XII
JOLLY ROBIN'S NEWS
IN A WAY Miss Kitty Cat was a patient creature. She could play a waitinggame. She spent hours watching rat-holes without growing restless.
So after her talk with Rusty Wren and his wife, when she urged them togive up their boxlike house and build themselves an open nest like mostother birds, Miss Kitty left them.
"I'll let my words sink in," Miss Kitty muttered to herself. "Of coursethey'll want to talk things over privately."
It wasn't often that she made herself so agreeable to any of the birdpeople. Indeed, she had been so pleasant that Rusty Wren began to thinkthat Miss Kitty was a much kinder creature than he had always supposed.
"Miss Kitty's very agreeable," Rusty Wren remarked to his wife. "Did younotice how sweetly she spoke of our children?"
"Huh!" said Mrs. Wren. "She may fool you; but she can't fool me. She's amealy-mouthed animal, if ever I met one."
"I don't see how you can say that about Miss Kitty Cat," Rusty replied."She doesn't eat meal."
"I suppose you'll be saying next that she doesn't eat birds!" his wifeexclaimed.
"I fear you've been listening to gossip," Rusty ventured. "If Miss KittyCat comes back I hope you'll be cordial to her."
He could have bitten his tongue a moment later for saying that, becauseMrs. Wren began to scold him. And he flew away and left her as soon ashe could think of a good excuse.
He went over to the orchard, where he flitted about for some time. Andat last he met Jolly Robin, who appeared most doleful.
"What's the matter?" Rusty Wren asked. "You look terribly upset."
"So I am," Jolly Robin admitted. "We had a caller yesterday."
"Well, well!" said Rusty Wren. "That's nothing to be glum about."
"You'd think so if you were I. It was Miss Kitty Cat. And when she leftshe took one of our nestlings with her."
"Perhaps she only borrowed it," Rusty Wren suggested. "Maybe she'llreturn it to-day."
"No!" Jolly Robin told him. "If she comes back again it will only be totake another one."
Suddenly Rusty Wren remembered that he had urged his wife to be cordialto Miss Kitty Cat the next time she called at the cherry tree where theylived.
"I must hurry home!" he cried. "I must warn my wife."
"But your youngsters are safe," Jolly Robin assured him. "Miss Kitty Catcan't reach them inside the tin can where you built your nest."
"That's true," Rusty Wren admitted. "But there's my wife! Miss Kittymight harm her, if she caught her unawares." So he started for home attop speed.
XIII
AN UNWELCOME GUEST
AS he neared his home in the cherry tree, Rusty Wren saw a fearsomesight. Miss Kitty Cat was crouched right on top of the tin syrup canwhich Johnnie Green had nailed to the tree. Inside that can was the Wrenfamily's nest. And inside the nest were some brand-new youngsters, onlytwo days out of their shells.
It was no wonder that when Rusty Wren came hack from the orchard and sawsuch a sight he began to shriek.
"What are you doing on my roof?" he shrilled.
Miss Kitty Cat looked up calmly and watched him as he hopped about inthe top of the tree above her head.
Miss Kitty Cat Looked Calmly at Rusty Wren.]
"I've come to make another call on your wife," she explained.
Then a muffled voice chirped, "She's been here a long time and I can'tget her to go away."
The moment he heard that, Rusty Wren felt better. It was his wife'svoice and it meant that she was safe. To be sure, Rusty knew that shewas a prisoner in her own house; for it was plain that she dared notleave it so long as Miss Kitty Cat stayed on the roof, ready to grabMrs. Wren the moment she stepped out of her doorway.
"Your wife is very shy," Miss Kitty remarked to Rusty Wren with a slysmile. "I've been hoping to get more acquainted with her. That's why Iclimbed up and sat on your roof. When people are shy and don't inviteme inside their houses I believe in making myself at home outside, whileI wait for them to appear."
From her doorway Mrs. Wren called to her husband, "Don't let her deceiveyou with her pretty talk! Remember what I told you! She'smealy-mouthed.... If you had seen her trying to reach her paw throughthe door you'd know how dangerous she is."
"There!" said Miss Kitty Cat with a sigh. "People never seem tounderstand my ways. I was only trying to shake hands!"
