KITTY'S FOSTER-FATHER.
Tweedles and I were excused from the Gym exercises that afternoon with
the request that we meet Miss Peyton in her office at three o'clock. We
were there on time, you may be sure, and Dee had the kitty all done up
in a shoe box ready for the trip. We had christened him Oliver Twist,
because he kept on "hollering for more" all the weary night.
Miss Peyton laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks over the
description of our trials during the night. When we found out that she
did not think it was so terribly wicked of Dee, we felt we could tell
her everything, even the middy ties over the transom and the fleas in
Dee's bed.
"You poor girls must be nearly dead, aren't you?" she asked kindly.
"Page and I feel right scrooch-eyed, but after the first feeding, Dum
slept through it all," laughed Dee. "I have more sympathy than ever for
poor Zebedee. That's what we call our Father, you know, Miss Peyton. He
had to bring up Dum and me on bottles as our little Mother died when we
were tiny babies. If one kitten could keep two girls awake most of the
night heating milk for it, don't you fancy two twins, like Dum and me,
could keep one man awake all the time?"
"Didn't you have a nurse?" I asked.
"Of course we did, all kinds and colors, but Dum and I wouldn't drink
unless Zebedee gave us the bottles. He says he was afraid the nurse
might not be sanitary and trusted no one but himself to fix the milk."
"Poor old Zebedee!" sighed Dum, her eyes filling. "I don't see how we
could have been so mean to him."
We had started on our quest for a friend for kitty, Miss Peyton leading
the way down toward the village. She seemed to be enjoying the little
outing as much as we were.
"Your Father must be very patient," she said, putting her arm in Dum's
when she saw the hazel eyes filling at the thought of her Father.
"Well, the funny part of it is, he is not one bit patient except with
Dee and me. Do you know, once he got dreadfully mad with the telephone
girl who kept on cutting him off when he was in the midst of some most
important business that could not wait, and every time he would try to
get connection again, the operator would say 'Line busy.' Now he knew
the line was not busy and the person on the other end was just as
anxious to be got as he was to get him, and, as I was saying, he got so
mad he pulled the telephone out by the roots."
"Well, that was, to say the least, impulsive," and Miss Peyton laughed
like any schoolgirl.
"You mustn't think Zebedee is bad-tempered," put in Dee. "He's got the
sweetest disposition in the world. He's just quick-tempered. He has
learned to control himself wonderfully but you know he is real young
yet."
"Yes, I know," said Miss Peyton solemnly.
"Tell us whom you are going to get to be kitty's foster father, Miss
Peyton," I said, purposely changing the subject. Not that I did not
take the keenest interest in everything pertaining to Mr. Tucker, but I
could see that the twins were both getting leaky, and it did seem a pity
to have a cloud cast over our delightful walk with Miss Peyton.
"Indeed, I will," she said, giving me an approving nod. "It is dear old
Captain Pat Leahy. I hope you girls will like him as much as I do. He is
sure to like you. Of course he may not be able to keep the little thing
and then I don't know what we will do. Anyhow, let's not borrow trouble.
I know the dear man will do it for me if he possibly can. When I first
came to Gresham as a pupil----"
"Oh, were you a pupil here?" we exclaimed in one breath.
"Yes, indeed, I came here before I went to college. Gresham had not such
a grand building then and accommodated only about fifty girls. It was
more like a home school. Captain Leahy was then conductor on the local
train and took an especial interest in the Gresham girls. I shall never
forget how good he was to me on my first trip. I was lonesome and
shy----"
"You, shy! Oh, Miss Peyton, were you, really?"
"I should say I was. Why, Annie Pore is brazen beside what I was as a
child. Captain Leahy sat by me between stations and with his ready Irish
tongue cheered me up immensely. He treated me to peanuts and made me
laugh and gave me a new outlook on life. The poor fellow lost a leg in a
railroad accident about ten years ago, and ever since then has kept the
gate where the track crosses the main street of Gresham."
"Does he like cats?" I asked.
