the children went east with their mother that summer, and weejums stayed with grandmother and cyclone at the farm. but eunice wrote to her quite often, and learned from her replies that she was having a splendid time chasing grasshoppers.
“i’d enclose one tender little one for you,” weejums wrote; “but your grandmother says that they wouldn’t agree with you. it seems a pity, because they have such juicy little red legs.”
eunice did not really believe that weejums wrote these letters herself, but was quite certain that she thought all these things, even if she never mentioned them.
when they came back in the fall, grandmother[23] went down first to open the house, and, of course, eunice asked for weejums almost before she was inside the door.
“well, she’s busy just now,” said grandmother, with a funny look; “but she sent word for you to look behind the barrel in the woodshed.”
eunice and kenneth ran as fast as they could, wondering why weejums did not come to meet them. and then they heard a purr—such a loud, proud purr! eunice thought that they heard it in the dining-room; but kenneth said it was not until they reached the kitchen. but it was weejums’ purr, and it came from behind the barrel in the woodshed!
eunice looked at weejums, and weejums looked at eunice, and mother and grandmother came out and looked at them both. then eunice took three little squealing rolls of fur into her lap, and kissed three tiny pink noses, warm and moist with sleep. and weejums forgot all about her kittens, in the joy of seeing eunice again.
[24]
“they were born at the farm, two weeks ago,” grandmother said, “and came down in a basket last night.”
“don’t you think,” asked eunice, in an awestruck tone, “that she’s very young to be a mother?”
“it really looks so,” said grandmother, seriously; “because she seems to love you a great deal better than she does the kittens!”
weejums was rolling over and over in her delight, and jumping in and out of the box to rub against eunice’s face. and whenever she jumped, her purr jolted up into a funny little squeak that came down when she did.
“one is black with white edgings,” said eunice, in a rapturous whisper, “and one is yellow and white, with mittens.”
“yes, those are extra toes like a thumb,” said grandmother. “there’s a cat up at the farm with toes like that.”
“and one is tortoise-shell like—no, not like weejums. isn’t it a funny color, mamma?”
[25]
“yes, if she was ever planned for a tortoise-shell, her colors must have run.”
eunice looked alarmed, and wondered if all the other kittens’ colors would run together, like the dyes of easter eggs when they come out wrong. but there was really nothing strange about this kitten, except that where her black spots should have been black, to make her a regular tortoise-shell, they were a kind of mixed brindle and maltese, with speckled and drab lights. the rest of her was a nice yellow and white, as it should be.
“she looks like my old laundry-bag,” said grandmother; “but i kept her for the sake of that alley cat.”
“oh, say, come out and see the rabbits try the new house!” called franklin at the shed-door, and everybody but grandmother hurried out into the yard; for the rabbits had just come home from “beansy’s,” where they had spent the summer, and were to begin house-keeping in their new quarters.
mrs. wood was particularly interested in[26] the big rabbit-house, because she had helped draw plans for the billiard and drawing rooms, and herself suggested that there should be an upstairs.
there were two rabbits, a black one with white spots, and a white one with black spots, and they were called mercurius dulcis and the overture to zampa. franklin had found the first name on one of his mother’s medicine-bottles, and admired it; but mrs. bun was always called dulcie for short. the overture was a fine, big fellow with muscular sides, and a louder stamp of the hind leg than any other rabbit in the rabbit club. indeed, franklin had been made president of the rabbit club, just because of the size and strength and sound of the overture’s feet. even beansy’s white buck, alonzo, was nothing beside him.
“you put stamper in the front door,” franklin said to beansy, for stamper was the overture’s club name, “and i’ll put dulcie in the cupola. then he’ll have to go up, and she’ll have to come down.”
[27]
the cupola had a top that came off, something like the cover of a baking-powder tin, and dulcie was thrust in, with a terrific kicking and scrambling of resentful hind legs. but she was no fun at all afterwards, for she sat perfectly still in a frightened bunch, with her nose wiggling very fast,and did not try to move.
“stamper’s all right, though,” beansy said, with his face against the wire-netting. “he’s going upstairs.”
he certainly was, although at first he had proceeded cautiously around the drawing-room, with long backward stretches of the hind legs. but now he found the staircase,—made of a board with little slats nailed across it,—and scratched his way up very slowly, smelling the air with little tosses of the head.
“he’ll find the celery now,” called eunice, delightedly. “i put a piece in dulcie’s boudoir.”
stamper ate the celery loudly, beginning with the leafy end, and dulcie heard him from the cupola.
[28]
“she’s coming down!” kenneth exclaimed.
“no, she’s stuck,” said beansy. “your old cupola door ain’t big enough for her to get out at.”
“ho!” answered franklin, with scorn, “you just see!” and in a minute dulcie had squeezed her way through, and dropped down suddenly on stamper’s head, which surprised him so much that he dropped the last bit of celery,—the widest end,—and dulcie ate it. then they sat looking at each other with wiggling noses, as if they had never met before, and each one was thinking, “now who on earth can this other rabbit be!”
“they’re all right now,” said mrs. wood, turning back to the house; “but they’ll never be able to get into that cupola after they’ve had their dinner.”
kenneth ran after his mother, beansy went home, and franklin went into the shed to get his tool chest.
“let me hold stamper while you fix the door,” eunice begged, for being franklin’s[29] sister, she naturally regarded stamper in the light of a nephew.
“no, sir, he’ll stay below decks,” said franklin, taking the cupola off the house.
“but he’s trying to get out, franklin. i can see his ears coming upstairs.”
franklin ruled out a larger door in the cupola with his square, and began to saw.