"With her claws!" cried the muffled voice of Rusty Wren's wife. "Ugh!She's a wicked creature if ever there was one."
"Go away!" Rusty Wren scolded. "Get off my roof! Get out of my cherrytree!"
By this time feathered neighbors of the Wren family were arriving fromall directions. They didn't hesitate to call Miss Kitty Cat names. Andsome of them even darted quite near her, as if they meant to peck hereyes out.
Miss Kitty began to have a worried look.
"Goodness! Where do they all live?" she asked herself. "I had no ideathere were so many birds around here. There's better hunting than Isupposed."
Try as they would, the birds couldn't budge Miss Kitty Cat from the topof Rusty's house. He was frantic, poor fellow!
"I don't know what to do," he wailed. "My wife will starve in there--andthe children, too."
Just then little Mr. Chippy came hurrying up to him.
"Don't worry!" Mr. Chippy cried. "He's coming! He's on the way now; andhe can get you out of your trouble if anybody can."
Miss Kitty Cat pricked up her ears. She couldn't help hearing what Mr.Chippy said.
"I shall stay right where I am," she declared. "Nobody can make memove."
She had scarcely finished speaking when a most unexpected sound startledher.
It was "_Meaow!_"
XIV
CATCALLS
PERCHED on top of Rusty Wren's tin house, Miss Kitty Cat had beenenjoying herself thoroughly, while the birds made a great how-dy-do andtried in vain to frighten her away.
When she heard all at once an unexpected _meaow_ she showed that itstartled her.
"A cat!" cried Miss Kitty. "I didn't suppose there was another cat formiles around." She looked about on all sides, on the ground and in thetree-tops. And there was no cat anywhere in sight.
Meanwhile the birds were all exclaiming, "There! He's here. Now MissKitty Cat had better watch out."
Again a strange, mocking catcall sounded from somewhere. There was asort of jeer about it that aroused Miss Kitty Cat's anger.
"He's come, has he?" she exclaimed to little Mr. Chippy, who chatteredat her from a good, safe distance. "If he's looking for a fight I'd bepleased to have him come and get it."
Whoever the stranger was, and wherever he was, he knew how to tease MissKitty Cat. Now he howled at her from the thicket of lilac bushes on theedge of the flower garden. Now he mewed at her from the hedge in frontof the farmhouse. And though Miss Kitty Cat tried to get a glimpse ofhim, she couldn't see anything that even faintly resembled a cat.
The annoying cries moved from one place to another. She was sure ofthat. But the one that made them managed to stay hidden.
"This is queer!" Miss Kitty Cat said to herself. "Can it be that there'sa cat's voice around here, and nothing more? A cat without a voicewouldn't be so strange. But a voice without a cat--that's the oddestthing I ever heard of!"
At last Rusty Wren seemed to take heart. And his wife, inside theirhouse, abused Miss Kitty Cat loudly--or as loudly as she could frominside the tin syrup can.
"I always knew you were a coward," she told Miss Kitty. "You're alwaysready to attack us small people. But you don't dare fight anybody ofyour own size."
"How can I fight a person that I can't see?" Miss Kitty asked. "If thisnoisy stranger would come out in the open I'd soon show you whether I'dfight him or not. I'd teach him--if I could get hold of him--not to comehere and interfere when I'm making a neighborly call."
"Nonsense!" cried Mrs. Wren. "You don't mean half you say. If youweren't a fraud you'd go and find this person that's jeering at you."
_"Meaow-ow-ow!"_ Again that mocking call grated on Miss Kitty's ears.
"There!" Mrs. Wren exclaimed. "There it is again. It would make mepretty angry to be talked to like that. But I don't suppose it bothersyou. Probably you're used to having people caterwaul at you."
That was a little more than Miss Kitty Cat could stand. She scrambleddown from the old cherry tree and ran across the yard to the row ofcurrant bushes, whence the last catcalls had come.
As she drew near, a slim slate-colored bird gave a harsh laugh as heflew up from the bushes. It was Mr. Catbird. And Miss Kitty Cat feltsheepish enough when she saw him. She knew that he had succeeded infooling her with his mocking cries.
