The Corner House Girls Part 14

for short (p.r.o.nounced like "petal") is pretty for a kitten-"reminds one of a flower, I guess," said Tess.

Tess herself chose for her particular pet the good old fashioned name of "Almira." "You see," she said, "it's sort of in memory of Miss Almira Briggs who was my teacher back in Bloomingsburg, and Myra Stetson, who gave us the cats."

Dot wavered a long time between "Fairy" and "Elf" as a name for the fourth kitten, and finally she decided on "Bungle"! That was because the little, staggery thing, when put down on the floor, tried to chase Aunt Sarah's ball of yarn and bungled the matter in a most ridiculous fashion.

So, Spotty, Petl, Almira and Bungle, the kittens became. Aunt Sarah had a soft spot in her heart for cats-what maiden lady has not? She approved of them, and the children told her their whole adventure with Sandy-face and her family.

"b.u.t.ter her feet," was the old lady's single audible comment upon their story, but the girls did not know what for, nor just what Aunt Sarah meant. They seldom ventured to ask her to explain her cryptic sayings, so they carried the kittens downstairs with puzzled minds.

"What do you s'pose she meant, Ruth?" demanded Agnes. "'b.u.t.ter her feet,' indeed. Why, the old cat would get grease all over everything."

So they merely put the kittens back into the basket, and left the dining-room to Sandy-face and her family, until it was time for Uncle Rufus to set the table for evening dinner.

"Das old cat sho' done feel ter home now," said the black man, chuckling. "She done got inter dat basket wid dem kittens an' dey is havin' a reg'lar love feast wid each odder, dey is so glad ter be united once mo'. Mebbe dat ol' speckled cat kin clean out de mice."

Of course, Uncle Rufus was not really a "black" man, save that he was of pure African blood. He was a brown man-a rich, chocolate color.

But his daughter, Petunia Blossom, when she came to get the wash-clothes, certainly proved to be as black-and almost as shiny-as the kitchen range!

"How come she is so dreful _brack_, I sho' dunno," groaned Uncle Rufus. "Her mudder was a well-favored brown lady-not a mite darker dan me-an' as I 'member my pappy an' mammy, 'way back dere befo' de wah, wasn't none o' dese common _brack_ negras-no, Ma'am!

"But Pechunia, she done harked back to some ol' antsister" (he meant "ancestor") "wot must ha' been marked mighty permiscuous wid de tarbrush. Does jes' look lak' yo' could rub de soot off Pechunia wid yo' finger!"

Petunia was enormously fat, too, but she was a pretty colored woman, without Uncle Rufus' broad, flat features. And she had a great number of bright and cunning pickaninnies.

"How many I got in to-tal, Missie?" she repeated Ruth's question.

"Lor' bress yo'! Sometimes I scurce remember dem all. Dere's two merried an' moved out o' town. Den dere's two mo' wokin'; das four, ain't it? Den de good Lor' sen' me twins twicet-das mak' eight, ef my 'rithmetickle am cor-rect. An' dere's Alfredia, an' Jackson, and Burne-Jones Whis'ler Blossom (he done been named by Mis' Holcomb, de artis' lady, wot I wok fo') an' de baby, an' Louisa Annette, an'

an'-- Bress de Lor', Missie, I 'spect das 'bout all."

Ruth had lost count and could only laugh over the names foistered upon the helpless brown babies. Uncle Rufus "snorted" over the catalog of his daughter's progeny.

"Huh! dem names don't mean nuthin', an' so I tell her," he grunted.

"But yo' cyan't put sense in de head ob a flighty negra-woman-no, Ma'am! She called dem by sech _circusy_ names 'cause dey _sounds_ pretty. Sound an' no sense! Huh!"

Just now, however, the Corner House girls were more deeply interested in the names of the four kittens, and in keeping them straight (for three were marked almost exactly alike), than they were in the names which had been forced upon the helpless family of Petunia Blossom.

Having already had one lesson in lapping milk from a saucer, the kittens were made to go through the training again after dinner, under the ministrations of Tess and Dot.

Sandy-face, who seemed to have become fairly contented by this time, sat by and watched her offspring coughing and sputtering over the warm milk and finally, deciding that they had had enough, came and drank it all up herself.

