FIVE IN A BASKET
"WELL, if you're not bothering me again!" Farmer Green's wife exclaimed.
Miss Kitty Cat had come up behind her and brushed against her, asking atthe same time with her most polite mew if Mrs. Green wouldn't pleaseturn around.
Mrs. Green looked over her shoulder.
"I declare!" she cried. "So that's what you've been fussing about, isit?"
Miss Kitty Cat gently laid something on the floor at her mistress' feet.And she acted much pleased when Mrs. Green bent over and picked up atiny, soft, pudgy--kitten.
"What do you think of that?" Miss Kitty Cat asked Mrs. Green. At least,that was what Mrs. Green understood her to say.
Anyhow, Miss Kitty appeared delighted with what Mrs. Green told her. Andfeeling that her youngster was in safe hands, Miss Kitty Cat ran out ofthe kitchen and disappeared.
In a little while she returned, carrying another kitten in her mouth.Mrs. Green admired this one as much as the first. And again Miss Kittyvanished.
She returned with a third kitten; she returned with a fourth one.
"Well, well!" Farmer Green's wife said to her. "We have enoughnow--don't you think so?"
Mrs. Green soon learned that Miss Kitty Cat was not quite of the samemind. She made one more trip across the yard to the barn. And at last,with an air of great pride she set down a fifth kitten upon the kitchenfloor.
"That's all, Mrs. Green," Miss Kitty said. "They're so beautiful it's ashame there aren't twice as many."
But Mrs. Green was out in the woodshed and didn't hear her. She came insoon with a basket.
"This is what old Spot used to sleep in when he was a puppy," Mrs. Greentold Miss Kitty Cat. "I suppose you're willing to use it for yourfamily."
Miss Kitty made no objection when Mrs. Green carefully laid the fivekittens side by side on an old shawl which she spread in the bottom ofthe basket. Then Mrs. Green picked up the precious burden and with MissKitty following closely, set it down in a corner of the woodshed.
"There!" said Mrs. Green. "Now they're snug and warm. And I'll setyour milk right beside the basket, so you won't have to leave yourfamily when you drink it."
It was not long before old dog Spot poked his long nose though thewoodshed doorway and spied Miss Kitty Cat close beside the basket,lapping her milk. He gave a short bark when he saw her. And to hisastonishment both Miss Kitty Cat and Farmer Green's wife came running athim.
Mrs. Green had a broom in her hand and Miss Kitty Cat had her claws inher paws. They both ordered him to keep away from the woodshed. And Spotsneaked off to the barn and hid in the stall beside the old horseEbenezer.
"What's troubling you?" Ebenezer inquired in his slow way.
"It's that ill-natured Miss Kitty Cat," Spot exclaimed. "She has a bigfamily of kittens. And she's terribly touchy about anybody's coming nearthem. Although she's keeping them in my basket, she hasn't even invitedme to have a look at them.... I only hope," he added, "they won't growup to be like their mother."
Old Ebenezer looked down at him with mild surprise.
"What's the matter with Miss Kitty?" he asked.
"She can't take a joke," said Spot. "If you chase her, she always clawsyou if she can."
Now, that was one of the first things Miss Kitty taught her children.She claimed that claws were made to be used--especially on old dogSpot.
But when a kitten tried its claws on one of its mates Miss Kitty alwayscuffed it smartly. She claimed, then, that claws were not made to beused--especially on one's own family.
And in time the kittens learned their lessons perfectly.
THE END.
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