"Uncle Clarkson, when I'm a big big man I'll be a sodser (soldier), and
tut (cut) off black men's heads by the store (score)!"
Ben laughs, but shakes a finger at Tom.
"Poor dear Cockie!" says the cockatoo, in a mournfully lugubrious tone.
"Eh? Eh?" cries the starling, briskly looking up from his perch on top
of the tabby. "Eh? What is it? What d'ye say? Tse, tse, tse."
Vee-Vee, the Pomeranian, changes his position and faces Shireen.
He looks at her for a minute, then leans his head on her footstool, but
his eyes are still fixed upon her.
Shireen was Vee-Vee's foster mother. Six years ago he came to the
Castle, being then a mere dossil of cotton wool apparently, with a black
dot for a nose and two black dots for eyes, so that Lizzie called him a
little snow dog. Well, the little snow dog was only a fortnight old,
and it happened just then that Shireen had had kittens, the whole of
which had died. No they had _not_ been drowned, for Colonel Clarkson
was too humane a man to think of depriving the pussy of all her family
at once. But, I repeat, they died.
Then Shireen had taken pity on Vee-Vee, the little snow dog.
"You're an orphan," she said, or seemed to say, for it is all the same
thing. "You're an orphan, and a miserable little mite at that; well, I
have oceans of milk, so I shall rear you if you are so inclined."
The little snow dog was so inclined, and Shireen took him over at once,
and till this day, next to his dear master, Vee-Vee loved his foster
mother.
"Just look," said Mrs Clarkson, "how fondly Vee-Vee is gazing at his
foster mother!"
"Oh," cried Lizzie, "I know what Vee-Vee wants. He wants her to tell
him a story."
"Ah! indeed," said Colonel Clarkson, "she well may tell her friends a
story, for few cats have had a more adventurous life than she."
Shireen patted Vee-Vee on the nose with her paw, but the nails were
sheathed, then she proceeded to tell her strange story.
Cats and all the lower animals, or undergraduates, have a language of
their own, you know, but I have made myself master of it, and I shall
try to translate what Shireen said. Only I must take a new chapter to
it.