The Story of a China Cat

by Laura Lee Hope

  The China Cat saw many strange sights as she sat in the police station, and some of the sights were sad ones. She heard much about the flood, too, for it was a very high one, the river having overflowed its banks in many places.

  At last all the poor people were rescued, and the police sergeant, who had been very busy, was given a few moments' rest. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the China Cat.

  "I think I shall telephone Mr. Mugg and tell him to come here and get his China Cat," the sergeant said. "This may not be his toy. It may have been stolen from some other store. But I'll soon find out."

  So the police sergeant telephoned to Mr. Mugg. The toy-store keeper and his daughters, Angelina and Geraldine, were very busy, getting things to rights after the fire. It had not been as bad as was at first supposed, being down in the basement. Some smoke and water got up on the main floor, however, but this was soon cleaned up and the store put to rights again.

  "What's that?" cried Mr. Mugg over the telephone, though of course the China Cat could not hear what he said. "You have my white China Cat? Oh, I am so glad! I'll be right down to get her."

  "All right," answered the sergeant. "She is here waiting for you. Though I would not call her very white," he added as he hung up the telephone.

  "What do you think of that, Geraldine-Angelina!" called Mr. Mugg to his two daughters. "Our China Cat, that was stolen when the toys were carried out on account of the fire, has been found!"

  "Oh, I am so glad!" said Geraldine.

  "Where is she?" asked Angelina.

  "In the police station," her father replied. "I am going down to get her."

  "I'll go with you," offered Geraldine. "I want to see the China Cat again. I hope she isn't chipped. Who had her?"

  But this Mr. Mugg did not know, for the sergeant did not tell him the whole story over the telephone. A little later Mr. Mugg and Geraldine were in the police station.

  "I have come for my China Cat," said Mr. Mugg, rubbing his hands and looking over the tops of his glasses.

  "Here she is," said the sergeant, and he handed over the pussy who had been rescued from the flood.

  For a moment the toy-store keeper looked at the plaything. Then he sadly shook his head.

  "No, I am sorry to say that is not my China Cat," he said.

  Well, you can just imagine how the China Cat felt. Her heart, such as she had, was beating with joy when she saw Mr. Mugg and Geraldine come into the station house. But now to hear Mr. Mugg say she was not his Cat! Oh, it was terrible, I do assure you!

  "Not your Cat?" exclaimed the sergeant. "Why, I understood a lot of toys were stolen from your shop after the fire, and a China Cat was among them."

  "Yes, that is so," answered Mr. Mugg. "But my China Cat was a white one, and this is black and white. No, she does not belong to me."

  He turned away, and the China Cat would have shed tears if China Cats ever cry. But Miss Geraldine stepped forward.

  "Please let me look at that toy," she said.

  The sergeant handed her the China Cat. Geraldine looked closely at her. Then she gave a joyful cry.

  "Why, of course she is our Cat, Father!" said Geraldine. "She is just grimy and dirty. That's the reason you think she is black and white. If I could only wash her you'd see that she is our own China Cat."

  "Do you think so?" asked Mr. Mugg, hopefully.

  "I'm sure of it!" declared his daughter. "Oh, if I only had a little soap and water."

  "We can let you have some, lady," said the sergeant. "You may take the cat to the washroom and clean her."

  This Miss Geraldine did. Under the stream of water, when some soap had been rubbed on the China Cat, a great change took place. Off came the grime of the smoke! Off came the spots of sticky molasses! Off came the soiled marks made by Jeff's dirty hands! The White Cat, not coming to life while Miss Geraldine had her, of course got no soap in her eyes, as would have happened if she had been real.

  Soon all the black, the grime, and the dirty spots were washed away. Geraldine dried the China Cat on a towel the sergeant gave her, and then held the plaything up in front of her father.

  "Now isn't that our Cat?" asked Miss Geraldine.

  Mr. Mugg looked carefully over the tops of his glasses. He ran his hands through his hair and then through his whiskers, and then rubbed his hands together.

  "Why-er-yes-er-my dear-that is our China Cat!" he said. "We'll take her right back to the store! Oh, I'm very glad to get her back. Thank you, very much," he said to the police sergeant.