“franklin, he is coming out!”
“oh, go play with your cats!” said franklin, impatiently. but eunice had seen a pair of wicked ears, erect as corn-stalks, peering through the opening where the cupola had been.
“he will get out!” she thought, and grasping his ears firmly, hauled the big fellow into her arms.
stamper sat very still, as he was fond of eunice, and simply moved his wide ears back and forth until franklin began to pound. then he gave a mighty leap, kicked eunice in the stomach, and sprang to the ground.
“franklin!” eunice gasped; she was too[30] much out of breath to say anything else; and franklin only answered, “oh, don’t bother!”
so before eunice could make him look around, stamper had given three loud, slow thumps with his legs, a kind of double-back-action kick in the air, and was off across the yard.
“head him off! head him off!” called franklin, as he saw the scudding of a white tail. “round by the alley, quick, quick!”
eunice ran as fast as she could, but before they could stop him, the rabbit had dodged under a barn and disappeared.
“oh, thunder!” said franklin,“we can’t ever catch him now. how in the world did he get out?”
eunice went through a little struggle with herself, and then said: “he—i was holding him just a minute, franklin. you see he was most out himself, and so—”
“you didn’t try to hold him after what i said!”
“yes, i did.”
[31]
franklin might have understood how hard it was for her to tell this, but he didn’t, and said angrily, “eunice, you’re a naughty, naughty girl, and you shall never even touch one of my rabbits again!”
eunice turned and went into the house without saying a word, but franklin heard a pitiful wail when the door was closed, and thought, “hm—serves her right!”
he spent the rest of the morning looking for stamper, and putting lost signs, with a description of the rabbit, on all the barns in the neighborhood. but he did not expect to find him again, and dinner that day was not a cheerful meal. eunice’s eyes were red; kenneth was too awestruck to upset his glass of water as usual; and mrs. wood looked grieved. but franklin did not see why she should expect him to be anything but cross, when he had lost the finest rabbit in the whole club, and all through the fault of a meddling child,—her child too! he decided that he had a right to be most severe, and went out after dinner to whittle on[32] the side steps, which with him was always a sign of great displeasure.
as he sat there, weejums picked her way daintily down beside him, and came out for her daily airing. she gave a funny little jump and spit, when one of the whittlings struck her, and franklin almost laughed, but remembered in time that he was too angry, and sent another whittling after her to see what she would do. this time she smelled of it, to see if it was something to eat, then finding that franklin was only joking, slanted back her ears, and walked haughtily across the yard, with stiff jerks of the tail.
the temptation to make her jump proved too much for him, and he shied a small piece of coal at her so neatly that it passed directly under her, tossing the sand about her feet. weejums gave a wild spit, and tore into the alley, with rising fur, looking around in vain for the earthquake that had struck her.
“come back, weej—here, here,” called franklin, good-naturedly, for teasing animals[33] was not usually in his line. but then he was cross to-day, and had not eunice lost his rabbit?
he put down his knife, and went out into the alley to bring weejums back, but at that moment something terrible happened. a baker’s cart, followed by a fierce dog, jingled into the alley, and the dog made a dash at weejums. franklin ran for the dog, and cyclone, who happened to come around the house just then, ran after franklin. poor weejums could not see that the second dog was a friend, and did not recognize franklin in the boy who was chasing her. she left the alley and dashed across the street into a vacant lot, where three other dogs were nosing around among tin cans. they gave a yelp of delight, and joined in the pursuit, followed by several small boys, who rushed along after franklin, shouting, “ei-er there! sick her, sick her!”
in a few minutes every boy and dog in the neighborhood was on weejums’ trail, and franklin could not stop long enough to explain[34] to them that he himself was not chasing her. the hunt came to an end, when she vanished under some tumble-down sheds, many blocks away from home, where a friendly barn cat, with a torn nose, hid her behind a soapbox.
“don’t mention it,” he said, when weejums tried to thank him. “i once had a friend with eyes like yours.” and he sighed. but of course weejums could not know that this friend had been her own dear mother.
“just watch me do stunts with that dog,” the barn cat said. he was naturally inelegant in his language, never having lived in refined surroundings; but weejums forgot this when she saw him leap to the back of a certain yellow cur, and claw maps on his skin, like the true knight that he was.
all the other dogs, including cyclone, turned tail and fled, and the barn cat strolled back, with that gentle expression on his face, which it is said that great warriors usually wear.
“they didn’t see where you went in,” he[35] said, comfortingly; “the boys are looking under the wrong shed.”
“i can never thank you for your kindness,” said weejums, with a little break in her yow. “but i shall tell my mistress about you, and i hope you will call.”
“does your family keep a desirable garbage pail?” asked the barn cat, thoughtfully.
“unexcelled. but of course i eat in the kitchen.”
“ah!” said the barn cat, with another sigh, “what it means to have a home! now i presume that they never throw hot dishwater at you.”
“never,” said weejums, in horror; “i am treated as one of the family.”
“alas,” said the barn cat sadly, thinking of his own life.
“but i’ve run away so far that i don’t know how to get back, and fear that i shall never see my dear little kittens again.” and weejums began to weep.
“their age?” asked the barn cat, briefly.
[36]
“two weeks,”
“most unfortunate. i must try and find your home for you. remain here in the soapbox until i return, and if any strange cat molests you, say but the two words, ‛torn-nose,’ and he will disappear.”
weejums promised, and the barn cat slipped out so quietly that she scarcely saw him go. but all the boys and dogs were gone now, so she did not mind being left alone.
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