Now this is true, for we saw it with our eyes. Dick was a bachelor, or
so we had always supposed: a large black bachelor, with bright green
eyes, and a very fine tail. He lived in the kitchen, and managed things
pretty much as he pleased. When Peter, the new puppy, came he thought
it would be fun to tease Dick. Dick thought it would be fun to be
teased, and when he had sent Peter yelping and ki-yi-ing out into the
shed, he sat and purred and blinked his green eyes, and thought the
world a pleasant place.
Now one day we looked out of the south parlor window, and what do you
think we saw? Dick was coming across the lawn looking very proud and
very happy. Every now and then he stopped and looked over his shoulder
and mewed as if he were calling some one to follow him. And some one
was following him! Across the lawn after him came:
One very thin and wretched-looking tortoise-shell cat.
One Maltese kitten.
One yellow kitten.
All three looked half-starved, and all three were scared out of their
wits!
[Illustration]
“Come on!” said Dick, as plain as mew could speak. “They won’t hurt
you; those are my people: they belong to me. Come on, I tell you!”
They came on, though still very timidly, till they reached the barn.
Then Dick took them under the barn and there he made them comfortable,
we do not know just how, because we cannot get under the barn, and
there they stayed. And when Dick came for his supper he said to Maggie
as plain as mew could speak, “Please feed my family, too!” and Maggie
did.
That was a year ago. Now the tortoise-shell cat is dead, but the
Maltese kitten and the yellow kitten are large and handsome cats, and
Dick still sits by the fire and purrs, and blinks his large green eyes.