"Oh, yes, he adores them. That is the great bond of sympathy between us.
He loves cats and he loves flowers. He also has a great fondness for
young people. Here we are," and Miss Peyton pointed out the gate-house
where her old friend lived.
It was just an ordinary little square box of a house painted the pumpkin
yellow that railroads are so partial to, but all around it were window
boxes, some of them filled with geraniums, some with Norway spruces and
English ivy. A moon flower had completely covered one side of the little
house, but the frost had touched the big leaves and they were dropping
off one by one.
A grizzled old man with a long red beard and a peg leg was digging
around the geraniums as we approached. "Captain, I have brought some of
my girls to meet you," said Miss Peyton, holding out her hand to the old
man and introducing us.
"And I am that proud to meet all of yez; and so will me cats be. The
poor critters long for some petticoats to cuddle oop to. A peg leg is
but cold comfort to a pussy when she is hankering for some women folk,"
and with a hearty laugh the old fellow stumped to the door of his little
gate-house and called to the cats. Out they came, seven in all and a
motley crew. The Captain was very democratic and not particular about
the pedigree of his friends.
"All cats are aristocratic if you just give 'em a chance," he would
declare when some cat snob would suggest that he go in for pure breeds.
Six of the cats came to him and rubbed their backs against his good leg;
but the seventh, a large gray one with a mournful look in her eyes,
began to sharpen her claws on a long strip of sand paper he had tacked
to his wooden leg. We burst out laughing. It was the most comical thing
I had ever seen.
"A little invintion of me own. There are no trees handy for the poor
critters to sharpen their claws on and I find this device saves me
furniture many a scratch." He stooped and laid his hand lovingly on the
mournful one, but she arched her back and moved over to the protection
of Dee's skirts.
"What, schtill angry wid me, poor Bett? I had to have her kittens
drowned, all but one, and she can't forgive me, not that I blame her.
But what am I to do, Miss Peyton? Me house is schmall and Bett is that
prolific she could furnish kittens for all the ould maids in Christendom
in little or no toime."
"Well, it is a problem, Captain Leahy, but I am sorry for Bett. Aren't
there enough old maids in Gresham to help you out some?" Miss Peyton
stooped down and picked up the poor bereaved mother who nestled
comfortably in her arms and began to purr loudly.
"The demand doesn't come oop to Bett's supply, niver in the world,"
laughed the old man. "But what am I thinking of keeping yez waiting out
here so long? Come in, come in!" I have never heard such a rich,
delicious voice as Captain Leahy's; and his brogue was as soft as the
purr of his cats.
"Before we go in, I might as well tell you what has brought us to you
especially, Captain," said Miss Peyton.
"What? You must schnatch me from me Fool's Paradise? I was after
thinking all the time you had come to see the ould man himself," and his
eyes twinkled mischievously.
"So we did, dear Captain. We have come to see you because you are you,
and we need your help," answered Miss Peyton with her engaging smile
that somehow made one feel that her way was the best way.
"Well, sitting is as cheap as standing and I want this peg leg to last
as long as I do. It is astonishing how fast they wear out. Come in, come
in, and tell me what it is you want me to help yez about," and he led
the way into his little house.
It did not seem so small when you got in because it was so orderly. The
lower berth from a wrecked Pullman served him as seat by day and bed by
night. The very smallest cooking stove imaginable, almost a doll baby
size, polished like the boots of a dandy, was at one side. Over it was a
shelf with some blue and white china on it, and under the shelf a few
cooking utensils and a dish pan and biscuit board.
"Sit down, sit down, and while the kittle is biling for tay, I can
listen to your trroobles." We seated ourselves on the Pullman seat while
the dear old man busied himself with the tea kettle. Bett, the bereaved
mother, still nestled in Miss Peyton's arms, but after a moment she
wriggled out and got into the box behind the stove. "You'd better look
after your baby, you ould rip. I'm thinking these ladies are that fond
of cats that they might be making off wid it."
