more. You all know or can understand, what it is to live in the house
with a boy and a whip. But I was going to say that even the oldest of us
have been kittens once and we know that a kitten must spring at things
a-moving. I did. The boy rode on a wooden horse, and the horse had a
tail just right to spring at. It was placed behind the boy so that he
could not see me. But the people could, and they punished me for doing
what I could not help doing. A kitten would not be a kitten did it hold
back from springing at such a beautiful tail a-moving.
“I was whipped and put down cellar a great many times and even when I
had grown quite large; for I was always of a lively turn.
[Illustration:
Curled Up on the Best Rug.
]
“Oh what fun I had with the people after I learned to open the cellar
door! Mornings they would say ‘I wonder who let the cat up?’ Sometimes
just after I had been put down cellar for meddling with tassels or
knitting work, they would find me on the best bed or in the best chair,
or in the best room curled up on the best rug. At last these people took
all their things and went away and left me there with nothing to eat.
Every day I had to go forth to seek my food. Pinky-white has told you
something of what this means. Hanging around back doors, kicked,
starved, frozen, barked at by dogs, chased by cruel boys! Oh tongue
cannot tell what I suffered from cruel boys! They yelled at me, they
threw stones, they tormented me in every way they could. Just the sight
of one would make me tremble. One day when I was on a clothes-pole I saw
two boys coming, far away. They yelled at me and picked up stones. I
scrambled down. I ran toward the house. I heard their shouts. I ran to
the back door. The door was shut. I sprang up, caught the latch, the
door opened, I ran in to a woman, looked in her face and said, ‘Oh do
take care of me!’
[Illustration:
The Rat Family.
]
“The woman was so much pleased with my opening the door that she invited
me to live in that house, and I was glad enough to stay for there is a
meat-shop in the house. I have lived there a very long time. I make
myself useful by driving off cats and dogs that come to steal meat. Of
course I never steal. I do not need to. I am fed so well that I never
know what it is to be hungry, and have no wish for mouse-meat or
rat-meat. In fact the rats and I are such friends, I sit near them in
the garret and watch their goings on in their families, and they never
mind me at all.
“My good fortune came from knowing how to open doors. I will say no
more, for I know the company wish to hear Madame Pussy Hunter’s story.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
Madame Pussy Hunter’s Story.
]
“I am chiefly an out-doors cat. I like to catch moles and field-mice and
rabbits, and bugs, and butterflies. I like butterflies almost as well as
Pussy Gray did. Poor Pussy Gray who was stung in the eye by a bumble-bee
while watching for butterflies and went crazy! I am fond of birds too.
“In this I am different from the renowned Tabby Furpurr, who found out a
way of not liking birds, and on that account had her picture taken and
put in a frame!
[Illustration:
Just Dropping Off to Sleep.
]
“I was always a butterfly hunter, but not always a mole hunter, a
field-mouse hunter and rabbit hunter. I will tell you how I happened to
become a mole hunter, a field-mouse hunter, and a rabbit hunter.
“One day I went out among some tall flower stalks to catch butterflies,
and got very tired of jumping, and lay down to take a nap under the
flower stalks. I was just dropping off to sleep when I heard a noise and
looked up and saw my sister coming. She asked me to go to her house and
get some cream. She knew where there was a good deal of cream in a good
place. She wanted me to open the pantry door. As my sister was anxious
for me to go, I went, and we both enjoyed a hearty meal. We crept out of
the pantry and then softly under chairs and tables to the passage-way.
In that passage-way was my sister’s kitten playing with a ball of yarn.
She pawed it, and clawed it, and pushed it, and tumbled heels over head
over it, as kittens will do—ah, we were all kittens once! and at last
she pushed it into a room. We peeped in at the door and saw the kitten
leave the ball suddenly, and pop behind the screen. Her tail was very
big, and her back was up, so we knew something had frightened her, and
crept in to see what had frightened her. In the middle of the room was a
great chair, and from that chair was something hanging down, something
furry. We went near to see what it could be. It looked like a dog’s head
upside down. It was a dog’s head upside down. Cats that have always seen
dogs’ heads upside up, have no idea how a dog’s head looks upside down.
This dog’s head was upside down and the whole dog was upside down;
upside down and asleep.
[Illustration:
The Dog That Was Upside Down.