Dot was rather inclined to think that this was "piggish" on Sandy's part.

"I don't think you're a bit polite, Sandy," she said, gravely, to the mother cat while the latter calmly washed her face. "You had your dinner, you know, before Mrs. McCall brought in the milk."

They all trooped out to see Uncle Rufus establish Sandy and her family for the night in the woodshed. The cat seemed to fancy the nest in the old basket, so they did not change it, and when they left the family, shutting the woodshed door tightly, they supposed Sandy and her children would be safe for the night.

In the morning, however, a surprise awaited Tess and Dot, when they ran out to the shed to see how the kittens were. Sandy-face was sleeping soundly in the basket and Spotty and Petl were crawling all over her. Almira and Bungle had disappeared!

The two smallest girls searched all about the shed, and then a wail arose from Dot, when she was a.s.sured that her own, and Tess' kitten, were really not to be found. Dot's voice brought the whole family, including Uncle Rufus, to the shed door.

"Al-mi-ra and Bungle's lost-ed!" sobbed Dot. "Somebody came and took them, while poor Sandy was asleep. See!"

It was true. Not a trace of the missing kittens could be found. The shed door had not been opened by any of the family before Tess and Dot arrived. There was only a small window, high up in the end wall of the shed, open a very little way for ventilation.

How could the kittens have gotten away without human help? It did look as though Almira and Bungle had been stolen. At least, they had vanished, and even Dot did not believe that there were kitten fairies who could bewitch Sandy's children and spirit them away!

Sandy-face herself seemed the least disturbed of anybody over the lost kittens. Uncle Rufus declared that "das cat sho' nuff cyan't count.

She done t'ink she's sho' got all de kittens she ever had."

"I do believe it was that Sam Pinkney boy," whispered Tess, to Agnes.

"He's just as bad as Tommy Rooney was-every bit!"

"But how would he know where we had housed the kittens for the night?"

demanded Agnes. "I don't see why anybody should want to take two little, teeny kittens from their mother."

Tess and Dot watched closely the remainder of Sandy's family. They believed that the mother cat _did_ discover at last that she was "short" two kittens, for she did not seem satisfied with her home in the woodshed. Twice they caught her with a kitten in her mouth, outside the woodshed door, which had been left open.

"Now, Sandy," said Dot, seriously, "you mustn't try to move Spotty and Petl. First thing you know you'll lose them _all_; then you won't have any kittens. And I don't believe they like being carried by the backs of their necks-I don't. For they just _squall_!"

Sandy seemed offended by the girls' interference, and she went off by herself and remained out of sight for half a day. Tess and Dot began to be worried about the mother cat before Sandy turned up again and snuggled the two remaining kittens in the basket, once more.

That second evening they shut the cat and her two kittens into the shed just as carefully as before. In the morning only Spotty was left!

The speckled little Popocatepetl had vanished, too!

CHAPTER X

RUTH SEES SOMETHING

The mystery of the vanishing kittens cast a cloud of gloom over the minds of the younger Corner House girls. Besides, it had rained in the night and was still raining after breakfast. It was a dull, gloomy day.

"Just a nice day for us to start cleaning the garret," Ruth said, trying to put cheer into the hearts of her sisters. "Only Mr.

Howbridge, who has been away, has written me to come to his office this forenoon. He wants to arrange about several matters, he says.

I'll have to go and we'll postpone the garret rummage till I get back."

"Poor Sandy's all wet and muddy," said Dot, who could not get her troubled mind off the cat family. "Just as though _she'd_ been out in the rain. But I don't see how that could be. She's washing up now by the kitchen stove."

They had brought the mother cat and Spotty into the kitchen for safety. Uncle Rufus shook his head over the mysterious disappearance of Petl, Almira and Bungle, too; whispering to Mrs. McCall:

"Do look for sho' as though rats had got dem kittins. Dunno what else."

"For goodness sake, don't tell me there are rats here, Uncle Rufus!"

exclaimed the widow, anxiously. "I couldn't sleep in my bed nights."

"Dunno whar you'd sleep safer, Mis' McCall, ter git away from 'em,"

chuckled the old colored man. "But I exemplifies de fac' dat I ain't seed none ob dere tracks."