"That's just it, Captain Leahy, these ladies are fond of cats, one of
them especially," indicating Dee. "So fond of them that yesterday when
the whole school was out on the Valley Road taking the dignified walk
that is required, what should Miss Caroline Tucker do but rescue a poor
little lost kitten, mewing by the roadside, carry it home in her muff
without teacher or fellow pupil seeing her, and actually take it to bed
with her. But, girls, you tell Captain Leahy about it yourselves," which
we did at Miss Peyton's command.
He enjoyed the prank as much as Miss Peyton and laughed until the blue
and white china danced on the little shelf.
"And now I know very well what ye have come for. Ye want me to take a
boarder."
"Oh, will you, please?" implored Dee.
Bett, having nourished her lone offspring, now carried it in her mouth
for Miss Peyton's inspection, and Dee, seeing her, jumped up in great
excitement, dropping the box she had been holding so carefully and
waking up Oliver Twist in the fall. "Look, look! Bett's kitten looks
just like Oliver! I thought it was him at first." Dee was excited and we
all excused her English. Oliver began to cry aloud and Bett tore around
like one demented.
"Well, Bett, old girl, your baby has been restored to yez. If this don't
beat all! On the Valley Road, yesterday, you say? I told that boy to be
careful of the hole in the bag, that the runt might fall through it, and
so he did. You call him Oliver, you say? Well, that is a handsome name
for such a poor mite, but maybe it will give him some ambition to grow
oop to it. There's an ould saying: 'If you escape drowning, you'll live
to be hanged.' I hope not, Oliver, I hope not."
Now Bett, having one of her babies back, forgave her master and rubbed
herself against his good leg; and then such another washing as she did
give Oliver before she considered him fit to get into the box that she
called home!
The kettle was boiling and the tea soon steeping in the pretty teapot.
The Captain put up a little table exactly like the ones on the train
and we had the merriest kind of a party.
"Your cats are so fat, Captain, what do you feed them on?" asked Dee, in
her element with two cats in her lap.
"An ould frind of mine, who is schteward on a diner saves me all the
schraps and the cats live high, higher than their master, by a long
shot. But do you know the windfall I have had lately, Miss Peyton?"
"No; do tell me. I am so glad of any good fortune that comes to you,
Captain."
"Bless your schwate heart for thim words! Well, I have always had a hard
toime about my shoes since I lost me limb. Such an accumulation of
rights as you never saw wid no one wanting of thim and no place to put
thim and feeling it was to say the least a sin to be throwing thim away,
when no doubt there was somewhere in the worrld a man who had lost his
lift leg who would give anything for thim. Well, I came on this
advertisement in a Washington paper: 'A man who has lost his left leg
would like to get into communication with one who has lost his right.
11 1/2 E.' I knew soon as I clapped eyes on it that some poor fellow was in
exactly me own dilimma. I did get into communication wid him and now I
am no longer trying to find a place for the right shoes I have no use
for and on the other hand I have enough of the lifts to last me a
lifetime. 11 1/2 E's too, exactly my size."
"Well, that was a windfall surely," said Miss Peyton. ("More like a
footfall," muttered Dum.) "But, Captain, I thought you were going to buy
a fine jointed leg with a foot and then you would need your own right
shoes."
"Oh, I have given oop the notion. You see my cats would miss the peg
something awful, wid no place to sharpen their little claws; and thin I
have found a poor widdy woman living down the track a piece and the
right leg of me pants do come in so handy for the poor thing to make
schuits for her little byes. It would seem a sin to use that warm cloth
to cover cork, whin some poor little lamb is shivering in the cold."
"Ah, Captain, always thinking how you can be good to children and
cats," said Miss Peyton.
Then with many thanks to the old Irishman for his hospitality and his
kindness and the good time he had given us, we took our departure. I
noticed that Dum, who had been very quiet and whose eyes had been misty
several times, especially when the Captain told of the fate of his
trouser legs, stepped back into the little house and I heard her whisper
to the old man: "Please, Captain, take this half dollar and buy some
toys for the little lambs who wear the pant legs." I happened to know it
was the whole of her week's allowance, too.