The birds--with Mr. Catbird among them, and Mrs. Wren, too--all gatheredround Miss Kitty and made such a clamor that she crept away and hid inthe haymow. She never could endure much noise, unless she made most ofit herself--by the light Of the moon.
XV
MOUSETRAPS
"I DON'T understand," said old dog Spot to Miss Kitty Cat one day, "whyMrs. Green wants to keep you around the house when she can buymousetraps at the village." Old Spot eyed Miss Kitty slyly. He dearlyloved to watch her whiskers bristle and her tail grow big. And he couldmake both those things happen almost any time he wanted to.
If anybody wished to see Miss Kitty Cat turn up her nose he had only tomention mousetraps. Of all worthless junk she thought they were theworst.
"They can't catch any but the dull-witted mice," she used to say. "Amouse that knows anything won't go near a trap unless he's hungry. If hewants to go to a little trouble to get a piece of stale cheese he canusually spring the trap without getting caught in it--even if he has touse his tail to do it."
"But a mousetrap," Spot objected, "is little or no care. One doesn'thave to feed it except when he wants it to catch a mouse. And everybodyknows that Mrs. Green feeds you several times a day. Besides, the fewermice you catch, the more food she has to waste on you."
"Rubbish!" Miss Kitty Cat sniffed. "You eat ten times as much as I do.And I never heard of your catching a mouse, either."
"Ah!" said Spot. "Don't forget that I drive the cows and watch the houseand the barns at night. And during my spare moments I hunt woodchucks.You couldn't expect a person of my importance to fritter away hisvaluable time catching mice. Mousetraps couldn't do my work," old dogSpot continued. "There never was a mousetrap made that could drive acow."
"That's one reason why I don't like them," said Miss Kitty Cat. "They'renot only poor at catching mice, but they're useless at anything else.Now, whenever I capture a mouse I always make matters as pleasant aspossible for, him. I always play with him for as long a time as I canspare. But a trap just goes _snap_! A trap doesn't seem to _want_ tomake friends with anybody."
Old dog Spot laughed right in Miss Kitty's face.
"Much you care for your friends the mice!" he chuckled. "And much theycare for you! If you knew what they call you, you'd be pretty angry."
"What's that?" Miss Kitty demanded.
"I don't want to tell you," said Spot. "I don't want to hurt yourfeelings." He knew (the rogue) that he could tease Miss Kitty more byleaving her to wonder what name the mice had for her.
Much as she wanted to know it, Miss Kitty Cat was too proud and haughtyto ask him again. And, jumping up suddenly, she walked stiffly away.
"I shall have to find a mouse somewhere," she muttered under her breath."I shall have to find a mouse somewhere and make him tell me what oldSpot won't."
XVI
A MIDNIGHT MEAL
DOWN in the cellar of the farmhouse a fat couple known as Mr. and Mrs.Moses Mouse crept out of a hole under the pantry floor and ran down apost to the cellar bottom.
"Things have come to a pretty pass!" Mr. Mouse grumbled. "Mrs. Greennever did leave more than a crumb or two in the pantry where a fellowcould get it. And since Miss Snooper came to live here there's less toeat than ever."
Mrs. Mouse nodded her head somewhat dolefully.
"Do you remember, Moses," she said to her husband, "what delicious bitsof stale cheese Mrs. Green used to serve for us here in the cellar,stuck on a short piece of wire? To be sure, she was somewhatthoughtless--the way she left that dangerous loop caught back, so itwould snap over and catch you behind the ears if you weren't careful.But you were always very skillful at avoiding that."
"Ah! Those were happy days--or, I should say, _nights_!" Mr. Mouseexclaimed with a sigh. "It makes me sad just to think of that fine, old,stale, moldy cheese."
"I suppose Mrs. Green gives it all to that horrid Miss Snooper now,"said Mrs. Mouse, as she climbed to a shelf and looked at the labels onseveral jars of jam and jelly that stood there in a row.
Moses Mouse watched her hopefully. Being quite plump, he was a bitlazy. And he did not care to scramble up to a shelf for nothing.
"There isn't one without a cover, is there?" he inquired.
"No!" his wife replied.
"There isn't one with a little sweetness oozing down the side of it, isthere?" he asked her.