]
“Both our tails began to grow big. We left the room quickly, and softly
as possible, and ran through a long passage, then up-stairs, then
through another long passage, and _then_ we heard the dog coming,
barking! We ran faster. We knew he was on the stairs; knew he was after
us. We got to the end of a long passage. The bark of the dog sounded
nearer and nearer. There was no way out of the passage. Oh what a moment
that was! I saw a door. I sprang up twice, and opened it the second time
trying. I tremble, even now, to think what might have become of us had
not a window of that room been open, or had I not known how to open a
door. We darted through that window, and went down by a water-spout. The
dog looked out and turned and ran down-stairs, but by the time he was in
the yard we were safe on a shed. Oh how thankful we ought to be that
dogs cannot climb!
“I was saved, but in my haste I trod on a tack nail, and it stuck in my
paw and made my paw in great pain. I went limping, and the pain of the
paw made me sick. My dear mistress! How good she was to me! She took out
the nail and bound up the sore place, and fed me with warm sweetened
milk and water, or if I was thirsty, gave me cool, clear water to lap,
and held me, and made for me a soft bed, and talked to me, and _poored_
me. Oh how pleasant it is to be talked to and _poored_!
“I felt so grateful to my dear mistress that as soon as I was well I
went out to catch everything I could for her—rabbits, moles, field-mice.
That was why I became a hunter. Everything I could I brought in and laid
at her feet, because I wanted to please her. I would not eat one of them
until she told me I might. I never ate even a mouse until I had shown it
to her. Sometimes I bring birds. She is not pleased with me, then. She
scolds me when I bring birds. I don’t know why she scolds me for
bringing birds. I should like to know the renowned Tabby Furpurr way of
not liking birds.”
Scarcely had Madame Pussy Hunter finished when up sprang a Spry White
Kitten and hopped out on three paws, and said: ‘_I_ can tell a story of
a door opening.’ Some of the older ones tried to hiss her down. She was
asked if her story would tell how she lost her right fore paw. Upon
learning that her story would tell how she lost her right fore paw, they
asked to hear what the Spry White Kitten had to say.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
The Spry White Kitten’s Story.
]
[Illustration]
“It is a short story that I am going to tell, but I wish to tell it. I
wish to say that for my part I have never found any good come from
knowing how to open doors. Not that I know how, but my mother does. She
opened a door the other day to show me some cream. It was butter-cream
streaming down a butter-churn. She told me to jump up and lick, and I
did, and a man came and boxed my ears and I have not heard well since.
[Illustration]
“Another time to please me, she opened a door and let me into a large
dining-room that had long curtains just right to scratch and to climb up
by, and a funny old feather hung over a funny old clock. I could go up
on those good curtains, and jump to the clock and play with the feather.
And one day I meddled with the clock to find out where its noise came
from, and was caught and got the worst whipping I’ve ever had yet.
[Illustration:
The Cat With Her Ears Tied Up.
]
“Then here is my brother Bobby hiding yonder behind Black Velvet. Why
does he hide? His ears are tied up with strings. Bobby likes
work-baskets. He teased our mother to let him into a room where there
was a work-basket. He played in it, and the girl tied his ears with
strings, and he ran round, and rolled, and could not get them off, and
ran into a coal-hole, and stayed till he was very hungry, and when he
went into the house he went to a boy that was sitting on the floor
eating milk. That boy did not give him any milk. No. He took a great
cloth and tried to wash Bobby’s paws in the milk! Bobby got away, and
now he has come to this famous party with his ears in strings. A pretty
state he is in to come to a famous party! We all know how dreadful it is
to have our ears meddled with.
[Illustration:
It Got Hold of My Leg.
]
“But all this is nothing to what happened afterwards. My mother opened a
door to let me into a room where there was a mouse-hole. Now a boy had
put in that room a curious thing. I went close up to it to see what it
was. It was a crab, but I did not know that. I was young. I never had
seen a crab. I touched it to find what it was made of, and it got hold
of my leg just above my paw. I never screamed so in all my life. Oh how
I did scream! And no wonder. My leg was broke. My paw had to be taken
off, and now I have to be three-pawed. Now I have to go limp, limp,
hopperty limp! Only three paws to run away from cruel boys with, and
barking dogs! Only three paws to climb with! Only three paws to claw
with! No; as for me, _I_ have never seen much good come from knowing how
to open doors!”
“‘You had better sit down, Miss,’ exclaimed Black Velvet. ‘Young people
should be seen and not heard. We are speaking at this famous party of
the good of knowing how to open doors—not of the bad. Mrs. Beulah Black
is present, and has something to relate which all will like to hear.’”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
Mrs. Beulah Black’s Story.
