“And we shall have all the more to eat,” said Tompkins.
“Our mother will love us more, too,” purred Minette.
“The only bother is: she’ll have more time to wash our faces,” said Tompkins. So when Mary, their tender-hearted little mistress pitied them saying, “Poor darlings! how they will miss the others!” Tompkins and Minette were saying in cat language, “Not a bit of it.”
Besides, two kittens are quite enough for a game, especially such rascals as Tompkins and Minette.
The two kittens arched their backs.
Tompkins loved anything in the shape of a ball, and as there was a good deal of knitting going on in the house there were several balls in sight. The grown-ups, however, were careful with theirs; they knew kittens, but Mary, who was only eight and had just begun to knit, seemed the most hopeful, and it was her ball the kittens watched. Her wool was thick, and the scarf she was making never seemed to get beyond the third row, so there was always a nice fat ball of it.