BROTHERS AND SISTERS
[Illustration: “POOR LITTLE KITTY, HOW COLD SHE MUST BE” (PAGE 6)]
BROTHERS AND
SISTERS
BY
ABBIE FARWELL BROWN
ILLUSTRATED BY
ETHEL C. BROWN
[Illustration]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1906
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY ABBIE FARWELL BROWN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Published September 1906_
For permission to reprint the several chapters of this volume thanks
are due to _The Churchman_,--“The Garden of Live Flowers,” “April
Fool,” “The Dark Room,” “The Pieced Baby,” “The Alarm;” to _The
Congregationalist_,--“The Japanese Shop,” “Brothers and Sisters;” to
_Good Housekeeping_,--“Buried Treasure;” and to _The Kindergarten
Review_,--“The Christmas Cat.”
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Christmas Cat 1
II. The Christmas Cat’s Present 10
III. The Japanese Shop 19
IV. April Fool’s Night 28
V. The April Fool 38
VI. The April-Fool Journey 48
VII. The Dolls’ May-Party 57
VIII. The Dark Room 66
IX. The Garden of Live Flowers 86
X. Buried Treasure 97
XI. The Pieced Baby 106
XII. The Alarm 120
XIII. Brothers and Sisters 131
XIV. Tommy’s Letter 145
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
“Poor little kitty, how cold she must be” (_page 6_) _Frontispiece_
“See what Santa has brought the Christmas cat” 16
The littlest baby white rabbit 24
“I am April Fool” 40
Kenneth found that it was a wall of glass 44
She lifted poor Matilda and set her up on the window seat 64
In tiptoed a little figure 74
Living flowers 92
The sand stretched out like a great sheet of paper 98
Awakened by a little silvery laugh 108
They were Tommy and Mary Prout 122
What a shriek of joy went up 142
BROTHERS AND SISTERS
CHAPTER I
THE CHRISTMAS CAT
It was the day before the day before Christmas, and there came a big
snowstorm, so that Kenneth and Rose were shut up in the house. Now
that was a very hard thing to bear, for as every one knows, the last
two days before Christmas are the longest, slowest days in the whole
year. But if one has to stay in the house and just _think_, it seems as
though the time would never go by.
If it had been a pleasant day they could have gone out of doors to
skate, or to coast, or to play any number of jolly games which they
now remembered sadly. Perhaps they would have gone to their cousin
Charlie’s house, which was in the next block but one beyond theirs.
Perhaps their papa would have taken them down town for a last look at
the Christmas shops, and the wonderful toys, some of which they hoped
Santa Claus would remember to bring to the Thornton house. There were
ever so many nice things which they could have done to make the time
pass away, if only it had been a pleasant day. But now there seemed
nothing in the world to do.
Kenneth and Rose wandered dismally about the house. They peeped into
the play-room, where the toys were lying about looking very lonely, as
though they would say,--
“O Kenneth! Do come and play with us. Please, Rosie, don’t go away and
leave us all alone!”
But Kenneth and Rose were tired of all the old toys, they had played
with them so many, many times. They hoped that Santa would bring them
some new ones on Christmas morning, if Christmas morning would ever,
ever come!
In the dining-room Rose’s old doll, Matilda, was lying face downward on
the sofa, quite heart-broken because she had been so long deserted.
Rose looked at her, then she turned her back sadly.
“Matilda is growing very ugly,” she said. “No wonder she hides her
face, with only one eye and a broken nose. I still love her very much,
but I do so hope that Santa will not forget how much I need a new
dollie.”
They went down into the kitchen, with a vague hope that Katie might
find them something to do. But Katie was too busy baking the Christmas
pies and cake to bother with children. She would not even give them a
bit of dough to play with.
“Whisht!” she cried, flapping a dishcloth at them fiercely, “Rin out o’
me kitchen, you childer! I can’t have ye fussing about here this day,
niver a bit. Rin off an’ play somewheres else, like a good little lad
and lassie, now.”
Run off and play! Where should they run, and what should they play?
There was no one to help them. Papa was down town in spite of all
the snow. Kenneth wished that he too was a big man who could go out
of doors in spite of all the snow. Mamma was busy in the library with
secrets of her own, and would not let them in. Rose wished that she too
was a big lady who could have secrets all by herself. Then she would
not mind however hard it might storm outside.