  "You are welcome," replied the officer. Then Geraldine and her father hurried back to the toy shop, carrying the China Cat.

  As for the white pussy, you can imagine how glad and happy she was to be clean again. Nothing else mattered for the time, and she would have mewed out a song if she had been allowed to do so. But of course she could not.

  "Put her in the window," said Mr. Mugg, when he and his daughter reached the toy shop. "That little girl who was going to buy her may see the Cat and come in for her."

  So the China toy was again put in the show window of the shop, which had been cleaned and put to rights after the fire. In the same window was some doll's furniture, and on the bureau was a looking glass. The China Cat caught a glimpse of herself. She was as clean and white as a new snowball.

  "Oh, how glad I am!" she said to herself.

  She looked all around. There in the window with her were most of the toys she had known for a long time. They did not seem to have been burned or scorched by the fire. In fact, though some of his playthings were damaged, Mr. Mugg did not, of course, put any of these in his show window.

  Near the China Cat was a Jumping Jack, a Jack in the Box, the Talking Doll, a Policeman and a Fireman-not the same Policeman and Fireman who had been in the basement, but some just like them. Throughout the store was a smell of smoke; but this could not be helped.

  The China Cat would have liked very much to speak to some of the other toys, but she was not allowed to do so.

  "But when night comes," she said to herself, "I shall have a chance. Then we can all talk about the fire. I wonder if any of my friends had such adventures as I had?"

  But the China Cat did not get the chance she hoped for. That very afternoon, the same day that she had been put in the show window, a little girl and a lady came to a stop outside the toy shop, to look in through the glass.

  "Oh, Aunt Clara! See!" cried the little girl. "There is the China Cat you were going to buy for me! Mr. Mugg thought she was smashed in the fire, but she wasn't and here she is. Oh, please take me in and get me the China Cat!"

  "Very well, my dear," said Aunt Clara. "I promised you the toy and you may have her."

  The China Cat heard what was said, and, looking out of the window, she saw the same nice little girl who had once held her in her hands.

  "Oh, I hope nothing happens this time," whispered the Cat. "I should like to live with that nice little girl."

  "We have come for the China Cat, Mr. Mugg," said Aunt Clara, as the toy man came forward to wait on his customers. "We called right after the fire, but everything was so upset we did not come in."

  "Oh, wasn't that fire dreadful!" sighed Mr. Mugg, raising his hands. "I thought my whole place would burn! But the firemen carried out a lot of the toys, and though this white China Cat was stolen, I have her back. So you want her, do you, little girl?" he asked.

  "Oh, I want her very much!" said Jennie Moore, and the China Cat was placed in her hands.

  "Now for some new adventures," thought the toy, as she felt the nice little girl softly rubbing her white head.

  CHAPTER IX. AN OLD FRIEND

  Jennie Moore's aunt paid Mr. Mugg for the white China Cat, and the little girl carried the toy out of the store, not even waiting to have wrapping paper put around her.

  "She is afraid the China Cat may be caught in another fire, or that something will happen," laughed the aunt, as she followed her niece.

  "Oh, I hope there will never be
another fire!" exclaimed Mr. Mugg, as he bowed his customers out of the door. "I can't imagine what started this one. But I am glad the China Cat is safe, though she did get very dirty."

  "She is clean now," said Jennie, turning her China Cat over and over, and not finding a speck of dirt on her.

  "What are you going to call your China Cat, Jennie?" asked Aunt Clara, when they had almost reached the home of the nice little girl.

  "I will call her Snowball," was the answer. "She is white, just like a snowball."

  "And from what Mr. Mugg said, I imagine she was as black as coal after the fire," laughed Aunt Clara. "Well, I am glad Snowball is clean and white now, and that you at last have her. Take good care of her and don't drop your cat, for I think she will break easily."

  "I'll be careful," promised Jennie.

  "Oh, how different this is from the time when that terrible black boy, Jeff, had me," thought the China Cat, as she was taken into Jennie's home. There the rooms were bright, cheerful and sunny, with soft carpets on the floor and beautiful ornaments all about.

