THE KITTEN’S STORY
When they reached home, both Lucy and Dora talked a great deal. They
had to tell Father and Mother all the things they had seen and done in
Boston. Father was especially interested in the marionettes and asked
many questions about them.
Some of the questions the children could not answer, so Father said that
the next time they went to the Public Library, he wished they would ask
Miss Perkins for a book on marionettes. Dora said she would do so.
Uncle Dan liked to hear about the church with the beautiful picture
windows and the wonderful music. He said that once he had been there to a
choir festival.
After a time Father went to see Mr. Baker, and Uncle Dan took his hat and
went out through the kitchen. Dora ran after him.
“Are you going to see Olive?” she asked. “Please tell her that I _love_
my new ribbons. And tell her I have been in Boston and that is why I
haven’t said ‘thank you’ for them.”
Uncle Dan said that he would tell Olive. Dora went back into the parlor
and sat on Mother’s lap.
“I must tell you about my Chinese kitten,” she said. “Oh, Mother, Aunt
Margaret liked the piece of birthday cake so much! She said to tell you
she wished she could make cake like that. She did not have any of her
own, Mother.”
“Next year we will make her a birthday cake,” said Mrs. Merrill, and she
looked pleased. “What about the Chinese kitten?”
“First of all,” Dora began, “Aunt Margaret showed me the star she named
it for. Last night it was very bright, and I can find it now for Uncle
Dan. At least, I _think_ I can. And then she told me about the kitten.
“When Aunt Margaret’s grandfather,” Dora went on, “was about as old as
Uncle Dan, he went on a long voyage on a ship that sailed to China. When
he came home, he brought with him a set of ivory chess-men. Do you know
what they are, Mother?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill. “Chess is a game, played on a board with
squares marked off,—a checker-board, like yours,—and a set of counters.
You and Lucy have counters for your game of parchesi.”
“Yes,” said Dora, “but those are flat and round. These chess-men were
different. They stood up tall, and the pieces which counted most,—the
kings and queens and knights and bishops—were cats, _big_ cats, made
out of ivory. And the littler pieces, the pawns, were kittens. Half the
pieces were white and half were blue. There were eight blue kittens and
eight white ones.”
“They must have been very pretty,” Mrs. Merrill agreed. “What became of
them?’
“Some were lost,” said Dora, “and Aunt Margaret thinks her boy cousins
took the cats when they visited their grandmother. So many chess-men
were gone that people couldn’t play the game any more. The grandmother
thought, since the boys had taken the cats, she would divide the kittens
between the little girl cousins.
“She gave Aunt Margaret four kittens,” Dora went on, “two blue ones and
two white.”
Dora stopped. Lucy was calling Timothy at the back door. Dora looked to
see that Lucy was beyond hearing. Even then, she whispered the rest.
“Aunt Margaret told me that she is going to give Lucy a white kitten for
Christmas. You will keep it a secret, won’t you, Mother?”
“I will try to,” said Mrs. Merrill. “But what with your pincushion and
now this white kitten, and its being only September, I think we are
getting Lucy’s Christmas started early.”
“I know she will like it,” said Dora happily. “I told Aunt Margaret so.
In the beginning the kittens didn’t have anything around their necks, but
Aunt Margaret took Vega to a jeweler, and had him put on a silver collar
and ring, so I could wear her on my chain. Lucy’s white kitten will have
a collar, too. And that is why Vega sits down so hard and flat, Mother,
so as not to tip over on the chess-board.”
Next, Dora told Mother about the babies, and how one had cried real
tears until Miss Perrin comforted it. Lucy came back and they both talked
of the little black baby.
“Would you have minded if we had brought it home?” asked Lucy.
“I should prefer a white one,” said Mother.
“But this was more unusual,” explained Lucy.
“It would be in our family,” agreed Mrs. Merrill. Then she said they must
go to bed early, because, after two such exciting days, she knew they
were tired.
Quite soon after Dora’s birthday, Jack Frost took out his paints and
colored all the leaves. Some were yellow and some red, mixed with green.
Some, he turned a faded brown. All over Westmore, the leaves began to
flutter down and carpet the streets with bright spots of color.
Then one night, Jack took a look at the flower-beds. Evidently he didn’t
approve of people’s raising flowers in gardens; he cared only for things
which grew wild. For the flowers did not become bright colors; they
turned black and shriveled.
Uncle Dan cut down the tall hollyhocks which had been so pretty all
summer. Many of them towered far above his head. Lucy and Dora dragged
the stalks to a place where they could be burned. Some of the seeds went
into their hair and some went down their necks. And hollyhock seeds
tickle when they slip inside one’s clothes.
Mother asked Uncle Dan to trim the rose-bushes on either side of the
back door. She said she was tired of having them snatch out her hairpins
every time she tried to hang up clothes. The children thought Mother was
joking, but Uncle Dan cut off one long sprout and on it, there really sat
a hairpin. Dora took it straight to Mother who put it in her hair and
said she was glad to see it again.
Dora read “Doctor Dolittle” through five times. Then she looked once more
at every picture and returned the book to the library, just as clean
and nice as when she took it. She told Miss Perkins that she liked that
story best of any book she had ever read. Miss Perkins said she liked it
herself. That was the reason she chose it for Dora to take to the beach.
