_CHAPTER I.—The Baby’s Danger._
[Illustration: THE OLD WHITE MANSION.]
There was a day in her baby-life that little Mary Ellen always spoke of
as “my first day.”
“It was when I was a little crib-baby, a little bye-o-baby, you know,”
Mary Ellen would say.
Mary Ellen meant it was the first day she could remember.
She remembered it by two things—it was the first time she ever heard her
pretty mama scream, and the first time she ever got her little hands into
the fur of a cat.
Mary Ellen was in her crib, in the pretty baby-room of the big white
mansion, called “The House of the Grandmothers.” A pink rosebush was
growing in a blue-and-white pot, a yellow canary hung in the window,
and the sunshine was streaming in over everything. Mary Ellen was lying
awake, looking at the pretty window, when all at once something made her
turn her eyes.
There, on the foot-rail, sat some beautiful, furry, bright-eyed
creatures, looking at her, and making the most lovely noise. She smiled
at them, saying, “goo-goo-goo.” At that, one of them hopped down on the
quilt, then came closer, blinking its green eyes and still making the
lovely noise. Mary Ellen’s tiny body gave a quick little spring, and—O,
delightful!—her hands grabbed into the soft warm fur of a kitty.
Then came the scream, and mama with it, both through the open door.
“Dick! mercy! come quick! scat! scat!”
Not only papa came, but the two grandmamas and one of the
great-grandmothers, all four looking scared.
“They were right on the foot-rail of her crib—the three tiger-cats,”
gasped mama, “and one had jumped down on her! I don’t much think they’ve
scratched her, but they might have—just think of it, Dick!”
Papa Dick smiled. “Awful!” said he. “No doubt, Nan, they came in
purposely to eat your baby up!”
The grandmothers smiled too. “Nan! as if our cats would hurt Mary Ellen!”
said the youngest grandmother.
“Well, you can all laugh,” said Mama Nan, “but I think six cats are much
too many in a house where there’s a baby.”
[Illustration: THE TIGER CATS.]
“Six cats _is_ rather many,” laughed papa, “but then there are six
grandmothers, too, you know, to keep them off.”
_Ella Farman Pratt._