franklin did not go home after weejums disappeared, but wandered around the neighborhood, wondering what he should do if she did not come back. “what do you mean by chasing my sister’s cat?” he asked fiercely of one of the small boys who followed him.
“aw—go long! you was chasin’ it yourself. tie up your teeth!” was the insulting reply. and franklin realized that he could never make them believe anything else. then he began to wonder if there was not a certain amount of truth in what the boy had said. to be sure, he had started out to rescue weejums and bring her home, but there had been a strange and terrible joy in his heart, when that[38] seventeenth dog joined the hunt, and fell over all the others.
“pshaw! all cats come home,” he thought. “she’ll find her way back all right. but rabbits are different.”
he ground his heel angrily into the gravel, and thought of stamper; but somehow he could not work himself up into as bad a temper as he had before. he could not imagine what would become of eunice if weejums were lost.
“but cats always come home,” he thought again. “p’r’aps she’ll be there when i get back.”
he had not noticed in what direction he was walking, and suddenly found himself quite far down-town, opposite the bird store. there was a new assortment of very wobbly fox terrier puppies in the window, and he could not resist sauntering up to examine them. but almost immediately he wheeled around, and walked off very fast without looking back, for in the bird store he had seen his mother and eunice.
[39]
they were buying a rabbit. he had seen the man holding up one of the old store rabbits, who was kicking dreadfully, and whacking the white-mouse cage with his hind legs.
franklin knew that they charged a dollar and a quarter for this rabbit, and that he was not worth it.
“if they’re going to buy a rabbit, they oughtn’t to buy one here,” he thought, in an agony of anxiety. “there isn’t a rabbit here that i’d put in my house.”
“if that bird-store man does mother on that rabbit, i’ll go down and settle him to-morrow,” he added to himself. and then he remembered, with shame, that he could never accept a rabbit from eunice, after he had chased her cat.
he took a car home and looked eagerly on the front porch, half expecting that weejums would be sitting there waiting for him with a forgiving smile. but she did not appear, and he went all around the alley again, calling her[40] in beseeching tones. suddenly, under the corner of a neighbor’s shed, he saw something white move, and went into the house to get a saucer of milk.
“i s’pose she’ll be afraid to come to me now,” he thought, and the thought hurt, for franklin was not a cruel boy.
he set the milk down, very carefully, near the place where he had seen the white thing move, and presently it hopped out, with a great flop of the ears, and began to drink. but it was a white thing with black spots, and its name was stamper.
rabbits love milk as well as cats do, so it was easy for franklin to grab the runaway by his long ears, and bear him off to his box, with a milky nose and an indignant heart. then he rushed into the house to see if his mother and sister had come home. but they were not there, and franklin feared that they might have gone to some strange and distant place in search of a rabbit. he was much relieved when a car stopped, and mrs. wood and[41] eunice got off; for they were not carrying anything but some bundles from the dry-goods store, and five cents’ worth of candy for kenneth. there was no sign whatever of any rabbit being concealed about them.
“stamper’s come home,” he said, almost before they reached the steps.
“i thought you told eunice there was no chance of his ever coming back,” said mrs. wood, kissing kenneth, who had run to meet them.
“well, i didn’t think there was,” said franklin, shamefacedly. “eunice didn’t need to cry.”
he suspected that his mother had very little admiration for boys who made eunice cry.
“there wasn’t one chance in a thousand,” he added, “and i wouldn’t have caught him then, if i hadn’t had the milk.”
“what were you doing with milk?” asked eunice, suspiciously.
franklin did not answer, and looked so uncomfortable that mrs. wood changed the[42] subject; for she made a point of never asking one of her children embarrassing questions before the others, and this was one reason why they loved her so much.
after supper there came a loud thump at the side door, and franklin, who was studying in the parlor, heard a delighted shout from kenneth. then eunice came running in with a smile, and taking franklin by the hand, said, “i’ve got something for you, to make up for your feeling so bad about stamper.”
“but stamper’s come home,” he said, giving her a rough little hug. “and i can’t take any present from you now, sis, so run away, and let me get my algebra.”