]
“In me, my dear Lady Yellow-paw, you see a child of the unfortunate
Pussy Gray who when watching for butterflies was stung in the eye by a
bumble-bee and went crazy, and ran away. There were three of us born on
the same day, namely: Lily, Dinah Dusky and myself, Beulah Black. Pussy
Gray was one of the best of mothers. She herself cared neither for rats,
mice, nor moles. She liked birds and bugs and was very fond of
butterflies. But she would sit long watching at a hole to catch mice or
moles for us, and then she would bring them to us, and show us how to
play with them, and stand looking at us in her motherly way. She grew
thin from staying in to take care of us. We were a quarrelsome set.
“I don’t know what became of Lily, but Dinah Dusky went when she was
very young to live in a corn store. I stayed at a house nearer my
mother’s house, and it was well that I did, for at the time she got
stung in the eye by a bumble-bee, she had another young family, and I
was able to go in and take care of them, and to punish them when they
needed punishment. I was then a mother myself with my first little brood
around me.
[Illustration]
“I remember the day well. My mother left the family and went into the
garden to catch butterflies. If she did not see any butterflies it was
her custom to stand still and listen for the sound of their wings. She
was doing so when that sad thing happened to her. My sister, Dinah
Dusky, had come that day to see my dear little beauties and we two went
out together to catch bugs for them. Our mother was in the garden not
far from us. She stood stock still. She had heard the sound of a
butterfly’s wings. An instant more and she would have turned her head.
[Illustration]
“Then it was that the bumble-bee stung her eye. She ran. We ran. We
could not catch her. We could not think what made her behave so. She ran
this way and that way, over fences, back again, through bushes, over
bushes, across fields, and at last away she went out of sight and was
never heard from afterwards. Every day my sister Dinah Dusky and I went
forth to look for our mother, hoping to bring her home to her young
family.
“It was when we had been in the fields looking for her that we saved
ourselves by my sister’s quickness in opening a door. I will explain how
this happened.
[Illustration:
The Cat That Was Stealing Milk.
]
“My sister and I went into a swamp to look for our mother, and we caught
sight of a rabbit there. We lay down close to the ground, and crept,
crept, crept, softly along, not making a bit of noise. Sometimes we
stopped creeping; then we crept; then we stopped; then we crept, getting
all the time nearer and nearer. The rabbit was asleep part way under a
log. We had crept very near when all at once we heard the bark of a dog.
Dreadful sound! In an instant we were on our feet and running. We ran
towards a house. At first the dog did not see us. Then he saw us and ran
after us, barking. Oh how frightened we were! We ran faster but he ran
faster than we. He came near us, barking, barking, barking, oh it was
terrible! For he came so close to me that I felt his breath. He caught
me by the back of the neck, and just then a boy called him off, and he
dropped me and went to the boy. I ran on. My sister had gone far ahead.
We ran towards the back of the house. The dog came again. We heard him
coming afar off. He would not stay with the boy. I almost died with
fright. There wasn’t a tree nor a clothes-pole near. But there was a
door that my sister had opened before at times when it was necessary
that she should get something to eat without being seen. She opened this
door now, and frightened a cat that was there stealing milk out of a
pitcher, and made her tip over the pitcher.
“We went in and ran through a back shed to the barn. I sprang up on a
hay rack, and my sister—all at this famous party will be surprised to
hear what my sister did. My sister sprang up on the horse’s back!
“We were not a minute too quick. We just saved ourselves. The dog was
close behind. But he could not get at us and he had to go away.
“I have more to tell. That horse and my sister became friends. When he
stayed in the barn she used to stay on his back. He liked to have her
stay there. He could not bear to be without her. He was not easy unless
she came and stayed on his back.
“The man said it would not do. He said it would hurt the horse and they
carried him far away.
“Now comes the sorrowful part. My sister mourned so for the horse that
she would not eat. She would only lap a little water sometimes. She grew
weak and thin. She did not clean her fur. She would stay in the barn and
lie down on the spot where the horse used to stand. At last she was seen
no more and after a long time she was found, dead, high up on a haymow
in a far corner!
[Illustration:
My Sister Sprang Up on the Horse’s Back!
