lady and her daughter had made to sell for the aid of the church. It
was not a very heavy table, and as the cat ran under it Patter tried to
follow.
Now Patter was much larger than the cat, and though Whitefeet could
slip between the legs of the table, the dog could not. Patter tried it,
but “he got stuck,” as Bunny said afterward, and upset the table. Over
it went, the paper flowers scattering all about.
One wreath fell right around Patter’s neck and remained there, and as
he leaped out from beneath the table he had flowers twined about him,
looking like some prize-decorated dog.
But Patter did not mind this at all. On he ran, barking and whining in
his eagerness to get the cat. Whitefeet was now headed for a table on
which cups of tea had been set out for those who wished to buy this to
drink.
“Oh, if they upset the tea table it will be terrible!” screamed Mrs.
Jones.
“Don’t let them!” cried Mrs. Rogers, as if she could stop it that way.
All the committee ladies, standing around the walls of the room,
knowing they could not reach the table in time to save it, gasped with
fear as they saw Whitefeet headed for the tea table. If the cat ran
under that and Patter followed there would be a great crash of china
cups and saucers, as well as a great spilling of hot tea. Upsetting
the flower table was not so bad, but to upset the tea table would be
dreadful!
However, almost at the last second, the black cat with the white feet
turned aside and did not run under the table. Patter also turned and
did not hit the table legs. The cat now ran down the long room.
But Patter was not to be fooled this way. On he kept after the cat, and
behind the two animals came four or five boys, led by Bunny. The little
Brown chap was sorry his dog acted this way. He had never seen Patter
chase cats before, but of course it was natural for a dog to do it.
“Patter! Patter!” cried Bunny again and again. But Patter did not heed
his master’s voice, this time, at any rate. Nor did Sue have any better
luck when calling Patter to her.
At the upper end of the room, toward which the cat was now headed
with Patter after her, was a table of fancy cakes. It was almost as
small and light a table as that on which the paper flowers had been
piled. Behind it stood an elderly lady who had made most of the cakes
herself, intending to sell them for the benefit of the church. This
elderly lady saw the dog and the cat and the crowd of chasing boys
coming toward her table of cakes, and she cried:
“Stop! Stop! Don’t come a bit closer! I won’t have my table upset!
Stop!”
She might just as well “have talked to the wind,” said Bunker Blue,
afterward. For the cat did not stop, nor did Patter, and of course on
came Bunny Brown and his boy chums, hoping to catch Patter or the cat
before more damage was done.
But it was too late. Under the table shot the cat. Patter again tried
to follow, but he became tangled up in the table legs. Over went the
table, cakes and all, the cakes scattering all over the floor. And as
some of the cakes were round they rolled into far corners.
“Oh, my goodness! Oh, this is terrible!” exclaimed the elderly lady who
had baked the cakes.
“Something must be done!” cried Mrs. Jones.
Out from under the upset table of cakes crawled Patter, to keep on
after Whitefeet. Some of the ladies hurried to right the fallen table,
and others began to pick up the scattered cakes.
“We could help do that,” said George to Harry. “Maybe if we picked up
all the cakes they’d give us some to eat for nothing. There’s no use
chasing that cat and dog any longer.”
“I guess not,” agreed Harry. “Come on, we’ll pick up the cakes.”
“Maybe they won’t want any of ’em back, as long as they’ve been on the
floor, and we can keep ’em all,” suggested George.
“That would be great!” exclaimed Harry.
So the two boys began to pick up the fallen cakes, but Bunny, Sue and
Charlie raced on after the dog and the cat.
However, the chase soon came to an end now. By some mistake Whitefeet
darted into a part of the room where there were no tables or chairs
under which she could run. It was a corner, and Patter had her cornered
there. Seeing nothing ahead of her but solid walls the cat suddenly
turned and faced the dog, her back arched higher than ever and her tail
bigger than before. Also she began to hiss.
“Look out, Patter! Look out!” cried Bunny. “She’ll scratch your nose!”
“Oh, don’t let his nose be scratched! He’ll bleed!” yelled Sue.
But Patter did not intend to get his nose scratched. He must have known
more about cats than either Bunny or Sue supposed. For when he saw that
Whitefeet could not run any farther he did not rush up to her and bite
her. Instead, he just sat up on his hind legs in front of the cat, as
he had sat up when he held the basket for tickets.
“Look at that!” exclaimed Mrs. Jones.
“Did you ever see such a cute, queer dog!” remarked Mrs. Marshall. “He
seems to be begging the cat’s pardon.”
“Oh, Bunny, he’s doing a trick!” cried Sue. And, as it turned out, this
is what Patter wanted to do. After he had stood up on his hind legs
for a moment in front of the cat, whining softly as if he wanted to
speak to her, the dog got down on all fours and turned his back toward
Whitefeet. Then he stood as if waiting for something to happen.
The cat seemed surprised that she was not bitten or taken up in the
dog’s mouth and shaken. It was something new for her, evidently, not to
be badly treated by dogs. True, this dog had chased her, but that was
all. He did not bite her.
Then the cat seemed to lose her fear. Her tail became smaller and the
arch went down out of her back. She no longer hissed. But Patter was
acting in a strange manner. He whined, he wagged his tail, and he kept
looking around at Whitefeet.
“What does he want?” asked Mrs. Jones.
“I don’t know,” Bunny answered, as much puzzled as the rest. “He acts
that way sometimes before I have him do a trick, but----”
Just then Mr. Brown pushed his way through the crowd that stood in
front of Patter and Whitefeet in the corner. Mr. Brown had just arrived
at the church fair.
“Patter wants the cat on his back, that’s what he wants,” said Bunny’s
father. “It’s one of his tricks. He used to perform with a trained
cat, and one trick was that a cat would sit on his back and Patter
would march around that way. I got a letter from the Frenchman to-day.
In it he told me this was one of the tricks he forgot to mention. Try
it, Bunny. Put the cat on Patter’s back.”
“Oh, that would be a lovely trick--if they do it,” said Sue.
That was the point. Would Whitefeet allow herself to be put on Patter’s
back? The trick dog seemed ready to do his part.
“Here, better let me do it,” said Mr. Brown. “The cat might scratch
you, Bunny.”
Mr. Brown spoke gently to the black kitten with the white feet and
picked her up. He stroked her softly, rubbed her under her ears, at
which she tilted her head and stretched out her neck as if she loved to
be petted that way. Then Mr. Brown taught Whitefeet her first trick. He
set her on Patter’s back.
The little cat remained there a moment, but just as Patter started to
walk around, as he had been in the habit of doing, Whitefeet jumped
down.
“Oh, she won’t do it,” sighed Sue.
“I’ll try again,” said Mr. Brown.
Once more he put Whitefeet up on Patter’s back, and this time the cat
remained. She settled down as if contented and comfortable.
“Oh, isn’t that cute!” and “Just look at that!” cried the people who
were watching the trick dog and the little cat.