“She’ll be dreadfully disappointed,” said Jessie sadly.
“I am so sorry,” repeated Effie, “and if there were one left she should have it, but we never take the last one from Tippy, you see; that wouldn’t be right, and yours is the last one left to give.”
Jessie hugged her own furry darling to her, and, the boys having called out that they couldn’t wait any longer, she was obliged to join them, but all the way home she was struggling with a problem. Ought she to give up the gray kitten to Adele? Poor Adele had no brothers and no mother, and, if Jessie must give her up, she would have no playmate. Although Adele had been the means of getting them both into serious trouble, Jessie felt the sorrier for her on account of her very naughtiness, and somehow could only think of her friend as she was in her most charming moods. When she chose, Adele could be the most fascinating of companions, and Jessie believed that her love was very genuine, so the more she thought of it the more she felt that she ought to give up the kitten.
However, she decided not to make up her mind right away, and in the meantime she need not let Adele know that the gray kitten had been taken away from Effie’s. But while she was weighing the matter in her own mind came a note from Adele that settled the question. It arrived the next morning, and was the outcome of a visit from Effie who had literally let the cat out of the bag when she went to see how Adele was. The note ran thus:
“You don’t love me, for you haven’t been to see me and I suppose you think I am too bad to play with. You can go to your old Polly and stay with her all the time. I shall not trubble you, but I want my Peter Pan and I know Polly has stoled him to spite me. Efy says you have your kiten. What made you take it when there wassent any for me? Oh, I am verry miserble with nobuddy to play with. If Polly dossent send back my Peter Pan I am going to burn her up. Her scraggy hair would make a luvly blaze.
“Your forsakened frend,
“Adele.”
At the end was a tear-stained postscript which read: “I did love you. I did, I did.”
Evidently Adele was in one of her worst moods and was feeling very remorseful and unhappy. This Jessie knew, but at the same time she was indignant that Adele should still harp upon Polly’s wickedness. Of course it was very absurd for her to say such things, for how could Polly steal anything? Yet the note quite decided Jessie not to give up the gray kitten, and her pity for Adele suffered a change.
CHAPTER X
Across Water
CHAPTER X
Across Water