ROUGH PLAY
You can just imagine how the China Cat felt. Always so clean and white,
always washing herself if she found the least speck of dirt on her,
always keeping as much as possible away from dust and grime--and now to
be spattered with water, blackened by the smoke of the fire, and finally
thrust inside the soiled blouse of a not very clean boy! Oh, it was
terrible!
The China Cat said it was, over and over again; to herself, of course,
for she dared not speak aloud, nor so much as mew, while Jeff, the
colored boy, had her. And Jeff certainly had the China Cat.
Jeff's eyes sparkled with delight as he pressed the toy up under his
blouse, out of sight, and then he darted away from the pile of toys, on
the sidewalk--toys that had hastily been carried out of the burning
store.
"Hi, golly! I's done gone fool dat p'liceman," murmured Jeff, as he
stepped off the sidewalk and made his way out of the crowd in front of
the burning store. "He tole me to keep away from dem toys! But I sneaks
up when he isn't lookin', an' I gits de bestest toy ob all! Golly! I's
smarter dan a p'liceman, I is!"
Jeff grinned, showing two rows of white teeth in his black face. Indeed,
Jeff's teeth were the only clean things about him, it seemed. At least
they were white, though I can not say that he ever used a tooth brush.
His teeth were as white as was the China Cat when she was her very
cleanest. But she was not at all clean now. And you know how unhappy
this made her feel.
There was so much excitement now in front of Mr. Mugg's toy shop, with
the fire, the smoke, the water, the fire engines, the firemen and the
police, to say nothing of the crowd that had gathered, that no one paid
any attention to Jeff. Away he sneaked, with the China Cat under his
blouse.
"I's smart, I is!" said Jeff to himself, grinning. "I could 'a' tooken a
lot ob toys; but I liked dis Cat bestest ob all. She's so white!"
Jeff did not mind the black specks from the fire that had settled on the
cat, and he cared nothing about the grimy marks his own dirty hands had
made.
It was broad daylight now, and the firemen were getting the best of the
fire. By pouring a lot of water from their hose down in the basement,
the blaze had been put out, though there was still much smoke.
Jeff, the negro boy, shuffled off down the street on his way back to his
home. When he was nearly there he met some other colored boys.
One of these lads, named Sam, saw that Jeff was hiding something under
his blouse.
"Hello, Jeff!" called Sam. "Whut yo' got there? Something good to eat?"
"Nope, 'tain't nuffin to eat!" declared Jeff. He and Sam talked negro
talk, of course, just like Topsy, the colored doll, whom the China Cat
at first thought would rub off some of her black.
"Whut yo' got then?" asked Sam. "Show me!"
"Yes, show what yo' got, Jeff!" cried the other colored boys.
"Oh, I ain't got nuffin much!" Jeff answered, as he moved away from Sam
and the other boys. Sometimes they had taken things away from Jeff, and
Jeff was afraid that was what they were now going to do. Inside the
blouse of the colored boy the China Cat heard what was said, but she
could see nothing.
"I wonder what is going to happen?" she thought.
"Jeff has got something!" declared Sam to his chums. "Let's catch him
an' take it away!"
"All right!" agreed the other colored boys. They made a rush for Jeff,
but he was too quick for them. Pressing his hands over his blouse, at
the spot where the China Cat was stuffed, so she would not bounce out,
Jeff ran down the street.
"I's got something yo' can't have!" he cried. "An' yo' all can't catch
me, an' git it; dat's whut yo' can't!"
Away he sped, and he was such a good runner that the other boys could
not come up to him. Around the corner of one street, down another and up
a third ran Jeff, and then he darted down the stairs into what was
almost a cellar, though it was called a basement. It was here, in some
poor, miserable rooms, that Jeff lived with his brothers and sisters.
"Whut de mattah, Jeff?" asked his mother, a large, fat, colored
washerwoman. "Am de p'licemans after yo' a'gin?"
Jeff had run so hard that he was out of breath, and could not speak for
a few moments. Hidden as she was, inside his blouse, the China Cat could
feel Jeff's heart pumping hard, and notice his rapid breathing.
"Dear me!" thought the China Cat, "this is a dreadful state of affairs.
I wonder if I am ever to get out of this smothering place. I don't like
it, cooped up like this! I want to get out in the air, and have
Geraldine or Angelina wash me!"
You see the China Cat did not know all that had happened to her. She
hoped she would soon be back in Mr. Mugg's store, washed nice and clean,
and set on a shelf. But the store of poor Mr. Mugg was in a sad state
now, even though the fire had been put out.
As Jeff's breathing became easier, his brothers and sisters, who were
just getting up out of their beds, crowded around him. His mother, who
was getting breakfast, asked him again:
"Jeff, am de p'licemans tryin' to git yo'?"
"Nope!" answered the colored boy. "I runned 'cause I wanted to git away
from Sam Brown an' his crowd. Dey was gwine to take mah cat away from
me!"
"Yo' _cat_?" cried Jeff's mother. "Where'd yo' git a _cat_?"