“i told her i thought you wouldn’t care to,” said mrs. wood, looking relieved. “but she said that she’d feel very badly if you didn’t take them.” she was so glad that franklin felt he did not deserve them, although of course she could not know yet just how much he didn’t. “they” were on the dining-room table, sitting in eunice’s hat,—the most beautiful[43] little pair of maltese rabbits that franklin had ever seen. and all his life long he had wanted a maltese rabbit!
“those didn’t come from the bird store, i know,” he burst out in delight, quite forgetting that he was not to keep them.
“they came from the farm of the father of a boy who works at taylor’s,” said mrs. wood, laughing. “the bird-store rabbits were no good.”
“oh, those bird-store rabbits are enough to give a hand-organ sore throat! you’re just a brick, mother, and so is eunice, but i can’t take these little fellows, really. eunice must keep them herself.”
“eunice will feel badly if you don’t take them,” said mrs. wood again.
“oh, but there’s reasons why i can’t,” said franklin, desperately. “i don’t want to tell before the kids.”
“well, they can be my rabbits for to-night, then,” said mrs. wood, in her quiet way, “and to-morrow we’ll decide whom they really belong[44] to. i shall feel dreadfully proud to own some rabbits, even if i can’t have them but one night.”
she smiled, and eunice and kenneth began to laugh, thinking the whole affair a joke.
“but they’re too little to put with dulcie and stamper, aren’t they, mother?” eunice said. “we’ll have to put them with weejums and the kittens.”
“oh, she’ll eat ’em up!” said kenneth.
“no, she won’t,” said mrs. wood. “we’ll watch her and see. they are not so different from her own babies.”
but when they took the little bunnies to weejums’ box, there was no weejums to receive them, and the three kittens were crying with hunger.
“i’ll go call her,” said eunice, running to the side door. but no distant “purr-eow” answered to her call, and no tortoise-shell tail waved a greeting from the top of fence or shed.
“biddy, have you seen weejums?” she asked, coming into the kitchen.
[45]
“shure, i have, and a very foine cat she is, barrin’ her swate voice.”
“no, but have you seen her since dinner? biddy, please don’t tease.”
“well, i gave her some dinner at two, and she left my prisence directly afterwards, without so much as sayin’ ‛thank you,’ and wint for a sthroll.”
“then she hasn’t come home! oh, mother, do you suppose anything’s happened to her?”
mrs. wood went back to the parlor to ask franklin if he had seen anything of weejums, and franklin told her the whole miserable story, or nearly the whole; for of course the children came running in to interrupt.
“don’t tell eunice,” his mother said quickly. “it would make it so much harder if she thought you had anything to do with it.”
so franklin did not tell, but he never liked to think afterwards of those days that followed. eunice went around with a white face; while kenneth tore his clothes to shreds crawling[46] about under barns and fences. the loss of stamper had been sad, of course, for rabbits are both desirable and attractive, but weejums was one of the family.
the kittens had to be fed with a spoon, and gave furious strangled howls, as the milk was poured into them.
eunice wrote out an advertisement to be put in the paper:
“lost.—a little girl’s tortoise-shell, young mother cat, with pink toes and a sweet face. answering to the name of wee-je, wee-je, kim-um-sing.”
[47]
and mrs. wood put it all in, except the last, about answering, saying instead that there would be a reward of two dollars for any one returning the cat to her home.
this notice appeared for three days, and on the third, another one followed it:
“in addition to above reward offered for return of young mother cat, will be given: two fine, fat, handsome rabbits in splendid condition, with one palatial, airy rabbit-house, eight rooms, staircases, cupola, and all modern improvements.”
“f. wood, esq.”
mrs. wood smiled as she read this, although her lips trembled, and she thought: “that must have broken franklin’s heart.”
the next day something else left the family, and this was no less than kenneth’s beautiful head of curls; but something much more important returned in their place, when he came marching home without them.
grandmother was there for a few days, and took him down to have them cut, because he[48] had been promised that they should go before school began. then she dressed him in his first trousers, and brought him triumphantly to his mother, who, instead of being delighted, said, “oh, kenny, mother’s lost her little baby!” and looked so grieved that he broke into a great roar of sympathy, and a little later, when he strolled out into the street, a boy called after him: “h’m, been cryin’ ’cause your hair’s cut!”