"No!" said Mrs. Mouse. "Not one! I suppose Miss Snooper has licked themall clean."
"That disagreeable Miss Snooper has spoiled everything for us," MosesMouse declared. And for a fat gentleman he looked oddly unhappy.
"I don't know what we'll do for our supper," he whined. He always whinedwhen he was hungry.
"There's that chunk of putty that Farmer Green left in the woodshed,"his wife reminded him.
"Ugh!" Moses Mouse made a wry face. "We've dined upon that for the lastthree nights. And I never did like putty, anyhow. I wish that snoopingMiss Snooper had to eat it." His mournful eyes roved about the cellaruntil they rested on something in a dark corner. "What's in that boxover there?" he asked Mrs. Mouse.
"I don't know," she answered.
"Well--go and see, then!" he snapped. "I'm so faint I can scarcelystand."
Mrs. Mouse always humored Moses when he was hungry. She knew that he wasnever fretful after he had eaten a good meal. So her feet twinkledacross the cellar floor and she disappeared inside the box.
Not hearing anything from her, Moses Mouse soon grew more impatient thanever.
"Well!" he sang out. "What luck!"
"Potatoes!" came his wife's muffled answer, out of a full mouth. "Ideclare, I forgot to call you."
XVII
THE EAVESDROPPER
FOR ANYBODY that was so faint, Moses Mouse ran to the box of potatoesvery spryly. His wife was already inside it, eating.
"I'll have my supper first," he announced, "while you stay outside onthe cellar bottom and watch for Miss Snooper."
"I'm just as hungry as you are," his wife objected. "I don't want towait. You know you'll be a long time at your supper." What she reallymeant was that Moses Mouse would be sure to overeat.
"Very well!" he said. "But don't blame me if Miss Snooper sneaks up onus."
Thereupon Moses Mouse fell to right greedily. Although there weredelicacies that he liked more than raw potatoes, he was hungry enough toenjoy them--and not even ask for salt. And his wife, too, ate almost asheartily as he did. The pale moonlight, streaming through the cellarwindow, lighted their banquet hall with its ghostly gleams. They enjoyedthe cool dampness of the place. They liked its musty smell. And MosesMouse remarked--between mouthfuls--that they hadn't had such an elegantfeast for weeks. "It's quite like old times," he said.
Mrs. Mouse agreed with him. Indeed, they relished their meal sothoroughly that they forgot everything else. And if Moses Mouse hadn'thappened to glance up and see two eyes gleaming at him from over theedge of the box he would have had no reason for leaving his mealunfinished. At the moment, his mouth was crammed so full of raw potatothat he could scarcely say a word.
"Miss Snooper!" he gasped, all but choking over the words. And hevanished in a twinkling, hoping, of course, that Mrs. Mouse would takethe hint and disappear too, but not waiting to see whether she managedto get away safely.
A second later Miss Kitty Cat sprang into the box. She re
ached out a pawand grabbed at what looked like Mrs. Mouse. But to her great disgust shefound her claws clutching nothing more interesting than a small potato,with a little knob at one end that looked not unlike a head.
Miss Kitty Cat let go of her prize with a mew of disappointment. Sheknew that by that time Mr. and Mrs. Mouse had made their escape. AndMiss Kitty soon learned how they slipped away. In one corner of the boxshe found a tiny hole. "Here's where they went!" she exclaimed. "I don'tsee how I missed seeing it when I first came sniffing around this box."
Though she had lost a midnight supper, Miss Kitty did not feel too sad.She was too angry for that.
"At last," she cried, "I've found out what old dog Spot wouldn't tellme. The mice are calling me 'Miss Snooper' behind my back!"
In the morning, when Miss Kitty met old dog Spot in the woodshed, shewas still feeling peevish. "What are you doing in here?" she snapped.
"Oh, I'm just snooping around to see what I can find for my breakfast,"he told her with a grin.
Miss Kitty Cat bared her teeth in a snarl.
"_Snooping!_" she cried. "You'd better be careful what you say to me! Iheard some mice talking last night."
"Ah!" said old Spot. "Now you know that listeners seldom hear anythinggood about themselves."
Then he decided, suddenly, that he would look elsewhere for hisbreakfast.
The Tale of Miss Kitty Cat Page 3