  "Now we'll have some fun, Snowball," said Jennie to the China Cat, as she set her toy down on a table, while she took off her hat and coat, for it was winter and the weather was cold, even though it did rain at times, instead of snow.

  "You will not have to be afraid of a flood here, Snowball," went on Jennie, "for we are far from the river."

  "Thank goodness for that," thought the China Cat, who heard all that was said, though she could not move when Jennie, or any one else, was looking at her.

  Jennie played with the China Cat all the rest of that day. Once the nice little girl dressed the China Cat up in doll's clothes and pretended she was a doll.

  "Though I cannot say I liked that," said the China Cat, telling her adventures afterward to her friend, the Talking Doll. "The clothes sort of tickled me. But Jennie was so kind and good I did not want to make a fuss."

  When evening came Jennie put her China Cat away in a closet in her room, where there were many other toys. At first it was so dark that the China Cat could see nothing, but, after a while, she saw where some light came in through the keyhole, and then Snowball could look about her. The light that came through the hole was not daylight, for it was now night, and Jennie was going to bed. It was the light from a little lamp that burned all night just outside Jennie's room, and the China Cat was glad of that, for by the gleam she was able to see her way around the closet.

  "Thank goodness now I can move and stretch myself a bit," said the China Cat, speaking out loud, in toy language. "I haven't had a chance to do as I pleased since just before the fire."

  "What's that about a fire?" suddenly asked a voice just behind the China Cat. She looked around the shelf on which she sat but could see no one, though a Wooden Doll, with funny, staring eyes, was looking straight at her.

  "Did you speak?" asked the China Cat of the Wooden Doll.

  "No," was the answer. "Though I was just going to. I'm glad you have come here to live with us. You'll like it here. Jennie is such a nice little girl."

  "We're all nice!" cried the same voice that had asked about the fire.

  "Who is that?" asked the China Cat, for, as before, she saw no one.

  "Oh, it's probably Jack," answered the Wooden Doll. "He's always playing jokes."

  "Jack who?" asked the China Cat.

  "Jack Box," answered the Wooden Doll. "He's one of those funny, pop-up Jacks in a Box, and he's always trying to fool some one. I suppose, because you are the newest toy to come here, that he is playing a trick on you."

  "No trick, Wooden Doll! Just trying to be friendly and jolly-that's all!" went on the voice, with a laugh, and from a box near the China Cat sprang one of the queer Jacks that have such a sudden way of appearing.

  "Oh! How you surprised me!" mewed the Cat.

  "That's just my way! Can't help it! Have to jump when my spring uncoils!" said the Jack, with a broad grin on his face. "Let's have some fun!" he went on. "It's our chance to make believe come to life, now that Jennie has gone to bed. Sweet child. I like her, don't you?" he asked Snowball.

  "Yes. But how you rattle on," said the China Cat. "You don't give one a chance to think."

  "Yes, Jack is always like that," said the Wooden Doll.

  "Well, let's have some fun," went on Jack. "What do you say to a game of tag?"

  Leaning over, which he could readily do, as the coiled spring inside him was so easy to bend, Jack touched the China Cat. But Jack must have leaned too far, or too suddenly, for he brushed the Wooden Doll to one side.

  "Oh, look out!" she cried. "You have knocked me off the shelf! Oh, there I go!" and the Wooden Doll fell straight down!

  "Now you have done it!" mewed the China Cat.

  "I hope her neck isn't broken," said a tiny Celluloid Doll. "Oh, what an accident!"

  "I-I didn't mean to do it," said Jack sadly. "I'll go down and pick her up."

  "Hush! Keep quiet, all of you!" suddenly mewed the China Cat. "Some one is coming!"

  On the other side of the closet door, in the room where Jennie slept, the toys could hear the voice of the little girl calling:

  "Aunt Clara! Aunt Clara! Come here! There's something in my toy closet. I heard a noise! Maybe that colored boy is trying to get Snowball, my China Cat."

  The China Cat Gazed Out of the Window.

  "Nonsense, Jennie. You imagined it, dear. Go to sleep now," replied her aunt, coming in from her room and turning up the light.

  "No, I didn't imagine it," declared Jennie. "I heard a noise in my closet. Please look, Aunt Clara."

