Dixie rolling on her back with her paws in the airA Happy Little Cat
Dixie rolling on her back with her paws in the air
Itwas a great pity that Dixie could not have heard and understood the little talk between Lady and Mistress before Lady went to the new house. “Master says you shall have her if you like,” said Mistress. “But I know that he values her,” replied Lady, “and if she will only go back to the barn and be happy, I won’t take her. Suppose I leave her a few days and see if she won’t be friendly with the other cats and live with them comfortably. If she really won’t, then I will come for her.” If Dixie had known of this talk, she would not have been so hurt and angry; but she supposed Lady had abandoned her, and she was miserable. She did not forget, but grew more and more angry as the days passed. Lady came to see her again. Dixiewas so glad that she could not help purring for a minute; then she remembered Lady’s unkindness, and she walked away up the path. She sat down with her back to Lady and looked over her shoulder at her reproachfully.
Lady meant to come for Dixie on the following day, but she was called out of town, and it was three weeks before she could set off with a rattan extension-case to get the kitten. When she came to the gate of the lawn, it was almost dark, and Dixie was roaming about close to the house, a lonely little shadow. The People who now lived in the house had been very good to the kittens. The Heavenly Twins had gone to live with a kind-hearted watchman, who wanted them to keep him from being lonely at night; but the other two were living with the People in their old home. “We wanted to be good to Dixie,” said one of the People in the house,“and we tried to pet her. Sometimes after dark, when the children had gone to bed, she would come in and wander about from one room to another. If we paid much attention to her or tried to take her up, she would run out again; but if we let her alone, she would sometimes stay half the evening.”
Buttercup and Topsy were running about and playing as if nothing had happened, for kittens have short memories, and they had quite forgotten Lady. Indeed, they had almost forgotten Dixie, for when kittens grow large, they forget their mothers, and their mothers forget them, too. People who are mothers always love their children, no matter how tall they have grown; but cats cease to care anything about their kittens as soon as the kittens are old enough and big enough to take care of themselves.
Poor little Dixie was roaming about inthe gloom, alone and miserable, and too wretched even to run away. Lady put her hand upon her, and she was grieved to feel how thin the little cat had grown. Her silky fur was rough and harsh, and she did not seem half so large as she had been before. “You poor little Dixie kitten,” said Lady, tenderly, “I shall have to frighten you for a little while, but I think you will be happy afterwards.” She held the kitten firmly and put her into the rattan case. Mistress shut down the cover in a twinkling, and in half a minute the straps were fastened and Dixie was a prisoner. Of course she cried, for she was terribly alarmed; but Lady talked to her and soothed her, and before they were in the car she was quiet.
It was not long before the car stopped at the Road where the new house was. Lady got out and carried the extension-case to the door and into the house. A Caller was there, for Somebody Else had told her thatLady had gone to get Dixie, and she had waited to see how the kitten would behave. “Though I don’t believe Lady will be able to catch her,” she had said. “Cats care nothing for people. They are selfish little creatures, and all they want is to be comfortable. Probably this one has forgotten all about her by this time.”
When Lady came in, the Caller said, “You’d better open the case in the kitchen. The cat will probably be as crazy as a loon, and she may dash about and tear things and do a great deal of damage.” So the Caller and Lady and Somebody Else and the case with the kitten all went to the kitchen; and Lady began very slowly and gently to loosen the straps. It was all so quiet in the case that she wondered whether it could have been so close that the poor little cat was half smothered, and she pulled the last strap off in a great hurry. “You’d better be careful,” said the Caller, “and not haveyour face too near. You never can trust a cat, and no one can tell what she will do. She may spring right at you.” Lady did not believe Dixie would do any such thing, and she took the cover off in a twinkling. Dixie stepped quietly out of the case and looked around her. She saw Lady and Somebody Else, and she saw the Mother standing in the doorway. They talked to her, and patted her, and told her they were glad to see her. Dixie forgot the lonely days at the old house when she thought Lady had abandoned her. It was all past; Lady had remembered her and had brought her home, and now she was going to live with Lady and be really her own little cat. Never was a cat so happy before, and she purred so, she could be heard far into the dining-room. As Lady bent over her, she stretched up and tried to rub her face against Lady’s. She ran about the room and touched with her keen little nose thestove hearth, the chairs, the rugs, the table cover, one familiar thing after another; and every minute or two she ran back to Lady to tell her how glad she was to be with her.
“Dixie dear, how miserable you must have been,” said Lady, with tears in her eyes.
“I never knew that just a cat could be either so happy or so unhappy,” said the Caller, with tears in her eyes, too. As for Somebody Else, she had long been wiping her own eyes when she thought no one was looking; so it was really quite a tearful time. By and by Dixie discovered in a corner a little dish heaped full of the canned salmon that she especially liked, for on the way home Lady had stopped a minute to go into a store to buy it to celebrate the homecoming. Close beside the salmon was a half-open package that smelled wonderfully good. Even Dixie’s small black nose would not go into it, but it was too tempting toleave, for it was catnip. At length she pushed in her little paw, curled it up, and brought out a mouthful, which she held up and ate just as a boy would eat a piece of candy.
It was pretty late in the evening by this time. The Caller went home, and Lady called Dixie to go to bed. There was a good soft bed all made ready for her in the cellar. It was in a barrel of shavings, for cats like to sleep high up from the floor. Near the barrel was a saucer of milk, for fear she might be thirsty in the night. It was all very comfortable, but I do not believe that Dixie went to sleep at once. Cats like to know all about a place that is new to them, and I have no doubt that she examined every corner of the cellar before she curled herself up to rest. I am almost sure, too, that she purred herself to sleep, and that she had happy dreams all night long.