]
“This is all I have to say, your ladyship, but my younger brother David
is here. Though now bigger than I, he was once smaller. He was one of
the young kittens our mother left when she went out to catch butterflies
and was stung in the eye by a bumble-bee. David will tell you of a time
when he opened a door and ran away, and why he ran away.”
All present said they would like to hear David’s Story, and he began as
follows:
[Illustration:
David’s Story.
]
“I was one of the young kittens Pussy Gray left when she went out to
catch butterflies. My sister Beulah Black has told you what happened to
Pussy Gray, how she went crazy and went nobody knew where, and was never
heard from afterwards.
“My Sister Beulah Black had a young family of her own, and one day she
tried to carry us to her house, in order that she might not have to be
all the time running back and forth. It happened that I dropped into a
hole, and she could not get me out. She had to leave me. Now this was
lucky for me, for the others of my mother’s young family, and all but
one of my sister Beulah Black’s young family were sent away and lost. I
have often wondered why it is that so many little kittens are sent away
and lost.
[Illustration:
She Took Turns Rocking Me and Her Dolly.
]
“Only for falling in that hole I might not be here. But I came near
dying there. When taken out I was almost starved to death. I could not
move; I could not make a sound. Girl-Nellie took me out and kept me for
her own. She made me a cotton-wool bed in a cricket, she covered me over
with silk, she fed me with a spoon, she held me just as if I had been a
baby. And when I grew larger she used to rock me in the baby’s cradle
and sing to me. She took turns rocking me and her dolly, and when dolly
was being rocked I sat and waited for my turn to be rocked and sung to.
Oh, how I did love my little mistress! I wanted to sit on her lap. I
wanted to be with her a great deal. I told her all this, though perhaps
she never understood what I said. I knew the time for her to come home
from school, and went always to meet her. She did not know how I knew
the time. People do not know how cats know things. My dear mistress
would not let boy-John torment me. Boy-John was not cruel, but he wished
me to sit up on my hind legs, and to hold a stick, and to jump through a
hoop. It was easy enough to do such things but I did not like to do
them. Boy-John used to say to the baby, ‘Come Baby, bring David!’ I was
so big then that baby could hardly lift me, but he would drag me, and
push me, and try to lift me.
[Illustration:
Could Hardly Lift Me.
]
“Many at this famous party have spoken of what they have suffered from
cruel boys and from dogs, but nobody as yet has spoken of a baby. Tongue
cannot tell what I suffered from that baby. A baby will step on any part
of a cat. A baby will sit on a cat. A baby does not mind what part of a
cat it lifts up a cat by, whether by the tail or by a leg, or by the
head. A baby will pull your ears, will stick its finger in your eyes,
will even meddle with your smellers, and you must keep from touching it,
because it is a baby.
“I never did touch that baby to hurt it. I loved that baby. I kept my
claws way in out of sight, and if I ever squealed it was sometimes when
he sat down on me hard, and squelched the squeal out of me before I knew
it.
“I come now to something painful to speak of. You will be surprised to
learn that I ran away from that dear Nellie mistress. This will now be
explained.
“Unhappily for me, I had great skill in charming birds, and I was as
fond of birds as my mother Pussy Gray was of butterflies. I mean I was
fond of them as food, not as friends. There was no cat anywhere around
that could charm a bird as well as I could. I used to stay under a tree
and when a bird came and sat on a bough I would look straight up at him,
and then he could not fly away. He would cry, and flutter his wings, but
he could not fly away. He would have to drop.
[Illustration:
I Dropped the Bird.
]
“I used to carry the birds to my dear mistress, for I wanted to please
her, and birds were the best things I could get. But she was not
pleased; she scolded me. I could not understand why she praised me for
catching a mouse and scolded me for catching a bird. A bird is better
than a mouse. Pretty soon she began to do something besides to scold. I
was punished in the way cats are punished. I need not tell. All at this
famous party know. After I had been punished a great deal I kept away
from trees. But one day I was in a window-seat, asleep. The window was
swung open, and I lay there to enjoy the sunshine and fell asleep. The
noise of a bird woke me. I stretched myself out flat and looked up. The
bird was on a high window above. When I had looked at it a little while
it began to cry, and then it flew down to the top of the window that was
swung open. It flew lower and lower, and I made a spring and caught it.
My mistress came in and I dropped the bird on the window-seat, and
jumped down and crept away. I felt so ashamed I did not know what to do.
“I was not whipped, but I was punished. I punished myself. I left that
pleasant home and my dear mistress. You will understand why when I
explain.