  So Aunt Clara opened the door, and there she saw the Wooden Doll on the floor. The Doll had fallen on some felt slippers and so was not in the least hurt.

  "There it is," said Jennie's aunt. "Your Wooden Doll fell off the shelf. You couldn't have put her far enough back."

  "Oh!" murmured Jennie sleepily. "I'm glad she wasn't broken, and I'm glad my China Cat is all right."

  Then Jennie went to sleep again, but she never knew, nor did her aunt, that Jack had knocked down the Wooden Doll.

  "Behave yourself now, Jack," said the Celluloid Doll, when the toys were once more left alone. "If you play, let it be some easy game, like telling stories or riddles."

  "All right," agreed Jack. "Suppose the China Cat tells us the story of the fire and the flood."

  So the China Cat did, just as they are set down in this book. And after that the toys played guessing games, and told riddles until it was time for them to stop, as morning was at hand.

  Jennie awakened early, and got her China Cat from the closet.

  "You are one of my nicest toys," said the little girl. "To-day I am going to put you in the front window where you can see everything, and where the other children can see you."

  So after breakfast the China Cat was set in the front window of the house, while Jennie sat near in a chair reading a book of fairy stories. After a while Jennie was called away to help her aunt, and the China Cat was left alone. For the first time that day she could look about as she pleased, moving her head and stretching her paws, as no one was in the room.

  The China Cat gazed out of the window toward the house next door, and what was her great surprise to see in the front window there an old friend.

  "Well, I do declare!" mewed the China Cat to herself. "How did he get here? Oh, if I could only speak to him! See, he is bowing to me! Oh, isn't this just wonderful!"

  CHAPTER X. THE GLARING EYES

  Snowball, the China Cat, was so excited that she felt she must really jump out of the window and go across the yard to her old friend, when Jennie, the little girl, came back into the room. Of course the China Cat had to be very still and quiet then.

  "Oh, Joe has his Nodding Donkey in the window!" exclaimed Jennie. "That's a sign he wants me to come over and play with him. I'll go and ask Aunt Clara if I may go!"

  Out of the room sped Jennie again, and the China Cat, who had heard what the little girl said, mewed to he
rself:

  "At last I shall have a chance to see the Nodding Donkey again." For it was this old friend at whom the China Cat had looked through the window, watching him nod his head.

  "Yes, Jennie. What is it?" asked Aunt Clara, as the little girl called to her.

  "Please may I go over and see Joe?" begged Jennie. "He has set his Nodding Donkey in his front window, and that means he wants me to come over. He always does that when he wants me. I'll take my new China Cat over to see him."

  "Very well, dear," agreed Aunt Clara, and a little later Jennie was crossing the yard, carrying Snowball under her arm. The China Cat was very glad that she was going to be taken to see the Nodding Donkey, with whom she used to live in Mr. Mugg's store.

  "I'm glad you came over, Jennie," said Joe, as he opened the door for the little girl. "What have you?"

  "My new China Cat, named Snowball. I brought her over so she could play with your Nodding Donkey."

  "I guess maybe they know one another," said Joe. "They came from the same store, you know."

  "Oh, so they did!" exclaimed Jennie.

  "I have a toy wagon," said Joe. "I'll hitch my Nodding Donkey up to it, and we'll give your China Cat a ride."

  "Oh, that will be fun!" cried Jennie. "Only don't upset her, for if she falls out she may break off her tail."

  "I'll be careful," promised Joe, and then he and Jennie had a lot more fun with the Nodding Donkey and the China Cat. They were just thinking up another game to play when Joe cried:

  "Here come Dorothy with her Sawdust Doll and Mirabell with her Lamb on Wheels."

  "I should like to meet those toys," mewed the Cat to herself. And, a little later she did, as two other little girls came in to play with Joe. Then along came Dick, who was Dorothy's brother, and he brought his White Rocking Horse, though it was rather a large and heavy toy to carry. And Arnold, who was Mirabell's brother, brought along his Bold Tin Captain Soldier and his men.

  Now began a very gladsome time for Snowball. She lived in a fine house, with a dear little girl for a mistress, and she had no more troubles.