Jeff wiggled and twisted as he reached his hand inside his blouse and
pulled out the China Cat.
"Dere she am!" he cried, holding her up. "Dere's mah pussy! I done got
her at de fire, an' de p'liceman didn't see me!"
For a moment there was silence in the dingy basement tenement where Jeff
lived. His brothers and sisters, all smaller than he, crowded up around
him as he held the China Cat high in the air.
"Ain't she jess boo'ful!" murmured one little black girl.
"Kin she wiggle her haid, like I done see a Donkey shake his haid in de
toy shop?" asked one of Jeff's brothers.
"Lemme hab her!" pleaded the littlest black girl of all.
"No, suh!" declared Jeff. "Dis am mah white pussy, dat I done took outen
de fire an' de p'liceman didn't see me, an' I's gwine to keep her, I
is!"
He held the China Cat higher above his head.
"Oh, mercy me!" thought the poor white pussy, "I hope he doesn't let me
fall. Oh, how miserable I am! So dirty, and in such an unpleasant place!
I thought I'd be back in the toy shop with the Talking Doll and my other
friends!"
The China Cat did not at first know where she was when Jeff pulled her
out from beneath his blouse. It had been dark in there, but it was
lighter in the kitchen, and this confused the toy animal. But when she
had a chance to look around, held up high in the air as she was, she did
not at all like her new home. And she was very much afraid that Jeff
would let her fall.
But the colored boy did not. He set the China Cat on the table, right
down in a little puddle of molasses that had been spilled when the table
was set for breakfast.
"Oh, dear me, this is worse and worse!" thought the China Cat, as she
felt the sticky stuff on her tail. "I shall never get clean and white
again now!"
As for Jeff and his brothers and sisters, they did not seem to mind a
bit of molasses on the table. Indeed, one of the little colored girls
put her finger in the sweet, sticky puddle, and then she put her finger
in her mouth.
"Dat's good!" she murmured. "Me 'ikes 'lasses, me does!"
But the others were more interested in the China Cat. They stared at her
with all their eyes, and Jeff's mother asked:
"Where yo' done say yo' got her?"
"At de fire," Jeff explained. "I heard de engines puffin' past early dis
mawnin', an' I gits up an' goes out. Dere was a toy store on fire, an'
dey frowed a lot ob toys out in de street. Dere was Jumpin' Jacks, an'
Dolls, an' Steamboats, an'--an'--"
Two of the older colored boys started on a rush for the door, one of
them crying:
"I'se gwine to git a steamboat!"
"Yo' can't git none now, Sim!" shouted Jeff. "De p'licemans is all
aroun' de place. Dey won't let you take nuffin. But I done fooled 'em.
Anyhow, de fire's out now, an' dey'll be puttin' de toys back. But I
done got a white cat!"
So he had, but the China Cat was not so very white now. Besides the dirt
from the fire and the grime from Jeff's hands, she was sticky with
molasses, and every bit of dust flying about the basement room seemed to
settle on the poor toy pussy.
"Lemme hab her, Jeff!" pleaded one of his sisters.
"Well, I done let yo' hold her for a minute," said Jeff, and he gave
the China Cat into the hands of the little black girl. But as this girl
had been eating bread and sugar, she got the poor China Cat stickier
than ever.
"Lemme hold her now, Jeff!" pleaded another black tot.
"Nope, I ain't held her long 'nuff!" declared the first.
"Heah! Gib her to me!" ordered the second.
"No! No! Jeff said I could hab her!" cried the first.
One tried to take the China Cat away from the other, and in the scramble
a chair was upset and the toy nearly fell to the floor.
"This is the most dreadful place I was ever in!" thought the China Cat,
who, of course, could do nothing to save herself. "If they let me fall I
shall be broken, all dirty and soiled as I am."
But Jeff was not going to let that happen.
"Heah! Gib me back mah cat, whut I done got at de fire!" he said, and he
grabbed it from his sister's hand.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" wailed the little black girl.
"Heah! Hush yo' noise now!" called Jeff's mother. "Set up to de table
an' hab yo' brekfus'! Stop playin'!"
"Dear me, they call that _playing_!" thought the China Cat. "I wonder
what they would do in a game of _tag_? Oh, what is ever to become of
me?"
Jeff took the toy and set it on a shelf in the kitchen, and then he sat
down to his breakfast. Every once in a while he would look up at the
China Cat.
"I's glad I done got yo'," Jeff would murmur. "Yo' suah am a fine toy!"
After breakfast he took the China Cat down off the shelf and let his
sisters look at her. But no sooner did one of the little colored girls
have the cat in her hands than she darted out of the basement.
"Now I's got her, an' I's gwine t' hab some fun!" cried Arabella.
Arabella was the name of this one of Jeff's sisters. "I's gwine to hab
fun wid dis cat!"
Up the stairs and out into the street she ran, holding the China Cat in
such a tight grip that, had the toy been a real pussy, she would have
been choked.