“That night my mistress’ mother said, ‘We cannot have David killing so
many birds. Something must be done with him. I will get a boy to do
something with him early in the morning.’ I knew what she said. I did
not know by the way people know. I knew by the cat-way of knowing, and
not by the people-way. All present at this famous party know how cats
know what people say. I understood what my mistress said, but I kept
still under a table, and when nobody was looking I crept under the
chairs out into the back room, and opened two doors and ran away, far
away, and for a long time I lived the dreadful life of a cat without a
home.
“One day a man invited me to go home with him. He keeps a store. There
are herring and eggs in the store. I have lived there quite a long time.
I want to go back to my dear mistress, but I am afraid they will get a
boy to do something with me. I like to suck eggs, though as my master
keeps a stick I do not take any except the broken ones he gives me. When
I tease for herring he gives me a piece. I watch people and if they
touch anything that belongs to my master I lay my paw on them and speak.
“Scarcely had David finished when out popped two gray little kittens,
twins, both named Kittywinks, saying:
“‘We are the Kittywinkses, and we’ve come to this famous party.’
“Lady Yellow-paw waved her paw and said: ‘One Kittywinks at a time, my
dears.’
[Illustration:
The Good Child-Baby.
]
“One Kittywinks then said: ‘David talked about a child-baby. Call bad.
Child-baby not bad. We’ve got a child-baby. He does not step on us. He
does not sit down on us. He does not squelch us. He does not hurt. He
touches us softly. He would never tie strings on our ears. He poors us,
and strokes us, and lets us sit on chairs and sofas with him, and crawl
all over him, and play with his curls, and play with his beads, and play
with his playthings. He likes us, only he does not like to have us kiss
him with our noses, but with our mouths, but we don’t know how to kiss
with our mouths, and we have to kiss with our noses.’
“And the Kittywinkses capered back to their places.
“All present at Lady Yellow-paw’s famous party were pleased with the
Kittywinkses, and no wonder, for they were a merry pair of twins, and
not much like the sour faced ones, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, called in
the story, _Dum_ and _Dee_.”
* * * * *
“What story?” cried King Grimalkum in a stern voice.
“The story of the renowned Tabby Furpurr,” answered the lovely
Pussyanita. “Tabby Furpurr who found out a way of not liking birds, and
had her picture taken and set in a frame.”
“I wish to hear the story,” cried the King. “Tell it.”
“With pleasure, your majesty,” replied the lovely Pussyanita, “but to do
so will take a longer time than I have to live.”
“Time shall be granted you,” answered the king. “Tell all you ever heard
of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and of the renowned Tabby Furpurr.”
The lovely Pussyanita bowed and began to tell all she had ever heard of
Tweedledum and Tweedledee and of the renowned Tabby Furpurr.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
]
“In the days when Mouseroun al Ratchid was King of all the Cats, it was
his custom to disguise himself in mealbag powder and walk about the
country to see what he could see, and see it without being known.
[Illustration:
The Good-Kind Boy.
]
“One cloudy morning soon before a storm—the time when our race are
liveliest—Mouseroun called Phi, his wisdom cat, and the two set forth
upon their travels. After proceeding quite a distance they came in sight
of a small boy with a porridge pot, sitting under a tree, eating
porridge. A white cat close to his feet begged for the porridge, and a
big dog stood by and licked the boy’s face and begged for porridge, and
put his nose in the boy’s bread-bag.
“‘Of what kind is the boy?’ asked Mouseroun of Phi.
“‘Of the good kind,’ replied Phi.
“‘How knowest thou that, oh Phi?’
“‘Because the dog and cat come close and show no fear. They ask for
food, sure of getting it.’
“‘Tell me, oh learned Phi, why a boy has long claws only on his fore
legs.’
“‘Because his hind legs are for walking and standing,’ replied Phi; ‘and
for walking and standing, short claws are better than long claws.’
“‘Tell me further,’ inquired Mouseroun, ‘why a cat mews and a dog
barks.’
“‘For the same reason that a cow moos and a horse neighs, and a pig
squeals, and a bird sings, and a frog croaks, and people speak,’
answered Phi. ‘Of course all these would mew if they could, but as they
cannot mew they must do what they can do.’
“‘And why, oh Phi, are some cats born white, and others black, and
others gray, and others of divers colors?’
“‘Because,’ answered Phi, ‘it takes all kinds of cats to make a world.’