Kenneth flattened his nose against one dining-room window, and Rose
flattened her nose against the other, and they stared out at the snow
smoothly spreading itself over everything, just as Katie was frosting
the cake downstairs. Big drifts were piling up beyond the curbstones,
and in the doorways opposite. Now and then a sleigh floundered past,
the horses making their way with difficulty. Supposing, oh, supposing
that it should storm for two whole days, and the snow should grow so
deep that even Santa Claus’s reindeer could not get through with the
gifts for their Christmas stockings!
Suddenly Kenneth jumped right up in the air and cried, “Look, Rose!”
And at the same moment Rose pressed her nose even flatter on the window
and said, “O Kenneth, what is it?”
Something tiny and black was moving along through the snow on the
sidewalk. It gave little hops, each time sinking down almost out of
sight, stopping to rest between jumps as though it were very tired. The
children watched it breathlessly.
At last it came to the long flight of steps, which looked like a smooth
toboggan-slide of snow. But the little black creature seemed to know
what was underneath the cold white covering, for it hopped bravely up
on the lowest step, then up and up, step by step, to the landing, where
the snow was not so deep. And now the children could see it plainly.
“Why, it’s a poor little kitty!” cried Kenneth, almost pushing the
glass out of the window with his small, cold nose, so eager was he to
watch the little stranger.
“And she has come to our ownty-donty steps!” echoed Rose. “Poor little
kitty, how cold she must be!”
Just at that moment the wet little black thing looked up at the window
where Rose stood, and just as if she had heard what Rose said, the poor
kitty answered very sadly, “Mi-a-o-ow!”
All this time it had been snowing harder and harder, and already the
tracks which the kitty had made in the snow were blotted out of sight.
At the same moment Kenneth and Rose made a dash for the front door. “We
mustn’t let the poor kitty stay there,” said Kenneth, “she will be all
drowned in the snow, and frozen, too.”
“Yes, we must bring her in and make her nice and warm,” said Rose.
So they opened the front door, and stood at the head of the steps
calling, “Kitty, kitty!” very gently, while the snow whirled in about
their ankles.
“Mi-a-ow!” answered the black cat, but this time she spoke more
cheerfully. “Thank you!” she seemed to say. “May I really come in?”
“Come in,” said Kenneth.
“Poor kitty, do come in!” cried Rose, holding out her hand invitingly.
And the black cat walked in.
She was very wet and draggly, but Kenneth took her in his arms and
carried her upstairs. Rose ran before, and they knocked on the library
door, where their mamma was hidden with her secrets.
“Mamma, Mamma! Come here a minute!” they cried. “Come and see what we
have found. Come quick, Mamma!”
In a minute their mamma came hurrying, and opened the door just a
tiny little crack, through which she peeped at them. But when she saw
what Kenneth had in his arms she came out quickly, shuttling the door
carefully behind her (to keep the Christmas secrets from running away,
I suppose).
“What have you found, Kenneth?” she cried, holding up her hands.
“A kitty, a poor kitty, lost in the snow,” said Kenneth.
“We had to take her in and make her warm and comfy at Christmas time,
didn’t we, Mamma?” said Rose.
“Please, Mamma, you will let us keep her, won’t you?” they both pleaded.
Mrs. Thornton hesitated. The cat was very wet and homely. She had meant
to give the children a pretty little kitten some day. But just then the
poor hungry animal looked up and gave a pitiful “Mi-a-ow,” and Mrs.
Thornton remembered how dreadful it was that any living creature should
be miserable and cold and homeless at the happy Christmas time.
“Yes, you may keep her, children,” she said. “Keep her and make her
have a merry Christmas.”
Kenneth and Rose took the little cat downstairs and gave her a good
dinner. “But you shall have a better one on Christmas Day,” promised
Kenneth. Rose found a tiny basket and made a bed beside the fire in
the dining-room. And there the black cat slept all the afternoon, she
was so tired, and so glad to rest and to be warm. Rose sat beside
her, stroking her soft fur, and Kenneth sat at the other side of the
fireplace trying to think up a good name for the new kitty, so that the
time went before they knew it, and they had forgotten to wish it were
Christmas day.
“What have you named the little cat?” asked their papa when the
children showed him their new pet that evening.
“Oh, Kenneth has thought of the loveliest name!” cried Rose, jumping up
and clapping her hands. “We are going to call her Christine,--because
she is a little Christmas cat. Isn’t that a beautiful name, Papa?”
And Papa said that he thought it was a very beautiful name indeed.