Dora remembered to ask for the book for Father about the marionettes and
she told Miss Perkins about seeing them in Boston. She was pleased to
know that Miss Perkins had seen those very plays, the rabbit play and the
one about Jack.
Miss Perkins found two books for Father to read about them. One was a
big book and she thought it was rather heavy for Dora to carry, but Dora
thought she could manage it. Once or twice on the way home, she would
rest it on a wall.
The weather grew so cool that even the big girls played games at recess.
It was pleasanter to run about than to stand still and let the wind blow
right through one. To stand still, it was necessary to get into a corner
where the sun shone brightly and the wind couldn’t come.
Miss Leger always dismissed her children before Miss Scott’s room came
out, and Dora would wait for Lucy. One afternoon, Miss Scott’s class
filed out, walking two and two across the school grounds to the sidewalk,
where they broke ranks and began to skip and prance. Dora was waiting,
but Lucy was not in the file.
“Where is Lucy?” she asked Dorothy Barrows.
“Miss Scott kept her after school,” said Dorothy. “Lucy has been very
naughty, so naughty that we are none of us to tell what she did.”
Dora felt sorry to hear this, but she could not believe that Lucy had
been more than a little naughty. The other children all went home, but
Dora waited in the cold wind, trying to keep warm by jumping up and down.
She kept looking at the schoolhouse to see when Lucy came.
It grew later and later and Dora was afraid that Mother would worry,
but she could not leave Lucy to walk home alone. Lucy would need to be
comforted when she came out.
After a long time Lucy did come, and her face was swollen with crying and
her eyes were red. In her hand she held a note.
When Dora saw the note, she knew that Lucy had been really naughty.
Anybody who was given a note to take home had done something shocking.
Dora ran to meet Lucy and kissed her. Then she held her arm and did not
say a word. Lucy began to cry again and walked slower and slower. Dora
was cold and wanted to walk fast.
“What is the matter?” Dora asked when they had gone about a block. “Was
Miss Scott cross to you?”
Lucy nodded and choked. She tried to speak but only cried the harder.
When they reached the brown cottage, Mother was watching for them. She
came and opened the door.
“Where _have_ you been?” she asked. “You are very late and you know I
want you always to come straight home after school.”
Then Mother saw how Lucy looked. Dora began to cry also, just because she
was so sorry for Lucy.
Mother took them into the warm kitchen and asked what the matter was,
but Dora did not know, and Lucy could not tell. She sobbed and held out
the note. Mother read it.
Lucy cried harder than ever and so did Dora. For a minute Mother did not
say anything at all. Then she told Dora to stop crying and told Lucy to
go and wash her face.
When Lucy came out of the bathroom, Mother sat down in the rocker and
took her in her arms. She told Dora to go into the parlor and work on the
cushion for Olive.
Dora sewed until it began to grow dark, which was soon, because they had
been so late coming from school. Mother never allowed her or Lucy to
light the lamp on the table, so she looked out of the window and wished
she could do something for Lucy.
After a time, she heard Lucy going up to their room and then Mother
opened the door into the parlor. Dora ran to her at once.
“Please tell me, Mother,” she asked, with her arms about Mother’s waist.
Mrs. Merrill sat down and took Dora on her lap. “Lucy has done something
very wrong,” she said. “She didn’t know how to do a problem in
number-work, so she kept her book open under her desk and copied from it.”
“But she is _very_ sorry,” said Dora, and the tears came into her eyes.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill. “She is so sorry that we will not say anything
more to her about it. But you will never do it, will you, Dora?”
“No, Mother,” said Dora earnestly. “But I don’t need to, you see. I like
number-work and the problems are easy for me.”
“I mean in anything,” said Mrs. Merrill. “It never does any good to cheat
in this world, and it hurts only the one who does it.”
“I won’t, in anything,” said Dora. “May I go and tell Lucy that I love
her and that we aren’t going to say anything about it?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill. “I told Lucy to lie down for a little while
because she has cried so much that her head aches. It is her turn to help
me get supper to-night, but if you want to, you may do it for her.”
Dora was glad to do this. She ran up-stairs and kissed Lucy and whispered
in her ear, and then half-way down the stairs, she ran back and took
the Chinese kitten out of the pink box where Arcturus used to live. She
tucked it into Lucy’s hand.
“Vega is very comforting to hold,” she said. “When you come down to
supper, please put her back in her pink box.”
Just then, Lucy didn’t think she should want any supper, but Dora and the
kitten made her feel better, to say nothing of the talk with Mother.
When Dora called, she put Vega away and came down.
Mother had told Father and Uncle Dan not to speak of Lucy’s red eyes, and
they did not. Only, after supper, Father took her on his knee and talked
to her a little while.
That night, after she and Dora were in bed, Lucy rolled over and cuddled
close to Dora.
“I am never going to cheat again,” she said. “I don’t like Miss Scott and
I never shall like her, but it is because of Father and Mother. They care
so much about our doing what is right, that we shall just have to do it.”
“Yes,” said Dora, snuggling into Lucy’s arms, “we mustn’t be naughty when
they care so much.”