“say that again, will you!” said kenneth, removing his hands from the new pockets.
“i said you’ve been cryin’ ’cause—”
but the sentence was never finished, for kenneth had flown at him with all the confidence those trousers inspired,—it is wonderful to find how much more easily you can run in them,—and the boy dropped down behind a fence.
“i guess i’ll take a walk,” kenneth thought, with becoming modesty. “i guess i’ll just take a walk around the block.”
“round the block” was the extent of the[49] distance he was allowed to go away from home by himself.
“i may meet some boys,” he added, trying not to keep looking down at his legs.
but he did not meet any boys, because they had all run to join a crowd that was gathering on another street. and kenneth ran too, although he knew that it was much further than around the block; but his new trousers went as fast as they could, and so naturally he had to go with them.
the boys were looking up at a tree, and throwing things, and kenneth caught his breath, as he heard a most un-bird-like “e-ow” from among the branches.
“say, what color’d cat is it?” he asked of a ragamuffin, who was preparing to throw an ancient apple.
“caliker cat,” said the boy. “up there. see?” and he closed one eye to take aim.
“she ain’t calico. she’s tortoise-shell,” burst out kenneth, turning red with delight.[50] “she’s our weejums, and i’m goin’ to take her home.”
“oh, she’s your cat, is she?” asked the boy, dropping his apple and looking dangerous. “your cat?—when we chased it up there? well, i like that! say, fellers, did you hear that? your cat, is it? huh, your cat! calico cat! tie up your teeth!”
“don’t have to,” kenneth replied.
“say, you better run home to your ma-ma, little boy. d’ye hear?”
“don’t have to,” kenneth responded.
“calico cat!” sneered the boy, insultingly. “calico, i say. old calico cat!”
“tortoise-shell,” insisted kenneth, politely but firmly. “i’ll punch your head.”
the boy doubled up his fists with a snort of rage,—he was bigger than kenneth,—and said:
“oh, you’ll punch my head, will you? you’ll punch my head! i say, fellers, did you hear him say he’d punch my head? boxey, you heard him say it?”
“i heard him,” said boxey.
[51]
“well, then, come along and do it. i just stump you to come along and do it. huh! don’t dare do it!”
kenneth had never engaged in a regular fight before, but it is strange how different trousers make one feel—especially that first day. so he took off his new little coat,—it was quite an old one before he reached home,—and went for the boy. a ring formed to see that there was fair play; for although they all pitied kenneth, they couldn’t help respecting a boy who said, “don’t haff ter,” to patsy mcgann.
everybody knows that there are two kinds of strength in a fight,—one that comes from training, and one from splendid rage, and kenneth’s was of the latter order. when his nose began to bleed, he wept with fury, which was very effective, as it made the blood seem ever so much more. and when patsy muttered, “calico,” between his blows, kenneth answered, “tortoise-shell!” with all the vengeance of which he was capable.
[52]
it was not a long battle, for the sound of weejums’ pathetic voice, from the tree, put force into kenneth’s rib-punches, and presently patsy mcgann went down, with a waving of grimy heels that called forth a storm of applause from the onlookers.
“he’s licked him—he’s licked him! give him the cat,” called a larger boy who had strolled up while the fight was in progress. and all the others drew away from the tree, while kenneth coaxed weejums down, with a voice that she recognized, although she would never have known his poor bruised little face. and just as he had taken her in his arms, who should come whistling up the street but franklin!
he understood the situation at a glance, and striding up to patsy mcgann, seized him by the shoulder, saying, “did you lick him? answer me! did you lick that little fellar?”
“naw, he licked me. an’ just on account of that old caliker cat you was chasin’ the other day.”
[53]
“you shut up!” said franklin, with his face burning. but kenneth had not heard the whole of the sentence.
“what kind of a cat did you say it was?” he asked, turning to patsy.
“a cal—i mean turtle-shell cat,” said patsy, sullenly, walking off with his friends.
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